Spirituality booksDiscerning Truth and Divine Guidance

The small book Discerning Truth and Divine Guidance focuses on principles of discernment of what is factually correct and what is the best course for each of us to follow in any given situation — from long-range decisions to ones for just the day or the hour.

Life on earth is full of choices and decisions – ranging from moment by moment to those that may affect us for years to come. We need to decide when to get up, what to eat, what to put on, how to respond to other people or situations, and more. All decisions have consequences – some immediate, some later, some good, some not so good. We all desire to be happy and as much as possible, to avoid suffering. To a significant degree, our happiness and lack of suffering is determined by our daily and longer-ranging decisions.

The best and safest way to make decisions is to seek divine guidance – to surrender our lives to God and His will and to ask for His wisdom. I believe, based on a Bible promise in James 1:5,  that if we ask, we will receive – our prayers for guidance and wisdom will be answered. For immediate choices, if we are in a relationship with our heavenly Father, we’ll be shown right there and then. For bigger, longer-ranging decisions, clarity may not come straight away, but in due time our dilemmas will become clear.

Divine guidance may be manifested in various ways which may vary from individual to individual. They include desires, insights, events, circumstances, open or closed doors, comments from others, what we read that resonates with us, signs, songs, as well as inner voice and intuition. For some it may even be dreams or ESP experiences. Insights may come from logistically compiling a pros and cons list, from gathering facts and getting counsel, and/or from intuition. An important dimension in knowing the right decision is peace of mind.

Two other important aspects of guidance are wisdom – evaluating whether or not an action is wise and prudent – and right timing – when the time is right to move ahead, the inspiration comes, circumstances become favorable, “the light changes to green”.

Sometimes, guidance is easy to see, but other times it may be harder to discern and feel like a bit of trial and error. To see clearly, or at least less hazily, may take time – even months or years. It may feel like travelling on a road with multiple turn-offs. We feel led to take one turn-off only to find a road filled with obstacles and then a dead end. We try another path and it looks promising. It seems to be an open door – which subsequently closes. We pray some more and try again – and again. Eventually we hit on the right path and feel confident and at peace that this is where we are meant to be. In looking back, we may see clearly why the other paths were not meant to be, and be grateful that we were stopped from taking them and saved from unnecessary hardship and suffering.

The chapters in this book focus on discerning truth and divine guidance. This is an individual journey for each person, but the principles may help all as they work on discerning what is their best course of action in the countless small and big decisions that this life brings.

The book, Discerning Truth and Divine Guidance, is available as a free PDF download from here.  It is presently not available as Kindle or paperback.

For a book on a related theme, see How to Receive Answers to Prayer