Step by Step: Divine Guidance for Ordinary Christians (Resources for Changing Lives) [Paperback]

James Petty (Author), Petty James C. (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 279 pages
• Publisher: P & R Publishing (June 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875526039
• ISBN-13: 978-0875526034
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #339,932 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A breath of fresh air if you are looking for God's guidance, November 2, 2001

By 

Neal Stublen (Leawood, KS USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Step by Step: Divine Guidance for Ordinary Christians (Resources for Changing Lives) (Paperback)

I have just read this book after being involved in a study of Henry Blackaby's "Experiencing God" study. In Blackaby's study, the student is challenged to wait upon a revelation from God concerning His will before acting. As I pondered this idea, it seemed to be contrary to the apostle Paul's attempting to enter certain areas for the purpose of spreading the gospel only to be stopped by the Holy Spirit (Acts 16:6-10). In Paul's letters, he makes mention of multiple attempts to visit the church's he had established only to be prevented by Satan (1 Thessalonians 2:18). Paul seemed to be acting contrary to Blackaby's method and this disturbed me.

After reading Petty's book, everything fell into place. Paul was acting in accordance with the principles given in Petty's book. He was being guided by wisdom and providence (two things key to the Scriptural teaching regarding God's will) and not by direct revelations from God.

James Petty challenges much of what is written today regarding searching out God's will for your life. This book has addressed many of my questions about understanding God's guidance in my life. It has given me a deeper understanding about what the Bible teaches regarding God's will and how I should make decisions. The only problem I had with the book was Petty's remark that Satan can sometimes place thoughts in our minds. I cannot figure out how Petty draws this conclusion from Scripture and he does not explain why he believes this in the book. (This one issue should certainly not dissuade you from reading the book - it was simply a passing remark and is certainly not foundational to Petty's argument!)

Petty's approach is definitely different from other books I have read, but he does an excellent job of establishing his teaching on the foundation of the Scriptures and showing the problems with many modern approaches to seeking out God's will for your life. As Colossians 1:9-12 teaches, the key to understanding God's will is gaining wisdom and it would be wise to buy this book if you have been frustrated or confused by what you have read in other books.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finding God's Will "Mediately", November 4, 2004

By 

Kathy F. Cannata "Rev. Dr. R. Cannata" (New Orleans, LA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Step by Step: Divine Guidance for Ordinary Christians (Resources for Changing Lives) (Paperback)

At least half of my lunch appointments seem to come around to: "What is God's will for my life?" In my floundering to help people with this big `God's will' question over the last few years, I have been particularly influenced by two books: Bruce Waltke, Finding the Will of God (1995) and Sinclair Ferguson, Discovering God's Will (1982). While both are fundamentally in agreement with Petty's basic approach, reading Step by Step has helped me organize their thoughts (and mine) in helpful categories, and further distinguish them from alternative approaches.

As Petty ably illustrates, the stakes are high in this venture. As we seek God's guidance, we are indeed more like `pilots in flight' than students in a library! (p. 18). Especially helpful were Petty's explanation of the `three views.' What Petty (somewhat disappointing) labels the Traditional View is certainly the most popular today among evangelicals (pp. 29-31). It holds that guidance from God involves discovering the specifics of God's particular plan for our lives through various combinations of "circumstances, spiritual promptings, inner voices, personal peace of mind, and the counsel of others" (p. 30). Guidance occurs when God reveals his plan through these means (p. 31).

Petty next distinguishes the Traditional Charismatic view (pp. 32-33). The key difference between this view and the one preceding it in Petty's summary is that in the Charismatic view God communicates directly. Essentially, "each means of revelation that God used to give us the Scriptures is still available to individual Christians today" (p. 33), often with a new twist.

The third view, the Wisdom view, is the one endorsed by Petty (pp.33-35). This approach contends that while God does have a specific plan for each Christian, this plan remains hidden. God generally does not lift the veil. Instead, "guidance comes... by God making us wise.... The wisdom view sees God as guiding his children mediately, not immediately....his guidance is mediated by (comes through) the illumination of our minds and hearts by the Word of God" (p. 34).

Petty favors and unpacks the Wisdom view in relation to four topics: 1. the doctrine of providence, 2. the sufficiency of Scripture, 3. the doctrine of illumination, 4. the current work of the Holy Spirit (p. 35). Applying each of these criteria, it is clear that the Wisdom view in broad outline is more Biblically faithful than the proposed alternatives.

