Today’s Devotional: “Discerning God’s Voice”

There’s a very sad story found in the Bible of a man of God, a prophet who was greatly used by God, but stumbled at the end because He didn’t discern God’s voice over that of a man.

But it isn’t as cut-and-dry as one might think.

The person who deceived this man was none other than another prophet of God. He prophesied the man of God’s upcoming death because the man of God disobeyed God and believed the lie given to him by the selfsame prophet.

How crazy is that?

Listen to what the second prophet said to the first prophet.

“‘I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water’ (He was lying to him).” (1 Kings 13:18)

Even though the first had received direct revelation from God, he not only listened to this other prophet but also took this prophet’s word over the word given to him by God.

When I think about this, I see how easy it is for us to hear from God about a ministry and what we are to do, only to get sidetracked by a “Johnny Come Lately” who tells us they also hear from God and that this is how we should be doing it.

This happens in churches where pastors have been given a vision, only to have it hijacked by others. They attend seminars on how to do church better, where they see and listen to one successful pastor after another being trotted out on stage to talk about their ministry philosophy.

While there is wisdom in godly counselors, ministry leaders need to first listen to what God is saying, recognizing that what someone else says may be good, but it may not be of God.

Learn to discern God’s voice over man’s counsel.