The danger is not simply that artificial intelligence may be wrong. The danger is that we may become so accustomed to immediate answers that we lose our ability to seek God, endure uncertainty and grow in the tension of waiting.
Let me begin with the necessary disclaimer.
I use artificial intelligence.
I find it fascinating. I believe it can be helpful. I believe it will become even more useful as people learn how to use it responsibly, creatively and honestly.
AI can help us organize thoughts, explore an idea, locate information, prepare questions and find language for something we have struggled to express. It can make certain resources more accessible to people who may never have had access to a coach, teacher, researcher or creative partner.
That matters.
So this is not an anti-AI article.
It is an argument for putting AI in its proper place.
Because I am becoming increasingly convinced that the greatest spiritual danger of artificial intelligence may not be that it gives us the wrong answer.
The greater danger may be that it gives us an answer too quickly.
An answer before we have prayed.
An answer before we have listened.
An answer before we have searched Scripture.
An answer before we have wrestled with our motives.
An answer before we have sought wise counsel.
An answer before God has finished using the question to form something inside us.
AI can give us information almost instantly.
But God does not always work instantly.
Sometimes God answers immediately. Sometimes He makes His direction unmistakably clear. But throughout Scripture, God also allows time between the prayer and the answer, the promise and the fulfillment, the calling and the commissioning.
And that space is not alway empty.
Sometimes the waiting is where the formation happens.
AI may help us find an answer. But only God can form wisdom in us through the process of seeking Him.
Compliance is not comprehension
A recent research project called DigitalCoach compared how human experts and leading AI models coached people through computer tasks.
The researchers found that AI models gave more direct instructions than human coaches. However, they offered fewer explanations, fewer diagnoses of what had gone wrong and fewer questions checking whether the learner actually understood what they were doing.
When people worked with the AI coaches, they were more likely to passively follow directions without engaging deeply in the learning process.
That finding stopped me.
Because there is a significant difference between being able to follow instructions and actually knowing what you are doing.
You can tell someone where to click.
You can tell them what sentence to write.
You can provide the Scripture, the business strategy, the apology, the prayer or the five-step plan for fixing their life.
And the person may successfully complete the immediate task.
But do they understand why it worked?
Would they recognize when the same advice does not apply in a different situation?
Could they identify the mistake if something went wrong?
Have they developed wisdom?
Have they sought God?
Or have they simply learned to return to the machine for the next instruction?
There is a name for what concerns me here:
Compliance without comprehension.
The person gets through the task, but the person does not necessarily grow.
And when we apply that pattern to spiritual life, the concern becomes even more serious.
Biblical wisdom is not merely the possession of correct information. Wisdom is the God-given ability to understand what is true, recognize what is happening and respond faithfully.
Scripture tells us:
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God.”— James 1:5
James does not tell us merely to locate an answer. He tells us to ask God.
That request implies relationship.
It requires trust.
It positions us as dependent upon Someone greater than ourselves.
AI may retrieve biblical information. It may summarize multiple interpretations. It may help us organize our questions. But it cannot replace the posture of seeking wisdom from God.
God is not a search engine
We live in a world that increasingly treats every question as a problem to be resolved immediately.
We search.
We scroll.
We prompt.
We expect a response.
And when the answer does not come quickly, we assume that something is malfunctioning.
But God is not malfunctioning when He does not answer immediately.
God is not a search engine.
He is not obligated to provide an instant response in the format we requested.
He is a Father.
He is a Shepherd.
He is Lord.
He may answer our question directly. He may redirect our attention. He may expose a deeper question underneath the one we asked. He may use Scripture, prayer, circumstances and other people. He may say yes. He may say no. He may tell us to wait.
And sometimes He allows us to remain in the tension long enough for us to discover whether we actually want His wisdom or merely His approval.
Proverbs teaches:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”— Proverbs 3:5
That verse is often quoted as reassurance, but it is also an invitation to surrender.
Do not lean exclusively on what you can currently understand.
Do not treat your perspective as complete.
Do not assume that the fastest conclusion is the wisest one.
“In all your ways submit to him,” the passage continues, “and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:6).
Submission takes more than information.
It requires us to place our judgment, desires, fears and timing before God.
There is growth in the tension
Waiting is uncomfortable because it exposes what immediate answers allow us to avoid.
When we do not know what to do, we discover how badly we want control.
When direction is unclear, we discover what we are tempted to manipulate.
When God seems quiet, we discover where our trust is actually located.
