[QUOTE=mrstace]When I am in church, and God wants me to testify, my heart starts beating out of my chest. That's how I know.[/QUOTE]
My friend, that's not how you know God is speaking to you, that's how you know that you are operating in a spirit of intimidation! I say that not as condemnation, but simply as a fact. God does not give a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. Eventually, once you give many words from the Lord, you will feel less nervous about it, and the fast heartbeat won't happen when God tells you to speak. Therefore if you were to wait for fast heartbeat, you would never give a word from the Lord ever again.
Don't stop giving words from the Lord just because people criticize you, dear Lord that's the quickest way to let your gift go dormant. You can't lose the gift, but the gift can go dormant through intimidation, because someone made you afraid, and you allowed it, you then yield yourself to that person's authority over you, and by doing so you'll find you also can't go spiritually beyond the person who has authority over you, just like a disciple is not greater than his Lord.
So how do you know if God told you to speak the word or not? There comes a point in the life of a Christian where he simply cannot go around thinking that everything he is doing for the Lord is a sin, or that it was not God's will. If a preacher stands behind the pulpit and openly rebukes a lady in the congregation for speaking while he is ministering, that preacher had better have confidence that he heard correctly from the Lord to do that.
Confidence, that's a key to Faith. You must know that you know. Now you can take it too far, and think that you stand, "take heed lest ye fall" says the scripture. But that does not mean "do not stand", neither does it mean to not think that you stand, it just means take heed lest ye fall! If you don't stand, how shall you help anyone else to stand? You're like a crippled Christian that will never get anything done for the Lord. So how do you stand, and how do you "think that" you stand, without falling? God is able to make you stand. Don't have Faith in yourself, but have Faith in God!
John 7:18 He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him,the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.
Praise the Lord! Glory! Theres the scripture you need, and there is the promise, "no unrighteousness." Jesus said, "My words which I speak, I speak them not of my own authority." And in another place, "What I hear, I speak", and again in another place, "The Works that I do, I do not of my own authority, but of him that sent me." and again, "I do only those things which I see my Father do."
Then to sum it all up, John 20:21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. Peace! That's what you need, peace of mind to know that what you did you did for his glory, and there was no unrighteousness in you.
When you have confidence, then you can come into the throne room of God boldly and make your petitions, and walk out boldly and serve the Lord with assurance.
So do you have confidence, because you believe that you have never been wrong before? God forbid. If any man thinks he has never sinned before, he makes God a liar, and His Word is not in him. If any man thinks that he has no sin, he deceives himself, and the truth is not in him.
Or do we have confidence, because we think that there is nothing special about God: and therefore no reason at all to fear him, or to be afraid when we enter into his Holy of Holies? God forbid. For the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.
So how can we have confidence, to come boldly in, and go boldly out, seeing that the Lord is a great and terrible God, and we are dust and dung, men of unclean lips? By Faith we have confidence, knowing not only that God can keep us from falling, but also our confidence in our great High Priest, our Intercessor, sitting at his right hand, who ever liveth to make intercession for us. If we therefore say to God, "Woe is me, for I come before you in all my sin, and in all my transgression." We say then that the sacrifice of Jesus is of no effect, for it is written that he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. If we say to God, "I know you don't hear my prayer, and I know you probably don't listen to me, because of all my wrongdoings!" That's not Faith and Trust.
In the Old Covenant, we were made clean by an offering of blood of the sacrifice of an animal, which was most holy. But how much did they trust that sacrifice? They tied a rope around the high priest, so that in the event that he should die while entering into the Holy of Holies, they could drag out his limp corpse. We don't, however, have to tie a rope around us, when we enter into the Holy of Holies, not because God cannot vaporize us, and not because we have no sin, but because we have confidence in the Intercessor.
Jesus said to his Father:
John 11:42 And I knew that thou hearest me always
Glory! What confidence! Let some of it rub off on you! How much more should we, whom Jesus himself has sent, who come in the name of the Son Jesus, just as he came in the name of His Father, sent in like manor, and in every way as He was send by God, have the same confidence?
