Check the Book
To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. (Isaiah 8:20)
Whatever comes to you, whatever Word is spoken over you, whatever you think you heard in prayer or felt in your spirit, take it to the Word first. If it does not line up with Scripture, there is no light in it. God will never tell you something that contradicts what He has already written. He will not lead you by His Spirit in one direction and then have His Word point in another. The Spirit and the Word always agree because they come from the same source. So when something presents itself as direction from God and does not match what the Bible says, the conclusion is not that you have a special exception or a unique situation Scripture did not account for. You heard wrong, or what you heard wasn’t from God.
Some people have made life-altering decisions based on what they claimed was a Word from God, and they never checked the Scripture about it. They convinced themselves that God was okay with it. This is why many people live in a fog about God’s will. You need to check everything against Scripture. The Word confirms what the Spirit says. The renewed mind can receive what the Spirit and the Word are both pointing to. They are not separate tracks. They are one road.
God will not give you a word that violates His own law to accommodate your preference or situation. Anything that requires you to set aside what the Bible plainly says in order to follow it is not from God. Always check it against the Book. If it lines up, move forward in faith. If it does not, let it go, no matter how convincing it felt in the moment.
Practical Application
Think of something you are currently believing God for or sensing as direction. Open the Word and find the Scriptures that confirm or directly address it. Do not move forward on any significant decision without being able to point to the chapter and verse that support the direction. Make the Word your first stop and your last check.
Galatians 1:8; 2 Timothy 3:16
