When you think a little more about God’s leading in your life and you realize that you can end up on the wrong side of the track, then you will be even more watchful as to where the dangers lie, so that if possible you can avoid these. For they truly are pitfalls in which you can end up.

You can all too easily mix up God’s leading with what you yourself enjoy. The danger is very real to put an equal’s sign between your own desires and God’s leading. You try very hard to make these two the same, for that is what you like. And if that does not work, then people typically experience the hand of the Lord as a huge burden, to put it mildly.

Temptation⤒🔗

There is a strong temptation to view a “casual” meeting as God’s leading for a very specific reason. It is of course possible that God indeed wants you to meet this person, and to form a special relationship with this someone, which should not again be broken. In hindsight you can then very much experience God’s leading in this.

But to speak of God’s clear leading in every meeting with someone can have the danger that you pay too little attention to temptations, which are also present. For not only is God present in our lives, but also the devil tries to have his say and will try to lead us to a specific place or person. Think of the “leading” that Lot had in the choice that he made (Gen 13), and saying that this was God’s leading that he chooses the attractive, prosperous area around the Dead Sea, as it is now called. But from Scripture it does become clear that in fact Lot succumbed to the temptation of wanting to become rich. An evil, of which we are warned throughout God’s Word. Just read 1 Timothy 6.

Material things, wealth, status, and a nice appearance can all be temptations in one’s life. Whoever concludes that it is God’s leading that you chose for “more,” for a fabulous career and more of those “advantages,” can make a huge mistake and arrive with Lot in Sodom, where his righteous soul was in torment, as we read in the New Testament. While his uncle Abraham was led by God to the Promised Land! Without him having first choice!

There are those who utter prophesies about people and then “pronounce” that such and so from now on should be together in life. They have “seen” it as it were and view this (their own desires) as God’s leading, as a direct indication from him. As if the Lord doesn’t lead these things in terms of falling in love with one another. For how can you marry someone, whom you do not love? Even if the other person is a child of God! For a marriage you need quite a bit more than friendship, sympathy and sharing the same faith.

The devil can craftily use our feelings, and so put us on the wrong track, by handing us over to our strong desires and so making us fall. In these instances there is more of a leading into temptation than a leading from God. In the book of Proverbs, it is “pictured” well how a man is dragged along just like cattle by a woman who seduces him. And what is the result? Please read Proverbs 5 to find out. It makes one fearful of temptation and makes one pray more fervently what the Lord taught his disciples to pray: lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.

People can utilize our feelings of pity and make it look like something is a direct leading from God. Like the person who visited his “friend” and said that he had seen (a vision), as he called it, that his friend should help him with a large sum of money. To which his friend smartly replied, “If this comes from the Lord, then he will also show me your vision.” In this way, temptation may enter our lives in a “religious” manner. And this is not the only example in the area of money and material things!

A temptation is no less than a tearing of a text out of its context and to “practice ventriloquism” with the text. And so you “prove” from God’s Word that the Lord leads all the things you are talking about, and that you “show” it as coming from this text, without there being any leading of God at all. If you would read the text in its context, something entirely different comes to the fore. We cannot be careful enough for the many temptations which we encounter on our life’s path. Temptations, behind which is the “crafty tempter,” as Nicky Crusz names the evil one. And he knew what he was talking about!

Guidance←⤒🔗

In order not to become lost, we need guidance. In specific areas you do need a guide. If you want to arrive at your destination, then you must surrender yourself to his guidance. You do have to know beforehand, though, that you are in good hands. That means it must be a good guide. When this guide “leads” you, you will see a lot more and you will arrive safely.

Hence, we encounter in God’s Word a fervent prayer of someone who does not seek to get into trouble. But he fully realizes his own weakness, his wandering heart, and the threatening circumstances that pull him off the right path, even more so as it concerns the people around him. In Psalm 143 you encounter this beautiful prayer: “Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!” The poet professes: if the Spirit of God, if God himself does not lead me, it will not go well. For which “spirit” am I at the mercy of then? Of my own spirit, or of the spirit of the world around me, or even of the evil spirit? Each spirit will pull you in a specific direction.

How do you escape then the dangers that threaten you? Only when the good Spirit, when God’s Spirit leads you. For that Spirit leads you in God’s ways and leads you towards God, so that you will receive his approval and you will know that you are on the right path. For on that path God goes along with you and that is the most important thing in your life.

Thus, David not only prays for the leading of the Holy Spirit, but also right away surrenders himself heartily to this Spirit. For he knows that he can trust this “Guide.”

In this way you prevent doing as you please and following your own desires and passions. In the book of Psalms and also in the book of Proverbs it is written that a wise person does not follow his own insight but lets himself be led by the Word of God.

Without having a text from God’s Word right away for specific actions and decisions, you know yourself to be led by God. For he leads you in the truth (of the whole of his Word), and that means even more than that you are being led by a single text (that can be misunderstood).

There was a lady who church-wise had quite a problem. Her question was: where should I join? She read the Word of God and encountered this passage in Acts 8: “Go over and join this chariot.” That was a word to Philip to join the Ethiopian, who was on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza. She understood from this that she should join another church community. But when the minister left there, due to a schism in the congregation, she did not stay with the “chariot” but went along with the “driver.” She obviously had good intentions but decided all too quickly that her thought and actions were the same as God’s leading.

For this reason, we need continued guidance, through God’s Word and Spirit.

Training←⤒🔗

In the church there is a danger that it can become too much “head knowledge,” without you bowing your heart to God. But in the leading of God the danger is that you follow your “heart,” which is often contrary to the insight that God’s Word wants to give us. Therefore, we are to be trained to become “servants of the Word.” This does not mean that we right away enrol in various religion classes (even though this could be very useful), but more so that we gain insight into what the Lord means to say in his Word. In the continual studying of his Word, in reading things over again sometimes, to understand this Word properly. Especially praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the enlightenment through the Holy Spirit, to receive a clear insight in what is pleasing to the Lord. To receive sensitivity, to be able to distinguish what really matters, and in everything to live according to God’s will. To follow him. And therefore, to profess from the heart:

“Your paths I took to travel by,
and never did I slip or waver.
I call on you, I seek your favour,
for you will answer from on high.” Psalm 17:3 Book of Praise

Reflection is necessary to reach the high level of God’s Word, the high level of God’s thoughts, the high level of God’s ways, on which you will never become lost.

We can mistakenly take it as God’s leading what it really is not at all, when we let ourselves be led by our own (smoking) low light from a wick. But we will receive a clear insight into what God’s will is by the bright light of his Word, which shines as a clear beam in a dark night.

Testing of God and temptation of the devil can be very close together, as we can see in the history of David and especially in what Job experiences. Then it is very important to properly distinguish between the two.

How much are we then dependent on God’s leading and totally rely on this leading!

And thus, we long to be “trained,” to see how God leads all things, in the world and throughout the history of the church, as well as in our own life.

This article was translated by Bram Vegter.