Welcome back to the second part in a series exploring how to recognize God’s leading and direction. There are many theories floating around in Christian communities regarding God’s leading, ranging from the common to the obscure, causing a lot of confusion, but the only thing we’re interested in here is what the scripture says. Because to know what God is saying to us, we first need to know how He communicates. If we don’t understand the basics of this, then we are left wide open to all manner of deception.
In part one, we touched on the subject of “placing God in a box” unduly, and also how God placed some restrictions on Himself based on His covenant promises. The scriptures teach us the proper way to communicate with God and how to recognize His leading in our lives, so let’s dive into these ideas further and let the scriptures instruct us on how this works.
Communication With God
Recognizing God’s leading is primarily tied to our communication with God. Prayer is not just us talking to God, airing our complaints, desires, or praise, but also a large portion of our prayer time should be spent hearing from God. It’s often said that when in the presence of greatness, we should be slow to speak and quick to listen— how much more should we be listening to God!
The trouble comes when we don’t know how to listen to God, or what to listen for. When we get confused about hearing from God, one of the tendencies is to open yourself up to all kinds of other voices, which can be dangerous. Even among Christians, a lot of the teaching on this is very scattered, and some people are afraid to look at it, because confusion often breeds fear.
However, we should never be hesitant to look at scripture and analyze things openly. 1st Kings 19:11-13, is a common scripture to go to when exploring this topic, but it’s amazing how often people miss the finer details in these verses.
The verses make a point to mention that God is not in those external forces which we usually think of Him being in. (strong wind, earthquake, and fire) – we even call such things “acts of God”, which shows how confused we are about God or what He does.
The Divinely Simple Method
When communicating with God, we should remember that we cannot separate the three parts of His nature. We cannot segregate the Father from the Son or from His Spirit. All three work in harmony, and this is how the communication happens.
We speak to the Father. We do so in the Name of Jesus (John 14:14), empowered by His Spirit (Romans 8:26-28). If any part of that divine union were cut off, it really wouldn’t “work” – most of us know this already. However, it is interesting when we notice that people tend to get all confused and forget the very same interaction the other way when wanting to hear a response from God.
The Father, speaks to us, through Jesus, empowered by the same Holy Spirit.
This is plainly stated in scripture, as we began to explore last week: Hebrews 1:1-3:
“God spoke long ago in many places and in many ways to the fathers by the prophets,
in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world”
And verse 3 goes on to say:
“who is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, sustaining all things by the word of power. When he had made purification for sins through him, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”
So we see that Jesus is the very representation of the will and character and glory of the Father. If you ever want to know the will of God in a matter, look no further than Jesus.
Now, it is the Holy Spirit, which “reminds” us of Jesus – bringing Him to our mind and thoughts, and teaches us all things, and strengthening us of our identity and union with Him. (John 14:26, 16:10).
So all of this happens semi-transparently – but if we get distracted and confused looking for other methods or to external sources to try and communicate with God, we make it much easier for ourselves to be deceived, and distraught. We start to think that maybe God isn’t talking to us, or doesn’t care about us… or worse, we may open the door to other spirits and start listening to their voices, or the elementary spirits of the world.
The Importance of Scripture
Now, this is where the scripture comes in, and this is how the Holy Spirit primarily reminds us of Jesus (not the only way, but the main one).
The scriptures are designed to show us Jesus. Even when Jesus Himself taught, He revealed Himself in the scriptures; this can be clearly seen in Luke 24:27, John 5:39, 46.
As you see more of Jesus in the scripture, the Holy Spirit will change your perspective, your thoughts and feelings to align with the truth of God, and the fog of the world will be cleared up.
We’re going to continue this in the next part of the series, as we explore more details, and how to apply what we’ve learned in daily life.