Knowing God’s Leading

First, always remember that anyone's belief, mine – yours - anyone's, no matter how strongly held, can be equally as wrong.  Being a Christian is no guarantee of being right nor having an opinion worth listening to.  Yes, Christians can be just as dumb as a stump, just as with any group of people.

My God is capable of doing almost anything (except contradicting himself!); so nothing surprises me when it comes to watching Him at work.  You will need to understand I am very much a conservative in my approach to theology (Reformation based and a literalist) but very much a liberal in my acceptance of the Holy Spirit (not a ‘Pentecostal’ though).

People have written whole books on the single subject of how do we know when God is talking to us and how does He do this.  One I have used through the years is: ‘Knowing God’s Will and Doing It’, by J. Grant Howard, Jr.  So, I will not attempt in so few words to summarize whole books, but basically there are a few thoughts I would share:

The Holy Spirit was promised to all believers - so if you have accepted Jesus’ payment for your sin - we know you have this already in your life.

The Holy Spirit gives you special gifts to use for its own purposes - mostly in support of the body of believers and their mission.  When a gift is being ‘displayed’ that is apart from this purpose - start to become a cynic no matter whom or what is involved.  If you always err on the side of caution – your spiritual life will be kept safe.

When God has something to tell you, He will tell you.  He does not need someone else to come into your life to tell you, if you are walking in faith and not having misled yourself.  If you are misled or have plugged your spiritual ears, well prayer is our tool to seek God’s help with!  And, He has promised to answer – if you will wait on and listen for the answer.

With me, God has used dreams, odd arising situations and just by speaking to my spirit.

Dreams are probably where most bad religious practice comes from!  God does use dreams, so we can not discount them.  However, he is not necessarily the only originator of dreams!  I know well enough my fertile mind is quite capable of coming

up with some real oddities.  So, again great caution must be exercised when deciding if a dream is from God or not.

When I dreamt I was a turtle swimming in a sea of Japanese calligraphy - I doubt that was of God.  If it was, I have no clue what it would have meant.  When I dreamt of the Eastern Bloc being pulled to the West - I could not have understood the collapse of the Soviet Union and westernization of the Eastern Bloc countries - but I did understand that God was trying to tell me something that I needed to respond to.  (And did.)

Dreams can be hard to interpret and you can easily misunderstand what the message was to have been (always good to have someone around to bounce ideas off of and whom you will not be offended by if they pooh-pooh what ever you thought it was).

Did you know that there are about 14,000 tablets from Babylon dedicated to the translation of dreams?  It was recognized by the ancient world dreams had meaning and one could possibly see into the future, if you could only understand them.

Perhaps one could see into the future through a dream, but God generally is not concerned with revealing His future plans to either you or me.  How do I know this?  Well we already know our future (heaven), we already know what it is we are supposed to be doing on this Earth (witnessing and teaching) and His work in the world is really none of our business. 

True, Paul was called to Roman Asia through a dream, Peter was shown Gentiles were to be allowed into the church, etc.  So we can see directions in ministry given as examples of this in our Bible.  But let us not discount Daniel's dreams, nor the dreams of the Babylonian Kings and of John.  Yes, God does use dreams for prediction and prophesy but I think you can see a difference here in the quality and quantity of value.  We have no examples of a dream being used to show you whom would be your spouse or for any other daily concern!

God is far more active in our lives than I think we give Him credit for, even if you think you notice all of His handiwork in your life, there is still a ton more to be discovered!  His leading is sometimes not understandable until decades later when you look back and you go – “Oh my!” 

For a real but horrible example: I was hit by a truck while biking in 1995.  I survived and was quite angry about having to buy a new bike – as it was hit and run.  But, this happened again in 1996, only this time part of my spine was severely damaged.  Now this was a pretty hard pill to swallow when you are a scuba diver, mountain climber, hiker, backpacker and long distance bicycler!  But, only because of this accident, did I find out I had spinal cancer.  So, I sought out the surgeon whom invented the surgery I was to undergo and I walked into that hospital knowing I had only a narrow chance of surviving the operation (5% !).  If you want to talk about trusting your future to God!  Yes, I was crippled between the accident and the operation - walking was now something I would not be doing again.

But, I have been walking, albeit at times with a cane.  How come?  Well, I was surfing the web and discovered a German laboratory which was documenting the long term effects of using an Italian discovery called alpha-lipoic acid, as derived from potatoes skins.  It causes nerve regeneration.  So, I started taking this drug and my spine, either through God's direct hand or His leading - regenerated.  This does not happen, we are talking MIRACLE here!

So, my spine has been healing and a tremendous amount of good came from this - this drug is now officially recommended for people with spinal damage or surgeries!

But, this was not what this whole incident was about.  God was leading me back into teaching youth - something I had walked away from, mostly in disgust over the politics behind most church programs.  So, I needed to learn to ‘suck it up’ and be willing to be used and transparent again.  And I need a year to write and prepare those lessons.  That was what it took for me to turn my life around – may all your lessons be far less painful!

Equally, and hopefully less drastic, God will bring people and situations into your life - just when you need them.  Because He is a loving God he does not leave us alone to ‘suck it up’ but rather gives us the support we need, just when we need it.  You have no idea how amazing His work is in this area.

As I lay in the hospital after my surgery and the many months in bed at home, God had people call and chat with me.  Some were from my new church - I have no idea whom they were, I was a little out of it for months!  Some were not Christian but they too ministered to me.  One guy in particular, called me everyday for months like clockwork just to chat.  I do not know why he did it but I know that it was humbling to know he understood my needs better than my family.  I do not know if he died a Christian or not, I know his daughter was one.  Because of his insertion into my life, I learned to pray for him and for his heart to soften towards God.  Since, ALL prayers are answered, I know God made the opportunity for him, I just pray he took it.

Of course, not all such situations are so traumatic, sometimes it is just the quiet voice in my mind or spirit telling me to take a different route home, so I take a different route.  And, sometimes I find I avoided a horrible accident on the other road or found someone in need along the route I selected as an alternative.

How do I know when God is telling my spirit something?  Well, if it is something I would have naturally of thought of - it probably was not of God.  That does not mean that I will not do what ever it is, but I will be more cautious about advancing forward.

So, in my life, if one of my friends tells me something about my future God has not told me (and yes this happens often!) - I take it with a grain of salt.  I am not going to hold my breath to wait and see if it is going to happen or not.  I will not work against it happening but I will not work towards it either.  If God wants me in a certain situation, He has to work it out - I'm just along for the ride.  And until directed otherwise, I continue to do what I do because I do try to be faithful to His leading (and someone else's dream or inspiration is not God's leading for me!).

Thus, when someone tells you your future or whom you should date or marry, etc – thank them and wait upon the Lord…….