Sunday, November 20, 2011

Godly counsel

I've been thinking a lot about this lately. As I told Keegan earlier, I have about 15 mini-blogs bouncing around my head and this is the most formulated one.
What is godly counsel? More importantly what isn't it? What's it's purpose? I mean, if God told you something, why do you need to inquire of sinful man? Let's explore.
A lot of people think godly counsel is "I did this, what do you think?". Please let me be plain in my speech, there is no place for godly counsel after-the-fact. NONE. The only two scenarios are: 1) "I agree with your decision. Good job!", which is nothing more than stroking your ego. Or 2) "I disagree with your decision. Badly done!", which hurts the relationship (we all know the strain a relationship suffers when one party does something the other party doesn't like. How can you be friends with someone who does something against your wishes. Or further, how can you be friends with someone who disagrees with something you do? Not impossible, but certainly not easy).
Godly counsel is also not even, "what should I do?". This is probably the most common misconception about godly counsel. That's called advice. Much different that godly counsel. God is in charge of telling you what to do, just ask and listen. ASK and LISTEN. He will answer. As I told Barbara earlier, "I'm not here to tell you God's will, I'm here to confirm it." I think that too many times this is how younger Christians approach counsel. On the flip side, I think this also keeps people from seeking Godly counsel, thinking we're just going to boss you around.
Now back to our previously posed question, if God told you something, why do you need confirmation? Shouldn't you just have faith? The important point here is we are to test the spirits (1 John 4:1). Not every thought in our mind is from God (that's kind of a "duh" statement, but sometimes we really need to hear those). But trust, my friend, He will make sure you know it's Him if you just wait. We have no patience (and at the same time, no sense of urgency in those matters that invoke urgency, hmm). We heard an answer, and BOOM! we're off in that direction, 100 miles an hour, no brakes. We don't have time to slow down and test that answer against what God has already said, and especially not against what others have experienced. Besides, it's the answer I want, and what if my counsel says I shouldn't. That just shows how confident you are in your walk with God. I mean, if you truly where listening and hearing from God, He's not going to contradict Himself and yank the rug out from under you. But let's face it, sometimes we hear what we want to hear. That's why it's important to have those outside of the situation who can be logical and don't have a dog in that fight. Those people have a less clouded picture of what's going on.
So, we should have no reason to fear godly counsel. God won't give you two different directions. And by allowing someone else authority in your life, you strengthen that relationship all the more.