Being Called and Sent: Discerning God’s Guidance as a Community

Scripture: Acts 13: 1-3

Introduction

　　Should I respond to the messages on my Facebook page today?
　　Which job should I choose?
　　Who should I marry?
　　How will the church change in the next five years?
　　How should the church respond to contemporary societal issues?

　　Every day we have to make many big and small decisions. Sometimes decision making is difficult because we need to make the decision before we are able to master all of the information involved. Those in the Christian faith need to make an additional consideration: what is God’s will? In spirituality, we call this discernment.

Discernment and Life

　　There are different approaches to discerning the will of God. The focus of this article is this: the God we believe in is a living and loving Heavenly Father. He always cares for us by giving us guidance at the appropriate time while offering us freedom. He is present with us and still speaking to us. Therefore, discernment is based on an intimate relationship between us and the Lord. Today, God still personally speaks to us but the problem is whether or not we have sensitive enough ears to pay close attention and listen so that we can discern His voice in the midst of a lot of other noises. This requires us to be familiar with His voice and that means that we have to be intimately connected to Him.

　　Gordon Smith describes this approach in a beautiful scene: we are dancing with the Lord as we make big and small decisions along life’s road. God does the leading and we follow. We all need to practice the basics and there are opportunities for improvisation. We do need to fear God but not so that we are afraid and trembling (with a heart of God’s children and not of slaves); not as if we are taking a test or an examination but with an attitude of enjoying the happiness in the process. In this way, facing choices along life’s path will be an exercise and an opportunity for growth in our spirituality.

　　From this we can see that discernment does not emphasize principles and methods, in the final analysis it is a life skill: we need to cultivate ourselves to become a discerning people.

　　In addition to the basic notion mentioned above, we also need to explore its practical applications. It is a pity that when we talk about discernment, we always focus on the decision made at any given time. However, when we talk about practical application, many important considerations will be neglected if we only focus on the decision at hand on an individual level. If the discussion is focused on the present decision only, then God’s calling (which is called “vocation”) in the lives of each of us is liable to be excluded or even forgotten. For me, God’s calling is an important context for the decisions that I make here and now. Firstly, I must make clear what God’s calling is in my life. Then the decisions I make at any given time will make more sense.

　　Likewise, if I only focus on the decision at an individual level, then I will miss out on the help of the faith community in discerning the will of God. When an evangelical Christian talks about discernment, he always focuses only on the relationship of God and himself. This is important, but it is not the whole picture. Even if it only seems to be a personal decision, in the process when I make the discernment, the involvement of the faith community is indispensable. This is because we sometimes will deceive ourselves, so admonishment from others is needed. Sometimes we assume that we have listened to the voice of God, but in fact, it may only be the voice of society or the voice of someone who has had a deep influence on us a long time ago, or it can even be the voice of my own wishful thinking. On the other hand, the faith community should not be ignored because the Bible is filled with accounts of one person speaking to another person in order to manifest God’s intentions. For example, from Acts 13, we can see that when the church leaders in Antioch worshipped and fasted together, the Holy Spirit spoke to the community and personally gave guidance.

Discernment and Community

　　What follows is an attempt to show from Acts 13:1-3 God’s calling and commissioning, which is also a concrete example of the discernment of God’s guidance within a community.

　　In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.

　　In Acts 9, it was recorded that Paul experienced God’s call on his way to Damascus. It was about 13 to 14 years later that he was commissioned by the church at Antioch to go on a mission abroad. From Paul, we see that first there is an individual calling by God and then commissioning by the faith community. We cannot control the time when the Holy Spirit will give guidance to us. We have no choice but to wait and listen. But from this passage, we can see the context where the Holy Spirit works: the Holy Spirit speaks in the spiritual exercise of a community. Therefore, it is necessary for us to learn to discern God’s guidance within our community.

　　According to this passage, at that time there were five people in the leadership team at the Antioch church. The Holy Spirit did not speak to Barnabas or Paul individually, but gave guidance to the whole leadership team. Small as this community was with only five people, each of them came from a very different background. Barnabas was a Levites whose origin was from Cyprus. Simeon who was called Niger was probably an African negro. Cyrene is now within the territory of Libya, so Lucius was from North Africa. Manaen was brought up in palace and Saul was a Pharisee from Tarsus.

　　The church is pluralistic but it is also a faith community with one heart. The church at Antioch is also a pluralistic community (11:19-21), and its leadership team is composed of members from different backgrounds. In modern society which one-sidedly emphasizes individualism, when we talk about community, we often refer to people who are very similar to each other and who group together. But in reality, communities are made up of very different people.

