How does God lead us?

Does God speak directly to us? Does God use inner promptings? How do circumstances relate to God’s leading?

Wisdomforlife

I’ve studied and taught extensively on the matter of how God leads His people. There is so much confusion this subject.

• • Does God speak directly to us?
  • Does God use inner promptings?
  • How do circumstances relate to God’s leading?
  • How should we apply Scripture to God’s leading? 

In the articles below, I offer some of what I’ve taught about how God leads His people: 

1. How can I walk in God’s will? (12 requirements)
2. Do inner promptings reveal God’s will?
3. What is your life?
4. The will of God:
5. Discerning God’s Will (4 biblical texts)
6. When Christians disagree:
7. Three dimensions to God’s will

Steve Cornell

Audio Resource:Where He leads 

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Reflections on the Spirit-filled life

Consider five reflections for individual believers and local Churches and three practical steps to take to live the Spirit filled life.

Wisdomforlife

The personal presence and power of the Holy Spirit are essential to living a life that pleases God. The Holy Spirit is also the source of true Christian community and family life. 

• “Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Ephesians 5:18-21, NLT).

Spirit filled is a description of one’s character (It is an objective, measurable reality)

• Acts 11:24, Barnabas is described as “…a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.”
• Acts 6:4, the Church is instructed to, “pick out from among you seven men of good…

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Understanding Depression

Helping those who battle depression requires an ability to distinguish “sadness due to internal dysfunction” from “sadness that is a biologically designed response to external events.”

Wisdomforlife

The video link below offers an excellent summary of the challenge of depression. Christian counselors who over simplify matters like depression need the seasoned insight from David Murray.

Family practitioners also need this because they’re the primary prescribers of depression medications and they rarely have sufficient time for thorough evaluation of their patients.

When prescribing medications for depression or other neurologically based life-challenges, I encourage doctors to always attach requirements for more extensive counseling and support. Medicinal aid must never be approached in a one-dimensional manner. We are more the bodies with physical needs. The other dimensions of our being (spiritual, emotional, social) must receive equal consideration in the battle for health.

A holistic approach respects all the dimensions of personhood created by God. Reactionary and one dimensional approaches lack honesty, humility and compassion.

Insightful balance

In “The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sadness Into Depressive Disorder,

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The history of Envy and how it spreads

Before allowing yourself to feel safely distant from temptation to envy, consider how envy feeds on other more common temptations…. “The envier gossips. He saves up bad news about others and passes it around like an appetizer at happy hour. The envier grumbles. He murmurs. He complains that all the wrong people are getting ahead. Spite, bitterness, discord which undoes all friendships, accusation, malignity—all these things flow form envy and together turn friendship and good fellowship into a rancorous shambles” (Plantinga).

Wisdomforlife

The history of envy began with the ambitions of a rebellious angel who said, “I will make myself like the Most High,” (Isaiah 14:14). The fallen angel then spread his envious spirit by inciting into the hearts of the first humans the suspicion of Eden – that the Creator was keeping the goods to himself and depriving them of their full potential (Genesis 3:1-6).

Envy then appeared in the first human family as the insidious motive to the first act of homicide. The first son of the first family (Cain) was envious of his younger brother, Abel. Cain’s envy was the prelude emotion that lead to an unimaginable act of homicide (fratricide), (see: Genesis 4). And to establish a connection in the history of envy, Cain, according to Scripture, “belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother” (I John 3:12).

The most vicious…

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How does it feel to be so rich?

Do you think of yourself as one of the wealthiest people in human history? The facts about wealth should challenge the way most of us think and live.

Wisdomforlife

Do you know any rich people? Have you ever thought of yourself as one of the wealthiest people in human history.

A closer look at the facts about wealth will likely challenge the way most of us think about money and what it means to be wealthy.

Is the 1 percent the problem?

1% of the population has almost the same amount of money as the rest of the 99% combined. 48.2 percent of all of the world’s wealth is in the hands of just 1 percent of the population.  

Before feeling sorry for yourself or wrongly judging the rich people, you are among the top 1 percent of earners on the planet if you make more than $50,000 a year.

$10 a day is the norm

Most of the population of the entire world (80 percent) lives on less than $10 a day. If your annual household income is above…

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5 primary resources for spiritual maturity

A Christian can only grow in Christlikeness by God’s grace (I Peter 5:6; II Peter 3:18); not by human strength disconnected from God’s work in us (Philippians 2:12-13).

Wisdomforlife

Spiritual maturity is God’s primary goal for our lives. It is the work of God as He actively and progressively transforms us into the image of Christ.

God is far more concerned about changing us than He is about changing our circumstances.

And God’s changes are thorough—affecting every aspect of our being—our thoughts, attitudes, values and actions. Spiritual growth involves a deep transformation of our character that is sometimes painful (Hebrews 12:1-11).

A maturing Christian is one who is continually pursuing God’s will. This is growth process that will involve his intellect (as he uses his mind to explore God’s truth), his will (as he increasingly yields to God’s authority), and his emotions (as he cultivates godly affections).

A Christian can only grow in Christlikeness by God’s grace (I Peter 5:6; II Peter 3:18); not by human strength disconnected from God’s work in us (Philippians 2:12-13).

This means that gospel-centered humility must always be…

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Advice I need to hear

She was a tough and tender lady whom we called “Dr. B.” She’s now in heaven. I remember her as a lady who didn’t want to hear excuses. Whenever I told Dr. B about difficulties I faced, she would give me a direct look and say, “Get with the program, kid!” “God knows, He cares and He is in control! Let’s do something about it!”

It wasn’t the empathy I wanted, but it was always a good word to hear.

Another friend told me about a list a man keeps with him to help him keep perspective. It too isn’t the empathy you might want, but it’s clearly designed to snap you into reality. Here it is…

1. Life is hard
2. You’re not that important
3. Your life is not about you
4. You’re not in control
5. You’re going to die

I want to add a sixth, 6. Your story doesn’t end with this life.

Then I need Dr. B’s words, “Get with the program, kid!” “God knows, He cares and He is in control! Let’s do something about it!”

Good words for all of us! It reminds me of this hilarious video clip, “Stop it“.

Steve Cornell