Helps from Hannah

I have worked through the years with a lot of teenagers and young adults, and I have found that one of their most prominent questions involves the matter of what am I supposed to do with my life? Most of them, as believers, fortunately do understand that their ultimate goal is to display the glory of God in everything. But their more probing concern has to do with yeah, but where do I do that, or what am I supposed to do specifically, or how do I get there, or who am I supposed to marry, or which church am I supposed to attend (the one your parents tells you, too, right?), etc., etc., etc. As trite as these things may sound, they not only consume the thoughts of teenagers and young adults, but also the mind of many full-grown adults, as well as others (I guess that means like E.T., like is he supposed to travel back to Andromeda or stay on earth?).

When I moved to Jacksonville, after I graduated from high school, I started studying specific issues, so that I would know what I believed. And in doing that, I found quite an array of books and articles on “the will of God.” Unfortunately for me, one of the things I picked up on during that time from some of my reading was the very limiting idea that God does not normally work through our experiences, and that for our lives today, believers have no such thing as “an inner impression” or “still, small voice.” I became very negative towards experiences, and in fact spoke out against them. It has taken me quite a while to get back, but I am realizing that God works through our experiences, and we need to acknowledge that in our everyday lives. Don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying that our experience should be supreme, nor am I suggesting that it go unchecked. I am merely stating that it is a big part of our life, and it is time that Baptists stopped pretending like it doesn’t exist.

My point in bringing this idea of experience up is to include it in this discussion about knowing God’s will. So many of those books and articles led me down the wrong path, but my study of the Scriptures brought me back. I read a book this past year, though, that articulated very well a lot of what I think with respect to God’s will, and I would like to highlight some of those key elements. These are not my original thoughts. In fact, they are straight from this book that is considered by many to be a Christian classic, The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life. The author is Hannah Whitall Smith, who was a 19th century Quaker, with whom I do not agree in every matter, but for the most part, wrote a fantastic book that gives us insight into how to live the Christian life. I have managed to summarize some of her thoughts from her chapter on “Difficulties Concerning Guidance.” Since I am too lazy to write this on my own, I thought you might enjoy her words about finding the will, or desire, of God for your life:

“There are four ways in which he (God) reveals His will to us, -through the Scriptures, through providential circumstances, through the convictions of our own higher judgment, and through the inward impressions of the Holy Spirit on our minds. Where these four harmonize, it is safe to say that God speaks. For I lay it down as a foundation principle, which no one can gainsay, that of course His voice will always be in harmony with itself, no matter in how many different ways He may speak. The voices may be many, the message can be but one. If God tells me in one voice to do or to leave undone anything, He cannot possibly tell me the opposite in another voice.”

The Scriptures: “The Scriptures come first. If you are in doubt upon any subject, you must, first of all, consult the Bible about it, and see whether there is any law there to direct you. Until you have found and obeyed God’s will as it is revealed, you must not ask nor expect a separate, direct, personal revelation. Where our Father has written out for us a plain direction about anything, He will not of course make an especial revelation to us about anything. The Bible, it is true, does not always give a rule for every particular course of action, and in these cases we need and must expect guidance in other ways, but no guidance will ever be contrary to the Scriptures either.
It is essential, however, in this connection to remember that the Bible is a book of principles, and not a book of disjointed aphorisms. Isolated texts may often be made to sanction things to which the principles of Scripture are totally opposed. I believe all fanaticism comes in this way.”

Our Higher Judgment: “It is not enough to have a ‘leading;’ we must find out the source of that leading before we give ourselves up to follow it. It is essential, therefore, that our ‘leadings’ should all be tested by the teachings of Scripture. But this alone is not enough. They must be tested as well by our own spiritually enlightened judgment, or what is familiarly called ‘common sense.’ God will speak to us through the faculties He has Himself given us, and not independently of them; so that just as we are to use our outward eyes in our outward walk, no matter how full of faith we may be, so also we are to use the interior ‘eyes of our understanding’ in our interior walk with God.”

Providential Circumstances: “If a ‘leading’ is of God, the way will always open for it (John 10:4). If the Lord ‘goes before’ us, He will open the door for us, and we shall not need to batter down doors for ourselves.

Inward Impressions of the Holy Spirit: The way in which the Holy Spirit, therefore, usually works, in a fully obedient soul, in regard to this direct guidance, is to impress upon the mind a wish or desire to do or to leave undone certain things.
The child of God when engaged in prayer feels, perhaps, a sudden suggestion made to his inmost consciousness in reference to a certain point of duty. ‘I would like to do this or that or the other,’ he thinks; ‘I wish I could.’ At once this matter should be committed to the Lord, with an instant consent of the will to obey Him. And then the tests I have mentioned should be intelligently applied, namely, as to whether the suggestion is in accordance with the teaching of Scripture, with a sanctified judgment, and with providential circumstances.”

“In all doubtful things you must stand still and refrain from action until God gives you light to know more clearly His mind concerning them.”