“It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.” – Psalms 118:8
Recommended Reading:
Psalms 118:8
Soon after God saved me, and called me to preach, I found myself falling into the trap of seeking the opinion of certain men before seeking the Lord and what HIS will for my life was. Men’s opinions and thoughts became the “Litmus test” as to whether something was God’s will or not. I soon found out, that the men I was putting all of my confidence in, had slowly become idols that had replaced the Holy Spirits’ guidance in my life. I was literally robbing God of His glory, and giving it to men.
Additionally, these men, that had been labeled as modern-day Elijah’s, who had the ability to discern on levels not ever seen by our generation, soon began to show that they didn’t know as much about the Holy Ghost as we all had been led to believe.
I began to see men, I had put so much confidence in, prove their inability to discern right from wrong. I saw these same men, build up other men for their level of spirituality and walk with the Lord, only to find out these same men had been having affairs for years and covering it up.
I saw men, who preached on sin and the need to live Holy, feed their appetite for gossip at the dinner table by slaughtering innocent lives with their tongues and having no regard for the damage they were causing. These same men stand week after week with the facade of being used by God in supernatural ways, all while they live in carnality off the stage and label it as, “Living life” to the fullest.
I am learning every day that we don’t know as much about the Holy Ghost as we claim to know. Dr. Sammy Allen said this very thing years ago, about an evangelist he had put confidence in. This evangelist had won the hearts of thousands of people and began to be labeled as the greatest man of God since Billy Sunday. Only to find out, during this entire time, he was running a prostitute ring in the basement of his home. How could this be? How could a man so many looked up to as a spiritual leader, end up being a phony and a fake? It’s because we don’t know as much about the Holy Ghost as we think we do.
The biggest lie spoken day after day from our pulpits and pews is, “God told me!” I’m convinced 90% of what we say God told us is merely our own made-up, self-conceiving ideas that we convince ourselves came from the Lord.
Our text today is very clear. It’s better to trust the Lord than to put confidence in man. We are all weak, frail, human beings, that fail daily. If you place your stock and confidence in someone that is made up of the same dirt you are, you are going to be sorely disappointed. That is why we must TRUST THE LORD with ALL of our hearts, and lean not unto our OWN UNDERSTANDING. We must trust HIM in everything and He will direct our paths!