Determining God's will

To me when God told me his plan for me (im only 13 and already know He wants me in the ministry). For me it was fairly simple to understand. It was just thru signs. Although I did not get my call until I was VERY close in my walk with Him. So I think it can be hard and it can be easy. Just depends on who it is. But He says it that settles it.

 

I have been away for a while! This thread is really interesting. We must all remember that we are discussing and debating theology and not the person who happens to hold a different view.

I am in full agreement with Ransom's exegesis and use of Scripture to support his theology. Likewise, I am highly critical and questioning of the posts that suggest that we know God's will based on experience. This "experience" line of arugment has not been supported by the sound exegesis of Scripture. It has been supported by the relating of more personal experience. In logical terms that is the Formal Fallacy of Begging the Question. It is a Formal Fallacy because the formation of the argument is based on expecting us to accept the explanation of the experience based on further explanation of experience.

It is funny that both sides are saying that we should rely on God for direction. Ransom and I (and others) are saying that we rely on God's revealed moral will in the Bible and that within God's revealed moral will we find freedom to make choices. Hellen and others are saying that they rely on God to move,nudge, or somehow show them what choice to make. The question remains if you take the latter approach how do you know the will of God in order to make the right choice? Please demonstrate this based on the sound exegesis of Scripture.

[ December 05, 2003, 05:31 AM: Message edited by: Bible-boy ]

 

I am not saying that I konw God's will based on experience I am saying that to me God gave His will for my life and a very easy way to understand. Then I said God's will may be very easy to determine and understand and it might be very hard to determine and understand.

 

bender99 said:

To me when God told me his plan for me (im only 13 and already know He wants me in the ministry). For me it was fairly simple to understand. It was just thru signs.

Are you sure about that?
How do you know that the signs were telling you to go into the ministry?
Does the Bible say that we can know God's plan for our lives through reading signs?

 

If you can do anything other than ministry, then do it. When one is called of God, he will have a consuming desire to preach the word.

I was in a Plymouth Brethren assembly when I felt the call of God to minister. At the time, I was training to be an architect, and doing very well at it. So, you see, it was not that I couldn't academically do other things, but I was compelled to enter upon ministry. It was an all-consuming thing in my heart and mind. It took all my thinking in those days.

If we disassociate the emotional from the reasonable, I think we miss the mark. If we go totally on emotion and fail to miss the academics, then we have also missed the call.

I pray God that I never lose my emotional experience in my religion, whilst never neglecting the intellectual assessment.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Just want to point out also that many will follow God's mysterious "call" on their life only to be in direct opposition to God's revealed truth.

I have heard of those who thought they should divorce their spouse to marry another. Supposedly, God told them to.

That is almost as laughable as when a woman says God told her to pastor a church.

 

God will NEVER lead someone to do or say or even think something in contradiction to the Bible.

 

I agree 100%. Here we are talking about obeying God's revealed moral will found in the Bible.

Now, let us turn back to the morally neutral choices that we face in our day to day lives. Does God specifically direct our choices in these matters, or is there freedom for us to choose (as Ransom and I and others maintain) within the revealed moral will of God?

Must I seek God's will in determining what color pants or shirt I will wear today? I don't think so. God's revealed moral will says that I must wear suitable clothing to cover my body so that I do not cause sin (on my part or someone else's). Yet, there is freedom for me to choose whether or not to wear the navy blue pants or the black ones.

Still looking for a biblical explanation of how God nudges us in making decisions that is based on sound exegesis of the text and not on one's experience.

[ December 05, 2003, 05:33 AM: Message edited by: Bible-boy ]