Is God Doing All Of This?
Many people today are claiming to be directly guided by the Lord in almost every activity of life. God, they claim, is telling them where to get a job, what kind of car to drive, where to go to school, which suit to buy in the stores, etc. They are very sincere and must certainly believe that everything is "in the hands of God" to the extent that they are really nothing more than mere robots being used by God to do "God's Will" in everything.
Direct leading claims and special guidance from God is nothing new in religion. Many today have failed to "rightly divide the Word of Truth" and still claim the same things that Scripture informs regarding God directing inspired people of Bible times. They do not give those portions of Scripture that teach the cessation of such guidance much consideration. They totally ignore the Biblical claim of the all-sufficiency of the Word in the way Deity guides man. They have assumed that every decision, regardless of how minute or mundane, is made by God. God, in some way, "speaks" to them to let them know what they ought to do. That this violates the teaching of the necessity of man to put his own mind to use seems to make no impression.
I hear men talk about their efforts in the mission fields, and the place where they are serving as missionaries, and give the reason for their being there to God. I have often wondered why God, if He is in the sending business, doesn't send some of these fellows to Russia, or some other of the nations without the church of our Lord? It's funny that He doesn't send them into these places! I believe God has given the commission and we are to go to the places where the Word of God has not gone.
In recent weeks people have talked to me who insist God speaks to them in still small voices. One told me how his wife said God told her to move to California, give all their money to a cult leader, and now has told her to move to another state.
While some shy away from openly admitting that they believe in direct leading from God, they teach in such a fashion that the same idea is conveyed. For instance, what can one make of the admonition to "Let go, and let God?" But are Christians ever to just "let go?" Does God ever tell us to do that? Dependence on God does not mean to abandon all reason, thinking, use of powers or decision, or that He will directly lead you in every phase of life.
Deity leads, guides, directs the Christian by and through the all-sufficient Word, the Bible. We need not expect, nor does God promise anything more than what He has already provided. And such phrases, attitudes, "pep rally" sensationalism ought to be discontinued in favor of a more sober and Biblical study of God's guidance.
From Our Archives, 1984
By: Leon Jones