What is the worst advice you've ever received? Maybe you got some bad relational or career advice. One time I got bad investment advice! Thank you .com tech bubble! Recently, Jimmy Fallon asked people to go to Twitter and post examples using the hashtag #WorstAdvice. Some of the responses are hilarious.
- "Never buy anything from guy who starts off with 'pssst' " #WorstAdvice
- "If you're in the ocean and see a shark fin, swim directly towards it to establish dominance." #WorstAdvice
- "Dude, start playing Flappy Bird, it's so much fun!" #WorstAdvice
- Michael Hobbs tweeted, "When I got pulled over for going 53 in a 35, my friend told me to tell the cop I was dyslexic."
- Brian Sullivan tweeted, "I love it when someone asks for advice and gets told, 'Be yourself man.' Clearly that isn't working, else why would they be asking for advice?" #WorstAdvice
- The most common advice was, "Just follow your heart."
- Someone tweeted, "Ignore any advice that begins with, 'If I were you...' "
The book of Proverbs is filled with warnings about taking advice. In Proverbs 1:11-14 (ESV) a young man is being enticed by his friends. "Come and join us! Let's hide and kill someone! Just for fun, let's ambush the innocent! Let's swallow them alive, like the grave! Let's swallow them whole, like those who go down to the pit of death. Think of the great things we'll get! We'll fill our houses with all the stuff we take. Come, throw in your lot with us'; we'll all share the loot."
In high school my friends were always trying to entice me to do stuff. "Let's get wasted." "Here, smoke this." "Here are the answers for that test." "Let's sneak out." "Let's vandalize the school."
One weekend some friends convinced me to go to Kankakee to a place called the square. It was a place teens from all over county would go to hang out. That night, as we cruised the square in a pickup truck, we pulled up to a stop light. Suddenly, a gang ran up on our vehicle and attacked us. One of my friends got punched in the eye, while I got punched in the back of my head. As soon as the light changed, we peeled out of there. That was the last time I went to the square. Lesson learned!
Sometimes bad advice costs us some pain, but other times it has grave consequences. We should also consider that some advice can literally destroy our souls.
In your outline, I've given you a few questions.
How reliable is the wisdom of this age?
With social media, we're bombarded with wisdom. We're told what to think, feel, and do. And everyone's an expert. For example, thanks to WebMD everyone's a doctor! I'm half afraid to mention a problem these days. You post a problem and the advice pours in. Take this, do this! I'll bet doctors love WebMD! But how reliable is the wisdom of this age? How much should we trust Google?
How reliable are my spiritual experiences?
People have all kinds of spiritual experiences. They go into vivid detail about what they've seen and heard. A bestselling book right now is called, "Heaven is for Real." It's the story of a pastor's son who has a near death experience and claims to have seen long lost relatives. He suddenly has knowledge about things he's never been told. Every world religion has been founded by people who have claimed to have seen a vision, to have witnessed miracles, or to possess secret knowledge.
How do I evaluate what is good and true?
This is really two different questions. How do you know what's good? How do you discern good advice from bad advice? And how do you know what's true? How do you know what wisdom or what knowledge you should put confidence in? This matters for this life and for all eternity.
A lesser known truth among Christians is that the Holy Spirit instructs us. The Holy Spirit gives us greater clarity in all things. Let me share a few examples. To begin with, in John 15:26 (ESV) Jesus calls the Spirit the, "...Spirit of Truth." There is an integrity and consistency to everything the Spirit of God reveals. In this way, we can discern or even test, whether a Spirit is from God or not.
In Isaiah 11:2 (ESV), which is a passage foretelling the coming of Jesus, we're told, "And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord." When a person is filled with the Spirit, like Jesus, they have keen insight into spiritual and practical matters. While the flesh says "Yes!", the Spirit says, "Wait! Stop!" The world sees one thing, but the Spirit penetrates to the heart of the matter. The Spirit enables us to discern what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, praiseworthy, peaceable, and worthy of imitation.
2 Timothy 1:7 (ESV) says God gave us a Spirit of, "...power and love and self-control." Other translations substitute the word self-control with temperance, sound mind, good judgment, sobriety, or wise discretion. The more unspiritual our culture becomes, the dumber people become, and the poorer their judgment becomes. Our education system gives people knowledge, but it doesn't give them good judgment. The best wisdom in all the world is found in scripture, but scriptures were written by uneducated people. How can this be? It's a simple answer. They were Spirit-inspired!
In places like Acts 8:29 and Acts 16:6-8 the Spirit is giving counsel to the apostles-- directing their steps and changing their plans. It isn't unusual that that Holy Spirit nudges us in our spirit to change our plans, to respond to a need, or to have a conversation.
There are times I'm walking through the sanctuary and the Spirit prompts me to encourage someone, or share a scripture, or send a text. Later a person will ask, "How did you know to say that? It was just the thing I needed to hear!" There are no coincidences!
An extremely important ministry of the Holy Spirit is to help us know Jesus. The best quote I heard this past week was, "Jesus is God's selfie." Jesus is the perfect portrait and the exact representation of God. In John 16:13-15 (ESV) Jesus says, "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."
1 Corinthians 2:9-13 (ESV) says, " 'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him'-- these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given to us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual."
What a remarkable statement about the Spirit! He searches everything-- even the deep things of God. Paul goes on to say that the natural person doesn't accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he's not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. But we have understood. Why? Because the Lord has instructed us by his Spirit. And because we have the mind of Christ. See 1 Corinthians 2:14-16.
