How to hear from God regarding important decisions

So often times in life we find ourselves at a crossroads where we need to make an important decision.  As Christians, most of us truly want God to show us the way. After all, He did just that quite often in the Bible. I can list several examples of people coming to God for answers about what to do.

• Gideon in Judges 6 threw a fleece out at night and told God that if in the morning he found dew all over the fleece and not on the ground then he'd know that God wanted Gideon to go up and fight the Midianites.
• Moses and the burning bush
• Hezekiah used a sundial to discover what God's will was in 2 Kings 20
• Multiple times people sought God's will through His prophets. In fact, the prophets were God's mouthpiece at the time, and often how God communicated His will to the people.
• There were also objects, much like dice, that the priests used to determine God's will (I forget their names) 
• Angels appeared to people on multiple occasions in real life and in dreams to tell them what God wanted them to do. 

I don't know about you, but I've often prayed for God to use any of  those methods to help me with decisions. Even better, just an email would do!

Yet, I've come to realize something important. This is NOT how God operates anymore. Why? Because we believers now have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. We don't need angels or dice or fleeces or prophets to know what decision to make. We have the wisdom of God at our fingertips.  All we have to do is ask.

If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you James 1:5

In other words, when you come to that precipice in life where you need to make a decision and you have no clue what to do, instead of asking God for a sign, just ask Him for wisdom.  He lives inside of you, after all, and has promised to give it freely.  Then trust that He has given you wisdom, and  make the decision yourself!!   

I think one of the big things we tend to forget is that God is grooming us to do His work. He is teaching us, training us, trying to mature us in our faith and our walk with Him. He's a father, after all. And what father wants His kid to remain unable to make any decisions in life??  Isn't it the job of every father to teach his child how to make good and responsible choices? Some day we will rule and reign with Jesus. Are we going to be running to God every time we need to make a decision? I hope not!  We will need to make them on our own. 

Yet I hear so many Christians today who say they're waiting for a sign from God or they've tossed out a fleece and are waiting for an answer. Does God occasionally give us signs? Yes. But more often than not, that silence you are hearing from Heaven is Him waiting to see what you are going to do. And even if you make a wrong choice, you would have learned a valuable lesson, and God can still help you out of it

So, quit waiting for that burning bush, ask for wisdom, and pick a direction!  

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