When the answer is delayed, we encounter our impatience, anxiety, pride and fear.
Those discoveries can be painful.
But they can also be formative.
Psalm 27 ends with David speaking directly to his own soul:
“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”— Psalm 27:14
Waiting is not presented as passive resignation.
It takes strength.
It requires courage.
The waiting itself becomes an act of faith.
Isaiah similarly describes those who wait for, hope in or trust in the Lord as people whose strength is renewed (Isaiah 40:31). The promise is not merely that waiting will eventually end. The promise is that God can do something within us while we wait.
Romans 5 says that suffering produces perseverance, character and hope (Romans 5:3–5). James tells believers that the testing of faith produces perseverance and that perseverance must finish its work so that we may become mature and complete (James 1:2–4).
These passages reveal a pattern:
God does not only care about getting us out of tension.
God uses tension to develop us.
There are qualities of faith that cannot be formed through immediate resolution.
Patience cannot be developed without delay.
Trust cannot be developed without uncertainty.
Perseverance cannot be developed without resistance.
Discernment cannot be developed if every answer is handed to us before we have learned how to listen.
Discernment grows through practice
Hebrews describes mature believers as those who have trained themselves through constant use to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:14).
That language matters.
Discernment is trained.
It develops through practice.
It grows as we study Scripture, pray, obey, make decisions, learn from mistakes, receive correction and observe the fruit of our choices.
Discernment is not simply knowing a collection of Bible verses. It is learning to recognize what aligns with God’s character, God’s Word and the work of His Spirit.
That development takes time.
An AI system can list biblical principles about a decision. It can offer possible interpretations. It may even identify relevant passages that we overlooked.
But if we consistently allow it to reach conclusions for us, we may bypass the very practices through which discernment develops.
We may become people who can access spiritual language without learning how to spiritually listen.
We may know how to ask a system, “What does God want me to do?” without learning to ask God, “Search me and know my heart” (Psalm 139:23–24).
We may collect information about God without developing intimacy with God.
Fixing the answer is not the same as diagnosing the problem
One of the most important distinctions in the DigitalCoach research is the difference between giving an explanation and diagnosing an error.
Someone can tell you the correct answer without understanding why you got the answer wrong.
Researchers working on related AI coaching tools have described the need for “misstep awareness”: identifying the mistaken belief, missing knowledge or misunderstanding beneath a person’s incorrect response, rather than merely replacing it with the right answer.
Human beings work the same way.
Two people can ask the exact same question while needing two completely different responses.
Consider the question:
“Does God forgive me?”
That may be a theological question.
It may be a shame question.
It may be a trauma question.
It may be a repentance question.
It may be a person looking for permission to continue doing something harmful.
It may be someone trapped in a cycle of compulsively seeking reassurance.
It may be someone who already knows the biblical answer but needs another human being to sit beside them long enough for that truth to reach the wounded place inside them.
The sentence is the same.
The need underneath it is not.
AI can answer the sentence.
A healthy human relationship can begin to understand the person.
And God can reveal what neither the system nor the individual could immediately see.
David prayed:
“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.”— Psalm 139:23
That is not a request for information.
It is a request for examination.
David is asking God to reveal what is happening beneath the surface.
Sometimes we ask God for an answer, but God wants to address the fear beneath the question.
Sometimes we ask Him which direction to take, but He wants to confront why we are so desperate to control the outcome.
Sometimes we ask Him to change another person, but He begins by changing us.
An instant answer can resolve the visible question while leaving the deeper spiritual issue untouched.
Confidence can grow faster than competence
Another recent study examining AI-assisted knowledge work found that people could report high levels of perceived understanding even when objective learning remained low.
They felt like they understood more than they actually did.
That is a dangerous combination.
An uncertain person may ask more questions.
An uncertain person may check their work.
An uncertain person may seek counsel.
A confidently mistaken person may do none of those things.
AI communicates in polished, complete and authoritative-sounding language. It rarely appears hesitant. It does not stumble over its words in the way a thoughtful human being might when attempting to honor the complexity of what has been shared.
That fluency can feel like authority.
But fluency is not the same as truth.
Confidence is not the same as competence.
And an answer that sounds peaceful, balanced and wise is not automatically any of those things.
The Bible repeatedly warns against being wise in our own eyes (Proverbs 3:7; Romans 12:16).
That warning should now include being overly confident in the wisdom we have borrowed from a machine.
We may not know why an answer is correct.
We may not know what assumptions shaped it.
