Principle # 10 – writing is an amazingly powerful tool to capture our random, unfocused, and fleeting thoughts, to sort them out, and to figure out the source of them.

When I was 12 and 13 years of age we had about 4 cows that we milked by hand. We would then run the milk through a separator that we cranked by hand, and it would separate the skim milk from the cream. We would sell the cream to a creamery, mix the skim milk with whole grain, let it soak and sour for several weeks and then feed it to our pigs. As a kid I was always fascinated by that separators ability to pull the cream and the milk apart because they were completely mixed together. For years my Dad had a gold claim on the headwaters of North Myrtle Creek. For a couple of weeks every year we would go to that spot that was our claim, suck up sand and gravel from the bottom of the creek with a small gas powered dredge, run it through a sluice box and then pan what was caught in the riffles of the sluice box with a gold pan looking for gold. In the whole process we were separating what was gold from what was ordinary sand and gravel. What a dredge, sluice box and gold pan are for gold so writing is for our thoughts that are from God. What a milk separator is in separating cream from milk so writing is in separating our thoughts, the ones from God from those that come from our flesh, the devil, and the world.

Nehemiah 2:12 And I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. I did not tell anyone what my God was putting into my mind to do for Jerusalem

Psalms 16:7 I will bless the Lord who has counseled me; Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.

1 Chronicles 28:12 and the plan of all that he had in mind, for the courts of the house of the Lord, and for all the surrounding rooms,

1 Chronicles 28:19 All this,” said David, “the Lord made me understand in writing by His hand upon me, all the details of this pattern.”

God created words and writing. He is the one who wrote the “Ten Commandments” on stone with His finger. He is the one who prompted men to write the books of the Bible, and preserved it in writing.

This particular principle in discovering the will of God for my life will be practiced by very few because it takes effort, time, and thought and most simply won’t do it. As with many things, that which is most difficult is also most important.