by Alan Langstaff

Life is full of making decisions, both big and small. What clothes will I wear today? What shall we have for supper? On top of that, there are the small decisions that we make almost every moment of our lives. We don’t have time to think about it; often, we have to make an instantaneous decision. Those decisions occur regularly when we are driving a vehicle (i.e., should we change lanes, etc.) However, there are what we might call major decisions that affect our lives for years to come. Such as:

  • What career are we going to pursue?
  • Where are we going to live?
  • Who should I marry (or remain single)?
  • If we are married how many children might we have?
  • What church should we go to?
  • And you could mention many more.

So let us consider how we should approach making major decisions.

1) PRAY ABOUT IT, TRUST GOD, AND HE WILL GUIDE YOU

Prayer should be the first step that one takes, rather than the last one. (i.e., “Well, I guess we can always pray about it.”)

The Lord has promised to guide us, so we should start off with the assurance of God’s guidance.

Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” (NKJV)

Likewise, James 1:5 declares, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” (NKJV)

Also, Philippians 4:6-7 tells us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (NIV)

So the starting point to making major decisions is to bring your request to the Lord and make your requests known to God.

Also, remember that God will not lead you to do something contrary to His Word. The Word is the filter by which we test our guidance. 

It is also good to practice hearing the voice of the Lord. Start with little things, and as your ability to hear God’s voice grows, you will be in a better place when it comes to making major decisions.

May I commend to you the book by my friend Carl Anderson, who went through our Acts Bible College years ago. It is called “Love Speaks” and it gives all the ways God speaks to us. It is available on Amazon.

One other thought. Prayer is not a one-way communication. God can speak to us. Sometimes He speaks when we are not expecting anything in particular. That is one of the most precious times we can have, like when God spoke to Abraham to go to another country.

2) SATURATE YOUR REQUESTS WITH THE WORD OF GOD

You may be surprised to discover how many verses there are in the Bible that refer to making our requests known to God. Let me just mention a few of them.

Jeremiah 29:11, Isaiah 30:21, 1 John 5:14, Jeremiah 33:3, James 3:17, John 16:13, Hebrews 6:11, etc. Google “Making Decisions” in the Bible, and you will discover how many verses there are about making decisions.

So don’t make the reading and study of the Bible the last thing you do (i.e., seeking a promise, etc), but be a student of the Word. Know the Word by regularly reading it.

3) BE PREPARED TO FOLLOW WHATEVER HE TELLS YOU

You will never receive God’s guidance by putting conditions on God guiding, such as, “I will make this decision if you do such and such.” You simply submit yourself to Him and expect to receive an answer, and you have committed yourself to follow Him.

If you are a married couple or the decision involves a group of people, seek to be in unity when you pray and when you seek God.

4) WHEREVER POSSIBLE, SEEK THE CONFIRMATION OF OTHERS
(Particularly mature Christians)

Proverbs 11:14 declares, “Where there is no counsel, the people fall;
But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” (NKJV)

If it is a major decision that has to be made, then it is more than likely that God will confirm the guidance in other ways, often involving other people, and even in providential circumstances.

A CASE STUDY

Let me share one of the major decisions we have ever had to make. It was the decision to move from our country to another country, in this case, from Australia to America in 1980.

Many of our friends and supporters did not agree with our decision and told me so. I was criticized for the step we were taking. So in the midst of it all, you had better be sure that we were making the right decision.

For me, it happened in early 1980. I was on my way to the P.T.L. Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, and had an invitation from Pastor Morris Vaagenes to stop off on my way in St. Paul, Minnesota, and preach at his church on the Sunday and be a speaker at a conference the next week.

On the Monday at the Leadership Conference, I spoke on “delegation,” the ability to release people to minister. While I was speaking, I had a word in my spirit, “You are to delegate the ministry in Australia and move to America.” The word took me completely by surprise. At the end of the session, a Lutheran Pastor and his wife came up to me. I had never met them before. They said that while I was teaching, they felt a burden to pray for me, and they felt God gave them a word for me. I said, “What is it?” They said, “You are to train someone else to take your place.” In other words, God was wanting to replace me. I called my wife, Dorothy, as soon as I could, but I knew that for such a major decision, I needed more confirmation.

The team and I that was with me flew down to the P.T.L. Club in Charlotte. I had received a message that Jim Bakker was going to be away with his leaders for a retreat, and asked if I would host the P.T.L. Club Show on the Monday. This I did and after the show, the producer of the P.T.L. Club TV program, knowing that we were trying to produce an Australian version of the P.T.L. Club, said to me, “Why don’t you produce the Australian Show here in the P.T.L. Club studio.” For me, that was a further confirmation about moving to America, and indeed, we began to produce the program over there.

I also knew that as a family, we needed to be in unity. In actual fact, they all were on my side. Beth, my daughter, had received word that she was to study in America. Joy wanted to live in “Little House on the Prairie” country, and Dorothy had received two confirmations.

The first happened back in 1979 when we were flying to America. She felt God spoke to her that she would be living under the American flag. When she told me, I didn’t know what to do about it. “I had no desire or direction to live outside of Australia. I had never lived more than 10 miles from where I was born. I jokingly said, “Should I put a flag on the top of the house?” 

Then a further word came to Dorothy at the end of 1979 when she went through an agonizing time of prayer at home God said to Dorothy (you can read the full story in the book “Called Together”) “We are to leave everything and move to another part of the world.” At that time, God had not spoken to me, so I was shocked at that word, but later I knew it was true. So we had unity in our marriage and also in our family. The Board of Directors of the ministry took longer, but eventually they agreed for us to move to America.

In actual fact we realized that this was part of the Abraham call that we had received in 1967. Like Abraham we were to move to another country (Genesis 12).

FINAL THOUGHT

So, that’s how we made the major decision to move from Australia to America. How about you? Are you facing some major decisions in your life? Well then…

  1. Seek the Lord in prayer, trust Him and He will show you what to do.
  2. Saturate it all in the Word.
  3. Be prepared to do whatever He tells you to do.
  4. Where possible, expect a confirmation.