Decision Making: How Do I Make a Decision Without Feeling Like A Sleazy Charismatic?

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Welcome to Bible Bashed, where we aim to equip the saints for the works of ministry by answering the questions you're not allowed to ask.

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We are your hosts, Harrison Kerrig and Pastor Tim Mullett, and today we seek to answer the age -old question, how do

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I make a decision without feeling like a sleazy charismatic? And so really the idea behind this episode is,

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Tim, in my experience, I've seen a lot of people, I've got a lot of friends, I've even experienced this myself, where it seems like people are having harder and harder time making decisions for themselves, especially as it pertains to big life -changing type decisions, whether that's where do

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I go to school after high school? Do I even go to school? Who do I get married to?

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How do I know if that person is the right person for me? What job do I work? What do I do with my finances?

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Where do I live? All these types of questions. It seems like people, at least in my perspective, are getting increasingly worse at making these kinds of decisions and really committing to them overall.

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And so I was wondering, as we're starting out here, is that your perception of things as well, that it seems like people, especially young Christians, are having a harder and harder time making decisions and then committing to the decisions that they made?

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Certainly decision -making is something that is a settled part of life.

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You think about the kind of decisions you make on a regular basis. We make thousands of small decisions every day and we don't often think about all the types of decisions that we're forced to make on a regular basis just in terms of what time you're going to get up and what order you're going to do things in when you get up.

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And so from the time you start your day to the time you end your day, your day is filled with thousands of decisions in general, and that's been true of most of life.

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But then there is this sense in which the kind of society that we're living in, because it's increasingly complex in a lot of ways, we are overloaded with the types of decisions that people in past generations simply weren't overloaded with.

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So for many points in history, for example, you think about choosing a profession or something along those lines.

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One of the things that you would notice is that if your dad was a farmer, you'd end up being a farmer. If your dad was a tanner, you'd end up being a tanner.

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Yeah, it was pretty straightforward for you, your path in life. Your path in life was fairly determined by your social standing and your geographic location and the knowledge and background of your father.

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And, I mean, even in past generations, the idea of arranged marriages were much more common, and so you might not even have a choice as far as that's concerned either.

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And so when you think about today, though, as the world's been getting increasingly complex, one of the things that happens is that there are more and more decisions that are available to you.

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I mean, the sky's the limit in some way. So if you're living in America in general in the 21st century, it is in a lot of ways the land of opportunity.

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But because it's the land of opportunity, there's really so many things that you could do for a career, for example.

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And some of those are going to be bounded by your talents and abilities and giftings, but then there's a lot of things that you could do that are just— you're overloaded with decisions to make.

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I mean, you can't even go to Starbucks without being asked to make 10 different decisions about the type of coffee you want.

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Right. So we're living in a society that—I mean, that would be a sign of blessing.

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Like, that's a sign of blessing in a society that there's so many decisions. But then it's also, for someone who hasn't really learned how to make a decision, that can be a frustrating thing.

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And then I know that for many years the standard advice has always been learn to—find a job, for instance, as it relates to employment.

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Find a job that you love so that you'll never have to feel like you're working or something along those lines. Right. You'll never work a day in your life.

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You'll never work a day in your life. But then there's been a great number of people who have taken that advice, which

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I don't think is wonderful advice, but maybe we can get to that. But they've taken that advice and basically just agonized over, well, what do

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I love to do? I don't know what I love to do. And they've made these things a little bit more complicated than what they have to be.

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So the short of it is we are living at a unique point in history where there are a lot more opportunities and there's a lot more information out there and there's a lot more choices.

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And those choices can be oppressive in a certain sense if you haven't ever really learned the basics of decision -making.

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Okay. Yeah. And what about when it comes to Christians?

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Something that it seems like I've heard a lot is Christians will typically, when it comes to making decisions, obviously

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Christians want to honor the Lord. And I think in a lot of times they're coming from a good place when they say these types of things.

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But essentially when it comes to making decisions for themselves, especially big sort of life -changing decisions, they're typically looking to God to help them make that decision.

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And that normally looks something along the lines of like, hey,

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I'm going to pray a lot until I get a certain feeling, I guess. Or maybe they would call it a prompting of the

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Holy Spirit. Or maybe they're looking for some kind of sign from God to sort of confirm their decision -making.

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Do you feel like you've noticed a lot of that yourself too as it pertains to Christians? Yeah. I mean, as it relates to Christians, we basically, the

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Christian, the American church, if you want to overgeneralize, if there is such a thing, but largely

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American Christianity has been taken over by Charismatics. And that's what we're exporting all over the world.

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I mean, I noticed in my own life and just the background that I have, it used to be that being in largely

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Baptist circles, we were very skeptical of the Charismatic movement. And due to the influence of these prosperity

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Charismatic groups like Bethel and Hillsong and Jesus Culture and all that, basically the

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Christian music has been taken over by the Charismatics. And popular Christianity in America is essentially

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Charismatic Christianity. And we've lost a doctrine of the sufficiency of Scriptures.

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And essentially, largely, we're fairly Charismatic in how we think about things.

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Now, most American Christians are not going to be your run -of -the -mill

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CBN kind of Charismatics. I mean, they're probably not going to say that God audibly told them what decisions to make, okay?

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But they are going to appeal to some sort of mystical guidance that God, in some way, in their feelings or through circumstances, through peace, maybe even in a crass way.

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I mean, I've heard Christians basically describe how they saw a license plate tag or something, which was

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God speaking to them. Or if you're reading a lot of Gospel Coalition articles, you might be hearing

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God's voice through the R -rated movies you're watching. But essentially,

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American Christianity has been largely taken over by the Charismatic movement. And instead of having a doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture and looking to Scriptures to give you guardrails to make a decision with freedom, essentially what you have is you have some sort of mystical mechanism that the

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Church has adopted that's going to be subjectively determined, which is equated with basically the

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Holy Spirit giving new revelations specifically to you in some sense.

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Probably short of an audible voice, but essentially that level of authoritative that's going to basically take any responsibility you actually have to make a decision away from you, and basically

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God will tell you what to do, essentially. So what's happened is basically we've been brainwashed and trained to basically reject the idea of making decisions and basically look to God to make all of our decisions for us.

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So the spiritual person is going to be the person who has never made that decision in his life. He just is walking in step with the

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Spirit and listening to the voice of the Spirit, and God will basically make all the decisions for them.

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But then the problem is that on a practical level, it seems that the Holy Spirit is always telling them to do everything that they already want to do.

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Yeah, it's funny you mention that because it made me think of back when

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I was in high school and I was having to decide what am I going to do after high school.

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I remember one day I was feeling especially pious this day,

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I guess, and so I decided, you know what, I'm going to let God decide what I should do after high school.

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And so I knew what I already wanted to do, but I was going to let God decide for me, and if it happened to be what

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I wanted to do, then great. But if not, then okay, well, it's what God wanted for my life.

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And so I remember I sat down on my couch in the living room when no one else was home, and I prayed to God and I asked

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Him, what do you want me to do after high school? And then I sat there for a minute and nothing happened, and so I asked the question again, all right, all right, what do you want me to do after high school?

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Do you want me to go to college? Do you want me to go to this school?

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Do you want me to go to that school? And then when I finally mentioned the school that I actually wanted to go to,

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I sat there for maybe a little longer than I sat waiting for all of the other schools that I asked about.

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And I remember I felt something in my chest, and then I thought, I'm obviously getting something from God.

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God is telling me that I need to go to the school that I already wanted to go to anyways.

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And so I am actually someone who's done this very thing that we're talking about.

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But it is curious that it wasn't until I mentioned the school that I really wanted to go to that I felt like God was prompting me.

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Well, see, but sometimes it works in the opposite way, too. And so, like, you know it's

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God when it's what you want. But then sometimes, so I mean,

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I have a funny story like that, too. I mean, I remember I wanted to get married when I was in college or whatever.

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And I was looking around. I couldn't find a girl that I was even remotely interested in.

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And it's hard to find a godly girl. I mean, it's hard to find a girl that you're, period, you know, but then add on to that spiritual qualifications.

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But I remember that I was in class one time, and I just started reading the

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Bible. And I'm thinking, man, I'm looking at the example of Abraham's servant looking for a wife for Isaac.

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And, you know, essentially he says, hey, so he's trying to arrange a wife for Isaac.

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And he says, well, let it be the one that comes to the well to draw water, and I'll ask her to draw water for me and the camels also.

