"The 20 sessions of this seminar present 26 Biblical guidelines for making good decisions in life. The importance of understanding the distinction between God's sovereign will and God's moral will is presented and the means that God uses to direct our path is explained." The content is all theirs, I just put it in a format for my own learning and am sharing it.
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Christian Decision Making
1. The 20 sessions of this seminar present 26 biblical guidelines for making
good decisions in life. The importance of understanding the distinction
between God's sovereign will and God's moral will is presented, and the
means that God uses to direct our path is explained.
http://www.growingchristians.org/courses/christian-decision-making/
THE WILL OF GOD
AND MAKING DECISIONS
2. Decision making is a
very important part of
life.
How do we make the
right decisions?
Life is one long string
of decisions.
3. God love you
and has a plan
for your life….
Trust God and
let His word
guide you.
5. The best teachers don’t give you the
answers. They just point the way and
let you make your own choices.”
6. OBJECTIVES
• Introduction
• Concepts for Understanding God’s Will
• Means for Directing Our Paths
• Guidelines for Making Right Decisions
• Conclusion
7. GOD’S SOVEREIGN WILL ALLOWS FOR FREE CHOICE
And in heaven, it will be that way once again.
AT CREATION, THERE WAS NO SEPARATION
BETWEEN GOD’S SOVEREIGN WILL AND
GOD’S MORAL WILL
What God
would “like”
us to do for
our own good
11. Ideally, we start with the moral guidelines and if we
follow the means (i.e., arrows - the tools God provides)
we will be guided into God’s will.
12. What is we make
a wrong decision
and get off track.
God can always
find a way to get
back on track.
13. The 7 Cs – The “Means” God
Uses to Direct Our Paths
• Communication
• Conviction
• Common Sense
• Composition
• Counsel
• Circumstances
• Control
14. The Means
(No
Sequence,
but Must be
used together
Communication
Conviction
Common
Sense
Composition
Counsel
Circumstance
Control
15. Communication
• One “C” does carry more weight than
the others.
• The primary way God communicates
with us is through His Word.
• And prayer is how we communicate
with God.
16. Conviction
• Always balance your convictions with the
guidelines in the Bible.
• The more principles/general guidelines
we know the more obvious your course of
action will be.
• e.g. the guidelines found in Deut. 6:7 and Heb. 10:24,25
clearly indicate we should not apply for a job that would
prevent you from fulfilling your family and church
responsibilities.
18. Composition
• God made you and he gave you certain
• personality traits,
• desires,
• appearance characteristics,
• mental abilities,
• physical abilities, etc.
• These are all means he uses to guide us.
19. Counsel
• Plans fail for lack of counsel (Prov.
15:22)
• A wise man is he who listens to
counsel (Prov. 12:15)
• Where there is no guidance the people
fall, but in abundance of counselors
there is victory (Prov. 11:14)
• Wisdom is with those who receive
counsel (Prov. 13:10)
20. Circumstances
• God does open and close doors
• However, we must be careful to
not make decisions based
“only” on circumstances.
• Satan can manipulate
circumstances.
• The other Cs will keep you from
reading too much or too little
into circumstance
21. Control
•At times God steps in and
takes control
•He steps in because of
•Impending danger
•A future unlikely turn of
events
•To deliver us from the
dilemma of doubt
22. Control
•At times God steps in and
takes control
•He steps in because of
•Impending danger
•A future unlikely turn of
events
•To deliver us from the
dilemma of doubt
24. You can listen
to the rest of
the seminar
where he goes
through each
one of these.
http://www.growingchristia
ns.org/courses/christian-
decision-making
.
Hinweis der Redaktion
Traditional View to Following God’s will for your life
- God loves you and has a plan for your life
- And that plan can be known as you walk step by step with god
- God knows if you should marry and who you should marry
- You can find out by trusting him and use his Word
Alternative View – God only gives us general moral guidelines
-if you’re going to get married, marry a Christian 2 Cor 6:14 (but don’t expect God to tell you who to marry)
-if you want to do missions, use your common sense regarding where? Spend your time in prayer asking God to give you the strength to serve with strength and commitment
1-God’s Sovereign Will
– God allows evil and uses evil, but is in no way the source of evil.
