Did God Really Say...?

Interestingly enough, the very first question posed in the Scriptures is not asked by God, but by satan -- disguised as a snake, of course. 

"Did God really say...?" 

Truth is satan can't make us do or not do anything, but he can place a seed of doubt and let us get tangled up in it.  And that's exactly the seed he planted within me a couple of weeks ago.  Doubt.  In my quiet time that particular morning, I felt like the Lord gave me a word for someone.  Literally, A word.  One word.  "Unleash."  I toyed with it for awhile, trying to make something different out of it.  I even rolled around the word "Release" on my tongue for awhile because "unleash" sounded so weird.  But I couldn't seem to make it work.  The word was what it was: "Unleash."

Words are important, you know.  And they're powerful.  Creatively powerful ... just like they were in the beginning of time when God stood there and said, "Light!  Be!"  And light was.  But I allowed the age old question to take root: Did God really say? 

And so through my first brief encounter that morning with the one to whom I felt I was to speak it, my mind became a battlefield.  "Did God really say?"  And the enemy's seed grew.  A short while later, this one walked through again, and as he turned to leave, I stood there and looked at his back, wanting to call out his name, and that's when the seed went into full bloom.  "Did God really say?  Are you really, really sure you heard Him correctly?  After all, do you know who this person is?  And besides, who are YOU to be speaking a word to him?"  

I watched him walk from the room. 

For the next week, I saw what unfolded in this man's life ... and without one shadow of a doubt, I knew the word spoken to me in the depths of my heart that Friday morning were for him.  "Unleash!"  Sadly, I heard the word come forth from the mouth of a CNN commentator reporting "secular" news and not from one who had heard it in the quiet.  I was also reminded that if we don't praise or glorify Him, the very rocks will cry out. 

Did this one man lose anything from my silence due to my fear and doubt?  Maybe a little encouragement for the days directly before him.  Did I lose?  You bet.  Big time.  I lost having the creative power of God flow through me to another human being.  I lost being a source of blessing to a man going out on the battlefield.  I lost being a flowing stream.  Rather, I was nothing more than a waste pool that day.

Ironically, God's first recorded question is this: Where are you?  Of course, He knew exactly where Adam and Eve were.  But their answer is very revealing.  At least to me.

"I heard You ... and I was afraid..."

Have I learned anything from this? Oh, yes. And that's one of things being a disciple of Jesus Christ is all about. Learning. 

Oh, yes, and being Word conscious.

By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

John 15:8

Just an ordinary moment...