In Search of Guidance:

Developing a Conversational Relationship with God

By Dallas Willard

The version of this book that I read is the second, and revised edition published by Regal Books in 1993. The original was published by the same house in 1983. More recently, this book has been further revised, retitled 'Hearing God' and published in 1999 by HarperCollins (UK) / IVP (US).

It was about two years ago that I read The Divine Conspiracy, the book that brought Willard to the attention of mainstream readers. Setting forth his own version of a manifesto for life in the Kingdom of God, Willard caught my attention and dropped in enough fresh thoughts and reworkings of classic bible passages that I wanted to read what he might have to offer on the subject of guidance and hearing God's voice.

The sub-title to this book is very important, perhaps more so than the title itself: 'Developing a Conversational Relationship with God'. I've read loads of books about guidance and hearing God's voice and heard even more sermons on the subject. Every other author or preacher has their own neat set of points or principles, often wrapped up in a lovely anacronym (!) to help me remember them. If only I could successfully apply all the points I too would be able to have and maintain my very own hotline to God. What I like about Willard is that he clearly has a relationship with and experience of the same God that I do where pat answers and neat solutions usually don't work and the mess of life complicates things in ways that are as unique to my own story as they are to my neighbour's story.

Dallas Willard writes from the premise that knowing and understanding, the means by which reliable guidance comes, are things which grow out of relationship. Therefore, he commits this book to examining the kind of relationship and life that the Christian is called and drawn to have with God. "Divine guidance will never make sense except when set within a larger life of the right kind" (p227). He then makes regular returns to the issue of guidance, helping the reader to see how the healthy relationship that they might build will quite naturally lead to a sense of God coming alongside, speaking to and guiding us without it necessarily being a big deal.

"Life with effects beyond the natural always depends on intimate interactions between us and God, who is therefore present" (p44).

I'm stirred and moved by reading this book, to pursue my relationship with God in a new way, and not out of some selfish, guidance-seeking motivation. The kind of life that Willard writes about - the sort that embraces the tension between my humanness and the glory and perfection of God - is the kind that I want. It's the kind of life that I sense Jesus inviting people to when He spoke in stories that sounded more like riddles, but yet came alongside glimpses of how wonderful that life and its so very immanent experience of the person and presence of God can be.

I'm afraid that this review might not make much sense or be very helpful to a person reading it who hasn't begun to even think about who God might be and what it might mean to live your life in relationship with Him. If that's you, perhaps you might find it helpful to read our very basic take on being a Christian (click on the 'We're Christians' link at the top of the page). But equally, as Dallas Willard sets out something of how that conversational relationship with God might be entered into and experienced, whether you know God or not, you will find this book a very stimulating, thought-provoking and helpful read.