‘God Told Me to Do It’

Call him Tom. He was a devout young man in his late 20s, a centerpiece of his growing church fellowship. Tom regularly brought co-workers to church and led several of them to the Lord. He spent a lot of time reading his Bible and was known as a prayer warrior. Church members were not surprised the Sunday night Tom came down the aisle of his local church and announced to everyone that God was calling him to pastoral ministry.  

Tom was married to Gail, a girl who had grown up in the church. Everyone thought they were a wonderful couple and would make great pastoral leaders in some lucky church after Tom completed his training for the ministry. 

With the blessings of their home church the two young people moved to another state to attend a Bible school known for training pastors since Tom did not have a college degree. The program he chose would take three years to complete. Tom began classes and Gail worked as a receptionist in one of the school offices. 

The first year was great. Tom frequently shared how much he was learning with his home church. But as the second year began, contact with the home church became less frequent. Friends became worried. The pastor decided to drive to the Bible school and check in with the couple. It was the week before the end of the semester, so it would be a quick visit. What the pastor found was not what he expected. 

Tom had stopped going to class. He was leaving school and leaving his wife. 

Tom told the pastor about how he had felt pressured from every side, how anxious and even despondent he had become. Tom had just emerged from two days of praying and fasting and seeking the Lord’s will for his life. 

Tom told the pastor that God’s message to him was that Gail was not the right woman for him and that God wanted him to end his ministry training and leave the school. Tom’s face almost glowed as he told the pastor how relieved he was now that those questions were settled. He did not have to study anymore. He did not have to think about someone else anymore. 

Tom had not told Gail of his decisions yet but she would have to understand, Tom said, since God told him to leave school and to leave her.   

This incident is based on a true story. The names have been changed for obvious reasons. A key question to ask is whether the message Tom received was from God or from some other source. God gets blamed for a lot of things that are not His doing. In July, a Chicago man justified his attack on a 6-year-old girl by saying, “God told me to shed some blood.” Earlier this year a man in England sawed off the head of his boss and said, “God told me to do it.” 

Any special revelations, including those that come amid fasting and praying, have to be tested to see if they are of God. After all, the devil is the “father of all lies.” 

The first question to ask is whether or not the revelation is consistent with the character of God. The Christian’s ultimate confidence is in the character of God: in the love of God that sent Jesus to pay the price of our sin; in God’s justice that will ultimately triumph over the injustices of life; in God’s holiness, righteousness and truth. One theologian calls these evidences of God’s greatness and goodness. 

No revelation from God will ever transgress the character of God. Every revelation from God will always be consistent with His character. 

One will also ask if the revelation is consistent with other revelations as recorded in the Bible, God’s Holy Word. After 2,000 years, new light and understandings continue to flow from God’s Word. No generation will ever exhaust its meaning. But those new insights and revelations will be consistent with the primary flow of God’s Word. To be otherwise would be to accuse God of misleading, and God cannot lie. 

History is replete with examples of generations that have misapplied Scripture or that have been more directed by culture as they approached the Bible than by God’s Holy Spirit. That is why one tests modern-day insights by the character of God made known in the grand themes of Scripture. 

Just as Scripture is not for private interpretation (2 Pet. 1:20), application of Scripture is not for the individual alone. God’s Holy Spirit is the guide into all truth. That implies that God-guided insights and revelations will be affirmed by other Holy Spirit-filled believers. 

It is haughty arrogance to think of oneself as the only one able to understand the truth of God as revealed by the Holy Spirit. Such a spirit is an open door for the “father of all lies.” Those searching for God’s truth will want insights and revelations affirmed by others who are filled by the Spirit. 

From individual believers God is building a great and glorious family of faith, the church. That means it is not enough to ask how a new insight impacts a solitary believer. One must also ask how the revelation impacts the body of Christ. What is its impact on the community of faith? 

While Baptists believe in the priesthood of each individual believer, we also understand the concept of the priesthood of all believers; that is, we have responsibility to each other as we live the life of faith together in Christian community. 

Also, does the outcome of the revelation glorify God? Believers’ lives are supposed to give honor and glory to God (Matt. 5:16) in all circumstances. That means each new insight must be tested to see if its final end glorifies the Heavenly Father.  

Had Tom sat with a Christian counselor, they might have talked about Tom’s poor study habits. They might have talked about his lack of discipline and his difficulty setting priorities. They might have talked about his growing sense of failure as his grades fell and his anxieties rose. They might have talked about his resentment of Gail because she was so well liked by the faculty and administration. 

Tom’s revelation may not have been from God. He never tested it against God’s character, against God’s Word, against the understandings of Spirit-filled believers, against its impact on the church or against the glory of God. 

Instead he tried to free himself of responsibility by declaring, “God told me to do it.” That defense does not work in the courthouses of the nation and it does not hold up in cases like Tom’s.