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And let it be that one that is the one that I'm supposed to bring back for Isaac or whatever. And so I'm sitting there in the university, and I'm sitting there thinking to myself, well, all right,

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Lord. I'm in my class early. There's no one here. I'm, like, 30 minutes early.

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I'm just going to lay down. I'm going to put my head on the desk, and I'm going to go to sleep. I'm just going to pretend like I'm asleep or whatever.

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But I said, Lord, let the woman I'm supposed to marry be the one who comes in here. A foolproof plan, obviously.

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Yes, it was great. It wakes me up from my sleep. And one of my classmates, a female, came in there just a few minutes later and woke me up and had some information to give me about that.

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And when I heard who it was, I was like, oh, no, Lord, not that one. That must not have been it.

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That must not have been it. I must have misread this one. But then that was something, though, that caused me never to do that kind of thing again.

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I must have got my wires crossed on that one.

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It's funny how that works. Essentially, if we could boil it down, basically, it seems like a lot of the issue with decision -making is just, hey, there's so many choices.

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We're kind of running into choice overload in a lot of ways in our life.

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And then the other aspect of it is because we're running into choice overload, there's so many things that we have to think through for ourselves, which in one way is a great blessing, obviously.

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We should be thankful for that because it's a sign of prosperity. But then it can be made into a bad thing when we start to say, all right, how do

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I remove myself from the responsibility of making all of these different choices?

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Yeah, and then we're influenced by the charismatic movement to where it's essentially basically training us to reject the idea of actually having to make a decision ourselves because we can just get the

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Holy Spirit to do it for us. Now, we've done an episode before on does

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God still speak to us today, but I still wanted to ask you this question for people who maybe haven't heard that episode yet.

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But obviously, the Bible says that God does actually have a plan for our lives.

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I mean, this is a promise that He makes to us and it's a plan to prosper us, not to harm us, right?

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That's what He says and to glorify Himself. So, if God does have a plan for our lives, then why is it that He doesn't just tell us what it is, right?

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Why doesn't He tell us all of the specifics of what this plan is that He's drawn up for us?

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Yeah, well, I think there's a variety of reasons why that would be the case. But then there's a variety of examples in the

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Scripture that would essentially tell us that He doesn't plan to do that at all, okay?

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So, I mean, if you think about, I mean, the Bible talks about the secret things belong to the

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Lord and the things that are revealed belong to us and our children forever that we may do the words of this law.

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So, God, basically, nothing requires actual work or effort from God, but God did go to a lot of, you know, quote -unquote work to put together the

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Scriptures that He has given to us. So, 2 Peter 1 basically says that God's given us everything that we need for life and godliness.

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Through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence. And so, in God's Word, He's given us everything that we need for life and godliness.

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He's given us a roadmap, He's given us the Bible, He's given us what we need in order to know how to honor

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Him. So, if our goal is to honor God, He's given us in His Word what we need. And this is the doctrine that we used to understand.

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We understood the doctrine of the sufficiency of the Scripture. The Scriptures are, you know, a light into our feet and a lamp into our path.

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If you want to know how to please God, it's not mysterious. He's not trying to confuse you. He's not hidden His will out there somewhere that you just have to, you know, strain to find or, you know, wrestle to find.

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He's given us the Scriptures so that we know how to honor Him. And He's not, you know, He's not trying to confuse us.

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He doesn't have some kind of secret, you know, commands out there that you have to, you know, strain to find.

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He's given us the Bible in order to do that. And then, you know, you don't, like, over and over and over again,

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I mean, there's just passages in the Bible which tell you that God, like, you don't know what a day is going to bring, right?

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You know, come now you who say that we're going to go to such and such place and go and sell and make a profit and everything else.

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You don't know what a day will bring. You don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. Only God knows, has access to the future.

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You don't have access to the future. You don't know the day that you're going to die. God has appointed a certain plan for you in your life.

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He's appointed a certain number of days that you're going to actually live. But you're not, He hasn't given you access to the future.

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He's not giving you those things. And so when we're told, you know, don't worry about tomorrow, tomorrow's going to take care of itself, sufficient today or the troubles thereof.

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I mean, essentially, God tells you to worry about today and making decisions today. He's the one who knows the future, not you.

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And so you don't, but that frees us. We don't have to know the future. You don't have to know what's happening tomorrow. You don't have to know all the entailments of every decision you make.

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So God certainly has a plan that's going to involve everything that you do. But He hasn't given you access to it. He's given you the scriptures and like that should be a source of comfort to us.

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But then what's happening is that you have a lot of people who are basically bought into this charismatic delusion that God has some sort of secret will out there that you have to strain to find that He's not telling you what it is.

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And so then like that's just, you know, depressing for most people, essentially, because it's just like,

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I want to honor the Lord with my life. And the standard kind of person doesn't think to themselves, well, if I want to honor the

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Lord, why not just do what He says? Do the things that His will actually tells me to do. Instead, they're looking for some sort of hidden secret will out there that God hasn't revealed that's going to essentially beat them over the head, you know, if they get it wrong.

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Okay. So, yeah, God obviously has a plan for us, which means that, you know,

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He's sovereign over all things. You know, this plan that He has, it can't be foiled by anything.

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There's nothing that will has happened or will happen that could ever stop

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His plans. Right. Yeah, Ephesians says that God works all things according to the counsel of His will.

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Right. So if that's true, if God is sovereign and nothing can stop

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His plan, is there a sense in which it doesn't matter what decisions we make and what we choose when it comes to those decisions?

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Does it not matter at all? Well, everything that happens is going to happen in some sense by the plan of God and through the will of God.

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But then, you know, God is going to accomplish His will through our obedient actions, through our sinful actions, through our unwise actions, through our wise actions and wise choices.

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So, you know, there's a sense in which, you know, there is no, like, and people talk about this as it relates to decision making all the time.

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They're trying to find God's will for their life. But then, you know, they do better just to try to figure out, well, what is

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God's will in general? And then let me devote myself to doing that. But then God's going to be glorified no matter what.

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And He's at work no matter what. And He is sovereign no matter what.

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But then the thing is, it's not that it doesn't matter what you do. Like, it doesn't matter what you do in the sense of, you know, nothing you do is going to take

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God by surprise. And, like, everything that we do is going to ultimately work to glorify

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God and make His people more like Him. But then the problem is that there are, you know, if you make an unwise choice, then, you know, what a man sows, don't be deceived,

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God is not mocked. What a man sows, he will reap. If he reaps to the flesh, he will, or if he sows to the flesh, he will reap to the flesh corruption.

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So, you can either, like, if you make unwise or sinful choices, then you'll probably experience the fruit of those unwise or sinful choices.

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Okay? And so, like, what do you want to experience? Like, if you want to be well -pleasing to God, then you devote yourself to the things that He tells you to do which are well -pleasing to Him.

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So, you know, we're responsible to make wise decisions. We're responsible to make obedient decisions.

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And God's given us Scripture to tell us what wise and obedient decisions actually look like. And your experience of life will largely be determined by the kind of decisions that you actually make.

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But then you can rest easy to know that, you know, there's nothing you can do that is going to take you outside of God's plan or violate

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God's plan. And even if you suffer for, you know, suffer from, you know, poor and foolish choices, essentially,

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God's going to work that together to make you more like Him and to glorify Himself. And so, you don't have to overly stress.

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Yeah. Keep going, keep going. Well, I was just going to say, I mean, there's the hyper -Calvinist kind of position on decision -making that essentially is kind of like fatalism.

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It's like, well, if God's planned it all in some sense, then what does it matter? It's like, well, yeah,

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I mean, yeah, He's planned it all in some sense. But then the issue is it does matter whether or not you're a

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Pharaoh in God's plan. Like, you don't want to be

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Pharaoh in God's plan. Yeah, you don't want to be Pharaoh. You don't want to be Pharaoh. Right. And so, the thing is, like, you can be the guy that is, you know, stubbornly hardening your heart and rejecting wisdom and reaping the bitter fruit of that through decisions that you'll make that'll last, that'll have long -term entailments.

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Or you can be the guy who just, you know, trusts the Lord with all your heart, obeys the Lord and follows

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Him and gets to experience, you know, some of the blessings that come from not rejecting wisdom, you know.

