"Casting lots occurs most often in connection with the division of the land under Joshua (Joshua, chapters 14-21)…God allowed the Israelites to cast lots in order to determine His will for a given situation (Joshua 18:6-10; 1st Chronicles 24:5,31; 1st Chronicles 25:8-9; 1st Chronicles 26:13-14). The sailors on Jonah's ship (Jonah 1:7) also cast lots to determine who had brought God's wrath upon their ship. The 11 Apostles cast lots to determine who would replace Judas (Acts 1:26).” Casting lots, outside of a religious setting, eventually became games people played and made wagers on. And those games, it can be surmised, have led to all the games of chance that use dice and are played on boards today.

I believe there is no limit as to the ways God can speak to us, nor any limit as to the ways He can have us be at the right place, at the right time, to meet those we need to meet for either the other person's healing (or our own healing). God is not limited to any one way of communicating to those, who desire with all their hearts, to be communicated to by God. We must hunger and thirst after His righteousness and He will respond. It can't be stated too often that we must reach for Him and He will reach for us.

God's will can be revealed in the process of casting lots today, just as it was revealed in the Word. But what may be missing from the description of the process, in my opinion, is the tremendously prayerful time that must have occurred before the lots were cast. It is never about lots. It is about trust. It is about a strong knowing that God can reveal His will in this way. Whatever way God's will is summoned in a situation, it must be done with reverence and a knowing that His hand is involved. In addition, it is never done with any reverence given to the physical objects used. It isn't the physical objects that have the answers. It is our trust in God and His willingness to give us practical information. Also, it is about releasing everything into God's hands. It is about truly NOT knowing what His will is and being unwilling to try and second guess it or use our own thinking to try and "figure it out."

Another method that people used in the Word to obtain God's will (and many still use), was laying a fleece before the Lord. An example of this is found in Judges 6:37-40:

Jdg 6:36 And Gideon said to God, If You will deliver Israel by my hand as You have said,
Jdg 6:37 Behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will deliver Israel by my hand, as You have said.
Jdg 6:38 And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the dew out of the fleece, he wrung from it a bowlful of water.
Jdg 6:39 And Gideon said to God, Let not your anger be kindled against me, and I will speak but this once. Let me make trial only this once with the fleece, I pray you; let it now be dry only upon the fleece and upon all the ground let there be dew.
Jdg 6:40 And God did so that night, for it was dry on the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground. (AMP)

So, if we have hearts full of trust, we can request by prayer that something out of the ordinary be accomplished to indicate that God approves of our plan. If that something occurs, then the plans that were made could be pursued. In the case of Gideon, whose story I quoted from Judges, he actually laid a fleece twice just to make sure it wasn't some sort of quirky natural phenomenon. He wanted to make sure God was involved. Again, it is about trusting Him and He will find a way to share His will with us. God was not upset with Gideon, as he had a contrite heart in him. God loves our contrite (humble) heart and seems to go out of His way to communicate His will, when we have that type of heart.

This book deals primarily with this form of casting lots: Prayerfully flipping a coin. After a period of prayer to the Lord that His hand is in all activity and recognizing that I am submitting to His decision, no matter what it will be, I will cast lots. In my countless utilizations of this process, I am happy to report it is about total submission to His will. I simply know that I must withdraw from the process of decision making and allow Him to take over. I cannot emphasize enough that this is the main issue here, NOT the flipping of a coin.

For me, heads is always Yes and tails is always No. But it could be the other way around. It is about trusting and knowing that, either way, God knows what you are doing and He wants you to know what He is doing and the best way to know His will, in any case. There are times when the answer I got was not what I wanted and didn't even seem to be what God wanted (to my limited way of thinking). But, I followed it and found He, indeed, had given us that answer by the results (or fruit) that came later.

