The Biggest Temptation

It happens to me all the time. It is a temptation that just seems to draw me in. Sometimes I see it coming and avoid it. Other times it overtakes me and I fall again. It is the temptation to do what someone else in ministry is doing because it is having results. Perhaps you have faced this temptation also. A really good book comes out written by someone who took a dying church of 2 people to a mega church of 5,000 and actually stayed married in the process. We xerox the plan they used and begin to implement it. A new seminar is promoted as the cutting edge way to achieve growth or health and we sign on the dotted line. Been there? Done that? Me too.

Now do not misunderstand me. I believe it is vitally important to read books and to go to seminars. There is however one thing even more important than seminars and books and systems. Hearing from God for yourself is what is important. Nothing can substitute for getting your vision, your plan and your method from God. Learn principles from others but get your plans from God. Once you have heard from God stick to the plan God gave you.

To be honest the reason it is such a temptation for me to want to just imitate what someone else has done is because that is easier than hearing from God. Hearing from God takes time and costs us something. I am reading a book now that has an excellent plan. On one page the author mentions that he prays one to two hours every day. My tendency (am I alone?) is to want to skip that part and get to the plan part and copy the plan and see God move. Perhaps if we would pay the price and pray and wait to hear from God then God will give us the plan.