Articles by Paul Scanlon

ATTRACT GOD'S DIRECTION - £5.00 (Single CD)

God is drawn to movement, activity and momentum. The Bible makes very clear that a man's mind plans his way, but God directs his steps. God doesn't direct plans, he directs people with plans who are getting on with it. Don't be a part of the thinking which says, "I don't move until God directs me". Join the "I don't expect God's direction until I move," school of thinking.

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God is Drawn to Movement

There are, broadly speaking, two distinct schools of thinking among charismatic Believers with regard to divine guidance and the discovery of God’s will for our lives.

School one, and by far the largest, is summed up by the mentality that says: ‘I don’t move without God’s guidance’.

School two is the complete opposite. It says: ‘I don’t expect God’s guidance until I move.’

I wonder which one you are in. Do you believe that God’s guidance is the cause of your movement, or an effect your movement causes?

School one adherents believe that divine guidance is like a map showing them where to go and what to do. Whereas, school two followers know that God doesn’t do maps, just compasses.  That compass is the built-in guidance system God has placed within every Believer, consisting of their gifts, passions, leanings and deepest concerns.  These inner guides are indicators of the way towards their personal ‘true north’.  School two people believe that if they follow their heart they will bump into the perfect will of God for their lives without trying to plot a precise course towards it.

Abraham

Abraham was a member of school two. In Hebrews 11 we read that Abraham ‘obeyed and went, but he did not know where he was going’.1 In other words, Abraham wasn’t given a map, just a command to leave where he was and go in the general direction of Canaan. Of course we know that God directed his life at times very specifically, but that was only after he created the initial movement and momentum by his original obedience.

Although Abraham didn’t know where he was going, he did know where to leave.  God told him to leave his country, people and family.  If all you know is that you can’t stay where you are, then that’s enough to create movement in the right direction.  We don’t need to know where to go or what to do next before we move.  Knowing that you can’t stay where you are is your inner compass pulling you towards the future; listen to it and follow it.

God will be many things to your life - a father, provider, healer and restorer - but one thing God will not be is your chauffer.  God doesn’t want to be your driver in life, he wants you to drive and he will give directions as and when necessary. He wants to edit your life not create it.

As you’ve probably noticed, I’m a fully paid up member of the second school of guidance! I firmly believe that the bible contains far more evidence to support the idea that God is drawn to people in motion than he is to people who are parked up praying about his will.

WWJD

Remember those ‘What Would Jesus Do’ bracelets?  I think they were probably invented by the first school of guidance; those who don’t move before they know they have God’s specific guidance. 

This WWJD fraternity did nothing to help mobilise a church that was already parked up, waiting on God. If our thinking and church cultures become dominated by ‘What Would Jesus Do’ instead of ‘How Would Jesus Think’, then we can end up wasting years praying and asking the Lord, ‘is it A or B?’  When you know how Jesus thinks you will always know what Jesus would do.  But when you don’t know God’s mind, you will start looking for God’s Word - often in a random prophecy, directional counsel or word of knowledge from some passing ministry.

I didn’t raise our children with a ‘What Would Dad Do?’ bracelet on their wrists. Glenda and I taught them how we think and encouraged them to, if in doubt lean towards our values and standards and you’ll always do the right thing.

Many of you reading this think that God is looking for accuracy and precision from you but I promise you, he isn’t. You are not a cruise missile with pre-set coordinates; God doesn’t want to point and shoot you.  His will is not a tightrope, it’s a broad road and once you’re travelling on it, God can steer you. God is simply looking for obedience from you, which is outworked by you pointing your life in the general direction of what you already understand to be God’s nature and purpose to be.

Take a step

Consider these often quoted scriptures on the theme of divine guidance:

‘In his heart a man plans his course but the Lord determines his steps’2

‘A man’s steps are directed by the Lord’3

‘The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord’4

These and others we could quote, all indicate that God directs steps or movement not stationary things. God is drawn to people in motion.