-a perfect couple has 2 options:
1. having perfect children, but these children cannot love the parents because they don’t have a free will
2.have normal children who have free will and who will make mistakes and sin, sometimes even deliberately
But the perfect parents still choose to have normal children who can make choices even though they know they will make many wrong choices.
WHY? Because you cannot have love without free choice
Question: Are the parents responsible morally culpable for the sins of their children? NO
Same with God – we can’t put blame on God for what we do
2-Moral Will – everything that God approves of – God’s desired response from his creatures
1 Thess 4:3 “your sanctification” – he desires that we abstain from sexual immorality
1 Thess 5:18 “in everything give thanks” cuz we know God is in control and has our best interest in mind.
2 Pet 3:9 “the Lord is not slow about his promise – he is patient toward you – not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance”
3- At creation, there was no separation between God’s Sovereign Will and God’s Moral Will; they were one. Gen 1:31
And….that’s how it will once again be in heaven. 2 Peter 3:13
The Way it is Now
Because of sin, not all events are within the sphere of God’s Moral Will; some are, but not all. Sinful acts, for example, are within God’s Sovereign Will, but not within his moral will. But there are events in his sovereign will that will not happen such as everyone becoming a Christian
The question for us is in what area do we want to live in?
Dot 1 – Outside both the Sovereign Will of God and the Moral Will of God, everyone present commits suicide right now
Dot 2 – God’s desire is that we do not sin, but he allows it, e.g., Everyone will sin before the end of this year
Dot 3 – 100% of people are committed Christians – doesn’t happen because God’s Sovereign Will allows for free choice
Dot 4 – Within both the Sovereign and Moral Will of God i.e., everyone learns something helpful in this seminar
Like in golf, all you have to do is putt in the general direction of the hole and as you get closer, you keep adjusting and eventually you get the golf ball in the hole.
When we make a wrong decision and we end up missing the dot, or even when we are putt in the wrong direction our life looks like this Railroad model. What happens when we make decisions that miss the dot…when you are not even on the green? You married the wrong person. You didn’t wait. You took the wrong job.
Regardless of whether you made a wrong decision either deliberately or innocently, “we know that all things work together for good” Rom 8:28. All things are not good, but God can work bad things for our good. This does not justify our bad decisions, but he can always provide a way for us to get back on track.
Although we make some bad decisions along the way, we should not conclude that mistakes will cause us to be permanently adrift. Isa 30:21
One C, however, does carry more weight than the others – Communication.
One “C” does carry more weight than the others.
The primary way God communicates with us is through His Word. And prayer is how we communicate with God.
Prayer – communicating with God is also vital in making decisions. 1 Peter 5:7 says cast all your cares upon him. God has promised us that he cares about our well being. He will certainly answer our prayers about decision making…all our decisions, but he wants us to hear from him; he wants us to pray specifically*! Even though God knows all about us, he still wants us to express our thoughts and feelings..he want us to communicate with him about our decisions and indecisions.
*If we don’t pray specifically we won’t be able to give God the glory.
A young man referring to his girlfriend said, “do you know how hard it is to spoil someone who won’t tell you what they want”. I think the same applies to us if we don’t tell God what we want. I used to tell my kids “it doesn’t mean I will get it for you”, but I wanted to know what they wanted. I could then think about fitting it into my budget.
Convictions: the inner convictions of the Holy Spirit will always be in line with God’s will
(John 14:26, John 16:13, 1 John 2:27)
The problem is confusing the convictions with the cravings of our sinful nature. They must always be carefully examined in the light of all the seven Cs. Consulting the other Cs is necessary, because we can justify any decision we want to make.
One of the other “C”s is the word of God.
The Bible provides Biblical guidelines that can direct us to the right decision. For Example: the guidelines found in Deut 6:7 and Heb 10:24,25 clearly indicate we should not apply for a job that would prevent you from fulfilling your family and church responsibilities.
If you are single and have a strong conviction that God wants you serve him as a missionary, a potential spouse should share your burden for foreign missions
(Gen 2:18 Amos 3:3)
The more principles/general guidelines we know the more obvious your course of action will be.
