Before We Answer

What do we do when someone is hurting?

• Do we listen?

• Do we pray?

• Do we cast it out?

• Do we tell them to renew their mind?

• Do we tell them to forgive?

• Do we tell them to be grateful?

• Do we tell them to put the Word on it?

How much of the way we minister comes from the Holy Spirit and how much comes from habit.

How much comes from listening and how much comes from what worked last time.

How much comes from discernment and how much comes from tradition.

How much comes from relationship and how much comes from formulas.

I am not questioning whether these things are valuable.

Prayer is valuable.

The Word is valuable.

Deliverance is valuable.

Healing is valuable.

Renewing the mind is valuable.

Forgiveness is valuable.

But what if two people can have the same symptom and need something completely different?

What if the answer is not always the same?

What if the greatest need is not my ability to identify the problem, but my willingness to listen to the Holy Spirit?

I think about a child who falls and skins their knee. Everyone has advice. Everyone has an opinion.

But the child does not know how deep the wound is.

They do not know if dirt is in it.

They do not know how to clean it.

They do not know how to bandage it.

They just know it hurts.

Honestly, there are times I feel that way too.

I know something hurts.

I know something needs attention.

I know God has the answer.

But I do not always know what I am looking at.

That is okay.

Wisdom begins there.

Not assuming.

Not diagnosing.

Not reaching for a formula.

Not needing to have an answer immediately.

Just bringing it to the Father.

Just asking the Holy Spirit for help.

Just listening.

Because the person we are ministering to can usually tell the difference.

They can tell when we are listening.

They can tell when we already decided what the answer is before we heard the story.

Maybe the question is not:

“What do I think this person needs?”

Maybe the question is:

“Holy Spirit, what are You saying?”

I find myself asking that more and more.