{"id":373,"date":"2012-08-25T21:04:29","date_gmt":"2012-08-26T01:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realbiblestudy.com\/?p=373"},"modified":"2012-08-25T21:04:29","modified_gmt":"2012-08-26T01:04:29","slug":"methods-of-bible-study-part-8f-guidance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/?p=373","title":{"rendered":"Methods of Bible Study Part 8F–Guidance"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>

F<\/strong>. Guidance<\/strong><\/p>\n

A most practical use of Scripture is to use it to discern guidance from God for the decisions of life. Caution is in order. Guidance is not properly obtained by opening the Bible at random and hoping for a verse to pop out! But if we read the Bible carefully, it can and will provide guidance from God.<\/p>\n

1<\/strong>. Stop<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

When you are not clear on God’s revealed will, it is useless to advance. Let your heart seek the face of God in quietness. Find out God’s will about a subject by studying what the Bible says about that subject. Use such Bible study helps as a concordance, a topical analysis of Scripture like The New Topical Textbook<\/em>, a source of more complete cross references like The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/em>, The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/em>, or Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible<\/em>.<\/p>\n

2<\/strong>. Look<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Read and meditate specifically in Bible books dealing with the devotional life and the will of God: Psalms, Proverbs, Philippians.<\/p>\n

3<\/strong>. Listen<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Take time–time enough to forget time. Immerse yourself in God’s Word, the Bible. Seek out what God has to say to you in His written Word.<\/p>\n

4<\/strong>. Write it down<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Once you have found guidance about the matter you are seeking guidance for, write it down. This is important in case a question should later arise about the guidance you received. If you have written it down carefully, showing the basis in Scripture used to arrive at the guidance or a decision, you can check back any time later to confirm what you learned from Scripture. Further study of the Bible may sometimes require you to adjust what you had learned before. This is normal, and it is a good thing.<\/p>\n

5<\/strong>. Test it<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Test the guidance you received by allowing time to pass before making any drastic new moves or changes in your life. Test guidance received already by confirming or disconfirming it by more study of Scripture. Test guidance received by sharing it with trusted Bible-believing friends who are more mature spiritually than yourself for their suggestions or criticism or confirmation. But do not merely shop around for opinions you like.<\/p>\n

6<\/strong>. Take the step<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Once guidance has been received, and confirmed, follow the guidance by living or acting accordingly.<\/p>\n

7<\/strong>. Obedience<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

God never gives guidance which is contrary to His Word as it is found in the Bible. Obey His written Word. God in this age and time does not communicate directly to us through dreams and visions. The book of Jeremiah in chapter 23 contains plain warning against dreams and visions. Do not ask God to engineer special circumstances to confirm His guidance for you, especially when you know that the path you want to follow is contrary to what the Bible teaches.<\/p>\n

I have provided extensive notes and Bible cross references to the subject of guidance in both The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/em> and Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible<\/em> at 1 Kings 12:7 (“Sources of wise counsel”); 1 Kings 12:10 (“Sources of unwise counsel”); 1 Kings 13:9 (“Sources of true guidance”); 1 Kings 13:18 (“Sources and dangers of false guidance”).<\/p>\n<\/fb:like><\/fb:like><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

F. Guidance A most practical use of Scripture is to use it to discern guidance from God for the decisions of life. Caution is in order. Guidance is not properly obtained by opening the Bible at random and hoping for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[228],"tags":[727,723,724,726,332,725],"class_list":["post-373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to-study-the-bible","tag-bible-books-which-provide-guidance","tag-finding-gods-will-in-the-bible","tag-methods-of-bible-study-part-8f-guidance","tag-nelsons-cross-reference-guide-to-the-bible-notes-on-guidance","tag-the-new-topical-textbook","tag-the-new-treasury-of-scripture-knowledge-notes-on-guidance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}