Book Plunge: Discerning the Voice of God Chapter 12

Does God have a plan for your life? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

I work at the Post Office at my seminary and many times, new students come in to get a Post Office box. I often ask them what they plan to study. Sometimes, they do not know. They just want to go “Where God leads them.” I instead ask them, “What do you want to do?”

This is a far better question to ask because the former tends to assume God has a plan for your life and actually, for everyone’s. God has a blueprint laid out and you need to follow it for optimal living. I would hope many of us would realize in a momentary reflection that if such a plan existed, we have already messed it up. Not only that, but by messing it up, we have messed up everyone else’s plan that involved us. If one person marries the wrong person, then exponentially going down, no one can marry the right person.

Yet do not count on Shirer to recognize this. She is still caught up in this idea that God has a plan for your life. She quotes John 7:17 in the NLT.

Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own.

The NLT is a paraphrase, but even then, Shirer is doing massive eisegesis. The will of God Jesus is talking about is not an individual will for your life. A look at BibleHub shows several translations of this verse. The idea is that if people really want to do what God wants, they will recognize Jesus as being from God. This is a verse about Jesus. Shirer makes it a verse about us.

Shirer then goes on to talk about waiting on God to do things in His “perfect timing.”

But, boy, it hasn’t always seemed like God was operating with perfect timing in my own life. I’ve sulked and fumed more times than I can remember when I’ve needed clarity about a specific circumstance yet felt as though He wasn’t providing it.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (pp. 173-174). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

In reading this, I just see Shirer as a petulant child whining. It is quite a pathetic claim to read. Shirer. God does not owe you anything. Instead of whining, why not do what Scripture says and redeem the time and follow the path of wisdom?

She then quotes John 16:13 saying the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth. First off, this was said to the apostles. Second, are we to think that this would mean the apostles would become omniscient? After all, would not all truth mean all truth? Of course not. Jesus has in mind that which is relevant to their high personal calling that Jesus Himself gave them.

The same does not apply to Shirer.

Let me reiterate: on the occasions when you are pressed for time and a decision has to be made “by noon tomorrow,” choose the option that, to the best of your knowledge, will give God the most glory and cause your relationship with Him to flourish.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 178). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Sigh.

So if God does not show up on your timetable, just do what you think based on what you know will give Him the most glory.

The problem is that should be what is said EVERY TIME!

Shirer misses it. She is so caught up in her ideology that she does not see what is going on. Would that she spent as much time cultivating wisdom, which Scripture tells us to do, as she does using an unscriptural methodology that Scripture nowhere tells us to do.

Oh. If you want to know what God’s will for your life is, it is really simple. It is to conform you to the likeness of Christ.

Do what you think will get you towards that goal.

Two more chapters to go!

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

 

Book Plunge: Discerning the Voice of God Chapter 5

Is God a baritone or a tenor? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Shirer begins this section with Scripture. Yay! Let’s see what she says!

Psalm 62:11-12

11 One thing God has spoken,
    two things I have heard:

Wait. That’s only one verse you quoted! Indeed, because that’s all that Shirer quotes. Now why would she do that? Let’s look at the rest of it and see if we can figure it out.

“Power belongs to you, God,
12     and with you, Lord, is unfailing love”;
and, “You reward everyone
    according to what they have done.”

If you look at the passage, this is not about God speaking to an individual person. It’s about the Psalmist trusting in what he has heard about God in his difficulty. This is the way Hebrews talk, but it looks like Shirer doesn’t care about that. Just look for where it says God has spoken and throw a personal idea on to it.

She says Revelation 3:20 can be applied as a call to salvation, but these are people who already trust in Jesus. Fair enough, but at the same time, she misses the point. She says it is about persistence, and it certainly is, but the persistence is apparently that God is trying to speak to you individualistically and you need to hear it.

Which is why this is in a letter read to churches from someone taking the role of a prophet. Got it.

Never think that the circumstances in your life have nothing to do with God’s will. They have everything to do with it! When you’re seeking His guidance, you should always reflect on the events the Lord is allowing to occur in your life. Persistent, internal inklings matched by external confirmation is often the way God directs believers into His will.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (pp. 81-82). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

This piece of advice is backed by the Scripture of….

Oh wait. There’s nothing here.

Nope. Shirer thinks that every single bit of events in your life is arranged in a specific way because God is trying to give you a specific message. I am not denying that God works everything according to His will, but I am against trying to approach reality with a decoder ring.

Here’s my suggestion. Try to interpret Scripture as what God is telling you instead of your circumstances. For your circumstances, see how according to Romans 8, they can be used for your good if you love the Lord. They’re not about God trying to give you a message.

She then quotes Ecclesiastes 5:1 asking where this verse had been hiding all her life. I dealt with it before, but I will do so again.

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.

This is about going to a worship service or to offer a sacrifice and to be stingy with your words. Heed what your priest says. Speak too much and you can bring judgment on yourself. If this was about God speaking individually to you, why do you need to go to the House of God? Can’t He do that just as well anywhere else?

Even when you hear incorrectly, God knows your heart well, and He honors the person whose sincere desire is to know and do His will even in their imperfection. “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God” (John 7:17 ESV).

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 88). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

So if you think you heard from God and you heard wrong, God knows you are trying to do right. Look! There’s a Scripture to back it!

Except this is Jesus talking about Himself and how people can know His teaching is from God and that He is from God.

How reliable can a teaching be if you have to mishandle Scripture so often to get to it?

So in the end, I still see nothing here. Next time, Shirer will tell us how God communicates impersonally. We’ll pick this up next week.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)