When Moses sent 12 men to spy the Promised Land these men were:
1. Equally qualified because they were all leaders of their tribe in Israel (Numbers 13:3)
2. Did equal research because they all spent 40 days spying on the Promised Land (Numbers 13:25)
However when they came back, they gave the Israelites different reports.
10 of the spies said that it was not possible to conquer their Promised Land because of the strong people, protected cities and giants who lived there and it was also surrounded by their enemies. (Numbers 13:28-29)
2 of the spies said that it was possible to conquer their Promised Land because God was with them. (Numbers 14:9)
So who were the Israelites to believe?
If you find yourself in a similar confusing situation like the Israelites, and you do not know how to pick good advice from bad advise do the following:
1. Pray
Pray and ask God what you should do because is the best thing you can do.
2. Assess Its Alignment with God's Word
Assess the advice you receive to see whether it is in alignment with God's Word for your life. If it is in alignment, follow it.
If it is not in alignment, discard it.
In this situation God had already told the Israelites that He was giving them the Promised Land and therefore they should have picked the advice that was in alignment with that word from God's word for their life.
Therefore if God has already given you a word over your life and you receive advice that is contrary to God's word, discard it.
Following that advice that is contrary to God's word for your life will lead to aborting the purposes of God for your life. We can see in the Israelites' lives because following the advice of the 10 spies made this generation never enter their Promised Land as God made them wander in the wilderness for 40 years until they died.
Therefore, even if the advice that is contrary to God's word for you life is being given by numerous sources, discard it because might is not always right.
3. Assess Its Consequences
Assess the advice you receive to see its consequences. This means you should look to see what you will have to do if you decide to follow it.
If the actions you will have to take will keep you in right standing with God, follow it.
If the actions you will have to take will involve sinning against God, discard it.
In this case we can see that deciding to follow the advice by the 10 spies led to the Israelites making a series of sins that included complaining against spiritual leader Moses (Numbers 14:2) and speaking against God by asking Why has God brought us here to die from war? (Numbers 14:3) They also wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb for telling them they could conquer their Promised Land. (Numbers 14:10)
Therefore as you develop an action plan to follow the steps and find that it will involve making one mistake or sin after another, discard that advice.
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