Prayer Time VI - Guidance.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009. Prayer time can be a time of guidance. Jesus has gone into prayer for whole nights to seek God's guidance. How did he listen to God? This is not very clear to us today as the bible does not discuss any details. The ways in which God has guided people in the past varies from dreams to particular questions which were asked and answered. God talks through events, through prophets, through the scripture itself.

So how can we practice this today, in the year 2009, 2015, 2030? Can we still go the old way and listen to our dreams? What is the preferred way of God today to talk? Some Christians believe that God is talking today only through the bible. Some believe that God is talking through the bible but only as the church understands it - not individually but only to the church as a whole with its institutional way to process insight into God's word. Other Christians think that God is talking into our thoughts through his Holy Spirit, or to particular people with the prophetic gifts. What is it what we should expect as Christians? This is a deep and nontrivial question.

One key first point is the question whether God really wants to provide guidance. This is confirmed many times by Jesus and his apostles. Jesus commands us to ask God for wisdom to discriminate different ways and decisions from each other. He promises this wisdom if we ask for it in our prayers. So he wants us to seek guidance and he wants to provide answers - even if we do not know how these answers are communicated in each particular case.

There is one key tool which I have realized that God uses it to guide me. It is the bible itself - highlighted by his spirit when I search for answers in times of prayer. I go to God in prayer, I ask him to help me, I ask him particular questions. Then I try to find out what he says, I try to work out the answer in the light of all I know about God. And often I am not far away from a quite clear answer in the light of his word, the bible. The things I ask have already been answered many times there. Jesus has explained related topics to his disciples - and the answers he explained a long time ago apply today, they are the answers I have been looking for. I can see God guiding me, both with these answers and with the events in my life. I see him leading me to larger maturity in faith, to larger truth and love. I see him renewing me every day and step by step, to learn to be a child of him with all what this means. [R.W.E.P., jesusnetwork.eu]

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