The first three parts of the book (pp. 17-192) explore the theology of guidance. The fourth part (pp. 193-262) consists of a helpful case study, illustrating ways this model can be practically applied to our lives. The reader is invited to a robust confidence in the Bible alone (not the `Bible-plus'). Through it, "God guides us by progressively placing within us spiritual wisdom and understanding to know the will of God... He never leads us with a `guess the signs' model" (p. 155). This occurs as the Christian progressively consecrates herself to Christ. "The path of wisdom is a lifestyle of repentance from serving functional gods like security, safety, control," etc. (p. 179).

VERY practical, wildly applicable book.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding - the best book of its kind, May 30, 2006

By 

Brian G Hedges (South Bend, Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Step by Step: Divine Guidance for Ordinary Christians (Resources for Changing Lives) (Paperback)

"What is the will of God for my life?" As followers of Jesus we all long for a clear answer to this question with which this book begins. While on one level the answer is clear - "This is the will of God, even your sanctification" (1 Thess. 4:3) - the application of such broad, general statements to the concrete, specific decisions of our lives can be challenging, even perplexing. How do we receive guidance about the big decisions of who to marry, what college to attend, what vocation to pursue, or what church to join? And what about the dozens of small everyday choices such as which shirt should I wear, where should I go for lunch, and how should I use my free time? How do we make connections between the will of God revealed in Scripture and decision making in daily life? Answering that question is what this book is about. The author divides his eighteen chapters into four parts: The Promise of Guidance, Understanding Guidance, Experiencing Guidance, and Seeking Guidance. The first three parts develop "the theology of guidance" (11), while part four presents a case study which illustrates how to apply seven steps for making wise decisions.

Part One: The Promise of Guidance

Chapter one ("Does God Guide Us?") discusses the need for guidance from God, especially with the complexity of decision making in today's world. This is an immensely practical question. Knowing God's will is no mere theoretical exercise. "When we seek guidance from God, we are not like a student pondering the great questions of life safely seated in a library . . . We are more like a pilot seeking to land a commercial airliner filled with passengers. For a pilot, even the best of them, the pressing need is for current information on position, weather, visibility, and local air traffic. The thought that communication with the control tower might not be possible, predictable, and clear is more than unsettling - it is the stuff of horror films . . . Our relationships, our jobs, our health, and safety can be compromised by a single bad decision" (18). Changes in the home, the workplace, economics, and the moral climate of our culture all accentuate the need for guidance. While this topic has been addressed by many Christian authors and leaders (the author reviewed some thirty-five books on divine guidance in his research), most of them "address their issues in a nontheological way. That is, their books offer no serious study of Scripture, no in-depth interaction with larger theological principles" (26). The author's obvious aim is to fill that theological gap while still addressing the practical issues.

The second chapter asks "How Does God Guide Us?" and compares "three main schools of thought about how God guides" (29). The view most popular in the twentieth century held "that God has a specific and detailed plan for each Christian's life. Guidance involves discerning that plan" (29). This plan is discerned by "looking carefully into a combination of circumstances, spiritual promptings, inner voices, personal peace of mind, and the counsel of others" (30). While God's sovereign will certainly embraces the small details of our lives, proponents of this view "insert a hidden assumption - that if there is such a plan, God wants us to know it and will reveal it to those who ask [and] that God's sovereign plan for each life is intended to be the source and pattern of guidance for the individual" (30-31). We can know this plan as "the circumstances of our daily life . . . concur with the inward promptings of the Spirit and the Word of God" (31, quoting F. B. Meyer). A second perspective, "the traditional charismatic view" is similar to the first, but contends that "God communicates directly and verbally with individuals, families, and churches to let them know his plan for them" (32). In contrast to these views is a third perspective called "the wisdom view" (33) which says "that although God does have an individual and specific plan for every Christian, this plan is strictly secret" and that "divine guidance has nothing to do with discerning this secret plan and using it to make decisions" (33). The wisdom view holds that God guides us by making us wise - giving us insight that equips us for making wise choices.

