“There is a cloud as small as a man’s hand rising from the sea.” 1 Kings 18:44
Proverbs 3:5 is the favorite scripture of many Christians. “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” It is the promise of divine guidance.
But what do you do when after you have brought your plans to God, there is little evidence of God’s activity which you can interpret as certain guidance? Do you sit and wait for more, or do you act in faith, following that little glimmer of light?
When God delivers a sign that is not the clear response you expect, but which you must believe in order to act, the dilemma that produces, is that you may misread a sign and act on what God has not said. This uncertainty sometimes produces inertia, as you may wish to see more, to be sure that God has indeed provided guidance.
But God does not always show us what we think we need to see. He calls us to believe what we have not seen, or the little He shows us, and to place our confidence in Him enough to make us act in faith.
That is what is captured so succinctly in Hebrews 11:1 “…faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
In Israel’s good (or bad) old days, there was a prophet of God, Elijah, who, pained by the religious syncretism of his day, challenged the entire population to turn from their ways to their God Yahweh, the only true God.
He first pronounced the judgment of a famine on the land, which raged for three and a half years. Everyone held him responsible for the famine, most of all King Ahab the Israelite king, before whom he decreed famine in the land.
Then he organised a contest between God and the false god Baal (with its female component: Asherah) on Mount Carmel. After God won the contest by bringing down fire from heaven in the sight of all Israel to consume a sacrifice, when the prophets of Baal could not, the people’s hearts returned to God.
Immediately after this event, Elijah confidently told King Ahab: “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.”
Having declared that it would now rain, Elijah, went onto Mount Carmel to pray for rain. In that prayer mode, expecting an answer from God, he sent his servant to check for a sign of the rain he had promised. Six times the servant observed nothing in the clear sky; no indication that after three and a half years, it was finally going to rain. Undaunted, he sent the servant a seventh time. That was when the servant saw something on the horizon, so small that it could surely not portend the rain that the parched land sorely needed, and of which he had boasted to the king. The servant described it as “a cloud as small as a man’s hand”.
That small pitiful cloud was enough for Elijah to send a message to King Ahab that there was going to be a deluge, and that he should begin his journey by chariot to the city Jezreel. He himself ran all the way, outrunning Ahab, before the rain could stop him.
It is not often that the Lord’s guidance is as plain as day. Rather, it often requires a walk of faith for the vision to reach maturity.
As a word of caution: please avoid the common trap of: “the Lord told me”, “the Lord showed me” to justify your actions. Keeping in mind that we will give an account of our words and actions before Him one day, please be mindful not to attribute to God what He has not said, or done.
But God does speak, and He does guide as he promises. The test is that what you believe He is saying is in line with His word, for no guidance from God can be outside what the word of God says.
Once that test is passed, trust the inner witness of peace which is all you may get. In Psalm 85:8 is our assurance:
“I will hear what God the Lord will speak; ,For He will speak peace to His people and to His saints…;”
It should be enough for you to act.
Get moving. The Lord is with you.
