Weigh it out

James 3:17

    "17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”

When we seek God and believe we have received an answer, we would do well to verify in our hearts that what we have heard is indeed God. We must not look at external “signs & wonders” to verify the voice within ourselves. Rather we must hear, then verify, then act upon what we have verified. It is only then that we can watch expectantly over the circumstances to see their manifestation as God has spoken it. There are keys to verifying that what we hear in our hearts is the voice of the Lord. To begin, we identify what was spoken. At once we take what was spoken and we compare it to the criteria presented here in James 3:17.

1.    Is the word pure? Proverbs 30:5 says that every Word of God is pure. Does what we hear line up with scripture exactly or at least does it bear the same heart as scripture?

       2.     If you follow what is said, will you have peace in your own heart? It is important to note that not all of God’s instructions will produce peace between yourself and others immediately. Most of the time strife will be the result. This cannot affect how we respond to what we hear.

       3. Does what we hear make us feel forced or pushed aggressively into an action?

       4. If we decide not to obey what we have heard, does it continue to berate us, or does it fade into the background?

       5. Does the perceived word shatter our self-esteem, or does it show us where there is still hope? 

       6. When acted upon, will it produce good fruit- {ie the fruit of the spirit : love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control}

       7. Does the word cause us to think less or more of ourselves or others?

       8. Will the words heard put us in a position that yields hypocrisy in our lives?

Once all of these criteria have been examined the final choice to act or not reset on Colossians 3:15- we must let the peace of God rule in our hearts. If that peace remains after the examination, we can be certain we have heard from God and therefore must act.