Does justice prevent God from trying us out of love?
If that trial violates God's standards of justice, then YES, it would prevent him from doing it. Besides, how can you think that God acting out of love means doing something morally wrong? According to the scriptures, it doesn't work that way. Don't forget that God sets the standards of what is good and bad. If you feel differently, fine, but you would be contradicting what the Bible says about God.
Justice doesn't prevent bad things frm happening. Justice may require bad things happen to us, by his will. Was the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah mere happenstance? Or the justice of God to destroy a people who deserved it?
I never said God's justice would prevent bad things from happening. I just said that God would not be the
cause of "bad things" if those "bad things" were unjust, or morally wrong according to
God's standards. Your example is a very good demonstration of this distinction!
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was certainly "bad" for those who underwent it, but that action was not unjust or morally wrong according to God's standards (which standards are clearly defined in the Bible). Laws usually include with them a penalty for breaking the law. So if one breaks the law and then suffers the penalty, which penalty is undoubtably 'bad' for them, but you cannot morally blame the lawgiver for the bad you suffer. Yes, it was just for God to destroy those people because they deserved it according to
his not-unknown standards.
God is just and full of mercy. But we are all imperfect sinners. And heaven will be full of imperfect sinners. God's ways are always divine and enlightened, even when we cannot see it.
Not every trial comes from God. Some are the consequences of the bad acts of others. Some are temptations from the evil one. But let's not forbid God from having the power to do whatever he sees fit, including try us.
I'm with you right up to the last statement. I am not saying that God doesn't have "the power to do whatever he sees fit". I am saying that by God's own standards of love and justice, along with his power and wisdom, he forbids himself from acting against those standards. In other words, God can do whatever he sees fit to do, but he will never "see fit to do" something that is against his own principles. There are plenty of scriptural examples of this.
How does a God speak to you?
First and primarily, through the inspired scriptures. If he happens to add to that, say via a dream, vision, thoughts, feelings, etc,., it would
never be to urge you to do something that conflicts with his principles already stated in his WORD.
I have felt a burning in my belly, thoughts and words coming into my brain, and a brief glimpse of a future, among other things. I have fasted, prayed, mediated, and pondered. I have felt his love and his guidance. I know the difference between the desires of my heart and his guidance. I am not new to this rodeo.
Imagine yourself waking up, as if from an unpleasant dream, and finding that your life, which you believed to be difficult, was really a nightmare of epic proportions, so unbelievably awful that words can not describe it. Imagine having a pain at your heart, not physical, but emotional, as enormous as the heavens.
Then you might start to understand where I was.
OK, so how do you know that the 'burning in your belly, thoughts coming to your brain, etc' was from God? Did those burning thoughts correspond to God's principles and purposes already stated in the Bible? Or are you saying so just because the feelings associated with your thoughts were so intense? If the latter is your only reason, then sorry, but that is not good enough to warrant it as coming from God.
Again, I have no compulsion to minimize the intensity of your experience other than to point out that statements like "a nightmare of epic proportions", "so unbelievably awful", "a pain at your heart...as enormous as the heavens", are very subjective terms. Do you really think your experience was so bad that you were enduring more than you could handle? Was your experience more or less worse than experiences that others have gone through? Compared to faithful men of old, like Abraham, Job, David, John the Baptist, Paul, or even Christ himself, where do you think you rank?
But lets say we concede to it being fact that your experience was the worst it could possibly be for you. Well, for one, Christians should expect persecution and tests (2 Timothy 3:12; Matthew 16:24; Acts 14:22) God will not allow us to be tested in our faith beyond what we can bear. (1Co 10:13; 2Co 4:9) And he values our endurance when we persevere under trials. (Matthew 24:13; Luke 21:19). So do you really think that there are any circumstances where he would encourage you to do something that obviously goes against his stated principles that have been around for millenia?
But I heard the words of God in my mind, confirmed by the Holy Spirit, that I had done enough. I could leave my wife blameless in his eyes. Again, I will not recite the particulars, but have no doubt, that as much as God directed me to marry my wife 20 years earlier, he told me I could leave with clean hands.
Sorry, I just don't buy it. What words did you hear? Something like: 'You have had a hard time and done well, it's ok to leave'? Despite the
fact that 'leaving' is against clearly defined Godly principles. Despite the numerous Biblical examples of people that did endure and not violate God's principles and were rewarded, as well as Biblical examples of people that did
not hold fast and disobeyed God's principles and then received due condemnation. Do you really think your unique circumstances warranted you an exception?
Nope. Extreme emotions themselves and a sincere desire to get out of a bad situation are not convincing evidence of divinely inspired thoughts. If you really want to know God's thoughts, consider what he records in the Scriptures. There, staying in a bad marriage may indeed be a bad situation, but leaving a bad marriage without proper grounds is worse. Glad to hear that in the end you chose the proper course.
