Err on the Side of Activity and be Correctable

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Here’s another factor that I want you to work into your understanding of this. And that is, as with Peter—erring on the side of activity and oftentimes failing but being correctable and resilient. No pity-parties, no defensiveness, no shrinking back. “Get behind Me, satan,” did not ruin Peter for six months. He was right there, right back on top of things quickly because he was resilient.

That’s going to be required in all of this. Because what will happen is, there will be times your life might not always be where it is supposed to be. Not because you may not be skilled in the communication of thoughts, but there will also be times when your life is out of sync, and you may not even realize it. Or something about it has blinded you and you’re sincere, and yet you’re off, and therefore God has not anointed what’s being said, and heart cords aren’t being touched.

Part of the process of being a Kingdom of Priests requires that if those that are in your midst discern what you’ve just said is not anointed particularly—it is required of them that they let you know that. Your job then is to be correctable and resilient. If they think you’re just blabbering, they should tell you. It should humble you and draw you closer to God, but it should not slow you down. Our object is not only to communicate God’s Truth, but that God’s Oil would be poured out on it while we’re doing it. If either of those two elements are missing—the anointing or the skillful instruction, then we’ve come up short in helping God’s people to the measure that we could have.

It is important that if it’s brought to our attention that what you just said didn’t make any sense, or it made perfect sense, but it seemed dry to me, seemed inappropriate, badly timed—these are all things that happen, aren’t they? It’s true, but there was no power or life to it. If somebody else had said it, it might have hit me, but because you said it, somehow I missed it. Or, it seemed very appropriate, but where in the world did that come from? It seemed badly timed. God’s not the God of chaos or disorder. So, it will be properly timed.

Now don’t substitute your mind for the Spirit of God. In my mind, “Well, this couldn’t probably be the right time for this because it’s a slight change of subject.” That’s not how we find God’s timing. We find God’s timing because of the fire of God in our bones. Because there are things we can’t know about this room full of people. It might be perfectly timed, if you were to know what other people are thinking or what their days’ experiences have been. It might be perfectly timed. Timing is something that comes from the Spirit, not from our own observations or our own listening skills.

If you’re not really in touch with God, you might still have some concept of what the Scriptures are teaching. And it might have even been anointed to you three days ago. But because you’re somehow out of sync with God, you bring something that falls to the ground. It was said of Samuel that not one of his words fell to the ground. That’s God’s goal for us too is that we be so in touch with the Spirit of God that our words not fall to the ground. And yet Peter’s words fell to the ground regularly for a big portion of his life. Even long after Jesus was resurrected and ascended, he was still botching it up as you read in Galatians 2. He was still missing things at times. Obviously, if that were possible, then there were certainly times where his words would fall to the ground, too. It’s not as if it’s something that you’re once and for all over. But my point is this: to make it your objective not only to be apt to teach and skillful in teaching and having comprehended the Word of God in such a way that you’re willing and able to serve with the Word in situations. It’s there. These things have been built into your life, into your mind, and into your understanding so that you can carefully lay them out with others.

Not only that, but there has to be a huge premium put on being in touch with God. Not to the extent that we never do anything because we’re never quite sure enough that it’s God’s timing. Better, like Peter, to try and to fail. You’ll be better able to hit it next time, having tried and failed than to withhold out of your fear. Jesus had some of the harshest words out of His whole life for the person that buried what was given to him from the Master. I don’t ever want to hear those words. There are a lot of words I’d much rather hear from Jesus. “Depart from Me, you slothful, sluggardly servant. What I gave you, you buried.” I don’t want to hear those words. I’d rather hear, “Hey, you blew it. Straighten up. Your life’s a little out of sync, so you missed Me. Try again.”

I’d much rather hear that than, “Get out of my sight, you sluggard.” Err on the side of activity, please. And you’ll learn from the times when you’re out of sync with the Spirit, if you’re willing. If you’re humble enough to learn from it, if you invite people to come to you and say, “Hey, I couldn’t hear a word you said. It was like the static was turned up three times as loud as the words you were saying. I don’t know why, but I thought you’d want to know.”

“Yeah, I do want to know. Got any idea why?”

“Well, could it be this?” Call the same people back and say, “Did anybody else notice this. Anybody have any idea why?”

Work it. Find out why. Don’t be afraid of it. Find out why, because next time will be better—if you’ve got the humility to err on the side of activity, to be correctable, and then to be resilient, rather than fearful, burying because you’re afraid. “You’re a hard master. Hard to please, God, You are.”

“Depart from Me.”

Err on the side of activity. Push this stuff. Be prepared to make mistakes, but don’t be prepared to stay the same. Be prepared to listen. Invite response if something seems out of sync or words fall to the ground. Invite input about that, but don’t stop. Keep pushing forward.