Listening to God

Out of the many amazing, wondrous, and incredible things of life God rises above all.  To know Him. 

The Creator of stars near and far has come close.  He calls people to come near to Him.  God, the Almighty and Wise God, reaches out in love to love.  Like the candy called divinity is sweet the Divine is sweeter still. 

To know Him is to come to Him as He is, to learn of Him, to embrace Him.  God is God as He was, as He is and as He always will be undiminished, unlimited, unrestricted.  Humans often invent God to their own liking, but to know Him requires loving the God who is without human invention.  In kindness God reveals Himself.  He may be discovered and people may learn of Him who He is, what He is like, and what He has to say.  Often with hearts full, minds racing and hands filled with the things of life people find it hard to get hold of God.  But in coming to Him as He is rather than how I as a man have made Him I find that everything else falls away, pales by comparison, and the more I learn of Him the more relaxed I am in letting things go.  I want to embrace Him.  To trust Him.  To follow Him.  To be with Him.  To act as He would have me act.  To be as He would have me to be.  To know Him is a relationship deserving of the term awesome. 

Relationships require communication.  God built things that way.  He has spoken since the beginning and things have been happening ever since.  He still speaks.  He wants us to hear Him.  And He wants to hear from us too.  It’s about building a closer relationship.   Listening to God seems to be really important.  All through Scripture people have had God speak to them and sometimes they listened and sometimes they didn’t.  Listening to God was better than not.  When God speaks it seems to me we should listen. 

God has spoken and created.  God spoke to Noah and saved the remnant of His people for the task of repopulating the world.  God spoke to Moses on the mountain with sounds of thunder and provided detailed laws and instructions.  God spoke to Samuel as a boy in clear audible tones.  David recognized God was communicating through all of nature.  And David rejoiced in the written communication of God in the Scriptures. The prophet Elijah heard God in many ways, but on one occasion was reminded that He also speaks in a still quiet whisper.  Isaiah heard from God in voice and in vision and could point to the movements of nations and leaders as God’s continued communication to the people.  In these last days, the book of Hebrews says, God has spoken to us in His Son.  Jesus said there would be more communication to come and He was sending the Holy Spirit to be with us.  From earth shaping and earth shaking to the quiet whisper God speaks.  His communication can be in sign language, the language of the heart, in audible language, or the language of the spirit in dreams and visions.  At times He sends messengers to communicate who may be angels from the heavenly realms or His people speaking for Him to His people.  There are many ways in which God speaks, and however He chooses to communicate it is good to listen. 

The picture of Jesus standing outside the door and knocking based on Revelation 3:20 is a helpful image of what is going on.  Our God, the Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is trying to communicate and establish a close relationship.  He has in His wisdom allowed us to shut the door on Him.  He is knocking and when we hear His voice we have the option of responding and letting Him in so that we can have fellowship or we can leave Him out.  Letting Him in and beginning to dialogue in true fellowship with Him is dynamite.  Quick note about the hearing.  It may be that a person hears a message or reads the Bible or has a conversation with a friend or is knocked down by a bright light with the voice of God calling out to them.  However the communication comes it now falls on the person who experiences it to respond…to listen to God.  And listening implies acting in obedience.  Get up, open the door and get close to Jesus.  Very cool. 

There is much to say on listening to God which will have to wait for another time.  But a starting point for hearing His voice is important for now.  As Hebrews 4:7 says:

“Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.”

This assumes God is speaking today and you will hear His voice and you have an option in how you respond. 

Determining if God is speaking

God’s voice (audible, inaudible, signs, thought placed in your mind, urging of the inner spirit…):

• Will lead you closer to Him
• Increases your desire for His Word
• Emphasizes love for God and others
• De-emphasizes your ego
• Leads you to make His kingdom and His way of life a priority

Enemy’s voice

• May pretend to be a messenger of God
• Decreases faith and increases excuses for failures and sin
• Excites the ego
• Emphasizes your right to have it your way
• Entices you to see the enemy’s kingdom and his way of life as paradise
• Acts as a conscience but is really an accuser not sent by God to point out old failures or to highlight mistakes

Self’s voice

• Disguises the deception and wickedness of one’s heart
• Inflates excessively the self’s needs for physical comfort, pleasures, relief, safety, control, approval of others
• Delights in comparing one’s self with others
• Better than:  this voice says you are better in one way or another than others (Self-aggrandizing)
• Less than:  this voice says you are less than others in one way or another (Self-pity)
• Confuses one’s understanding and perspective for God’s view and wisdom
• Substitutes self determined religious values, traditions, & emotions for God’s valid truth, love and real abundant life
• Exalts trusting self and what self can do over trusting God and what God can do
• Uses people (even for good purposes) rather than really loving them

There you go.  God’s voice, the Enemy’s voice and the self’s voice.  Things will come up today and when you hear God’s voice don’t harden your heart.  The hardening of the heart means we chose to listen to another voice. 

