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doubt that there are many of us who at some time
in our Christian experience haven't sought to
know God's will through "putting
out a fleece." Putting out a fleece--or "fleecing,"
as it's often called--involves seeking God's will
through a predetermined sign. Usually the sign is
unrelated to the circumstances of the decision we
are facing. Michael has been accepted by a
graduate program at a local college and must let
the registrar know by noon tomorrow if he plans
to attend. It's a blustery winter day, and the
sky is overcast. Michael prays that if God wants
him to enroll, his county will experience a
significant snowfall overnight. The fact that it
might snow, of course, has no direct relation to
whether Michael should enroll in this course of
study. It's merely a randomly chosen event which
he hopes God will influence as a sign of his
will. This is a typical example of fleecing.
Christians usually base the practice of
fleecing on the example of the Old Testament
warrior Gideon, in Judges 6. An angel appears to
Gideon, telling him that God has chosen him to
lead Israel in battle against the Midianites, who
have been severely oppressing the Jews. Astounded
to think that he could be the one to deliver
Israel, Gideon asks God for a clear sign as
evidence. He places a lamb's fleece on the barn
floor and prays that the following morning it
will be wet and the ground around it dry. When
God grants his request, Gideon then reverses it,
asking that the next morning the fleece will be dry and the ground
wet. God again responds as
Gideon asks. Gideon declares it a miracle and
concludes that he is indeed divinely commissioned
to lead Israel to victory over Midian.
The incident is unquestionably a fascinating
one, and has inspired many Christians to ask God
to show them his will through a specific sign.
A Puzzling Experience
Unfortunately, not a few Christians find that
the practice of fleecing leads to frustration and
disappointment. Take the case of my friend Brock.
A Washington, D.C. resident, Brock had a
long-distance relationship with Kelly, a Texan.
For several years they corresponded, phoned and
occasionally visited each other. Yet it was
strictly a friendship, with no romantic
overtones.
Increasingly, Brock began to have romantic
feelings for Kelly and wondered what God had in
mind for their future. Finally, a week before a
scheduled visit from her, Brock asked God for a
clear indication. He prayed that if God intended
their relationship to become a serious one, he
would see a deer sometime during the next week.
Brock was attending a retreat in the country at
the time, where the possibility of encountering a
deer was good.
The weekend passed, however, and Brock never
spotted a deer. He returned home assuming his
fleece wouldn't be granted. Two days before Kelly
was to arrive, however, as he was exiting the
Washington Beltway at Tyson's Corner, he noticed
a deer standing near the exit ramp.
If you live in Washington, or are familiar
with the area, you'll appreciate just how
startled Brock was. The place where he saw the
deer is a highly congested intersection in the
close-in suburbs of Washington, where deer rarely
appear. Brock was so astonished that he pulled
his car to the side of the road, stopped and
stared at the animal, to be certain that his eyes
weren't playing tricks on him. Sure enough, it
was a deer--the first time he had ever seen one
near the Beltway.
The sheer improbability of this happening left
Brock convinced he had experienced a divine
revelation. God must be telling him that pleasant
things were ahead in his relationship with Kelly.
Brock began to eagerly anticipate her visit. It
would surely be a major turning point in their
relationship.
Unfortunately, Brock was about to go from the
mountaintop to the valley. While Kelly was
friendly enough to him during the first few days
of her visit, she was just as intent on spending
time with other friends as she was with him. She
gave no indication that her feelings for him had
changed in any way. Finally Brock confronted
Kelly. While discreetly omitting any reference to
his experience with the deer, he told her that he
cared deeply for her and wondered if she was open
to a serious relationship. Kelly, surprised by
Brock's sudden change, responded that, no, she
really had no romantic feelings for him at all.
Finally Brock asked Kelly if she felt that at
least the possibility of a romantic
relationship was there at some point in their
future. Kelly responded that she was firmly
convinced their relationship could never be more
than a friendship. Never after that did she
change her position.
Brock understandably was crushed. Not only was
there the pain of rejection, difficult enough to
deal with, but also the baffling experience with
the deer. How could a fleece so uniquely and
distinctly answered not be reflecting reality?
How could God have allowed things to transpire as
they did?
Revelation -- Or
False Expectation?
Brock's experience raises some challenging
questions about the practice of fleecing. Is this
a proper way for us as Christians to seek to know
God's will? And how should we interpret
indications that come through it?
I suspect that God sometimes does honor a
fleece which someone puts out in sincerity,
especially when one is a young believer and not
likely to know better. I once heard a respected
Christian leader share about his experience as a
young man, seeking guidance about whether to
marry. He mailed letters to two different
friends, praying that if God wanted him to marry
his girlfriend, he would receive letters back
from each of them on the same day. He didn't,
though, tell his friends what was on his mind.
