How Might You Get An Answer When Discerning? (Part 2)

Last week I talked about discernment and what it is. I gave the steps I use when I’m beginning the process of discerning an answer. This week I want to look from where the answers come.

As I’m praying for God’s will to what I’m discerning and thinking through the lists of pros and cons or facts and other issues, I might hear answers from various sources. Henri Nouwen’s book, Discernment, has a great explanation of discernment, and he uses the areas below for discernment.

One place I hear answers is from the Bible. When I’m in the process of discerning, my Bible reading might have a theme running through it that leans to one side or another about what I’m discerning.

I also begin to hear answers in people around me. I’ve had people affirm something in me (a skill or trait) that might be useful in the area in which I’m discerning. It can add information to what I’m thinking God might be trying to tell me.

Repetitive situations are helpful in the discernment process. Before I began spiritual direction certification, I noticed how people that didn’t know me felt comfortable talking to me about whatever is going on in their lives. It’s actually uncanny how many times I’ve been standing in a check out line, on an airplane, or other random places, while someone I don’t know talks about something really difficult he or she is experiencing. I used those situations to help me realize that spiritual direction is an area where God is calling me.

Events are like situations, but they may be one time occurrences where something happens that God is using to speak to me. When I was at a women’s retreat almost twenty years ago, I heard, “You’ll be doing that,” as I was listening to the speaker. I remember shaking my head and thinking that was a crazy thought, but God hasn’t let me forget that; and I have seen it played out to some degree in my life already.

God has placed certain books in my path at exactly the right time. When I began the process of learning about the contemplative life, someone introduced me to Practicing His Presence by Brother Lawrence. That was so affirming to me, especially when our children were younger, and I was beginning to homeschool. If Brother Lawrence could make such a huge impact by simply learning to be in God’s presence as he worked in the kitchen of the monastery, I could do the same in my situation. Throughout the years, books have worked as avenues to speak to me and certain ones have been placed in my path at exactly the moment I needed to hear its message.

Nature is another place God helps me discern his will. It might be by something I experience in nature, or by being in nature I’m able to still myself so I can hear what God is speaking to my heart. When I go on my silent retreat, I spend much of the time outside because I feel close to God while I’m outside, and I’m better able to still my mind and hear God’s voice when I’m surrounded by the beauty of God’s creation.

Last but not least, on a few occasions, I’ve heard God’s answer in prayer or just heard it. I wrote about how I heard God tell me “Don’t take it” when I took the job as a 5th grade teacher. I’ve also heard simple yes or no answers in prayer. If I haven’t come to that place of indifference or trust in the beginning of the discernment process, I might not be able to trust an answer I hear. Sometimes I wait and have that answer affirmed from other sources before accepting the yes or no as being from God.

I’m sure there are more ways God speaks to us, but that’s a good start. Next week, I’ll finish by explaining what I do once I feel God gives me an answer.

If you’d like to help support the website, follow this link to purchase the books mentioned.

• Lawrence, and Frank Charles Laubach. Practicing His Presence. Christian Books, 1981.

• Nouwen, Henri. Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life. HarperOne, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2015.