12: Guidance
12: The Discipline of Guidance
Dwell in the life and love and power and wisdom of God, in unity one with another and with God; and the peace and wisdom of God fill your hearts, that nothing may rule in you but the life, which stands in the Lord God.
—GEORGE FOX
In our day heaven and earth are on tiptoe waiting for the emergence of a Spirit-led, Spirit-intoxicated, Spirit-empowered people. All of creation watches expectantly for the springing up of a disciplined, freely gathered, martyr people who know in this life the life and power of the kingdom of God. It has happened before. It can happen again.
Indeed, in movements all over the world we are now beginning to see the breaking forth of the apostolic church of the Spirit. Many are having a deep and profound experience of an Emmanuel of the Spirit—God with us; a knowledge that in the power of the Spirit Jesus has come to guide his people himself; an experience of his leading that is as definite and as immediate as the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.
But the knowledge of the direct, active, immediate leading of the Spirit is not sufficient. Individual guidance must yield to corporate guidance. There must also come a knowledge of the direct, active, immediate leading of the Spirit together. I do not mean “corporate guidance” in an organizational sense, but in an organic and functional sense. Church councils and denominational decrees are simply not of this reality.
Much of the teaching on divine guidance in our century has been noticeably deficient on the corporate aspect. We have received excellent instruction on how God leads us through Scripture and through reason and through circumstances and through the promptings of the Spirit upon the individual heart. There has also been teaching—good teaching—on the exceptional means of guidance: angels, visions, dreams, signs, and more. But we have heard little about how God leads through his people, the body of Christ. On that subject there is profound silence.
For this reason I have chosen to list guidance among the Corporate Disciplines and to stress its communal side. God does guide the individual richly and profoundly, but he also guides groups of people and can instruct the individual through the group experience.*
Perhaps the preoccupation with private guidance in Western cultures is the product of their emphasis upon individualism. The people of God have not always been so.
God led the children of Israel out of bondage as a people. Everyone saw the cloud and fiery pillar. They were not a gathering of individuals who happened to be going in the same direction; they were a people under the theocratic rule of God. His brooding presence covered them with an amazing immediacy. The people, however, soon found God’s unmediated presence too awful, too glorious and begged, “Let not God speak to us, lest we die” (Exod. 20:19). So Moses became their mediator. Thus began the great ministry of the prophets whose function was to hear God’s word and bring it to the people. Although it was a step away from the corporate leading of the Holy Spirit, there remained a sense of being a people together under the rule of God. But a day came when Israel rejected even the prophet in favor of a king. From that point on the prophet was the outsider. He was a lonely voice crying in the wilderness; sometimes obeyed, sometimes killed, but almost always on the outside.
Patiently God prepared a people and in the fullness of time Jesus came. And with him dawned a new day. Once again a people were gathered who lived under the immediate, theocratic rule of the Spirit. With quiet persistence Jesus showed them what it meant to live in response to the voice of the Father. He taught them that they, too, could hear the heaven-sent voice and most clearly when together. “If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:19, 20).
In those words Jesus gave his disciples both assurance and authority. There was the assurance that when a people genuinely gathered in his name his will could be discerned. The superintending Spirit would utilize the checks and balances of the different believers to ensure that when their hearts were in unity they were in rhythm with the heartbeat of the Father. Assured that they had heard the voice of the true Shepherd, they were able to pray and act with authority. His will plus their unity equaled authority.
Although Jesus was an outsider to his own people, being crucified beyond the city gates, some people embraced his rulership. And they became a gathered people. “Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection” (Acts 4:32, 33). They became a fiery band of witnesses, declaring everywhere that Christ’s voice could be heard and his will obeyed.
Perhaps the most astonishing feature of that incendiary fellowship was their sense of corporate guidance. It was beautifully illustrated in the calling forth of Paul and Barnabas to tramp the length and breadth of the Roman empire with the good news of the kingdom of God (Acts 13:1–3). Their call came when a number of people had been together over an extended period of time. It included the use of the Disciplines of prayer, fasting, and worship. Having become a prepared people, the call of God arose out of their corporate worship: “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (Acts 13:2).
With all our modern methods of missionary recruitment we could profit by giving serious attention to this example of corporate guidance. We would be well advised to encourage groups of people to fast, pray, and worship together until they have discerned the mind of the Lord.
