December 2007
Excerpt from "Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God", pg 33-34
George Mueller was a pastor in England during the 19th century, and he was concerned that God's people had become very discouraged. They no longer looked to God to do anything unusual, no longer trusted God to answer prayer and had very little faith. God began to lead George to pray. His prayers were for God to lead him to a work that could only be explained by the people as an act of God. George wanted the people to learn that their God was a faithful, prayer-answering God. He came upon a verse in Psalm 81:10, "Open wide your mouth and I will fill it." God began to lead him in a walk of faith that became an outstanding testimony to all who hear his story even today.
When George felt led of God to do some work, he prayed for resources needed and told no one of the need. He wanted all to know that God had provided for the need only in answer to prayer and faith. During his ministry in Bristol, George started the Scriptural Knowledge Institute for distribution of Scripture and for religious education. He also began an orphanage. By the time of his death in 1898, George had been used by God to build four orphan homes that cared for 2,000 children at a time. Over 10,000 children had been provided for through these orphanages. He distributed over eight million dollars that had been given to him in answer to prayer. Yet when he died at age 93, his personal worldly possessions were valued at $800.
How did George Mueller know and do the will of God? He said, "I never remember a period that I ever sincerely and patiently sought to know the will of God by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, through the instrumentality of the Word of God, but I have been always directed rightly. But if honesty of heart and uprightness before God were lacking, or if I did not patiently wait upon God for instruction, or if I preferred the counsel of my fellow men to the declarations of the Word of the living God, I made great mistakes." So he sincerely sought God's direction, he waited patiently on God until he had a word from God, and he looked to the Holy Spirit to teach him through the Word. Yet if he lacked honesty and uprightness before God, if he was impatient, or preferred the counsel of men over the declarations of Scripture, he made mistakes.
Here is how George summed up the way he entered into a "heart" relationship with God and learned to discern God's leading: "(1) I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the knowledge of what His will is. (2) Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusion. (3) I seek the Will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them. (4) Next I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God's will in connection with His Word and Spirit. (5) I ask God in prayer to reveal His will to me aright. (6) Thus, through prayer to God, the study of the Word of God, and personal reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly."