Job 42

I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. (Job 42:2)

I see at least four methods that God uses to lead us in his will. I put them in four D’s to help me remember them.

Decree. God sovereignly decrees and designs circumstances so that we end up where he wants us to be, even if we don’t have any conscious part in getting there. For example, Paul and Silas found themselves in jail, and the result was the salvation of the jailer and his household (Acts 16:24–34). This was God’s plan, not Paul’s. God does this often—putting us in places we did not plan or decide to be in. This is the leading of decree. It is unique above the other three leadings because it includes them (since God’s decrees include all our decisions) and it happens infallibly (since “no purpose of [God’s] can be thwarted,” Job 42:2). The other three leadings of God involve our being consciously led.

Direction. This is simply what God does for us by giving us the commands and teachings of the Bible. They direct us specifically on what to do and what not to do. The Ten Commandments are one example: Don’t steal. Don’t kill. Don’t lie. The Sermon on the Mount is another: Love your enemies. The Epistles are another: Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Put on humility. This is the leading of direction. God reveals his directions in the Bible.

Discernment. Most of the decisions we make are not spelled out specifically in the Bible. Discernment is how we follow God’s leading through the process of spiritually sensitive application of biblical truth to the specifics of our situation. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” In this case, God does not declare a specific word about what to do, but his Spirit shapes the mind and heart through the word and prayer so that we have inclinations toward what would be most glorifying to him and helpful to others.

Declaration. This is the least common means of God’s leading. He simply declares to us what we should do. For example, according to Acts 8:26, “An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, ‘Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.’” And according to Acts 8:29, “The Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go up and join this chariot.’”

Our confidence that we are tracking accurately with God in each of these leadings increases as we move from the bottom to the top of this list. Subjectively perceived declarations from God are the least common and most easily abused of all the ways that God leads. Our confidence that we have known the will of God in this method will not be as great as in the other methods that relate directly to God’s written word. Discerning what to do on the basis of biblical principle when we do not have a specific command for our exact decision will yield less confidence than when we have an explicit direction in the Bible. And the truth that God is sovereign and guides all things is the rock-bottom confidence under all others.

It is a good place to rest.

John Piper is founder and lead teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. He served for thirty-three years as a pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is the author of more than fifty books, including Desiring God; Don’t Waste Your Life; and Providence.