I remember once reading that the space shuttle’s guidance system wasn’t actually engaged or used until it was miles from the ground. Only when it was in full motion, heading in the general direction of space - which, by the way, is ‘up’ - did its guidance system kick in. Many of God’s people are stuck on the launch pad waiting for guidance to kick in when they already know the general direction is ‘up’. Just head ‘up’; just get moving in the general non-specific, non-detailed direction of where you know your ‘up’ is.  If you want God’s guidance in your life take a step, do something; anything that points you in the direction of God’s general will for mankind will do for starters. Step out, attempt something, take a risk, live a little. 

If we ever needed a clue as to why what is perhaps the most supernatural book in the Bible, is so supernatural, you need look no further than its title.  It is called the book of Acts, not intentions but acts.  In it we see a church in motion, a mobile church reaching a lost world. Acts is full of divine guidance, supernatural intervention, angelic jailbreaks and phenomenal miracles. And many churches today are praying for those days to return. But without a commitment to go, move, progress or evangelise there’s nothing for God to partner with.  Acts is a record of the ‘steps’ of the early church attempting to obey the simple command of Christ to be witnesses to their generation.

Jonathan’s perhaps

In 1 Samuel 14 we read the story of Jonathan, King Saul’s son, and his armour bearer. At that time Israel was in trouble, suffering at the hands of Saul’s poor leadership and under Philistine oppression. As a result they had fled into hiding and Saul was left with just 600 soldiers who had only two swords between them. Saul, the troops and the priest were all gathered for the night around a pomegranate tree. During the early hours of the morning Jonathan woke up his young armour bearer with a ridiculous idea: ‘Why don’t you and me go and pick a fight with the Philistines?’ As if that wasn’t crazy enough, the next line was really scary. He said, ‘and perhaps the Lord will help us’.5  If I had been the young armour bearer, I think I would have said something like ‘Jonathan, are you nuts! There are only two of us and only you have a sword. And secondly, that ‘perhaps’ remark is really bothering me. I’ve got a better idea, why don’t you wake me up when you’re sure God will help us!’

However, the Bible records that the young lad in effect replied ‘Lets go for it, I’m totally with you!’ These two members of the second school of guidance – that is, they didn’t expect God’s guidance until they moved - were about to change history.  Their initiative, their attempt to just do something for God, with no guarantee of personal success seemed to get God’s attention.  Having said that, God still waited until they had killed 20 Philistines before he got involved by sending a mini earthquake to create a panic. The rest is history. The Philistines were defeated with a little belated help from Saul and the other 600 members of the first school of guidance who were still under the tree, seeking God’s will.

God was drawn to Jonathan because he was the only one doing anything.  All Jonathan knew was that God was against the Philistines and so he figured that if he pointed his life in the same direction as God and took some steps, maybe God would see and assist that.  He was right!  Many of God’s people are more like Saul parked up, seeking guidance, whilst a few others are just attempting something believing that if it’s in line with Gods nature and values that that’s enough of a welcome sign for God to get involved.  Jonathans question wasn’t so much ‘what’s Gods will in this situation’, but more ‘how can I give my life in the direction of Gods will?’

You’ve got to embrace Naomi to meet Boaz

We all remember the story of Ruth, her being redeemed by Boaz and ultimately finishing up in Christ's genealogy as recorded in Matthew chapter one. But what we can easily forget is that Ruth’s first appearance in church history wasn’t her marriage to Boaz but her embracing of Naomi.

The day that Ruth chose to stick with her aged, poor, bereaved and emotionally empty mother-in-law, she had never heard of Boaz – Ruth simply did what she felt was right.  She felt it was right to stand by Naomi and expressed that in what are some of the most powerful words of covenant recorded in scripture: ‘Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.’6

Ruth, like Jonathan, did what was right in front of her with no guarantees. Ruth loved Naomi and in so doing, took her first step towards Boaz.  Most would only embrace Naomi if they knew it would lead to Boaz, but that’s a ‘map’ not a ‘compass’.  If you will do what’s right, God will bless it even when it turns out wrong.  It is always right to do the right thing even if the outcome isn’t ideal.

