Responding to the Right Impressions

*The following article is from the book – Walking With God by Steve Bray - and the chapter entitled “The Fellowship of Communicating with God.”

Learning to respond to the right impressions is an important part of being a Christian. We have therefore included extensive quotes from the best sources we have found on this subject. The following lessons are from Martin Knapp’s book Impressions. (We have provided additional material in the Appendix from Impressions and from Thomas Upham’s book Inward Divine Guidance.)

Emphatic mention of this test of impressions is made by Upham in his valuable treatise on Divine Guidance. He says… “If a leading is of God the ‘way will always open for it.’ The Lord assures us of this when He says: ‘When He putteth forth His own sheep He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice.’ Notice here the expressions, ‘goeth before’ and ‘follow.’ He goes before to open a way, and we are to follow in the way thus opened. It is never a sign of divine leading when a Christian insists on opening his own way, and riding roughshod over all opposing things. If the Lord goes before us He will open all doors for us, and we shall not need ourselves to hammer them down. The Word declares, ‘Behold, I have set before thee an open door and no man can shut it.’ ”

This open door of providential opportunity awaits every person who follows impressions from above. “I will go before thee,” declares Jehovah to all who follow Him, “and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron.” All true impressions from above find “crooked places” divinely straightened, gates of brass divinely broken and bars of iron divinely sundered.

The providential openings which thus ever welcome those divinely led are marvelous. God never impresses a Noah to build an ark, or a Solomon a temple, but that means, material and men await their appropriating faith. He never impresses a Philip to go preach to an individual, but that he prepares the person for Philip’s preaching…

We cannot forbear to quote further from the luminous teachings of George D. Watson on this frequently puzzling point. He says: “The Holy Ghost never guides us contrary to the Word. The Word never guides us contrary to Providence, and Providence does not guide us contrary to the Word or Spirit. So that these three elements of divine guidance are always harmonious… When you want to be divinely led, simply consult God’s providence and consult God’s Word and consult the convictions of God’s Spirit upon your heart, and the Lord, if you are humble and teachable, will see that you are properly led.”…

God has given us reasoning powers for a purpose, and he respects them, appeals to them, and all of His leadings are in unison with them. He will bring up all the facts in the case in such a way as to convince us that His leadings are all in harmony with sanctified common sense…

God never asks us to act on uncertainties. To do so is a spiritual crime. “He that doubteth is damned if he eat,” and this principle proscribes the doing of anything concerning the rightfulness of which there is doubt… [“For whatever is not from faith is sin.” (Rom. 14:23)]

God does not drive, but leads His children… Watson says, “You can detect the devil by one or two things. The devil always talks loud. Jesus always talks low and tender… When a [worldly] spirit makes an impression on the mind, that impression can be made in a loud, rushing, pell-mell sort of way… I mean to say that the impression has a loudness in the mind… The devil wants you to be in a hurry and rush and go pell-mell and not wait for anything; whereas Jesus is always quiet and He is calm and always takes His time… The more you wait on God, if the conviction comes from the Holy Ghost, the more you wait and the more you pray, the stronger it becomes. If it comes from the devil, the more you wait and the more you pray, the weaker it grows. You can tell by that. If you have a call to some mission work or anything, and you say, ‘I wish I did know whether it were God or Satan,’ you just take time…”

While it is true, when duty is clearly known, that “the king’s business requireth haste,” yet when it is not clearly known it is just as true that “he that believeth shall not make haste.”…

The impressions from above, when followed, are attended by a sweet peace and the consciousness that they are right; those from below, by perplexity and the feeling that something is wrong. The first brings rest. The second robs of it… The Holy Spirit is an unerring guide, and he who detects and turns from every wrong impression and fully follows Him will be led into “all truth.”…

May we each so “try the spirits,” and “watch and pray,” that, like God’s people of old, we may see our “pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night,” and thus while being led in a “plain path” be enabled to “stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.”

God does not reveal the full details of His will all at once. He keeps His children in constant dependence upon Him. You will therefore need to have your patience perfected and learn to live each moment by the Spirit. “But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete {living in full dependence upon God}, lacking nothing.” (Jam. 1:4) The more lamb-like you become in your meek and lowly submission to His will, the easier it is to hear His voice and follow Him. You will then begin to discover that you never lack anything.

Wesley Duewel says in his book there is never an emergency with God. Even though we may think there is a crisis, our Sovereign God knows the end from the beginning. In Let God Guide You, he says, “The nature of guidance often requires extended time. You must allow God time to prepare you, others, and the situation for which you are praying.”

Even though there may appear to be a crisis developing at times, God will never permit His Spirit-led children to enter into any greater difficulty than is necessary for their good. As we have learned from the apostle Paul’s life, God will sometimes use very difficult situations to bring us to the end of ourselves. (2 Cor. 1:8-9) He will also use special thorns to separate us from the self-sufficient and self-exalting ways of the devil. He will do what is necessary to produce within our heart a childlike faith so He may keep us in the place where we “lack nothing.”