Experience and God’s Will

January 29th, 2007 · 9 Comments

Amidst frequent appeals to experience as a window into God’s will, here are some of my thoughts:

1. Meaning cannot be read-off experience. Experience must be interpreted. Example. Mother of 16 year old twins is tragically killed. Son #1 (Nietzsche) gets and stays alternately mad at and denies God to the grave. Son #2 (Kierkegaard) gets mad too but finally takes the leap of faith and finds God in the wake of the tragic loss.

2. Much of the trouble comes when someone’s interpretation of their or someone else’s experience becomes an article for export. That is, they expect others to accept the meaning they place on the experience―to believe it or maybe even underwrite the cost of their upcoming missionary service, benefits and all. We should not require others to treat meanings we claim from our experiences as binding on them, should we? Example: I have high certainty that God made me leave engineering for the Christine ministry and that He made me leave Kansas City for Bangkok. But I need not chafe at the scrutiny of the ordination committee or the mission sending agency. They have no direct access to my experience and they have a provisional and proximate duty of stewardship in the distribution of denominational monies.

3. Even I should not trust what I think I know form such experiences they way I trust God’s word. Surely God’s word is a more sure anchor than any meaning I may derive by interpretation of personal experience.

4. Let’s say what we really mean when we share experiences we view as God’s leading. I find that upon closer investigation, even many who use language such as “God told me” or “God led me,” often do not mean what that kind of language suggests. If God speaks as clearly as he did to Moses “Take your shoes off.” Fine. But if he didn’t, let’s find accurate language that conveys the difference.

5. Let’s recognize that daily concrete unambiguous leading by God is not ordinary but “extra-ordinary” and ought not to be normalized in our expectation or treated as a sign that we are especially spiritual. Could we abandon the notion that anytime a “BIG” decision is faced that we are under pressure from God to claim concrete guidance from Him. Could we be taking on a burden of discernment He didn’t put there and giving up a freedom to decide He is happy to allow?

Any thoughts out there?

Tags: Theology · Misc.

9 responses so far ↓

Jimmy // Jan 30, 2007 at 8:16 am

Number 4 caught my eye. I have recently been thinking about our modern day Christian phrases. Most Christian’s throw them around but have no clue what they mean by them. This would not be bad if it did not lead people into confusion. Many people know that if their decisions are going to be supported and praised by the church they have to claim some sort of leading of the Holy Spirit. Those who don’t “sense” these leadings feel like they are in sin. So they then go and pray and pray and pray and fast until they “feel” that God is leading them to make a certain decision. Then if a believer does not get a “leading” one way or the other he/she wonders if there is something wrong. “Am I sin? Am I even a Christian?” When all along even those who do get these “leadings” do not really get leadings. They get something other than leadings and then call them leadings (like your example with Moses). It is almost like being put back under the law–you can only do this or that if you are able to discern the highly subjective leadings of the Holy Spirit, and if you don’t get these leadings something is wrong with you. We definitely need new terminology. Just some thoughts.
LB // Feb 1, 2007 at 9:35 pm

Regarding #5, a person close to me recently made the decision to move back to an area in which he once lived. After making the decision, he announced that he would move because that is what he felt God wanted him to do. Yet, in speaking of all the exciting things he would do upon returning to his native environs, his motives were clearly of selfish origin. Of course, I am not the arbiter of his motivity and my determination of his true rationale is merely the result of fallible - allbeit careful - observation. Nevertheless, I think his reasons were clear. My contention is that the commandment given in Exodus 20:7 does not really mean what parents tell their children it means (that is, ‘you shouldn’t use “god” as an explitive’). Rather, I think the commandment is geared more toward such cases as the example given. Therefore, when someone cites God as their motivation for doing or saying something, when in fact that is not the case, they brake this commandment. It is not a minor technical error to attribute authorship of an original thought or decision to God. It is a heavy offense.

Why does honesty come so unwillingly to Christians - the stewards of truth? There is no shame in wanting to move somewhere simply because you like it there. Let’s be real about it.
mdevine // Feb 2, 2007 at 6:59 am

LB

I think you are on to something here. I have also thought about the warning in the prophets against declaring “God has said,” when in fact, “God has not said,” such and such.