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So, it does, yeah, God's going to, you know, one of the most comforting things is there is no plan

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B for your life. There isn't a plan B. Uh -huh. God's in charge, and, you know, none of the dumb decisions

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I've made in my life, God was aware of the dumb decisions I was going to make, and He was working them towards His greater plan to glorify

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Himself and to help me. So, you can't ever take yourself out of God's will. It's not some bullseye that you have to find, like people talk about.

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But at the same time, you sow to the flesh, you'll reap to the flesh.

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You sow to the Spirit, you'll reap to the Spirit. And so, yeah. Yeah, so basically, if I could kind of summarize what you're saying, essentially what you're saying is that we are still held responsible for the decisions that we make, but at the same time,

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God is sovereign over everything that takes place in the world. And so much so that even the evil decisions that are made throughout all of history, those are a part of God's ultimate plan.

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So, like, you know, I think of Joseph with his brothers. That's probably the story that most people will think of when you talk about these kinds of things.

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You know, his brothers hate him, and so they want to kill him and then end up just selling him into slavery and telling his dad that he's dead.

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And then years and years later, after he's gone through two imprisonments, he's eventually basically the right hand of Pharaoh.

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And he tells his brothers, you know, the famous line that everyone knows now, what you planned for evil,

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God meant for good. And so, we're held responsible for our decisions, but then ultimately,

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God's plan won't be thrown off, even when people make, you know, quote -unquote,

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I guess wrong decisions, or maybe a more accurate term would be unrighteous or unwise decisions.

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Is that a fair summary? Yeah, I mean, God's plan's not going to be thrown off.

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I mean, it's funny. I mean, I look at my life, and I see some of the unwise decisions that I've made. Oh, yeah.

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Me too. And there's a lot of them. But then one of the things that's funny is that, you know,

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I've had people in my life who have asked for advice, and, you know, that God's – I've done a lot of things in my life the hard way.

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And so, I've been able to warn other people, don't do it that way. It's a lot easier. And then when they actually take that advice, it's neat to see how different their life actually is than how mine was at different points.

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But then it's like, how could you help people, spare them from some of the heartache and pain that you went through without you having to go through it, in a certain sense, to be able to warn them in a way that you need.

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And so, God will work all these things together for good. And He has a plan in all of it.

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Wise and unwise, good and bad, you're not going to take them by surprise. And at the same time,

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I mean, like, you know, you are the one responsible to make choices in your life.

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And those kind of choices that you make, like, you're not going to make them apart from Him being at work in your life and in your own heart.

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But there are entailments of it. And ultimately, you know, nothing's going to separate – if you're His, nothing's going to separate you from His love.

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You don't have to stress about it. And I think part of the whole charismatic decision -making process is a process that is filled with stress, essentially.

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Because you're struggling and straining to find this hidden thing, instead of devoting yourself to the things that are actually revealed.

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Yeah. Now, you said earlier that, really, when it comes to decision -making, we need to recognize that as Christians, God has already revealed everything necessary for us to live lives in obedience to Him.

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And the way that He's revealed that is through Scripture.

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Scripture is sufficient for all things in this life in order for us to honor and glorify

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Him. And so, there's a sense in which the more we know Scripture, the better off we are.

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I mean, that's probably an obvious statement to make. But the more we know Scripture, the more informed we can be when it comes to decision -making.

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Now, the hard part for a lot of people is when they're reading the

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Bible, I think a lot of times they're kind of expecting something else from Scripture.

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I know I've done this in the past, where I've needed to make a decision.

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And then I think to myself, you know what, let me go to the Bible and see if I can find an answer in the

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Bible. And so, I end up looking through and looking through and searching.

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And let's say this is way back before I was ever married, and I'm thinking to myself, who do

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I need to marry? Let me see what the Bible has to say. And I'm searching for the verse that says,

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Harrison, here is the name of the person you need to marry. But then there's obviously not a verse in the

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Bible that says, Harrison, here's the person you need to marry. So, if the

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Bible is sufficient for informing us how to make all the decisions we need to make in this life, but then it doesn't have those verses that say, here's the person you need to marry, or here's the job you need to take, or here's the school you need to go to, here's what you need to do with your finances.

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If that's not how it works, then how exactly should we go about the decision -making process?

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What exactly does that look like? Yeah, I guess I have so many comments on that that I don't know how to start.

32:10

Yeah, there obviously is that impulse. Maybe I'll just start here. There's that impulse people have to look at the

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Bible, and they're asking very specific questions of it. The kind of questions that it's not going to answer, and that's what discourages them.

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So, it's like, yeah, tell me the person who I'm going to marry, and then you're looking up a verse to tell you, Harrison K. Rigg, and when was your wedding year?

32:37

2017. In 2017, should marry Kayla. And so, the problem, though, is that if the

32:45

Bible were that kind of book, I mean, imagine how long it would actually be. It'd be pretty long. To have all the decisions that anyone wants to know, and it's just like, well,

32:54

I guess it just doesn't address these issues. Well, no, the problem is it does address these kind of issues, but then not in a way that you realize.

33:03

So, as you read through the Bible, one of the things you're going to find, and when

33:08

I was in early college, this is something I was wrestling with, because everyone was talking about the will of God, and finding the will of God, and do you want to find the will of God for your life, and that kind of stuff.

33:22

And typically what everyone wanted to happen with that kind of thing was you're supposed to be struggling and straining to find

33:28

God's will for your life. But then it didn't feel, but it's just like, what am

33:34

I waiting for? Am I waiting for some voice from heaven? Just some, how do I know? But it dawned on me at some point, it was like, well,

33:42

God has given me the Bible, which I don't read. And so, maybe

33:49

I should go to the Bible to figure out what God wants me to do, and I'm going to see what it says about the will of God.

33:56

And one of the things that was kind of remarkable to me about this was that, as I'm reading the Bible, it's like, you have all these verses, like 1

34:03

Thessalonians 4 .3, this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality.

34:09

And I thought, huh. Or 1 Thessalonians 5 .18, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

34:18

And so, you think about things like that. God tells you in His word, if you want to know what

34:25

God's will, I'm sitting there struggling and straining, well, what's God's will for my life, right? And it's just like, well, abstain from sexual immorality is

34:33

God's will, give thanks in all circumstances. It's like, oh, no, I don't want that. That's not what I'm, oh, yeah, obviously, I should do that, right?

34:39

But I'm looking for something else. But then at some point in my life, it's just like, well, maybe, why am

34:46

I just treating the obvious as if it's just irrelevant to this question

34:51

I'm asking? Does that make sense? Mm -hmm, yeah. Like, this is, maybe

34:56

I should just devote myself to the obvious things. Right. But then this is, if you want to kind of think about how this works, think about Adam and the garden.

35:09

And so, Adam and Eve in the garden, they're given one command, essentially. Mm -hmm.

35:15

They're told, don't eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil from the day that you eat of it.

35:21

Dying, you're going to die. Mm -hmm. And so, if Adam and Eve were kind of like we are, then essentially,

35:28

Adam and Eve would be there in the garden. And what they would have been doing is like, Lord, I want to know your will for my life.

35:34

I want to know what your will for my life is. Which fruit do I eat first?

35:42

There's so many. Which one do you want me to eat first? I got to get it right. I got to get it right.

35:47

Do I eat the peach first or do I eat the apple first? And how many of the peaches do

35:52

I eat? And how many of apples do I eat? And what time do I eat them during the day? And the way we're trained to think, though, is that that's like the spiritual person, right?

36:02

Mm -hmm. Like the spiritual person is the one who's so in tune with the Spirit that the Holy Spirit just whispers to them every long, everywhere they go, all the commands that He's going to have for them, and they just have to listen and obey.

36:14

And that's where you get like the crazy Beth Moore brushing the homeless man's hair at the airport kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah.

36:20

But the problem is that that wasn't the arrangement. Like the arrangement was you can do whatever you want,

36:26

Adam. Mm -hmm. Just don't eat this one. Mm -hmm. So there's one command. So what happened there is in the garden, there's a lot of freedom that was given with one constraint.

36:38

Right. So you have freedom with one constraint. They didn't have to second -guess every choice they made. They could do what they wanted to do, right?

36:46

Mm -hmm. And it's like you can eat whatever fruit you want to, Adam, in whatever order you want to eat it.

36:52

You only have one command here. And so you're in a garden of yes, and there's one no. So there's just all this freedom that you have, and you don't have to worry.

37:01

God's not trying to trick you. He's not trying to trip you off. Just do the thing he told you to do. Right. And the whole human race wouldn't be falling to sin, right?