Allow me to say a word about spirits. In the Bible there is the Holy Spirit of God, there is the spirit of man, there is the spirit of this age, and there are countless evil spirits. When someone has a spiritual experience and has spiritual visions it's possible that any number of spirits could be the intermediary.
In Acts 8 Simon the magician amazed people with spiritual powers. In Acts 13 and Acts 19, people practiced the magic arts. In Acts 16:16 a little girl has spiritual powers to tell fortunes-- to literally know things about people otherwise impossible to know.
As a practice, I never doubt the validity of peoples' spiritual experiences. I just question the origin of their spiritual experiences. For example, I don't doubt that the little boy had a vision in which heaven was very real. I just question the origin. By what spirit did he receive those things? To what degree did his vision mesh with what the Spirit of truth has already revealed about heaven? Do we set aside what the Spirit inspired word of God says because of what a four year old says?
I want to share with you ways that I discern the voice of God's Holy Spirit. You can find these in your outline. I think of these as guardrails that keep me on God's path. If you remove these guardrails, you crash and burn!
Ask, "What are the Pros and Cons?"
The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of wisdom. You can take any kind of decision and analyze it logically, then follow a thing to its logical conclusion. If it doesn't lead to that which is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, praiseworthy, peaceable, and worthy of imitation, it's probably not of the Spirit. In other words, if it's not something you'd want your kids and grandkids to do, it's probably not of the Spirit!
Ask, "What does God's word say?"
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV) says, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." The scriptures are inspired of the Holy Spirit! If a decision is incongruent with what God's already revealed, then it's another spirit trying to influence your life-- whether that be your spirit, your friend's spirit, the spirit of this age, or evil spirits.
Ask, "What did Jesus Christ model?"
Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus had all of the Spirit, and the Spirit had all of Jesus. Jesus always did what he saw the Father doing and he'd always say what he heard the Father saying. The Father-Son-Holy Spirit are unified. The Lord, the Lord our God, is one! If your life contradicts who God is or how Jesus walked, you're not following the right spirit. The Spirit of God teaches us to walk as Jesus walked.
Ask, "What did the early Church teach or practice?"
The first four books of the New Testament, the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, chronicle the Spirit led life of Jesus. But the book of Acts, the letters to the Churches, the rest of the New Testament down to Revelation chronicle the Spirit led life of the apostles and first followers of Jesus. In the Bible we find countless examples of the Church discerning spirits and yielding to the Spirit of God. If the early Church practiced it, prescribed it, or preached it, it's of God.
Ask, "What do Spirit led Christians say?"
It is true that if you are believer, you have the Holy Spirit. But don't be so arrogant as to forget you are surrounded by believers who also have the Holy Spirit. And you are surrounded by believers who may even have a greater measure of the Spirit by virtue of their faith and surrender. If you believe the Spirit of God is showing you something, I assure you he will be showing it to your brothers and sisters in Christ.
When I was contemplating God's call on my life, there was elderly man named Ed in our church. Ed was one of the only men who brought a Bible to church. Every page in his Bible was marked, highlighted, or frayed. Ed would often pull me aside and show me a verse he'd studied. He was a godly, generous man who saw something in me before anyone else saw it. One day he said to me, "You're going to be a preacher."
A lot of young people mistake their flesh for the Spirit of God. At a conference yesterday Don Wilson said, "You ever notice how the call of God is always a bigger church with a bigger salary?" Sometimes it's not the Spirit, but something within us, our pride, our anxiety, our existential angst, selfish desire, laziness, or vanity, that compels us toward a thing. A mature, godly, Spirit-led person will always see through these things and help us discern whether it's the Spirit of God truly leading us.
If you're a young person, don't run big decisions by your peers. Should you date this person? Should you take this career path or that one? Don't be impulsive. Share your decisions with older, more mature believers who are known to be full of the Holy Spirit. I hope that can be your parents. But if not, you have a church full of Spirit led fathers and mothers who'd love to adopt you.
My older brother always got in trouble by consulting with his unspiritual friends. He spent his entire adult life in prison. In and out of jail. In and out. But recently he said, "Jon, no more. I'm running my decisions by the family, and by you, and by people who love me." He's acknowledging that his life would be drastically different if he'd consulted with Spirit led people from the beginning, instead of being enticed to do evil by supposed friends. This church loves you. We care for you!
Ask, "Is my pathway holy, good, and beneficial?"
The Holy Spirit always leads us into what is holy, good, and beneficial. That's why he is called the Holy Spirit. It's amazing how people make unholy choices and then blame the Spirit of God. Blasphemy is ascribing to God the works of Satan. You'd better think twice before concluding that the Spirit of God has led you into an unholy belief, doctrine, or decision.
Sometimes a person is convinced that the Spirit of God is leading him. If the questions that I listed don't bring clarity, the fruit of a decision always will. The fruit of the Spirit's activity in our lives is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. But how often has something led us to become more hateful, depressed, hostile, impatient, rude, mean, abrasive, and impulsive? If you give it enough time, you can always tell a tree by its fruit. If you are on the right path and keeping in step with the Spirit, there will be Christ-honoring fruit in your life. But if not, wisdom will be proved right by her children.
Let me just end by saying to be careful about accepting the wisdom or advice of others. Be careful about accepting every spiritual experience as true. Install some guardrails along the highway of life, like the ones I've suggested, so you don't crash and burn. Teach these guardrails to your children. And do not be deceived, because not every spirit comes from the Father and the Son.