When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. Luke 12:11-12 NASB95
Jesus said, “Don’t worry about persecution or difficulties; when you need wisdom or the right words to say, the Holy Spirit will teach you what to do and say in the hour that you need them.” Luke 12:11-12 OGV
Life, as it was in 2019, will not return in 2021. Everything will change dramatically.
Nobody saw 2020 approaching. Every organization that you associated with was caught unaware – your business, your place of work, your school, your church – and even your relationships.
All shocked, all reeling, all struggling for the next steps.
All of us were thrown into the deep end together, and nobody has yet figured how to get out. Attempts are being made, conferences are starting, the Harvard Business Review has articles, and books will be printed. Add thousands of internet prognosticators and the “knowing” advice is released like a flood.
Pretty much all of it hearsay or guesswork. Great advice and consulting are based upon past best practices. With the change of COVID, the world shifted in the past year; no one has best practices yet!
In the current bestseller, Think Again, Adam Grant writes two important sentences, one in the prologue (beginning) and the other in the epilogue (end):
Prologue: In a turbulent world, there’s another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to rethink and unlearn.
Epilogue: Abandon best practices. Best practices suggest that the ideal routines are already in place.
We live in a turbulent world like no other time in history, and the best practice is to think and unlearn the carefully thought-out best practices of the past. If there are no best practices yet established, what can we do?
Listen closely to Jesus! He knew about end-time catastrophic change when He said, “In that hour, I will teach you.”
Here is a brief list of Biblical prophesied change in the end-times:
- Family culture will turn back to family culture (Malachi 4:6).
- The way of money will no longer be the way of money (Malachi 4:8-9).
- Idols we worship will fall quickly (or culture as we know it) (Malachi 3:1-6).
- Justice will come for widows, orphans, migrants, and the oppressed (Malachi 3:5).
Or just read the entire last book of the Old Testament (Malachi) which predicts change even greater than the last year. Yes, 2020 has not ended; its consequences are just beginning.
What is frightening about the end-times? As soon as we get comfortable, or think we have it figured out, or just signed a contract with a consultant – things change again. Then again. Then again.
Remember the words of Jesus, “Do not worry!”
The good news about the end-times is that those who seek God will experience the presence of Jesus who will heal, save, set the captives free, give us wisdom and the words needed to be the light of the world.
The end-times-change-in-culture book of Malachi gives us the reason for COVID and other impending change:
Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem His name. “They will be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.” So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him. Malachi 3:16-18 NASB95
Let me repeat: So, we will again know the difference between right and wrong and know how to truly serve God! (OGV)
This blog has been titled “The Coming Irrelevancy of Consultants,” but perhaps it should have been titled:
The Coming Relevancy of the Book of Malachi!