Son of Man, you live among rebels who could see the truth if they wanted to, but they don’t want to. They could hear me if they would listen, but they won’t listen because they are rebellious.  Ezekiel 12:2 (NLT)

A prophet is one who speaks a word of God. It doesn’t have to be about the future or the past. A prophet isn’t like a fortune-teller who knows which lotto tickets to buy to win big bucks or which career to prepare for. A prophet just says what God wants said. Many times a prophet doesn’t even know that it’s a word of God that is being spoken. It’s entirely likely that you have been a prophet but didn’t know it!

The most important thing to understand about being a prophet is that we don’t have to insist that the people listen to us. All we have to do is speak the words that God wants spoken. Sometimes we get so caught up in helping God change his people that, instead of just speaking his words and letting him make the changes, we spend more time shaking people, trying to get them to change.

Ezekiel was sent by God to the people of Israel to let them know what was coming down the pike to them. God knew the people that Ezekiel would be talking to. He warned his prophet beforehand that the people he was talking to wouldn’t listen to him. But that was ok. Whether the people listened or not, they needed to be told.

Sometimes we’re like that. We follow a path that we’ve been on for umpteen years and don’t realize that the world has changed and that path we’re following doesn’t lead to the same place anymore. For years, Saturday was my day to clean house. Every room was vacuumed and dusted, dishes were all washed, and the laundry was done. Until I had a job where I worked on Saturdays.  Somehow, I no longer had the energy to clean my house. It didn’t take me long to realize that I could split up the work during the week. Everything would get done and I wouldn’t have to stay up until midnight to do it.

Sometimes our friends understand what’s happening before we do. If we’re smart, we’ll listen to them and decide if they might be right. If they are right and we are trying to do too much, we can make some changes and avoid a major meltdown. If we don’t listen but keep going our own ways, it’s likely that we’ll run amok at some point and go running and screaming out of the house.

The important thing to remember is that no one can change us except ourselves. Some of us are so stubborn that God is the only one who can change our mind. In those cases, it’s best if we get out of the way and let him get to it!

Becky Gillette is a former teacher, newspaper reporter, and preacher who seeks to take an original approach to life’s lessons. She is the author of “Jessie’s Corner: Something to Think About,” a collection of articles which she wrote for a weekly newspaper.