Am I Doing God-Directed Work?

 What work should I do? There are two critical biblical theological principles that undergird the process of figuring out what type of work to do (also known as “vocational discernment”). The first principle is that God is the Guide. Biblically there is no word for “guidance.” That is what the ancients did in trying to figure out the will of the gods by mechanical means, reading teacups and examining livers of animals and birds. It was called “divination.” We look to the Bible for guidance and what we are given is a Guide! Consistently the Bible is more concerned with our relationship to the Guide than our being “in the center of his will,” a concept not actually found in the Bible but promoted by popular Christianity. Once it is clear who guides it is appropriate to ask how God guides. Bruce Waltke says, “When we talk of ‘finding God’s will’ we generally want guidance on specific choices, but it should be noted that the term is never used after the Holy Spirit came upon the church at Pentecost.” “The New Testament,” he says, “gives no command to ‘find God`s will,’ nor can you find any instructions on how to go about finding God’s will.” Simply we have a Guide.

The second critical discernment principle is that the will of God is not like a detailed blueprint but more like an empowering vision. Here is where a popular, profoundly inhibiting but false teaching exists. God does not have a wonderful plan for our lives as is often proposed, a detailed blueprint which we must obediently follow or we will end up doing God’s second best, or worse still, not doing his will at all. God has something better than a wonderful plan: a wonderful purpose. A plan is terrifying especially if we make a mistake in reading the directions. A purpose is evocative. A purpose is like a fast flowing stream which carries us along, and which allows for some mobility from side to side if we are paddling down it in a canoe. The dream God gave the young Joseph is typical of this (Gen 35:1-11). It was a dream of greatness under God, a dream of leadership. Though Joseph erred in trying to make it happen by advising his brothers that they would be his servants, this dream eventually came to pass, partly through Joseph’s actions with the jailer and with Pharaoh (Gen 39:21-23; 41:33-38).