Paul’s Idea of Guidance

In Acts 16 we read about Paul leading his apostolic team on their missionary journeys:

‘Paul and his companions traveled all through the area of Phrygia and Galatia. The Holy Spirit had kept them from preaching the word in Asia Minor. They came to the border of Mysia. From there they tried to enter Bithynia. But the Spirit of Jesus would not let them. So they passed by Mysia. Then they went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision. He saw a man from Macedonia standing and begging him. “Come over to Macedonia!” the man said. “Help us!” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia. We decided that God had called us to preach the good news there.’ 7

It seems very apparent that the great apostle Paul, who had so much revelation and to whom God revealed so many mysteries, didn’t have a clue where he was going! One minute it’s Asia, the next it’s Bithynia.  It took the entire trinity to keep Paul out of those countries! And Paul had to be unconscious for God to eventually show him where to go.

This episode in Paul’s apostolic journey proves to me that he was also a member of the second school of guidance. Paul’s mentality was that everywhere was an option, everywhere was a potential ‘yes’ until God says ‘no’. Paul simply pointed his life in the general direction of the Great Commission, ‘Go into all the world’; that was his ‘up’. Only when Paul was in motion did God guide him by both prevention and permission. 

Please note particularly that when God prevented Paul entering Asia and Bithynia, he didn’t stay there praying about why God prohibited him, he just kept moving. For Paul, trying something and it not working out was no big deal. He lived believing that his gift to God was his mobility and that God’s gift to him was that he would always guide him to where he needed to be.

Guidance by Prohibition

The way God guided Paul’s life in Acts 16 was what I call ‘guidance by prohibition’ or guidance by what God doesn’t allow! This form of divine guidance is perhaps the least understood and is therefore, the most frustrating part of our lives.  What God prevents, denies and keeps us away from is as much divine guidance as what he permits and opens up to us.  Every door that didn’t open, every opportunity you didn’t get and every call that didn’t come, was as much God’s guidance as those that did.

When our children were small and had just started being mobile, first crawling, then walking, we guided them by prohibition. We blocked off parts of our house to prevent them from injury or danger. The stairs were forbidden, the kitchen, the fireplace and so on. Our children simply moved around in the spaces that were permitted to them, without even noticing the areas that were prohibited. This enabled us as parents to keep our children in our will without daily guidance about why that will was necessary. This, I believe, is a picture of how God for the vast majority of the time, guides our lives.  Everything that is blocked, is simply to deflect us back towards what is permitted.

The only time our children ever got upset about this arrangement was when they saw one of their older siblings entering an area that was forbidden to them. I think we do this too because we don’t understand that what’s prohibited to us, may be permitted to someone else who is in a different place to us or who has a different mandate on their life. What’s permitted to you is not intended to cause me to ask God why it’s not permitted to me.  God is not doing the same thing in any two lives.

When our Grand daughter, Hope Cherish, came to our home it was blocked off differently to her home.  For example, she could climb the stairs in her home but ours were steeper, had open treads and were therefore more dangerous. Initially she would stand at the foot of the stairs looking longingly, eager to attempt them, but for reasons she couldn’t understand our house had prohibitions hers didn’t. No two houses are blocked off the same and this is also true spiritually. People often come to our church expecting to find that what was permitted to them in their last church will be the same in our church. However, when the ‘stairs’ or another particular ministry area seems closed to them, they have been know to have a spiritual tantrum at the foot of those stairs! Such people will then ask for time with a pastor to discuss God’s guidance in their life because to them we appear to be the bad guys hindering what their last leadership permitted.

If you have recently changed churches please don’t assume that this new spiritual house has an identical layout to your last one.  Maybe it’s a new season in your life and your insistence on climbing the ‘stairs’ is preventing you from seeing all the new opportunities in that new house which you’ve never realised are God’s new permissions for you. You’ll never hear your Macedonian call if you prolong your tantrum at the foot of someone else’s stairs, just keep moving, God knows what he’s doing.

Maybe you’re a firm believer in the first school of guidance, but I invite you to try the second school.  I can’t promise that you will prefer it but I can promise you an adventure. I can also promise that there’s plenty of room in that school for millions of new students! Join school number two and just start doing something for God today!

1 Hebrews 11:8
2 Proverbs 16:9
3 Proverbs 20:24
4 Psalm 37:24
5 1 Samuel 14:6
6 Ruth 1:16-17
7 Acts 16:6-10