Directing His prophets

King David has been thinking: It doesn't seem right that he should live in an opulent palace while the ark of the covenant sits in a tent. He shares his sentiments with Nathan the prophet, who is tracking with him and replies: "Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you" (1 Chronicles 17:2).

"But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, 'Go and tell my servant David, "Thus says the Lord: It is not you who will build me a house to dwell in"'" (vv. 3-4).

God has his reasons for vetoing David's thoughtful idea, but that is not what interests me at the moment. Rather, two things strike me: the confidence with which Nathan first tells David to go ahead with his brainstorm and the lack of a scolding with which God redirects Nathan.

One's first impulse is to be critical of Nathan for not inquiring of God, or for "running ahead of God," as they say. But anyone can see from God's handling of the matter that this is likely not the case. My sense is that Nathan is in such daily communion with God that he walks in a groove with the Almighty that allows him to move confidently in this dance, because he has learned to know God's heart. Nathan lives out of the verse: "Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, 'This is the way, walk in it'" (Isaiah 30:21).

All this would be merely a mildly interesting historical footnote for me except that I believe that in an analogous way, this way of life is available to all of us: "If we live by the Spirit, let us walk by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25). To be clear, I have seen that as we draw close to God and He draws close to us (James 4:8), and as we learn his heart, we can operate in the Spirit with a certain confidence and even creativity, not being crippled by some false and paralyzing notion of 100 percent certainty required to make a move. Who will move anywhere if he's waiting for that 100 percent? The mind of man isn't made that way.

"Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you" (Philippians 3:15).

To hear commentaries by Andrée Seu, click here.