STUDY GUIDE FOR DIVINE GUIDANCE
STUDY GUIDE FOR DIVINE GUIDANCE
Virgil Warren, PhD
Passages on divine calling and direction that are helpful in understanding the manner of God’s specially leading people are (1) Genesis 6:13ff.; (2) Genesis 12:1ff.; 13:14ff.; (3) Exodus 3; (4) Judges 6:11-25ff.; (5) Judges 13:2ff.; (6) 1 Samuel 3; (7) Amos 7:14ff.; (8) Jonah 1:1-2; 3:1-2; (9) Isaiah 6; (10) Jeremiah 1:1-2:1; (11) Ezekiel 2:1-7; 3:16ff., 22ff.; 6:1ff.; etc.; (12) Haggai 2:10ff.; 20; (13) Zechariah 1:1-3ff.; (14) Luke 1:5-25, 39-80; 3:1-20 (Matthew 3; Mark 1:11); John 1:6-36; (15) Matthew 10:1-4ff.; (Mark 3:13-19; Luke 6:12-16); Acts 1:1-11; (16) Acts 8:26-40; (17) Acts 9:10-19; (18) Acts 9:1-18; 22:3-21; 26:2-23; Galatians 1:11-2:10; Acts 16:9-10; 22:17-21 (cp. 9:26-30).
God’s will for my life may be defined in two related ways: (1) the general principles of behavior that he has laid down for all people to his glory; we call that his “general will”; (2) the work that he may want a given individual to do at a certain time; we call “specific will.”
The problem is how general and specific relate: both of them always, sometimes, or never. In light of biblical material and these definitions, interact with the following questions:
1. How did God call to specific tasks and direct his special messengers in the Scriptures?
2. What principles in God’s general will can we use to determine what we ought to do with our lives?
3. Do we always know God is specifically directing us?
4. What factors outside the Bible must we consider in deciding how to use our life?
5. Is there any biblical reason(s) to think that God has chosen a specific job for each individual Christian to do at each point in life?
6. What does it mean to be sensitive to the will of God?
7. What reasons could there be for God’s having a specific job for each person?
8. In light of the possibility that God has or does not have a specific work for your life, how will you proceed to decide what you will do next with the life he has given you? christir.org