“But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”
~Matthew 10:19-20 (NIV).
Sometimes we plan what we’ll say too much. At times we enter meetings with our tactics already carefully prepared for clinical execution; this is not always the best approach.
And although most meetings don’t resemble the process of arrest, there are certain similarities where the above wisdom of Jesus’ applies.
Recently, I met with a person who had had an encounter at work where they were asked a question regarding the status of a project. At the very point the question was asked they needed to go to the toilet. As they reflected there they thought about how they should respond.
But a strange thing then happened...
They immediately felt the tug of the Holy Spirit pointing them to this passage above.
The message was clear: “Prepare not—trust your instinct, the instinct that I will give you,” came the clear and affirming direction from God.
Planning Too Much?
Sometimes we can undermine or subvert the Spiritual instinct we could otherwise get from God—the flesh intervening—in our overweening, or at times short-sighted, plans.
This is not to say we shouldn’t plan. Failing to plan, as we know, is planning to fail.
It’s just about knowing when our planning is done; when we’ve extracted as much of God’s wisdom in our preparation as we reasonably can. At these other times we can leave the moment in God’s hands. We do this so we can be more aware of and awake to the movement of his Spirit.
Trusting God in our Moments
So, if we’ve had the sufficient forethought and done our planning prior to the execution of our meetings, decisions, presentations and deliberations why would we not want to leave the rest to God in faith?
This is to arrive ‘for duty’ with a freshly conscious mind that is prepared to be ‘present’ with others, listening, and godly aware—particularly for God-spoken changes to the plan, if not to appear keenly interested, which is God’s will for us in all our interactions.
When we arrive clear of mental encumbrances we’re so much freer to hear God’s silent will in the mix of everything else colluding and competing for our attention.
How the Meeting Finished
After this person above arrived back at the table, ready to answer the other person’s questions, they were confidently free for this other person to ask them about the project their way.
They were free also to ‘hear’ what information the other person wanted and, even more specifically, how they wanted it.
© 2010 S. J. Wickham.
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