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The Guidance of
God
Destiny for the most part is
determined by destination, and direction will
decide what
that will be. Man has engaged all the skill of
scientific
inventions to assist him in providing infallible
direction finders. These
instruments are so reliable that a
pilot many miles aloft soaring over a
trackless ocean can
pinpoint the exact spot of his location at any given
time
and estimate the distance to any given place on the
globe. Men of the
forest use other means of keeping
bearings. Without a compass and even
without sun or stars
to tell the points of the compass, a competent guide
can
read the eloquent writing of nature accurately without getting
lost. If
you are lost it is more important to discover the
right direction than it is to
multiply miles of travel.
Distance is not as important as direction. This is
so true
in the physical sense that it is entirely obvious. Basically
it is even
more true in the spiritual sense even though the
importance is less obvious.
Since direction is so
important, God has endowed almost all his
creatures with
intricate and very delicate equipment for this purpose.
A
minister friend was visiting at our home one day and he
observed a tiny
insect possibly not more than one-half an
inch long. This insect evidently
wanted to cross our lawn
and to this end it found a launching pad on a
blade of
grass where the course was clear and heaved itself forward two
or
three feet. It landed topsy-turvy like; scrambled around
until it righted itself
and then took another flying leap.
The entire procedure took the better part
of an hour but in
all that time the tiny insect never got confused or altered
its
direction. It always leaped towards its objective no
matter how much it
tumbled about on landing. We call this
nature. Sometimes we call it instinct
or providence. But if
God can put such reliable mechanism in such a tiny
and
transitory creature, how much more it seems certain that He
would not
leave the destiny of man to chance. Surely then
God can guide His children
if they will but discover the
instruments through which His Mind can reveal
itself to
us.
Nature is replete with examples of things which
cannot be accounted for
by Chance. A certain small fish
lays its eggs in the sand on one particular
seashore. This
may not seem extraordinary in itself, but the fact that
this
fish comes in with the tide and that in some
miraculous manner instinctively
knows the last wave of the
high tide is beyond explanation. Yet it is this
one and
only breaker that deposits millions of the fishes on a
particular
shore where they perform their domestic duties
of laying eggs before the
return of high tide. How can all
these millions of fishes determine
spontaneously and
infallibly which towering wave crest of the incoming
tide
will leave its lapping waters highest on the shore
line? If God can put that
much guidance in a tiny fish,
would He leave the guidance of man to
chance?
Many
birds travel south for winter and migrate northward again in
the
spring. There are many marvels related to the various
species with
scarcely any two being alike although there is
a similarity in general. One
bird called the cliff swallow,
nests in various parts of North
America during
the summer. In winter the entire
species congregates in Capistrano,
California. This in itself
is a marvelous achievement but it is only a minor
part of
the phenomena. Nature has in some manner endowed these
birds
with equipment which enables the entire species to
arrive in Capistrano
within the space of a few hours. When
you reflect that they come from
many different sections of
the country, and the differences in distance
amounts to
hundreds of miles, this simultaneous arrival is a
staggering
accomplishment. If God can put such timing and
guidance in such a tiny
bird, will He leave the homecoming
of the soul to chance?
Nature is not only kind in its
provisions for its creatures but it is harsh in
enforcing
its laws. You may have heard the proverb, "The eagle stirs
its
nest." This is based on actual fact. Mother eagle
builds her aerie, or nest
on some lofty rocky pinnacle and
she lines it with sheep skins and other
comfortable
material. The young egrets are contented, but as they begin
to
reach maturity, the mother eagle tosses out all the
lining of the nest leaving
only sharp prodding sticks to
jab and irritate the nesting birds. This is
Mother eagle's
way of making life so miserable and unbearable that
the
young ones long to flex their wings and soar. One by
one they take the
fateful plunge and although terrified at
first, they soon learn they are not
alone in space. Mother
eagle swoops beneath the young one and bears it
up to
heights aloft until it masters the art of flying solo. Is the
launching of
an egret more important than the initiation of
a person on the road of life?
Will not God's provisions be
adequate for youth?
Mother bear has a different
technique. When her cubs are old enough to
be on their own
she sends them scampering up a tree and tells them in
bear
language to stay there. Then Mother Bear gets lost, so
to speak. She
disappears from the scene and leaves the cubs
whimpering until hunger
finally drives them down -- and
from that time forward they are on their own.
