God Guides Us by Enlightening Our Judgment by R. A. Torrey

In the third place God guides us by enlightening our judgment. We see an illustration of this in the case of the Apostle Paul in Acts 16:10. God had been guiding Paul by a direct impression produced in his heart by the Holy Spirit, keeping him from going to certain places whither he would otherwise have gone.

Then God gives to Paul in the night a vision, and, having received the vision, Paul, by his own enlightened judgment, concludes from it what God has called him to do. This is God’s ordinary method of guidance when His Word does not specifically tell us what to do. We go to God for wisdom, we make sure that our wills are completely surrendered to Him, and that we realize our dependence upon Him for guidance, then God clears up our judgment and makes it clear to us what we should do.

Here again we should always bear in mind that “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all,” and that, therefore, God’s guidance is clear guidance, and we should not act until things are made perfectly plain. Many miss God’s guidance by doing things too soon. Had they waited until God had enabled them to see clearly, under the illumination of His Holy Spirit, they would have avoided disastrous mistakes. The principle that “he that believeth shall not make haste” (Isa. 28:16) applies right here.

On the other hand, when any duty is made clear we should do it at once. If we hesitate to act when the way is made clear, then we soon get into doubt and perplexity and are all at sea as to what God would have us do. Many and many a man has seen the path of duty as clear as day before him, and instead of stepping out at once, has hesitated even when the will of God has become perfectly clear, and before long he was plunged into absolute uncertainty as to what God would have him do.

R. A. Torrey, The Voice of God in the Present Hour (New York; Chicago; Toronto; London; Edinburgh: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1917), 164–165.