subject: Am I Getting False Positives From Prayer? [print this page] The Question: The Question:
I received a question the other day from a reader. Hes been working on an important project he feels God has led him to work on and he indicated that he had several business dealings, both with companies and people, which have failed. As he puts it, It seems all 9 were fakes. The latest one (the 9th one) seems to be flaking out now. However, with each of these ventures, he spent a lot of time in prayer and had others praying for him before he decided to engage with these people and companies. So, his question is, Why, if we are praying and several others surround us all were blanketing us in prayer, are we in the same place yet again? No progress and no discernment that told us not to bother with another dead end.
Thats a great question. Why would God either lead you down a path or not warn you away from that path and then that path lead to failure?
The Answer:
First, let me say that when it comes to directive guidance, I also get a LOT of false positives.
Its not a guarantee.
It seems like the Lord always wants us to have faith and believe, as that opens up the way for the miracle of His perfect will being released into the situation. However, at the same time, this is not a guarantee of the miracle or the solution happening. It is just that by us walking forward in faith (believing, speaking and acting in faith), it gives others the maximum opportunity to cooperate with God on the project by fully releasing the convicting power of the Holy Spirit into the situation. And yet God will never force them to do the right thing. He is just maximizing the opportunity for them to do the right thing by having you stand, speak and act in faith.
With that in mind, I dont know that we can say that that this readers earlier leadings were necessarily wrong. It may well be that God was creating an opportunity for someone (even the people the reader was dealing with), and they chose not to properly seize that opportunity.
Your desired result may not be His desired result.
We must also remember that our faith is not in God doing a specific thing in the way we want at the time we want. Instead, our faith is in a God of Love who is working everything out for our good as we trust and obey Him. Ive gotten similar questions from students of CLUs online Christian colleges when things they were working on wasnt going the way they through it should. I think our attitude of steadfast faith is more important to Him than the circumstances we are walking through.
So, as you seek Gods Will in your life and ask for direction, follow His direction, but dont place your faith in specific results that you have decided would be the best outcome. God may be doing other work through the situation that you are not even aware of and it may be that your desired outcome is not the best outcome for all those involved. Only God, who knows the hearts and minds of all those involved and who can see how events affect the future, can know what is best. We must place our Faith in God and rest in the knowledge that He will, indeed, work all things for good as we trust and obey Him
