> Well, I agree with you about 99% here, but still, I believe there are times when God does nudge us and says, "Here. Here is where your gift needs to be applied". Why would that be unbiblical? Seems to me there are plenty of examples of people in the Bible being directed by the Holy Spirit to do some specific thing.

First, a nitpick: I'd prefer to call it [i.e., the Holy Spirit directing, for example, TOM to teach high school in a way he can't quite define] "non-biblical" rather than "unbiblical."

At any rate, I think the instances of God directing men to do things in the Bible are different, for the reason that when God spoke to the people of the Bible, they *knew* it was God, by not just irrefutable personal conviction but by their own senses. In some cases, God appeared in a visible manifestation; in others he appeared audibly. This was in times prior to the Bible's completion, hence why I think he occasionally did spoke to men that way and does not now; in any case, there isn't an instance I know of (I could be wrong, however) where God made a *specific* demand of someone using only spiritually-perceived leading. A general demand, perhaps, one that would apply to everyone, such as the right thing to do in a moral paradox -- which would have *some* kind of scriptural backing anyhow -- but not a demand concerning a decision that would normally be ours to make freely. If you know of such an example, however, I'd be interested.

Nonetheless, I can't help but think that we are more or less told to careful about this sort of thing. The Bible tells us that there are false spirits/prophets about, and that they appear in fair guises and speak with sweet words. Our only weapon against such deception is the Word of God. How then can we fight against a spiritual deception that the Word of God doesn't even address?

I'm not at all suggesting that TOM is listening to a false spirit, nor am I denying God the ability or prerogative to speak to us in a spiritual manner with authority. But the simple fact of our own human fallibility is that we *can* become convinced of a falsehood by spiritual means, and so how can we truly determine a spiritually discerned truth from a spiritually discerned sweet falsehood without anything else but spiritual discernment to go on? I think that God, knowing this about us, hence ordinarily accompanies his spiritual guidance with tangible corroboration -- in these times, normally the teachings of the Bible. This is perhaps also why the basis of Christianity is in its facts -- Christ's life, teachings, death, and resurrection, and in the concrete words of the Bible -- rather than (exclusively) in our own spiritual discernment.