You Ain't Right (If You Ain't 'Right'): The Wonder and Welfare of Wise Counsel

Proverbs 11:14 

Where there is no counsel, the people fall;

But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.

Probably the biggest mistake you can ever make is to shun the wise counsel of others.  I’m not talking about garden-variety opinions; I mean the encouragement AND the voice of caution that comes from those who have both spiritual authority and a consecrated walk with God to recommend them.  If you have submitted yourself to an Apostolic assembly and its leadership, you are under an umbrella of protection and authority.  Don’t be so foolish, and even arrogant, as to push back against it when these Godly, God-ordained leaders attempt to follow their calling in waving the flag of warning in your life.   Don’t RESENT counsel.  Maybe you’re not “saying” anything—but perhaps your silence is nothing more than evidence of a passive-aggressive defiance.  When you nurture that, AND allow others (usually defiant to authority themselves) to feed this attitude and breed the notion that you are justified in your resistance—you have turned on a giant, neon-bright locator beacon in the spirit world.  You signal every sour, self-serving, destructive spirit that your life is “open for business”.  You leave the SAFETY of the multitude of counselors, and you become a law unto yourself—and let’s be honest, SELF is the root of selfishness.  We all have blind spots about ourselves.  If Eve has sought wise counsel, the story would have been very different.  Solomon’s successor, Rehoboam, failed as a leader when he listened to the wrong counsel—when he chose the “counsel” that appealed to his FLESH.  

That awful limbo of being at odds with the godly leadership who watches for your soul, or those whom they have appointed to lead, is such misery.  Search the word HUMBLE in your bible app.  You NEED to humble yourself.  It is BIBLICAL to humble yourself.  It doesn’t even matter, honestly, if you ARE right.  Maybe in your eyes, all the ‘evidence’ points to you being right—but that doesn’t mean your spirit is right.  If your spirit isn’t right, everything else is WRONG, and you are reaping the consequences of an offended spirit.

“You will save the humble people; But Your eyes are on the haughty, that You may bring them down.”

II Samuel 22:28 NKJV

If you are determined that you are ‘right’, you are haughty.

“Surely He scorns the scornful, But gives grace to the humble.”

Proverbs 3:34 NKJV

If you are critical of your leadership, and determined to maintain your position of resistance, you are scornful.  You scorn their spiritual authority.  Beware, for God will scorn YOU.  

On the other hand—God can, and WILL, pour out His grace on the HUMBLE. Humility is NOT just about being self-effacing when someone compliments you.  It is about the self-aware recognition that you are a fallable and imperfect person who may not be in possession of all the facts, and that you NEED God, and godly counsel.

“When pride comes, then comes shame; But with the humble is wisdom.”

Proverbs 11:2 NKJV

Pride feels really good when you are reveling in your own ‘correctness’, but remember when it comes—BEFORE a fall.  Then comes the shame.  WISDOM is WITH the humble.  So on the flip side, it stands to reason—if you are feeling self-righteous, then it isn’t wisdom you are experiencing.  Just pride.

I could go on forever, for there seem to be close to 1 zillion scriptures about pride vs. humility.  The most powerful, victorious, blessed moments in the history of God’s people ALWAYS followed the humbling of themselves, and the recognition that their own ways were woefully inadequate to bring real, lasting blessing in their lives.

I’ll close with the words of Jesus.

“And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Matthew 23:12 NKJV

If you dig in, resist, and resolutely allow that wall of silence to masquerade as ‘submission’—it won’t be long before  you are humbled.  You can run away, change churches, and pretend you are justified, but it won’t be long before you are facing similar ‘problems’ all over again—or you’ll heap to yourself those ‘teachers, having itching ears’.  You know, those who will stroke your ego, and tell you how wonderful you are, how RIGHT you are, and commiserate about how “badly” you’ve been misunderstood and treated.  But the humbling will eventually come.

But if you would only humble YOURSELF—He can bring healing of relationship, remove the scales from your eyes, allow you to really SEE—and even exalt you, in due time.  And what God promotes, He protects.  No man can UNDO what God does.  And your spirit will no longer be bound,  no longer miserable despite yourself, because restoration of right relationship is so SWEET.  The mercy and grace of such restoration is some powerful healing balm, to be sure.

Aren’t you tired of the battle?  It isn’t with flesh and blood, I promise.  It’s a spiritual battle being waged in the heavenlies, and it is for your soul.  If the enemy can’t get you to go out and go to bars, have illicit relationships, etc....how do you think he is going to fight for you?  More than anyone, he understands the principle of ‘divide and conquer.’  If you ALLOW yourself to be divided from your spiritual leadership—you are the one who will eventually be conquered.

It is up to YOU.  Choose life!