37:09

Mm -hmm. Now what's happened is that like Eve essentially says

37:14

Satan is tempting Eve. And she says, well,

37:19

God says we can't even touch the fruit, right, lest we die.

37:25

And so what's happened is that sinful human beings, they want to add to God's commands. And that's what we're doing in this decision -making process is that we're adding all sorts of commands to the commands he actually gives us.

37:39

And then we treat the commands that we added as if they're the real commands. Does that make sense?

37:45

Mm -hmm. All right. So when you think about the way God's will actually works in the

37:51

Bible, if you want just to think about what are we doing wrong? Well, one of the things to realize is that if you just like first think to yourself like God's not trying to trick me in how to make a decision.

38:04

He's told me what he wants to do. Then one of the things that you might find is that as you're trying to answer a lot of these questions, you know, what is

38:11

God's will? Like first just devote yourself to knowing what is God's will, period. And he'll tell you in the

38:17

Bible, you know, this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality. So maybe you have a lot of freedom in what you're going to do.

38:24

You can pick, you know, largely you have a lot of freedom, what kind of job you're going to pick. You largely have a freedom in what kind of wife you're going to pick.

38:32

The Bible says marry whom you will, only marry in the Lord. Maybe there's a lot of freedom that you have.

38:37

Just don't marry an unbeliever if you're a Christian. You know, there's a lot of freedom about what job you do.

38:44

You know, whatever hand finds the dude, do it with all your might, right? For work, you know, is a gift of God.

38:53

But then think about what are the commands there. And the problem is that for the vast majority of people, they have little to no interest whatsoever, you know, the professing

39:04

Christians, in actually obeying the things God has revealed. And they're totally fixated on all the things he hasn't revealed.

39:12

And so they're mixing up the two categories. And basically they're treating the unrevealed category as if that's the real way to honor

39:21

God. Instead of realizing that, you know, the real way to honor God is just deal with the things he's revealed.

39:28

And then accept that there's freedom to make decisions too. Does that make sense? Yeah, basically meaning like going back to the job example.

39:40

God has commanded every person to work to find something to do.

39:47

Now, he didn't say, you know, so -and -so, you need to work this job.

39:53

And then so -and -so, you need to work that job. He just said everyone needs to work. So the way that Christians need to read that is, or they need to look at that and say, hey, you know what?

40:04

I need to find a job somewhere. Sure. And that'll honor the

40:11

Lord. So if I decide to, you know, go and get the accountant job, I can honor the

40:16

Lord in that accountant job. If I decide to go get the job at McDonald's, I can honor the

40:23

Lord by getting the job at McDonald's, right? That's kind of what you're saying?

40:30

Yeah, there's a lot of freedom that's involved. And so what's happening is that there's – what's happened is that for the basic, you know, charismatic kind of influenced

40:45

Christian, they have little to no tolerance for actually doing the things the Bible actually tells them to do.

40:52

And they think that in order to, you know, find God's will, they have to find the secret things, right? So the

40:57

Bible essentially says, hey, the secret things belong to the Lord, but the things revealed belong to you and your children that we may do the words of law.

41:04

So if you want to know what God's will is, just look at what it is in the Bible and devote yourself to the things that are revealed.

41:12

So the vast majority of people are preoccupied with the unrevealed things instead of the revealed things.

41:18

But then there's a lot of freedom that you're given. But then what people don't have then is they're missing this category of wisdom related to the freedom.

41:29

Right. So basically, there's right and wrong in the

41:38

Bible, black and white. And so there's laws that are given, like abstain from sexual immorality, marry whom you will, marry in the

41:45

Lord. There's freedom, like there's a few laws that are there and you need to know what they actually are.

41:52

But, you know, there's largely, I mean, you know, given the thousands of decisions you make a day,

41:59

God's not micromanaging everything that's going on in your life. He didn't command you to wear a red shirt today and a blue shirt tomorrow.

42:07

Right, right. I mean, there's a few commands that He's given that, you know, that are more than like two, you know, but I mean, there's a few in comparison to the thousands of decisions you make.

42:19

He's given you a few, you know, that you need to know what they are. And so there's the black and white.

42:25

And then there's a lot of freedom there. And then within that freedom, you can exercise it in a wise way and you can exercise it in a foolish way.

42:34

But what people have done is that they don't have a category for wisdom, essentially. So who are the,

42:41

I mean, you know, think about like a subject like marriage, like you're trying to find Mr. Wise, right?

42:48

No, you're trying to find Mr. Right, Mr. Right, right? Like, are you trying to make a wise marriage choice?

42:56

No, what you're trying to make is like, you're trying to find that soulmate, that person that God has for you, right? Right. That one and only person that you could, you know, marry.

43:05

But then the problem is, it's just like, there is like God's, like you can marry whom you will.

43:11

You can make a wise marriage choice. And if you want to know how to make a wise marriage choice, go to the book of Proverbs and figure out what makes her a wise marriage choice.

43:19

Just read through the book of Proverbs. And that in part is trying to tell you the difference between a wise marriage choice and a foolish marriage choice.

43:27

And so, but then there's freedom there and you're responsible to make a decision. And, but then there's a category of wisdom.

43:33

So you can pick a wise job. You can pick a foolish job, right? Yeah. The accountant job might be the wiser job in comparison to the

43:43

McDonald's job. But then they would, neither one would necessarily be sinful to take, right?

43:52

Right. But I mean, there are, so, but then there might be some sinful jobs to take like adult entertainers.

43:58

Yeah, that would probably not fall in the right category.

44:07

Oh, and I think a lot of the jobs that, you know, there's probably a lot more than we realize.

44:12

I think there's this assumption that any job is on the table unless it's like the adult entertainer job or something like that.

44:18

But I think that there's probably a lot more jobs that a Christian who's a thoughtful Christian would say, I can't take this job without necessarily sinning.

44:26

Right. Like if you're working at a job that is, you know, requiring you to lie to your customers, you can't take that, right?

44:34

You can't take that job. Or you take it and you get fired, you know, you say, I'm not going to lie, you know, or I think that there's a lot of, there's a lot of jobs that are, that people aren't thinking about that, you know, you, that are going to force you to reject the scriptures at a certain point.

44:57

And so, so I wouldn't just say they're all on, they're all equally fine so long as they're not just, but, but I would,

45:04

I would say that there are, you know, sinful jobs to take and there are wise and unwise and probably the accountant and McDonald's kind of thing would probably be on the permissibility spectrum, you know, which one is wiser than another, you know?

45:19

Right, right. So there's that, but, but that's a part of the problem is that we, we only have this category of right and wrong because we're, we're trying to figure out, well, what is

45:29

God's will as if it's going to be micromanaging every little decision you make, which

45:35

I mean, really is irrational. You know, it's like a really irrational way to think because like you make a thousand decisions every day,

45:41

Harrison, you know? Yeah. We don't think this way about every single decision we make.

45:48

Lord, what time is your will for me to wake up today? Right. You know? No one thinks that.

45:54

What, what will, what is your will for me to brush my teeth or take a shower first when

45:59

I wake up? Or should I, you know, like no one does that. Nobody, nobody thinks that way. And if you are thinking that way, please stop thinking that way.

46:06

Yeah. I mean, but you don't, it only, the only, you just, like what happens is you realize on a day -to -day basis, like with most of the decisions you make that there's some freedom, whether or not you acknowledge it or not.

46:19

And then once you have a big decision to make, then you, you, you, then you totally transition into super spiritual charismatic prophet mode, you know?

46:28

Yeah. The only way you, you're paralyzed with, you know, fear that you're going to get it wrong, you know, and God has to tell you what to do.

46:36

But it's just like, hey, didn't you, didn't you pick your coffee at Starbucks that you went to? And didn't you figure out, like, didn't you pick the time you're going to wake up, you know, and didn't you pick the clothes you're going to wear today?

46:47

And didn't you pick your shampoo and your toothpaste and your, you know, was there some, you know, word from the heaven telling you how to do each one of those?

46:57

And so no one maintains that. But then, but what we need to do is we need to reclaim, hey, if you want to know

47:03

God's will, look for it in the scriptures. And then there's wise and unwise ways to make decisions.

47:08

And then as you're going to approach the scripture, the more that you know, I mean, you, you, you basically have two ways of making a decision.

