Pleasing God? Or Man?

"If we are going to serve Him, if we are going to be His priests, we have got to put the sword to every single relationship that would cause us to compromise our calling and our obedience to Him. So many of the relationships that cause us to compromise, have to be cut." - Rick Joyner (The Prophetic Gifts)

          I have seen it time and time again in the last months where very gifted people in the army of God are shamed into silence.  I have met amazing people with a gift for prayer, speaking in tongue and/or healing, who are on fire, but smother it because of the judgment of those around them.  I am so thankful that when God really started speaking to me, Dave made it clear that we can't understand every one's walk or why God is doing certain things with certain people and not others.  This was a relief to a person who questioned her own sanity. 
     Sometimes it's jealousy and other times it may be fear.  There is so much imitation out there by Satan that most of us fear stepping into the dark side.  It is so important to hear God's voice.  It's also very important to have friends around you who hear Him and He can speak to you through.  This is a day for discernment.  In fact the very first time I asked God to speak to me in a dream and He did, it was only one single audio statement, "Pray for discernment."  The reason I knew it was the Lord, was because I wasn't even sure what that word meant and I'm sure the enemy wouldn't mind if we had none.
     I hear God in different ways and I am learning to tune into His voice and those different ways.  He has spoken to me in ways that I have yet to find another has experienced.  The Holy Spirit affects me with His presence in different ways than those around me.  At first I was not sure it was Him, but now I have more compassion and understanding for others who are affected differently than me.  We have to choose who we serve.
    We can listen to those who are critical, jealous and scared and quench our spirit, but then we are serving man.  We can serve the Lord and use the gifts He has given us humbly and allow the Spirit to come alive.  It's through obedience and conversation with God that our relationship with Him grows.  The bible speaks about how and when we are to use these gifts for example we are not to speak in tongues any time the Spirit is on us, we have to respect others in our church.  We are not always called to speak out prophetic words given to us.  But it is the direction from the Holy Spirit we follow, not the fear of man.  If the Holy Spirit, for example, directs us to approach a stranger and ask them if they know Jesus and we let the fear of that person's reaction stop us, we are serving man and through that we are serving the enemy.  He does not want us stepping out boldly.  If we are afraid of scaring people away all the time, how will we reach them?  It's Jesus in us, courage and strength in Him that attracts the unbelievers and the backsliders. 
     We have a choice to make.  In Exodus 32 Aaron serves man when he gives in and creates an idol for them, while Moses continues to serve God and demands they make a choice.  Courage is contagious and I have seen in the people around me, when they decide to ignore the judgment of others and follow Jesus with everything in them, others follow.  We are called to serve God by bringing man to know Him, not serve man by changing who Christ is to us.  We are to intercede for man, not concede to man.

Exodus 32

New International Version (NIV)

The Golden Calf

32 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods^[a] who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

² Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” ³ So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. ⁴ He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods,^[b] Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
⁵ When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” ⁶ So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.
⁷ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. ⁸ They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
⁹ “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. ¹⁰ Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
¹¹ But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? ¹² Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. ¹³ Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” ¹⁴ Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.
¹⁵ Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. ¹⁶ The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
¹⁷ When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “There is the sound of war in the camp.”
¹⁸ Moses replied:

“It is not the sound of victory,
    it is not the sound of defeat;
    it is the sound of singing that I hear.”

¹⁹ When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. ²⁰ And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.

²¹ He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”
²² “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. ²³ They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ ²⁴ So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”
²⁵ Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies. ²⁶ So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.” And all the Levites rallied to him.
²⁷ Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’” ²⁸ The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. ²⁹ Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the Lord today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”
³⁰ The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”
³¹ So Moses went back to the Lord and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. ³² But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”
³³ The Lord replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. ³⁴ Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”
³⁵ And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.