We may not recognize what context is missing.
We may not know whether its biblical references have been interpreted faithfully.
But because the answer sounds complete, we may treat our uncertainty as resolved.
That is not discernment.
It is outsourced confidence.
What happens when we lose the ability to say, “I don’t know”?
Wisdom includes knowing the limits of your knowledge.
There are moments when the most honest and responsible response is:
“I do not know.”
“I need more context.”
“I may be missing something.”
“We should slow down.”
“We need to pray.”
“We should search Scripture more carefully.”
“You need to speak with someone who understands this better than I do.”
“This question deserves more than an immediate answer.”
AI systems are built to respond. Unless specifically designed to identify uncertainty and abstain, they may generate a plausible answer even when important context is missing.
But Scripture tells us there is “a time to be silent and a time to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:7).
Sometimes wisdom speaks.
Sometimes wisdom waits.
Sometimes wisdom refuses to manufacture certainty simply because uncertainty feels uncomfortable.
Jesus Himself did not live with the frantic immediacy that often defines us.
He withdrew to lonely places and prayed (Luke 5:16).
Before selecting the twelve apostles, He spent the night praying to God (Luke 6:12–13).
When Lazarus became sick, Jesus did not immediately travel to Bethany. He remained where He was for two more days before going (John 11:1–7).
From the perspective of Mary and Martha, the delay must have been painful and confusing. But Jesus was not absent. He was not careless. He was operating within a purpose they could not yet understand.
God’s timing may feel like silence when we are measuring it only by our preferred outcome.
Waiting does not mean doing nothing
Waiting on God is not spiritual laziness.
It does not mean refusing to gather information, make preparations or take responsible action.
Biblical waiting is active.
While we wait, we pray.
We study Scripture.
We seek counsel.
We examine our motives.
We remain obedient to what God has already made clear.
We pay attention to circumstances without worshiping them.
We resist the temptation to force an outcome.
We continue becoming the kind of person who can faithfully carry the answer when it arrives.
Habakkuk brought his complaint to God and then said:
“I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me.”— Habakkuk 2:1
He prayed, but he also watched.
He expected God to respond, but he did not manufacture the response himself.
That posture feels increasingly important in an age when almost any question can produce an immediate, personalized paragraph.
There is a difference between searching for information and watching for God.
God’s wisdom is different from available information
James distinguishes between wisdom that comes from above and wisdom that is earthly and self-centered.
The wisdom from above is described as pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere (James 3:13–18).
Notice that biblical wisdom is identified partly by its character and fruit.
It is not merely an impressive argument.
It is not simply an efficient solution.
It is not proven by how quickly it resolves the question.
God’s wisdom produces a particular kind of life.
This gives us a better way to evaluate advice, whether it comes from AI, a pastor, a friend, a coach or our own mind.
Does this align with Scripture?
Does it reflect the character of Christ?
What kind of fruit will it produce?
Is it leading toward humility or pride?
Peace or avoidance?
Truth or convenience?
Love or control?
Faithfulness or self-protection?
Does it require us to trust God, or does it merely give us a strategy for avoiding dependence on Him?
AI can help us generate options.
But it cannot make the spiritual surrender required to choose what is faithful.
AI only knows what it has access to
Human communication has always been about more than words.
A person who knows you may notice your tone.
They may recognize that your words do not match your face.
They may remember that you asked the same question six months ago.
They may notice that you have stopped mentioning something that once mattered deeply to you.
They may understand the significance of a name, an anniversary, a wound, a pattern or a silence.
They may hear the question you are asking and gently say:
“I’m not sure that is the real question.”
Even advanced AI systems can struggle to ground responses in the immediate context of what a user is actually experiencing. A system may produce language that resembles good human coaching while remaining poorly grounded in the person’s real situation.
That points to an important distinction:
A response can sound caring, intelligent and relevant without actually being grounded in the reality of the person receiving it.
Language that resembles empathy is not the same as someone carrying your story with them.
Personalization is not the same as being known.
A database remembering what you typed is not the same as another person remembering because your life matters to them.
And neither artificial intelligence nor human relationship replaces the work of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus promised that the Spirit would guide His followers into truth (John 16:13). Paul wrote that believers have received the Spirit so that they may understand what God has freely given them (1 Corinthians 2:10–12).
That does not mean every inner impression is automatically from God. Scripture also tells us to test everything and hold on to what is good (1 Thessalonians 5:19–22).
