Triple Attestation

[aribell]

There's a principle that a pastor of mine taught me that I don't think is found explicitly in Scripture, but seems to be backed up by experience. He said that when he is attempting to discern whether something is of the Lord, he waits for 2 other confirmations of it from outside of himself, or, if the idea didn't originate in him, he considers it "confirmed" when there are 3 separate instances outside of himself that present it to him (assuming that it aligns with Scripture and he has a peace about it).

I had never thought of it before, but it surely seems to be confirmed in my life. If there is something that ends up being true, there tends to be more than one confirmation of it. It also seems safer in knowing that you are not deceiving yourself.

There's something in particular now that has been repeated to me by completely unrelated people 5 times now (I admit, I've been being stubborn with this one). But now my spirit also senses the truth of it.

Just wondering what you all think about this concept and how you tend to look for confirmation.

 

[Crown]

There's a principle that a pastor of mine taught me that I don't think is found explicitly in Scripture, but seems to be backed up by experience. He said that when he is attempting to discern whether something is of the Lord, he waits for 2 other confirmations of it from outside of himself, or, if the idea didn't originate in him, he considers it "confirmed" when there are 3 separate instances outside of himself that present it to him (assuming that it aligns with Scripture and he has a peace about it).

I think it's based on the story of Gideon.

Judges 6:17 And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me. 6:18 Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee. And he said, I will tarry until thou come again.

6:36 And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, 6:37 Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. 6:38 And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.

6:39 And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. 6:40 And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.

I had never thought of it before, but it surely seems to be confirmed in my life. If there is something that ends up being true, there tends to be more than one confirmation of it. It also seems safer in knowing that you are not deceiving yourself.

There's something in particular now that has been repeated to me by completely unrelated people 5 times now (I admit, I've been being stubborn with this one). But now my spirit also senses the truth of it.

Just wondering what you all think about this concept and how you tend to look for confirmation.

So true!
*But, it also depends on the situation. All situations don't need 3 confirmations.
*Fear is not an option when we have to accomplish the work of the Lord.
*Sometimes, we can miss the confirmation if we are not vigilant.
*And, God is so good, HE provides what we need : if someone (like Gideon) needs 3 confirmations, HE will provide 3 confirmations. But, it's not necessary all time.

 

[hurricane]

Deautoronomy 17:6

Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witness; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness.

The principle of this scripture is that two or three peple need to be in agreement of what is going on or has taken place.

 

[Laela]

I believe that attestation is manifested through the Holy Spirit. If a handful of people who don't know each other and aren't privy to the same information through one another tell you the same thing, they can't be wrong. God is using them to tell you something....

Just wondering what you all think about this concept and how you tend to look for confirmation.

 

[madamdot]

Wow, this is certainly coming at the right time. I remember reading this last week and over the weekend my husband and I were discussing something important and I just wasn't sure not because its bad but because I wanted to make sure its the right thing. I heard the voice of God telling me to pray about it before I make a decision. So I am awaiting attestation before moving ahead or not.

thank you.

 

[aribell]

Wow, this is certainly coming at the right time. I remember reading this last week and over the weekend my husband and I were discussing something important and I just wasn't sure not because its bad but because I wanted to make sure its the right thing. I heard the voice of God telling me to pray about it before I make a decision. So I am awaiting attestation before moving ahead or not.

thank you.

He'll give you an answer.

 

[kayte]

If only that were true~~~

but the Lord works outside of human logic
so while sometimes that may occur and one can get a sense of divine guidance
and appointment..
sometimes one can also get "a confirmation" and the opposite will occur!
Faith is the operative fulcrum..on that delicate balance you speak of

His ways are higher than ours

in my humble experience~~

 

[kayte]

I keep thinking about this
it all comes down to faith ..not signs and wonders
although they are blessed when they happen and all falls in alignment
but NOT always

