God wants us to experience His guidance as a normal part of our life. He wants us to become so accustomed to His guiding us in the ordinary affairs of life that we relax in His faithfulness and often experience guidance almost without being conscious of it. Divine guidance is the privilege of every child of God (Ex 15:13 NIV). God does not want His guidance to seem complicated to you. Experiencing frequent guidance from God is the major distinctive of Christianity.
    Divine guidance is the process by which God makes known to a person the path or way he or she should go. It is the act of God’s leading a man or woman in the direction of His plans and destiny for him or her.
    Guidance from God is not an optional extra in the life of a Christian. It is an indispensable requirement for successful living, fruitfulness and fulfilment. Man’s basic essence underscores this point. Prior to creating humanity, God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;”(Gen 1:26). Man was designed to reflect the image and likeness of God, in which he was made, by following Him. The quest for independence from God is antithetical to God’s blueprint for mankind. The following reasons point to the necessity of Divine guidance for mankind.
    God has plans for you. He has made it clear in the following words of the Bible : “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jer 29:11 NIV). The reason why God has plans for your life is that it belongs to Him. The Bible says, “I know, O LORD, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.” (Jer 10:23 NIV). It is, therefore, not for you to formulate a plan for your life. God already has the best plans for you. However, you can only discover His plans for you by His guidance.
    Only God knows the end from the beginning. Isaiah Chapter 46:10 (NIV) says, “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.” In addition, Revelation Chapter 21:6 says,  “And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End… .” God is the only person in a position to tell us what is best for us now, that will not eventually lead to death (Isa 48:17; Prov 14:12). It is not everything you think is good for you now that is actually good for you. The Bible says, “There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.” (Prov 14:12 NLT).
    We have a crafty enemy, whose aim is to steal, kill and destroy us (Jn 10:10). Satan our enemy has mastered the art of deception. The Bible says, “… Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” (2Cor 11:14 NLT ). The wisest of men is not a match for Satan in the art of duplicity. He and his hordes of demons have been around for far longer than humanity has existed. Joshua and the elders of Israel at one time fell victim to the devil’s deception. God had warned Israel not spare any of the inhabitants of the land He was giving them. Israel was to destroy all of them. However, when the delegation from Gibeon met Joshua and the elders of Israel, they pretended to have come from afar and as such requested for a peace pact with Israel. To buttress their concocted tale, the delegation presented Joshua with stale and crusty bread as well as cracked wineskins and worn clothes as evidence. In response, the Bible says, “Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions; but they did not ask counsel of the Lord.” (Josh 9:14). Three days later, the Israelites discovered the Gibeonites were close neighbours. It was then late to undo the deed. Like Joshua and the elders of Israel, we are susceptible to being deceived if we do not look to God for guidance. Only He can reveal satan’s duplicity to us.
    It is receiving and following God’s guidance that guarantees His involvement in our undertakings and as such commits Him to our success. The Scripture put it in these words, “Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain.” (Ps 127:1). If we ignore or neglect Divine guidance, our efforts will be futile. If Jesus is to be the finisher of our faith, He needs to be the author of it. God made this point clear to Zerubbabel when He said : “…“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’…” (Zech 4:6). Until the above-mentioned command was obeyed, God was not committed to moving the mountain before Zerubbabel and neither was He obligated to seeing that Zerubbabel completed the temple whose foundation he was about to lay. The same principle applies to us today.
    We can enjoy the abundant life which God provided for us in Christ, only as we avail ourselves of His guidance. The Bible says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” (Jn 6:63). It is the Spirit who gives life. Unless He leads us, both we and our activities will be devoid of life and hence bereft of fruitfulness and fulfilment. It is, therefore, important that we make God’s guidance an integral part of our lives. Shalom.