47:15

One is you think, well, the Bible is sufficient, right? So I need to know what the

47:21

Bible says and get other people to help me to know what the Bible says. And that's going to involve what are the rules and how to, how do

47:28

I pursue wisdom? And then you have the charismatic approach, which is going to, in some sense, try to short circuit that process to where you're just getting a direct answer to what you want.

47:38

Right. So, you know, which can come in different ways, you know, through my silly testing, you know, like,

47:45

Lord, tell me through my thoughts and feelings. Lord, tell me through my circumstances. Right. You know,

47:51

Lord, tell me through my moods, you know, tell me through. It's totally arbitrary. Right.

47:56

Open doors and closed doors. Yeah. You know, but you're either looking to your, you know, experience or your feelings in some ways to determine what

48:06

God's will is. Or you're going to say, hey, we have a sufficient word in the scriptures to tell us what to do. And those are two very different outlooks in life and two very different ways to approach life in that way.

48:18

Yeah. It's funny. This is slightly going back to something we were talking about a minute ago.

48:25

But it's funny that we're talking about basically it's crucial that we know scripture as well as we possibly can so that we know what honors

48:37

God and what dishonors God. And I think earlier when I was talking about Joseph, I said something about him being in prison twice.

48:45

And what I actually meant was he was enslaved and then imprisoned.

48:52

So maybe I need to go back and read the story. Maybe I don't know it as well as I should.

48:57

But I wanted to clarify that when I was thinking back on it. I was really glad that you brought up wisdom in all of this because I do think a lot of people kind of view at least the big life decisions almost as like there's a right answer and then there's a thousand wrong answers.

49:22

And I need to make sure I pick the right answer. But then the problem is God hasn't told me what the right answer is.

49:28

So I need to go to him and I need to ask him. A lot of people think that way. But then the reality is there are certain things that would qualify as a quote unquote right decision to make and a wrong decision to make.

49:45

So the obvious wrong decision would be if I'm searching for the job, I probably don't need to be the stripper.

49:52

That probably wouldn't honor God. But then should

49:57

I be the McDonald's worker? Well, I mean, there's nothing inherently sinful about being a

50:04

McDonald's worker. But then, you know, is that the wisest thing?

50:10

Well, if you're knowing that, hey, I don't have to start a family and be able to support them one day.

50:16

Well, then maybe that's not the wisest decision for you to make. So I think that's a pretty helpful distinction to make.

50:24

And people need to really recognize the value of wisdom and why the

50:30

Bible talks about wisdom so much. But my follow up question, now that you've mentioned wisdom, and I was thinking about this while you were talking.

50:40

But I think hopefully for people, it makes a lot of sense. Like, hey, there's a lot of choices that boil down to not right and wrong, but probably maybe wise and unwise.

50:54

Or I don't know how we want to label wise and unwise decisions.

51:01

So hopefully that makes sense for a lot of people. And I wanted to ask you, you know, okay, we need to make wise decisions.

51:10

Well, that sounds easy enough, right? Until it's time to actually do it.

51:17

Like, how exactly do we go about gaining the wisdom necessary to make wise choices?

51:29

Especially as it pertains to, you know, big life -changing type decisions. Where exactly do we go to get this wisdom?

51:37

What does that look like? The Bible is a book that's intended to help us to do that.

51:46

I mean, you have whole books of the

51:51

Bible that are described as being part of a broader category of wisdom literature.

51:57

You know, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. You know, Job, you can put

52:03

Job in there too. You have what's called wisdom literature in the Bible. So the thing is, with these types of things, what you're not talking about when you're talking about biblical wisdom is just what you might describe as purely pragmatic considerations.

52:23

Although that does factor into what would constitute wisdom. But, you know, if you want to just think about, well, how does wisdom work?

52:35

I mean, you're going to have guardrails in the Bible. So the first kind of question that you want to ask is, well, what are

52:41

God's commands that He's given? And that should be the first, like, you know, you're going to go make a decision.

52:48

You're going to choose, like, what job you do. First start out with just the commands that God has given and the commands that God's given in the

52:56

Scripture. And those are going to be guardrails. But then there's certain principles that God gives in the

53:01

Scriptures too that are going to help you to navigate, like, bigger decisions.

53:08

And in terms of big decisions, small decisions, how you order your affairs.

53:15

And there's no way, like, in the course of a podcast I'm going to be able to tell anyone the sum total of all biblical wisdom, okay?

53:22

Yeah, yeah. But the thing is, yes, I mean, like, if you know the

53:27

Bible, then, like, the more that you know the Bible, the more that you know wisdom in the

53:34

Bible, the more that you're going to know all that God has required of you, and that's going to help you to navigate certain scenarios and situations.

53:44

But then the Bible says that there's wisdom in the multitude of counselors. And part of the reason why there's wisdom in the multitude of counselors is because the

53:52

Bible's kind of a big book, and there's been people who've read it a lot more than you have. And whenever you're trying to make a decision, like a

53:58

God -honoring decision, one of the things that you should probably do is to go and ask all the older, wiser, godlier pastors, family members, like, hey, do you, and this is something, you know,

54:12

I would do, is do you see anything in the Bible that applies to this kind of scenario that I'm not seeing, okay?

54:20

And so I don't think, like, I don't think what you want to do is just ask for their own advice in some sort of unqualified way, period, and then treat that advice as if it's comparable to scripture or something.

54:32

I think one of the things you want to do is ask, like, what do you see, and as you've studied the Bible, what are some things that I should be looking for in terms of, you know, how to make a decision?

54:42

So maybe just to get practical, you know, someone is, like, if you want to make a, you know, biblical decision about, let's say, finding a spouse or something like that, right?

54:54

Well, I mean, there's a lot that the Bible actually says about that, about how to make a decision. So, for example, like, the

55:02

Bible says a man who finds a wife finds a good thing. So that means that if you want to get married, then you probably should be looking, right?

55:09

Yeah, yeah. So you should be looking. So, like, now, wisdom would say,

55:14

I need, you know, you're a man looking for a wife, you need to look. So that might involve asking around, you know, asking people, do you know any godly girls, you know?

55:25

You probably want to put yourself in the kind of situations that godly girls are going to be at.

55:31

You think about, like, the example of Ruth putting herself in Boaz's field, that kind of thing.

55:37

You probably want to put yourself in situations where you might be around godly women.

55:43

But, I mean, I remember when I was looking for a spouse, when I was in that time in my life, I would go around, I would ask godly people.

55:48

I'd say, hey, tell me about marriage. I want to learn about marriage. What are the biggest problems you faced in your marriage? What are the things that you look for?

55:56

You know, what would be some things that you would encourage young people who are looking for a spouse to look for in a spouse?

56:04

And what I wanted to hear was biblical things to look for, right? And so then, you know, as you read through the

56:11

Bible, you know, you're going to find all sorts of things. And so over and over again in the Proverbs, you see, you know, a contentious woman is better at the corner of a rooftop than a contentious woman.

56:21

And so just, like, that would be the kind of thing where you say, okay, well, it seems like I can marry whom I will.

56:27

Only marrying the Lord, I need to find someone. There's, you know, God has, God may or may not have someone planned.

56:33

He hasn't promised me a spouse. But then I'm free to pick who I want to pick. But then if I marry a girl who's contentious,

56:40

I might have a tough life, right? Yeah. And then, like, the Proverbs talks about the importance of hard work.

56:47

And I'm looking at Proverbs 31, and that describes a woman who is very diligent. So if I pick a lazy wife who is contentious,

56:55

I might have a tough life, right? Am I free to do it? Sure, you know. So, but then, like, that's where wisdom kicks in to just talk about those two things in particular.

57:06

Then, well, like, obviously, there's some sort of spectrum between hardworking women and lazy women, right?

57:14

Like, they operate on some sort of spectrum. And, like, well, what is the exact standard of perfection?

57:20

Well, I don't know. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, I don't. So I can marry someone who is more diligent and who is, like, has a soft answer that turns away wrath.

57:32

Or I can marry the contentious, lazy girl. Like, so there's a spectrum there. And so I need—so then what could happen at that point is there's a multitude of counselors who—you just go to godly older people and say,

57:48

Hey, you know, how do I—what are some ways I could identify a contentious woman?

57:53

What are some ways you think I could help me to identify a hardworking girl? What are some of the characteristics?

57:59

But you see, but that's all in the language of wisdom, still acknowledging I have freedom to make a decision.

58:04

And then I'm going to make certain calculations. And then, you know, if you have family and you have pastors and you have people in your life, you say,

58:11

Hey, well, what does this girl look like to you? Does she look like she'd be a hard worker? Does she look like she'd be contentious?

