This time I was the guilty one.
My company had asked me to assist in the startup of a Gas Plant in Tioga, North Dakota, in the NW corner of the state.
It was to be a two and a half month assignment, all of December, all of January, and half of February.
In addition to much colder weather and long nights, there would probably be no days off, i.e. work 7 days a week.
I was to be there without my wife.
A lot of time was to be outside, walking & climbing ladders cages.
Well, I was afraid (fear of man) of jeopardizing my job if I didn't go.
I told my wife & pastor that I believed that the LORD showed me that I was supposed to go.
However, while I was up there, I was close to spiritually dead.
I continued to pray & read the scriptures & found a church, that I could leave work for a while on Sundays to go to.
Yet, it was like nothing was happening in my prayers or reading or studying the scriptures.
I saw no fruit, neither of the gospel kind, or the Galatians 5 kind.
Then I think I may have experienced depression (I know, to some that's the unpardonable sin for Christians).
Then someone else who went up there, saw that I was not joyous at all, and gave me the "Lemonade from Lemons" pitch.
He's a Christian, so I told him that I didn't think that the LORD wanted me there.
Well, either I lied then or I lied originally, and blamed it on the LORD (no different than Adam did).
The LORD either wanted me to go there or he didn't, but certainly not both at the same time.
Clearly I had put words in the LORD's mouth, claiming this was his will, or by claiming that it was not his will.
I can't have it both ways, one was a serious indictment of the LORD, which is foolish & wicked, for me to do.
So, in a sense, I was no different than a false prophet (or a false teacher as Mathman made the distinction).
It was if I voiced, "The LORD said", or "The LORD told me", when one of those times he clearly hadn't.
It's like when we say, "I felt led", because we want the person listening to us to think that the Holy Ghost led us.
When in fact, most times we were led by our own desires or plans, and try to pass it off as the LORD's.
Anyway, this time I was the guilty one.
			Gino