Many years ago I read a letter from a Christian teen who revealed that he recently became intimate with his girlfriend. He said that he had been genuinely wrestling with if he should or should not, so he decided to pray about it. Like Gideon, he asked God to make his will clear, “God if she asks to come over tonight, I’ll know you’re okay with us having sex. If she doesn’t, I’ll know you’re against it.” Later that night he receives a call from his girlfriend asking to come over and the teenage boy ends up sleeping with her under a false sense of permission due to what he believes is an answered prayer. While that’s an extreme (but real) example, many of us have used his method for determining God’s will with other issues. In this article I’d like to show why we should not let our decisions be made by prayer, if we’re given direct and clear instructions in Scripture. Read more