When responses from both of them arrived in same
mail delivery, he concluded that God had given
him a revelation to get married.
Although his decision to marry proved to be a
good one, he now admits that he no longer
believes this was a mature approach to God's
will; God was simply gracious enough to stoop
down to where he was.
I must say I agree with him. When we look
carefully at biblical teaching on guidance, we do
not find it encouraging fleecing or suggesting it
is a healthy or reliable practice for Christians
today. Yes, there is the example of Gideon. There
is also the example of Abraham's servant asking
for a special sign when seeking a wife for for
Isaac (Gen 24). We also find many references in
the Old Testament to casting lots--a common
practice among the Jews by which many sought to
know God's will through a predetermined sign.
While there are several examples of casting
lots in the New Testament, however, the last one
occurs in Acts 1, when the disciples chose a
successor for Judas. After the day of Pentecost
and the giving of the Holy Spirit, in Acts 2, the
New Testament makes no further mention of anyone
casting lots. Nor does it report any incident
where someone sought God's will through a
fleecing-type approach. Nor does it give any
teaching on fleecing or make any reference to the
practice.
The New Testament does give many examples of
Christians finding God's will through making
careful, practical decisions, without any
dramatic guidance present. The message in all of
this seems clear: the Spirit-filled believer has
all of the inner resources needed to understand
God's will apart from any need for fleecing. We
should conclude that fleecing is usually a
diversion from responsible decision making. It
keeps us from taking responsibility for a
decision, and hinders the growth God wants us to
experience by going through the decision-making
process.
An Explanation
But how, then, is my friend's bizarre
experience with the deer to be understood? I
realize I tread on speculative ground in
suggesting an answer. Yet I suspect it lies in a
principle which every athletic coach understands
well. A good coach pushes his best players the
hardest--not to break them down, but because he
knows that they will benefit from the prodding
and grow stronger from it.
Sometimes God mercifully allows us to continue
with a spiritual practice which is less than the
best. He is patient with the elementary state of
our faith, and not willing to push us to a higher
level before we're ready. Yet when he knows that
we can handle it, psychologically and
spiritually, he may allow us a hard experience
with the practice--not to break us down but to
build us up.
His intent is to wake us up, to quell our
enthusiasm for the practice, and to prod us to
look for a more mature approach to spiritual
insight. I believe that this explains otherwise
inexplicable experiences which some Christians
have had with fleecing and other unhealthy
approaches to guidance.
And it may well explain Brock's experience.
Brock, a remarkably mature Christian, agrees with
me. He admits, "I
realize now that I was dictating to God how he
should reveal his will to me." While the
experience, now many years in his past, was
extremely hard for him, it did strengthen him
spiritually in the long run. And one thing is
certain: he'll never be tempted to put his faith
in a fleece again.
Scripture is consistent in teaching that God
seldom gives us a purchase on our personal
future. While he graciously guides our decisions,
his guidance comes not in a blinding flash of
insight about what's ahead, but incrementally,
day by day, hour by hour, step by step. Any
process that would pretend to produce a more
certain insight than this into God's plan for our
future should be regarded suspiciously. And any
insights that come through it shouldn't be taken
as reliable.
Fleecing is almost always an effort to gain
more knowledge about our future than God is
willing to reveal. If God did grant us this level
of insight into his will, it would lessen our
incentive to grow through taking responsibility
for thinking through our decisions. It would also
take away our need to continue to trust him to
guide us step by step as we move along; our
growth in faith would be stunted.
Perhaps worst of all, if God gave us certain
knowledge of his will through a fleece, we would
feel locked in to the guidance we had received.
We wouldn't feel free to consider further
alternatives or to change our mind about what to
do, even if new information suggested we should.
What if Kelly had responded as Brock had hoped
she would, yet during her visit he decided that
he no longer was interested in having a romantic
relationship with her? He might have felt
compelled to commit to it anyway. And if he
didn't agree to it, he might have worried forever
that he had missed God's will.
God does us a great favor by withholding
insight about his will for our future until we
actually need it, and letting us discover it bit
by bit as we move ahead. This leaves us free to
stay tentative about what to do until the facts
compel us to decide, and to change our mind when
new information indicates we should. Let us
rejoice that God gives us this freedom, and be
thankful for the sense of adventure and purpose
it brings into our Christian life. And let us be
determined that no unhealthy spiritual practice
will ever fleece it away.
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