I want to attempt to share that revelation with you.
I absolutely love listening to TBN, Praise FM and worship music. I love being fed ministry by all the amazing and talented and God led preachers of the Word, and will absolutely continue to do so. However, yesterday, God spoke to my heart for the thousandth time, as He often does before I finally get it... Yesterday I got it. "You will never be led by the Spirit, if you are being led by people".
It reminded me of Hebrews 5:11-14
We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
I found myself a couple years ago irritated by going to church and hearing more about a certain Preacher than I did about Jesus Christ. I realized that I also did the same thing. I honored a couple certain preachers and read and purchased all their material. I have more people books than I do Bibles. Which would have been fine, if I read the Bible more than I did the people books. The irritation would not quit. I wanted to be led by the Spirit, as the church once was, than be a copy cat church following a certain preacher. I found myself asking God to allow me to hear Him more than I did the "voices". The voices meaning all the opinions of all the people around me, including myself, all preaching their perspectives instead of Gods truth. It was a rude awaking for me.
You see, there is nothing in my heart that I would love to do more than share God's word with others. But if I'm looking at a Preacher, or a Church that has grown to incredible numbers and try to imitate that, I am going to fail. As well as, for me, a writer, if I continually read about what made other bloggers and writers successful, instead of praying and being led by the Spirit, I'm nothing more than a imitation. It's not going to be fresh and it's not going to be from the Spirit, it's going to be from other people and I'm going to fail.
Please don't misunderstand, anyone that preaches Gods word is an amazing tool and friend to have beside you. There are simply not enough of them and prayerfully more will explode and rocks will begin to cry out. You should also keep those people close and discuss the word and listen to them because they to, should be authentically led by the Spirit of God...
But if you want to be led, please let it be your prayer to be led by the Spirit and be taught by the Spirit and not be imitators of people.
You will never have to discern truth in God's word...only in the word of people.
1 Corinthians 3:1-4 (NIV)
The Church and Its Leaders
3 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?