Casting lots to determine God's will for a situation; can it still be used under the New Covenant

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Casting Lots to Determine the Will of God for a Particular Situation — Can it Still be Used under the New Testament Covenant?

Renette Vermeulen

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WHY DID THEY CAST LOTS TO DECIDE JONAH'S FATE ON THE SHIP? CAN WE STILL CAST LOTS TO MAKE DECISIONS TODAY? WHAT HAPPENED TO THE POWER OF THE OLD PROPHETS? (Jonah 1:7.)

Casting lots was practiced in paganism since ancient times and was taken up into the Old Testament Covenant.

The Old Hebrews used the casting of lots to determine the will of God because during the Old Testament Covenant, the Holy Spirit only “came upon” them but did not indwell them, (Mt. 28:18-20; 1 Cor. 3:16-17.) Jesus ministered on earth under the Old Testament Covenant before He established His New Testament Covenant at the cross.

So, Jesus pointed them to the New Testament Covenant when He said they must not look [to a physical kingdom here on earth as God’s dwelling place,] because [after the cross and Pentecost, all true believers will have] the Holy Spirit living “within” them, (Acts 7:44-50; Lu. 17:20-21 KJV.)

The Old Testament Covenant with the physical nation of Israel ended when Jesus suffered and died on the cross in the place of every sincere believer from “every tribe, tongue, and nation,” (Jn. 19:28-30! Hebrews 8:13; chapters 7-9.) Since then, all Gentiles as well as all Hebrews who sincerely believe in and accept Jesus are redeemed, saved, and blessed, as He Alone is the Only Way to God the Father in heaven, (Jn. 3:16-17; 14:6.)

· So, when the Old Israelites who lived before the cross and Pentecost were faced with a difficult decision, they cast lots because they did not have the indwelling Holy Spirit to "lead them into all truth" like we do under Jesus' eternal New Testament Covenant, (Jn. 16:13.)

· That is why, after the cross but before the outpouring of the indwelling Holy Spirit at Pentecost, in Acts 1:26, when Jesus’ disciples had to choose an apostle in the place of Judas who betrayed Jesus, they “cast their lots [after they prayed,] and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.”

· However, Acts Chapter Two describes how Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to indwell all His sincere believers for the first time in history until the end of the world, (Mt. 28:18-20.)

· And so, after Acts 1:26 when they chose Matthias, we do not read anywhere in the New Testament about casting lots to determine God’s will for a situation.

Jesus also promised that the indwelling Holy Spirit will convict every person on earth of sin, and “make known” to His believers important things about the future, (Jn. 16:8-14.) In this regard, the following Old Testament, Moral-Law promise of God still stands for New Testament believers, “Call on Me and I will answer you, and reveal to you great and mighty things, which you do not know, [so that you can prepare yourselves to face all things in My wisdom, leading, power, and will,]” (Jer. 33:3.)

· Every past and future event; secret, motive, deed, and feeling is known by the Most High God and He Alone can reveal what we need to know now. As God promised even under the Old Testament Covenant in Jeremiah 33:3, the Holy Spirit still speaks personally to His believers in particular concerning their unrepentant sin, difficult decisions, dangers, etcetera, (Jn. 16:8-14.)

· We must not consult spiritists, mediums, fortune tellers, so-called “deliverers,” false prophets, and others who work with evil forces. Under the precepts of the Moral Law, (Deuteronomy 13:1-18; 18:10-14,) God forbade all such practices as that amounts to idolatry and witchcraft against Him, (1 Sam. 15:22-23.)

· What’s more, New-Covenant lot determinations through various methods can also work in the favor of evil people to ensnare believers and bring them under the deception of Satan and the control of his human disciples, (Deut. 13:1-4.)

We do not need to consult any of the above to know the will of God because under Jesus’ New Covenant for personally born again believers, we have His “abiding anointing” or the Holy Spirit Himself, Who always lives inside every true believer in Christ “to know all things,” (1 Jn. 2:20-27.) He teaches us personally as we choose to obey Him, but this does not mean that He does not teach us the precepts of His Moral Law and the Truth of His contextual Word through other believers as well, (Eph 4:11.) “We are the body of Christ [together] and members individually. [From these members] God appoints apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healings, helps, administrations, and varieties of tongues, [1 Cor. 13-1-3.] Are all apostles, prophets, teachers, workers of miracles... Do all speak in tongues...?” No, because every true believer in the body of Christ has his or her specific calling and appropriate gifts to minister to the body of believers. Jesus’ true disciples will never need more than this, as the indwelling Spirit is Jesus Himself: The Word, Truth, Light, Way, and Life, (Jn. 1:1-3; 14:6.)

As said, because God Is the Spirit of Truth, Who steadfastly indwells all sincere believers as His living temple, He constantly “leads them into all truth" where the full context of the Bible Scriptures, and their convictions and situations are concerned - if they ask Him to do that, and humbly follow Him. He also speaks into their born again human spirits to give them wisdom and to make His will clear to them, (1 Ths. 5:23; Jn. 16:8.)

To further assist the believing members of the body of Christ in their walk with Him, the Holy Spirit also gave them His Scriptural gifts such as “prophecy, a word of knowledge, and a word of wisdom” to confirm personal decisions and His will for specific situations, (1 Cor. 12 & 14.) The Spirit will never speak outside the boundaries of His Word, (the true context of Scripture,) and He does not speak to other believers first and then to us about our private matters. That is so because true believers all live in a personal relationship with Him and must “hear” from Him directly where private matters are concerned, (Jn. 1:12-13; 3:3-5.)

