Wise Strategy

Last week we finished off saying, stop talking to everyone about your situation and talk to God. When we invite the wrong voices into our life, we can get pulled in different directions, like Philippians 4:11 says. But when we talk to God and listen to good godly counsel, we will be alright.

It’s one thing not to invite everyone into your situation. It is another to isolate yourself. I am not telling you to isolate yourself. If we look at Jesus, He had moments when He’d go and pray by Himself. You have to have your own intimate relationship with God. One that is between you and Him. Then, there are times when Jesus would invite His three besties better known as Peter, James and John and they witnessed things and experienced things with Jesus that the others did not experience. He had times when He was with the twelve and would talk to the twelve and other times He was with multitudes of people.

Jesus didn’t treat all those people at different levels all the same. He was specific about the information He shared with the multitudes, for example, the sermon on the Mount. He was also very specific about what He said to the 12 or the 3. There are things that happened with the three that they could not discuss with the others, like the transfiguration.

We too need to know who we can turn to in the tough times. Prayer is important. It is absolutely necessary if we want to hear from God. However, sometimes when we are in distress in can be difficult to discern the voice of God from other voices speaking to us. Be it fear, anxiety, anger, our own desires, well-meaning friends, family and so on. We need godly voices around us that we can trust.

Proverbs 11:14 says, “People lose their way without wise leadership, but a nation succeeds and stands in victory when it has many good counselors to guide it.” Proverbs 24:6 says, “Wise strategy is necessary to wage war, and with many astute advisers you’ll see the path to victory more clearly.”

So as Christians, where do we get our counsel from? Great place to start is with your pastors. You may think, “Why do I need to talk to my pastors about buying a house?” But Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” As children of God, we want to make sure that we are moving in tune with God. That we are not rushing ahead. God can speak a word today that is not meant for now but is for a few years from now. Classic example is all the prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament. They spoke to the future not current events.

Likewise, we can hear from God about our future, it takes wisdom and discernment to know the timing. That is why we go seek godly counsel. Our pastors can pray with us and confirm what we think we are hearing from God. We also need to surround ourselves with people who are pursuing God. Good godly friends who can be quick to say, “Look, that doesn’t sound right to me. I am happy to pray with you about this. But you should probably talk to the pastors see what they have to say.” If your friends agree with everything you say, are they really your friends?

Once you are sure you are hearing from God as confirmed by godly counsel, you can then seek professional advice from mortgage brokers, accountants, real estate agents and so on, using our example of buying a house. I am not saying the pastors or people in the church have all the answers, but I am saying we can pray together to get direction from God. Get covering for the process so it is smooth, and that God goes before us and makes the crooked paths straight. Also so we can have peace through the process as we are confident God is with us and we are acting within His will, which means we are guaranteed victory no matter the hurdles.

Once we have done what we need to do spiritually, like King David asking God if he should go to battle, we go and do in the natural all we need to do. We engage the professionals we need to engage to get the job done. Trusting God will send the right people our way and open the right doors for us.

I’ll end with this, Proverbs 15:22 “Your plans will fall apart right in front of you if you fail to get good advice. But if you first seek out multiple counselors, you’ll watch your plans succeed.”

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.