Often people struggle with the interpretation of the prophecy they are hearing. They might take a word and quickly assume it is talking about the specific thing they are concerned about. Then when the word doesn’t come to pass as expected, or worse, things goes badly, there is sometimes anger at God. Others then decide they can’t hear God and give up on listening to him.
God has been showing me that when he speaks to us, he speaks to where we are up to. He provides the information we are ready to hear next. This means he will go broad and then when he has our attention he will move to the next level that is narrower and then more specific again.
An example would be, that if God is pointing out we need to move house and that house is in another state, it is rare that we would see the specific address of a house in another state as the initial word from God. It would be hard to cope with we are moving to that exact house when we didn’t even realise we needed to move house. He most likely would indicate we are going to be moving house, then that it would be interstate, then that it would be on the coast and then the town and so forth until we land on a place.
Our trouble is that after we realise he saying to move house/location we assume that the next word we see, the next house we look at is the one and we jump into that location/house. We move too quickly to test this next word and make assumptions. This can lead us to make poor decisions.
When God is talking to us about strategy or significant decisions, God first gets us on his page. Once we go to the page, that is, we are in the general realm of what God is getting at, it is then often a process of elimination and consideration to cause us to move onto his word. The word… that is on the page.
In 1 Samuel 16 we can see God’s model for speaking and leading us in significant decisions and actions laid out.
Samuel is upset because Saul is not living up to his role of king as expected. Samuel has connected with a problem and it is bothering him a lot. He is keen for a solution.
God speaks to him and says I have the solution.
God tells Samuel to go to Jesse’s house. God is getting Samuel on his page. Samuel was hearing that if he went to Jesse’s house he would be able to anoint the next king. While at first this seems specific, as we read on this instruction is not the specific prophecy of the solution. This is God saying I will bring the solution and it is in this area. For Jesse had 8 sons. There were several potential kings in Jesse’s house.
Samuel goes to Jesse’s house and is now on God’s page. Notice that he receives no further steps until he arrives at Jesse’s house. Samuel begins to look for the specific man to anoint as king. He is looking for the specific word of God to action and he is assuming it will be the good looking tall one. His assumption he held was due to the ways of the times. Perhaps it was due to a pattern as Saul held these qualities. However, it is not this son. His assumption was leading Samuel to make a wrong choice. Fortunately he was listening to God enough to hear God point out that he looks at different things to man. He looks at the heart.
Samuel then goes through a process of elimination to find the specific one to anoint. One by one he sees God is not prophesying this one or this one or this one. He exhausts the page God is on or so it seems. There are no other sons there to consider. Samuel asks Jesse if there are any more sons. And there is one more who is not present and so they call him to come home - he arrives onto the page God is on. The youngest most lowly son is the one God chooses.
Interestingly David is good looking and strong in health. If he had been present from the beginning, Samuel may have jumped to anoint him because he would have felt God’s ‘yes’ on him but he would have chosen him because of his looks. God needed to take Samuel on a process of aligning his heart with God's heart. If Samuel were to anoint David which was correct action with a wrong reasoning, David’s future reign could have been very temporary as it was then coming from something different to God’s way and heart.
The journey between being on God’s page to hearing the specific action (which is often a process of elimination) is one of aligning our hearts with God’s. This means the why behind our action is correct and we are bringing the kingdom of God, we are in his grace, we are empowered going forward by him. If our heart is not aligned with God in the action, we will likely topple over in not too long or, we will sustain through human efforts that do not sow into the legacy of God’s kingdom on earth for the future.
God has shown me a few key times where Toby and I made large decisions when we were only on God’s page and hadn’t yet journeyed the next part of getting our hearts fully aligned with him. One example: we saw the problem - our house was too small to fit in and I was pregnant again. We saw the area north of the river that could be the fit and we got on God’s page. We saw a house that we loved and we bought it. We ignored a few things in this process focussed on the positive features. It looked good. In hindsight it wasn’t a good decision and caused us unnecessary suffering.
We didn’t look around at the options in the area and do a process of elimination. We saw the first good looking option in that realm and took it. It meant that it was ok and there was some good in it. It also meant that we had more change, transition and some hard times of suffering that we could have avoided. In God’s grace he brought good out of these times and so we don’t regret the season. God is very kind.
But as we mature in him and understand the spreading of the kingdom and the call to develop something that stands and leaves legacy, we are to do this process with God: hear his word that is general and get on his page. Then do the step by step journey of looking at the options and letting the Lord speak on them knowing the investment of time is causing us to learn, align and grow so we are ready for the actionable word of God to come forth.
There is huge value in the process of elimination on God’s page. We are step by step with God removing all the added worldly ways of thinking, worldly approaches and assumptions and coming to a point of alignment of our heart with Gods. It is from the heart alignment that we now effectively shine his light, bring the kingdom and go forth in something of substance. Let’s be a people who get on his page and allow the process of elimination to align us with him.
This process takes investment and we look at options that cost us and then we don’t go ahead with them. But each one of these times of investment does a work in us that teaches us something of value in Jesus. By the time we have come to the anointed solution of God we are ready for it and we can go forth.
Deb Peacock