58:18

Does she look like she loves the Lord, you know, and the things of the Lord, right? So if you marry a godly girl who knows the

58:25

Bible, that's going to be an easier time than an ungodly girl who doesn't know the Bible. So help me to get people along the line and say,

58:33

Hey, is she showing fruit and evidence of being a Christian? But that's all how wisdom works, to where you're looking at the things the

58:40

Bible tells you to look for, and then you're enlisting help and other sets of eyes. Because obviously, you know, if you're a guy, you're blinded by the physical.

58:53

But that would be—I mean, that's just an example of the types of things that the Bible is not going to tell you who to marry.

58:59

God's not going to tell you who to marry, but the Bible is going to give you character traits to look for. And then the better you're able to identify those character traits in other people, the easier your marriage will be, although no marriage is easy, right?

59:13

Like, completely. But you're making a wiser choice that's going to make things easier for you, if that makes sense.

59:21

But then you get more people involved in the process. They're all helping you to see these things.

59:27

And so, I mean, that's just an example of how wisdom actually works.

59:38

So there's what you call biblical wisdom like that, which is wisdom that's grounded in the

59:44

Scriptures. But then there is also practical wisdom that even pagan parents can give to a person at a certain time.

59:53

So it's just like, hey, yeah, you're working at McDonald's, making $10 an hour, and that's wonderful.

01:00:01

It helped get you through college or whatever. But now you're wanting to get married, and have you ever done a budget before?

01:00:11

Do you know what it costs? Like, what an apartment costs? And the Bible says that no one sets out to build a tower without counting the cost.

01:00:19

And I think even a lot of secular pagan parents could help you to have that wisdom of life experience to help you to just know how to do basic math.

01:00:31

Like, here are some of the things that you need to look for to be aware of. You're going into marriage for the first time.

01:00:38

Well, you have to not only worry about the rent and the power and the gas.

01:00:46

Did you even put power and gas on your little budget? What about gas? What about gift?

01:00:51

What about gas? What about gifts? What about medical expenses? So I think that there's a lot that, like, are you setting yourself up for failure?

01:01:01

Do you know what you're doing? So yeah, I mean, I think that there's all sorts of ways to approach that, but that's just a few thoughts on how wisdom works.

01:01:12

And maybe you said this too. I might have missed it. I'm not sure. But doesn't the

01:01:18

Bible say that also we should be praying and asking God to give us wisdom?

01:01:25

And then the Bible even goes so far as to say that He will give wisdom to the person who asks for it and doesn't doubt.

01:01:36

Yeah, so that's where there's two basic ways that people hear that to be communicating.

01:01:43

Okay. So often when you talk about, all right, there's a lot of freedom in the decision -making process, but then you need to use wisdom in the decision -making process.

01:01:57

To people who are trained in charismatic ways of thinking, that sounds very unspiritual, right?

01:02:03

Mm -hmm. So it just sounds like it's just purely pragmatic and intellectual exercise that you're not asking

01:02:09

God for help. No, the problem is it's like what you should be – so you have to answer the question, well, how does prayer relate to it all, right?

01:02:16

Okay, yeah. So for the charismatic, prayer relates to it all is that you're praying for wisdom, and then you're expecting an answer that's going to be revelatory.

01:02:29

Mm -hmm. Okay? So, Lord, give me wisdom in who to marry. The expectation is what you're saying then in the charismatic framework is,

01:02:38

Lord, tell me her name. Show me the verse. Yeah, so tell me her name somehow.

01:02:45

Now, that's going to either be show me the verse in the Bible, so you may just flip the Bible open to a random part and put your finger down, and it's like, oh, it landed on a girl's name

01:02:52

Rachel. I guess that's who I need to marry, you know? And it just so happens I'm interested in a girl named Rachel. Big surprise, you know?

01:02:58

Yeah. So it could be like that. It could be like, hey, I'm praying about who to marry.

01:03:03

I'm praying, and then I was behind the car with a license plate that said Rachel, you know? Or I'm praying, like,

01:03:10

Lord, tell me who to marry. Tell me who to marry. I want it to be Rachel, and then I asked her, and she said yes. So that must be an open door, you know?

01:03:16

That must be God's. That must be confirmation. So when you're praying for wisdom like that in the charismatic way, you're expecting some kind of circumstantial answer to tell you you did the right thing.

01:03:27

Does that make sense? But then when you're praying for wisdom in the biblical sense, what you're praying for is, like,

01:03:34

Lord, help me to understand the Bible. And what you're saying is give me the knowledge of your scriptures that I need through my own personal study, through other people, to give me confidence about the revealed will that you've actually given me so I know what the parameters are for the decision that you expect me to make.

01:04:00

Does that make sense? Yeah. And so we can't even understand the Bible apart from God's help.

01:04:06

We need God to illumine our eyes to help us to understand the Bible. And so what you're praying is not tell me the right decision to make.

01:04:13

You're praying help me to understand everything that you've revealed about this subject so I can make a decision with your help that honors you.

01:04:27

Does that make sense? Yeah. So it's not divorce from prayer, but it's not prayer asking for a revelatory extra biblical command.

01:04:35

Yeah, like a specific answer to the specific question. No, you're saying help me to know your word through my study, through other people.

01:04:47

So it's like if you imagine yourself in the garden, right? Mm -hmm.

01:04:53

Well, there's only one command in the garden. Don't eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

01:04:59

So what is Adam praying at that point? At that point, he's basically praying,

01:05:04

Lord, help me to remember your word and help me to not violate your word, right? Mm -hmm. And help me to be a good steward of the creation that you've given me.

01:05:14

Help me to be wisdom and knowing how to carry through the other commands you've given me, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.

01:05:21

You're saying, Lord, give me the wisdom to do and all that. But what you're not expecting at that point is you're not expecting some sort of extra word to say each step along the way.

01:05:31

Today, Adam, I want you to cut a tree down and build a house. Right. Like what you're asking for is just,

01:05:40

Lord, direct my steps in the way that you do. I'm asking you to direct my steps, help me to walk in a way that is pleasing to you.

01:05:49

And then the only way you're going to know how you're doing that is by going back to the things revealed and checking what you're doing in light of that, knowing that God's going to direct your step.

01:05:59

He's going to put you in the situations he wants to put you in.

01:06:06

But you're not expecting some sort of just continuing revelation that's happening every day, every moment to confirm the right choice.

01:06:14

You're just walking in wisdom at that point. Does that make sense? Yeah. So how does the Holy Spirit work in the decision -making process then?

01:06:24

If it's not like a prompting of the Holy Spirit or like a specific audible word or something from the

01:06:32

Holy Spirit, how is he actually working in the decision -making process?

01:06:41

Does he have a role for the Christian in the decision -making process at all?

01:06:49

Yeah. Well, the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit is to point us to the revealed word.

01:06:57

I mean, I can just give you a silly, silly example of one of the ways in which this works, but then

01:07:03

I can give you a few more. But when I was in Bible college,

01:07:09

I was out at the master's college, and I was trying to find a job, and I had an apartment bill that I had to pay for, and I knew how much money

01:07:19

I had to make. It was a little more expensive living out there. And I'm putting resume out and resume out after resume, and I couldn't get anyone to hire me.

01:07:28

And way back in the days, there used to be these stores called Blockbuster Video. Yeah, I remember them.

01:07:36

So many years ago before Redbox took over and Netflix and all that.

01:07:41

But I had gotten zero response to all these resumes

01:07:50

I'm putting out. I'm wasting all this money driving around and trying to talk to people and just say, give me a job,

01:07:55

I'll do anything. Couldn't get anyone to hire me. But then I had a chance, and this was years ago, but they were going to pay me like $17 an hour.

01:08:06

Oh, wow. This is years and years and years ago to be a manager at Blockbuster, working a schedule that would be great for my school.

01:08:17

But then what happened was it kind of dawned on me after this interview, she wanted to hire me, she liked me, she wanted to hire me.

01:08:25

And I'm like, I mean, it was great. And I was like, answer to prayer, right? Answer to prayer. But then

01:08:31

I thought, well, this means I'm going to have to stare at these video covers all day long. And then, because I just, you know,

01:08:39

I don't really go into video stores that much. But then I started walking around the store and looking and like, oh, you know,

01:08:46

I don't know if I can, I might not be looking at like women in various states of undress on these video covers all day long.

