By Dennis Pollock
When you become a child of God, you suddenly judge your own decisions and actions, not by what you want or desire, but by what God has to say and how He leads. Most people, once they experience the new birth, still have many years to live, many decisions to make, and countless roads on which they will travel. And the question is this: “Can we trust God to lead us in the decisions we will make and concerning the roads we will travel? Are we on our own, or will there be divine guidance?”
Sadly, some Christians suggest that there is no such thing as divine guidance other than the Bible. They seem to think that when we receive Jesus, God tosses a Bible in our laps and tells us to read the book, follow it the best we can, and He will see us later, when we get to Heaven. According to them, we should not expect the Holy Spirit to ever give us specific, personal guidance. We must just read the Bible and do what it says. But as to whom we will marry, where we will live, the career we will choose, the church where we will attend, and many thousands of other decisions and paths we will be taking, we’re pretty much on our own with all that. Just do the best you can, and good luck!
We do not see this attitude or lifestyle in the New Testament. Believers in those days were being guided and directed by the Holy Spirit in all kinds of ways. The apostle Paul frequently had visions and dreams that gave him specific guidance. When he arrived in Corinth, Jesus told him in a vision in the night: “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.” (Acts 18:9-10). After Paul was arrested in Jerusalem, Jesus told him, once again in the night: “Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome.” (Acts 24:11).
Philip was enjoying a great outpouring of the Spirit upon his evangelistic ministry in Samaria, but God sent him on. An angel told him to go to a certain road out in the desert for ministry. This must has seemed like a strange place to conduct any kind of ministry, but the Bible tells us that when he arrived, he found an Ethiopian man riding in a chariot, and we read these words: “Then the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go near and overtake this chariot.'” (Acts 8:29). Philip ran to catch up with the chariot and found the Ethiopian man reading the Scriptures. He asked the man if he understood what he was reading, and when the Ethiopian told him he did not, Philip climbed up into the chariot and led him to Christ.
Can He do it Today?
These New Testament believers had visions, dreams, saw angels, and heard very clear, specific, and direct words from the Lord. Sadly, many Christians today insist that such guidance is no longer possible. All we can do these days is read the Bible and try to be good little boys and girls. I have never believed this. There is no Biblical evidence that the guidance of God was only for that first generation of believers. Indeed, the evidence strongly leans in the other direction. The scriptures tell us: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” (Romans 8:14). And Jesus declares: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27). What kind of a shepherd would Jesus be if He never gave us any specific guidance at all, and left us to guess and hope for the best whenever we come to all the critical forks in the road throughout our lives?
There are principles in understanding the way Jesus leads and guides us. One important principle is what the Bible calls two or more witnesses. In the Old Testament, God declared through Moses that court cases must never be settled based on a single witness. The Bible says: “One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.” (Deuteronomy 19:15). Paul later quoted this verse in his letter to the Corinthians, writing: “This will be the third time I am coming to you. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.” (2 Corinthians 13:1).
When God speaks and gives direction for our lives, He often, and I think you could say, usually speaks several times and in different ways. One single thought that pops into our heads should normally not be enough for us. We need to hear two or three witnesses to confirm that it is truly God who is speaking to us. An excellent example of this is found in the Book of Acts, when the early believers were trying to decide whether to make the Gentile converts become full-fledged Jews. Did the males need to be circumcised? Did all the new Gentile Christians need to keep Moses’ dietary laws and all the other ceremonial commandments laid down by Moses in the first 5 books of the Bible?
Jerusalem Council
There was a council held in Jerusalem where many of the apostles and church leaders came together to consider this matter. At first, there was chaos and a lot of arguing about this. But finally, the matter was settled when several key men rose to share their experiences and opinions. The first was Peter, who told how God had revealed to him in a vision that He wanted Gentiles as well as Jews in his family. Witness number 1. After Peter said his peace, Paul and Barnabas rose and shared how many amazing miracles God had worked through them in bringing Gentiles to Christ. Witnesses’ numbers 2 and 3. And then James began to speak and quoted from the Old Testament, where God promised to rebuild the tabernacle of David “So that the rest of mankind may seek the LORD, even all the Gentiles who are called by My name…” (Acts 15:17). Witness number 4.
