God Told Me

Sounds spiritual, even Godly, right?

Then why do I feel that it shuts down a conversation?
Do those words invite me into their life?
Is there any counsel being asked for? Proverbs 15:22,23
What about when things go wrong: do you feel shame or blame towards God?
What about taking responsibility for our decision making process? Proverbs 16:18
Is not my heart desperately deceitful? Jer. 17:9
Am I bound to decisions because I thought I must be obedient to what “God told me”?
What is the point of the body of Christ, if I only need God to tell me?

Here’s a window (coining Jamie's expression) into something that happened to me years ago. I was 29 years old with a beautiful wife and three of the cutest kids in the universe. I had a great job as a toolmaker at General Motors. I loved God passionately and unreservedly.

I was in a service and felt God speaking to me to go further in my leadership role. I had done everything that could be done within the church system that I was in. The only thing I hadn’t done was become a pastor. So I quit my job, went to Bible College for 4 years and then pastored for the next 8 years.

Do I have to remain bound by what I felt God told me as a young man of 29? My answer is definitely, no. Do I love God less, as I say no? I am slowly breaking free from the blame/shame/pride process that seems to come with “God told me”.

What do I do now? I invite my friends deeper into my life that ever before. Interestingly enough, I also feel God’s love more than ever.

A famous comedian, Flip Wilson, of days of yore, had this as his byline, “The devil made me do it.” He was mocking people’s unwillingness to take personal responsibility.

I wonder if we sometimes use the byline, “God told me”, unwittingly as a mechanism to keep others out of our lives. After all, if God told me, who are you to disagree?