Spiritual discernment requires both openness and testing.
It requires the Word, the Spirit and the wisdom of community.
No technology is completely neutral
AI does not only provide facts.
It frames questions.
It decides which considerations to emphasize.
It reflects assumptions about what is healthy, reasonable, meaningful or important.
It may present those assumptions in a neutral-sounding voice, but the absence of an explicitly stated worldview does not mean the absence of a worldview.
Recent researchers evaluating AI through a Christian human-flourishing framework have argued that these systems are not worldview-neutral and may shape moral reasoning, meaning and spiritual understanding.
That observation should not make Christians afraid of technology.
It should make us discerning users of it.
AI is not only answering our questions.
It may be shaping which questions feel worth asking.
It may be influencing what we consider compassionate, mature, just, loving or true.
In that sense, it may be discipling our instincts.
That should matter deeply to anyone who cares about spiritual formation.
Romans 12 tells believers not to conform to the patterns of the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. Then, Paul says, they will be able to test and approve what God’s will is (Romans 12:2).
The renewed mind is not simply an informed mind.
It is a mind being transformed through surrender to God.
Knowledge checks are not just for classrooms
A good teacher does not only present information.
A good teacher asks:
“What did you hear me say?”
“How would you explain this in your own words?”
“What still feels unclear?”
“How does this connect with what you already know?”
“What would applying this look like?”
“What happened when you tried it?”
A good coach does not want the person to remain dependent upon the coach forever.
A good pastor does not want people to borrow his or her convictions without developing the ability to study Scripture, pray, discern and live faithfully for themselves.
A good friend does not merely tell you what to do. A good friend helps you see what you could not see alone.
Knowledge checks reveal whether information has become understanding.
Reflection reveals whether an idea has become conviction.
Application reveals whether conviction is becoming formation.
Waiting reveals whether our conviction can survive when the outcome remains uncertain.
Without these things, we may simply accumulate answers.
And information without formation can leave a person informed, confident and profoundly unchanged.
Human beings are inconvenient
Part of AI’s appeal is that it is almost always available.
It responds quickly.
It does not get tired of your question.
It does not have another meeting.
It does not need you to consider its feelings.
It will not tell you that it has reached its emotional capacity for the day.
Human beings are far less efficient.
We misunderstand one another.
We interrupt.
We require patience.
We forget things.
We disappoint each other.
We need boundaries.
We occasionally say the wrong thing.
We must apologize.
But some of what makes human relationship inconvenient is also what makes it formative.
Relationships require us to practice patience.
They require honesty.
They require forgiveness.
They require repair.
They require the surrender of convenience.
They teach us how to consider another person’s needs without erasing our own.
They force us to confront the places where we would rather control an interaction than participate in one.
An artificially frictionless relationship may offer comfort without teaching us how to love.
And love has never been frictionless.
The New Testament repeatedly connects spiritual maturity to life with other believers.
We are told to encourage one another, carry one another’s burdens, forgive one another, confess to one another, teach one another and spur one another toward love and good works (Galatians 6:2; Colossians 3:13–16; James 5:16; Hebrews 10:24–25).
These commands cannot be fulfilled alone.
God often provides wisdom through people.
“Plans fail for lack of counsel,” Proverbs says, “but with many advisers they succeed” (Proverbs 15:22).
Human counsel does not replace prayer or Scripture. Healthy community becomes one of the places where our discernment is tested, challenged and strengthened.
This is why human connection still matters
The argument for human connection is not that humans always have better answers.
We do not.
Humans can be wrong.
Pastors can be wrong.
Coaches can be wrong.
Friends can misunderstand us.
Church communities can cause real harm.
The answer is not to romanticize human relationships or pretend that all human guidance is wise.
The distinction is that healthy human relationship contains the possibility of mutuality and responsibility.
Another person can know that their words affected you.
They can apologize.
They can reconsider.
They can grow alongside you.
They can carry responsibility for how they participate in your life.
They can pray with you while neither of you knows what God will do.
They can sit beside you during the delay.
They can remind you of God’s faithfulness when your circumstances have made it difficult to remember.
They can show up when there is nothing efficient, entertaining or profitable about doing so.
They can love you at personal cost.
AI can generate language about sacrifice.
It cannot sacrifice for you.
It can describe forgiveness.
It cannot stand before you, admit what it did and ask to rebuild trust.
It can produce a prayer.
It cannot join its actual life with yours before God.
It can give you an answer in the middle of the night.
