HOW CAN WE LEARN THE WILL OF GOD CONCERNING US?
By Mrs. M. E. Steward
THE most natural thing to do is to ask God to make known his will to us. With this agrees the apostle James: "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God." But right here many conscientious Christians make a mistake. Some pray the Lord to open up the right way and hedge up every wrong way. This petition might be safer, or what follows might be more reliable, were not the enemy continually at work hedging up the right and opening wrong ways. Some good, praying people are accustomed to using "Gideon's fleece," or something equivalent. In seeking to know the mind of God they propose to prove it; if a specific thing be best, let some proposed event take place. Doesn't this seem rather presumptuous, when we remember the Lord nowhere directs us to use such means in learning his will? May this not come from a lack of faith? Many sincere Christians have a way of obtaining answers to their queries and perplexities by reading them from the Bible. For instance, they wish to know whether it is right for them to go to a certain place. They open and read: "Then Peter arose and went with them." This they take for a Bible answer. Is it? "Why," say they, "I prayed the Lord to direct me where to open." Then you rely, not upon the Bible, but upon what you suppose to be the direction of the Spirit. Could you not pray him to direct you to an answer in some other book and get just as much of the real teaching of the Bible? Can the word of God be responsible for such answers to prayer? We must not forget that evil spirits have access to us and are working in every conceivable way against us. To trust alone to spiritual direction is to lay the foundation for fanaticism. It is not by detached words that the Holy Scriptures answer their object to man; that is, for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. 2 Tim. 3: 16. We must take time and dig deep to find the principles of the Bible, its ideas in whole, if we would build upon this rock. These principles are extensive enough to reach every possible case, else it could not "thoroughly furnish us unto all good works." We cannot expect to learn any principle by a single word or phrase as above. It should settle all such questions to know whether they are God's ways, specified or sanctioned by him. The Scriptures have not left us without explicit direction on this important subject. In the first place we must be consecrated to God before we can have a knowledge of his will. "If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching." John 7: 17, Revised Version. Our minds are then brought in contact with the divine mind, and we are made susceptible of discerning spiritual things. Says the Psalmist: "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple." "A good understanding have all they that do his commandments." This presupposes a careful study of the word to learn God's requirements. But "the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. 8: 7. It must then be changed, "created anew unto good works." This is done by the Holy Ghost. Titus 3: 5. Peter says, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." 2 Peter 1: 4. This "entrance of the word" is applied by the Holy Spirit to our hearts and lives through faith (Acts 15: 9), and we are new creatures. The Holy Spirit is now ours, to teach us all things. John 14: 26. Not that we shall be made instantaneously wise on all points, but, having the Spirit, it directs us as we realize our need, and as our faith grasps the promises. This is what is meant in Isa. 28: 6: "The Lord . . . is for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment." Do we not well, then, to pray earnestly for the Holy Spirit, and believe we receive it? and for a sanctified judgment, and then shall we not use it? Why did our Creator give us reason if he did not expect us to use it? James makes the subject under consideration very clear: "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith nothing wavering." We are told that sometimes the answer comes with sudden velocity and overpowering might, and sometimes it is long delayed. Our Saviour approved the "day and night cry" to God. Luke 18: 7. It is our privilege to ask again and again, but always in faith; and this faith must not be intermittent, exercised while we are praying and no longer. Let the mind be stayed on God. Says David, "I waited patiently on the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry." This waiting on the Lord is, in patient, restful expectation, watching for the answer which God will surely send. "As the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us." "It is well known that in the East servants are often directed by a mere sign of the hand. . . . The Eastern ladies are waited on even at the least wink of the eye or motion of the fingers, and that in a manner not perceptible to strangers."—Comp. Com. The Lord knows just how to enlighten our minds. Our part is to ask and to believe; all the rest belongs to him. Sometimes our perplexities are resolved in one way to us, sometimes in another. Often the subject which was before all darkness becomes all light. Let us give the Lord room in which to work for us, the privilege of answering our prayers in any way and whenever he chooses. This confidence in him, that leaves it all in his hands, is inexpressibly sweet to us, and no doubt is very precious to our dear Heavenly Father. When the answer comes, the waiting, watching one will be sure at once to recognize it; his heart fills with gratitude and love and increased faith. With the Psalmist he can joyfully say: "I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live."