Under corporate guidance the early Church faced and resolved its most explosive issue (Acts 15). Some freelance Christians had gone up to Antioch and had begun preaching the necessity of circumcision for all Christians. The issue was far from trivial. Paul saw at once that it was tantamount to the Jewish cultural captivity of the Church.
Appointed elders and apostles gathered in the power of the Lord not to jockey for position or to play one side against another, but to hear the mind of the Spirit. It was no small task. There was intense debate. Then in a beautiful example of how individual guidance impinges upon corporate guidance, Peter told about his experience with the Italian centurion Cornelius. As he spoke, the ever-brooding Spirit of God did a wonderful work. When Peter finished, the entire assembly fell into silence (Acts 15:12). Finally, the gathered group came into what must be called a glorious, heaven-sent, unified commitment to reject cultural religion and to hold to the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ. They concluded, “It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us . . .” (Acts 15:28). They had faced the toughest issue of their day and had discerned the voice from on high. This is the high watermark in the book of Acts.
It was more than a victory regarding an issue; it was a victory of the method used in resolving all issues. As a people they had decided to live under the direct rulership of the Spirit. They had rejected both human totalitarianism and anarchy. They had even rejected democracy, that is, majority rule. They had dared to live on the basis of Spirit-rule; no fifty-one percent vote, no compromises, but Spirit-directed unity. And it worked.
No doubt those experiences in discerning the will of God in community contributed greatly to Paul’s understanding of the Church as the body of Christ. He saw that the gifts of the Spirit were given by the Spirit to the body in such a way that interdependence was ensured. No one person possessed everything. Even the most mature needed the help of others. The most insignificant had something to contribute. No one could hear the whole counsel of God in isolation.
Sadly, we must note that by the time John received his great apocalyptic vision the believing community was beginning to cool. By the time of Constantine the church was ready to accept another human king. The vision, however, did not die, and there have been groups throughout the centuries gathered together under the rulership of the Holy Spirit. And today we are beginning to see just such a gathering, and for this we can thank God.
Some Models
The apostolic band did not leap from ground zero to the dizzy heights of Spirit-rulership in a single bound. Neither will we. For the most part they moved into that realm one step at a time, sometimes moving forward a bit, sometimes withdrawing. But by the time Pentecost had come, they were a prepared people.
Having once understood the radical implications of being a people under the direct administration of the Holy Spirit, one of the most destructive things we can do is to say, “Sounds wonderful. Beginning tomorrow I’ll live that way!” Such zealotry only succeeds in making life miserable for ourselves and everyone around us. So, rather than sally off to conquer the world of the Spirit, most of us need to begin with more modest steps. One of the best ways we learn is from models of people who have struggled corporately to hear the voice from on high.
One of the most delightful examples comes from “the poor little monk of Assisi,” St. Francis. Francis, it seems, was in “great agony of doubt” about whether he should devote himself only to prayer and meditation, which was a common practice in those days, or whether he should also engage in preaching missions. Wisely, Francis sought out counsel. “As the holy humility that was in him did not allow him to trust in himself or in his own prayers, he humbly turned to others in order to know God’s will in this matter.”
He sent messages to two of his most trusted friends, Sister Clare and Brother Silvester, asking them to meet with one of their “purer and more spiritual companions” and seek the will of God in the matter. Immediately, they gathered to pray and both Sister Clare and Brother Silvester returned with the same answer.
When the messenger returned, St. Francis first washed his feet and prepared him a meal. Then, kneeling down before the messenger, St. Francis asked him, “What does my Lord Jesus Christ order me to do?” The messenger replied that Christ had revealed that “He wants you to go about the world preaching, because God did not call you for yourself alone but also for the salvation of others.” Receiving the message as the undisputed word of Christ, St. Francis jumped up saying, “So let’s go—in the name of the Lord,” whereupon he immediately embarked on a preaching mission. That direction gave the early Franciscan movement an unusual combination of mystical contemplation and evangelistic fervor.1
In this experience Francis was doing more than seeking out the advice of wise counselors. He was seeking a way to open the windows of heaven to reveal the mind of Christ, and he took it as such—to the great good of all to whom he ministered.
Another model for corporate guidance can be found in what some call “meetings for clearness.” Such meetings are called specifically to seek the mind of the Spirit for some individual’s question. Once a gifted young man asked my counsel about his future. He had graduated from college and was wrestling with whether or not to go into the pastoral ministry. He had availed himself of all the vocational tests and guidance courses offered and still was undecided. I honestly did not know what was best for him and suggested that he call a meeting for clearness. So he gathered a group of people who knew him well, had spiritual maturity, and were unafraid to be honest and candid with him. There were no earth-shattering visions given to my friend that night, but as this group worshiped and shared they became a supporting community. Over a period of time the gifts and calling of that young man were confirmed, and today he is in the pastoral ministry.