These four key leaders, in rapid succession, all declared that the Gentiles should be accepted as is, without requiring them to convert to Judaism, and turned the tide. The controversy ended, and the early Jewish Christians accepted their Gentile brothers and sisters without the need for them to become Jewish proselytes. God used the two or three witnesses principle to show His people the direction He wanted them to go.
In My Life
I have seen God use this principle of repetitive witnesses in my life numerous times. One striking example of this is how I found myself moving from New Mexico to Texas in 1988. I was teaching school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and minding my own business when one morning I woke up from a strange dream. I dreamed I was driving a moving truck and moving my family and all our stuff to the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas. In the dream, I could see a map of the area. I saw that Dallas and Fort Worth were sister cities, with some land and communities in between them. We were driving down to the Dallas–Fort Worth area. The dream was so vivid that I immediately found an atlas we had and looked at a map of Texas to see if these two cities were in the same position as I had seen in the dream. I was so ignorant of Texas, I had no idea that these cities were near each other. But sure enough, the map showed the cities in the same proximity to each other as I had seen in the dream. And that was the first time that I considered moving to Texas. Witness number one.
In those days, I would help our younger children get ready for bed, and one of our boys had a T-shirt that he always used as a pajama top. The T-shirt had a picture of a little boy in enormous cowboy boots, and it had the caption: “I’d rather be in Texas.” Every night, I would see that T-shirt and think of Texas and the vivid dream I had had. Witness number two.
Finally, just after the school year was out, I took a trip to visit my cousin and her husband, who happened to live near Fort Worth. I decided to go to some of the local schools and speak with the principals as they wrapped up their end-of-the-year duties, to see if I could get a teaching position for the next school year. The first Monday I was there, I took a day off to pray and seek the Lord. On Tuesday, I went to a few schools and talked with several principals, one of whom seemed to take a great interest in me. The next day, I received a phone call from this man, who said he wanted to hire me, which I happily accepted. Witness number 3. And I have been living in Texas since, 36 years at this point. I have done more ministry, seen more fruit, and accomplished far more in my Texas days than I ever did before that. Texas truly has been a land of milk and honey for me, and the only reason I’m here is that God led me here by His Spirit and by three different witnesses.
A Word about YouTube
But in some cases, God will speak once and expect us to follow. In December of 2016, our ministry had a board meeting and a Christmas party. I was sharing with our board members and their wives how I was creating videos about overcoming diabetes, hoping to make them into a series and sell them. The wife of one of our board members was a big YouTube watcher and felt that I should put these videos on YouTube. She shared a few of her thoughts about this and then said to me, “You need to get on YouTube.” There was something about the way she said it that I could not ignore. She looked at me directly in the eyes and said it in such a serious way that from that day, I began to explore the idea of setting up a YouTube channel that would deal exclusively with diabetes and how to beat it. Within a couple of months, I posted my first “Beat Diabetes” video. The first year, this channel grew at a snail’s pace, but the second year it caught fire. Today, we have over 300,000 subscribers, and I have heard testimonies from all over the world about how this channel has helped people to do just what the channel’s name suggests – to beat diabetes. And I believe it all began with a word from the Lord through this lady who told me, “You need to get on YouTube.”
Yes, my friends, I believe in a God who speaks to His children. Once we come to Jesus Christ by faith, believing in His death on the cross for our sins and His resurrection from the dead, we become God’s children. And our Heavenly Father will not merely toss us a Bible and say, “Good luck, see you in Heaven.” He will lead and guide us. He will warn us when we are going the wrong direction, and He will steer us in the right direction. Jesus’ sheep hear His voice, and they follow Him.
