Plans and Counsel

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 116, Plans and Counsel.

Proverbs 15:22. Let this one settle:

"Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed."

Read it again slowly. Plans fail. Not for lack of effort. Not for lack of ambition. For lack of counsel. That is the Word of God to you today.

There is something every plan carries when you make it alone — and that something is your blind spots. We all have them. You have them. I have them. They are the zones we simply cannot see because they live inside us, shaped by our history, our fears, our desires. And when we draw up a plan locked inside our own judgment, that plan goes out carrying everything we were unable to see. It may look solid. But it has cracks we don't know about yet.

God did not design wisdom to be found in isolation. He planted it in community. That is not a weakness to overcome — it is the order of the kingdom.

But here is what it costs: asking for counsel means admitting you cannot see everything. And pride — that quiet, subtle pride that sometimes doesn't even announce itself — insists on deciding alone. It whispers, "I already know enough." And it pays dearly for that insistence. Think back across your own life. How many decisions landed smaller, harder, or crooked — because you went alone?

Now, the verse says many advisers — not just one. Because a single voice, however wise, can still be wrong. Several wise voices correct one another. They balance one another out. They see angles that no single perspective could reach. So don't settle for one contact you call in a crisis — build a circle. A real circle of people you consult, who know you deeply, and who have the courage and the care to disagree with you when they need to.

And I want to pause on that — because not every opinion is counsel. The world is not short of opinions. What you are looking for is wisdom from people who fear the Lord. Who know you. Who have the backbone to tell you a hard truth even when it's uncomfortable, because they love you enough to do it.

When that kind of counsel enters a plan, something changes. Like wheat planted well — that sends its roots down deep before it ever reaches for the sky — a counseled plan can stand against the wind. It can hold under pressure. It can survive the moments when everything shakes. The counsel you receive today is the harvest you will gather tomorrow. This proverb is not describing a theory — it is pointing to a spiritual law God wove into the fabric of how things actually work.

And so we arrive at today. Not next week. Not when your schedule opens up. Today.

Before breakfast, before you open your phone to scroll, before the day gets going — send a message to one person. One wise, God-fearing person who knows you well. And ask for their honest input on a decision you are carrying this week. Not a vague question — a real decision, something concrete that is sitting on your table right now.

That is what God is asking of you today. Not to hand off your responsibility — but to carry it with wisdom. With the humility to say: "I cannot see everything, and I know it."

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.