Faith...
so that no matter what the outcome is ...no matter how the confirmation...succeed or doesn't...*faith in God regardless* is the constant that does not change..except to get stronger

that to me is the
phd in Christianity

which is.....what do you do when you get confirmations
many of them...unmistakable......and the opposite outcome is what you get

that is when you have faith that moves mountains
even if the mountains stay fixed
and here is how Christians are divinely tested
I also believe just aswe have individual thumb prints
our paths and God's hand in them..while may have some commonality
are still unqiue
as He know what is best for each of His children

I am someone is VERY intuitve and I have found
all the above to have happened
to me....triple Attestation and counter Triple Attestation
but what is true in each circumstance

the Lord has something to say...

the test is intrepretation or mis-intrepretation
and thereby losing or gaining faith

 

[madamdot]

If only that were true~~~

but the Lord works outside of human logic so while sometimes that may occur and one can get a sense of divine guidance and appointment..
sometimes one can also get "a confirmation" and the opposite will occur!
Faith is the operative fulcrum..on that delicate balance you speak of

His ways are higher than ours in my humble experience~~

I understand that too. I understand that in prayer the answer isn't always yes. Sometimes its no, and sometimes its not now. We don't always want to hear the last two.

I am willing to accept no or wait. My faith is that God will guide me.

A great example is God guided us to the city we lived in 18 months ago. All the signs pointed that we need to be there. So we moved. It didn't work out . . . we were miserable for the 6 months we were there. I didn't work a day for that whole time even though I got a job on the first day - God put up a major road block to make sure we didn't put down any roots. Despite all that I know we were there for a reason. Sometimes the reason is you have to fail to put something to succeed at putting something to rest.

So again I am saying I am waiting for guidance.

 

[aribell]

I understand that too. I understand that in prayer the answer isn't always yes. Sometimes its no, and sometimes its not now. We don't always want to hear the last two.

I am willing to accept no or wait. My faith is that God will guide me.

A great example is God guided us to the city we lived in 18 months ago. All the signs pointed that we need to be there. So we moved. It didn't work out . . . we were miserable for the 6 months we were there. I didn't work a day for that whole time even though I got a job on the first day - God put up a major road block to make sure we didn't put down any roots. Despite all that I know we were there for a reason. Sometimes the reason is you have to fail to put something to succeed at putting something to rest.

So again I am saying I am waiting for guidance.

I've had that happen as well. I just knew that the Lord had led me to go a certain way, and even though in the then I didn't bring that endeavor to fruition, I'm still confident that it was exactly what I was supposed to do.

I also think that sometimes we can come to wrong conclusions about what the Spirit is indicating, or attribute coincidence or our own feelings to the movement of the Spirit. We might say, "Oh, I know God is leading me to this church so that I can start this ministry and do this that and the other," when God may very well have been leading you there but for entirely different reasons.

Faith...
so that no matter what the outcome is ...no matter how the confirmation...succeed or doesn't...*faith in God regardless* is the constant that does not change..except to get stronger

that to me is the
phd in Christianity

I can only agree with this. We can't have faith in our own understanding of what He may or may not be doing, but only in God's faithfulness.

 

[EbonyHairedPrincess]

I've had multiple confirmations but usually they come within quick succession of each other a few hours or days. I agree with Kayte being instructed to do something is a faith thing. Last night I went to bed and as I was laying there my spirit recieved direct instructions. So this morning I immediately got busy being obedient. John 10 talks about sheep knowing their masters voice and following. I think waiting for a confimation would be a mistake. It's better to know the word and if the instructions line up with it, then do it.

 

[aribell]

I've had multiple confirmations but usually they come within quick succession of each other a few hours or days. I agree with Kayte being instructed to do something is a faith thing. Last night I went to bed and as I was laying there my spirit recieved direct instructions. So this morning I immediately got busy being obedient. John 10 talks about sheep knowing their masters voice and following. I think waiting for a confimation would be a mistake. It's better to know the word and if the instructions line up with it, then do it.