01:08:56

And I thought, but then the Holy Spirit, what does the Holy Spirit do? He convicts the world of sin and righteousness and judgment.

01:09:04

And Job says he made a covenant with his eyes, you know, unless you look at anything unclean. And I'm just thinking to myself, well,

01:09:10

I'm a Christian. I'm going to Bible college. How can I, is this helpful?

01:09:15

Is this smart? Is this good? Is this godly? Right. And so,

01:09:20

I mean, yeah, I think the Holy Spirit brings the remembrance, God's word and God's words were brought to remembrance to my mind.

01:09:26

And I just thought, well, I don't have a better plan, but I'm just going to have to say no. And not,

01:09:33

I mean, not knowing how to pay my bills, not operating out of desperation. Like, and so that's,

01:09:38

I mean, that's one example, but I mean, like there's been plenty of times where I, you know, like where I'm just looking at what the

01:09:45

Bible says and the Holy Spirit has convicted me about what he says. I mean, I've basically told every single job from when

01:09:52

I was in early college on that I'm not going to work on Sunday because I want to go to church.

01:09:58

And like, there's a lot of people who will work on Sunday and not be able to go to church and they won't make that a non -negotiable.

01:10:04

And I've looked at, you know, I've looked at people and I've said, hey, I love the job. I'm willing to take it, but not going to work on Sunday.

01:10:11

And they say, okay, yeah, well, I think we can, you know, mostly accommodate that. You know, there might be some sort of situations where, well, you know, have to, you know, someone calls in or something else and it's just like, no, you don't understand.

01:10:23

I'm not going to work on Sunday. I won't work on Sunday. And if you call me,

01:10:29

I won't answer, but I'll be available on the other days. You know, and that's taken people by surprise at times, but it's like, no,

01:10:37

I really won't answer. I'm not going to come in at all. So hire me at your own risk, but hey, I'll do a great job on the other days.

01:10:43

And they've actually hired me, you know, I've never lost a job, a job opportunity that way by just being honest.

01:10:49

But then like, that would be the Holy Spirit at work, giving you convictions and helping you to obey the truth.

01:10:54

Right. And so, but I mean, the Bible says you delight yourself in the

01:11:00

Lord and he'll give you the desires of your heart. And I think that as you read through the scripture and you, like the

01:11:08

Bible will shape your desires. And so it might be that, you know, as you're, as you're making decisions, you know,

01:11:16

I mean, how many, you know, young kids had like, you know, stupid desires, like early on in life that are just all about making a bunch of money and financial security.

01:11:26

Not that that's bad. I'm just saying, but just, just desires that were totally materialistic and totally just worldly. And I want to be famous and I want to, you know, be rich.

01:11:35

And I want to, but then as you read through the Bible and you want to grow and like the Holy Spirit changes your desires in a way that like, it's like,

01:11:43

Hey, I want to maybe, I want to honor the Lord with my wealth, you know, whatever wealth

01:11:49

I have. It's not just about just having a bunch of money. I want to honor the Lord with my wealth. I want to, you know, do things that are meaningful that will, and you know, work is meaningful, but I mean, my goodness, like you can spend your life, you know, being a video game content creator on YouTube.

01:12:04

Hey, there's a lot of money in that, man. Yeah. For a very few, you know, small percentage of the people out there, you know, or devote yourself to being a professional athlete, but it's just like,

01:12:15

Mike. All right. Yeah. Maybe someone out there could do that. But then that may mean that you have a difficult time being a husband and a family, you know, a church member, you know, and maybe, maybe even the more spiritually minded you actually are.

01:12:27

It's not just, Oh, well, the only options are be a pastor. It's just like, like your desires will change to, you'll want, you'll be attracted to the right things.

01:12:36

I mean, you know, like a person who never reads the Bible, they're not going to be able to make a good marriage choice, no matter how hard they try, because they just don't know.

01:12:43

They don't have the right desires. They don't know what godliness looks like. They're repelled by godliness. Does that make sense?

01:12:49

Yeah. So, like, as the Holy Spirit is conforming you to the image of Christ, the more that your desires will be that of Jesus's and the more that you'll be attracted to the things that Jesus wants you to be attracted by, and that'll show up in how you make decisions.

01:13:04

And so, you know, the problem is that people only have a category of the Holy Spirit basically speaking to you in some still small voice and whispering to you, you know, these extra commands that God's hidden from you, but he has personally for me.

01:13:17

And it's like, well, no, I mean, the Holy Spirit will conform you to the image of Christ. He's going to remind you of his truth.

01:13:23

You know, he's going to be conforming you to the image of Jesus, and that's going to all show up in how you make decisions.

01:13:30

Does that make sense? Yeah. Now, for the person who's listening, and we both mentioned this earlier, so we're kind of in this boat in a certain sense, but the person who's listening and is thinking back to past decisions that they made and thinking, hey, you know what,

01:13:49

I actually, whether I realize it or not, I was actually thinking this way. I was trying to remove myself from the responsibility of making choices for my life and trying to put them on God instead in a way that isn't necessarily biblical.

01:14:07

I'm looking back at that, I'm realizing that I've done that, and now I'm wondering, well, what do

01:14:15

I do with that, you know, with the fact that I've done this in the past?

01:14:21

Is this like a sinful thing that I need to ask for forgiveness for, or is this just like a, hey, all right, now

01:14:30

I know that I don't need to actually be thinking that way. I need to take responsibility for my own decisions, and I just know that I need to change my decision -making process in the future.

01:14:41

Does that make sense, what I'm asking? Yeah, well, I think the major danger of this kind of, the mystical kind of approach to decision -making is that, the major danger is that the

01:14:56

Bible over and over again warns us, God, in His word, He doesn't really like us to put words in His mouth.

01:15:03

And, you know, don't add to God's word or don't take away from God's word, you can just look up that kind of expression, and it happens over and over again.

01:15:10

And law, it shows up over and over again in the book of Revelation, New Testament, at different points.

01:15:18

Like, God doesn't want you to, you know, add to His words or take away from His words. And, you know, a lot of that would be described under the broader category of the sin of divination, essentially.

01:15:29

Like, the sin of divination is to seek to, you know, through circumstances and situations, like, discern, you know, the divine will apart from Revelation and the

01:15:39

Scripture. And I think all of us have been guilty of that at some point. And, yes, I mean, I think, like, when you're basically putting words in God's mouth and basically saying,

01:15:49

God told me to take this job or to go to this church or God told me to, like, marry this person.

01:15:55

There's been plenty of people who, like, I mean, like, the thing is, like, God's not telling you to do that.

01:16:03

Now, like, and we should stop talking that way. And I do think we should probably repent of the way we're talking about it, like, things like that.

01:16:10

Because we're denying the sufficiency of Scripture. We're putting words in God's mouth.

01:16:16

And God doesn't really like doing that. So, yes, I mean, I think we should repent of that kind of stuff and trust in the sufficiency of Scripture.

01:16:26

And actually just, you know, realize that God's not trying to confuse us about His will.

01:16:32

He's told us what His will is in the Bible. All we have to do is know it. And, you know, trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey.

01:16:41

So, yes. But then the thing is that God does use our, you know, kooky, charismatic mysticism to accomplish

01:16:46

His purposes, too. So, like, I mean, God uses all that.

01:16:52

And, like, you know, it didn't take Him by surprise. And, you know what, like, hopefully,

01:17:00

I mean, it can be, you don't have to double down on it and just sanctify it and basically just say, well, you know, if that's, if God isn't going to tell me how to make each decision to make every, you know, supposing a person is, like, persuaded by this and not just mortally offended.

01:17:17

You don't have to just double down on it and say, well, now, you know, everything in my life was based on mysticism and subjective impressions.

01:17:27

So, you know, I don't even know what to do anymore. You know, if I go this route, it's like, well, just start today.

01:17:32

Just read the Bible and trust God and realize that there's no plan B for your life.

01:17:37

God's sovereign. He's sovereign over your craziness. And sometimes He uses even the, you know, crazy, you know, stuff to accomplish

01:17:46

His purposes too. But then now that you know, just, you know, approach it in a different way.

01:17:53

Right? Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I've made plenty of dumb mystical decisions that have impacted my life in a dramatic way that, you know,

01:18:05

I mean, I can just like, well, I guess everything was a lie. It's just like, well, yeah, that wasn't a good way to make a decision.

