The snake slithered up to Eve and hissed. 

“Did God really say you can’t eat from that tree?”  

Suddenly in one small twisted well calculated conversation, what she knew God had said just a few minutes earlier,  she was doubting.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t so crystal clear.    Did he really mean that?  Did he really NOT want her to grab that fruit off the tree right in the middle of the garden – to know between good and evil? That request didn’t really make sense did it?  Maybe she misunderstood it all along.  In the euphoria of walking with God and experiencing all that there was to experience in the holy garden, maybe he really didn’t mean that after all.  Maybe she had gotten it completely wrong. Her mind became fuzzy and her will even fuzzier. Instead of waiting until God came back to take a walk with her amongst the wild flowers so that she could confirm with him,  the temptation to have that one thing that she could not overtook the logic of the moment.  She took it and her life was forever changed.   She doubted what God had said because she had listened to the devious whispers of Satan.  

I thought of that this evening as I struggled with the hissing in my own ear.  

 We have all been there.  God has told you something you knew was true.  You knew the meaning when he told you.  You knew exactly what he was telling you – there was not a doubt.  There was no fuzziness.  Then come along the soul bullies and they start whispering their doubts.  They start sowing seeds of disbelief and disrespect.  And suddenly you can’t hear him anymore.  Quite honestly,  what he said doesn’t seem so clear anymore.  When you think about it,  you just don’t even know what he said.  And you want to give up.  You want to throw in the towel.  You want to do that thing that he told you not to do or you don’t want to do that thing he told you to do.  You doubt the promises that God gave you to hang onto.  Your thoughts get so muddled and nothing quite seems clear anymore.   

What do you do when the thoughts in your head become unclear? 

1.———- You go back.  There was a time in your life when you absolutely knew what to do.  You absolutely knew what was required of you.  You knew without a doubt the next steps or the current ones.  When life gets mixed in and other people’s thoughts and opinions and things start going haywire,  its easy to forget.  It’s easy to get confused and wonder which voice to listen to.  But go back.  Go back to the time that you knew.  Write it down.  Or talk to a friend.  Let them know what God told you so that it is cemented it in your spirit.  Then it’s not so easy to lose .

2. ————-Find a quiet time and a quiet space.  Preferably alone.  And wrestle it out with God.  Ask God to confirm it with you if you need to.  

I have known since I was a young girl that I was going to write.   I talked about it all the time.  I told all of my family and friends since age 7 that I was going to be an author.  I drove them nuts talking about it.  But one day as an adult before I had written any books,  I started to doubt what God had so clearly told me many years prior.  I was shopping at a store just having some alone time and kind of wrestling through this thing when I had asked God to confirm this whole writing thing.   I was looking at jewelry at the time.  I looked down at a ring that looked especially pretty and picked it up because I saw that there were words on it.   I read the words,  “The world is waiting to hear your story.”    I gasped and promptly bought the ring.  How clear could that be?

He doesn’t always confirm it that way – so blatantly.  Sometimes through peace or through nature or another person.  He will confirm it in your spirit and you will be free when you decide to follow what he wants you to do.

3.—————Find some scriptures that you can hang onto.   Write them out and tape them to your mirror, your wall, put them in your bible.  Wherever that you will see them often.   Allow your heart to grab ahold of what the Lord says – this is what he wants you to do.   This is the path you need to walk.  

Don’t listen to other voices.  Don’t turn to the right or the left.  Walk straight ahead and into the destiny that God has designed for you.  

4.———————-. Forge a deep friendship with God.  Don’t forget to spend time with him; talk with him; let him talk with you. Know the heart of God enough that when Satan comes and hisses in your ear,  you can answer him,  “Get out of here.  Yes,  that’s exactly what he said.”    You don’t need to listen to the father of lies.   You don’t need to get caught up in what he says or the arrows of doubt that come flying your way.   You’ve spent enough time with the Lord that you know the answer.   You can see it clearly.  

What God says to you and I about promises to hang onto, about destinies to look forward to, about personal issues, are wildly different. We are all unique individuals at different places in our journey.  What Satan says as he spews lies in our ear is pretty much the same thing. “Did God really say…?

Wherever you are today, this is what I want to say to you. When . you feel the dark clouds of doubt begin to hover over the eyes of your soul, turn the other way and stare truth straight in the face.