Note: the following is the manuscript for the message and will not match exactly the recorded message above.

Introduction

I have told a story before about how we ended up moving to Alberta in 2010 for me to go to college for pastoral ministry. 

The short version is that our house had a water leak, causing significant flooding damage, which delayed our plans to sell it and start construction on a new house. 

This delay brought us to the realization that we wanted to pursue full-time pastoral ministry.

What I haven’t mentioned before is that in the days before that flooding incident, I wrote a very specific prayer for God’s guidance and wisdom. 

I wanted to follow his ways and not my own ways. God answered that prayer. But not in the way we would have imagined. 

My point is to raise a question from this story. Is this the usual way God guides us in life? I suggest that it is not. This sort of extreme circumstance is very rare. Yet, it stands out because it is so extreme. The typical ways in which God guides us are far more ordinary.

That is what we will look at today. How God guides us. We will examine three categories of guidance: External, Internal, and Spiritual.

I want to mention two books that have influenced much of my thinking on this topic of guidance. 

If you are in a period of life when you are wondering what’s next or what God’s will is for your life, I recommend reading one or both of these books. One is called Finding the Will of God by Bruce Waltke, and the other is The Call by Os Guinness.

Bruce Waltke warns us against treating God’s will as a hidden puzzle that needs to be solved. And Os Guinness reminds us that God’s will is primarily about becoming like Christ. 

When we follow the Holy Spirit, we stop worrying about every little decision and start trusting that God is leading us as we walk with Him.

With that said, let’s start with external guidance.

External Guidance

External guidance always begins with the Bible. There is no replacement for reading God’s Word. 

No book, no mentor, no amount of prayer or spiritual searching can replace the wisdom and life-giving instruction found in Scripture.

As I said last week, the Bible contains no truer or more important words about God, salvation, and ourselves than what we find in it.

Psalm 119:105 says “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”

Last week, in the message on why and how to read the Bible, we looked at 2 Timothy 3:16–17 

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

The book of Proverbs begins with an introductory statement about the nature of the book: 

Proverbs 1:2–7 “for gaining wisdom and instruction; for understanding words of insight; for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair; for giving prudence to those who are simple, knowledge and discretion to the young— let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance— for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Receiving guidance from the Bible is a slow and time-consuming process because it is about reshaping us, not about giving us instant answers to our questions. 

As we spend more time reading Scripture, we start to see with the eyes of Christ and discern wisely what God is doing in our lives.

The second source of external guidance is godly counsel. Proverbs 13:20 says, “Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.”

This is not just about having a good mentor. 

It is about surrounding yourself with wise people who will walk with you. 

What is the best place for finding these people?

Hebrews 10:24–25 says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

The writer to the Hebrews was concerned that the Jewish Christians were abandoning their faith. 

A remedy he offers is for them to continue gathering together.

Some of you heat your house with wood, and you know how to keep a fire burning. You can have a good fire going in your stove, but what happens to a burning log if you take it out of the stove? 

It may burn for a bit longer, but it won’t take long before it cools off and turns into a piece of charcoal. Without staying close to the heat source, the log stops burning. It’s the same with us. 

Our fire goes out when we separate ourselves from the heat source. And what is the heat source in a fire? Other things that are burning. So, if we want to live aligned with God’s will, we must stick together.

The Bible and the regular and intentional fellowship of believers are two primary sources of external guidance. Let’s now look at internal guidance.

Internal Guidance

As we look at internal guidance, keep in mind that the Bible is the foundational source of guidance. 

Our internal sources will be increasingly reliable the more we are transformed by Scripture.

The first source of internal guidance is wisdom and common sense—God expects us to think and discern. 

James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”

This source of internal guidance is not the same as interpreting dreams, looking for open doors, or transcendent meditation. 

Those sorts of guidance are highly subjective at best and dangerous at worst.

This is not to say God doesn’t speak to us in our dreams. But if you are seeking guidance, a dream is not a reliable source of wisdom. 