A concept closely akin to this has been pioneered by the Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C. When any member feels that God has led him or her to establish a particular mission group or to venture into a special area of service, they “sound the call.” This is done at the conclusion of a worship service when the member shares the vision that he or she senses. Afterward, all who want to are welcome to meet with the person to “test the call.” Together they probe the issue, praying, questioning, searching. Sometimes there is a sense that the idea was the product of false enthusiasm, and it is abandoned. At other times it is confirmed by the prayers and interaction of the group. Perhaps others in the room are drawn into the call and make it their own. Thus a “company of the committed” is formed.
Matters of the highest personal importance can be brought to the believing community for discernment. For example, on one occasion two people came before our community stating that they felt the leading of the Lord to be married and desired the confirmation of a Spirit-directed body. Several people who knew the couple well were asked to meet with them. This is their report:
“The special committee appointed to communicate with Mark and Becky regarding their plans to marry is happy to return a most positive report.
We met with Mark and Becky and had a most enjoyable evening of fellowship and prayer. We shared our concern for the sanctity of the family which is the heart of God’s plan for human relationships. We were impressed with Mark and Becky’s dependence upon the Lord’s leading, their anticipation of potential problems, and their mature realization that successful marriage depends upon continuing commitment to each other and to the Lord.
We are happy to commend Mark and Becky’s plans to the [church]. We feel their home will reflect the prayerful and loving influence of their childhood homes and the church community as they unite their love in that relationship ordained by God.
The committee feels a beneficial, special warmth for Mark and Becky which we anticipate will continue in a shepherding relationship. We recommend this precedent to other couples considering marriage.”*
It is possible for business decisions to be made under a sense of the corporate leading of the Holy Spirit. Quakers have done so for years and have demonstrated the feasibility of such an approach. Business meetings should be viewed as worship services. Available facts can be presented and discussed, all with a view to listening to the voice of Christ. Facts are only one aspect of the decision-making process and in themselves are not conclusive. The Spirit can lead contrary to or in accord with the available facts. God will implant a spirit of unity when the right path has been chosen and trouble us with restlessness when we have not heard correctly. Unity rather than majority rule is the principle of corporate guidance. Spirit-given unity goes beyond mere agreement. It is the perception that we have heard the Kol Yahweh, the voice of God.
A classic and dramatic illustration occurred in 1758. John Woolman and others had pricked the conscience of the Society of Friends over their involvement in the demonic institution of slavery. As Philadelphia Yearly Meeting gathered for its business meetings that year, the slavery issue was a major agenda item. A great deal was at stake and the issue was hotly debated. John Woolman, with head bowed and tears in his eyes, sat through the various sessions in complete silence. Finally, after hours of agonizing prayer he rose and spoke. “My mind is led to consider the purity of the Divine Being and the justice of His judgment, and herein my soul is covered with awfulness. . . . Many slaves on this continent are oppressed and their cries have entered into the ears of the Most High. . . . It is not a time for delay.” Firmly and tenderly Woolman dealt with the problems of the “private interests of some persons” and the “friendships which do not stand upon an immutable foundation.” With prophetic boldness he warned the Yearly Meeting that if it failed to do its “duty in firmness and constancy” then “God may by terrible things in righteousness answer us in this matter.”2
The entire Yearly Meeting melted into a spirit of unity as a result of this compassionate witness. They responded as one voice to remove slavery from their midst. John Greenleaf Whittier states that those sessions “must ever be regarded as one of the most important religious convocations in the history of the Christian Church.”3
That united decision is particularly impressive when we realize that the Society of Friends was the only body that asked slaveholding members to reimburse their slaves for their time in bondage.* It is also striking to realize that under the prompting of the Spirit, Quakers had voluntarily done something that not one of the antislavery revolutionary leaders—George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry—was willing to do. So influential was the united decision of 1758 that by the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence Quakers had completely freed themselves from the institution of slavery.
