Four Powerful Prophets of Your Future
Part 4
“Who Speaks Into Your Life”
Psalms 1:1-3 “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”
Ps. 1:1 “Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked…”
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Now, these passages open up the biggest book in the Bible—the book of Psalms.
And the very first thing they address is the importance of who you get your advice from—who is instructing you about your lifestyle, your morals, your ethics, spiritual things, God, truth, sex, marriage, relationships, and all the other things that comprise life and living.
One of the ways people ruin their lives is by listening to ungodly counsel and advice.
And one of the ways people enrich their lives is by listening to sound, godly advice and counsel!
So—One of the most important things in your life and mine is who we’re listening to for counsel and direction.
Let me ask today:
—Who has your ear?
—Who are you trusting to speak into your life?
—Who carries counseling cred with you?
A celebrity?
A sports hero?
A successful business person?
—Who do you think has it all goin’ on to the point you pattern your lifestyle after what they say?
—Have you even stopped to think about whose counsel you’re listening to?
The psalmist tells us that advice is going to come from one of two sources—the ungodly or God’s word.
Ungodly counsel can sometimes insidiously infiltrate our thinking unawares.
We hear something in passing on the radio, TV, or read something—and it shoots right past our defenses and winds up influencing our decision making.
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FACT: If you’re going to succeed in life, make progress, or fulfill God’s purpose for your life, you must listen to godly counsel.
Godly counsel can come from parents, Christian leaders, mature Christians, people with experience, and especially God’s Word.
Listen to God’s promise to His own people:
“And I will give you leaders after my own heart, who will guide you with wisdom and understanding.” (Jeremiah 3:15 LB).
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Godly counsel and advice are important in spiritual warfare:
“Proverbs 24:6 says, “For by wise counsel you will wage your own war, and in a multitude of counselors there is safety.”—NKJV
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Now, there has never been in the history of the world more voices seeking to give you counsel and advice than today.
TV talk shows,
movies,
radio,
magazines,
books,
Countless voices all over social media—YouTube, Rumble, Facebook, Tik Tok, Snapchat, Reddit and all the others…
No society has ever been infiltrated and bombarded with more voices seeking to influence and guide them than today.
From the minute you roll out of bed to the moment you return to bed, you will be bombarded with messaging containing advice and counsel.
For instance, someone 30 years ago saw up to 2,000 ad messages a day,
Today that has jumped to 5,000 or more messages a day!
TV shows and movies—most promoting a particular worldview—are everywhere.
They message on what they want you to believe is morally acceptable, promote various ungodly lifestyles, and typically slam Christianity.
We’ve got Oprah on satellite radio peddling New Age,
Dr. Phil on TV offering up advice on all kinds of moral issues from his own opinion.
And almost the entire celebrity culture pushing everything and anything contrary to God’s word.
The message behind all this messaging is: “If you want to be accepted and popular, this is what you need to to believe and embrace.”
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Now, The vast bulk of daily messaging comes straight from the world—the same world that rejects your Savior, your Bible, and your Christian faith.
And remember what the Bible say about the world!
John writes, “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.”—1 John 2:15 NLT
James echoes the same thought: “If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.”—James 4:4 NLT
This is why the Psalmist warned us:
“Don’t walk in the counsel of the ungodly, don’t follow the advice of the wicked!”
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Every genuine child of God is commanded to get their advice and counsel from God’s word!
“Delight yourself in the law of the Lord, and meditate on it day and night.”
Another translation says, “Instead (of listening to the advice of the ungodly), love the Lord’s teachings and think about them day and night.”
This is why I’ve called this one of the four most powerful prophets of your future!
Because the advice you listen to is going to play a big part in the trajectory of your future!
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We shouldn’t be so naive as to think that because we’re saved we can’t follow the wrong voice and advice.
You can walk with God for 10, 20, 30 years and still stumble into listening to the wrong counsel.
Prov 12:26 warns that “the way of the wicked (will lead) you astray.”
Every day we must be on guard concerning who we grant permission to speak into our lives.
Prov. 1:5 “A good day man of understanding will seek out wise counsel.”
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One example in Scripture of following bad counsel is that of the ancient Israelite king—Solomon’s son and successor—Rehoboam.
In the book of 1 Kings, chapters 11 and 12, we find the story of Rehoboam becoming king after Solomon.
Immediately following his coronation, the people asked him to lower the burdensome taxes Solomon his father had placed on them.
“Your father was a hard master,” they said. “Lighten the…heavy taxes that your father imposed on us. Then we will be your loyal subjects.”—1 Kings 12:4 NLT
Wanting counsel, Rehoboam first turned to the older, wise elders his father had surrounded himself with, and they advised:
“If you give them a pleasant reply and agree to be good to them and serve them well, you can be their king forever.”—vs. 7 LB
This was godly, wise, Biblical advice.
Sadly it goes on to say, “But Rehoboam refused the old men’s counsel and called in the young men with whom he had grown up.”—12:8 LB
Rehoboam turned to his peers—peers with no experience, and no track record of godly living.
They advised, “Tell them, ‘If you think my father was hard on you, well, I’ll be harder! 11 Yes, my father was harsh, but I’ll be even harsher! My father used whips on you, but I’ll use scorpions!’”—vs. 10-12
This was terrible, unbiblical counsel!—Yet Rehoboam went with it and repeated their ill advised words to the people.
The results were catastrophic:
“When the people realized that the king meant what he said and was refusing to listen to them, they began shouting, “Down with David and all his relatives! Let’s go home! Let Rehoboam be king of his own family! And they all deserted him…”—vs. 16
In one day Rehoboam lost the majority of his kingdom!
Ten of the twelve tribes of Israel walked away—tribes that that could have and would have served him.
Listening to ungodly advice brought ruin and regret!
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Then an example of someone listening to good advice is found in the story of David and Abigail.
Abigail had a jerk for a husband named Nabal.
Nabal was self indulgent, foolhardy, and treated others poorly.
On one occasion, David and his men spent time near Nabal’s men while they clipped their sheep’s wool.
David treated them fairly and protected the sheep.
Afterward he sent a messenger to Nabal to ask for food and water for him and his men.
Nabal foolishly declined the request.
When David heard what Nabal had said, he instructed 400 of his men to put on their swords.
In the meantime, one of Nabal’s servants told Abigail what happened.
Immediately without Nabal’s knowledge, she gathered 200 loaves of bread, wine, sheep, grain, raisin cakes, and figs.
After loading everything on donkeys, she headed toward David.
Upon meeting him, she bowed and fell at David’s feet and asked him to overlook Nabal’s indiscretion.
She wisely counsels David, “Since the Lord has held you back from bloodshed to avenge yourself with your own hand, don’t do it now. Enter the throne with clean hands so no one can accuse you of fighting your own way to the top!”—1 Samuel 25:26
He responds to her, “Then David said to Abigail, ‘Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! And blessed is your advice…because you have kept me today from committing bloodshed.”—1 Samuel 25:32-33
Ten days later, Nabal died and David sent for Abigail to become his wife.
Wisdom paid off handsomely for her!