Clear Guidance

Big Picture Overview

This is derived from the chapter 5 of Maturity by S Ferguson. Title is Clear Guidance.
Topics derived from Col : (MSG): ^12-13 Epaphras, who is one of you, says hello. What a trooper he has been! He’s been tireless in his prayers for you, praying that you’ll stand firm, mature and confident in everything God wants you to do. I’ve watched him closely, and can report on how hard he has worked for you and for those in Laodicea and Hierapolis.

1. Last chapter focused on "being fully assured", and therefore able to serve the Lord free from self-obsession.
2. This chapter focuses on "standing firm in all the will of God", knowing his guidance, and having the confidence to do his will whatever the consequences.

It takes stability to grow into maturity. And God's promises and daily guidance provide us the ultimate stablizing strength.

How God Guides

1. There is an element of mystery in God's dealings with us. In a sense, He is full of surprises. In another sense, there is the 'mystery of iniquity' (2 Thess 2:7). "A beast may present himself with lamb-like features but he does so in order to lead Christians astray".
   ==> God's word teaches us to see (i.e. experience) through our ears, by what we hear in God's word - not through our eyes and what we see. ==> the priority of God's voice in God's word in guidance. (e.g. Tim Keller sermons)
   
2. Two different, general views about guidance have been held by well-meaning Christians.
1. Personal directness of God's guidance, suggesting that it comes immediately from him to our spirits.
2. Typical way of God's guiding us is through the application of the precepts  and principles of his word.

 Teaching by Paul in Col 1:

1. Prerequisites:
1. Have experienced redemption and forgiveness (Col 1:13), and thus has accepted God's will for our salvation.
2. Wanting God's guidance requires us to seek His will not my own.
3. Col 1:11: strength and might, for they are required to gain endurance and patience. 
1. Example of Job: need strength to endure, when we cannot see to the end of the tunnel. 
2. If the fulfillment of God's purpose is slow, then like Habakkuk we will learn to wait (Hab 2:3 ³ 因 為 這 默 示 有 一 定 的 日 期 ， 快 要 應 驗 ， 並 不 虛 謊 。 雖 然 遲 延 ， 還 要 等 候 ； 因 為 必 然 臨 到 ， 不 再 遲 延 )
1.  God's goal in the specific guidance we seek is secondary to the life-transformation he is determined to pursue.

The fact that he brought us to a right destination by a doubtful route is no excuse for us to be indifferent to learning how to be guided by his word.

Example: fathers carry their children on their shoulders - but now when they are teenagers! And we carry adults on our shoulders only when they are very sick.

God's Will

1. How important it is to develop an increasing familiarity with how God sees things.

God-centered

1.  "walking worth of the Lord" (Col 1:10). God leads us in 'paths of righteousness' (Psa 23:3)
1. in order to "glorify God and enjoy him for ever" (our "chief end" according to the Shorter Catechism).
2. ³ 他 使 我 的 靈 魂 甦 醒 ， 為 自 己 的 名 引 導 我 走 義 路 。
2. The way God's sovereign will unfolds for us is through our knowledge of, and submission to, his revealed will.
1. Question is not" what is God doing to enhance my life"?
2. Instead, ask: what does it mean for my life to be unreservedly God-centered?
1. Learn that knowing and pleasing God should have priority over concerns about self.
2. Leads to finding the will of God to be 'good, perfect and acceptable'. Romans 12:2 察 驗 何 為 神 的 善 良 、 純 全 、 可 喜 悅 的 旨 意 。

Reasonable

1. God's guidance will always engage our minds
1. Always compatible with Science, e.g. Big Gang
   
2. Impressions are not necessarily wrong, but they need to be tested.
   2 Tim 2:7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

1. ⁷ 我 所 說 的 話 你 要 思 想 ， 因 為 凡 事 主 必 給 你 聰 明 。

Spiritually Discerned

It is the Spirit of God that illuminates our understanding through God's Word. 

1. Clarity typically comes slowly, by the process of understanding how God’s word applies to the flowing river of Hos Providence in our lives.
2. That process may also climax in a single moment of illumination, when the Spirit brings together the fragments of an unclear picture that had developed over time.  Then everything is clarified. This is part of the supernatural character of the Christian life. The Bible does NOT come to us in a series of answers to our set questions. It comes in its own context, which we need to understand, and speaks into our context, which we need to interpret., in order to lead us into the Will of God.

There needs to be a balance between the natural and the super natural. God's guidance is both reasonable and not-limited by the properties of our mind. (e.g., intuition)

Biblically Unfolded

John Newton said:

(We), by treasuring up the doctrines, precepts, promises, examples, and exhortations of Scripture, in our minds, and daily comparing ourselves with the rule by which we walk, we grow into an habitual frame of spiritual wisdom, and acquire a gracious taste, which enables us to judge right and wrong with a degree of readiness and certainty, as a musical ear judges of sounds. And they are seldom mistaken, because they are influenced by the love of Christ, which rules in their hearts, and a regard to the glory of God, which is the great object they have in view. 

Then obedience to the word becomes the pathway to the enjoyment of God, and enjoy healthy balance between the objective (God’s glory) and the subjective (enjoyment of God).

John Flavel summarized as:

1. Get the true fear of God upon my heart
2. Study the word more, and the concerns and interests of the world less
3. Reduce what I know into practice, and I will know what is my duty to practice (John 7:17)
4. Pray for illumination and direction in the way I should go; beg Him to guide me in straits, and that He would not suffer me to fall into sin
5. Follow providence so far as it agrees with the word, and no further (Psalm 32: 3-7)

詩 篇 32:3-7 Chinese Union Version (Traditional) (CUV)

³ 我 閉 口 不 認 罪 的 時 候 ， 因 終 日 唉 哼 而 骨 頭 枯 乾 。

⁴ 黑 夜 白 日 ， 你 的 手 在 我 身 上 沉 重 ； 我 的 精 液 耗 盡 ， 如 同 夏 天 的 乾 旱 。 （ 細 拉 ）

⁵ 我 向 你 陳 明 我 的 罪 ， 不 隱 瞞 我 的 惡 。 我 說 ： 我 要 向 耶 和 華 承 認 我 的 過 犯 ， 你 就 赦 免 我 的 罪 惡 。 （ 細 拉 ）

⁶ 為 此 ， 凡 虔 誠 人 都 當 趁 你 可 尋 找 的 時 候 禱 告 你 ； 大 水 泛 溢 的 時 候 ， 必 不 能 到 他 那 裡 。

⁷ 你 是 我 藏 身 之 處 ； 你 必 保 佑 我 脫 離 苦 難 ， 以 得 救 的 樂 歌 四 面 環 繞 我 。 （ 細 拉 ）