BE CAREFUL WHO YOU LISTEN TO
Exactly a decade ago, I wrote my first book titled, “Leaders Arise”. I remember that year, as I received the direction to write that book (it was the teaching materials that I had prepared for Leaders Arise Conference that God instructed me to put into a book), someone very close to me told me, “Demola, don’t write a book now, wait until you are big, wait until you are known.” While this appeared to be a good counsel, I knew it was not a God counsel as my heart was troubled afterwards. Anyway, I went ahead to write that book and it became a major turning point in my writing ministry and leadership journey.
Friend, you need to learn how to discern the right voices as you go through life (Psalms 85:8, Isaiah 30:21). You need to be careful what you hear, who you hear and how you hear (Mark 4:24, Luke 8:18). While counsels are very important to our safety and progress in life, the wrong counsel can be the bane of our fulfilment in life and destiny. Some counsels are (or look) good, but are not God. We must hear God through people and not just listen to people.
Let me ask you; what is that thing that God has placed in your heart for this year 2020? What is that big dream, breathtaking step that your heart has been stirred up to take for a while now? What are you doing with it? Who are you hearing? How are you hearing? While it is very important that you grow gradually into some things, you need to understand the place of timing (Ecclesiastes 9:11). You need to understand the need to step into the waters of your destiny no matter how scary it may be. You need to do that thing God has been laying on your heart whose time has come.
Listen, you don’t have to be big to do something significant with your life. You don’t have to wait until all the conditions are perfect. You don’t have to wait until you have the money, consider if you have the Faith for it. You don’t have to wait until you have become known before you do what God is telling you to do. Big shots are simply small shots that kept shooting until they became big. The truth is this, until you start from where you are and with what you have, you do not have any chance to make progress in life and destiny.
God will not ask you to do what you cannot do. If you ever have a prompting for it, then it means you can do it. It means that God’s Grace has come for you to do it (Philippians 4:13). It means that God has arranged people and things to work together in your favour. Your hesitation will only postpone your miracle and short change you in life and destiny. When God says, “move”, you’ve got to move. Stop listening to naysayers, stop listening to doubters.
Not everybody is hearing what you are hearing, so don’t listen to just anybody. You should listen to people to the extent that what they are saying aligns with what God has said or is saying to you. The right counsel will not cancel your instructions, rather it would shed light on it and provide you the right guidance to carry it out. When God has spoken, it is “end of discussion.” Amen.
© ‘Demola Awoyele
Lead Pastor,
Destiny Impact Church
Akure, Nigeria