Following Our Impulses

There is a danger in seeing all our impulses as the leading of God. We are sinners (Romans 3:23); our heart is deceitful and cannot be trusted (Jeremiah 17:9). Also, we are called to trust in God, not our understanding, (Proverbs 3:5,6) and to test whether something is from God (1 Thessalonians 5:21,22). Now the temptation here is to totally reject any impressions as being from God. But then we are left to rely totally on our human wisdom (1 Corinthians 3:18). The problem with this is we can end doing things based on what makes sense to us rather than acting in faith (Hebrews 11:13-16). Sometimes God called people to do things that did not obviously make sense from the human perspective (Joshua 6:1-5; Acts 8:26-40; 16:6-10). But there is a danger here. It is easy to jump to the conclusion that some impulse is God speaking, when it is really only us. This is not always easy to figure out. We must, of course, reject anything that is contrary to Scripture (Isaiah 8:20). The problem comes when we meet something of a serious nature where there is no clear-cut   Scriptural command. This takes careful consideration, prayer, and, ideally, seasoned experience. But we need to remember that God is in control of our lives to accomplish His purposes in  them (Romans 8:28; Ephesians 1:11; 2:10). And we need to live our lives with our trust in Him, not our impulses (Psalms 127:1,2).

One Step at a Time

We often want God to show us what His will for our lives is in detail ahead of time. But I have found that God leads us one step at a time. Philip was involved in a great revival in Samaria when God sent him out into the desert to meet one man, the Ethiopian eunuch who God had prepared to hear the gospel  (Acts 8:26-40).  God led Paul through various places and forbade him to preach there until He finally told him he was to go to Macedonia (Acts 16:6-10). But later God led Paul back to one of the places He had originally forbidden him to go, and he stayed there two years (Acts 19:8-10). God often leads us in ways we do not expect, and sometimes it is not clear what He wants us to do. I know in my own life, while there have been times when I have experienced definite leading from the Lord, there have been many other times I was not sure what He wanted me to do next. Many times we need to simply trust God and wait on Him until He shows us where He wants us to go next (Proverbs 3:5,6; Isaiah 40:31; Psalms 25:5).

Evangelism and God's Choice

What effect does a belief in God's election (Ephesians 1:4; Romans 9:19-24; Acts 13:48) have on evangelism? The effect it should not have is discouraging us from doing it. God has called us to be the instruments He will use to spread His truth (Romans 10:14,15; Matthew 28:18-20; 2 Timothy 2:10). God uses means to produce His ends, and I am one of the means He uses. If  I refuse, God will still find a way to accomplish His purposes, but I am guilty of disobedience to His commands. What God's election does is help me avoid trusting in my abilities or even engaging in manipulation when it comes to evangelism (1 Corinthians 2:1-5; 1 Thessalonians 2:3,4; 2 Timothy 4:3,4). If I believe that only the work of God can bring someone to Christ (John 6:44,45; 1:12,13; Romans 8:29,30), then while I should work to do things well, I should not trust in my ability or methods. Also, if I believe that only God can bring someone to Himself, I am less likely to be discouraged or even angry when I am rebuffed or my overtures are rejected. It therefore makes it easier to approach the situation with the gentleness required by Scripture (1 Peter 3:15; 2 Timothy 2:24-26; Colossians 4:6). It also helps to prevent discouragement if there is a lack of immediate results. If it is God who produces the results, I can persevere, trusting that God is in control of the situation (1 Corinthians 3:6,7; Matthew 16:18; 2 Corinthians 3:5,6). I would therefore conclude that God's election, properly understood, is an aid to evangelism rather then a hindrance.

The Open Door

One of the common ways to try to determine God's will is to look for open doors. There is a danger in this. It can lead us to do only what we regard as reasonable and sensible (Proverbs 3:5,6). Scripture mentions the fact of open doors (1 Corinthians 16:9; 2 Corinthians 2:12) and calls for prayer for open doors (Colossians 4:3), but nowhere does it make these the chief criteria for determining God's will. Now God does use circumstances to direct us. Take, for example, the story of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40). He was reading Isaiah 53 when a man mysteriously came up to him and used the passage to preach to him Jesus. However, for this to happen Philip had to leave an open door in Samaria to follow God's leading to go out into the desert. Sometimes it is not God's will for us to do what makes sense to us.

