God Laid It On My Heart: How Do I Know For Sure? - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Nehemiah 7:4-5a,

"Now the city [Jerusalem] was large and spacious, but there were few people in it, and the houses had not yet been rebuilt. So my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles, the officials and the common people for registration by families."

Nehemiah tells us that God had put in his heart to register the people in Jerusalem. He doesn't provide us any detail on just how the Lord did put it in his heart, but just that he did. His impulse then, to register the people did not originate with him but was direction he received from the Lord.

I focus on this a bit because over the years I have heard all manner of stories people have given me over how the Lord had put in their hearts to do one thing or another. It has caused me from time to time to wonder how a person knows for sure which impulse was from the Lord or not.

The question arises for me because some of the accounts of "the Lord laid it on my heart", or "the Lord told me", or "the Lord is leading me to..." could not possibly have come from the Lord as the thing being promoted was clearly antithetical to what we are taught in the Scriptures. Such things as, "The Lord told me to leave my spouse..." or "the Lord told me to quit my job..." (when the person saying it has a history of being shiftless), those kinds of things. I'm sure you have heard stories where you were told the Lord was leading someone to do this or that and it left you scratching your head with the uneasy feeling of, "Really?..."

Clearly many have used the ploy of invoking "the Lord's direction" in a personal matter that relieves the teller of any need to defend a poor decision. However, here in Nehemiah's account, the Lord did lay something on his heart. He doesn't say the Lord spoke to him (as he might to a prophet), but simply that God "put it in my heart".

There are a number of accounts in the Scriptures where the Lord intervened and non-verbally moved someone in a certain direction and I can not see any reason to believe the Lord does not continue to do so today.

However, to insure we are not fooling ourselves, it seems to me the burden of proof the Lord is laying something on someone's heart rests with the Scriptures. "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." 1 Timothy 3:16-17. If the thing comports with the Scriptures, that is one thing. If it appears to violate what is taught in Scripture, that is something else.

While this thought clearly falls short of knowing beyond a doubt the Lord is leading us in a certain direction, it can be very helpful in weeding out some of those impulses that we might otherwise be fooled by.

This sure makes a case for those of us who wish to be directed by God to become intimately acquainted with the Scriptures, doesn't it?

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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