Day 4: 5 Prerequisites for God’s Guidance

We’ve seen that God’s will centers around a relationship, not a program or technique. The character and quality of that relationship determine how sensitive and responsive we will be to His guidance.

Today, we look at five prerequisites to receiving God’s guidance. They are prerequisites because they are facets of our relationship with Him: conversion, commitment, confession, concern, and compliance.

#1 Conversion

Our relationship with God begins when we become His children by trusting in Jesus (John 1:12–13). Until this happens, we do not know God, cannot please Him (Romans 8:8), and cannot understand or do His will.

#2 Commitment

After becoming children of God, Christians must come to the point of placing themselves on the altar before God in an act of total commitment. A living sacrifice tends to crawl off the altar. Our initial commitment act has to become an ongoing process of daily submission to God’s will. Otherwise, our relationship with Him will remain mediocre. Discernment and direction from God are natural by-products of fully committing to Him.

#3 Confession

Unconfessed sin hinders our fellowship and communication with God—including our ability to hear His guidance. God calls us to openly acknowledge our sins (1 John 1:9). We should also ask Him to show us areas we have overlooked (Psalm 139:23–24), so we will continue to walk in the light.

#4 Concern

An obvious but sometimes overlooked prerequisite to guidance is a genuine concern to know God’s desires for our lives. We must truly want to know His will (John 7:17), even if it’s not what we expect or hope.

In His time of greatest trial, Jesus cried out, “Yet not as I will, but as You will,” and again, “Your will be done” (Matthew 26:39, 42). Indifference gets in the way of knowing God’s will. Are we merely curious, or do we truly want to know what God wants for us?

#5 Compliance

There is little purpose in pursuing God’s will if we do not plan to comply with it.

Past Guidance: First, we should obey what He has already made known to us—individually or in the Bible (His inspired Word). How can we expect more light if we have not responded to the light already given? God’s guidance ceases when unaccompanied by acceptance.

Future Guidance: Second, we must be willing to comply with whatever He will show us. Availability in advance is crucial. This attitude measures the degree to which we truly trust God. His will is “good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2), but just as the serpent deceived the woman in the garden into thinking otherwise, we too will be tempted to think otherwise.

Resist the temptation to pray multiple-choice prayers. Many people offer Him a small hand of cards, with one or two sticking out prominently, instead of making the whole deck available to Him. If we do this, we’re like the proverbial woman who throws a stick in the air to tell her which way to go when she reaches a crossroads. After throwing it several times, an observer asks why she continues to throw it. She replies, “Every time I throw it, the stick points to the road to the left, and I want to take the road to the right.” She keeps throwing it until it points in the desired direction.

When we do not give God an unqualified yes to His plan for our future, we question whether He is loving and good. We somehow get the idea that we must choose between the misery of God’s will and the happiness of our own. But God is not a cosmic killjoy who delights in taking advantage of people foolish enough to submit their wills to His. The One who loved us enough to sacrifice His Son to save us when we were His enemies (Romans 5:8–10) is certainly worthy of our trust now that we are His children.

We don’t need to “surrender to God’s will” as though resigning ourselves to a somber and joyless existence. Instead, we can pray like David: “I delight to do Your will, O my God” (Psalm 40:8).

C.S. Lewis used an illustration of a dog whose leash got hopelessly wrapped around a pole. As the dog pulled itself free, the owner had to move the dog in the opposite direction to unwind it from the pole.

We can be like that dog. But our heavenly Master loves us and knows what is best for us. The path to freedom will sometimes be painful, but we can delight in His will, knowing the glorious destiny ahead of us.

Day 4 Scripture Readings:

Psalm 25:12, 14

Romans 8:8

Matthew 26:36–42

Ephesians 5:17