Sometimes there is a crucial decision to be made, and we do not see the implications, and if only we had asked somebody. I do not mean to take away people’s power of decision, but it is always a good thing to get advice if it is something crucial. I have seen people move to places, and change jobs, and do things within the family, and send their children to particular places or schools that have turned out to be disastrous for the next ten years or maybe longer, and it is such a shame, and you think, well I do not know whether I would be able to help them or not, but somebody might have done. Be careful with decisions. Perhaps this is the most useful thing: always look at the implications – Where is this likely to lead? What could arise as a result of this major decision? Truth requires diligence. We never do the first thing that comes into our heads as Christians. We pray and we think and we seek the Lord’s help and guidance.
If only people would do this in Christian movements too. Think of the beginning of Pentecostalism soon after the beginning of the 20th century when a group of well intending people saw things in the Bible in the book of Acts and thought to themselves, ‘Why are we not seeing these things today? Let us put them into practice now. Let us have these signs today.’ They were probably dear and sincere people and they meant well, but they did not understand how to read the Bible, and they did not realise that those things were for that time and for that place, for a certain purpose. And so Pentecostalism was born, and it has become so vast, worldwide today.