“For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus.” (Galatians 1:13-17 NASB1995)

In the verses prior to these, Paul spoke against being people who look to other humans for our answers to life’s mysteries and who seek the favor of other humans in order to please them, rather than looking for our answers in God and in his word, and to please God. He did not get his gospel message from other humans, but he got it by divine revelation, which for us is written down for us in the Scriptures. And we need to get our gospel message directly from the Scriptures, too, taught in their correct biblical context.

Now, this is not to say that we cannot do research or that we should never seek the counsel of another human being in any matter whatsoever, for Paul was speaking with regard to spiritual matters. He was not living to please other humans, and he did not get his gospel truth from other humans, but from God. Now he was a tent maker, I believe, so we don’t know if he sought the counsel of other humans in his tent making. He may have. But in spiritual matters we need to get the counsel of God directly from his word.

But what about our health issues? I don’t believe we should look to other humans to be our primary and foundational source to guide us in what to do or in what not to do with regard to our health, for there are many people in the medical profession who are beholding to big pharma and/or to corporate, and so they don’t really have our best interest at heart. So many are just prescribing drugs as the solution for everything, and many of these drugs end up doing bodily harm to their patients. So we must pray for guidance.

I do believe the medical profession can be helpful to us in diagnosing some things which can be seen in imaging tests, for example, but we should never look to doctors to be our gods in determining what course of action we should take. We should pray through every examination result to make certain that we are following the will of God and not the will of humans who may or may not be working for our good, for not all of them do work for our good, but many of them may work for the good of their own selves.

And, yes, this is speaking to me personally with regard to my health issues that I should not rely on the counsel of doctors to make my decisions for me. But in all things I must seek the counsel of the Lord in knowing what direction he would have me go. The doctors have definitely been helpful in getting me tests to diagnose what is going on inside my body, and I am certainly grateful for that technology. But where to proceed from there with the information has to come from the Lord and from his counsel.

And the same truth applies with any area of our lives where we are getting counsel from other humans. We, as followers of Christ are never to make other humans our gods to where we rely on them for truth and guidance, no matter who those humans may be. We should test the counsel that we receive from other humans against other information on the same subject, from other sources, for not all of them agree, but to always do so in prayer, seeking the will of God for our lives. For we now belong to Christ.

And so this includes testing the words of preachers who proclaim that what they are teaching is the “gospel” according to Jesus Christ. No matter who they are, or if they have a good reputation and are well respected, they are all still human. And many of them, sadly so, have compromised the message of the gospel to be acceptable to human flesh, because they want to draw in large crowds of people from the world into their gatherings. So they say what tickles itching ears rather than speak the plain truth of the gospel.

But Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

So, believe God, trust in his counsel, and follow in his ways always.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

As the Deer

By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship You

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Getting Our Counsel From God
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