It is said that “a wise King has many advisors!” and to me this is so true. Getting good advice is not only important for Kings and persons in leadership, but also you and I who have responsibilities for our own life and of those around us (Our Family). God states this in His word:

“Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counsellors there is safety. – Proverbs 11:14 KJV”

Instead of saying “the people fall”, lets personalize it and say, “I will fall”. I do not want us to feel too far removed from this scripture, after all I am sure all of us want to dwell in safety, right? Then if so, we have to examine who we are getting our counsel from? We have to revaluate who are our advisors. Remembering that sometimes the most dangerous advisor is the one residing between our own two ears, as I would have shared in a previous blog (Never Say You Are Too).

So, if we need to get this much required advice and counselling, where do we go? After all, there are many voices in the world and all of them have their purpose.  Because of this, we have to be very selective in what goes into our mind. In other words, we have to be very deliberate in what we “Find, Feed and Filter (3F’s)”. Find the right confidants/counsellors/books/etc, Feed on them in a tremendous way, and Filter out unwanted elements which come to distract you.  (Note: If you are interested you can find out more about the 3F’s concept in the book – What is the Woman Saying Lessons from Biblical Women 😊).

One of the reasons we have to be so selective in our hearing is because what we hear affects our decision making and decision making is Key. I am sure many of us can look back on our lives and pinpoint poor decisions we made and realized that if we only listened to the persons God placed in our lives at that moment we would have been better off (Parents, Pastors, Friends, etc).   

So, while there are many solid and sound persons that we can listen and learn from, the best person who can guide us is the Holy Spirit. Imagine God wanted us to get His Spirit so badly that he sacrificed His only son’s life to give us the Holy Spirit (John 16:7). You see the Father never wanted/wants to leave us Comfortless (John 14:16, John 14:26)😊.

Given the above, we really must learn to die to self-more. God knows all the good plans He has for us but we keep messing it up when we listen to the wrong voice and go off on our own paths. In my life the amount of times I went off the wrong path and when I did root cause, the cause always comes back to be, I did not listen to God and His Spirit.    

I like hiking  and most times you will be venturing to a new trail or location and going to parts unknown. For this reason, there will be a guide assigned to lead the group. This guide is assigned for a reason, he/she is there to support the hikers along the journey, ensures everyone learns from the experience and most importantly, individuals safely reach the destination.

Not in a million years will I think about going on a hike and not listening attentively to the guide. I totally trust them because they have the experience and knowledge to navigate the terrain. Doing anything opposite to what the guide instructs, even a little deviation, can have far reaching and dire consequences. One wrong move can have me falling off a cliff to my death.

I am sure most of you are like me, we will listen to the guide on the hike. But you know what is strange, we might not listen to the spiritual guide of the Holy Spirit in the same essential manner. We go off on our own paths and head into impassable terrain so often. If only we just listened to the guide…!

My friends, I only wanted to plant a seed today for us to stop and reassess who are we listening to.  We  have our Pastors, God’s Word, and other people who God placed into our life to guide and instruct us, so please listen to them. But we must also make sure, we are listening to the voice of God which is orchestrated by His Holy Spirit. Let’s get back to what works, and being led by the Spirit Works!.

PS: Dane Miller was last seen on a hike called life and listening to the Holy Spirit as His guide.

Note: About a week after writing this blog a family member sent me this video which I found was relevant to upload.

Your Brother in the Lord,

Dane Miller | Author

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