I think that if you get a clear sense that you need to do something immediately, then yes, you should obey immediately, especially if there wouldn't be really a time to wait for confirmation. But that's not the type of thing my pastor was talking about--he was speaking more of decisions that have to be made, or new initiatives taken; things that you would generally spend time praying about anyway. The context that he told that to me was my discerning a life-changing call to ministry.

Plus, I often feel like Christians are much too quick to speak of "the Lord said" this or "the Spirit told me" that, without really discerning the difference between the true voice of the Lord and our own thoughts, feelings, and intuitions. And then when what someone previously asserted to be God's voice turns out to be erroneous, very rarely do I see that person go back and ask why it is that they believed it was God's voice when it wasn't.

So, I tend to see the issue as being more about proper discernment than faith. Though, of course, we should be quick to believe and obey without delaying.

 

[EbonyHairedPrincess]

I think that if you get a clear sense that you need to do something immediately, then yes, you should obey immediately, especially if there wouldn't be really a time to wait for confirmation. But that's not the type of thing my pastor was talking about--he was speaking more of decisions that have to be made, or new initiatives taken; things that you would generally spend time praying about anyway. The context that he told that to me was my discerning a life-changing call to ministry.

Plus, I often feel like Christians are much too quick to speak of "the Lord said" this or "the Spirit told me" that, without really discerning the difference between the true voice of the Lord and our own thoughts, feelings, and intuitions. And then when what someone previously asserted to be God's voice turns out to be erroneous, very rarely do I see that person go back and ask why it is that they believed it was God's voice when it wasn't.

So, I tend to see the issue as being more about proper discernment than faith. Though, of course, we should be quick to believe and obey without delaying.

Amen, Amen, Amen. I practically take off running from people when they say this.

 

[madamdot]

Amen, Amen, Amen. I practically take off running from people when they say this.

I agree. But sometimes I wonder if we talk ourselves out of God's words. Sometimes I wonder if God provides us signs but we are too scared to see them.

 

[chicacanella]

There's a principle that a pastor of mine taught me that I don't think is found explicitly in Scripture, but seems to be backed up by experience. He said that when he is attempting to discern whether something is of the Lord, he waits for 2 other confirmations of it from outside of himself, or, if the idea didn't originate in him, he considers it "confirmed" when there are 3 separate instances outside of himself that present it to him (assuming that it aligns with Scripture and he has a peace about it).

I had never thought of it before, but it surely seems to be confirmed in my life. If there is something that ends up being true, there tends to be more than one confirmation of it. It also seems safer in knowing that you are not deceiving yourself.

There's something in particular now that has been repeated to me by completely unrelated people 5 times now (I admit, I've been being stubborn with this one). But now my spirit also senses the truth of it.

Just wondering what you all think about this concept and how you tend to look for confirmation.

Yes, I think our faith or us looking at the natural tends to give us doubt but inside our spirit and heart are leaping up and down believe it fully. This has happened to me many times regarding something God has revealed to me, especially regarding my future husband and I like you found it hard to belive the first, second, third, fourth,fifth, sixth, seventh time. And even now sometimes, I have to remind myself that just because I don't have a ring on my left finger doesn't mean it's not going to happen. We just have to do what we are doing and let God work the prophecy out.

And if you have the prophetic gift and God tells you something, I've learned not to tell anyone first. Just ponder like Mary did because when you or the ones you've told don't see it happening, you will begin to doubt and they will also say things that will make you doubt.

 

[Crown]

Plus, I often feel like Christians are much too quick to speak of "the Lord said" this or "the Spirit told me" that, without really discerning the difference between the true voice of the Lord and our own thoughts, feelings, and intuitions. And then when what someone previously asserted to be God's voice turns out to be erroneous, very rarely do I see that person go back and ask why it is that they believed it was God's voice when it wasn't.

So, I tend to see the issue as being more about proper discernment than faith. Though, of course, we should be quick to believe and obey without delaying.

Some people like saying : the Lord said this, the Holy Ghost told me that. Right or wrong! With no humility to say : I was wrong. God can not be wrong. So I think that faith needs hope and love, and it also needs wisdom and discernment... and the fear of blasphemy.

