How Christians Can Seek God’s Will in Difficult Decisions

The post opens with a story from the Vietnam war era about a translator named Hien Pham, who worked with a Christian evangelist and later was imprisoned after Vietnam fell to the communists. When Hien planned an escape by boat, he first lied to four soldiers who came asking about it, but felt convicted and told the truth when they returned. Instead of arresting him, the men chose to join the escape, and one of them proved to be a skilled sailor who helped the group reach Thailand. The author uses this account to ask what might have happened had Hien ignored that conviction.

From there, the author turns to how Christians, both as churches and as individuals, can make decisions in line with God’s will. The post is part of a series on discipleship and looks at the period in Acts 1 after Jesus ascended, when the disciples gathered in Jerusalem and devoted themselves to constant prayer together. The author sees this shared prayer as keeping believers aligned with God’s purposes, and suggests that anyone who has strayed can still redirect their course toward God’s plan.

The post then walks through Peter’s leadership in choosing a replacement for Judas. The author notes Peter’s reliance on Scripture, the guidance of the Spirit, and the practical need at hand, and describes how the group nominated two candidates and then prayed directly, asking the Lord to show which one he had chosen. Drawing on Jesus’s words in Luke 10 about revealing truth to the humble, the author argues that believers should come to God like children, asking what he wants rather than seeking his approval for their own plans. The post also explains why the early church cast lots, while noting that the practice does not appear again in Acts after Pentecost.

In closing, the author offers a simple pattern for personal decisions: begin with Scripture and prayer, seek counsel from family and the church community, narrow the options, and then ask God directly, remaining open to his answer, which may be to wait or to trust him. The post concludes with a short prayer asking God to forgive self-reliance and to renew the believer’s heart by the Holy Spirit.

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