Principle # 8 – God will reveal his will for my life to me through others in my life if I am humble enough to seek it from them.

The definition of Pride in the Bible is, “I can do it by myself, I don’t need you!” Obviously we would all acknowledge the fact that if we say or think that about God we would have a major pride problem, we definitely all desperately need God in our lives. But what many don’t realize is that same definition of pride applies to others around me. God has created us incapable of accomplishing much by ourselves without help from others. His will for us is that we developed healthy interdependent relationships so that we can become successful and grow in maturity. In the Bible He uses the physical body as an illustration of the church, and calls each person in the church a part of the body, a hand, foot, ear etc. Obviously no part in the body can survive cut off from the body, we must be connected to function properly and succeed in life.

Asking others in our life for counsel on things we should change and grow in, in our Christian life, for advice on decisions we need to make, and counsel on how to succeed in various areas of life like marriage, managing our money, raising our kids, and success in our jobs requires humility. A key, is to understand that this is how God works, when we choose to humble ourselves and ask others for guidance God will often prompt them on what to say to us, He will speak through them.

When I was struggling with whether to leave the farm and pastor at Jefferson Baptist Church or stay and do what I loved most in life, I decided to ask my Dad for his counsel. I decided to do this after reading Proverbs 23:22 which says,

“Listen to your father who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she is old.”

And also Proverbs 1:8 which says,

“Hear, my son, your father’s instruction And do not forsake your mother’s teaching”

I was 28 years old and I didn’t like it when my Dad told me what to do, which is probably true of most young men. So I think he was very surprised when I asked him to sit down with me at the kitchen table and give me some counsel about a decision I needed to make. Things at the time were going very good on the farm and also between us as we worked together, so he was surprised again when I told him I was considering leaving the farm and being a pastor in Jefferson, Oregon. I explained to him the history of my involvement in the church having helped start it while going to Bible college in Salem a few years earlier, and my struggle in knowing what to do in responding to the opportunity to become the Pastor of the church following the resignation of the founding pastor. He thought about it for a minute and then said, “Go do it for one year, and see what happens, it is hard to know for sure if you will be good at something and enjoy it unless you give it a shot.” Then he added this little tid bit, “What will probably happen is that the people in the church will be super critical of everything you do, you will be miserable, and then you can come back and farm with me.” The counsel resonated with me, so Patty and I, and our 1 year old daughter moved to Jefferson the next week, and we have been here for 43 years.

Proverbs 1:5 A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,

Proverbs 11:14 Where there is no guidance the people fall, But in abundance of counselors there is victory.

Proverbs 24:6 For by wise guidance you will wage war, And in abundance of counselors there is victory.