Which job should I pursue? How do I spend this money? Which person should I marry? What church should I attend?

Big or little, we’re making decisions every day, and many times throughout the day. The choices we make as free agents demonstrate a major outworking of the imago dei; it’s one of the main ways we bear God’s image. And as Christians, we are constantly mindful of our mandate and greatest desire to live every moment for the glory of God.

But do we? How do we know we’re living for the glory of God, making the right decisions?

It seems increasingly common to hear of Christians who profess a desire to live for God’s glory, but also seem relatively unconcerned about knowing if they’ve followed God’s will. They seem at ease, unperplexed, and confident about decision-making. Why? Because, they say, God is speaking to them, telling them what He wants them to do.

Now that the rabid subjectivism of charismatic theology has thoroughly saturated the broad but shallow ground of evangelicalism, it’s bearing some ugly fruit. It showed up in Blackaby and King’s Experiencing God books as a mystical approach to decision-making. Rick Warren chimed in with his first blockbuster, The Purpose-Driven Church, instructing us to catch God’s wave, and ride it out. (Cowabunga.)

But those guys are complete amateurs compared with this younger crop of mystics. It has become fairly commonplace nowadays to hear how God told someone to plant a church, make a strategic decision, and even leave a church. Here are a few recent examples:

• God told this guy to plant a church in a gay bar.
  
  
• God guided this church planter with prophetic dreams and visions, which eventually led him to plant a church in a former night club; according to the video, they were trying to get one of the go-go dancer cages back to use as a coat rack.
  
  
• And finally, God told this guy to leave his ministry, wander the cities of the earth, and listen for the Spirit to tell him what his next move is going to be. Even sympathetic friends were scratching their heads about his new direction.

The sad thing is, those men are all shepherds, influential pastors who are leading entire congregations into the darkness of their own subjectivism. Would they advocate the same approach to personal decision-making they’ve used to make ministry decisions? If not, why not? If so, doesn’t anyone see how reckless that is?

All that aside, here’s the good news: you can make decisions with bold confidence, knowing you stand on the firm ground of objective truth. God’s Word is clear, and it has a lot to say about knowing His will.

You want to know how to follow God’s will and live for His glory? Stick around, and don’t touch that dial—”Following God’s Will” is coming up next on the GTY Blog.

Travis Allen
Managing Director