Do you think that God reveals a path for us, not by speaking to us somehow, but by "closing doors"? Say that you are currently on one path, but there is another possible path which you don't find necessarily disagreeable. At what point would you say that all kinds of difficulties on path A are signs that God is closing doors there, and that you should give up there and perhaps take path B instead? Or should we always just assume that difficulties are trials for our personal development and stay on that path?

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DAVIDIVS DOCTVS VTRIVSQVE LINGVAE
Husband of Emilia
Member: First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Durham (RPCNA) - Durham, NC
Currently in the process of transferring membership to an as-yet-undecided church in Chapel Hill
Student: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, German Literature and Classics

Good question. I remember some Christian (charismatic) friends of mine in college who would interpret events in their lives as either God telling them something or the devil telling them something. The decision wasn't based on whether either choice was contrary to God's will. I never did figure out how they knew who was "trying" to control them . . .

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Casey Bessette
Westminster OPC • West Suburbs of Chicago • My Blog: Paradise Regained

"It is part of the calling of the ekklesia to learn to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge and also to make known within the world of science 'the manifold wisdom of God' in order that the final end of theology, as of all things, may be that the name of the Lord is glorified. Theology and dogmatics, too, exist for the Lord's sake." — Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 1, p. 46

Right, a similar way of approaching life nearly drove me insane back when I was a charismatic. But is there any correct way to approach the idea of God "closing doors"?

I like the plan of "love and obey God and do as you wish" I do not believe in any reading of circumstances as signs from God. Use wisdom and proceed as you see fit.

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Bruce
PCUSA
Ocean City NJ

I can't think of any Scripture supporting the idea of "reading" circumstances in your life in the "door closing" way, can you? It's one thing for the Spirit to tell Paul to go here instead of there, but I don't think that's what we're talking about. And I get the idea that Paul didn't debate whether it was the Spirit speaking or his feelings speaking.

So what exactly happened to Paul? Was he being spoken to verbally?

I don't know. But I don't recall off the top of my head anyone in Scripture ever wondering if it was really God who spoke to them when God really did speak.

goes through tons of justifications for trying to read circumstances to determine God's will. Thankfully, we know that the Scriptures are able to equip us for every good work and we aren't required to guess at what those things are. After that, we are given wisdom to handle situations.

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Joel Weyrick
Member, Sharon RPC (RPCNA)
Middletown, Iowa

I just ask my Magic 8 Ball.

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Josh Hicks, Chloë's Dad
Attending CCRPC, Member of TRBC
Reformers & Puritans -lllll- Puritan Pub
Board Rules - Signature Rules - Suggestion Box

Josh:

That's not Urim and Thummim no matter what you might think. There's too big a chance of it becoming Urim and Thumb It.

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JohnV :detective:

John Vandervliet
Ontario, Canada
member of: Canadian Reformed Church
"In coming to understand anything we are rejecting the facts as they are for us in favour of the facts as they are" C.S Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism

This is sort of close to what I would answer, except I wouldn't put it that way. I think God speaks to the conscience, so you should be doing two things at the same time: let your conscience be guided; and be guided by your conscience. In that order, I would say. That is to say that your conscience will tell you things about what you're doing, but your conscience has to be trained to listen to the Spirit's leading through the various normal means.

I read a book entitled, "Finding the Will of God" by Bruce Waltke. He talks about things used to "find God's will" as being like the pagan notion of turning to things for wisdom.

This article outlines it somewhat

http://www.chafer.edu/journal/back_issues/v7n3_br.pdf

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Erick Bohndorf, Covenant Baptist Church, KS
http://qayaqtraveler.blogspot.com/
The question for us today is, will we be like the majority of Israel and continue to look in fear at the giants in the land and urge our fellow Christians to be "realistic," or will we be like Joshua and Caleb and faithfully follow our king, trusting to fulfill every one of his promises completely?

We can only be rightly guided by what is clearly given in the Bible. Even "conscience" can be confused with willful thinking unless you are bringing to mind what is given in scripture.

That said, we can face a tough situation when we have opportunities that can both be supported by the Bible. In that case, there can be "wisdom in the counsel of many." Sometimes, a brother might bring out an angle that we had not considered, and make the decision clearer.

God is sovereign, and in retrospect, I could say He closed doors for me in the past. But I'd be hard pressed to give up on something that I know is right just because the going gets difficult -- or to skate down a path just because it is easy, but may not lead to what is best.

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JWithnell
Member Bethel OPC
Virginia

JW said it well.

I might throw this familiar passage into the mix:

Proverbs 3:5-6 5
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

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Pastor Steve Bradley
Trinity Reformed Presbyterian Church (RPCNA)
www.trinityrpc.org
www.sermonaudio.com/trinityrpc
www.reformedvoice.com/trinityrpc
Riva, MD

Maybe so, but I said it better!

If several paths are equally justified by the moral law, I don't think it's like trying to read something secret to take providences into consideration --not as the determining factor, but as a factor. I don't think that turns anything into a guessing game. You are still using your wisdom to make the best decision you can. I do think that sometimes after you've made your best decision and have not chosen immorally, God can, and does, 'close doors' --in the sense that He either makes something simply impossible, or He makes the conflict of a certain situation with your priorities even more clear. This isn't something one is left guessing about either. If something is impossible, it simply isn't a possibility. And as regards the second, we've experienced something like that when it became clear that I would die if we stayed in Mexico.

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Heidi
Indianapolis, Indiana

After two days, he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.
Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.

Texts to support that?

I'm doing a series on Romans for family devotions on Sunday mornings. Its taken from the same format as the Heidelberg Catechism. What I wrote above is more reflection than doctrine taken from these devotionals, which I have carried in my heart pretty well all my life. I started the Sunday devotions with Romans 3, like the Catechism, but the above thought comes more from chs. 1 - 2, and 7 -8.