2 Samuel 5:19
‘so David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I go and attack the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hands?” The Lord answered him, “Go, for I will surely deliver the Philistines into your hands.”’
The Lord answers our prayers for guidance. It isn't how we may have hoped when young believers. Which is instantly and audibly. It's never been out loud for me and probably won't be. It's often not instantly, but could be.
I Corinthians 14:33 is a good guiding principle when relating with God; "For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints." Confusion is a state of mind or emotion and could also be a circumstance. This is not the product of God's doing. This verse also says He brings peace. This is the opposite of confusion. If asking for guidance, as long as it isn't against scripture, having peace about something may be His answer. Also about guidance, feeling confused or unsettled about a path usually is a no or a pause.
Closed or open doors may be His answer. We may think His answer is one thing, but as we proceed, the opportunity dries up. That's a closed door. Acts 16:6-10 gives some examples of closed and open doors. 'They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, after being forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; and passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and pleading with him, and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” When he had seen the vision, we immediately sought to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.'
Pastor Buddy Owen from Saddleback Church shared another method of God answering prayer. Here's a paraphrase. He would send a prayer and finish it with these words; "Lord, I'm going to do this. Would you please guide me. If it's a bad idea would You give me a sign stopping me." I can recall stopping at a store. Right when I was turning off the key an amazing song came on the radio. Because I prayed that prayer I saw that as an answer to stay in the car and more specifically to not stop there. That doesn't mean God is always speaking to me through cool songs, but I believe He did that time.
Another method of guidance is the desires of our heart. Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart." This has a couple of meanings. The first is when we are born again we get a new heart which desires godly things (Ezekiel 36:26). He gives us new desires. We begin to want things we didn't want before. We might start to feel compassion for those we never did. We will want others to know Him. A second meaning to the Psalm 37 verse is He will grant many of our new desires. These desires often affect our guidance.
An example of God giving us the desires of our heart has been with cars. I've had some awesome ones. The Lord has used those to open doors with others.
Lord, thank You that You guide us and will answer our prayers about it.