Here's another place you can seek wisdom. You seek wisdom from wise people. Now there's lots of foolish people, don't seek wisdom from foolish people. [Laughs] Seek wisdom from wise people; so if someone has got a track record of failure in their life, that is not the person to seek wisdom from. You want the person that's got some success track in their life. I'm surprised how easily people are seduced by nice words that people have, and how they don't actually stop to see what is the fruit in that person's life. If a person has failed in their finances, and has nothing, they've failed in their marriage, failed in their relationships, and they've got a track record that things are not working out; that's not the person I want to ask: what do you reckon I should do. [Laughs] You're going to get a bad reply - well I think... Well I don't really want to know what you think. I really want to have someone, who actually has done the track record of wisdom. Now someone's - their marriage broke down, they've gone through all the difficulties and pain. Now they've rebuilt and they've got a great marriage, probably a person like that will have a lot of experience that they'll be able to bring to bear. Go to people that have got a track record. We've got some people that have got great track records, but often they're the last ones to be sought out when it comes to getting advice. I'm amazed how people seek the wrong people. You seek a friend who's on drugs, you're going to end up down the same route they are. You've got to think it through. Now not all people that are wise, are Christians. I think there's a lot of people who've gained great wisdom, that are not Christians. I think there's a lot of people that have got some good experience and wisdom to bring to bear; but seek someone, who can give good advice. You say: well why would I do that? Because sometimes God wants to talk to you through people.
Here's a question you could ask: has God already been talking to me through someone, and I just didn't even recognise it? You see, we all want to just have the hotline with God, and I believe we should all hear directly from God; but there are times when God will speak through another person, and the reason He'll speak through another person is two-fold: one, you're not listening to Him directly, because you've got your agenda; and two, because this person now gives you a chance to deal with your pride in your heart, whether you'll receive from a person or not. I get people say: it's just me and God, and I'm hearing all this from God. Well okay, who are the people that you run your wisdom by? Who's speaking into your life, that will actually have the right to be able to talk, and give you some practical wisdom? One of the things we've been able to build in the oversight team, is the ability to speak into one another's life, very openly, very freely; but it starts when you are willing to do that.
Think about this: when Jesus came, His own town didn't receive Him; because they said: that's just a carpenter's son. Who's He? Doesn't know anything. You understand, you can miss God speaking into your life, when someone who's a person in the flesh, says something you don't like, in a way you don't like; but it may still be God. I had to learn early in my Christian walk, that sometimes the way people presented things to me was pretty appalling; but it didn't mean there wasn't some truth in it, I needed to hear; and it's very easy to get offended when God's trying to talk to you through a person, by the vessel, and miss the message that God's trying to speak to you. How many of you can think of an experience, where you've turned away from someone speaking to you, it turns out that was really God trying to get a hold of you? There'd be heaps of us like that.