In chapter three ("Guidance and the Promises of God"), Petty asks, "Does the almighty God, the Maker of heaven and earth, actually promise to provide guidance to his small creatures?" (37). He reminds us that "the universe is so vast that there is an entire galaxy (many containing millions of stars) for every grain of sand on the earth" (38). How could the Creator of such an expansive universe care about the many insignificant details of our lives? Yet, the answer of Scripture (e.g. Psalm 8:3-4) is that God does care! And God does provide personal guidance. Petty is careful here to avoid two extremes. On one hand, we should not attempt to "divine" the will of God the way pagans do. Yet, Petty maintains, "God . . . does far more than reveal his general purposes and then leave us to link ourselves to them or pragmatically calculate the most edifying outcomes" (41). God does personally provide guidance for believers. The rest of the chapter refrains from discussion how God does this and instead focuses on how the Scriptures portray God as guiding and leading his people in various stages of redemptive history (the patriarchs, under the law, in the psalms and prophets, in the Gospels, and after Pentecost). Near the end of the chapter, in a brief comment on Romans 12:2, the author gives a hint as to where he is going: "Knowing God's will is the fruit of a transformed mind . . . God does hold out to us the prospect of testing and approving the will of God. Such knowledge is not so much a fortune cookie as it is an education" (48-49).

Part Two: Understanding Guidance

"Guidance and the Plan of God" is the title of the fourth chapter, which zooms in on the biblical doctrine of God's providence. The author draws on the distinctions in classical Reformed theology between two aspects of God's will: the plan of God - or his "decretive will - and the commandments of God - or his "preceptive will" (56, referencing Charles Hodge). The Bible frequently uses the phrase "will of God" to refer to his sovereign plan. Texts covered include Ephesians 1;5, 11; James 4:15; Romans 15:32; and 1 Peter 3:17. The truth of God's sovereignty is encouraging for believers because it assures us that "(1) God does have one specific plan for your life and (2) the events and choices of your life irresistibly and sovereignly work that plan in every detail" (59), which means that you cannot miss it! "For those who are in Christ, there is only one plan, Plan A" (59). There is no Plan B. Petty surveys the biblical teaching on God's sovereignty, demonstrating God's rule over circumstances (Matt. 10:29-31, Gen. 50:20), good men, evil men, and politicians (Prov. 21:1; Rom. 9:17; Acts 2:23), and salvation and judgment (Eph. 1:5; Jn. 15:16; Jn. 6:37, 39; Rom. 8:28-30). Throughout this survey, he is careful to remind us of how the truth of God's sovereignty should function in a believer's life to produce humility and worship, but never to give us an excuse for irresponsibility. But he also contends that while God's knowledge is exhaustive, "such future knowledge is not given to us for our own good . . . The information would damage us. It is too toxic for us to handle" (71). We are not able to discern the inscrutable sovereign plan of God in advance of making decisions, nor should we try. Rather we must do the "hard work of finding biblical principles and values that apply to [our] situation" (75-76). We must gather the information necessary to make a wise decision and then make the decision, strengthened by the knowledge that God's providence is like a "guardrail to our decision making. We are hurtling down the mountain of life with turns and switchbacks constantly confronting us. Yet we can have confidence that God has established the boundaries of our lives. He holds us carefully in his hand despite the dangers we face and the foolish decisions we make. Only in heaven will we know the number of times we bumped into the guardrail of God's plan and were protected for his gracious purpose" (77).

But the Scriptures also use "will of God" to refer to God's commandments. Hence, chapter five discusses "Guidance and the Word of God." The moral will of God is revealed in Scripture and we are expected to obey it. Many texts are cited, including 1 Thess. 4:3; 1 Pet. 2:15; Matt. 6:10; and Jn. 4:34). The author highlights the sufficiency of Scripture, saying: "his Word (the Bible) is complete, sufficient, and thoroughly powerful for the completion of the faith and life of every child of God" (88). In answer to those who contend that "in addition to Scripture (but not in contradiction to it), God reveals the specifics of his will through such things as vivid impressions, dreams, amazing circumstances, and a subjective sense of peace" (90), Petty argues that these things "are works of God's providence not revelations of his will." "They provide the context for God's guidance, though they do not make up that guidance themselves" (90). The Scriptures alone reveal the parameters of God's will. What we need is not new revelation, but wisdom for the application of God's revealed will in Scripture to the specific situations of our own lives.

Chapter six examines "Guidance and the `Individual Will of God'", the concept identified in popular Christian teaching as "`God's perfect will' or the `center of God's will' or God's `specific will'" (96). If God's moral will is viewed as a circular target, "the individual will of God is seen as the bull's eye on the target. That is the `will' we seek to discover (hit) for guidance. If we miss the bull's eye but hit within the target area, we are not in... Read more ›