President Snow: “She's become a beacon of hope for the rebellion, and she has to be eliminated.”

Plutarch Heavensbee: “I agree she should die, but in the right way, at the right time. It's moves and counter-moves, and it's all we gotta look at. Katniss Everdeen is a symbol. Their Mockingjay. They think she's one of them. We need to show that she's one of us. We don't need to destroy her, just the image, then we let the people do the rest…Shove it in their faces. Show them that she's one of us now...They're gonna hate her so much they just might kill her for ya.”

President Snow: “Brilliant”

In the movie “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” it wasn’t revealed until the very end that Plutarch was working with the rebellion to bring down President Snow. Knowing Snow was a cruel tyrant Plutarch gave him the advice he wanted, but for the real purpose of feeding the anger of the oppressed and with a plan already in place to save Katniss. It was a brilliant, and wildly successful, move, and wildly successful movie.

When Absalom asked what to do next in his rebellion against David, Ahithophel advised an immediate attack focused on killing David before he could escape and rally the nation so the people would have turn to Absalom (2 Samuel 17:1-4). But Hushai (David’s friend) knew Absalom was a careful planner and gave him the advice he wanted – wait and prepare. Building up David’s prowess as a warrior and military leader, Hushai advised getting an unbeatable army together before attacking. Absalom agreed with Hushai because God was behind the plan to frustrate Absalom’s efforts and knew exactly what Absalom wanted to hear (2 Samuel 17:7-14). It was a mistake.

Perhaps the biggest mistake we all make is selective hearing – listening to the advice we want to hear. In some ways Facebook and social media have made the problem worse because we find “friends” who agree with us and call those who don’t “idiots”, or worse. When it comes to our spiritual lives do we listen to God or do we act like Absalom and only listen to our own ideas filtered through the wrong advisers? Think very carefully before answering.