Common Sense: We tend to take this for granted, it is a means God has given us to make decisions. He expects us to use common sense in the small matters.
Composition: How God made us is what the C of Composition is all about…including our desires, personality appearance, mental capacity, abilities, spiritual gifts, - these are all means he uses to guide us. “skillfully” Ps 33:3 to sing skillfully involves a gift in talent, if you don’t have that gift, chances are the Lord is not calling you to a music ministry.
1 Pet 4:10 says as each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards.
God has a use for everyone when they are willing to do the job they were designed to do.
Counsel: the counsel of other believers is another of the 7 Cs God uses in helping us make decisions. “in the multitude of counselors, there is safety” Prov.
Mature Godly Christians can point us in the right direction. Important to note, the key is to consult a number of Godly men and women who have experience in the area. Individual counsel can be biased or have hidden motives.
Circumstances: If you believe God is sovereign, is there anything that happens by mere chance? Nope. Nothing happens by mere chance. At times he does send just the right winds across the sea of life to nudge our ship into the anchorage that is best of each one of us. Those open and closed doors are a working definition of one of the Cs God has given us. But we must be careful making decisions based only on circumstances. Proper discernment is very important. Satan can manipulate circumstances…part of his scheming strategy to blow us off course (2 Cor 2: 11 and 2 Cor 11:14). Prayerfully analyze your circumstances. God uses those circumstances in his navigational system, the other Cs will safeguard us from reading too much or too little into the C of circumstances
Control: There are times when God steps in and takes control of our situation so that we are in no way involved in the decision making process. When we are suddenly removed from one ministry and find ourselves in another ministry, it is a good indication that God is guiding us by control. Sometimes God steps in and controls the decision, because he knows of some impending danger, or a future unlikely turn of events. Other times, God graciously takes control to deliver us from the dilemma of doubt.
Control: There are times when God steps in and takes control of our situation so that we are in no way involved in the decision making process. When we are suddenly removed from one ministry and find ourselves in another ministry, it is a good indication that God is guiding us by control. Sometimes God steps in and controls the decision, because he knows of some impending danger, or a future unlikely turn of events. Other times, God graciously takes control to deliver us from the dilemma of doubt.
Acts 16: 6
Read this and notice God’s control…
The Bible is an anchor for our souls. Look at Fig 19…this is what can happen if we don’t keep the Cs in balance and if we don’t emphasize prayer (communication*).
My note:
*Stephen Covey coined the “seek to understand” phrase. He says that when communicating instead of focusing on what we are trying to convey, we should seek to understand what the other person is trying to convey. The result will be that they will feel understood. When someone feels understood, they are open to your advice/influence. God in his plan of salvation used this same strategy! By sending Jesus to live among us here on earth, the result is that we feel understood!
You can go and listen to the rest of the seminar where he goes through each one of these.
Http://www.growingchristians.org/courses/christian-decision-making
A.The bottom line should always be God’s glory! 1 Sam 21:10-15 David acting like a mad man…cuz he’s afraid. Was his behavior consist with him saying for example that he was trusting God? Rom 12:1,2 “present your body as a living sacrifice” , i.e., here I am…my life is yours…including my body…I want it all to be used for your glory. This is service..that is worship. 2) don’t be conformed to this world. This world’s priorities are individual success…God has promised to meet our needs..these things will be added to us..let’s not be conformed to the values of this world. 3) be transformed by the renewing of your mind. This doesn’t say to transform yourself. It says to allow God to transform you. The bottom line must always be God’s glory. The little decisions we make each day…do we ask ourselves “is this pleasing to the Lord? Is God glorified by what I decide to read or watch?” Is it only selfish pleasure or entertainment or somehow is God’s glory the bottom line? Even keeping your body in good physical shape gives God’s glory, skiing, tennis, etc
B.God continues to guide us even when bad decisions are made.
We all make mistakes…and sometimes we make big mistakes and really bad decisions…and sometimes other people make bad decisions that affect us.
1)our own mistakes when no sin is involved
2)our own mistakes when sin is involved
3)others peoples mistakes whether sin is involved or not
