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Fleeces and decision-making |
‘If You will save
Israel by my hand as You have promised, look, I will
place a wool fleece on the threshing floor.’ (Judges
6:35-37)
The Lord never intended decision-making to be our
responsibility alone. At the same time, we should be
cautious of trying to devolve all responsibility
onto the Lord by laying arbitrary fleeces, such as,
‘If such and such happens, then it must be right.’
Neither should we try to cut deals with the Lord
along the lines that ‘if You do this, then I will do
that.’
Although it is arguably acceptable as a Scriptural
model to lay fleeces, there is one potential danger.
If circumstances do line up with the terms laid down
in the fleece, we may assume our quest for guidance
to be at an end. The fact that Gideon asked for two
signs suggests it might be wiser to regard fleeces,
like other strands, as representing just one part of
the confirmation we are looking for.
How about those occasions when other people bring us
‘directive’ guidance? We should certainly be careful
about acting on such words. We can recall a number
of occasions, however, when people have brought us
words that have launched us in entirely new
directions – usually when something was too far
outside our experience (or faith levels) for us to
have thought of it for ourselves.
Tragically, insecure and under-affirmed people often
end up ‘using’ prophecies and revelations as a means
of boosting their ego, or even to tighten their
control over others. It is as though they feel their
ability to get words for other people in some way
‘proves’ their ministry. When off-beam prophecies
are forcefully presented, rather than lovingly
offered, people have no choice but to accept them at
face value, or to discard them altogether. This can
cause much hurt and confusion, and lead to many
complications – not least the people who ‘see
through them’ becoming disillusioned with the whole
concept of listening.
Perhaps it was for reasons such as this that Paul
Tillich argues in favour of keeping reason and
spiritual experiences rigidly apart from each other.
I do not agree with him. It is surely a far better
sign of how well integrated listening to the Lord is
in our lives if we are able to satisfy both sets of
criteria along the lines of Acts 15:18: ‘It seemed
good to the Holy Spirit and to us.’
For Reflection and Prayer
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Father,
help us to know which decisions are ours,
and which are only Yours to take –
and never to impose our will on others.
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