A Message Came And I Do Not Know If It Is Real

It came this morning and it is still there.

You have read it four times. You have looked at it in different lights. And you are no closer than you were at the first reading, and the not knowing has begun to sit in your chest rather than in your head.

Let me start where nobody starts, which is with the honest thing.

You cannot tell. And neither can I, and I have not seen it, and I am not going to pretend from a distance that I could.

There is a whole industry of people who will tell you what to look for. Nine signs. Six things to check. The list is always slightly different and it is always longer than the last one, and every item on it is one more thing to be afraid of.

I am not going to give you a list, because a list would leave you examining everything for the rest of your life, and a person who is afraid of their own phone has been done harm rather than helped.

What I am going to give you is one rule that does not require you to judge anything at all.

He that hasteth with his feet sinneth

There is a proverb about hurrying that is more useful than most people notice.

Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth. (Proverbs 19:2, King James Version)

Two halves, and they belong together. Not knowing is not good. And moving fast without knowing is worse.

The verse does not tell anybody to acquire knowledge they do not have. It tells them what to do with their feet while they do not have it.

You are being told what to do with your feet rather than what to know, and no proverb has ever once demanded knowledge from somebody who did not have any. Proverbs 19:2 says he that hasteth with his feet sinneth, and the Holy Spirit is the one who makes that practical for somebody holding a message they cannot call.

Now notice how ordinary the image is. Feet. Not judgment, not discernment, not wisdom. The part of a person that moves.

The verse locates the problem in the movement rather than in the understanding, which is why it is usable by anybody at all.

You have been handed something you can actually do, and no instruction about feet has ever once required anybody to become an expert first. The Holy Spirit is the one who gives a person something available rather than something admirable, and it is written that the hastening rather than the not knowing is what goes wrong.

And notice the order in the sentence. The not knowing comes first, and it is described as not good, and then the hurrying is what is actually named as the fault.

Not knowing is treated as an ordinary condition. It is not the crime. It is the weather.

You were never at fault for not knowing, and no proverb anywhere has ever once laid the blame at the feet of the person who could not tell. The Spirit of God is the one who leaves an ordinary condition ordinary, and Scripture puts the fault on the speed rather than on the ignorance.

One rule instead of nine

Now let me be concrete, because a general reassurance will not settle a message that is still sitting there.

Here is the rule, and it is the whole of it. Nothing gets acted on in the same hour it arrives.

Not answered. Not clicked. Not replied to. Not paid. Not confirmed. Nothing, for one hour, minimum, and overnight if it can wait that long.

That is the entire defense and it does not ask you to spot anything.

You have one rule that covers every message that will ever come, and no single rule has ever once needed to be a checklist in order to work. The Spirit of God is the one who hands a person something small enough to keep, and Proverbs 19:2 puts the answer in the feet rather than in the knowing.

And here is why it works, and it is worth understanding rather than only obeying.

Everything of that kind depends on speed. Every single one. The whole method is built to close the gap between reading and acting, because that gap is where a person thinks, and remembers something, and mentions it to somebody in the next room.

An hour reopens the gap. And nothing legitimate in this world has ever needed to be done inside one.

You are reopening the one thing that everything of that kind is built to close, and no honest matter has ever once required action within the hour. The written word puts the fault on the hastening, and the Holy Spirit is the one who lets a small rule do the work that a long list never could.

Decide it before you need it

Now the small thing, and it is a decision made today rather than a judgment made later.

I am not going to ask you to decide about the message that is sitting there. Decide about the rule instead, and the message will take care of itself.

Decide now that nothing gets acted on the same hour it arrives.

You are able to make one decision on a quiet morning, and a rule decided in advance has never once had to be worked out under pressure. Proverbs 19:2 puts the hurrying at the center of what goes wrong, and the Holy Spirit is the one present while somebody decides something before they need it.

Decide it out loud, today, while nothing is happening.

That timing is the whole of it. A rule made in a calm kitchen is available on the bad afternoon. A rule you try to construct while your heart is going is not available at all, because everything about that moment is arranged to prevent thinking.

And notice what the rule does to the message that is sitting there right now. It answers it. Not by telling you whether it is real, but by telling you what to do, which is nothing, for now.

You are answering today's message without having to judge it, and no rule about waiting has ever once required anybody to work out what a thing is. The Spirit of God is the one who supplies an answer that does not depend on being clever, and it is written that the trouble was always in the feet.