Auto-generated transcript:
Hello and welcome to another Five Good Minutes, where I answer your theological questions in five minutes or less. Today’s question is this: “I understand that God has spoken to us through the Bible and we no longer hear God’s voice. So how does one actually know when to move on with a decision or reject it while ‘waiting on the Lord’? Does He still reveal things to us through special revelation and any other way other than the Bible at times of waiting?”
This is a great question, and yes, I wish that God—it would be easier if God would just speak out loud and tell us, “Here’s what you need to do.” And even though the Scripture doesn’t tell you specifically these things, you can ask yourself certain questions that I think come from biblical wisdom. Proverbs is filled with biblical wisdoms that we ought to seek wisdom. God promised that He would give us wisdom abundantly in the book of James, and so we need to pray for wisdom. But then we need to ask questions that are derived from a heart of wisdom based on biblical principles. For example: Does this decision help me glorify God? Is this decision condemned in the Scriptures? Will this help me or hurt me in my walk with the Lord? Will it put me in the influence of godly people or ungodly people and where I may be led astray?
Thirdly, though, we should go to providence. Providence is God providing for His decree, and so I would ask yourself if you’re praying about a situation: Is this from the Lord? Is this not from the Lord? What circumstances have come up in your life to confirm or deny that this is what God wants me to do? God can answer your questions in a lot of ways by the things that happen to you or around you. He can show you a way forward and have it be clearer over time over certain things that may happen or not happen. But remember, providence must be interpreted again by the Scriptures, for God’s will will never violate God’s word. We cannot interpret God’s providence by our feelings or by our emotions. God’s word is the objective standard in determining God’s will and pathway forward. Our feelings, our emotions, that butterfly I got in my stomach, that hunch I have in my gut is subjective. That means it’s rel—it could change, it’s not authoritative. And so we need to be careful when that, but we need to open our eyes and say, “What—how is God working in my life already?”
Fourthly, God has given us godly counselors. The Bible says much about seeking wisdom through counselors. Proverbs 15:22 says, “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.” So let me ask you a question: Who in your life have you spoken to about this decision? Have you spoken to your pastors about it? Have you spoken to your godly friends, your church family? They could probably help you see things that you can’t see because they’re going to be looking at it from an unbiased, unemotional perspective where emotions might cloud your decision-making or your interpretation of a certain Scripture text to help you understand God’s will. Godly counselors will help you see things objectively.
And lastly, God has given you a peace through the Holy Spirit. Now let me clarify that this peace that we’re seeking may not always come with every decision that we need to make. Some decisions are hard and difficult and require much patience and perseverance and faith, and therefore God may not give you a certain peace about a certain decision because He wants you to step out in faith. And then you may ask, “Well, what if it doesn’t work out?” It may not work out, but you know what? I know God is sovereign. There’s been many decisions I’ve made in my life that I wish I can go back and undo because of what happened as a result of that. However, as a result of even my stupidity or not listening to godly counselors, I have found out that God works out His will anyway. God works out His will through me, and actually His way is always better. What I thought would be better in the moment actually turned out to be not as good as if I just had taken the harder way or God’s way, which I didn’t know was God’s way at the time. And so sometimes God gives you a piece about a decision, sometimes He doesn’t. Sometimes that peace doesn’t come until after you make the decision and you see what God does through it.
So I hope this has been helpful. Yes, you can know that God has given us other things in our lives to help shape us to understand His will without hearing an audible voice. Thanks for the question, and this has been another Five Good Minutes.