A Word Behind Thee

And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. ISAIAH 30:21

Amanda Smith lived by the leading of the Spirit more consciously than most Christians whose lives are on record. Her Autobiography is full of whispers. On Sunday morning go to Green Street. Take the tracts. Speak to that young man. Go stand in the way. Salem. You are sitting in the draught. She asked God for signs, opened her Bible for guidance, and describes at least two visions. For some readers this will be the most attractive part of her story; for others, the most troubling. She was more careful about it than a quick reading suggests.

A Father who speaks

The foundation of her teaching is simple and scriptural. God is a Father, and a Father speaks to His children; the Spirit who lives in the believer leads, prompts, checks and warns.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. ROMANS 8:14

One evening she was given two tickets to a church fair. She was tired and did not want to go, and she disapproved of fairs anyway. But as she prayed it became clear that she should go and take some tracts. She went, felt out of place, and asked the Lord what He wanted. Go stand in the way, came the answer. She stood at the top of the stairs, and the Spirit singled out one of two cheerful young men coming up; she spoke to him, and he answered politely that there was time enough for him. On Saturday she heard he had been found dead in his bed. She went and looked at him. She was sad, and glad she had obeyed.

On another day she was running late for a washing job and the prompting came to take her tracts; she was afraid the lady would not pay her if she was late, and left them behind. When she arrived the lady said the washing was put off till next week. She saw that she had been hindered from a blessing, and wrote, “O, it is so safe to obey even though it may be dark.”

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. JOHN 10:27

Misled

What makes her teaching trustworthy is that she did not hide the times she was wrong. The worst was her second marriage. She had prayed for guidance, and believed afterwards that God had given her light, but she did not walk in it. James Smith told her he was preparing to enter the travelling ministry, and she pictured herself as a minister’s wife working beside him. It looked like the Lord’s will. After she had given her consent, she went to the Lord to have it ratified, “but not a ray of light came.” She went ahead anyway, reasoning that everything would be clear once the work began. It was not. He had never intended to join the Conference, and the marriage brought her years of sorrow.

Her comment is searching: “At that very hour Satan had gained the victory over me and yet I did not know it was he.” And again: “O, the subtilty of Satan, how he can transform himself into an angel of light to deceive even to this day.”

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God. 1 JOHN 4:1

Her own safeguards

From such failures she learned safeguards worth more than any number of dramatic leadings.

First, she tested what she heard. When the word Salem came to her she did not simply pack. She said, “O, Lord, don’t let Satan deceive me, make it very plain to me,” and asked again and again until she was sure. When a prompting concerned someone else, she often asked God to confirm it by some outward circumstance before she acted.

Second, she learned that God’s refusals are also His guidance. When she was drawn to leave her own church and join the Free Methodists, she prayed for the minister to invite new members, and he did not. She saw afterwards that it had been an answer: “For sometimes when the Lord denies a request, it’s as much an answer as when He grants it.”

Third, she tested impressions by their fruit and their direction. The accuser’s whispers, she found, pushed toward fear, delay, self-protection and despair. The Spirit’s whispers, though often costly, came with a quiet hush and peace.

Fourth, she became suspicious of her own desires. The marriage taught her that a wish can dress itself up as a leading. When a good man at a camp meeting offered her a comfortable home for life in his family, it seemed at first glance plainly right; she spread it before the Lord, and found it was not His will for her.

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. PROVERBS 3:6

Where she must be read with care

Even with all this, a careful reader must say plainly that some of her practices are not safe patterns. She often opened her Bible at random in prayer and took the first words her eye fell on as God’s answer. God is gracious and sometimes meets His children that way, as He met her. But Scripture was not given to be used as a lot, and the habit can make the Bible say things it never says. She asked God for signs — that a particular person be converted, that a gale drop before an evening meeting — and she believed He gave them. He may have. But the Lord who gave signs in Scripture also warned against a generation that demands them, and a Christian who cannot move without one has made God’s guidance hang on something other than His Word and His character.

Her visions call for the same care. She describes seeing the Lord Jesus in her room, and a great arm in the clouds, and she did not doubt that they were given to her. We need not scoff; nor should we seek such things. The New Testament places the believer’s confidence in the Word made flesh and in the written Word, not in private appearances. Where a leading contradicts Scripture, or sets aside plain duty, or cannot be tested, it must be refused, however vivid.

To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. ISAIAH 8:20

What to keep

What should we keep? Almost everything that matters. The conviction that God speaks to His children. The habit of listening for Him through the day, in small things as well as great. The willingness to obey a quiet prompting to speak to a stranger, to give, to go. The honesty to admit when we got it wrong. And the safeguards she learned the hard way: test the spirits, suspect your own wishes, accept God’s refusals, look for peace rather than pressure, and do nothing contrary to His Word.

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 1 THESSALONIANS 5:21

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Spend part of tomorrow deliberately listening for the Spirit’s quiet promptings in small things — whom to greet, what to say, when to be silent — and act on one.

2. Recall a time you mistook your own wish for God’s leading. What were the warning signs you ignored? Write them down.

3. Before your next significant decision, apply her safeguards: pray for plain light, ask whether a refusal might be the answer, and test the leading against Scripture.

4. If you have a habit of opening the Bible at random for guidance, replace it this month with steady reading in context, and see how God speaks.

5. Is there a prompting you have been delaying? It is so safe to obey even though it may be dark. Do it this week.

A PRAYER

Father, You are not silent. Open my ears to hear the word behind me that says, This is the way.

Deliver me from mistaking my wishes for Your will, and from the enemy who comes as an angel of light.

Teach me to test every spirit by Your Word, to accept Your refusals as answers, and to walk in the light You give.

And when You speak, give me the simple courage to obey at once. Amen.