Many of the Christian communities springing up around the world have discovered the reality and practicality of business decisions through Spirit rule. Such diverse groups as Reba Place Fellowship in Illinois, Society of Brothers in New York, and the Mary Sisterhood in Darmstadt, Germany, all operate on the basis of Spirit-directed unity. Issues are approached with an assurance that the mind of the Spirit can be known. They gather in Christ’s name, believing that his will will be fleshed out in their midst. They do not seek compromise, but God-given consensus.
I once attended a business session of some two hundred people in which an issue had been earnestly debated. Though there was a sharp difference of opinion, each of the members sincerely desired to hear and obey the will of God. After a considerable period of time, a united sense of direction began to emerge among all except a few people. Finally, one person stood and said, “I do not feel right about this course of action, but I hope that the rest of you will love me enough to labor with me until I have the same sense of God’s leading as the rest of you or until God opens another way to us.”
As an outside observer, I was touched by how tenderly the group responded to that appeal. All over the auditorium little groups began gathering to share, to listen, to pray. By the time they had broken through to a united decision, I had received a far greater appreciation for the way in which Christians are to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). Such expressions of the central function of corporate guidance are among the most healthy signs of spiritual vitality today.
The Spiritual Director
In the Middle Ages not even the greatest saints attempted the depths of the inward journey without the help of a spiritual director. Today the concept is hardly understood, let alone practiced, except in the Roman Catholic monastic system. That is a tragedy, for the idea of the spiritual director is highly applicable to the contemporary scene. It is a beautiful expression of divine guidance through the help of our brothers and sisters.
Spiritual directorship has an exemplary history. Many of the first spiritual directors were the desert Fathers and were held in high regard for their ability to “discern spirits.” People would often travel for miles in the wilderness just to hear a brief word of advice, a “word of salvation,” which summed up the will and judgment of God for them in their actual concrete situation. The Apophthegmata Patrum or “Sayings of the Fathers” is an eloquent testimony to the simplicity and depth of this spiritual guidance. Also, many of the Cistercian laybrothers in twelfth-century England were distinguished for their ability to read and guide souls.
What is the purpose of a spiritual director? The seventeenth-century Benedictine mystic, Dom Augustine Baker, writes, “In a word, he is only God’s usher, and must lead souls in God’s way, and not his own.”4 His direction is simply and clearly to lead us to our real Director. He is the means of God to open the path to the inward teaching of the Holy Spirit.
His function is purely and simply charismatic. He leads only by the force of his own personal holiness. He is not a superior or some ecclesiastically appointed authority. The relationship is of an adviser to a friend. Though the director has obviously advanced further into the inner depths, the two are both learning and growing in the realm of the Spirit.
All this talk of “soul” and “spirit” might lead us to think that spiritual direction deals only with a small corner or compartment of our lives. That is, we would go to a spiritual director to care for our spirit the way we might go to an ophthalmologist to care for our eyes. Such an approach is false. Spiritual direction is concerned with the whole person and the interrelationship of all of life. Thomas Merton tells of a Russian spiritual director who was criticized for spending so much time earnestly advising an old peasant woman about the care of her turkeys. “Not at all,” he replied, “her whole life is in those turkeys.”5 Spiritual direction takes up the concrete daily experiences of our lives and gives them sacramental significance. We learn “the sacrament of the present moment,” as Jean-Pierre de Caussade put it.6 “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).
Spiritual direction is first born out of natural, spontaneous human relationships. A hierarchical or even organizational system is not essential to its function and is often destructive to it. The ordinary kinds of caring and sharing that belong to the Christian community are the starting point for spiritual direction. Out of them will flow “kingdom authority” through mutual subordination and servanthood.
A spiritual director must be a person who has developed a comfortable acceptance of himself or herself. That is, a genuine maturity must pervade all of that person’s life. Such persons are unmoved by the fluctuations of the times. They can absorb the selfishness and mediocrity and apathy around them and transform it. They are unjudging and unshakable. They must have compassion and commitment. Like Paul who thought of Timothy as his “beloved child,” they must be prepared to take on certain parental responsibilities. Theirs must be a tough love that refuses to give approval to every whim. They should also know enough of the human psyche that they will not reinforce unconscious and infantile needs for authoritarianism.
Spiritual directors must be on the inward journey themselves and be willing to share their own struggles and doubts. There needs to be a realization that together they are learning from Jesus, their ever-present Teacher.
