Several years ago my wife was trying to get me onboard with adoption. Shamefully, I was hesitant. It just wasn’t the direction or the plan I thought would unfold. For months, she would beg me to consider the option and commit to getting our names on a list. I was stubborn. Mostly, I just kept putting it off hoping the decision would go away. Yes, it was completely selfish.
All that changed when I went to lunch with an acquaintance. He was a father who had adopted several children as well as having a few biological children as well. In a moment that was certainly led by the Holy Spirit, he said this, “Brad, if God adopted you into His family, what’s stopping you from adopting a child into yours?” It was that moment that changed everything. It was as if I was clubbed over the head with a sledgehammer… in a good way.
My mindset immediately changed. I went home and we started the paperwork. The rest, as they say, is history. We adopted our daughter in 2013 and she has melted my heart. I can’t imagine being reluctant to the idea of adoption ever again. But it took a special person filled with the Spirit to speak words of God’s truth to my heart. That’s how He operates.
In this chapter, we read of Azariah becoming full of God’s Spirit in order to confront King Asa. The text tells us that after these words are spoken the King is immediately encouraged. From there, he takes action.
“When Asa heard the prophecy that Azariah son of Oded had spoken, he was encouraged. He did away with all the idols in the land of Judah and Benjamin and all the idols in the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He also repaired the altar of the LORD that stood in the Temple courtyard.”
2 Chronicles 15:8 GNB
Sometimes we are the Azariah in this story. God calls us to speak boldly to a person about a situation where He is not pleased. Sometimes, however, we are King Asa. We have grown stubborn in our own ways and refuse to change. The subtle sin nature has lulled us into a drowsiness. Either way, the miraculous truth is that God uses others to help us navigate our spiritual maturity. It doesn’t matter who we are or what our title is, all of us must fall under the authority of Christ. All of us need others in our life to hold us accountable.