01:18:11

And now I've learned from that and I don't do that anymore. You know, but then God used that to get me to a place where I learned that that was all nonsense, you know.

01:18:21

Yeah. It's a good thing we don't live in Old Testament times either where if we had, you know, gone up to an

01:18:30

Israelite and said, hey, God told me this and then it didn't end up happening.

01:18:36

We'd be stoned to death. That's probably a mercy that we should be thankful for.

01:18:42

If we start doing that as a society, that would clean it all up pretty quick though. Yeah, it would definitely stop everyone from thinking this way.

01:18:51

Oh, God told you to brush His hair instead of evangelizing Him, huh, Beth Moore? Let's go get the rocks, you know.

01:18:57

That would have saved a generation of crazy women. And I guess in closing, would you say, you know, when we abandon the crazy charismatic way of trying to make the decisions for our lives and instead just decide, hey, you know what,

01:19:19

I think the Bible is true. I'm going to trust in the sovereignty of God.

01:19:25

I'm going to trust in His word that it's infallible and that hidden within it are the secrets of life.

01:19:33

I'm going to trust those things and then trust that I also have a certain degree of freedom in what is permissible.

01:19:41

And then I'm just going to make a decision from there. Wouldn't you say that that's certainly the way to honor

01:19:53

God and the decision -making process, the way to glorify Him, is when you say, hey, look,

01:19:58

I don't need anything extra. You said your word is enough. I trust your word. I'm going to search it for the answers that I need and then apply that wisdom and make a decision and commit to it.

01:20:10

Wouldn't you say that that's honoring the Lord? Well, it is, obviously, for a variety of reasons. I mean, it's honoring the

01:20:16

Lord because it helps you to fixate on the things that are actually revealed in the

01:20:21

Bible, period. Right? So, I mean, the vast majority of people, like, you know, professing

01:20:28

Christians out there who are straining and struggling and searching and trying to, you know, trying to hear

01:20:36

God tell them what to do. Right. If they didn't just read the Bible, they would be remarkably more holy.

01:20:43

Hey, you want to know God's will? You don't have to, you know, struggle and strain and everything else. Just in everything give thanks for this is the will of God.

01:20:50

I mean, can you imagine what the church would be like if they took, like, in everything giving thanks a lot more seriously than they took trying to struggle and strain and hear what

01:21:00

God has to say about, you know, what job they should take and everything and all that.

01:21:06

Yeah. You know, if they just thought, hey, this is God's will to abstain from sexual immorality and everything, give thanks. And then, you know, the

01:21:12

Bible tells me that Christians don't forsake the assembly of saints. Can you imagine if all professing

01:21:17

Christians would say, hey, I'm going to be joyful? I know looking at my own life, if I had taken even half of those commandments seriously from an earlier point in my life,

01:21:30

I would have avoided a lot of heartache. I mean, just those three. Just those three.

01:21:35

You imagine if the entire church would quit trying to hear from God and they would just do those three things, what would happen to the church?

01:21:42

It would be different. It would be remarkably different if they would just devote themselves to the things that are actually revealed.

01:21:49

It would look totally different. You know, if we would just look at the things that the Bible are saying, you know, like in terms of just male -female roles, in terms of the things that God wants for the church, the church that practices church discipline.

01:22:04

If we just devote ourselves to the things that the Bible actually says, instead of devoting ourselves to the things he's not saying audibly, we would be totally different.

01:22:15

We'd be totally transformed. It would totally glorify him if we would just devote ourselves to these things. But the problem is we don't know what those things are and we're totally bored with them.

01:22:24

And so there's that. But then not only that, I mean, not only would it glorify God more, it would be – it would just – it would free the church of worry and strain.

01:22:35

I mean, I – you know, there's like – I went – when I was younger, we went to different, you know, camps growing up, you know, with our youth group and all that.

01:22:44

And one of the funniest things was that like there was camps that I went to that structured every element of your day, like from start to finish.

01:22:53

And then there's this one camp that we went to. I can't remember what it was called, but basically it was like the vast majority of it was unstructured, right?

01:23:03

And I'll tell you, as a kid, I loved that unstructured camp way more than I loved the one that micromanaged every part of your life.

01:23:11

Like I – like, you know, you'd like the freedom, you know. I could go play basketball when

01:23:16

I wanted to play basketball at this camp. I could go play ping pong when I wanted to play ping pong at this camp. I could do what

01:23:22

I – you know, I could do what I wanted to do at this camp. Like that was a great – that was my – like that was the best kind of – but then what people want in the

01:23:29

Christian life is they want to be totally micromanaged by some secret will of God. Yeah. And if you could just get your brain out of that kind of way of thinking and realize

01:23:37

God's given you the freedom to do what you want to do with some constraints on it, right?

01:23:42

Mm -hmm. Then one of the things that you could do is just that would liberate you. You don't have to be always worried about displeasing

01:23:50

God. You don't have to always be worried about, you know, messing everything up. He's sovereign.

01:23:55

He's told you what to do. You know, just don't eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you know.

01:24:01

Don't – you just know the book, man. Know the book. It's not meant to be complicated, you know. But then in every situation you're finding yourself in, if you could imagine being at a job where the boss's expectations are never communicated to you and you're always doing the wrong thing, right?

01:24:18

Mm -hmm. Everyone knows how stressful that is. Yeah. That is really stressful to like not know the rules and know that everything you do is going to be wrong and you're not told.

01:24:28

But people think the Christian life is like that. When it's not, God's told you what to do. If you want to know how to please

01:24:34

God, he's told you. Just read it. Mm -hmm. And just do that. And you don't have to second guess it. You don't have to be like laboring under this burden of God's always going to be mad at me because I have to make some sort of perfect decision in order to – it's like, no, he's told you what to do.

01:24:47

Just do what he says to do. Mm -hmm. And then like, you know, get people involved and realize, hey, you have freedom.

01:24:53

You have freedom to make a choice. Yeah. And there's no right or wrong choice. And so it obviously glorified God and it would obviously keep us from being so stressed out all the time.

01:25:01

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's a great place to end on, on that reminder that God actually has given us freedom to make a lot of different decisions.

01:25:13

And he's given us certain guidelines to operate in, and we can even trust that those guidelines that he set for us are ultimately for our good.

01:25:25

And they protect us from a lot of unnecessary heartache, unnecessary, you know, bad consequences that we would have to face if we ignored them.

01:25:36

And so hopefully the people listening, you hear what we're saying, and maybe you're the person who's thought this way.

01:25:42

I know I've thought this way plenty of times in the past. And so often, you know,

01:25:48

I ended up making the wrong decision because really I was just wanting to justify my own selfish choices and remove myself from responsibility.

01:25:59

And so hopefully the people listening to this can be encouraged to know that, hey, you know, first of all,

01:26:07

God offers forgiveness when we say that God's told us certain things that he hasn't actually said.

01:26:15

He offers forgiveness if we would just ask him for it. But then also he's not holding us to some, you know, hidden set of rules or hidden will for us that he hasn't revealed that's, you know, basically unfair.

01:26:32

He hasn't done that. He's revealed everything through Scripture, and Scripture tells us that it is sufficient for everything that we're going to face in this life.

01:26:43

And so that claim is either true or false. There is no, it's half true, it's half false.

01:26:49

It's either true or it's false. And if it's false, then we need to throw out the entire

01:26:55

Bible. If that claim is false, then the Bible is a totally useless book written thousands of years ago that has no bearing on our life today.

01:27:06

But if it is true, then we can know and trust that whatever decisions we have to make in life can be found in Scripture, wisdom can be found in what

01:27:17

God has told us and revealed to us through Scripture. And so we want to encourage you guys not only ask for forgiveness, you know, for the times that you've falsely claimed

01:27:26

God told you something when he didn't actually, you know, say it in an audible voice, like maybe you thought he did or whatever.

01:27:34

But also just trust the Scripture. Go to the Scripture and find out what it says.

01:27:40

Search it front to back, you know, on whatever the decision you're having to make. Look and see what it says and then use that to inform your decision making.

01:27:51

So again, we want to thank you guys for listening to this episode and all the support you've been giving us, and we look forward to the next episode with you guys.

01:27:59

This has been another episode of Bible Bashed. We hope you have been encouraged and blessed through our discussion.

01:28:05

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01:28:13

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01:28:23

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01:28:34

Now, go boldly and obey the truth in the midst of a biblically illiterate world who will be perpetually offended by your every move.