Guidance revisited

Back in January I had a bit of a rant (here) about the pagan teaching that is passed off among Western Christians for guidance.

You know the drill: you pray lots and then you listen to the 'still, small voice' of God (a misquote of 1 Kings 19:12 (best in the KJV, for misreading anyway) which makes that verse say the opposite of what it really says).

And if the 'still, small voice of God' is convincing enough, you can do what you like... oops I mean you can do what the still, small voice of God told you.

Of course, the other sure confirmation that something is God's will is the opportunity. So, a woman has the opportunity to preach, and so that overrules any Scriptures that say women should not preach. Someone has the opportunity to have an affair, that proves that the affair is ok. Of course, the guidance pagans never really admit that this is the end-result of their dodgy theology, but if we answer the question, "Should I be a missionary" with "well I can afford the ticket" as 'proof' that this is God's will, then every time I get the opportunity to have an affair it must be ok, using this logic.

My rant about all that was blogged about way back in January. But on Sunday our systematic Bible reading was 1 Samuel 24. It occurred to me as I was reading it to the church that the 'opportunity' method of guidance is knocked out of contention by this passage. David is hiding in a cave. Saul comes in to do a shit. David has the opportunity to bump Saul off: his own troops take the "opportunity equals guidance" view. But David refuses to accept that opportunity equals guidance. His loyalty is to the Lord's anointed. Read it here in the excellent New Living Translation.

Of course, the New Testament conveys a similar notion. In 2 Corinthians 1 Paul speaks of his opportunities and how he did not follow them because they weren't the wisest way to go. Opportunity DOES NOT equal guidance. Bloody hell, every time someone rejects the gospel we'd give up sharing it if we took that view!