The Yay’s and the Nay’s have it! Or do they?
In spite of what people may say God has gifted each one of us with gifts to be able to do our jobs. Our jobs consist of how we make our daily income as to not starve to death. We have what the world will call natural talents but we Christians know that these gifts are from God and are for His glory to do His good works. We get excited because we will be able to use them for the good of the Kingdom. When you attempt to activate these gifts inside the Body of Christ we will come across the nay’s and the yay’s in spite of what the Father has told us to do. Should you listen? Yes! Should you obey? Now that is another story all together!
The nay’s are the hardest to ignore. They are persistent and loud. They come from people who love you and people who hate you. They come from those who want to be you and those who just want you to go away! The goal of the nay is to stop you in your tracks – not to redirect you or help you – just to stop you! Stopping you could also mean many different things. It could be because they have a belief system that is built on false precepts and you are challenging those precepts. It could be that you ‘going’ might mean where they are in their eyes isn’t good enough. It could be that they actually have a good misguided heart and don’t want you to be hurt. The problem with each one of these is they are disobedient to the plans of the Father. Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 16:23 get behind me Satan. You are a stumbling block to Me! Peter was concerned about the things of men rather than of the thing of God. I am convinced there is a lot of people just like that. They set out to be stumbling blocks to people because they are not dealing well with their own stumbling blocks. It may be their thought processes, their beliefs or they just might be full of spite from their own lack of success! None of this is our problem unless they are successful at stopping us! I think we should listen but with our Spirit to discern the truth! I say, get behind me Satan. You are a stumbling block to God and to me. Then I will put the things of God on my mind and keep moving even if I am scared!
The yay sayers may very well be hard to ignore as well! How many times do we need to be patted on the back for a job well done before we become prideful and expect the pat? Sometimes the yay’s are for us to participate in something ‘not’ in the plan of God for us. Quite often this is the case and it keeps us from doing what we are suposed to do. We spend a lot of time doing stuff that doesn’t please God and ironically enough, doesn’t even please us. We clean when we hate cleaning, we take care of kids when we hate it, we lead but are not gifted for it, we preach but are not called to do it. There is just so much we do that doesn’t give glory to God because He has not asked us to go man has and we don’t have the words or the guts to say no. Every now and then we need to do stuff that is not appealing to us but the majority of the time we need to do what God has called us and gifted us to do. God does not gift you to be a door matt He gifts you to empower the Body of Christ. We cannot do that if we are not joyful in our work. Jesus said in Luke 9:24 that if you lose your life you shall live. Losing your life means dropping your own selfish plans and standing behind God’s plan for you even against other Christians who are not willing to lose their lives. All of God’s work is good but not all of it is beneficial to us or the Body of Christ when we are doing it. We need to listen with our Spirit for direction and do what we are told.
The nay’s and the yay’s can be considered but should never be held up before God’s plan for us. He may very well have sent those folks to us to test our faith or to actually get us to stop doing something He never told us to do nor gifted us to do. We need to know our Father so that we can tell the difference between a nay for men or for God and the yay from men or from God. Our lack of knowledge of the Father will always put us in a tricky position discovering what is of God and what is of men. We will be thrown to and fro if we don’t make sure that what we are doing is of God. For us to be successful at doing the will of God we need to put the nayers and the yayers behind us and God in front of us. As long as we are following God we will do exactly what He wants and not worry about what man wants from us.