We tend to want minimal changes. Changes involve discomfort. I know that change is necessary, it is just not what my carnal or worldly mind would choose. When Eva found a page on the Internet that informed her of a motor home for sale, relatively close by, she asked me to pray about it. We lived in a pullable RV and did not even own a truck with which to pull it. I agreed to pray about this, but knew I did not want to make changes UNLESS God instigated it. I've spun my wheels in the sand much too many times, when working out my life on my own terms. I know that moves on my own are not productive. So I prayed for about an hour, mustering my faith, knowing the truth, and loving Him. Should I even ask about this? I knew I did not want to ask God about this. If, in my prayer and coin flip, I got a No, I would tell Eva we were to drop the thought of pursuing this motor home. Therefore, the first question I asked was whether or not I needed to ask about this. After my prayer and flip, God said I should ask Him about this. This was disappointing for me. I, regretfully, had to ask directly. So I asked Him and as I prayerfully flipped a coin, my petition before Him, He told me to pursue the purchase of this motor home. As I said, I had some anxiety about this, but went ahead with an attempt to buy this motor home because I knew that God's hand was involved.

Once I prayerfully flip a coin, it is then out of my hands and fully God's responsibility. Truly, this is another reason why I started praying more and flipping a coin before the Almighty. I knew that my decisions could be wrong or tainted with my own will and could hinder my ability to hear the Holy Spirit. At least this way, I was able to relinquish the results to God, knowing that He controls the results and can eliminate any randomness to this process. After all, as I stated earlier, He approved the whole idea of casting lots. He also made the hand that invented the coin, the world, gravity, the air into which flips the coin, my thumb, the amount of pressure needed in the flip to obtain the results He wants, and much more. "Chance" does not surpass the will and power of God.

I called the number and discovered the motor home was still available. The owner invited us to come and see it and that evening we did. We took the 35 foot Winnebago for a spin and I got to drive it. The owner was selling the motor home at only what his remaining payments were. It was worth far more than that. With it came a Jeep and a tow bar. We also found out that before the present owners, this vehicle was owned by a gospel singing group. Impressed with it, the next step was to check with my bank and see if they would loan me the money to purchase this. I contacted them the next day and a decision was made. Yes, they would loan us the money. It went smoothly and quickly (that's God for you) and I am writing this portion of the book in our new motor home. We are strongly impressed that God is going to have us on the highways and byways, preaching the Gospel, singing our songs and going where He wills us to go.

I did not want to do anything that was not God's will, but knowing I trusted Him more than anything, I prayerfully flipped a coin and got His answer (it certainly was not mine). When it is His will, all goes smoothly. It was His will and it did go smoothly.

Often God will use the flip to give a deeper message, rather than a definite answer. Once when a severe storm was approaching, I had to make a decision as to whether we should stay in the RV or find a more stable shelter. I stepped aside in prayer for a while and flipped a coin. I missed the catch and it landed on the floor, tails (which meant that we were to leave the premises and head for safety). Considering that I made an error in not catching the coin, I flipped again, and again I missed the catch and it landed on the floor, tails. Then the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart, explaining that if I were going to "drop" the ball, and not pray through this, we should leave for better shelter. I knew we were to stay and pray, which we did. And, I'm happy to report, we were safe. In fact we experienced a miracle through that storm that makes an exciting testimony. As golf ball sized hail plummeted down, our young daughter asked us to join her in singing "Praise God" to the tune of Amazing Grace. Moments later there was not one piece of hail to be seen and no damage was done to our cars or RV.

I have prayed and flipped coins for editing purposes as well. I truly want to write what God wills me to write. I have found that if I write just what I want to write, the writing process is very difficult for me. I find I am straining and struggling and I have much editing to do to finally “get it right.” When God inspires me to write, the words flow just like water from an open spigot. I still have to edit, but only to extract the areas where my will crept in. Just recently I completed a chapter in another book of mine and I felt His Holy Spirit flow over me as I typed the last word. Tears came to my eyes in gratitude to Him that He chooses me to share the relevancy of His word. But, I prayed and asked Him if He was happy with this work. The coin flip revealed His answer was No.

I went through the manuscript, line by line, asking here and there, and kept getting that those areas were not the problem. Finally I came to an area I had completely forgotten about where my “carnal man” had obviously crept into the manuscript, spouting off my ideas. I asked if this was the area and when I prayed and flipped the coin, I got a Yes. Extracting that, He honored me with His own satisfaction as I prayed and flipped the coin one last time.

