When You Shouldn't Listen

I was mentioning in yesterday's post about how God has used different people to speak truth into my life.  I was contemplating yesterday morning about how God has me in a season of Winter.  Then I thought about my dear friend who gave me that word straight from the Lord.  Of course, then I started thinking about times God has had someone speak right to where I was standing.  

As I was pondering these handful of people that God has used, I thought about HOW I knew that what they were telling me was from God.  I caution folks all the time to be careful about who they are listening to.  I can't begin to count how many times someone has come up to me and said, "The Lord told me to tell you that you should  (fill in the blank)."  My immediate gut reaction to those people is, "No He didn't."  Maybe I am wrong, but I don't believe God will ever use someone else to tell me which choice to make or how to think or what to believe.  I think God uses people in my life to confirm something that He has already been telling me or to point me in a direction of prayer.  

​One example of this I've discussed in a previous blog post.  God had been working in my heart to find a place of forgiveness for my Dad.  I didn't want to.  I mean...I REALLY didn't want to.  Completely out of the blue, God sent someone who I wasn't really close to, but I knew to be faithful in prayer, to tell me that God wanted to heal my Daddy issues, I just had to ask Him to.  This sweet friend met the criteria that I use to determine if the messenger is really delivering a message from God.  How many of you know that the devil will use people too??  This friend confirmed something that God had already put on my heart.  She also didn't approach me with a message telling me WHAT to do.  Had she walked up and said to me, "God told me to tell you that you need to drive to your Dad's house and tell him that you forgive him", I wouldn't have listened to her.  She would've been confirming something God put on my heart, but she would have been taking the place of God.  In the New Living Translation of Isaiah 30:21 it says "Your own ears will hear Him.  Right behind you a voice will say, "This is the way you should go" whether to right or to the left."  God and only God will direct my steps.

The other example is the one that I opened with where God used my friend to give me the word Winter.  I had reached out to the tribe that I wrote about yesterday.  Those trusted prayer warriors who pray for me regularly.  I sent out a message letting them know that we had been advised my company that we would be closing and that we would all be losing our jobs.  I asked them to pray for a number of things.  A few days later, this friend sent me a message and said that the word she was getting from the Lord was Winter.  She made it clear that she didn't really know how God was going to reveal that word to me, she just encouraged me to get into the Word and meditate on Winter.  To look at how nature handles Winter.  Basically, she said, the Lord gave me this word for you, now go get with Him so HE can tell you what it means.  She didn't tell me that it should mean this or that.  

I guess I just want all of us to be careful about who or what we are listening to.  Here is just a small list of the things I have heard:

• God told me to tell you that you should just leave your husband.
• God told me to tell you that if you aren't happy at your job, you should quit.
• God told me to tell you that if you don't quit living that way, you are going to Hell.

We need to be able to measure that nonsense up against the truth and say, "No, He didn't."  Don't get me wrong, I think some of these folks mean well.  They may have even heard from the Lord on your behalf but maybe...just maybe..they were trying to finish His sentence.  If you are praying for someone else and God gives you the word Winter for them, don't you go trying to figure out what He means by it and if someone else is praying for you, don't let THEM interpret HIS message.

Who Is Praying For You?

I was thinking today about all of the times in my life that God has used other people to speak His truth to me.  I was thinking about dear friends who have come to me in specific seasons of my life with a word from the Lord.  These are people who I know to be fervent prayer warriors.  Friends who know the power of intercessory prayer.   For those who don't know what intercessory prayer is, it is basically just a big Christian word meaning "to pray to God for someone else".  

 I have a tribe of people that I pray for every day.  I pray to God for them. Often times I know specific needs but sometimes I don't.  I pray for their families and their jobs and their sense of self worth.  I just pray for them.  I also know that I have a tribe of people who are praying those same things for me.  He has used those prayer warriors in my life more than I could've ever imagined.

How many of you know that God sometimes answers prayer through other people?  I do.  Sometimes we are struggling to hear from God.    We need to know that this storm will pass. We need to know that we matter.  That we are making our lives count for something.  We need to hear something.  We need answers!!

Sometimes God won't answer me directly.  He will send someone whom I trust to speak His answers.  I've often wondered why He does that.  I am constantly seeking His will. Okay...sometimes I just want to do it my way....so I am "most of the time" seeking His will.  I am open to hearing from Him.  I have learned the sound of His voice in my heart.  So why use other people?  Perhaps it is because He knows that we need to work on building those trusting relationships with each other.  Maybe He knows that we aren't meant to walk this journey alone.

 I think He wants me to learn to trust others with my hard stuff, my secret stuff, the stuff that I worry about, the stuff that I dream about.  He wants me to have friends to lean on when all I want to do is run away and isolate.  He knows the importance of having a tribe of friends who will hunt me down when I've "gone quiet" for too long.  We aren't meant to go through this life alone.  Do you have a tribe of people that you know you can rely on?  It could be a tribe of 2, it doesn't have to be some HUGE group.  Do you have someone in your life that you know is praying for you daily?  If not, send me a message, I'll be happy to pray for you.

Funny thing- This post started out with a completely different message in my head.  It was supposed to be about knowing when to listen to others but I guess God wanted to make sure you knew you needed others before I told you when to listen to them.