God Told Me?!...

I have seen many people who claim that they say or do things because God told them to do. I am little skeptical about this outlook. I am not stating that these people are fake though there are false teachers, preachers and prophets. But generally believers are under the assumption that God talks to them directly and tells them to do things. This is common among those believers who perceive themselves to be highly spiritual just because they spend more time with God or do ministries in His name.

It is true that God speaks to His children who spend time with Him. But I believe all those communications  would be like that of a Father to a child. When we are down, He speaks a word of comfort or encouragement, a promise to meet a need, His unconditional love, His forgiveness, His compassion, His expectations of the characters or traits He would like to see and be built in us.

I am little skeptical when people say, "God told me to tell you this" kind or "God told me that I would be so and so". Or even worse "God told me that she is the girl I should marry"...

I still believe that there were men and women of God who were used tremendously by God and God did directly speak to them to edify His children. Some of such men and women of God who readily comes to my mind are Kathryn Kuhlman and Smith Wigglesworth. We can never say that these people simply stated as God told them. Like a tree that is known by its fruit, these people of God were known by their fruits in their character and service they did for the community.

There are still men and women of God today who are blessed with prophetic ministry to edify the Church. However, they will not be telling us stuff like"You will be going to US" or "You will be blessed with a son" kind of prophecies. These people are true and will give prophecies of hope and awakening. They are of rare kind and if we are smart enough, we can identify between the authentic and those who fake...

Coming back to where I left...In my perception, people get into a wrong perception that God is telling them something and that is the reason they give for their actions, deeds and choices. However, we get to see that their actions or words are not authentic. Again I am not judging that they are faking. But they have a misconception because they fail to rationalize with the facts or the truth considering whether it is human enough to do so or will God be please with my action or deed? I call this self-deception. We can deceive ourselves by believing something as true. We will not come out of it unless we are open to our own beliefs and perceptions, lay it bare and evaluate them with facts and the truth. I am able to say this because I have been through self-deception.

After having accepted Christ, I was in search of my life's destiny and I wanted to realize and establish my identity. At different stages of my life, I presumed that God wanted me to become somebody which I never became. For instance, I initially wanted to be a counselor, then a youth worker and then as a person who laid hands on the sick and prayed and also shared God's word. At different times it was different roles. However, none of these prevailed for long. I was successful in few attempts though, but I did not continue to build my identity and destination in any of these lines.

Finally, I realized that God uses the natural talents He blesses us with. I found my passion in writing and I have been writing since the last 5 yrs or even before that if I recollect. More than saying that God told me to become a writer, I prefer saying that I am blessed with this talent and I will use it as long as I find my passion and profession stuck to it by His grace. So I am out my "God told me" perception and I hope you too would ...