For some reason, I was remembering back over the years to a time when I was looking for guidance from God and it did not seem to be coming. What I wanted to know about, was not something the Spirit of God seemed to want to speak to me about!

In that quandry, I had a dream of a spirit standing beside me and bending in a very friendly way towards my ear, ready to speak with the guidance I was looking for. However I was aware as I dreamed that this spirit offering guidance was not the Holy Spirit, nor an angel sent by God my Father to my aid. In my dream I said “No,” and the spirit offering “guidance” left.

In the morning, the whole experience crystalised into this decision. If God is not speaking into a situation, I will live with that, and live with that happily. If His Spirit is not speaking to me about a matter, then so be it. He is the Lord. He knows when to speak and when to remain silent on a matter, and His speaking or silence in relation to my life, both come from His heart of wisest love for me.

At Struthers Camp this year, it was mentioned in passing that sometimes there can be  a bit of an admixture in us spiritually speaking, esepcially if we are a spiritually open sort of person. I have met people occasionally over the  years who will tell me of spiritual experiences that they believe were good, but which the Spirit of God within me is indicating were deception. It can be hard at times to persuade people to let go of what has been meaningful for them, and they are not always open to hear that they may indeed have to. I am reminded of a story which David Watson told of a  married couple who told their minister of the clear guidanace they had been given through a ouija board. The minister was wise and saw their unwillingness to think that something that had so guided them and blessed them could possibly be dangerous. So the minister simply prayed that the  power behind it all woud reveal itself. A couple of days later she got a phone call from the couple. A destructive wind had swept through their house, overturning furntiure, wrecking everything in its path.

It is good practice every so often to come before God and just to ask him that if we have either deliberately or in ignorance opened ourselves to any other spiritual influence other than the Holy Spirit of God, He would forgive us, cleanse us, and break any hold that deception may have introduced into our living. That may even mean we have to be willing to look upon something that we thought was helpful as an evil which is harder to do than you might think. It is always good to remember that the devil can appear as an angel of light. The warning is there in Scripture and we would do well to pay heed to it.

Here is the test. Did that experience of “spirit” draw you to Jesus Christ, to believe in Him, to trust in Him, to follow Him and serve Him, to glorify Him as God?  Did it lead you to a greater love for God’s Word, the Bible, and into closer fellowship with His people, the Church?  If not, then for all it may seem to have been a precious moment, may God help you to renounce it, let go of it, and dismiss it without another moment’s hesitation.

God bless

Kenny