What does it mean to seek and to find God at our work? Surely it involves relating to Him. But what does that look like? Here the idea of hearing His voice, getting His direction about our work tasks and whatever we are dealing with day to day is very attractive. Work in this world is complex and complicated. It is not easy to decide the course of action that will bring the most benefit. And in our sin entangled world, it is hard to know what is a course of action that is pleasing to the Lord. There is very little that is straight forward and not filled with all sorts of nuances. It is messy.

We have Scripture, but relying on our minds to understand Scriptural truth and properly apply it in our work world should not be a source of confidence that we are on the right track. I don’t know about you, but when I read Scripture, I am just as likely to be scratching my head over what I have read as I am to have a light bulb moment of understanding. And applying an understanding to a specific work situation is another discernment challenge that can often feel too much for me.

Cue John 16:13 “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” That is what we need. But what does that guidance look like? Is it a voice that we are able to hear that can direct us in the circumstances of our lives? That is very appealing because it is direct for what we are dealing with and it is relational. We are not applying Biblical truths or concepts, we are listening and obeying the voice of the Lord. That is a desirable experience of His presence. And as 16:13 continues, there is language pertaining to a vocal communication…. “for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”

So, it would seem that learning to hear the voice of the Lord at work should be an important part of the ministry of Leavened Lives. But then I came across a 3 part blog post by Greg Koukl from 2011 (Does God Whisper?) in which he questions whether this is a valid pursuit. He has some strong points, particularly when he looks at the Bible passages that are often used as a basis for teaching about the importance of developing your ability to hear the voice of the Lord. But I am not satisfied with where his conclusions would leave us in our relationship with God at work. It just does not seem relational enough to me.

So I am on a journey to try and better understand this. And this will truly be in the spirit of blogging that I talked about in my first post . Here is an excerpt.

Blogging is a medium for those confusing and baffling aspects of trying to understand life through the lens of Biblical truth. Rather than leaving those aspects out, like with a sermon, it is about presenting half baked ideas and inviting others into conversation to go deeper and gain more understanding. It is freeing because there is not the pressure to be clear and correct in the communication. You can put down thoughts that you would discard later, communicate in ways that you realize are not clear.

I will be blogging about this journey and will have some initial thoughts next time. I will be re reading Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God by Dallas Willard. I read this book years ago and have recently been studying Dallas Willard and his thoughts and influence. I have also reached out to Greg Koukl and asked him if he would modify today what he wrote over 10 years ago. I will report if I hear back.

So here I am asking the Holy Spirit to guide me into the truth about how God actually guides us into all truth.

I would love to connect with you about these posts if they have stirred any thoughts or questions. Take a minute, shoot me an email at bo@leavenedlives.org, and let’s see where that takes us.