Grace full mama

Have you ever had a really strong feeling about something, a suspicion, an accusation, and felt like you were the worst person on earth when you were proved completely wrong? I have.

The stakes were high. We were at moose camp, searching desperately through the dark for our missing hunter and guide. When we didn’t find them, my guts twisted inside me and I was sure. I was so sure that something nefarious had taken place. I was sure that we were going to find a hunter dead from a heart attack, or worse.

What made this extra complicated was that very often, when my spirit is submitted to Jesus, I have been given little bits of prophecy. These little prophesies have always happened, and God has proven his steadfastness to me. He has taught me to listen for his voice, and to recognise the feeling of it within the depths of my heart. Jesus is rarely heard in the shallows. It takes intention to turn off all distractions, all of my own thoughts, and listen for what he has to say. Hearing him is what makes my soul sing. It is what makes me so excited for heaven, when the voice I quiet myself to hear can speak to me face to face. But I digress.

This day, in hunting camp, I wasn’t listening for his voice. I was trusting my “gut” and I was believing that it was accurate and true. I gave myself credit for the prophesies that the Lord has given me. I dived headlong into trusting these awful feelings, as though premonition has power on it’s own.

What I had heard from Holy Spirit when I wasn’t leaning on my own understanding, was that we would get a moose after our many days without the quandary we were seeking. He told me the moose would be 57 inches.

Well, while I became completely spun up believing the worst, our hunter and guide were sitting on the side of the lake safely cutting up a 57 inch moose. God was faithful. I was dead wrong. I learned a very valuable lesson that God has been gently imparting to me over the last few weeks.

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9

Our giftings can be used by our enemy as easily as they can be used by God. Our discernment can be twisted into something used by the “accuser of the brethren,” sowing accusations and mistrust. Our charisma can cause us to become a Billy Graham or a Hitler. Our prophesies can be counterfeit, or distorted partial truths sent to manipulate and draw us away from love and truth if we are not listening for all we are worth to Holy Spirit. We are all gifted; but those giftings are a conduit that either Holy Spirit, or an evil spirit will flow through. Satan rarely shows up as abject darkness. Instead, he disguises himself as an angel of light. After all, a lie is much more believable if there is a drop of truth in it.

“They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.” Jeremiah 23:16

“Test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” 1 John 4:1

Imagine the destruction that a gifted individual could wreak upon a family, the church, their community, or even bigger, if they have gone rouge? History has given us plenty of examples. Leaning on our own understanding gets more and more dangerous the more influential we become.

I have been on a crash course of learning to discern the voice of the enemy, or even the voice of my own soul from the voice of my Holy Spirit. I’d love to share what I have learned.

If you haven’t spent time listening in the deep, purposefully cutting out distractions and waiting for the still small voice of the Lord, you are vulnerable to hearing the voice of the enemy instead.

Satan is the accuser of the brethren. If what is coming out of you is passionate, suspicious accusation of a believer, it isn’t God. It is sin. Remember that it is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance. He is gentle with us. He will never correct someone in a way that makes them feel worthless or small. He is gentle and endlessly loving. If you are wanting to correct someone out of that familiar feeling of justification, self righteousness and anger, you are not cooperating with God or serving his kingdom. You are joining hands with the enemy and will likely push the poor recipient of your strongholds farther from yourself and God alike. Odds are… you will be called to love a thousand times before God will call you to bring any kind of correction to his kids.

What is the fruit? “You will recognise them by their fruits” Matthew 7:16. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.” Galatians 5:22-23 If it isn’t producing the fruits of the spirit, then it isn’t from God. It is that simple. If what you are feeling stirs division, confusion, fear, self justification, pride or anger… it isn’t God.

God will never tell you something that contradicts his word. Hide his word in your heart. Hold onto it with all that you are worth. Know his word so that you know his voice.

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27

“The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits.” James 3:17

My friends, we will get attacked directly in the area of our giftings. It is so important that we are submitting to God and resisting the devil.

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5

Let us be very sure of what spirit is pouring through our giftings! Like me, submit yourself to Jesus. Take every thought captive. I can’t wait to see what God can do as he refines these giftings, allowing the impurities to be skimmed off of us so that we can realise our full potential in his Kingdom here on earth!