Have you ever heard stories of how someone prayed for guidance from God and He answered them in an unusual way? Maybe a sign or impression was given or they even heard God tell them what they needed to do. One minister I knew drove to another town and God told him to bid in an auction before he even knew what was up for auction. It turned out that he won in that auction just what his family needed at the time!

Of course we also have many stories in the Bible like this, and they are inspirational.

At the same time, in certain circumstances I have hoped God would give me some special direction in an important decision, but no such spiritual revelation came. I was forced to use what wisdom I have learned from walking with Him every day, learning from the teachers He has given to me and from studying the Bible for myself. Guess what? Many problems over the years have been solved in exactly this way. On the other times I have “heard from the Lord” through various impressions from Him that something was just not right.  In other situations I have acted on positive feelings that I believed were from the Holy Spirit, and these proved to be from Him in the end.

On the other hand, I know people who believe they “hear from God” or are “led by Spirit” almost every minute of every day. However many of their decisions appear to bring many problems to their lives and don’t often bring the results they claimed the Lord had promised.

“As many as are led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God.” (Romans 8:14) In Paul’s writings to believers, he emphasized the difference from being influenced by the unbelieving world and our sinful human desires verses the influence of the Spirit of God Who lives within us. I believe that the Holy Spirit can give us dreams, visions and signs to lead us, but He can also teach us principles and give us simple common sense from the teachings in the Bible.

Do you believe that we could give more attention to what the Lord in the Bible teaches us concerning the importance of wisdom today?