I remember cases in my own life when God caused circumstances to come together to make a point. When I had first come back to following God, I was considering chickening out and not going to a meeting I had been invited to because I felt if I was a Christian I would never have any fun. I was sitting eating in the cafeteria by my college dorm when a group of people I did not know sat down at my table. They were laughing and joking and having a good time, when I noticed one of them was wearing a large cross. I thought it was probably just a piece of jewelry, but I was encouraged to go to the meeting anyway. After the meeting the same group of people came up and said that they should have said something when they sat down at my table. I have had other such experiences, but I have also had cases where nothing seemed to come together and I had no idea where God was leading me. Circumstances are relevant, but they should not be made the final judge for determining God's will.

Dancing in the Dungeon

Sometimes the best thing to do in a difficult time is to rejoice in God and praise Him. Paul and Silas were in a jail in Philippi and were praying and singing hymns of praise (Acts 16:22-25). I do not believe this was because Paul and Silas were super-spiritual and did not feel the difficulties of their situation, but because they did and rejoiced in response. We are told rejoicing is an appropriate response to trouble (James 1:2-4; Matthew 5:11,12) and that we can rejoice in the Lord even if the situation is dark (Philippians 4:4). I remember a time when the church I was in was going through tough times. An accusation had been made against the pastor and it had to be dealt with. I remember shortly after I learned of this doing what I call my "prayer dance." It consists of playing praise music and praying as I dance to the music. I have often felt God's presence powerfully in these sessions. Afterward, my wife kiddingly asked me if I had enjoyed myself. I replied this was not a dance of joy but a dance of defiance. I was dancing despite the situation and everything that principalities and powers could throw at us as a church. Sometimes when the times get tough, the best thing to do is rejoice and praise God (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

God Works in Mysterious Ways

Understanding and following God's leading in our life is not always easy.  And one thing I have learned the hard way is God does not always tell me what I want to know when I want to know it.  I have walked into a room and felt a spirit of dissension and prayed against it.  Only to see the people there end up at loggerheads with one another.  And I was later told by one of the people involved that on the day I walked into that room, nothing had happened yet.  But on other occasions I have been totally blindsided by things I had not a clue were going to happen.  And there were other cases that I still cannot make heads or tails of, where I felt God was leading me to do something and still do not know why He had me do it.  Elisha was a prophet (a title I would not at all claim), but we are told God did not always let him know what was going to happen (2 Kings 4:27). Why should I expect anything different?

But it is at times like these that I fall back on the fact that God is in control of the world and in control of my life (Ephesians 1:11; Romans 8:28; Ephesians 2:10).  Still, I do not think God ever tells us everything, because He wants us to trust in Him and not in the knowledge He gives us (Proverbs 3:5,6; Psalms 127:1,2; 1 Corinthians 3:18).  If we think everything is on our own shoulders, we will falter.  But if we trust in God, He will bring us through.

Speaking in Tongues

I have called myself a charismatic who does not speak in tongues, but where then do I stand on the subject?  Scripture says not to forbid speaking in tongues (1 Corinthians 14:39), but it also says not everyone is intended to speak in tongues (1 Corinthians 12:30).  There are incidents in Scripture where the Spirit's filling people resulted in their speaking in tongues (Acts 2:4; 10:44-47; 19:6; in 8:17-19 there was evidently some noticeable effect, though we are not told what).  In Scripture there are four instances of people parting bodies of water (Exodus 14:21; Joshua 3:15-17; 2 Kings 2:8,14).  Does this mean to truly follow God one must part a body of water?  In other cases people were filled with the Spirit, producing different effects (Acts 4:8,31;  13:9-11).  God does sometimes repeat miracles in order to make a point.  But it is a mistake to think God must always work that way. Is it wrong, then, to seek the gift of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:31; 14:1)?  These verses say to desire the best gifts (tongues is not high on the list; see 1 Corinthians 12:28), but the final determination is made by God (1 Corinthians 12:11, 1 Corinthians 12:15-19). We can ask, but God can say no (1 Corinthians 14:13).

It can be difficult to explain something if it is not your gift.  I have more then once told God if He wanted me to speak in tongues I was willing, but I wanted what He wanted. Every time, I felt He clapped my jaw shut.  I therefore conclude tongues is not my gift.  Holding that everyone should speak in tongues can encourage those who do not have the gift to somehow drum it up.  Based on my own gift of discernment of spirits, which is, of course, itself questionable, I am convinced that tongues today can be from divine, demonic, and human sources.  Whether you accept this or not, you need to be careful about regarding every instance of tongues as valid (1 Thessalonians 5:21,22).  But rejecting them all out of hand also does not have any basis in Scripture.  (1 Corinthians 13:8-12 clearly refers to the Second Coming.)

