"Without [a gathering, circle, fellowship of] consultation, plans are frustrated, But with many counselors they succeed." Prov. 15:22

“For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers.” (Proverbs 11:14)

“Prepare plans by consultation, and make war by wise guidance... For by wise guidance you will wage war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory.” (Proverbs 20:18, 24:6)

Ruth Haley Barton, in her book, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership, has a chapter dedicated to discerning the will of God as a community. She notes that wisdom and discernment were defining characteristics for the nation of Israel which they were recognized and revered for by other nations. [1]

Learning Discernment.

At the root of the discernment is determining/recognizing the will of God. How do we determine if we are in God's will? How do we determine His path? At significant crossroads and transitions, how do we determine what He wants for us?

Proverbs points us in the direction of growing in discernment. Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear [respect and honor] of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

Our discernment grows as we grow in relationship with God. We begin to understand and grow in desire to honor Him in everything. Taking time to listen, reading the word, praying and growing in our understanding of God's heart grow our discernment.

Proverbs 2:1-6 describes a way of being based upon listening and seeking God's heart,

     "My son, if you accept what I am telling you
      and store my counsel and directives deep within you,
      If you listen for Lady Wisdom, attune your ears to her,
      and engage your mind to understand what she is telling you.
      If you cry out to her for insight and beg for understanding,
      If you sift through the clamor of everything around you
      to seek her like some precious prize,
      to search for her like buried treasure;
      Then you will grasp what it means to truly respect the Eternal,
      and you will have discovered the knowledge of the one True God.
      The Eternal is ready to share His wisdom with us,
      for His words bring true knowledge and insight.

Ruth Haley Barton notes that discernment is also grounded in the belief that the call to love God and love others is our ultimate calling as Christians. In every decision we make, we could ask, “What does love call us to?” [2]

Paul prays for the church in Philippians 1:10, “that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and profound insight, so that you can discern what best...:

Processes for Discernment.

 

For large decisions, what is your process for determining the will of the Lord?

In the Old Testament sometimes the people relied on the leadership to discern the will of God. With Moses, he spent hours up on the Mountain top with God and would come down with discernment that the people relied upon. Their are other times that the people followed the word of the Lord given from a prophet. A prophet would proclaim something and the people would follow.

The presence of God is often been used in the Bible to confirm God's direction and approval. When the Israelites were wondering in the wilderness, the glory of God in the presence of a cloud by day and fire by night led them along.

Other times, people followed a sign. When a group rose up against Moses and Aaron as leaders, each leader put a rod with their tribe name on it in the tent of meeting. The next morning, Aaron's rod had not only budded but produced acorns signifying his rightful place as a leader.

The Word of the Lord came to Ahaz in Isaiah 7:11, "Ask the LORD your God for a sign. It can be anything you want."

The Urim and Thummim were also frequently used to determine the will of God. And of course we get the term “fleecing God” from Gideon in Judges 6 who put out a fleece several times to confirm God's will.  

Dreams and visions also helped people to discern the will of God.  Joseph discerned that Mary was pregnant by the Holy Spirit through a dream.  He was also led to flee to Egypt and escape Herod by a dream in Matthew 2:13.   Paul was lead by a dream to go to Macedonia and preach the gospel through a dream.   And Peter was lead to go with gentiles to preach the gospel through a vision.

Ever ask several different spiritual friends for their discernment on some big event or transition in your life and get all different answers? This happens to me every time I seek out others to discern something significant for my life. Perhaps it is because we cannot look to others to do the work of discernment for us. It is something we need to do for ourselves and is rooted in our spirituality and relationship to God.

I need to be the one to take the time to cultivate my relationship with Jesus and discern His will for my life. My friends can encourage this so that I gain the skill of discernment of God's will for my life. They can also pray for me to have wisdom and discernment in decision making. But they are not meant to take the place of discerning the will of God for me.

Trust God loves you and speaks directly to you. Jesus says in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

Group Discernment.

 

At the same time, I am part of a spiritual direction group that meets monthly to discern the will of God in our lives. We take turns leading the group and the other members share areas of their lives needing discernment. We do not provide answers for each other on the will of God but rather ask questions and point out where we see God's finger prints. The result is that it gives the person discerning the will of God for their life greater perspective and insights.

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There is also a process of group discernment where everyone participates together in determining the will of the Lord. Acts 15:5-22 gives an example of a group discernment process. Some Pharisees insisted that new gentile believers had to be circumcised to be saved. The apostles and elders met privately to discuss this and discern the will of the Lord. There was tons of debate when Peter finally stood up and shared his experience of the gentiles receiving the Holy Spirit by grace and concluded that salvation comes the same way. James then offered his counsel that the outsiders should not be burdened down by turning to God. All the apostles, elders and entire church agreed.

Some key points on group discernment we can glean from this example (some of which are also mentioned by Ruth Haley Barton in her chapter on group discernment[3]):

• Have clear purpose for why you are gathering and what is being discerned.
• Speak the truth in love.
• Listen to the moving of God in each other's heart as well as each other's experiences.
• Put one's biases on the sideline and be open to God perhaps doing something new.
• Allow the Holy Spirit to draw you towards conclusion(s) that can be agreed upon.
• Confirm there is agreement among the group.

Testing Discernment.

One can test their conclusion of discerning God's will against James 3:17: “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.”

Group discernment focuses on agreement of the will of the Lord. One phenomenon that sometimes occurs in groups, especially among Christians, is our desire for harmony and conformity lead us to superficially agree with each other without really doing the work of discerning God.   We all want to get along so we defer and go along without question or confrontation.

The focus of groupthink [4] is agreement and harmony among the members.  The phenomenon is that members believe because everyone else agrees, it must be the right direction.  Or there may be a strong leader and everyone agrees with them to maintain their position in the group. 

The focus of group discernment needs to be discovering and confirming the will of the Lord.   In the example above of the apostles, they debated for some time as people spoke their hearts. They listened to each other but were also not hesitant to argue with each other for a period of time before identifying conclusions around the will of the Lord.

It is important that members are all treated respectfully, honored for their unique views, and have the freedom to explore, debate and share very different experiences. We need to trust that God will bring the unity and draw us toward conclusions.

Lord, give us your wisdom and discernment. Draw us closer to you so that we know Your heart and understand Your will. Lead us in the path that we should take in our decision-making. Draw us together in unity when we come together to discern Your will.

1-3. Barton, Ruth Haley. Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership. Chapter 12. Finding God's Will Together. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois. 2008.

 

4. For more information:  Wikipedia. Groupthink. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink. Last Accessed: 7/6/16.