Following God when He isn’t Talking

Sometimes God Doesn’t Talk

On Sunday, we were considering Genesis 23-24, two stories where Abraham comes up strategies to deal with specific problems in the absence of any clear guidance from God. Usually, God speaks to Abraham, but in these stories, he has to come up with strategies on his own. Usually, when he does that, he gets in trouble like when he went down to Egypt, but in Genesis 23-24, his strategies are blessed by God.

What’s the difference?

Well, that’s the subject of last week’s message, and I won’t go into it all now. However, I want to address something I brought up during the conclusion of the message. I gave a five step plan for making sure you are following God’s will even if you don’t have a clear command from him about the issue.

How to Strategize in Line with God

1. Have clarity and faith regarding God’s Word.
2. Follow God’s (and others’) guidance into the best position.
3. Pray with faith for God’s favor.
4. Establish simple criteria.
5. Take the first open door and look for confirmation.

However, there was one final caveat I mentioned. This recipe for decision making only works if you are living under the promises of God like Abraham was.

So, the real question, it this: How can I know I’m living under the promises of God?

Galatians 3:26-29 gives us the answer:

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Galatians 3:26-29 NIV

Therefore, in order to be a person under the promise, all you need to do is to receive Christ into your life through faith, repentance and baptism. If you have done that, you can claim the truth of the promise in your life too.

It’s an amazing thing to think that the promise God gave to Abraham applies to followers of Jesus today, and that if I have given my life to Christ, and I’m walking in that promise, then I can trust God to be involved in my daily life.

Receive the promise of God in Christ, make your plans in line with God’s Word, pray for his favor, and walk through the open doors… and just watch what God does!