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The search for supernatural guidance has a long history. Ever since the Oracle at Delphi, and before, people have consulted priests, astrologers, fortune-tellers and others to seek insight before decisions, so that life choices work and deals succeed.

There is no evidence that any of this actually works. We are still waiting for a fortune-teller to win the National Lottery. Magic is no substitute for the real and living God (see Isaiah 8:19).

I doubt any readers of this post are into any of those things – we certainly shouldn’t be. But there is a danger closer to home: that we can approach the true God rather as people consulted these sources – as guidance just for my personal purposes and priorities.

If that is the case, we need a personal Copernican Revolution.

It was back in the sixteenth century that the Polish polymath Nicolaus Copernicus overturned conventional thinking by proposing that the earth goes round the sun, rather than vice-versa. The observed motions of the planets fitted way better if this was the case.

We need to grasp that God is no satellite orbiting us, but that in fact He is the centre of the universe, and we are the satellites.

This means that the question we are asking as we seek God’s guidance is not so much “what will suit me?” as “how can I please the living and true God?”

Recognising this is an essential step in understanding God’s guidance. Just as the heliocentric model makes far better sense of planetary motions, the Bible makes far more sense once we accept its message that it is the Lord who is the centre of the universe, rather than ourselves.

Rather than asking what will convenience us, we need to start by considering His purposes: that we love Him, that we live lives of holiness, that we invest our lives for the gospel, that we live and work for His glory.

This changes everything. It means that a key prayer, as we seek His guidance, is “Your will be done, in earth as in heaven.”