How I Am Inspired To Write Each Word-of-the-Day…

Word-of-the-Day: ‘(20) Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. (21) For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.’ (1 Peter 1:21)

I sometimes get the question (and more often I ask myself) how I get the inspiration to write the Word-of-the-Day messages, the Bible study lessons for Life Group, and the occasional sermon notes that I am blessed and privileged to provide.  As much as I would like to say all those words flow easily from me, the fact of the matter is, they don’t. 

Now all the words I write down and speak do come from my thoughts, in putting them from the brain onto paper (or in the more modern perspective, into the Word document on my laptop).  I do not use ‘AI’; I will do internet searches and the ‘AI synopsis’ comes up, which I may or may not read (to be honest, the ‘AI synopses’ are mostly milquetoast in content), so I tend to pull more from articles and Scriptural references that I read for the content, and find in there the topic of discussion to base a Biblical principle onto.  (I do use AI for the picture graphic that accompanies the written message on the Word-of-the-Day blog post, and it saves time from doing internet searches, in full disclosure on that.)

But my thoughts aren’t always as clear as my writings lead on.  It is more often my words (and my typing fingers, which really need professional proofreading at times) are led by what the Holy Spirit lays upon me in thought, and leads me to type out what I write.  I find a Scriptural reference that then starts my thoughts down the path of inspiration to provide a message that I pray is helpful and impactful to you, the reader (and the listener, as I just got a call on Sunday’s sermon from one of our fellow congregants providing me affirmation and encouragement of the message). 

On occasion, I get affirmation from those who do find the Word-of-the-Day encouraging, and I am blessed to find it provides such encouragement to folks in our southwest Florida confines, all the way out west in Arizona, where a posting encouraged an author to write an excellent short novel on the Spirit’s guidance.  It is great to hear these words of affirmation, but in full disclosure, it is not really me who creates and develops these thoughts, it is the Holy Spirit.

1 Peter 1:21, the Apostle Peter’s first epistle (or letter) focused more on the Messianic Jews of his day, and speaks of prophecy; in Jewish culture, especially as we find in the Old Testament, the prophet was often somebody who was respected (but sometimes shunned and even rejected, like Jeremiah when he was tossed in the muddy cistern) for providing God’s message to the individual (Nathan when he told David of his sin in having adultery with Bathsheba) or to the people of Israel (Isaiah, especially in the first 38 chapters of his book.)

The prophet would be given one of two prophecies by God to provide.  The first type of prophecy was a direct message, usually instructions to tell the people what to do.  Most of the Old Testament has God giving ‘if/then statements’ to Israel via the prophets, ‘If you do this in obedience, then you will receive blessings; but if you don’t do this, then you will receive woes.’  These prophecies of instruction gave the people something to follow, and when they obeyed the instructions to great degree, God blessing them in great degree.  When they swayed off His instructions and did their own thing, God’s hand was taken off of them and they fell into despair (and usually disrepair).

The second type of prophecy was premonition, or a snapshot of the future.  The second half of Isaiah has the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah, for example; Jesus’ birth was about seven hundred years after the writings of Isaiah 53.  The New Testament also has premonition prophecies, with the main example being Revelation, when John ‘Zebedee’, exiled on the island of Patmos, was given the premonition of the End Times, of the Tribulation period, the Final Judgement, and the glorious rebirth and melding of the New Heaven and Earth and Jesus’ eternal reign as King.  Today, some people receive such premonitions of the future from God, though not in as great of detail and sometimes only of near-future events.

It would be difficult to state those who get such near-future or generalized premonitions today as ‘prophets’ (I would never categorize myself as one), but it is the Holy Spirit who is giving these insights to them.  It is also in this line of thought that the Holy Spirit gives sermons and lessons to His people, including myself.  These thoughts that when given (as I’m doing right now) are written down and presented.  I often feel a sense of doubt on occasion, but then I usually get affirmation, often through the response of others, or when others share a similar message. 

The sermon I was privileged to share last Sunday on Fishers of Men, for example, to challenge and encourage fellow Believers to go and perform the Great Commission work of witnessing the Gospel message, was reinforced afterwards with several people sending recent articles and videos (including one rather hilarious but accurate take) with similar messages; the same Holy Spirit convicting me upon the message to give is the same Holy Spirit convicting others to share the message about at the same time. 

It also happened to me years ago, in 2019, prior to COVID, when I was given a message to share on preparedness, that the secular worldview and ‘DEI/wokeness’ was about to make a leap in the global society.  I first shared this message to my Life Group, and then our Pastor shared he had the same premonition, and within that week a pastor and author on the Christian Worldview came out with a message and was set up to come to our church to share his insights on the ‘secular worldview’.  Other media also came out with similar messaging at or around the same time, without the need to search for it, it became available.

My words are not my own, especially when it is about our Lord, but His.  I always state to ‘trust but verify’ all that I write or say against the Word, but I am confident that the Lord will not stray from the message that He has already given as He is never changing – the Word is the Word; the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  It is not just a gift for me, or a select few, but all those who are saved and have the Holy Spirit; it is getting tuned into what the Holy Spirit is saying to you and leading you upon.  May His Words continue to flow, if not through me then through others – and may they never stop flowing.