How do you know the Lord's leading?

[JJ]

Originally Posted by Trapped

This question could be inconsiderate depending on the tone behind it, but I have no reason to assume any attitude or negative tone, so I'll take it as a question of concern instead.
There are a few ways to answer this question.....
If you are asking if I am saved, yes I do distinctly recall receiving the Lord as a young person, so in that sense I "know" the Lord. My conscience can certainly bother me, so there is some activity there.
But as far as a defined, solid relationship with the Lord, well......it's hard to "know" someone who doesn't seem to show up and who hides Himself so well when I really need some input. Aside from this thread post, in alt views I started a thread called "How do you know God cares?" so sometimes it's easy to get pretty discouraged when you end up in a situation where everything has been stripped away and you have no choice but to fall on your knees and desperately seek the Lord......and He's still not really there. What then?
The more I talk to people the more this seems to be a pretty common experience. What then?
Surely the Lord, being omni-everything, can come up with a middle ground to communicate with the people He loves so much that is somewhere between pin-drop silence and being burned up in His glory. Surely He can't be a binary, 0 or 1, all or nothing kind of person.
God speaking through your circumstances is so messy it almost makes it worse. Depending on which line of current circumstances I look at, the Lord could either be:
1. telling me to leave the LC because of the pain and mistreatment
2. telling me there are people in the LC who care and reach out, so I should stay
3. telling me to do nothing about the situation and keep reaching for Him in the midst of great and worsening loss, even though it's been a year of loss and He hasn't been there, and my suffering is getting worse
4. telling me to speak up against the mistreatment, which many are telling me not to, but possibly the Lord arranged the circumstances so someone would finally speak up and a long-standing bad situation might actually get addressed.
If I look for Biblical principles, the Lord, when reviled, did not revile in return, so maybe I shouldn't. On the other hand, He spoke up for justice. On the third hand, He seems to want the justice for Himself at the end, and until then we are supposed to turn the other cheek and love those who inflict untold pain on us. Or maybe I need to speak the truth in love.
I could easily get all these and several more conclusions from my circumstances, so I can't look at the circumstances, or "outward arrangement". I've mentioned there is no "book of Trapped" in the Bible to get God's will. And He doesn't speak audibly or in any way that I can interpret. So why bring me to barely being able to function and then leave me hanging almost, at this point, to the point of mental breakdown? I am so drained in every possible way, I just want to do what He wants......but He's off in the third heavens with his feet up in the sand sipping a margarita I guess.....because He sure isn't telling me what He wants, and I don't have anything left to make it through many more days.
So in that sense, no, I don't know the Lord. If I did know Him in that way, I wouldn't have started this thread. But again, the more LCD posts I read, the more people I talk to, two Christian counselors, elders in the LC, saints in the LC, the more online Christian articles I read, I seem to keep coming up to everyone admitting the same thing....."yeah, I never really get the Lord's leading either. I just kind of do what makes sense". Well, sometimes situations don't make sense and you're left with your lungs ripped out. So what then?
If He is our Counselor, where is the counsel? He's called our Counselor, not our Listener.

Trapped your responses make we wonder how much time you have spent in the Bible itself and how much faith you have in what it actually says (versus what LC leaders and saints have been telling you it says). This is a common byproduct of an LC upbringing though. Not necessarily your fault.

Scripture assures us that Jesus is in the heavens at the right hand of the Father advocating for His believers including you. Certainly not sipping a Margarita (though I doubt you were serious about that).
He has given you and all believers the Holy Spirit of the Promise as a pledge of our inheritance and seal that we are His. Christ indwells you through His Spirit (So He is right there, whether you perceive Him or not). His Spirit rests on you. His Spirit anoints you so you know all things without the need of someone to teach you; His Spirit leads you as a Son of God; and God has poured out His love into your heart through His Spirit.
As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. Stop waiting for Him to audibly speak to you, directly tell you what to do, or not do from the heavens or from your circumstances necessarily. Though I don’t want to limit how God and Christ will speak to you. Walk in Him by faith, believing His truth. Follow the leading of His Spirit which indwells you and rests on you. And compare what you see going on in the LC with what the scripture says should be going in the Church. Use your God given mind of Christ to understand (like aron shared with you) your options in the light of scripture.
I did those things when I found myself in your situation, and followed the Spirit’s leading out of the LC.

Again, best wishes on this. I'm praying for you.

JJ