In the city or in the village? Live alone or live with housemates? Homeschool or local school? Furlough in the summer? How long?

We have questions that affect daily life (and ministry), but the answers aren’t always spelled out in Scripture.

When my husband and I started thinking it might be time to leave the field, that was a difficult decision to make without confidence God was calling us elsewhere. God will lead us in truth and show us His path. Here is what that looked like for us:

He gave us guidance through His word. Although we couldn’t find the answer spelled out, as we each spent time reading the Bible, the Holy Spirit spoke to us. In church, a particular sermon in the text of Ruth directly spoke to me, affirming the direction I was asking the Lord about.

He gave us guidance through prayer. We prayed about what we read in Scripture and what we heard in church. We waited on His voice. We saw that we kept coming back to the same desires and sense of purpose that we heard from our time in the word.

We asked several friends who we trusted were people of prayer to pray for a week for specific guidance about when we were to leave the field. Then we met virtually together to share what the Lord showed us.

He gave us guidance through our brothers and sisters. We can be hesitant about this, wanting to make sure we hear from God and not man’s ideas. However, I think God uses believers at times to help us see the direction He is leading. As we talked with our friends who had been praying for us, we could see God affirming where He was leading us. They shared Scripture that was in their minds and pictures God gave to them and it all pointed the same direction.

God is a God of order and not confusion. He is a good shepherd who knows how to lead His sheep.