Tag: God’s will for your life

Book Plunge: Discerning the Voice of God Chapter 12

Does God have a plan for your life? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

I work at the Post Office at my seminary and many times, new students come in to get a Post Office box. I often ask them what they plan to study. Sometimes, they do not know. They just want to go “Where God leads them.” I instead ask them, “What do you want to do?”

This is a far better question to ask because the former tends to assume God has a plan for your life and actually, for everyone’s. God has a blueprint laid out and you need to follow it for optimal living. I would hope many of us would realize in a momentary reflection that if such a plan existed, we have already messed it up. Not only that, but by messing it up, we have messed up everyone else’s plan that involved us. If one person marries the wrong person, then exponentially going down, no one can marry the right person.

Yet do not count on Shirer to recognize this. She is still caught up in this idea that God has a plan for your life. She quotes John 7:17 in the NLT.

Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own.

The NLT is a paraphrase, but even then, Shirer is doing massive eisegesis. The will of God Jesus is talking about is not an individual will for your life. A look at BibleHub shows several translations of this verse. The idea is that if people really want to do what God wants, they will recognize Jesus as being from God. This is a verse about Jesus. Shirer makes it a verse about us.

Shirer then goes on to talk about waiting on God to do things in His “perfect timing.”

But, boy, it hasn’t always seemed like God was operating with perfect timing in my own life. I’ve sulked and fumed more times than I can remember when I’ve needed clarity about a specific circumstance yet felt as though He wasn’t providing it.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (pp. 173-174). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

In reading this, I just see Shirer as a petulant child whining. It is quite a pathetic claim to read. Shirer. God does not owe you anything. Instead of whining, why not do what Scripture says and redeem the time and follow the path of wisdom?

She then quotes John 16:13 saying the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth. First off, this was said to the apostles. Second, are we to think that this would mean the apostles would become omniscient? After all, would not all truth mean all truth? Of course not. Jesus has in mind that which is relevant to their high personal calling that Jesus Himself gave them.

The same does not apply to Shirer.

Let me reiterate: on the occasions when you are pressed for time and a decision has to be made “by noon tomorrow,” choose the option that, to the best of your knowledge, will give God the most glory and cause your relationship with Him to flourish.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 178). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Sigh.

So if God does not show up on your timetable, just do what you think based on what you know will give Him the most glory.

The problem is that should be what is said EVERY TIME!

Shirer misses it. She is so caught up in her ideology that she does not see what is going on. Would that she spent as much time cultivating wisdom, which Scripture tells us to do, as she does using an unscriptural methodology that Scripture nowhere tells us to do.

Oh. If you want to know what God’s will for your life is, it is really simple. It is to conform you to the likeness of Christ.

Do what you think will get you towards that goal.

Two more chapters to go!

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

 

Book Plunge: Discerning the Voice of God Chapter 3

What role do desires play to Shirer? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

When students come to the seminary post office and don’t know what they plan to do with their lives entirely, I start with a simple question. “What do you want to do?” Most people start off with “What do you feel like God is leading you to do?” Since I reject that premise, I instead go with what their desires are. What really drives them? What makes them want to get out of bed everyday?

People like Shirer instead think you have to get into some blueprint written before time for you that is known as “God’s will for your life” and you must find out what this will is. I use a simple illustration to show how this is problematic. If God has a will for your life, and that includes marriage, don’t you think that that would include the person you marry?

So you marry someone and lo and behold, you have not married the one person that was right for you.

Well, now the person you married hasn’t either, and then the two people that you married can’t marry the person that was right for them. Now you have four people married to the wrong person. Now, those four people can’t marry the right people and so it goes on and on and on.

By someone making the wrong decision, the plan is screwed up forever.

No. Here’s the deal. Scripture gives you criteria. Must be a Christian. Must be the opposite sex. (Although that is included in the definition of marriage.) Can’t be a close family member. Then it can give you criteria you should consider like being able to care for one’s self, handling money well, good moral character, etc.

Then, here’s the hard part, the question is “What kind of spouse will you be?” That’s where the walk gets hardest.

When the Bible talks about knowing God’s will, it is more often than not talking about knowing God’s moral will in the kind of life you are to live. It is not talking about knowing a blueprint plan.

Shirer goes to Philippians 2:12-13:

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

For her, this is saying that God has a will for you to find. You will be transformed in your emotions, mind, and will, to fulfill it. The problem is that first off, the letter is written to a community and not individuals. I contend that this passage is saying that the community will come together to follow the will of God. Note: I also think it’s wrong for Christians to use Philippians 1:6 individualistically also. Second, the will is as I said earlier, the moral will. These people are to know how to live holy lives.

Immersing ourselves in the Word, actively listening for the Spirit’s voice within, watching for His activity around us, and living in obedience to His directives—these are the ways we participate with the Lord’s work in us.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 54). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Now silly me, I would just say to read and study Scripture and know it better and heed what it says. Shirer goes to the idea of looking within, which I still contend is a dangerous idea. I am also cautious about watching for His activity around us. There are some things that are certainly often the work of God, such as miracles done specifically in response to Christian prayer. For many other day-to-day activities, I recommend not trying to divine the voice of God.

My ex-wife would wonder about her dreams. She wanted to know what God was trying to tell her at times. I told her it would be far better for her if she studied Scripture, which she knew came from God, and less time studying dreams, which could be just from eating too much pizza the night before.

She also turns to Psalm 46:10, the “Be still and know that I am God” passage and realized she needed to stop her personal strivings. She got a personal feeling of peace and knew the Lord was working to remove her burden. The problem is this verse is not about personal feeling. It’s about the city being at war and trying to hold on and God telling them to stop what they’re doing. Watch. He’s going to win the battle for them. Trust in Him instead.

She talks about wondering if a man she had considered a friend should be someone she should marry. Then as she prayed about this, she started developing feelings for him. That must be the sign that she was to marry this person!

Look. I don’t want anything bad to happen to Shirer’s marriage. I think many marriages today start off this way, but it is not because it was a divine appointment. It’s because the couples work at it. Many marriages start out with strong feelings and end in divorce. You do not want to base a lifelong covenant on feelings alone.

She also says Paul struggled in Romans 7. I have written about this prior. This is more of Shirer reading her individualism into the text.

The next chapter asks what’s better than a burning bush. We’ll see how badly Shirer treats this topic next time.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)