Maybe you’re not called to leave your life in your home country behind to live overseas and learn a new language, or even leave your previous life behind and work as a volunteer to support those who do go. It is a hard life though it can be rewarding. But every Christian is called to be part of the spreading of God’s Kingdom, whether through prayer, financial support or moral or logistical support. Jesus addressed his Great Commission to all his followers. However, there are many more who are called to go, who hang back and talk themselves out of it.
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
James 1:5
This was John the Baptizer’s role, to turn people back to the wisdom of God.
And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Luke 1:17
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Romans 11:33
Why would we want anything else?
The Bible makes clear distinctions between God’s wisdom and “worldly wisdom.” Worldly wisdom is “futile,” “foolishness in God’s sight,” and “unspiritual, demonic.” But wisdom from God is not only true but powerful, pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere” (1 Corinthians 3:19,20; James 3:17).
For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. 1 Corinthians 1:25
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” 1 Corinthians 3:19,20
But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. James 3:15-17
God offers everything we need; we don’t need to go looking for wisdom in all the wrong places. Jesus is The Truth. You can’t find better than him.
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.John 14:6
Anything that is not from Jesus is not the Truth, so why would we want it?
The opposite was true. Jesus put his teachings into parables so that the people would not understand—to fulfill prophecy.
The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”
He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables:
“Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’
It is said, “You can tell if you are in God’s will by the ‘indicator of peace’—if you are in God’s will you will have peace, if you’re not, your peace will lift.”
If this were true, Jesus would have been out of God’s will in the Garden of Gethsemane and in his suffering on the cross. His was not a picture of peace (the kind referred to in this saying) but of agony, even questioning, though he gained what might be called resolve.
Using the peace as indicator formula has enabled Christians to come up with some outrageous self-permissions such as “It’s okay if I have a room mate of the opposite sex because we aren’t doing anything,”(yet) or “I have peace about leaving my husband because God wants me to be happy.” Remember the adage from the 1960’s? “If it feels good, do it.” The human mind can manufacture all sorts of things to justify what it wants—or lie about it.
No, the best indicator of God’s will is what the Holy Spirit has already spoken in the Bible (especially the New Covenant). You may think that it doesn’t cover everything for contemporary living—dig a little deeper, make sure you’re asking the right questions (the most basic ones)—you might be surprised how much is there.
Urban Legends About God, the Bible & the Christian Life 