The Eleventh Spiritual Discipline: The Discipline of Guidance
 
Corporate Guidance. Much has been written about spiritual guidance of the individual. The corporate aspect of guidance has been neglected. God led the people of Israel out of bondage as a body. The prophets brought the word of God to the people. Bible people decided as a people to live under the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit. 
 
In making decisions corporately, known facts are not to be conclusive. The body must discern between what seems rational and what is the will of God. A key to knowing is that God gives a spirit of unity when the group is on track in hearing him and a certain restlessness of spirit where it is not. 
 
I lived for decades in an Anglican Religious Community where all significant decisions were made in unanimity. It was a wonderful example of the Holy Spirit's guidance of a body of people. Where God calls a body of people into being, his Holy Spirit will reveal his singular will for that body. A vestry, for example, could make its decisions based upon this principle, but only where all vestry members trust it to be true. Corporate guidance breaks down (1) when members of the group insist on reverting to majority rule, or (2) when someone in the group is in sin, that is, has a broken relationship with the Holy Spirit. Corporate guidance wonderfully avoids despotism, totalitarianism, and anarchy. 
 
Guidance for the Individual. Of course, one can seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit one-on-one. Two important protections against mishearing God are: Such guidance should resonate with the local Christian body in which one is situated (For example, does one’s pastor bear witness to it?) Secondly, such guidance should square with the Word of God.
 
In recent decades, there has been a renewed emphasis on spiritual direction. The Desert Fathers engaged in spiritual direction, which is one person assisting another not only in discerning the will of God but in growing in the Christian life. In spiritual direction, the director leads by the force of his personal holiness and not by telling others what to do. In doing so, the director shares his own personal struggles and doubts with a humility which avoids his being seen as some kind of "spiritual giant." The Word of God must pervade the process, and properly handled spiritual direction is a real boon to the Church.
 
In Him Who makes us one,
Fr. Dennis

 
P.S. Reminder. This series on the Spiritual Disciplines has been based largely on material abstracted from Richard J Foster's classic Celebration of Discipline.