It may draw your attention to something or cause you to ask new questions. True wisdom and common sense are based on truth, not dreams and visions.

When Lynn and I decided to come to Hoadley, we required both external and internal guidance. We already knew that God had equipped and called me to be a pastor. 

Other people who knew us well confirmed this. We knew that my role at the time was not where I wanted to be in the long term.

That left us with some options. I applied at a couple of places, and in the end, we were left with two opportunities. 

One was in the Lower Mainland, BC, where Lynn and I have always wanted to live, and the other was here.

How did we come to the decision? Mostly, it was common sense. Our kids wanted to go here. 

It was a church within our existing denomination. The church was in a place I felt would fit well with my skills and desires as a pastor. 

The timing, the conversations, and many other things just made sense. There was no divine intervention. No sign in the sky. No dreams or visions. 

Just a pros and cons list and the desire to serve God in a place where he could use us.

Whatever decision you are facing and guidance you seek, be sure to constantly immerse yourself in Scripture, connect to the church, and use godly wisdom and common sense.

Finally, let’s look at Spiritual guidance. 

This will be a quick overview of the Holy Spirit and how he helps us.

Spiritual Guidance

In John 14:26, Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will take his place as a guide and teacher for the disciples. 

“The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

The Holy Spirit is often referred to as the third person of the Trinity, who was present from creation. 

Genesis 1:2 “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

The Trinity is made up of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. One God in three persons. All three have always existed. 

So, the God you read about in the Old Testament is the Trinitarian God. Father, Son, Holy Spirit were there at creation, in the burning bush, at the exodus, at Mount Sinai, in the pillar of fire and smoke through the desert, and at Jesus’ baptism, as we read in Luke 3:21–22

“When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

A difficult question that many of us have is why is God a Trinity and what does that even mean? 

Does it mean there are three gods?

While it is nearly impossible to adequately describe the nature of the Trinity and how the Trinity functions, what is helpful is to compare the God of the Bible to other gods.

Other gods are single persons, utterly alone and entirely centered on themselves. 

The God of the Bible has always been in a relationship. The nature of his very being is an infinitely loving relationship.

God loves us from the overflow of this relationship. He wants to share with us the relationship that he has within himself. 

This is why Jesus came and became human: so that humanity is now a part of the Trinity. God’s love can flow unhindered from God to humanity.

In the Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis captured the difference between the devil, who is a solitary and self-centered creature, and God. 

Screwtape, who is a senior demon in the service of the devil, writes to his nephew, who is a demon-in-training,

“One must face the fact that all the talk about His [being God] love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself—creatures whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His. We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over.”

As part of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit doesn’t just give us things. 

He gives Himself so that we might know and enjoy fellowship with God.

Jesus’ prayer in John 17 “I pray… that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.”

This is not just a future fellowship but a present one. 

The Holy Spirit is given to us as our helper and advocate so that we will know and walk in the ways of God.

John 14:16–17 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”

The Holy Spirit helps us understand Scripture: 

1 Corinthians 2:12–14 “What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”

The Holy Spirit convicts and corrects us, gently redirecting us when we stray, and empowers us for God’s Work—strengthening us to do what we cannot do alone.

Finally, the Holy Spirit produces in us spiritual fruit, transforming us from the inside out. 

Galatians 5:22–23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

In short, we are not left alone to figure out how to live in the way of Jesus. God himself is present with us.

So, the remaining question is, how can I be filled with the Holy Spirit?

Luke 11:9–13: “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!””

There is much more to say about the Holy Spirit and how God guides us. 

I am planning to do some 4-6 week studies on various topics in the coming months. 

Let me know if you would like this to be one of those topics.

Conclusion

Here is what you can do in response to this message.
1. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you daily.
2. Pay attention to His promptings—often a still, small voice.
3. Stay in Scripture and prayer so you recognize His leading.