Three practical guidelines for decision-making rooted in Scripture

The Bible is clear: the Holy Spirit speaks to us today.

The problem is: we don’t always recognize it.

So we need some guidelines for helping us recognize the Spirit when He speaks.

I am not calling these hard-and-fast rules. While I’ll have biblical principles behind them, I recognize that every situation is unique and the “rules” won’t always apply. To quote a famous pirate:

But I do believe these guidelines will assist you in making godly decisions when you come to a fork in the road in life and there isn’t necessarily a Bible verse that shows you the right choice.

1. Not of Fear

If fear is motivating which way you’d like to go, then first of all, I would say that you need to cool your jets before making that final decision.

Romans 8:14-15 – ¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

We are not to be led by fear when we make a decision. Here’s a good question to ask yourself when you’re making a choice: Why are you doing this? If the answer begins because I’m afraid… Then pause right there. You’re not making that decision for the right reason.

Your decision might ultimately be the correct one. It might not. But saying “because I’m afraid” should not be the reason for it.

You need to do some more prayer about it and make that decision in faith, not fear. Find a different motivation than fear.

2. Not of the Flesh

Another guideline to remember when you’re making the decision is to avoid motivations that come from fleshly desires. A fleshly desire is something like greed, sexual impulse or pride.

Galatians 5:16-21 – ¹⁶ But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.¹⁷ For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

What does that mean? That means your motivation for a decision is based on fulfilling one of these desires of the flesh, and that’s going to cloud your ability to hear from the Spirit.

For example, let’s say you’re offered a job for a $50,000 salary and another job for a $100,000 salary. Obviously, most of us would prefer the $100,000 salary if the jobs are similar. But if your reason for taking the higher-paying job is solely because of the money, I’d say you need to consider some other factors (especially consulting the Spirit) before you make any agreements.

As a pastor, let’s say I was offered jobs at two churches, one for $50k and one for $100k. Pastors are not to be motivated by greed (I Timothy 3:3), and many of you would rightly fault me for selecting a church to pastor based simply on the salary. And you’d be correct.

But what I think most people forget is that none of us should be motivated by greed. Not just pastors. All Christians should avoid greed. We should all give the Spirit an opportunity to steer us beyond our fleshly desires. You might find yourself having a much happier life with the $50k job than the other. I’d rather be happy than wealthy. Godliness with contentment is great gain.

And that doesn’t mean it’s wrong to choose the higher-paying job. I’m just saying, we shouldn’t base the decision on salary alone. And that brings me to the third guideline today:

3. Use Your Head

I wish someone had told me this years ago. It would have saved me so much stress and anxiety.

The Bible speaks to a lot of the issues of life. You can read your Bible and receive a lot of spiritual direction.

There are times that the Spirit will nudge you in one direction or the other. The Spirit will never contradict what you read in your Bible. But the Spirit may speak to issues that go beyond what your Bible speaks to.

However, many of the decisions and dilemmas we face will pertain to things that (1) the Bible doesn’t talk about and (2) the Spirit of God hasn’t told you one way or the other.

So after you consider whether fear is motivating your decision- and after you consider whether the flesh is motivating it- once you’ve settled those questions, then I would encourage you to make the most logical decision in front of you.

This is what I wish someone had told me when I was younger: If you have no idea what God wants you to do, just make the most practical decision. God gave you a brain; use it! He isn’t going to lead you to do something impractical unless He’s made His will clearly known.

Here’s why that would have saved me some time: I used to think that if I was going to make spiritual decisions, I needed to pray and pray and pray and pray about it until the Spirit told me one way or the other.

Now, I’m obviously not against prayer, but I may have been waiting for God to tell me something when the answer was already a little to obvious.

II Timothy 1:7 – For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

I hope that’s an encouraging verse to you! Sometimes we shy away from the most reasonable option because it sounds too non-spiritual to make decisions based on pure logic. But logic is not unspiritual: God gave you a spirit of a sound mind.

God gave you a brain, so use it!

In the Bible, people often made important life decisions by casting lots– AKA, playing a game of chance. Literally. We see both followers and non-followers of God using this method- typically to great success. But is that an option for believers today? Check out this episode of the Weird Stuff in the Bible podcast to learn more.