I Believe Holy Spirit Has Tempered Me Throughout The Years. A Dear Friend Of Mine Use To Refer To Both Of Us As "Runaway Trains." Let Me Explain....

Years ago I was pretty radical in faith. I was on fire for Jesus (not that I am not now just in a different way) and when I would hear, see from Holy Spirit I just acted upon it. I even probably stepped on several if not more than that "religious toes" so to speak. This dear friend of mine were cut from the same cloth of material so to speak. We love Jesus and we did not care what others and especially the religious minded community thought when we acted upon Holy Spirit leading. I guess you could say we were radical for Jesus. What we both have in common is she and I are children of God that truly do have child like faith. If we were shown something by Holy Spirit we acted upon it. We had no fear of what man thought about us stepping out in faith.
When she first used this term to describe herself and I "runaway train" I did not like being classified in that category. If I  know myself I probably was rebuking those very words silently to myself and probably saying silently I do not receive those words. Now that Holy Spirit has tempered me throughout the years I do believe and understand those words of wisdom spoken many years ago to me. See, this is my interpretation of those words... Jesus loves that we both have child like faith. He loves that we step out in faith, even if it is radical faith. I do believe that if it is fashioned and presented in a way that may create another on looker to be turned away from the Gospel or Jesus then what good is that radical faith? Do you see where I am going with this. Radical faith is fine but it needs to be nurtured and tempered so as to not be a stumbling block for another. It is not all about you but it is all about Jesus. You step aside and let Jesus move through you so He gets the glory.
I believe I passed this test. On my last weekend journey I believe I was able to show Jesus and myself that yes indeed I have grown in walking in this. Two times in the same day I did not just force what I wanted to do but I took the lead of the preacher/teacher. Let me explain. During one of the sessions a person shared a dream they had earlier in that session. The Prophet of God was seeking participation from those that attended for what they thought the dream interpretation was. I did not feel an unction during that time period and so I did not raise my hand. Later on another dream is shared and as he was giving the interpretation I raised my hand to also share what Holy Spirit spoke to me about this dream I heard ever so clear "child like faith." In the moment I raised my hand, he must have seen and said this time there was only going to be one interpretation. I withdrew my hand being raised but those words still resonated inside of me. I was tempered in that very instance. Guess what as the full interpretation came forth didn't he also bring into the interpretation in regard to child like faith. Wow, that was a word from God. After the meeting I did go up to this perfect stranger (meaning I did not know them or I never met this person before) and shared briefly that I heard the words also "child like faith." See when you have child like faith you can also recognize it in others with like faith.
Second instance. This may have been in this same session now that I think about it. The Prophet was instructing on different dreams. While on the subject of Warning dreams he was asking for an example of a warning dream in the New Testament. I raised my hand and he called upon me. I was in Matthew 2 and in this chapter there were actually two warning dreams given. One to the wise men and one to Joseph. He said he just need one of them to be shared. I guess I selected the correct dream because he then expounded upon that and it tied in with the realm of authority/sphere of influence a father would have .This is what I read from my favorite bible. Trust me this is the bible I keep beside me on my bed. I usually travel with my New King James bible but this time Holy Spirit said leave that one home and bring this one with you. I did exactly that. It is the "God's Word" version of the bible. This is what I read Matthew 2:13-15 "After they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. The angel said to him, 'Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and kill him.' Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and left Egypt that night. He stayed there until Herod died. What the Lord had spoken through the prophet came true: 'I have called my son out of Egypt.'"
Ok now back to my story about my friendship with this dear friend of mine. Years ago I needed a new prescription updated for my glasses and money was tight then. She so graciously blessed me with the money to order and purchase my new set of glasses, frames and all. Then there was a time when she needed me and I flew to spend a weekend with her. She drove a bit of a distance to pick me up at the airport. On this weekend journey we drove to Prayer Mountain in Branson, Missouri. It was getting dark and we are in a mountain area so we really had to search and find this place. We got out of the car and walked around and saw the different cabins that people go to for retreats or just go there to get away with Jesus. If I remember correctly we struck up a conversation with one that was in one of those cabins. We were invited in. There was a group of married couples there and they felt led to pray for my friend. I did not join in that circle of people that surrounded her to pray with her. You may say why did you not join in with them? That is a simple answer I was not married and I knew this prayer for my married friend was the prayers prayed by married couples.
She got married at midnight at the turn of the century at our church. I was not in the wedding party but I had a pretty important role to play that evening to bless this newly married, mature couple. Do you know that they danced together arm in arm on the platform as a part of their wedding ceremony. I just loved that. With the wedding ceremony taking place at midnight you would not have a full reception that time of the night so there was a cake reception. I was to leave at a certain time and go to their home and set the stage so to speak for their first night of being married. I had instruction and I followed through. To light the candles turn on the music etc. I will have to ask her to remind me of this portion. I think I may have talked her into letting me get rose petals and scatter them around. Do not quote me on that one ok, that was almost 19 years ago. I then left. This friend and I are alike in this respect. we have a gift of knowing how to set an atmosphere. She did the majority of setting the stage so to speak all I did was put it into play. Lighting the candles, turning on the music already that was selected.
I think I shared with you all that at one point I was a wedding/event planner. I loved helping people plan events. Want to know the question I asked future brides that came in to see me? I would ask them if he was romantic when he proposed to them. The brides and sometimes the groom would share with me. No matter what I may have thought, to them that proposal was romantic. I probably should have wrote them down that would have been a good book to write what do you think? I also learned a valuable lesson learned by brides also. Destination weddings were popular and the couple would go to the destination and get married and then come back and have a reception. I felt bad for this one couple. They went and got married and then they shared with me that they thought they were getting a video of the ceremony so they could play it at their reception and it ended up being a security camera type of video. Important question to ask if you are getting married at a destination wedding, is it a great quality video you are getting to commemorate the ceremony. Today, you would probably not even need that, you could invite people to your ceremony via skype of face time things of that nature.
Conclusion of my story. If I would have been stubborn and never allowed Holy Spirit to temper me throughout the years would I have been able to minister to that Amish child yesterday. No, I would have been of an aggressive nature in a wrong way and the father probably would not have given me his permission to pray with his daughter. Or even worse, I could have prayed for her right then and there on the spot without getting permission. Lesson learned...let Holy Spirit guide and temper you as needed in your life so as to shine for Jesus and let Him shine forth through you.