“You’re wrong.”

I had spent the morning working on it and was so proud of my mini thesis. I was ready to send it off to one of my pastor friends for his opinion, but before I did, I just asked the Lord what he thought. I asked Him and he said, “You’re wrong.”

Let me explain. Some time ago, after preaching a Sunday message, I began thinking about something I touched on in my message. I went over one particular point and had a new idea I hadn’t thought about in the message. The more I thought about this one idea, the more my mind seemed to fill in the blanks. I began going in a different direction on a thought. (It’s not helpful to discuss here what the point was. That would be going down a bunny trail.) I was rather excited about this new “revelation”. 

Monday morning I was still rather jazzed about this idea, so I decided to bounce it off one of my pastor friends for his feedback. I began typing him an email and soon my email was so long that I cut and pasted it into a word doc. The ideas began flowing. I began thinking of scriptures that supported my “revelation”. I added my observations and opinions from past experiences and soon the idea was becoming something, and I thought, “You’re onto something here.” I recalled a teaching from a senior church leader many years ago that reinforced my opinion. I recalled some of the teaching from this leader who spoke of theological terms I didn’t know much about, so I began googling terms and researching theological positions.  

I was energized as I considered how to get this message out to others beyond our church. “Others need to hear this,” I thought. Soon what started out as a brief email had become a 2 ½ page document that had taken up my whole morning to produce. I read it and reread it and edited it and was feeling rather chuffed about it all.

I typed up a brief email to my buddy and added the word doc as an attachment. I asked him if my theology and my observations were correct (even though I was most certain they were!) I was just about to send the email but before I did, I had this rather subtle thought, “Maybe I should ask the Lord what he thinks about this.”

So, I simply asked the Lord, “Lord, what do you think of this?”

He bluntly but gently said, “You’re wrong.”

I was a little shocked, but I knew right away this was the voice of my Father. He was not angry or disappointed or condemning, or judgmental. He simply told me I was wrong.  

A short time later I got out my journal and here is what the Lord said as a follow up:

“Your message on Sunday was good, but the rabbit trail you ran down was not a trail that I was leading you on. Though there was truth there, your conclusions were based on judgment and superiority and not in light of my love and mercy. When you walk down roads of ideas, you can walk alone or you can walk with me. I will lead you on the right path. Your own wisdom will lead you astray.” 

I retyped my email to my friend, without mention of this “revelation”. I was wrong. The conditions of my heart of judgment and superiority had set me up for error. It was an important lesson.