How does such a relationship come about? As with all other things in the kingdom of God, it is arranged by prayer. Bringing and resting our case with God, we wait patiently for his way to be manifest. If he should invite us to speak to someone or make certain arrangements, we gladly obey. Such relationships can be formal as in some of the monastic orders, but they do not need to be. If we have the humility to believe that we can learn from our brothers and sisters and the understanding that some have gone further into the divine Center than others, then we can see the necessity of spiritual direction. As Virgil Vogt of Reba Place Fellowship says, “If you cannot listen to your brother, you cannot listen to the Holy Spirit.”7
Also, it is helpful to realize that there are many forms of spiritual direction. Preaching is a form of spiritual direction as is the ministry of many small groups. John Wesley established the “class meetings” and the “bands” as forms of spiritual direction. The Bible itself functions as spiritual direction, for as we read it prayerfully we are being formed more and more into the image of Christ.
In reflecting on the value of this ministry for centuries of Christians, Thomas Merton says that the spiritual director was something of “a spiritual father who ‘begot’ the perfect life in the soul of his disciple by his instructions first of all, but also by his prayer, his sanctity and his example. He was . . . a kind of ‘sacrament’ of the Lord’s presence in the ecclesiastical community.”8
The Limits of Corporate Guidance
As we all know, dangers exist in corporate guidance as well as in individual guidance. Perhaps the most menacing danger is manipulation and control by leaders. If corporate guidance is not handled within the larger context of an all-pervasive grace, it degenerates into an effective way to straighten out deviant behavior. It becomes a kind of quasi-magic formula through which leaders can impose their will upon individuals, an authorized system through which all differing opinions can be brought into line.
Such manipulative perversion results in the stifling of fresh spiritual vitality. The prophet Isaiah tells us that the coming Messiah “will not break a bruised reed, or quench a smoldering wick” (Isa. 42:3; Matt. 12:20). It is not the way of Jesus to crush the weakest person or to snuff out the smallest hope. Tenderness toward each individual situation must inform all our deliberations. On one occasion George Fox was debating, and roundly defeating, one Nathaniel Stephens. Overwhelmed, Stephens declared that “George Fox is come into the light of the sun, and now he thinks to put out my starlight.” Fox writes: “But I said, ‘Nathaniel, give me thy hand’; then I told him I would not quench the least measure of God in any, much less put out his starlight.”9
There is also danger in the opposite direction. It is possible for a hard-hearted and stiff-necked people to hinder Spirit-inspired leaders. While leaders need the counsel and discernment of the believing community, they also need the freedom to lead. If God has called them to lead, they should not have to bring every detail of life to the community. We must never be seduced by Western democratic ideals into believing that every person must have an equal say about every triviality in the community’s life. God appoints authoritative leadership in his Church so that his work may be done upon the earth.
Another danger is that corporate guidance will become divorced from biblical norms. Scripture must pervade and penetrate all our thinking and acting. The one Spirit will never lead in opposition to the written Word that he inspired. There must always be the outward authority of Scripture as well as the inward authority of the Holy Spirit. In fact, Scripture itself is a form of corporate guidance. It is a way God speaks through the experience of the people of God. It is one aspect of “the communion of the saints.”
Finally, we must recognize that corporate guidance is limited by our finitude. We are fallible human beings and there are times when, despite our best efforts, our own prejudices and fears keep us from a Spirit-led unity. Sometimes we simply see things differently. Paul and Barnabas, for example, could not agree on whether to take John Mark with them on their second missionary journey. Luke says “a sharp contention” developed between them (Acts 15:39). We should not be surprised if we have the same experience in our ministry efforts.
If this happens, my counsel is that we be kind to each other. Ministry teams at times do part ways, and churches at times do split. Let us do all we can to make any such separation as gracious as possible. Let us pray for each other and ask God’s blessing upon one another. Let us have the confidence of the apostle Paul that “in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in that I rejoice” (Phil. 1:18).
Dallas Willard states, “The aim of God in history is the creation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons, with Himself included in that community as its prime sustainer and most glorious inhabitant.”10 Such a community lives under the immediate and total rulership of the Holy Spirit. They are a people blinded to all other loyalties by the splendor of God, a compassionate community embodying the law of love as seen in Jesus Christ. They are an obedient army of the Lamb of God living under the Spiritual Disciplines, a community in the process of total transformation from the inside out, a people determined to live out the demands of the gospel in a secular world. They are tenderly aggressive, meekly powerful, suffering, and overcoming. Such a community, cast in a rare and apostolic mold, constitutes a new gathering of the people of God. May almighty God continue to gather such people in our day.