Counsel

Last week we were talking about having good godly counsel in our lives. We were never meant to go through life by our lonesome. We are created for community. Alone we can fail, but in community we can succeed. That is why I love the Church. We can surround ourselves with other believers. Being in a good healthy church does not mean we agree on everything. Churches are made up of people who had different upbringings, have different lifestyles, different ways of thinking, different races, just different. If you find yourself in a church where everyone agrees on everything – someone is not being honest!

Jesus’ disciples didn’t always agree with Him, but they were submitted to Him. In John 6:5-11 it says, “When Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do. Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.”

One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?” Then Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.”

The disciples could only see their lack. Jesus could see what was possible. Can you see what is possible in your life? Are your eyes on Jesus or are you looking at the stuff that looks insufficient to do the job required? What we need to see there is that the miracle didn’t happen in Jesus hands. It happened in the disciples’ hands. Jesus blessed the 5 loaves and 2 fish and distributed that to the disciples. The disciples took what little they had been given by Jesus and started distributing that to the multitudes by faith and everyone ate and there were left overs. The miracle happened in the obedience.

Did the disciples agree that the 5 loaves and 2 fish were enough? No. But they were submitted to the plans of God and did what they were asked to do. Tying this back with seeking godly counsel; we may not always agree with the godly counsel we receive. But if you are in a good bible based church where you trust your pastors are hearing from God, then you need to be willing to submit even when you don’t agree.

I know a story of this girl who went to her pastors 6 years ago because she thought she had heard God ask her to do something that was beyond her level of skill, expertise, know-how, confidence- all of it. She hoped her pastors would agree with her and say, “You are right. You shouldn’t be writing a blog at this stage. We think you are great but now is not the time. You don’t know that much yet and you haven’t really done Bible college. Let’s put a pin in that.” But no, her pastors didn’t agree with her. In fact they said, “That sounds a lot like God and sounds like a great idea! Which website were you thinking of using? You can look into this and that…”

Seeking godly counsel means you have to be willing to follow through in line with the counsel and trust God. The girl in the story is, of course, a slightly younger version of me. I had to trust God with what little I had. I definitely did not want to be doing this when I went to my pastors. I was looking for a way out, haha! But once they confirmed what I thought was a crazy voice in my head, I had to accept that God was speaking to me, and I had to do something about it. The pastors didn’t do it for me. They confirmed what God was saying but the obedience was up to me.

God didn’t show up when I went to the pastors. He showed up as I was walking in obedience to what He said. There, I saw Him multiply what little I had into Heavenly Whispers Blog. The miracle is in your obedience. If you are waiting to see evidence that it is God speaking to you, that evidence doesn’t come until you start walking in obedience to God’s word. Like the disciples with the 5 loaves and 2 fish, the miracle doesn’t happen in God’s hands, it happens in your obedience as you walk by faith. The provision for the vision, the ideas, the right people and so on, it all comes as you walk out your faith in obedience to God’s word.

This also means when your godly counsel says, “Umm, no. Let’s put a pin in that.” We trust God with that too and wait. In the multitude of counsellors, there is safety, Proverbs 11:14. But that safety only comes when we submit to the counsel, whether we agree or not. The whole purpose of seeking counsel is because we are not sure. We need to be able to trust our godly counsel or our pastors voice when they speak into our lives that they are hearing from God. If you seek counsel and do your own thing anyway, it defeats the purpose of Proverbs 11:14.

If you are someone who doesn’t like to “bother” your pastors with your stuff, remember that they are there to help you hear from God about you. Don’t suffer in silence. Don’t make decisions in fear. Get counsel. Your friends can pray with you but because of the pastors’ position spiritually as the leader God has entrusted to shepherd you in this season of your life, there are things that God will tell them that He may not tell your friends. Things that will help you get clarity in your situation. Go get some good godly counsel.

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.