At the ripe old age of 14, I read a book about a man named Keith Green. He was a Christian musician who challenged the status quo, spoke the truth and impacted millions of lives. I wanted to be just like him. I felt like I had heard the word of the Lord and began to pursue a career in music. I traveled all over the world as a musician and singer to some modest success. But year after year, my career did not take off like I thought it would. I kept forging ahead, believing things would change. But it didn’t. I started to feel like a failure. In my mid-30s, I hit a point of crisis in my life. All of a sudden, I didn’t know how to reconcile my current situation with what I thought my life should look like.
God, I thought you told me to become a great musician and singer and prophetic voice to my generation? I thought my destiny was to be the next Keith Green? What happened? Did I miss it somewhere?
I knew who God was, but I was struggling to hear His voice. I realized that I had become so attached to what I had heard in the past that it had become an idol in my life. In fact, I was scared to listen to what He was saying because it would probably mean I had to lay down the dreams I had spent 20 years of my life chasing.
I had made the dream of being a world-changing musician an idol. In doing so, I had stopped asking the Lord what he was currently saying. God may have spoken to me all those years ago, but now He was speaking again and I needed to hear his present voice. God may have used the dream of being a rock star to get me moving up the mountain, but now he wanted to give me a new word for a new season.
I wonder how many times we have missed what God was doing in the present because we got so attached to what He had said in the past. How many times have we actually made an idol out of an idea that was only ever meant to get us moving in a particular direction?
Often, the word of the Lord comes to us to get us moving in a certain direction. But, if we are not careful, we will attach ourselves to the previous word and not the present voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to us. When that happens, we are in danger of doing something that could be damaging to our future.
Am I actually present enough in the moment to ask the question—what are you saying now? Do I have spiritual ears to hear His voice in the present or is my life so full of noise that I can’t hear anything?
Ben Woodward is a worship leader, speaker, author and songwriter from Australia. As you will find out by reading his book You Shall Know the Truth, he is passionate about helping people discover Jesus through worship and prayer. He lives in Kansas City with his wife, Kathryn, and three children, Eliana, Cohen and Paisley.
