Hearing God's Voice...........
One thing I continually ask God to give me is 'ears to hear.'
Often, directly after Jesus would share an amazing parable or teaching with the people, He would call out to the crowd: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
Not everyone hears the voice of God.
Only those of us who have our spiritual ears tuned to His voice will hear.
But even the most devout Christians can at times become 'hard of hearing.'
Every healthy relationship we have requires that we put in time & work into the relationship. The same thing is true with God. We need to work at it.
I have to work at being a good listener to my husband, to my friends, to the people in our church and to all others really. Most all of us love to talk, but how many of us are good at really listening?
Taking the time to really listen and hear what others want to communicate with us is one of the best gifts of love we can give them. The same is true with God. He wants to be heard. He wants us to care enough to take the time to listen to His voice.
Do you have ears to hear from God?
I can't seem to get enough of God most of the time. I want more and more. I want to hear His whispers to me so I've been praying much, "God, give me ears to hear Your voice. Teach me O Lord to be sensitive to Your promptings. Help me to clear the debris that keeps me from hearing."
Jeremiah 29:13-14
"And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord........"
The more I seek to hear God's voice, the more I hear Him speak. It's very cool how that works. I have been especially amazed at the things He has been telling me lately. He often speaks to me about people in our church. Lately, He's been telling me things about people that I would have no way of knowing. Many times when visitors come to our church, He'll tell me which ones will be back--which ones I should pay special attention too & some times just misc. things about them that almost seem random at times.
I never used to hear so much misc. information like this from Him. It's very cool. Sometimes He'll prompt me to pray for someone out of the blue or He'll reveal a spiritual struggle that someone is having & I'll pray for that person for days!
It almost feels like a brand new gift of sorts. But I think it's mostly an answer to prayer. I want to hear more and more from God. I pray it. I seek it. And God answers.
The Bible has a lot to say about how we are to listen to God. I am very excited about the new bible study that we are starting this week called "The Art of Spiritual Listening."
I've had many people tell me strange things that they believe God has said to them or told them to do. There have been times when I feel very sure that some of those things were definitly not from God. Not if they contradict scripture. Not if they are in opposition with the character of God.
There is an art to spiritual discerning God's voice from other voices in our heads! We must be very careful not to put words in God's mouth!!! We must be constantly aware of the fact that we have an enemy who is a 'poser.' Satan will try hard to convince us that his voice is God's voice.
Learning to tune in and identify God's voice is something we followers of Christ should all earnestly desire to learn. Doing this one thing will grow us spiritually in HUGE ways! I can't wait to see the people who take this Bible study grow in this art & the results I know they will experience because of it.
Oh how I long for more and more people to really KNOW the God I've come to know! There is nothing boring about God. He has an incredible sense of humor! And there's so much power available to us---if we'll just LISTEN to Him!!!
I'm so excited about the new year. I'm so excited about the many new people coming to BHCC. I love worshipping at the movie theater! I love how awesome our worship music has become! I love walking with the Lord & never knowing what great and awesome thing He will do next!
2008 is the year BHCC will see incredible growth! 2007 was a very amazing year of growth & health. A visiting pastor recently came to our church on our request & did an evaluation of our worship service. His feedback was very, very positive! He said he sensed an atmosphere of love, health & energy. He said it's clear that our people are all very happy to be there & to be serving there together. Incredibly friendly, sincere people!
How blessed are we? God is clearly in our midst and continues to build an incredible family of God that He will use to change Monroe County & beyond forever more to His glory!
Because He Lives & Reigns,
Pastor LIn :-)