Scriptural Examples of Decision Making

The doctrine of the will of God (cont.)

9) We have looked at two Old Testament examples of avoiding the will of God in Gideon and Jonah. So let’s look at a positive example. We have Abraham in the Old Testament. Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees with his father and his family and he went north to Haran. It seems that the reason he left was because of the command in Genesis 12:1 ^NASB “Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you…” We have here special revelation. God is speaking to Abram to tell him exactly where He wants him to be. Abram isn’t contemplating his navel, he isn’t claiming to hear a still small voice, or that he has a peace that passes all understanding so he knows where God wants him to be. No, this is the objective revelation of God telling him precisely where He wants him to go. Did Abram obey Him? Partially. He got out of his country and headed to Haran, but he went with his father and with his nephew and with his family. That was in disobedience so he was in Haran for a number of years before his father died and then he finally left and completed his obedience to God, ending up in the promised land. But he had decisions to make even there. He was in the land but God did not necessarily have a specific place for him to be in the land. Then after he sets up his dwelling place east of Bethel and pitched his tent there—pitching his tent doesn’t refer to his dwelling place, the tents have to do with establishing a temporary worship site to Yahweh throughout the land that God has promised him—God told him to walk the length and breadth of the land. So what he is doing is scoping out the territory that God has given him.

But he has a little adversity in Genesis 12:10 ^NASB “Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.” So what does he do? He goes down to Egypt. We don’t see him counselling with God about the decision. He has a problem and rather than trusting God to provide for him he decides to take matters into his own hands and go down to where there is food. Here is an option where he has been told where to go and he chooses against it. Of course God is going to bring a little discipline into his life to get him back to where he is supposed to be. This is the point being made here. When and if God has a specific place for us to be, if we are positive and trying to obey God and do what is right and serve the Lord, then we will get there. God will make a few things very clear to us, usually through circumstances or advice, or He will just give you the desire to do it. In the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah often says: “And the Lord put it in my mind to do it.” We are not talking about special revelation here, he never said that God spoke to him or that he heard the voice of the Lord. In other words, he had the desire to build the walls around Jerusalem and to finish developing and establishing the fortifications. And he knew that that desire was a desire that was in line with the plan of God as revealed in Scripture, so he attributed his desire to do that to God. We can say that God put certain things in our mind, but we are not to say that God spoke to us.

On the other hand, if we are negative and are just making choices about what is best for us then God eventually get us where he wants us, if there is a specific place, through a little discipline. God does not always want us in a specific place, but there are times when He does. When he does want us in specific places we get there and when it is not really an issue of being in a specific local then what the test is, is how we go about the decision-making process and not the particular conclusion we come up with. There may be two or three conclusions that are good and valuable and serve the Lord and glorify Him. What God is concerned about is putting us in a test situation and seeing how we are going to go through the decision-making process. That is the test: how we are going to decide, not what we are going to decide. So it is a methodology test and not an end result test. And just because God can override a decision doesn’t mean that we end up in fatalism. Fatalism says that it really doesn’t matter what I decide, God’s sovereign will is always going to work itself out. But that completely destroys individual responsibility.

Examples in the New Testament. Acts 10:17 ^NASB “Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon’s house, appeared at the gate.” Peter sees this vision and he is really confused because it is rocking his basic assumptions about reality. Peter grew up under the Mosaic law and there were certain absolutes, certain fixed realities in the Mosaic law, and one of those had to do with what was clean and unclean and the relationship of Jews to non-Jews. Peter sees this vision which changes the whole framework.

Acts 10:9 ^NASB “On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. [10] But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; [11] and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, [12] and there were in it all {kinds of} four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. [13] A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” [14] But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.” The Old Testament prohibited Jews from eating anything that was classified as unclean. Unclean doesn’t have anything to do with health, it was related to ritual worship in the tabernacle or the temple. God was not going to allow them to be involved with anything classified as unclean and then come in and worship because that which was unclean was that which was in some way associated with the curse of sin. It was like touching a dead body. Touching a dead body rendered one ceremonially unclean. Acts 10:15 ^NASB “Again a voice {came} to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no {longer} consider unholy.” So now all of these things are clean. What changed? The dispensation changed. The law was ended, so these things were now clean because they weren’t related to ceremonial function or the operation of the tabernacle or temple anymore. This doesn’t have anything to do with diet or health. God says it is now okay to eat these things but that doesn’t mean they are all healthy.

Peter has a decision to make because all of his life he has been told that you don’t associate with Gentiles and you don’t eat this kind of food. Being a good Jew he didn’t do either. God gives him this vision and afterward he was so confused by it that God had to lower the table cloth and make the pronouncements three times, according to v. 16.

