Making decisions in life can be a challenge. The Christian community can be a source of helping you hear God's voice in your ordinary or difficult decisions. One spiritual discipline that helps with discernment is from the Quaker tradition. It's called a Clearness Committee.
The Quaker Clearness Committee is a small group that is called together to assist a person who is seeking the Holy Spirit's direction. In this process of discernment, the participants listen for God who is speaking through each person present. If the participants are hearing the Spirit's leadings, there is a common direction that is discerned. As the leadings begin to coalesce around a certain direction, participants can have more confidence that it is a direction that leads us deeper into God's will.
For centuries, the Quakers have practiced this method of discernment in community. Even those of us who aren’t Quakers can benefit from a Clearness Committee to help us come to one mind about a way forward. For a helpful overview of a Clearness Committee, read this article by Parker Palmer.
Follow these steps to set up a Clearness Committee of your own:
I join many of those who will pray for you as you seek to discern what you are called to be at this moment. May God grant you the courage to fulfill that calling. May we all open our eyes and see the misery, open our ears and hear the cries of God’s people, and, like God through the Lord Jesus Christ, be incarnate amongst them.”
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