We can too easily believe predictions that align with our predisposition or bias on a particular subject. I saw it just this week where a news commentator was predicting the outcome of the next presidential election. I’ve seen it in the predictions made concerning a child’s future success, whether a marriage would last or the direction of the housing market. Pick something, and there will be a prediction attached. This is how oddsmakers in Las Vegas stay in business.

When we allow a predisposition or bias to create a prediction about the future of a person or circumstance, we can miss hearing the voice of God because we are busy slavishly following our prediction. Once our thinking is aligned in such a way, we will gather people of like mind around us, and together focus all our energy and resources on the future outcome of our shared prediction. 

More than any time in my life, I see the need for independent thinkers – people who are willing to break away from groupthink, especially within the Church. Independent revelatory thinking is formed by revelation from the Spirit of God, not from human logic or fear about the future. Without this prophetic insight, our minds will follow the fearful herd, and together we will move blindly through life led only by natural insight. 

To make a conscious choice to not believe the predictions offered in the public square or within the halls of faith takes courage. It may cost you a relationship or a membership. It may cost you the reputation you currently have that was created within a group where you shared a common prediction. While you process your unsettled feelings about a prediction, you might even utter words to the group that will cause them concern about your loyalty to the cause,  “I don’t know. I am rethinking the issue.” Each one of us will have to make the choice of which predictive voice we will follow. Only one voice is God’s.