How to Obtain Guidance

From Norman Grubb's booklet Touching the Invisible:

". . . How can I know God's will? Indeed there is hardly any question that is more frequently asked than this. The reason is obvious from what has gone before. Until we know God's voice and how to hear Him speaking, we are conscious of instability in our Christian service. In multitudes of cases our difficulty is not unwillingness to go here, do this, or say that, but uncertainty as to whether God is telling us so to act. The lack in our prayer life is not so much lack of zeal, or failure to ask, but lack of faith and assurance in asking, derived from uncertainty as to God's will. 'We know not what to pray for as we ought.'

"Now the opposite is manifest in the Scriptures. The keynote to every great life there described is that they merely did what God told them to do. 'The Lord said unto Moses.'  Paul 'heard a voice saying unto him'. And supremely, Christ said, 'The words that I speak I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works'.

"Now this last saying of Christ is of great importance, for it does away with an idea I mistakenly held for some years, which is also held by many others. I used to say, 'If only God would speak to me in an audible voice or vision, as to the men of the Bible, I would know how to act'. But Christ here says that He was guided by an indwelling voice, not an external appearance; and I discovered that in the great majority of instances in Bible history the same is true, for we have no right to imagine an audible voice or visible appearance, unless it is distinctly stated to be such.

"This important fact brings guidance within my reach and that of all believers. Visions and voices are extremely rare, indeed unknown in the experience of the writer, though we have no right to limit God in His manner of revelation; but communion with an indwelling Person is the privilege of all, and the unceasing experience of some.

"Another point to be noted is that guidance is the direct communication of the Spirit with our spirits and is not to be confused with the Scriptures. God's written word is the general guide to His people. The Bible is the inspired and infallible revelation of the principles of Christian living, and any individual guidance which does not conform to it is from a false source. Also in some cases a sentence of Scripture may be the medium by which the Spirit speaks to us. Even then the point that makes it guidance to me is its application by the Spirit to a given situation; its leaping, as it were, out of the book into my heart. The Spirit gives the guidance. It is always in conformity with the Scriptures, and may be in the words of Scripture, but it is the indwelling Spirit who guides. Romans 8:16 gives us the primary instance of spiritual communion in every believer's life, the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit. Guidance as to the details of living is only an extension of the inner speaking and hearing then established through the blood of reconciliation and recognition of the indwelling Spirit.

 "Realizing, then, that guidance is to be obtained from an indwelling Person, the Holy Spirit, and is the privilege of all believers, we will examine the manner of obtaining it. The best known to the writer and practised continually in our daily Headquarters meetings when dealing with our Crusade [Worldwide Evangelization Crusade] problems is as follows: First, we make as sure as possible that we approach the subject upon which we desire light as God's servants seeking the fulfillment of His will in His way; this, of course, should not and does not take long, for it is the normal attitude of Christ-indwelt lives. We examine ourselves to make as certain as we can that our objective is His glory, and that we are ready to do all that He may say.

"Then we recognize and utilize the mind in its rightful position. It is at this point that there is most confusion in the matter of guidance. Some put too much emphasis on the human reason, 'common sense', confusing it with the Lord's voice; others too little, turning from it as from a carnal thing and attempting to find guidance with an emptied mind. The truth is that the human reason is a pre-eminently useful servant, but was never created to be the final arbiter of truth in the human personality. The exaltation of the human reason to the throne of authority in life is the sin of 'the wise of this world'.

"The reason is the great sorting house, but not the sorter. Its function is to investigate, tabulate, theorize, memorize, but not to direct. That is the function of the Spirit in the regenerated life. Sanctified reason remains the noble endowment by which man can contemplate and expound the heights and depths of the divine mysteries; but direction leading to decision is to be found in the renewed spirit, the dwelling place and throne room of the Holy Spirit. Thus the man who knew guidance more perfectly than any other in Bible days, Moses, makes the clear distinction, when he said concerning the source of his authoritative declarations, 'Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of my own mind'. His reasoning and expository faculties were the instrument for the reception and declaration of God's revelations. The reason is to be used to the full, but not abused: it is to be the instrument of guidance, but not the guide.

 "Consonant with this, we thoughtfully examine our situation, know all that we can about it, let the Scripture throw any light upon it, but then we refuse by such reasonings and investigations to make the decision. That must come from the Inner Witness.

 "So, in order to know His voice, we now change our tactics. We have been occupied in thinking over our problem, but now we deliberately cease to think about it. When God speaks, He always speaks in stillness. While our hearts are disturbed and our minds busy on a situation, His voice cannot be heard. Our inward attitude must be like a pool of water. If disturbed, no reflection can be seen in it. When still, the features can be seen. So the best thing we can do, having stored our mind with the facts, is to leave them with God. It is not a state of forgetfulness, but a redirection of our attention. We were concentrated on the problem; now we concentrate on Him, the Solver.

"We do not attempt to strain for an answer, nor to make one up. We remain like little children, free from concern, free from urge, but refusing to act until we know. We maintain that we have a right to know, for by His grace we are His servants and the one thing to which a servant has a right is orders.

"Then the conviction comes. It does not matter how it comes, so long as it comes. Often circumstances arrange themselves so as to make a certain course obvious--this is a very usual method. Sometimes a verse of Scripture or a strong inner assurance is the way. But the point is that whatever means the Spirit uses, He communicates to our spirits, through a mind stored with the facts, a solid certainty that thus and thus is God's way. That is the peace of God sitting as a referee (Colossians 3:15), and declaring God's verdict on the situation. When we know that, then we can act, declare, believe, in full assurance of faith; for we go out, not to gain a victory or find a way, but to gather the spoils of a victory already won, or to reach a goal with the map of directions already in our hands."