Scripture does give rules for speaking in tongues (1 Corinthians 14:26-33), though there may be questions of how to apply these in various circumstances. If someone says they cannot obey the rules because they cannot help themselves, I have to question whether what they are speaking in Biblical tongues.  Those whose tongues  I have found most convincing seem to be able to control them.  Therefore, I do not buy that tongues are simply a hysterical response to pent-up emotion.  There may be cases of this, but I have known several people who can speak in tongues in a perfectly calm state of mind.  While I do not speak in tongues myself, I am not opposed to speaking in tongues.  But I think it should be carefully tested and done in a Biblical manner.

Confessions of a Point Man

I used to say there were two sacrifices I made for my church. I did not play on the softball team and did not sing on the worship team. This is a story of how I did one of those things. It is not, however, a nice simple story of how I did something I thought I could not do and succeeded. It is much more convoluted than that.

My main reason for not wanting to be on the worship team is I cannot sing. Now I have found if I sing softly, I can blend in enough that hopefully no one will notice, but this hardly seems a good reason to do it up front. I do, however, have a fairly expressive worship style. (I have been told by people from a charismatic perspective that they envied my freedom of worship.) It began when the pastor said he did not want people on the worship team who could sing well, but who could worship. And I felt a nudge in the back of my mind, saying, "You can worship." Now I resisted, thinking this was a crazy idea. But it would not go away, and things I thought were conflicts vanished, so I gave in and volunteered to go on the worship team.

Strangely enough, I found people responded favorably to what I was doing. There were even those who came up afterward to thank me for it. I also seemed to be encouraging people with charismatic tendencies to be more willing to express themselves that way. I do not think it would have gone very far, maybe more people lifting up hands than had done so before, but it was a definite difference.

Things seemed to be going well until some people began complaining I was "too charismatic". (I was never able to determine exactly what this meant; the closest I came to defining the problem was "kneeling and dancing".) But if I was encouraging people to be charismatic and the leadership did not want to go there, we had a problem. Therefore, after failing to resolve the problem, I followed the leading of God and resigned from the worship team.

Now I do believe God led me onto the worship team. (It was certainly contrary to my normal way of thinking.) But I am convinced that I was led to do what I did in order to point out the potential conflict in the congregation over things charismatic before it came to a head in a more destructive way. I was the point man. In the military, the point man is the one who goes out in front of the column to act as lookout. He is also the one most likely to get shot. If I can draw a moral from this, it is that God's will is not always simple and straightforward and does not always work out as we want it to. But we must trust Him in spite of that.

God's Leading

Does God guide us, or are we left to our own wisdom? And how do we recognize God's leading? Now God is in control of all things (Ephesians 1:11) and causes all things to work together for good to those who are called by Him (Romans 8:28). He has prepared certain good works beforehand that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10), and the Spirit's leading is based on our being sons of God (Romans 8:14). I would therefore conclude that God guides every genuine child of God. This is a fact and is not dependent on my feelings or on my figuring it out. Nor does the fact God leads us mean it will always be easy, but it does mean He will go through troubles with us (John 16:33)

Now sometimes God allows us to feel that He is leading us, but knowing His leading is not just based on our feelings. On the contrary, while I believe God can use our careful weighing of the facts or circumstances or feelings to lead us where He wants us to go, I do not believe we should trust in any of these. Nor do I believe we should direct our lives based purely on what makes sense to us from a human point of view. Rather, we should trust in God that He will direct us to where we should be. And in any situation we must prayerfully ask whether something is indeed God guiding us or our imagination. But we need to do so with the confidence that God is in control of our life and will direct us where we need to be. I remember walking into a church for the first Sunday and hearing the pastor say that he was not going to be in charge of the Sunday School and maybe someone who just walked in the door was the person for the job. I felt like God tapped me on the shoulder and told me I was the one. As it turned out, I was. But I still approached the situation with caution and let God bring everything together, rather than jumping in too quickly based on my feeling. But it did direct me.

Now I want to make it clear that the main thing is obedience to God's revealed will (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Though even when we do disobey He can arrange things, like He did for Jonah, to bring us back to the right path (see the book of Jonah). But my concern is for those who honestly want to obey God but are afraid if they do not have the right feeling or use the right method they will miss God's direction in their lives. Or they may come to trust in their feelings or the method rather than God. For I am convinced the reason God does not give us a formula to determine His leading is we must not come to trust the formula rather than Him.