I've added a few rules to this for me. In the early phases of praying and coin flipping, I sometimes had a personal goal in mind—something that was a high priority to me. At that time, I would pray and flip a coin but, could not accept that God did not want me to do the thing I was praying about. My “carnal man” took the initiative and I would ask God EVERYDAY until He said Yes. In this particular case, after a few days of praying and flipping a coin, God said Yes. But, in retrospect, I believe God was exasperated with me and merely said Yes to get me off His back. It was a kind of, "Okay, okay, go ahead and do what YOU will!" So, I do not pray and flip a coin before the most almighty God over and over again, in order to get the answer I want. Because it isn't my answer I want, but God's. To be so self-willed and rebellious makes a mockery of the process. We must pray sincerely and let God be God for us, when we flip the coin, or cast the lots.

Once, when I needed to make a decision concerning an offer from a pastor friend regarding connection with our ministry, I was very unsure of the answer I got because I didn't feel I was properly prayed up. I asked again a few days later by praying and flipping a coin and got the same answer as before. THEN I was committed to the answer and found joy in doing what the Lord advised. The results of that were also joyous, even though it was not seemingly a pleasant thing to do. Many months later, I saw the reason why God had asked me to do this. God is perfectly willing to share what we need to do at any given time. I can't say this too often (well, I guess I could but…) it is about trusting Him, not about flipping coins.

There will be those who may think I am only sharing the stories where the coin flip landed properly. For the time period this casting lot diary was kept, I have related every story, whether the results of that story were "good" or "bad." Also, I realize that it may seem like I am, apparently, proposing that others flip coins before God in order to hear God. Please understand that it is not about working with any physical objects to try to hear God. It is not really about laying a fleece before Him or casting lots. It is Him we must adore, it is Him we must follow, not some particular arrangement of physical objects. When your heart's desire is to hear the Lord, He will work out a way in which this is possible for you. This way is working for us and it may be helpful for you, as well. Please pray about a way to hear God's will in your life and, above all, please desire to do God's will. He will provide a way, just as He did for me.

Once, during a heated argument with my wife, I brought God into it and said, hastily, without thinking, “Let's see what God says about this!” and I quickly flipped a coin. God answered on my side of the argument, but He was very disturbed with what I had done and I lost the ability to communicate with Him (by this process of flipping a coin) for a while. When I'd flip a coin, I just knew, by revelation of the Holy Spirit, that God's hand was not on it. The results, for a while, were very erratic and I could tell it was just "luck" with regard to which way the coin landed. When He eventually restored my communication, I felt like leaping into the air, and praising Him, and I vowed never to put God in that kind of situation again. We must never put God on the spot. He would never purposely want to side one way or the other in an argument (unless you both should agree that you want God to make the decision). He must be the only resolution we would want. Again, never use this method to flex one's carnal muscles or you will find yourself on your own for a while. This is a blatant abuse of the process.

Let me emphasize, if two or more people are in agreement that they will abide by the results of the coin toss laid before God in prayer, that is a different story. Wherever two or more are gathered in Christ's name, He is there—and a coin tossed before God in this manner is very sacred and effective.

I have felt that I've had to be very secretive about this method because of the pure absurdity of the idea that people might think I'm advocating that one can talk to God by flipping a coin. That would be a gross over-simplification of what is going on. Casting the lot or laying a fleece before God is intended to be a valid way of reverently seeking God ascertainable will on a matter. It isn't meant to be the sole way of communicating with God or hearing the Holy Spirit. It isn't meant to replace listening for that still, small voice of the spirit of God. We talk to God in prayer and He may choose to use any means to communicate with us He desires. He has no limitations in how He can communicate with us, but first, with deep and regular prayer times, we must get to know Him. With complete submission to His will, a flipping of the coin or laying of a fleece will work—just like drawing lots worked for the Bible heroes I talked about, previously.

If, for some reason, you do not believe that God exists and is a very real and viable source of wisdom for you, you should not try this. A laying down of a fleece or flipping a coin can never prove anything. God must be taken on faith and He must be allowed to prove He is real. Once a relationship is established with Him and there is no doubt He is real, we can enjoy utilizing this tool and humbly allow Him an additional way to communicate with us.

