During an intimate time of fellowship with the Holy Spirit I challenged the speaker to change my prayer posture and engage with Him in a way that would be both different, more rewarding, and life-changing. This challenge was anchored in a deeper understanding of Proverbs 16:2, which reveals that human beings are often convinced that their own opinions are right, yet the Lord actively examines and tests the motives behind every response of the heart.

The Holy Spirit emphasized that the Lord is deeply concerned with the motive, intent, and foundation behind how the heart responds to every situation in life, because those responses ultimately determine whether a person’s outcomes will be good or bad. This truth aligns with Proverbs 4:23, which exhorts believers that above all else they guard their hearts, since the heart is the source from which all of life’s consequences flow.

When I asked the Holy Spirit how to stop loving my personal opinions even though I daily surrender my heart, soul, and body to the Lord. The Holy Spirit gave a striking instruction saying that instead of asking to merely submit my opinions, I was to pray for the grace to hate my own opinions, and to develop a love and full acceptance only for “thus saith the Lord.” This represented a radical shift in perception from self-trust to complete reliance on God’s voice as my only opinion.

As I received this instruction, I remembered to exercise discernment and test the voice to ensure it was the Holy Spirit, by asking for confirmation through scriptures to ensure no deception was being introduced to me in disguise by spiritual means. The Holy Spirit graciously responded by pointing directly to Jesus as the ultimate standard. Then He referred first to Hebrews 1:9 which reads these words: “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions.” 

This demonstrated firstly that Jesus Himself both loved and hated because He loved righteousness while actively hating lawlessness. This made it clear in my understanding that had Jesus tolerated lawlessness, He would not have received an anointing greater than His companions. His hatred of lawlessness was necessary for Him to defeat it in love through a limitless, unstoppable anointing.

This perspective of hating evil was further confirmed in Revelation 2:6, where Jesus commends believers for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans that is for deeds which He Himself also hated. This revealed that God not only permits but approves of a righteous hatred toward specific evil actions.

The Holy Spirit then connected this truth to the human heart, by referencing Jeremiah 17:9, which declares that the heart of man is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things and who can know it. Since human opinions are formed from the heart and shaped from personal experiences, perceptions, and interpretations they cannot be trusted. Therefore, hating one’s own opinions becomes a righteous and necessary act of alignment with the Lord’s will.

Jesus Himself modeled this dependency in John 5:30, where He declared that He could do nothing of Himself, He judged only what He heard from the Father, and sought not His own will but the will of the Father who sent Him. This made it unmistakably clear that even Jesus, the living Word in human form, did not rely on His personal opinion but submitted his opinions entirely to the Father’s direction.

With this understanding, I then fully embraced the prayer pattern to on purpose hate my own personal opinions but instead choose to love yielding to the Lord’s will which reveals His opinions.The choosing to pursue swiftly whatever the Lord says and desires, and to obey His direction without delay. This posture mirrors Mary’s instruction at the wedding feast in Cana in John 2, where she told the servants, “Whatever He tells you to do, just do it.” Their obedience, even when it made no sense, resulted in a miracle they were privileged to participate in.

I exhort you as  followers of Jesus to begin hating your own opinions, your ways of regarding situations and circumstances, by recognizing that many opinions you have are influenced by satan through deception, fully aware that deception is what the human heart is naturally inclined to love. Remember that what you as a follower of Jesus hates, is what you will resist and fight against; therefore, hating personal opinions empowers resistance against deception.

As followers of Jesus we are called to actively fight our own opinions by hating them, while at the same time submitting to the loving thoughts and opinions of the Lord as revealed through His voice and the word. This love is expressed through our obedience and action. As followers of Jesus commit yourself entirely to hearing and obeying God’s Word, and you will experience a clear and tangible transformation in everything you say and do.

In conclusion, seize this truth with your whole heart and allow the grace released through it to empower you to take decisive action. This action will advance the Kingdom of God, and establish you as a follower of Jesus on the triumphant path, which always ushers you into a life marked by divine order and miraculous outcomes.

I declare in the Name of Jesus Christ that your heart will be aligned with the will of the Father and you will no longer be ruled by personal opinion but be  led by divine truth. In Jesus name you will hate deception and love righteousness, by yielding swiftly to the voice of the Lord, and walking in obedience to the voice of the Holy Spirit that produces miracles. 

I decree that the abundant grace released through this word will empower you to advance the Kingdom in varied ways. You will overcome every snare of the flesh, and walk in the path of triumph in all things as you are established in God’s will, anointed for victory, and positioned for miraculous outcomes in Jesus’ mighty Name. Amen.