The Mercy of God
143
Now, if a man with that kind of experience talks like that, why should someone who was just
filled with the Spirit two weeks ago look at someone with 25 years more experience than them
and say, “I heard from God and I know it! God said!” So many times people do it. They get an
impression of something, put their own interpretation on it, add their own thoughts to it, and then
say, “God said it,” and really, He never did. They sensed this and thought this and said this, and
now they’re in the next country away from what God said.
Sometimes you can sense the right thing and assume it means something else that’s wrong.
One time a man came to me and said, “I don’t agree with what you said on so-and-so.”
I said, “I don’t think I said that.”
“Yes, you did. I was there. I heard you when you said it.”
I said, “I don’t think so.”
“I know you did!”
I said, “I don’t think so.” “They recorded it. Go get a tape.”
“I’m going to get it. I know you said it.”
I saw him the next day, and I said, “Did you get the tape?”
“Yeah.”
I said, “Well, what did I say? Did I say that?”
He said, “Well, not exactly, but that’s what you meant.”
Well, there are folks who do God that way. What did He say? “Well, that’s what He
meant
!”
Being so adamant about “God told me this!” is a characteristic of immature ones and prideful
ones. We’re all growing in learning how to hear from the Lord.
If things have just gone terribly and in the gutter month after month, you may want to admit that
you missed it. You are not more cursed because you obeyed more fully. That is not true. “‘If you
be willing and obedient,’
all hell will break loose. You’re going down man!
” No! That isn’t
Bible. That’s tradition. “If you are willing and you are obedient, you will eat the good of the
land.” God will protect you. He will keep you. He will meet your needs. The more you obey
Him, the more He’s able to do it.
There are no God-ordained failures, and nobody got himself into a terrible mess listening to God.
“Well, I just did what He told me to do.” Are you sure He told you to do it?