 

[aribell]

And if you have the prophetic gift and God tells you something, I've learned not to tell anyone first. Just ponder like Mary did because when you or the ones you've told don't see it happening, you will begin to doubt and they will also say things that will make you doubt.

I think the black is such a great insight and overlooked by Christians. We don't have to try to make something of everything that is revealed to us. We don't have to try and figure it out, let everyone else know, make sure it comes to pass. We may not understand at all, but Mary gives us a great example of what to do with words from the Lord...and Jesus didn't step into His ministry until 30 years later, and even then, it wasn't what anyone was really expecting.

And yeah, telling other people isn't necessarily helpful because if they don't have the faith to believe, they're only going to discourage you from having it.

 

[chicacanella]

I think the black is such a great insight and overlooked by Christians. We don't have to try to make something of everything that is revealed to us. We don't have to try and figure it out, let everyone else know, make sure it comes to pass. We may not understand at all, but Mary gives us a great example of what to do with words from the Lord...and Jesus didn't step into His ministry until 30 years later, and even then, it wasn't what anyone was really expecting.

And yeah, telling other people isn't necessarily helpful because if they don't have the faith to believe, they're only going to discourage you from having it.

Oh yeah, tell me about it! I didn't know I had the gift of prophecy but I remember long ago when I was like 9, God showing me a dream and it happening a year later. But I just found out this year that I do but it's difficult to know something is going to happen, see it happen and not tell anyone else. But I think God is bringing us to be patient and wait on his perfect timing. That's what I've been learning about this gift of prophecy, sometimes it may take years for the event to come to fruition but patience is the key. We want to let others know but if you've never told them anything before that has come true then they are hesitant to believe you. That's all we can do is just ponder it like Mary and I am just learning as time goes by.

 

[madamdot]

I spoke to my husband about this and he reminded me that (just like someone else said) that sometimes what you are looking for doesnt always come in the way you expect.

I said to him that I dont know if I got attestation for what I was looking for because I was so busy doing something else.

Then it hit me . . . the thing I was busy with - quitting my job (while this was not exactly out of the blue I didn't expect to do it so soon and so suddenly) pointed to what I was praying about. I don't know I just feel in my heart that I had to do it. I couldn't keep it in anymore. And though I am SCARED with the economy and all . . . giving 2 weeks notice at my job is 2 weeks too long. I don't want to go back at all.


But you ladies are right . . . sometimes you have to take a leap of faith.

 

[aribell]

I agree. But sometimes I wonder if we talk ourselves out of God's words. Sometimes I wonder if God provides us signs but we are too scared to see them.

This is how I'm feeling right now. I have a couple of things that I believe without a doubt are of the Lord. But at the same time, one is slow in coming and the other would be very disruptive in my life.

I have to make a decision to obey what I believe is God's leading or to say that it must have been a mistake on my part. The bible tells us to not despise prophecies, but rather to test the spirits to see if they are of the Lord. I don't want to quench the Spirit's leading, but in honestly reflecting, heeding these personal revelations or prophecies--confirmation or no confirmation--has not produced good fruit in my life in the past. It has not lead to sin, but definitely to confusion, and God is not the author of confusion.

erplexed This is such a challenge.

 

[Renaylor]

I had been feeling bad about myself-being hard on myself lately. I felt as if I have not been doing enough for my family even though I was told by someone that I need not be bothered with what others think because they probably do not care about what I care about anyway. I have also been disrepected by someone I love who keeps putting someone else in front of me lately. God told me through the Bible not to be concerned what man thinks but what he thinks. While I know this is true it was reaffirmed to me again. Someone I respect and who knows my situation fairly well gave me a folded piece of paper the other day. This person told me: I wrote all of your faults on this paper. When I unfolded it- it was blank. It was God telling me again-you are too hard on yourself and there are other people around you who think you are special and love you and God your father loves you. He was also telling me that I will provide you with the people around you who will hold you up spiritually. God is good and believe me his messages are crystal clear.