Each creature
in some miraculous manner has a pattern of its own
with
which Providence has equipped it
for survival. No creature is entirely safe.
The element of
danger is never absent. The laws of Nature are rigid
and
can be ignored only at one's peril. But the fundamental
principle of God's
laws works for the good of all His
creatures while any violation reacts to the
destruction of
the violator!
Spiritual guidance may be much more
complex, but the God Who said, "I
will guide thee with mine
eye," is capable of redeeming His promise. If a
salmon can
leave the spot where it was spawned and wend its way
for
several years through the uncharted paths of the oceans
and then
unerringly return to the identical place in the
stream where it first found life,
and there spawn its roe
and die, surely the God Who gave us the spirit of life
is
competent to complete the cycle of bringing us ultimately into
His
everlasting fellowship. The big question is how? This
answer must be
simple rather than obscure. Where do we turn
for direction What are the
fixed stars of the spiritual
realm? What compass or magnet do we consult?
God gave us a
magnet. Jesus said, "And I, if I be lifted up from the
earth
will draw all men unto Me." John 12:32. The magnets
of the world
universally pull downward. Water cascades
downward to the sea.
Avalanches crash down gorges. Trees
topple down in the storm. And sad
to say, when men follow
their own inclinations, their course is downward
too.
Someone has said truly, "Men and rivers become crooked
by
following the way of least resistance." God's magnet is
Christ. He
reverses the pull of the world. He draws us
upward when our spirit is akin
to His Spirit -- a magnet
only attracts substances of a similar nature. When
Christ
is our center of gravity our entire life will revolve about
Him and be
drawn upwards toward Him.
Secondly, God
gave us the light. Jesus is the Light of the World. No
one
needs to get lost if he regards the sun. Sin is compared with
clouds
that obscure the sun. Isa. 44:22 and Isa. 59:2. Sin
is the cloud that
obscures the light of God. Jesus is
called the Sun of Righteousness, and
as long as we walk in
His light we can be sure of our direction. The Bible
says,
"If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me."
Psa. 66:18.
We can only be sure of God's guidance if we
unquestioningly walk in the
light and turn our backs on
sin.
A third direction finder for guidance is the Word
of God which is often
correctly compared to a map. People
who are intent on reaching a
destination invariably consult
a map to chart their course. They first find
out where they
are, and then proceed to plot the route which will lead to
the
desired destination. The Bible will reveal this
information to those who will
follow its
instruction.
God has many other methods of imparting
guidance to His children if we
are in tune with Him. Godly
parents or Spirit-filled leaders, or sometimes
our
Christian companions help. Circumstances and even sickness
may
speak in a language which the seeking soul will
discover in the path leading
to God. However, in addition
to the Map, the Sun and the Magnet, or any
other means, God
has also given us a Guide. When Christ was about to
leave
this world, He said "And I will pray the Father, and He shall
give you
another Comforter..." John 14:16. Jesus said the
Holy Sprit will "Guide us
into all truth." John 16:13. God
did not leave His children in this world as
orphans. We are
not left alone stranded or deserted. We are not islands
in
a shoreless sea. A Guide goes with us. A map can show
the way; the
magnet can attract and the sun can reveal, but
a Guide keeps company with
us and shares the journey. This
is the role of the Holy Spirit Who unerringly
and
faithfully interprets God's will to us. God gives His best to
those who
leave the choice to Him.
God, the great
righteous Judge seals our destiny but we determine what
it
will be by the direction we choose. Jesus emphasized this in
these
words: "Wide is the gate and broad is the way that
leadeth to destruction
and many there be that go in
thereat. Because straight is the gate and
narrow is the way
that leadeth to life and few there be that find it."
Matt.
7:14. Nature may seem harsh with its inflexible laws,
but when we cooperate
with them they work providentially.
When we violate them we
cannot escape the consequences. The
laws relating to the spiritual realm
are no less precise
and the penalties are no less severe than in the
natural
kingdom because the same God operates in both
spheres. But God has
made the compensations for obedience
so rewarding that they far excel any
sacrifice that may be
required in order to attain the goal. If God can guide
a
tiny insect, or a little bird or creature of the field,
then I know God can guide
me too. And just as they must
co-operate with the laws with which a kind
Providence has
endowed them and conform to those laws, so must my
mind and
will be subject to, and in harmony with the Divine Transmitter
in
order to operate effectively.
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