How do you make those life changing decisions? What career to pursue, who to marry, where to live, what to have for lunch?
If you're not a Christian it's pretty straightforward - either you have a fatalistic worldview which means it's all fixed by fate or some dictatorial supreme being, or a humanistic worldview which relies on the evidence and rational decision making.
But if you are a believer, you will want to make decisions out of your relationship with a God who loves you. Basing them not only what you see with your physical senses but also what is revealed through scripture, through revelation, through the exercise of spiritual gifts. In short, it may be a whole lot more satisfying and fruitful, but it's also a lot more complicated!
But not as complicated as some folk make it. They're the 'door pushers and fleece layers' from the title. As is often the case with this kind of received wisdom, there is very little scriptural foundation for either. Revelation 3:8 for door pushing, the story of Gideon for fleeces. The former is a letter to a specific church in specific circumstances, the latter a special dispensation to a terrified man that God was training to be a mighty warrior. Not the ideal basis for making general patterns for ordinary living.
So how do we guard against falling for 'accepted wisdom'? (And how do we make Godly choices...?). Well, to the first, one thing to do is ask 'what would God have to be like for this to be true?'. Is such a view compatible with what we know about God from the broad sweep of scripture?
Let's work it out: A God who communicated His will by routinely performing miracles or by supernaturally blocking or opening paths would be a God who was focussed on the inanimate or on His own power. A change to the weather pattern or the basics of physics to make things wet or not, the imposition of His will on individuals or circumstances that would otherwise have blocked your choice. Yet what we understand from scripture is that God longs for personal, intimate relationship. Does an approach to guiding us based on power, third parties and inanimate objects seem a likely route to that kind of relationship?
You and your wife / husband / fiance(e) / boyfriend / girlfriend / best mate (delete as applicable) are choosing where to go on holiday. You have decided where is best. Your significant other is trying to work out what you have in mind. He / She (do you ever wish you hadn't started an analogy...) phones the travel agent to book for Skegness. You (having chosen the Bahama's) listen in from the next room until you realise you're about to be booked in to Skeggy then at the crucial moment, you cut the phone wire. Door closed, job done.
Wouldn't it be more relational (and conducive to a better holiday) to sit down and talk about where you'd both like to go? Do we actually believe that God is playing some kind of cosmic hide & seek with us? Now you see Him, now you don't. It leads to all sorts of problems. You really want something, but you want God's endorsement. How hard do you push that door? Doesn't it say somewhere that you should knock and keep knocking? So we knock a bit harder. Then a bit harder. Then we get the axe out and chop it down. 'Ooh, look, the door opened, it must be God's will'.
Why don't we be radical. You want to know what's next? Ask Him. Out of loving trust, ask Him. Being genuinely open to His suggestion, ask Him. How does He answer? Well, what's your personal preference for communication? Words, images, feelings? What is your personality - are you more introverted or extraverted? Would it not be likely that a wise, wonderful, loving God intent on closer relationship would choose to communicate in a way that perfectly suits you? Isn't that what we see in scripture? To a frightened man, by means that demonstrate His power, to men who love dreams - through dreams. To a woman who had men screaming for her blood, by a gentle man quietly writing in the sand. To a distraught woman, with a resurrection hug.
He loves you and longs to speak. Why not go talk to Him now?
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