Acts 10:18 ^NASB “and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there. [19] While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, ‘Behold, three men are looking for you. [20] But get up, go downstairs and accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them Myself’.” Peter is receiving direct revelation. How is the Spirit speaking to him? Is this an external, audible voice? We don’t know, so don’t read into the text your presupposition about God speaks to people.

In Acts 13 there is a principle where the church at Antioch recognizes that under the principle of the great commission (Matthew 28:19, 20) they need to begin to send out evangelists beyond their immediate location. Acts 13:1 ^NASB “Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was {there,} prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.” These were people who had come from different parts of the Roman empire and now for whatever reason they were in Antioch of Syria. [2] “While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them’.” He spoke to all of them, they all heard the same message. This indicates that it was either an external voice or they all heard it in their heads and they all heard the same thing. [4] “So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus.” They go on their trip and from one location to another but there is no indication at this point that the Holy Spirit is telling them which city to go to and which city not to go to. It is up to them to utilize their own responsibility, their own intellect, their own decision-making to decide the methodology—how it was best to communicate the gospel to these people. They don’t sit around every morning asking God to show them how they are supposed to do this today. They think about it, weigh the options, they understand the culture, and make a decision. They are using wisdom to make a decision. Of course they are praying to God everyday to guide and direct them, they are putting their decisions in the Lord’s hands, but they are not praying for God to show them how to make every decision. They are using the wisdom, the intelligence, the talents that God gave them to make the right decision and trusting God for the process. There were times when the Holy Spirit did make is clear to Paul that he should go somewhere and times where he specifically shut down things.

Anther example, a conflict situation where there is a theological debate going on between different elements within the early church. There is a get-together for what is called the Jerusalem Council. Everyone speaks and makes his case. Peter talks about what happened to him in Acts chapter 10 and how God opened the door to the Gentiles. Then after they get through listening to Peter and they evaluate all of the evidence from Barnabas and Paul they make a decision. Acts 15:22 ^NASB “Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas—Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren.” They had to make a decision, and that was that given through vv. 19-21. It was a doctrinal decision and that was based on revelation. Then, once they made the decision that they weren’t going to put the Gentiles under the Mosaic law they had to make other decisions, administrative decisions. Do we read that it was God’s will for them to do this? No, what we read is: “Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders.” They are applying wisdom at this point.

In verse 23 there is the content of the letter that they carried with them back to Antioch. In that letter they says: [25] “it seemed good to us, having become of one mind, to select men to send to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul.” They didn’t say it was God’s will to send these men with Barnabas and Paul. This is an administrative decision; they are using wisdom to make the decision. Then [28] “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit [the direct revelation aspect] and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials.” So there is specificity given in special revelation but God isn’t speaking today other than through His Word. At most in all of Scripture there are about 15-20 examples of specific guidance where God is saying He wants someone to be in X location and do Y event. The rest of the time it is a matter of individual decision making and responsibility under divine institution # 1 where the individual believer is responsible to take from the resources of doctrine in his soul and make decisions that glorify God in terms of serving the Lord and advancing in spiritual growth.

10) Knowing God’s will is then based on the grace-learning spiral. There is a pastor-teacher who communicates the Word of God. The individual believer is supposed to be in fellowship under the filling of the Holy Spirit where the Holy Spirit is filling the believer’s soul with Bible doctrine. He exercises positive volition at this point to believe the Word. Then it becomes gnosis [gnwsij] in the soul, academic knowledge. Then when we are filled with the Spirit it is converted and placed in the heart, which is the core area of the soul where our thinking takes place, and there it is epignosis [e)pignwsij]—usable doctrine. Then we have to exercise positive volition again to use it or apply it. This fills up our soul with doctrine that we can apply in all of life’s situations. That is the issue in decision making. Forst of all we have to know the Scriptures. Colossians 4:12 ^NASB “Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect [mature] and fully assured in all the will of God.” Romans 12:2 ^NASB “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove [demonstrate] what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” How do we demonstrate what the will of God is? Through our mind being changed and transformed by what is in the Word. Ephesians 5:17 ^NASB “So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” Again, it is knowing Scripture.

11) As we learn doctrine the Holy Spirit then stores that doctrine in our soul, and He is the one who brings it back to our conscious thought.

12) Unless there is a specific statement of Scripture that something is approved or prohibited, mandated or forbidden, unless there is a specific situation, then God expects us to just apply wisdom to the situation. Wisdom is the result of epignosis.

This is the model for understanding the will of God.