But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)
If your eye is biased, you may see what other people want you to see rather than what God wants you to see. A bias is a bent or tendency to favor one thing over another. It could be a prejudice but it could also just be a preference. Not all biases are evil. I prefer chocolate ice cream over vanilla. I prefer Converse sneakers over Nikes. I prefer chicken or liver over steak.
Although not all biases are evil, some biases can be destructive. We can fail to prophesy accurately over someone because of their appearance. We might have a hard time believing the Lord is really saying such words to someone who looks "that way." How we've been trained to operate in Prophetic ministry can become a bias that can hinder the purity of our flow. What we've been taught about the Bible and our traditions can also skew our Prophetic perspective.
Samuel was a seer with a bias. In 1 Samuel 16, God told the prophet to stop mourning for Saul and go to Bethlehem(Catch this-Jesus wasn't our first king from Bethlehem)to anoint a new king. He told Samuel the King would be a son of a man named Jesse. Let's look at 1 Samuel 16:4-7 to see Samuel's bias:
So Samuel did as the Lord instructed. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town came trembling to meet him. “What’s wrong?” they asked. “Do you come in peace? “Yes,” Samuel replied. “I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Purify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” Then Samuel performed the purification rite for Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice, too. When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the Lord’s anointed!” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Samuel almost anointed the wrong person as Israel next king because Eliab, who was the eldest, would have been the natural choice due to custom. Cry out to God to show you your hidden biases so you don't prophesy out of them.
Dear Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, deliver me from my biases. Help me develop a self-awareness of my preferences and prejudices so I cab be careful to correct my thinking and reject any automatic responses to prophesy out of a deep-down bias.
Inserts from Fearless Fire Academy
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