Has God ever spoke to you "through" another person? I would venture to say that most of us have experienced this, although some of us may not have been aware of what was happening. This recently happened to me as I was in the process of responding to an e-mail sent to me by a dear sister in my church.
She was concerned about how hard it is to wait on God. I usually use events from my own life to help in ministering to other people. I told her that one of the hardest things in my life is also waiting on God. It's not quite as hard as it used to be because of what God has taught me. The biggest mistakes of my life have happened because I got ahead of Him. I just wanted to help Him out a little; I'm sure you know what I mean. Almost always, this is a recipe for disaster. These particular mistake not only affected me, but others as well, especially my immediate family.
I allowed other well-meaning people to sway my thinking, but ultimately I was to blame.
This thought came to me as I was answering the above-mentioned e-mail. You've heard the old saying: "If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it's a duck". This is not always true, especially when you're dealing with the things of God. Looks can be very deceiving, so we must be ever vigilant, always on guard because the devil will do anything in his power to destroy us. We can be fooled by the devil, and we can even be fooled by our own selves.
So how can we know if it is really God that is speaking to us? One thing we can know for sure is that God will never, ever, advise us to engage in anything that is the tiniest bit wrong or sinful. Waiting on God is not just waiting. He is teaching us, growing us, loving us, and allowing us to know more about Him during the wait. There is another problem that we sometimes encounter during our wait for God. Sometimes we know that whatever it is that we are praying for is all right with God, but the timing is not right. We are supposed to wait some more. This is the area in which I have probably made the most mistakes.
To personally be in fellowship with Him is the answer.
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