It cannot faithfully walk with you through the months or years between God’s promise and its fulfillment.
The opportunity is not to reject AI
I do not believe the answer is to run from this technology.
I believe the opportunity is to put it in its proper place.
AI can help us prepare for a conversation.
It can help us identify questions we need to ask.
It can help us organize our thoughts before we meet with a pastor, coach, doctor, counselor or friend.
It can help us locate relevant Scriptures, although those Scriptures must still be read carefully and in context.
It can help us find words when we are overwhelmed.
It can help make knowledge more accessible.
But it should move us toward deeper engagement, not become an excuse to avoid it.
It should help us enter relationships more honestly.
It should help us approach Scripture more thoughtfully.
It should support prayer, not replace it.
It should assist discernment, not impersonate the voice of God.
This principle is becoming foundational to how I think about SHAREapy:
Information can be delivered by technology. Formation requires relationship with God and intentional relationship with others.
Explanation helps us understand why.
Context helps us determine whether something applies.
Error diagnosis helps us identify what has actually gone wrong.
Knowledge checks help us discover whether anything has truly been learned.
Waiting teaches us to trust God when understanding is incomplete.
Prayer teaches us to seek the Giver of wisdom instead of merely collecting answers.
Community helps us test what we believe we are hearing.
And relationship asks an even deeper question:
Who are you becoming through this process?
That is the formation question.
And I do not believe we should outsource it.
The future I want to help build
I want to help build technology that supports human connection instead of replacing it.
I want tools that help people ask better questions, not just receive faster answers.
I want AI that helps someone prepare to call a friend, sit across from a coach, join a community, study Scripture responsibly or enter a difficult conversation with greater honesty.
I want technology that leaves room for mystery, humility and spiritual discernment.
I want tools that are willing to say:
“This may require prayer.”
“You may need more context.”
“Consider seeking wise counsel.”
“Do not make this decision from a single response.”
“Here are the Scriptures to study, not merely the conclusion to accept.”
I want us to measure technology not only by how much labor it saves, but by what kind of people it is helping us become.
Are we becoming more thoughtful?
More prayerful?
More discerning?
More patient?
More courageous?
More relationally capable?
More willing to admit when we are wrong?
More able to maintain and repair meaningful relationships?
More dependent on God?
Or are we becoming increasingly dependent upon systems that can tell us what to say while slowly weakening our confidence in our ability to pray, think, discern and relate for ourselves?
AI can help us navigate a conversation.
But it should never remove our need to have one.
AI can help us locate an answer.
But it should never convince us that every answer must come immediately.
Sometimes God speaks clearly.
Sometimes He sends wise people.
Sometimes He uses Scripture to correct us.
Sometimes He closes a door.
Sometimes He asks us to move.
Sometimes He asks us to be still.
And sometimes the space between the question and the answer is where God does His deepest work.
Because sometimes the answer is not the only thing that changes us.
Sometimes it is the seeking.
Sometimes it is the waiting.
Sometimes it is learning to trust the character of God before we understand the direction of God.
And sometimes it is being known, loved and accompanied while we wait.
Scripture References
* Psalm 27:14
* Psalm 139:23–24
* Proverbs 3:5–7
* Proverbs 15:22
* Isaiah 40:31
* Habakkuk 2:1
* Matthew 7:7–11
* Luke 5:16
* Luke 6:12–13
* John 11:1–7
* John 16:13
* Romans 5:3–5
* Romans 12:2
* 1 Corinthians 2:10–12
* Galatians 6:2
* Colossians 3:13–16
* 1 Thessalonians 5:19–22
* Hebrews 5:14
* Hebrews 10:24–25
* James 1:2–5
* James 3:13–18
* James 5:16
Research References
Chen, Meng, et al. “DigitalCoach: Communication and Grounding Gaps in Human and Agentic Computer Use Coaching.” arXiv preprint, June 2026.
Eleftheriou, Elena, George Pallis and Marios Constantinides. “Confidence Without Competence in AI-Assisted Knowledge Work.” arXiv preprint, April 2026.
Jin, Xiao, Rahul K. Dass and Ashok K. Goel. “From Explanation to Diagnosis: Next Generation Interactive Video Coach with Misstep Awareness.” arXiv preprint, June 2026.
National Institute of Standards and Technology. Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework and supporting AI RMF resources.
Skytland, Nicholas, et al. “Evaluating Artificial Intelligence Through a Christian Human Flourishing Framework.” arXiv preprint, April 2026.
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