Our God and Our Guide

The way of destruction is wide, accommodating the masses of humanity (Mt 7:13). It is the blind guides who lead the blind into the pit of destruction (Mt 15:14). They are of their father, the devil, a liar and murderer from the beginning (Jn 8:44). He is the ruler of this world (Jn 12:31; 14:30; 16:11), which is his dominion over the domain of darkness (Acts 26:18; Col 1:13). Men love the darkness because their deeds are evil (Jn 3:19), and it is our imperative to expose their evil (Eph 5:11).

When the light of the world, Jesus Christ (Jn 8:12), shines into the hearts of people (2 Cor 4:6), it is the knowledge of the truth being revealed to them, by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of truth is our guide into all truth (Jn 16:13). Jesus Christ is Himself the truth of God revealed to whom God chooses to make Himself known (Mt 11:25, 27; Lk 10:22; Jn 14:6). Him we proclaim without shame because every man is a liar (Rom 1:16; 3:4; Col 1:28), except Him (2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15).

Being guided by the Spirit of truth is the way of life — new, abundant, and eternal (Jn 10:10; Rom 6:4; 1 Jn 5:11–13). It is guidance typified by Yahweh guiding Israel out of Egypt and to the Promised Land (Ex 15:13; Neh 9:19; Ps 78:72). In His sovereign providence, Yahweh also guides all nations, albeit for His purpose and ultimately to their end under His righteous judgment (Ps 67:4).

The psalmist, as an individual, also reflected on God’s personal guidance on the path of righteousness (Ps 23:3). God leads His individual saints and His holy nation for the sake of His Name (Ps 31:3). He proves Himself faithful in all generations, guiding each of His own unto their physical death (Ps 48:14). Death is a mere doorway by which God guides His elect home to glory (Ps 73:24), their desired haven (Ps 107:30).

It is the Spirit of the Lord who continually guides those He indwells with His permanent abiding presence (Is 58:11; Jn 14:17; Rom 8:9, 11; 1 Cor 3:16; Gal 4:6; 2 Tim 1:14; Jas 4:5). It is the Christian’s joy to report the leading of the Lord into the way of peace (Lk 1:79). It is one’s priority to acknowledge the Lord for direction (Prv 3:5–6), especially in prayers for guidance. This is one mark of a humble walk with God (Mic 6:8).

It is a common occurrence for God to send a timely messenger, as when He sent Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:31). The blind guide is like Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:16), whose fruit arrested the Gospel advance for a brief time. Redirection of the Gospel’s progress is also guided by God (Acts 16), as with Paul heading to Macedonia instead of northern Asia (Minor).

No guidance (Prv 11:14; Is 51:18) and bad guidance (Is 3:12; 9:16) is void of the Word of God. The godless leader of people will have them groaning and complaining because the wisdom of the world is no match for the wisdom of God. Those appointed by God for righteousness will have His protection on every side (2 Chron 32:22). He will prosper them in the way, as He did with Abraham’s servant sent in search of a wife for Isaac (Gen 24:48).

Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God and the power of God (1 Cor 1:24), to bring about the will of God by the Spirit of God (Eph 1:11; 3:11). To know the will of God, one must know the Word of God, and one can only know the Word of God by having it illumined by the Spirit of God (Lk 24:45; 1 Cor 2:15–16). The Bible is God’s lamp for the believer's feet and it is the light for the narrow path (Ps 119:105). Jesus Christ affirmed the Bible, and the Bible affirms Jesus Christ.

Consider your direction, my dear reader. Most people are hurtling toward a Christ-less eternity of eternal punishment in the fiery hell of the second death in the lake of fire (Mt 25:41, 46; Jude 7; Rev 20:14–15). The god of this world, Satan, has blinded their minds from seeing and believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:4). He who has eyes to see the things of the Spirit of God has had his spiritual eyes opened (Jn 9; 1 Cor 2:15). He knows this transformation has happened by personal experience. He is happy to bear witness of God renewing His mind to have the mind of Christ (Rom 12:2; 1 Cor 2:16). Is this your testimony of experience?

Christ’s sheep follow their Good Shepherd’s guidance (Jn 10). They have been set free from slavery to the lies of the world, Satan, sin, and the philosophies of men (Jn 8:32). Christians are marked by their love for the Bible and their passion for the truth. As honest witnesses of their conversion to the kingdom of God’s beloved Son (Col 1:13), they proclaim the excellencies of Christ and biblical doctrine (1 Pet 2:9). They celebrate truth, not the sins of sinners heading to judgment (Heb 9:27).

The Christian hope is in Christ (Col 1:27) and the new creation God has promised to those who love Him because He first loved them (1 Jn 4:19). The blessed assurance that God will never leave nor forsake His own is manifest from the promise of God’s Word brought to light by the Spirit (Heb 13:5), who abides with God’s chosen people, forever (Jn 14:16).

Destruction is coming to this world and all of its unredeemed inhabitants from across history and from every place (2 Pet 3:10–12). God is of no interest to them nor is He their guide to the safe haven of heaven, the New Jerusalem, where righteousness dwells (2 Pet 3:13; Rev 3:12; 21:2, 10). The citizens of this dark world are to be warned of God’s wrath to come against them (Mt 3:7; Lk 3:7). Vanity is their lot, today, while a hopeless future draws nigh (Eccl 1:2; Eph 2:12).

In the midst of the billions of people are God’s chosen ones (Rom 11:5). These are the ones for whom we suffer (2 Tim 2:10) in service to our God and King (1 Tim 6:15; Titus 1:3; 2:13; 3:6). As God’s Spirit directs us to them and them to us, Christian, let us show them the kindness of our Lord, who is drawing them to Christ with irresistible grace embedded in the Word of Christ preached to them in the Spirit (Jer 31:3; Jn 6:44; Eph 2:8–9), who demonstrates the power of God to save His people from their sins (Rom 1:16; 1 Cor 2:4).

The promise of God is that He knows His own (2 Tim 2:19), and when the day of salvation is complete, not one of His predestined elect, redeemed, regenerate, believing people will be separated from His love or plucked from His hand (Jn 10:28–29; Rom 8:31–39). Together, we sing, “He leadeth me. He leadeth me.”

David Norczyk

Spokane Valley, Washington

June 17, 2022