How to Know the Will of God Part 9

Consequences of Not Waiting for Divine Guidance God uses our need for guidance and direction in our lives as an effective catalyst to draw us into dependence on Him. If we refuse, resist or fail to recognize this drawing, or settle for the guidance without learning how to depend, He uses all strategies at His disposal to bring us back to His lesson plan. Loss of His Personal Presence. Though we can never escape from the omnipresence of God, or even the manifest presence of God, we CAN lose the awareness of the Personal Presence of God. God is present just as much when we aren’t aware, when we don’t sense Him, as when we do, but we don’t receive the benefits of our relationship through the Personal Presence. Many lose a closeness and intimacy over time that can be explained by the Lord’s withdrawal of His Personal Presence in order to draw them into greater dependence on His leading. Consequences Commensurate with Our Decisions. Remember that as earth-dwellers, bad things happen to everyone as part of this world system. Believers often have the mistaken belief that if they are depending on God, nothing bad will ever happen to them and they will always be in the right place, at the right time, etc. This is simply not true—our body is part of the natural realm, and suffers natural consequences. God’s Assertion of His Sovereignty as Teacher, Guide, Counselor, etc. We can’t put God in a box, and say, “This is the way God deals with me.” He is under no obligation to deal with you in only one, two, or even knowable ways. Repetition of Personal Crises. Sometimes we get locked into habit patterns where we repeat the same mistakes over and over again. Some of us need to stop and take a look at our lives to see that this is exactly what is happening!