Without commenting on your assessment of your friend, I do suspect that the sloppy invocation of God by so many involves a range of culpability. For many, the habituation to speak this way has been so constant and thorough I think the intentions of many are not in fact deceptive. But the problems with this language do include the more serious matters you cite. For others the problems include the unwitting and gradual acceptance of the false notion that God is requiring this kind of ongoing reception of new guidance in order to please God, to” know God’s best,” and to fulfill His purpose for our lives. And if this is not so, what a freeing thing that is.
Kevin // Feb 3, 2007 at 4:43 pm

I agree on all points. As one having grown up in the Southern Baptist tradition, I am finding just how indoctrinated I have been in such thought. Only in recent years have I found freedom and release from a prison of doubt and fear in moving forward. It has been an amazingly slow process of realization to me in no small way due to my education thus far in seminary, even though it began years ago. To be more clear, I have wrestled, even tormented myself with examination and introspection, over every decision in my Christian life. Such worry followed me to the mission field and endured my entire Journeyman term. There, the healing process began with the help of my on-field supervisor and some comments he made to me about God’s will, which he described as not being like a needle in a haystack for which we have to search, but more like a son who knows (for the most part) that of which his father does and does not approve. Then, as I mentioned, my experience at seminary has served to open my eyes further to the rich and precious nature of God’s word where His will is spelled out for us in context. It is liberating, and it inspires a deeper trust in the sovereignty of God. My concern now is why I didn’t learn this sooner. One should not have to go to seminary to trust in and obey God’s word. The challege is on us, who would be teachers, to ensure that those we teach are equipped to trust God with their lives. As it is, I think we are more like animists searching for the favorable signs to give us the go-ahead.
mdevine // Feb 4, 2007 at 7:45 pm

Kevin

In the “Knowing and Doing the Will of God” chapter of my Bonhoeffer book, I discuss some of my thoughts on how the ongoing-guidance-fixated view of the Christian life came to acquire such hegemonic status among evangelicals generally and Southern Baptists in particular. I suspect that part of has to do with the influence of the charismatic movement (elements of which I welcome). Partly it has to do with the actual experiences of divine guidance reported by so many believers across the centuries, myself included. Another factor is the tendency to treat Christianity as a strategy for personal happiness which then mingles with what I call “the success test” for whether we have “found God’s perfect will,” for our lives regarding some decision we have made. Another factor is just faulty exegesis of passages such as Romans 12:1 &2.

But, we can chip away at these things little by little. Surely, every age labors under its own peculiar excesses and blind spots.
bchandler // Feb 10, 2007 at 2:13 pm

If I may turn this conversation into a specific area that I have struggled with 7 years of ministry. It seems at times I alway looked for that mysterious voice or dropped brick from heaven that would clue me as to what I must do concerning ministry placement in churches. It seems that so many pastors claimed divine relvation that God had told them or led them to that place of service. I, however, never had that experience and was always insecure of making those decisions because of it. My question is do we tend to overspiritualize decisions like that and not concentrate on concrete evidence as the character of the church, their spiritual state, etc. vs. our stengths and weaknesses of ministry. I am not downplaying the importance of the decision of where to serve and which church to serve, but what are some good thought as one might seek service in a local church?
Dr. Mark DeVine // Feb 10, 2007 at 3:57 pm

bchandler

I do not see any reason to expect or require definite divine guidance for such decisions. That is not to say such things never happen. I felt utterly compelled to leave engineering and pursue the ministry and later had very strong conviction that I had to pursue a ministry request from Bangkok Thailand. Such direct guidance, I believe, is not ordinary but extra-ordinary.

Ordinarily, I encourage folks to look to their interests, experience, strengths and weaknesses, family situation, the advice of others who know them well and of those who know the particular church or ministry situation well and then pray and ask for God to help with the ministry should the position be offered and accepted. I see nothing “unspiritual” about such a procedure. Many folks have made high claims of calling only to make a mess once settled into the position while others have been very effective for long periods of time in positions without claiming direct divine guidance and sanction.

I suspect we have taken on a burden of reception and discernment God has not placed upon us. I wonder if the guidance-fixated approach that has become standard for many of us has led to our shirking a responsibility and forfeiting a freedom that God expects us to embrace and enjoy?
UberGoober // Mar 13, 2007 at 9:12 am

I would be curious to read your response(s) to the piece written by Alastair Roberts on a synergistic providence. Is seems to relate to this topic, and suggests a deeper way of viewing our experience and God’s will.

http://alastair.adversaria.co.uk/?p=498
Dr. Mark DeVine // Mar 13, 2007 at 2:17 pm

Thanks

I will check it out.