Another important note: We should try to phrase the question in such a way that we are not imposing our will. Leave room for God to make a statement. Sometimes if the question is phrased in too restrictive a manner, either way, our will, not God's, is being done. We may choose to ask Him, “Is this the way you want me to phrase the question? Or, as I often say to Him, 'Do you even want me to ask this?'”

We do not need to lay fleece before God or flip a coin. We do not need anything but what God already gave us from the cross. His gift of salvation which He gave us from the cross provides everything we need. Nothing more is needed now that our eternal salvation is assured. However, God wants us to mature in Him and be helpful as we walk this earth, as, through our God dwelling in us as Jesus Christ's Holy Spirit, all men are drawn to Him. We should want to know and do His explicit will at all times. Works should accompany genuine faith.

We know all through the Bible that God works in mysterious ways. I am not saying anything new with regard to how God works. This same God spoke through a donkey once. He wants to speak to us and be involved in every aspect of our lives. We are worth much more to Him than a donkey. We must not try to limit the way He can speak to us. God has proven many times over to us that He will use this method of praying and casting the lot before Him, to communicate with us. But, again, it is not about the physical objects used, it is the trust we have that He can provide His answer in this way—or in any way He chooses. We have found that He often uses both a prayerful flip of the coin and then a clarification dropped into our hearts, by His Holy Spirit to explain His answer.

The bottom line is our desire that God's will be done, and not our own. If this method of prayerfully flipping a coin before God seems too absurd (even though there is a Biblical precedence) consider this instead: God wants His will to be acknowledged and followed as we walk this earth. Have we considered that He DOES have a will? Have we considered that He wants only the best for us and would keep us from the futile pain of a downward spiral? When we follow God's will, we may still have pain, but we will be in an upward spiral and there will be a gradual cessation of it. Have we been asking Him in prayer to really reveal to us, His will in all things? If we know that God has a will and that He wants us to know it, then we must hunger to know His will. We must ask Him how His will can be known. He doesn't want His will to be unavailable to us. How can we do His will, if we can't know it? We must tell Him that we want nothing more than to know His will and to follow it. We must hunger for this. God will find a way to speak with us, because part of His will is that we would know it along with Him (and follow it).

It is Biblical that when we reach for Him, He will reach for us. He will not ignore His children who hunger to do His will. Remember, this whole carnal world was started when Adam and Eve exhibited self-will and chose to rebel against God, leaving all of us, their descendants, in the lurch. God sent His Son to restore right-standing and communication with Him, and now that Jesus has been made Lord and Savior of our lives, He eagerly wants to share His will with us. We can't bow to the world's ways AND allow Jesus to be Lord and Savior at the same time. (We can't follow mammon and God).

How is God communicating His will with you? To what extent do you “guess” or hope you are hearing His Spirit and doing God's will? Have you had a prayer of relinquishment in which your will is completely given up, so that there is room for God's will in your life? In the next section, I will share my journal which I began keeping, once I saw the viability of praying and asking God for His help in this way. In addition, I will share some insights into the nature of God, which naturally come to anyone who is successful in casting lots. By the fruit of the experience, you will be able to determine whether it is successful or not. Please enjoy these true stories. Bear in mind as you read, casting the lot is not to replace all other ways of hearing God's Spirit. Often, it is merely a confirmation of what the Spirit is already saying. One time when, over a somewhat trivial matter, I told Eva we should ask God about it. She nodded. We prayed and followed His guidance. Then, in a complete surprise to me, a sudden feeling of gratefulness rushed through my whole body, from head to toe and tears of joy streamed down my face. I told Eva that God was sharing with me, right then, how grateful He was that we are so willing to hear His will, in both the trivial and major decisions we have to make. I was amazed and grateful that God shared that with us!

I want you to enjoy this book first and be in awe at how often God spoke to Eva and me by His Holy Spirit in conjunction with the tossing of a coin. There was one incident, however, which took place during this time period when I was keeping a casting lots journal that has turned out to apparently be a major blunder on our part in following this course of decision making. I would be dishonest to leave it out so it is included as chapter 33 (My Time Share Experience). Of course, I will explain what I feel happened to the best of my knowledge and explain why I still feel the casting of the lot can be a wonderful way to show God we trust Him and allow Him to give us supernaturally, practical information for our day to day activities.

9 http://www.gotquestions.org/casting-lots.html. Back

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