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-- © GodSpeak International 2001 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES
Author: Teresa Seputis ts@godspeak.net
http://www.godspeak.net

The Practicalities Of The Prophetic

By Teresa Seputis

Lesson 6
God's Commands and God's Suggestions

When God gives us a command, we have to obey it, and to do so with a good attitude. Obedience is not an option for anyone who wants to move with God in the prophetic. Obedience is a must. There are many scriptural precedences for this. My personal favorite is John 14:15, where Jesus says, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." In other words, if we love Jesus, we are to obey Him. The obedience is not done from a position of being coerced. We don't obey because we are afraid of being punished. Rather, we love God so much that we are eager to do whatever He tells us to do, we obey from a heart of love.

God is looking for people today about whom He can say the same thing about that He said regarding David. In Acts 13:22 God said, "I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will" (NKJV). If you want to be one of God's prophetic people, one through whom God will regularly speak, then you need to position your heart as one who will do God's will.

Obedience is not an option for those who move in the prophetic, it is a requirement. When God gives us a command, He expects us to instantly obey Him. If we don't obey God, it sort of ties His hands and makes it more difficult for Him to accomplish His purposes through us. Let me illustrate with an example from the natural. Assume it is late and night and very dark. When you come into your house and flick on the light switch, you expect the light to turn on. What if the light switch said, "Gosh, it's late and I'm tired, I don't think I'll turn on the light tonight.. maybe some other time." You wouldn't be able to function very well if it does not do what you expect it to, because it would be dark and difficult to see. When you turn on the light switch, you expect the light to come on. In short, you expect it to obey you unquestioningly, and if it doesn't, it hinders your ability to function.

God loves to use His children in what He is doing. He enjoys sharing the task with us and watching our delight has He moves through us to accomplish His kingdom purposes. But He needs our unquestioning obedience if we want Him to be effective in working through us. When God gives us a command, He expects us to obey Him; just like we expect the light to go on when we flick on the light switch. How can God be effective in working through us if we resist Him? It is like fumbling around in a dark room.. I am sure you have all had that experience before. The light bulb burns out or the power fails and you have to fumble around in the dark. You eventually reach your goal, but you have to move slower and you may be a bit more clumsy and bump into things in the dark. God is sovereign and He will still accomplish His kingdom purposes even if we resist Him and do not obey. But when we disobey, we slow Him down and make it much more difficult for Him. Our disobedience can thwart God's kingdom purposes.

God wants to use us to do with Him what He is doing. He wants to be able to speak His words through us and fill is with His power and His anointing. The whole reason for this anointing and power is so that we can do with the Father what He is doing. Jesus spoke the words of God. Jesus worked incredible feats on this earth, miracles and signs and wonders. And Jesus said that He did not do this stuff of His own volition, but in obedience to His Heavenly Father. In John 5:19, Jesus said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner." Jesus is our role model. He lived a life of obedience to the Father, of doing with Him what He was doing. So we, as imitators of Christ, are expected to do likewise. We are expected to watch the Father, listen to Him and obey His every command.

In short, God expects us to obey Him because we love Him.

However, there are times when God makes suggestions to us. He leaves it up to us whether or not we will take His suggestion or follow His advice. I have found it is a very good idea to follow God's suggestions. When He makes there, it is usually for our own good, to protect us or to give us a blessing.

Let me share an example with you that has stuck in my memory for years. Several years ago I was in a home fellowship group, led by a young man in his late twenties, named Jeff. Jeff had a sports car and he loved to drive fast. One day he was driving along the freeway and God said to him, "I suggest you slow down." Jeff was startled to hear God speak to him, so he instantly hit the brakes. He dropped from about 90 miles per hour to the speed limit, which (at that time) was was 55 miles per hour. Then Jeff rounded a bend and saw a speed trap... there were six police cars with radar guns lined up. Five of them were busy writing tickets for people, and the sixth was sitting in his car, pointing his radar gun at oncoming traffic. Jeff glanced down at his own speedometer and saw he was doing precisely the speed limit. God had made a very helpful suggestion to Jeff, which saved him getting a major speeding ticket. (God had subsequent discussions with Jeff about his driving habits, but that is not a part of this story.)

