Who you listen to is crucial in the decisions you make which leads to the outcomes you experience.  With that in mind, you better be careful where you get your advice.  The Bible is full of illustrations of this, for example: 2 Chronicles 18 tells the story of Jehoshaphat (King of Judah) aligning himself with Ahab (King of Israel) for battle.  Jehoshaphat wisely suggests that before they march into battle to “first seek the counsel of the Lord.”  However, Ahab invites 400 prophets to come who only tell the king what he wants to hear.  So, they all give the thumbs up!

Instead of being satisfied with this, Jehoshaphat suggests hearing from a “prophet of the LORD” for a second opinion.  Ahab reluctantly calls for a prophet that he despises because he never prophesies “anything good” about him.  Sure enough, this prophet tells that calamity awaits and sure defeat, and Ahab says “I told you he never prophesies good about me.” 

Rather than listen to this one godly prophet, they take their advice from the crowd and go into battle only to suffer great defeat.  The same thing will happen to us when we take our advice from a crowd.  I would rather listen to one wise person than a crowd of fools! 

Just because a number of people are saying the same thing doesn’t make it right.  We will only bring trouble into our lives if we surround ourselves with advisers whose only thought is to tell us what we want to hear.

I’m getting prepared for the third part of our series ON DEMAND.  This weekend’s topic came in second place in the text voting for sermon subjects.  The title is:  How To Hear From God.  If you have ever struggled to hear from God, never heard from God or desperately need to hear from God then don’t miss it! 

Here’s a taste: we’ll examine the ways God speaks, how to position yourself to hear, and posture yourself in prayer.  I can’t wait to preach it!