Reprinted by permission from Believer’s Magazine, 1917
The care that God exercises over His people in the details of their lives, the guidance He gives in all that concerns their daily walk and conduct are very fully assured in His Word. There are many witnesses to this in the recorded lives of His people. In Patriarchal times, the choosing of a bride, the planning of a warfare, and the buying of a grave were all referred to the God in Whom they trusted. In this present age of grace, . . . the Christian is responsible to consult God about everything . . . With how few is it a daily habit! And what loss and sorrow result from the neglect! . . . It is with the hope of stirring up the minds of fellow-believers . . . that we give the following glowing testimonies of beloved fathers in Christ no longer with us . . . [They] practiced in full and joyous measure the habit of referring everything to God, proving the blessedness of His goodness and care in their daily walk through life . . .
How to Know the Will of God
“How important it is to ascertain the will of God before we undertake anything, because we are then not only blessed in our own souls, but also the work of our hands will prosper! To ascertain the Lord’s will, we ought to use Scriptural means. Prayer, the Word of God, and His Spirit should be united together. We should go to the Lord repeatedly in prayer, and ask Him to teach us by His Spirit through His Word. I say by His Spirit through His Word. For if we should think that His Spirit led us to do so and so, because certain facts are so and so, and yet His Word is opposed to the step we are going to take, we are deceiving ourselves. I never remember in all my Christian course that I ever sincerely and patiently sought the will of God by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, through the . . . Word of God, but I have been ALWAYS directed rightly. But if honesty of heart and uprightness before God were lacking, or if I did not patiently wait upon God for instruction, or if I preferred the counsel of my fellow-men to the declarations of the Word of the living God, I made great mistakes.”
George Mueller
To Whom God Makes Known His Way
There is given us a promise of deep meaning in Psalm 25:9. “The meek will He guide in judgment; the meek will He teach His way.” Here is a double emphasis upon meekness as a condition of such guidance and teaching. Meekness is a real preference for God’s will. Where this holy habit of mind exists, the whole being becomes so open to impressions that without any outward sign or token, there is an inward recognition and choice of the will of God. The meek soul simply and humbly waits and watches the moving of the Pillar. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord” (Ps 37:23). This is true guidance.”
Dr. Pierson