What the Bible Teaches About Guidance

In this book the author seeks to address the question ‘How can I know God’s will’? In the opening chapter he insists that traditional views need to be discarded, that it is wrong to think that God has a perfect plan for each believer; instead, he asserts there are just two aspects to the will of God. One which he describes as ‘God’s revealed will’, things that we are responsible to do, God’s moral will, contained in the teaching and precepts of scripture. The second is ‘God’s secret will’ things which we are destined to do and so will inevitably do, God’s sovereign will, things that we cannot know until they actually transpire. In connection with ‘The revealed will of God’, the authority, finality and sufficiency of God’s word is clearly presented and any possibility for extra biblical revelation is firmly rejected. As to ‘God’s secret will’, this the writer links to God controlling all things, whether good or bad, to the fulfilment of His purpose and in this connection he, surprisingly, says, ‘Adam was “ordained” to sin’.

For the writer, the only guide to God’s will is the word of God and he positively asserts that it is wrong to look for guidance in conjunction with anything else whether they be events, open doors, or in ‘laying out fleeces’ as Gideon did. On matters not covered in scripture he maintains that the believer is at liberty to do as he wishes providing it does not offend others. It is noticeable that while both the ministry of the Holy Spirit and prayer are mentioned in this book, no great emphasis is placed upon either. Noticeable, but perhaps not surprising in light of some of the views presented in this book concerning God’s will and guidance.

[Our thanks to Richard Catchpole, South Norwood, London, for this review]