Recognizing the will of God – Part 17

Choosing the means of confirmation

Bible Reading: Judges 6:25-40

One of the challenges faced by many Christians is that they want to be sure they are led by God before they make a move. This is good. In our previous messages, we highlighted some ways of getting confirmation to a perceived ‘leading of God’, e.g. agreement with God’s word, inner peace, prophecies of other believers etc. However, there is a way some Christians like to get confirmation that may not be too appropriate. This style was copied from Gideon. Let’s read about his story:

“Gideon said to God, “If this is right, if you are using me to save Israel as you’ve said,

then look: I’m placing a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If dew is on the fleece only, but the floor is dry, then I know that you will use me to save Israel, as you said.”

That’s what happened. When he got up early the next morning, he wrung out the fleece–enough dew to fill a bowl with water!” Judges 6:37-38 (MSG)

 So it is not surprising to see some brothers say “Lord, if you want me to marry that sister, let her say “hi” to me after church”. Some business men will say “Lord, if you really want me to enter into that business, let that investor visit me again in my office”. Do you know how these sound to me? It’s like Judas Iscariot saying “Lord, if you really want me to betray Jesus, let the High Priest accept the deal of paying me a huge sum after the betrayal”.

What Gideon did may be appropriate in his time because of the level of knowledge they operated in. Moreover, God was not leading them by default like we enjoy today. Something you should also note is that the Bible says the devil is the ‘god of this world’ and so he is able to quickly arrange the circumstances you desire to see as a confirmation. Imagine that when Jesus was fasting in the wilderness, he said ‘Lord, if it is your will that I break this fast, let there appear a loaf of bread’. Of course, the devil will appear and say ‘Since thou hast the son of God, command this stone to be made bread’.

Although we may have used such methods before and it worked, we need to exercise caution as it is highly susceptible to the devil’s exploitation.

– tope aladenusi