Clear Direction From God Is Found In Our Obedience

Our assumption is often, when we encounter difficulties, that we’ve taken the wrong path. This may well be the case. All too often, we apply the world’s wisdom rather than God’s and make the ‘most obvious’ choice. Clear direction from God is seldom loud or demanding. It manifests in quiet peace and certainty. We may question the logic of it in intellectual terms, we may evidence emotional reluctance, but our spirits know that they know that they know that His path is the right path.

We fall so easily into wanting things comfortable and smooth. Yet nowhere in the Bible does it say that we will have things easy. Jesus told us clearly that the way was narrow and hard, the entrance difficult, that we would need to die to live and to lay down in order to receive. He told us, too, that we will face persecution, the rejection of loved ones, and suffering in His name. Just because we encounter these along the way doesn’t mean that we haven’t received clear direction from God. On the contrary, many of these may be absolute proof that we have – self, the world and the devil will seldom bother with us if we’re trundling aimlessly along the road to destruction.

But how do we know? It’s easy to talk of ‘inner peace’ and the ‘conviction of faith,’ but how does this work in practical terms when we’re faced with so many options, and logic, reason, and experience all shout loudly for attention? Proverbs 3:5-6 provides us with a beautifully simple way to receive clear direction from God: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. There are four parts to this.