Here is what happened. God made a suggestion to Jeff, but did not explain why He was suggesting this. It was up to Jeff whether or not he did what the Lord suggested, because it was a suggestion and not a command. As it turns out, Jeff decided to take God's advice and slowed down. If he had not done so, he would have gotten a speeding ticket moments later. That ticket would not have hurt Jeff's walk with the Lord, but it would have cost him a major inconvenience because it would have been Jeff's third ticket and it would have raised his insurance rates. God did not make this suggestion simply to boss Jeff around, but to watch over him and protect him from making a costly mistake.

We have some bible examples of God making helpful suggestions to His own. The individual would not have been punished or disqualified if they did not take God's advice. But if they did what He suggested, then they received a blessing. Let's look at one example. In John 21:2-6, we see Jesus make a helpful suggestion to Peter. "2 Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together. 3 Simon Peter said to them, 'I am going fishing.' They said to him, 'We are going with you also.' They went out and immediately got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing. 4 But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Then Jesus said to them, 'Children, have you any food?' They answered Him, 'No.' 6 And He said to them, 'Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.' So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish." (NKJV)

Jesus did not command that Peter let down his nets on the right side of the boat, He simply made a suggestion. Peter could have elected to ignore this advice. Peter did not even realize it was Jesus at the time. He may have thought to himself, "I am an experienced fisherman, and that fellow is a land-lover. What makes him think that he can give me advice!" Peter could have ignored the suggestion. Instead he followed it and INSTANTLY the nets were filled with so many fish that the boats could not handle it.

I would like to emphasize that Peter did not realize it was Jesus talking to Him at the time (verse 4). Often when God makes a helpful suggestion to us, we don't realize it is God at the time. Many times it sounds like our own thinking. Sometimes we tend to discount God's helpful suggestions because we don't realize the source of that suggestion was God. God's voice can be very subtle, He can slip into our thinking that that still small voice that sounds so much like our own thoughts.

He did this to me the other morning. I had been praying and inviting the Lord to orchestrate my day, to lead and guide me. It was not a work day, so I took a leisurely shower that morning. I had a lovely prayer time and when I was done, my mind began to wander to some ministry issues I had to make decisions about. I got out of the shower, wrapped a towel around me and started down the hallway. My mind was still on the ministry decisions. Suddenly a thought flashed through my mind. "You need to clean the kitchen this morning, because your husband is home today and he will be more comfortable if the house is clean." I through to myself, "where did that thought come from?" It was way "off base" from what I had been thinking about.

I am still learning to fine-tune my hearing. One of my prayers has been for God to call my attention to those times where He speaks to me and I miss it. I suddenly remembered that prayer and began to consider that maybe this had been the Lord making a helpful suggestion. My first response was to tell God, "You know, Lord, I am tired and it's my day off. The house is not that messy.. can't it wait?"

God did not reply. Then I thought to myself, "Well, if God is making a suggestion, maybe it would be a good idea to follow His advice." So I got dressed, went down to the kitchen and cleaned it. My husband got out of bed just as I was finishing off. He came downstairs and commented on the kitchen looking nice. He confided that the mess (from the night before) had been bothering him and he was not looking forward to coming downstairs to a messy kitchen. It was a nice surprise for him to see it all cleaned up. It put him in a romantic mood and we have a lovely morning together.

It turns out that God had made a suggestion, and there was a blessing in taking His advice.

It really is God's heart to bless us. Often times He will do it by making helpful suggestions in that still small voice that is so easy to miss, discount or ignore. He does not do this to tease us or to trick us, but to teach us to better hear and discern His voice. I recommend that you being to pay more attention to those "thoughts" that flash through your mind. Check each one out and see if any of them may be the Lord offering a helpful suggestion to you. You might also try asking the Lord to alert you, or call it to your attention, when you are about to ignore or miss something that He wants to communicate to you.


-- © GodSpeak International 2001 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

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