"...out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks"
Matthew 12:34
You speak, and speak and speak — "I, I, I, me, my experience, my baseless opinion" — and others can see your heart. Or at least that's what Jesus says.
Dan
It has nothing to do with smarts. And you know it. Paul instructed all to seek to prophecy. Joel insists that youth and old will have dreams and visions. Those are God's orders, not mine. The most I can do is try to be cooperative and not get in the way overmuch.
"...out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" Matthew 12:34 You speak, and speak and speak — "I, I, I, me, my experience,
I find that I speak most authentically when I speak from my own experience. Speaking from someone elses may be fitting at times but it's much more kosher, truer if I speak from my own--far less distortion. You can twist that fact and dinegrate it as much as you wish. God knows very, very keenly who's on the throne of my heart. He knows exceedingly keenly the fiery furnaces He's brought me through toward conforming me to His image. I can't be overly responsible for your blindness.
my baseless opinion"
Baseless opinion? Interesting choise of word. There have been plenty of bases for my statements for anyone with heart and ears to hear. God knows that. I'm sorry you don't.
— and others can see your heart. Or at least that's what Jesus says.
Regardless of my efforts at cooperating with His conforming my heart to His; replacing it with His--I still fall far short. You are well able to see my short-comings. I don't hide them under the rug.
I would prefer to be a gentle, winsome sort with great gems of wisdom falling off of every syllable and 0% offense. Alas, I seem to have been made much more in the mold of fiesty Jeremiah or Paul or Peter. And when I've complained about such aspects of my nature, God has persistently said that He made me uniquely such a bird of rare plummage for His own purposes--to shut up and get on down the road about His business . . . that He delighted/s in me as He made me and even as I am at this imperfect level of maturity. I've found it better not to argue with Him when He speaks so sternly.
And if I stopped to squeeze every shred of possible offense out of every word for any possible reader, I'd never write anything. . . and God wouldn't have a chance to use anything I'd written. As it is, it seems to be His good pleasure to take my very flawed efforts and do His wonders with them. Always amazes me and humbles me.