I was talking with somebody recently about how God achieves his purposes in the world. As often happens in these discussions, a lot of emphasis was placed on God placing “something on someone’s heart”. This, my interlocutor asserted, was how God got things to happen.

I don’t deny that God may prompt people through all sorts of things. After all, God is totally sovereign over all things. That must include my thoughts, dreams, inclinations, and everything else. The question, ‘can’t God prompt people through these things?’ has to be answered with a hearty ‘yes’ because God can do whatever he likes. The issue I was trying to make clear was not that God can never prompt us to some thought or action, but that unless we read it in his Word, we have no certainty it is God speaking to us.

One of the matters at issue was that somebody insisted, ‘if God said to run across the motorway, you would do it wouldn’t you?’ To which, again, the short answer is ‘yes’. If God has definitely said to do that, then I would do it. But, as I quickly asked of my friend, ‘what in God’s Word would possibly lead me to think God has said to do that?’ They affirmed, clearly nothing.

But, they soon followed up, can’t God “lay it on your heart” to do something? Maybe God could speak to you directly that way? To which I circled back, of course he could do that if he wanted, but how do I know it is God speaking? They looked at me puzzled for a minute or two. I followed up, what specifically about the thought or impression you just had convinces you it was God saying to do it and not just your own neutral thoughts, or worse, your sinful heart, or just as bad, Satan? Why assume it was God? More to the point, I asked, how would you specifically tell those things apart? I don’t really know, came the reply.

But, they averred again, surely God can speak to people directly? He does prompt people sometimes, doesn’t he? Of course, I said. My point isn’t whether, or even if, God ever does that. It is simply that unless we read it in his Word, we can’t be sure it is him speaking.

But how – my friend said, suddenly thinking of a specific example – did one particular woman praying for help, at just the moment she prayed, suddenly find two women – unconnected to one another – moved to help her at exactly the right time? Surely God did that! Without question, I said – simply by virtue of the fact it happened – God ultimately did it. But, I asked, how do you think God ordinarily accomplishes things in the world? In the ordinary run of things, how does God get people to do the things he wants them to do?

My friend thought for a while. So, I said, first and foremost he changes our desires by his Spirit if we are believers. The one who was praying was doing so faithfully in line with the word, that calls us to pray to our Heavenly Father. The ones doing the visiting were being generally faithful to the Word by simply visiting a friend. So, straightaway, we have people doing something prompted by God’s Spirit in line with the Word. The read the Word and responded to it as you would expect God’s Spirit to be doing in them.

But what about the specific events? The same Spirit at work in them causing them to read the Word and faithfully respond to it, might well have prompted them to go and visit this particular person at just the right time. They may not have any great sense it was the Lord’s leading anymore than sensing it was just what they wanted to do in the moment, but their desire was certainly in line with what they had read in the Word. Nevertheless, by seeking to be faithful (prompted by the Spirit) and simply doing what they want (with their regenerate will guided by the Spirit), they ended up doing what God would have them do, in a particular place God would have them do it. They may have acted on a thought or impression to some degree, but in the end, they knew what God wanted from them in the Word and they responded faithfully to it, being moved by the Spirit to do it in a particular way. It may not have been at all evident the Spirit was specifically prompting their desires before the fact and may have only become more obvious after the fact. That is to say, they loved God, were faithful to his Word and then did what they wanted, leaving the rest up to the Lord to sort out. That is, fundamentally, how God gets his people where he wants them.

The point remains, we don’t seek God’s will and guidance fundamentally by acting on impressions, feelings and a strong sense of desire in ourselves. Those might be God’s leading, but they just as well might not be. Rather, we seek God’s will fundamentally by acting faithfully in line with his Word. We can only be sure it is God speaking if we are acting in line with his Word. Any prompt or inner-sense of something being appropriate to do doesn’t really matter if it is specifically God prompting us or not. If it would be a means of faithfully obeying what is clear in the Word, and we still have a sense that we really want to do it, then we can get on and do it trusting that the Spirit is at work with our will to help our faithfulness and have us wherever God would have us be and doing whatever he would have us do. In the end, we end up wherever he would have us at any rate because nothing happens apart from his sovereign will. We, therefore, obey him, seek to be faithful and then do what we want, leaving the rest up to him.