He is good at this and that is the trouble.
Give him a decision and within an hour he has the options in columns, the risks weighted, and a recommendation at the bottom that is, more often than not, correct. He has run a business on it for twenty six years. Two of his children have his head for it and one of them does not, and he is patient with her.
He prays about things. He would be offended if you suggested otherwise. He prays the way a man reads a weather forecast before a job he has already scheduled.
Because by the time he prays, the decision is made. The praying is a blessing sought over a conclusion reached, and he has never seen the sequence because the sequence has never failed him badly enough to be visible.
There is one thing in front of him now where the columns will not settle, and it has been six weeks, and it is the first time in twenty years that his method has simply stopped.
Here is the sentence he has never said out loud.
He does not actually know how to be led. He knows how to decide and then ask for cover.
Read the word lean
There is a line everybody can quote and almost nobody looks at closely.
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.Proverbs 3:5-6
Lean not unto thine own understanding.
It does not say do not have one. It does not say thinking is fleshly, or that a clear head is a spiritual liability, and anybody who has read the rest of Proverbs knows that book spends thirty chapters telling you to get understanding and pay for it if you have to.
Lean is a posture word. It is what a man does when he puts his whole weight on a thing. A stick you carry is a tool. A stick you lean on is what is holding you up, and if it goes, you go with it.
Your understanding is a tool you were given and told to sharpen. It was never meant to be the thing holding you up.
Your mind is a gift He gave you rather than a rival to Him, and Proverbs 3:5 forbids the leaning without ever forbidding the thinking. That is what the word actually distinguishes, not a softening I am adding, and the Holy Spirit is the One who steers a clear head that is not resting its whole weight there.
Acknowledge him in all thy ways
Now the plain thing, and it is about sequence rather than sincerity.
You do pray. What has happened is that the praying migrated to the end. In all thy ways acknowledge him is a phrase about the whole of the process, the columns included, not a blessing requested over the finished sheet.
And here is why the sequence matters. A decision already made cannot be redirected. He directs paths, and a path is something a man is on. What you've been handing Him for twenty six years is a destination with the route already fixed, and then wondering, quietly, why the experience of being led that other people describe has never once arrived.
That is not a character failure. It is a habit that formed because you are good at this.
And nothing about your ability has ever locked you out of being led. Scripture says in all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths, and the Holy Spirit is not competing with a man's competence.
Hold it open
Here is the practical piece, and it is going to feel inefficient, which is precisely the point.
You've got a decision that will not settle. Whatever your best guess is at this moment, hold it open in front of Him for a week without acting on it.
Not to prove anything. Not as a spiritual exercise you can be graded on. Hold it open because a thing held open is a thing that can be moved, and not once in twenty six years have you given Him a week with the file still unsigned.
Bring the columns with you. Say them out loud to Him, including the one that embarrasses you. In all thy ways includes the arithmetic.
I am not giving you a method that guarantees you hear something in seven days. That would be a formula, and you of all people would optimize it inside a month. I am giving you a posture and a God who steers.
You are able to be led without stopping thinking, and the two were never opposites. He promised to direct the paths of a man who acknowledges Him in all his ways, and the Holy Spirit is the One who moves a decision that is still open.
So here is the turn, and it is this week, at the gate.
Do not sign it.
Whatever your recommendation is at the bottom of the sheet, and it may well be right, leave it unsigned for seven days and walk about with it open. That is the whole ask, and it will be harder for you than a fast would be.
You are able to be steered in the middle of a decision, and being good at deciding was never the obstacle. Proverbs 3:6 puts the directing of paths on Him and the acknowledging on you, and the Holy Spirit is with a man leaning on a gate with something unsettled.
Now the honest half. Nothing here promises that a week produces clarity, and after seven days you may be exactly where you stand now and have to choose anyway, and that is ordinary and not a failure. However He answers, the outcome is His and not ours to sell, and six unsettled weeks are never evidence against you. What is settled is the difference between a tool and a crutch.
Twenty six years of asking for cover. Go and hold one open.
Declare this over yourself
Say them out loud at the gate. The standing to speak them is yours because you are in Christ and Christ is in you, and the authority is not your own: it is His, delegated and carried in His Name, and the Holy Spirit is the One who makes the word live in a plain man's mouth. However He answers, and whether or not the week produces anything, the outcome is His, and six weeks of not settling are never evidence against you.
- Habit of settling it before I ask, you are a lean and you are not wisdom. Proverbs 3:5 forbids leaning on my own understanding and never once forbids using it. You are not diligence, and you are a stick I have been putting my whole weight on.
- Idea that a competent man cannot be led, get out in the name of Jesus. You have had twenty six years of a praying man asking for cover over a finished sheet, and God has never once competed with a mind He handed out Himself. He directs paths, and a path is something a man is walking.
- Lord, in all my ways I acknowledge You, and Scripture says that You shall direct my paths. That promise is written to a man in the middle of the process rather than at the end of it, and the Holy Spirit is with me at this gate with the file still open. I am not signing it this week, and I am bringing You the columns.
Proverbs 3:5
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