　　Community discernment is especially important. We will meet people who are very much different from us, but they are God-given gifts along our journey of life that are put there by God. The more dissimilar they are to us, the more precious gifts they will be. This is because in discerning the voice of the Holy Spirit, we need to be aware of self-deception which happens when we confuse other voices as God’s voice. Those who are very different from us, especially those whom we trust and who deeply understand us, can easily see that we are deceiving ourselves. For they see things from a perspective that we are not accustomed to seeing. They are by-standers who are quick to know whether we are deceiving ourselves or not. Community can truly help us discern the voice of the Holy Spirit.

　　The Bible is filled with accounts where God speaks out His will to humans through the voice of other people. In this passage in Acts, we do not know how the Holy Spirit speaks, but when we look at other accounts about the prophets (these five leaders are prophets and teachers) along with the reference from biblical scholar F. F. Bruce who deduced from another version of this passage that the Holy Spirit probably spoke out its guidance to this leadership team through one of the five leaders.

　　Community is very important in discerning the will of God. God calls us individually and then the faith community sends us out to serve. Therefore, our service needs to be accountable to the community and take responsibility from community. After Barnabas and Paul had finished their first mission to Antioch, they were accountable to the community that had sent them out (14:24-28).

Discernment and Spiritual Exercises

　　In this passage with only three verses, it talks about the five Antioch leaders’ three spiritual exercises: worship (one of the explanations of “serving God”), fasting (13:2-3), and prayer.

　　How do church leaders today listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit or know the will of God? Through ministry meeting? Or like what is being said in this passage, when we are worshipping, fasting, and praying together? Not worshipping, fasting, and praying individually but worshipping, fasting, and praying together.

　　Spiritual exercise or discipline is very important in discernment. Discernment is built upon an intimate relationship between us and the Lord. God still speaks personally to us today and the issue is whether we have the sensitive ears to listen and to discern. This would require that we are familiar with God’s voice and are closely connected to Him. Spiritual exercise is the discipline of life which builds up an intimate relationship between us and God and also seeks to cultivate ourselves to be a person of spiritual discernment.

　　Since community is so important in discernment, not only do we need individual spiritual discipline, but we also need community spiritual discipline. In Richard Foster’s book, Celebration of Discipline, there are three kinds of discipline: inward discipline, outward discipline, and corporate discipline. When evangelical Christians talk about spiritual discipline, they always focus on an individual relationship with God and much less on community discipline. If we have to learn the lesson of discernment, we need to pay attention to community discipline, such as worship, fasting, and praying together.

　　It takes time to build a community, like Barnabas and Paul who joined and served in the church at Antioch for a long time (11:22-26, 14:24-28). We have to make community discipline a habit. Not only did Barnabas and Paul worship, fast, and pray at the Antioch church and then listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, they were later commissioned by the church to go on a mission. And again when the mission experience came to an end, “Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.” (14:23) It seems that community discipline was a big part of their lives.

Conclusion

　　The Acts of the Apostles records the important moments and the important decision making process of the Early Church. The way a faith community looks at decision making is different from other communities. For other communities, after they have made an important decision, they mostly pay attention to the outcome. Then they weigh the outcome and calculate their gains and losses. In addition to these considerations, a faith community pays even more attention to discernment: When we make a decision, how does God guide us?

　　In Acts 9, our Lord Jesus Christ personally revealed himself to Paul who was still continuing to persecute Jesus’ disciples. Meanwhile, Jesus also spoke to Ananias in a vision so that it clearly proved Paul was being called by Jesus. In the following chapter (10), Peter unexpectedly went to preach the gospel to a Roman soldier Cornelius. They both had a similar vision which they could then mutually share with each other. From this we can see that even in matters which we assume only involve individuals, God can also reveal His intention through other people.

　　For decision making that involves the community as a whole, there are a few more passages besides this passage in chapter 13 to consider. For instance, Mathias was chosen to replace Judas (chapter 1), the choosing of the seven to attend to food and drink (chapter 6), and the Council at Jerusalem (chapter 15). From these scriptures, we can similarly see discernment in these two elements: community and spiritual discipline. In 1:23-26 and chapter 6:1-6 prayer was mentioned. In the council at Jerusalem, both the disciples and the elders gathered together for a discussion. They spoke one by one successively and learned to listen. According to scripture, the Council at Jerusalem recorded only those men who spoke at the meeting but in the letter sent to Gentile believers, it said, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements.” (15:28)

　　Overall, discernment is not only a matter of principle and method, in the final analysis it is something to do with our spiritual lives: we need to cultivate ourselves to become a discerning people. During the cultivation process, spiritual discipline in community is indispensable.