Answers to passages used as evidence that God directly influences people’s minds

By David Bailey. Supporting article for the book Talking with God.

Chapter 14 of the book, Talking with God, shows, directly influencing a person to do something against their will is counter to God’s principles. The following passages, however, are often presented as evidence that God influences people’s actions by directly acting upon their minds:

Nehemiah said, God put into my heart” (Neh. 2:12; 7:5)
Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened” (Acts 16:14)
Christ”s declarations, Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee (Peter), but my Father which is in heaven” (Matt.16:17), or No man can come to me, except the Father draw him” (John 6:44).

The first two concern God acting upon the person’s heart (mind) in some way. The simple explanation is that the Word of God worked upon the hearts of these people. Because God’s Word is the instrument, it means God did it.

We find a good example of God opening people’s hearts with the Word in Luke 24. Christ joined two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and “expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself”. After he left, they said, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” (v. 32). Christ, then also illuminated the twelve: “These are the words which I speak unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day…” (vv. 44–46). He opened their minds to the scriptures by expounding it.

Acts 17:3 says that Paul “reasoned with them out of the scriptures, Opening and alleging….” The word “opening” is the Greek dianoigō, which means literally “to open” but refers to opening up like a newborn or to expound. This is how God opens and puts into the heart an understanding and a desire to do His will: by the Word of God expounded, understood, and espoused.

So, when Nehemiah writes in Nehemiah 2, “…neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem” (v.12), we only need to read Nehemiah chapter 1 to see how God did this. In Chapter 1, we have Nehemiah’s natural response to news about Jerusalem:

“I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven” (vv. 1–4).

The prayer that follows is revealing. It borrows largely from Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9. The angel Gabriel responded to Daniel’s prayer with the Seventy Weeks prophecy, a portion of which includes the work that Nehemiah performed (v. 25). No doubt, God’s Word inspired Nehemiah to pray and try to do something for Jerusalem. In that sense, God put this desire into Nehemiah’s heart.

It was the same when Christ said in John 6:44 that the Father draws disciples, for he continued:
“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me” (verses 44–45).

It’s God’s Word that does the “drawing” through being made known and the person or people understanding that Word. God’s providential (unseen) hand is no doubt also involved.

Summary:

While God may have controlled the thoughts of prophets so they could see dreams or fall into trances, these are miraculous works obviously from God. But, God never altered the personal thinking of the prophet; each still had his or her own will. Jeremiah, Jonah, and Habakuk all struggled with the message they received (Jer. 14:7–9, 20–22; 15:10, 15–18; Jonah 1:1–3; Hab. 1:1–4, 12–2:1). 14:7–9, 20–22; 15:10, 15–18; Jonah 1:1–3; Hab. 1:1–4, 12–2:1). Certainly, Balaam wrestled to circumvent the prophecies he had uttered under trance (Num. 22–24). Those who had the holy spirit gifts had control over administering those gifts (1 Cor. 14:27–32ff; 1 Thess. 5:19–20; 1 Tim. 4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6–8; 2:1; 4:5). Those who had these gifts—and not all did—were required to exercise wisdom and faithfulness in using them.