J.I. Packer on Discerning God’s Will: God’s Plan

I may or may not be posting on Saturday and Sunday. I am going to be at A.J.’s house in Ohio for the weekend, so will be taking a brief hiatus. If I can find time to post though, I will.

Packer fleshes out a common misconception about God’s plan. God’s purpose in world history is always carried out, world events are under his control, from world-changing incidents to small details of daily life. The common misconception is that God has an itinerary for people and if they do not do the right things at the right time (fail in their discernment), they somehow become second-rate and lose a lot of their usefulness to God. Packer lists three errors in this idea:

1. It is speculation, there is no scriptural support.
2. Means that God is not wise enough, good enough, or powerful enough to cause our failures to turn out for the good or put us back on the right path when we fail. It is true that bad choices usually have bad consequences. It also assumes that God cannot/will not forgive our sins if we repent.
3. Ignores Biblical narratives of when several people like Moses, David and Peter all failed to discern the will of God yet had been restored.

This idea is rooted in a form of legalism and linked to classic dispensational theology. This dispensational theology entered evangelical teaching around the early 1800s and created a rank of occupations (i.e. top ranked was overseas missionaries, second ordained pastor, third, etc.)

Closing Remarks
God wants every Christian, in their progressive sanctification, to grow into the image of Christ. As the Holy Spirit gives us wisdom for discerning God’s will, He is pushing us along in the process of sanctification. Sanctification entails that we not only constantly receive discernments from God on particular issues, but we actually become discerning people as Christ was discerning in himself. In both the Old and New Testaments, wisdom is a character trait. Wisdom comes by knowing Christ (Col. 3:16; 2:6-7).

J.I. Packer on Discerning God’s Will: Man’s Passivity

As promised previously, when I posted about Edmund Clowney on prophecy, I decided to do some reading on this idea of being “led by the Spirit”. Through “monergism.com” I found an essay by J.I. Packer titled “The Ministry of the Spirit in Discerning the Will of God.” In the next few days, I will be working through the essay piece by piece. I’ve decided to skip most of the first half of the essay and get to some particulars (I provide the link below if you wish to read the whole article).

Packer lists two defects in discernment: error about man’s passivity and about God’s plan. I will be dealing with them in separate posts.

Error About Man’s Passivity
Packer recounts some history to us, about a man named Frank Buchman which led a movement called Moral Re-Armament. They advocated having “quiet times” that involved what is today called listening prayer. What one does is review one’s life before God and note ideas of what to do, not to do, tasks to accomplish, etc. as they filtered into one’s mind. This was what they labeled as ‘guidance’. People expected immediate guidance from God. Although Buchmanism is no longer around, it has a legacy:

1. The word “guidance” is still used as a catch-all word for discerning the will of God.
2. Propagation of this idea among evangelicals of getting “a word from the Lord,” which can take many forms such as Pentecostal prophecy, coincidences, notions arising from passages of Scripture, private inner revelation, etc.
3. Encourages superiority in those who have supposedly received special prophecy from God.
4. People continue to be anxious and worried when they seek guidance and do not receive it, waiting for an inner calling, blaming themselves if God apparently does not give guidance.

Packer qualifies his statements, assuring readers that by calling for “brainwork” in discernment does not mean only people who have higher intelligence can discern God’s will. The word “spiritual” in Colossians 1:9-10 means “given by the Spirit,” and the Spirit does not limit its work according to someone’s education. Similarly, Packer refers to Philippians 1:9-11:

…may abound even more and more in knowledge and every kind of insight so that you can decide what is best, and thus be sincere and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

Packer notes that “decide” is the same word as “test and approve” in Romans 12:2. Using James Petty’s analysis of the Spirit’s role in guidance, he lists:

1. Spirit helps us understand connections between the Word and our lives
2. These connections are made by personalizing the will of God revealed through His Word
3. Result of this is not a “message from God,” but a gift of wisdom given for particular circumstances and thus helps transform our personal wisdom and discernment in matters
4. It is wisdom from God, but also our wisdom as well. Given by the Spirit, but we see it as the renewing of our minds.

God has given rules for us to follow. We should not expect to be discerning His will other than by Spirit-led reasoning. However, Packer does not deny that some Christians may discern God’s will in a direct way, but this is the exception rather than the rule.