· Thus, no prophecy or other ‘revealing’ gift such as a word of knowledge or wisdom, which God manifests for us through other people, can be a surprise to us! (1 Cor. 14:24-25!) Where private matters are concerned, other people can merely confirm what God has already placed in our “hearts.” So, the prophesies and other ‘revealing’ gifts of the indwelling Holy Spirit are not predictive like in fortune telling, but affirmative. Paul explained in 1 Corinthians 14:22-25, “If an uninformed person or unbeliever comes into the assembly, [and a prophecy is brought to him,] he will be convicted as the secrets of his heart, [which is only between him and God,] are revealed [or confirmed.] And so, falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that He is truly among you.”

· Additionally, the Holy Spirit always manifests His ‘revealing’ gifts corporately through His body and privately to the members of His body “as He wills.” His specific will for situations cannot be controlled and His gifts cannot be forced, either by angels or by human beings, (1 Cor. 12:4-11!)

It is necessary to understand that the Spirit’s gift of prophecy functions as interpretive of personal situations, and not to teach so-called “new revelations that can add to Scriptural truth.”

· While God spoke predictive to the nation of Old Israel and also gave them the Old Testament Scriptures through His chosen prophets such as Moses, He now only speaks predictive to His believing body of believers through His Word, which He revealed in full through His Son Jesus and the teachings that He gave to us, (Heb. 1:1-14.)

· Jesus Himself is the Last and Only New Covenant Prophet in a predictive capacity. This is so because, under the New Testament Covenant in the Lord Jesus Christ, we already have the fullness of God’s Word; everything we kneed to know. No one dares to add or subtract anything from it.

· The physical Old Testament Covenant where God used prophets to guide the Old Israeli nation was done away with and fully substituted with His spiritual New Testament Covenant and His Everlasting Prophet Jesus; the Only Mediator between God and man; our Eternal High Priest according to the Order of Melchizedek, (Heb. 1:1-14; 9:11-15; 8:13; chapters 7—9; 1 Pt. 2:9-10.)

· The Holy Spirit’s New Testament gift of prophecy that “reveals” the intentions of people’s “hearts,” (1 Cor. 14:24-25,) does not pertain to the preaching of Jesus’ Gospel and the teaching of His contextual, Scriptural Word, as we must all continually grow in God’s grace to acquire His ever-deepening knowledge, (Mt. 28:18-20; 2 Pt. 3:18.)

· We mostly understand God’s will for each one of us personally and for His body corporately through the contextual Truth of His Word. That is why Paul commanded that we must, by the mercy of God, “[constantly] present our bodies, [souls or minds, and human spirits] as living sacrifices, holy, and [through Jesus’ full atonement in our place,] acceptable to God. This is our [basic] service [to Him.] Then, we must [continually abstain from] conformity to the world to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, [our thoughts and beliefs,] that we may [understand] what is the… perfect will of God [for every situation.]” (Romans 12:1-2.)

Once we have God’s ‘conviction’ in our ‘hearts’ concerning a personal issue, we must then obey His Word as far as possible, and also ‘test the spirit’ that speaks to us, to be certain it is from God, (1 Ths. 5:21-22; 1 Jn. 4:1-4.) We ‘test the spirits’ by testing our innermost feelings, thoughts, and beliefs against the full context of what Jesus taught in His Word. This is a most important step to escape self-deception and deception through spirits and people. As said, the Holy Spirit will never violate, or tell us to violate His contextual, true Word and His Moral Law, which He wrote on our hearts or human spirits and in our souls or minds, (Heb. 10:16.) This pertains to “knowing the truth” about things that pertain to our personal lives, as well as understanding the things that God taught and prophesied in Scripture.

· Then, we must also look at the context of the situation we must deal with. We have to pay attention to the 'fruit' or constant behavior of people, as well as our own motives and behavior. The "devil is always in the details." People might tell us some truth, but manipulate the whole truth to hide very important issues. Therefore, we must constantly pray for the Spirit’s gift of discernment, (1 Corinthians 12:10,) and ask our Father to show us the whole truth of the situation. We must then compare everything to the facts of the situation, as we must remain "sober minded" at all times, and the Holy Spirit will never cloud our minds or violate the truth that God has revealed to us, (1 Pt. 5:8.)

Facts cannot lie. Facts are truth. Liars and manipulators of the truth such as narcissists will always annihilate and twist the facts of Scripture, what God has truly placed in our ‘hearts,’ and the truth about their behavior, to deceive us and to get us under their sinful control. They also lie by omission of, or addition to the truth.

· This is one of the most important reasons why we must never cast lots or run to consult ‘prophets' like Old Israel did under the Old Testament Covenant. This is not to say that God does not speak to us through the true wisdom and ministry of honest, Godly believers. But as said, under the Old Testament covenant, God declared His Word through human prophets, while under the New Testament Covenant, which was inaugurated at the cross and completed at Pentecost, "God speaks to us [personally] through His Son, [Who Is His Word and the indwelling Holy Spirit,] (Heb. 1:1-3; 1 Cor. 6:15-20; Col. 2:9-10.)

· God clearly commanded at Jesus’ transfiguration on the Mount, “This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him!”

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