Remember this extreme situation from Acts 5 where Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, wanted to look good to the Christians around Jerusalem?  They sold some land and said they were giving ALL the money to the church.  But they didn’t.  They kept some back.  Which was fine.  God didn’t tell them to sell the land or give all the money.  They listened to other voices.  Look at this:

³Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. ⁴The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!”

⁵As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified. ⁶Then some young men got up, wrapped him in a sheet, and took him out and buried him.  Acts 5:3-5 NLT

Practicing

If you were tempted with the possibility of stealing a car or committing adultery you would have a good idea of what voice is speaking to you and what you ought to do, right?  Yeah, that’s it, don’t do either one.  Let’s check out some other scenarios. 

As God’s man you have done well.  You have your ducks in a row in business, and, in fact, you have done really well.  And the ducks are doing well in your spiritual life too.  So, then, you hear the voice saying to you, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."  Options:

1.       Is that the self-voice?

2.       Is that the voice of the enemy?

3.       Is that the voice of God?

4.       Do you harden your heart?

5.       Do you do it?

You know that story of Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man found in Matthew 19.  The man decided not to go with Jesus on this. 

Another man had a business that was going well and it was a family business at that.  He had responsibilities financially and to the community.  There were always projects that needed to be done.  He was a fisherman so nets needed to be fixed boats patched up.  He was committed to God and more involved than most in religious activities.  Then one day a former carpenter stopped by and said, “Come, follow me.”  Options:

1.       Is that the self-voice?

2.       Is that the voice of the enemy?

3.       Is that the voice of God?

4.       Do you harden your heart?

5.       Do you do it?

Of course, that was the story of Peter being called by Jesus.  Peter listened to the voice of God and went.  He was close to Jesus.  He learned to be like Jesus.  His life was altered because He didn’t harden his heart and say, “no.”  (He did have other issues later, but none kept him from following Jesus)

How “today” is that story.  God wants to have a relationship with us.  He knocks at the door.  He speaks.  We may harden our hearts or listen to Him.  Consider the priorities of today: Activities, phones, TV, projects, work, school, food, exercise, sports and many others.  You may approach the day with a schedule or with chaos, but you take it on.  What voice do you listen to for the priorities of your day?  Your week? Your month?  If a voice says, “Come, follow me” what voice is that?

1.       Is that the self-voice?

2.       Is that the voice of the enemy?

3.       Is that the voice of God?

4.       Do you harden your heart?

5.       Do you do it?

Listening to the voice of God requires accepting what He says and going His way.  Here is an exciting thing.  Start practicing listening to God.  It may be as small as how you are going to spend time with Him.  Choose Him over everything else.  Or you are confronted with a frustrating situation and you choose to follow Jesus and bless rather than curse the person.  Listen to Him.  Maybe you have an urging in your inner spirit to go encourage someone and this time instead of talking yourself out of it you go do it. Way to go!

What if you have two good options before you how do you know which one God would have you do?  Great problem to have.  Remember the rich young man and Peter?  They each probably had two good things to do.  Jesus had something totally different for them.  God got bigger than any good things on their agenda.  Be ready for God to take you beyond your plan.  

Also, if you are following Christ, listening to God and He has not spoken to you in some way about one or the other then you can be safe in moving ahead with whatever you have decided.  He often does things this way with shoes too.  He may have a particular pair He will urge you to put on, but for the most part you get to choose.  

OK, there’s more.  As you practice listening to His voice and get better at doing what the Lord says then He will show you more.  Here is what Jesus said: “Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.” John 14:21 NLT  That is a promise!

God’s Voice for You

God may reveal Himself in any way He chooses any time He chooses to whomever He chooses.  How He chooses to speak to you is up to Him.  Whatever the method of communication it is suited for you by your loving Heavenly Father.  Enjoy His company, get close, and listen to Him. 



For sermons at Grace Bible Church go to http://www.sermoncloud.com/grace-bible-church

Success God's Way

Success. Power. Position. Influence. Money. Status.  Boss. Ruler. Judge. CEO.  Driving words in our world.

 

Reading in 1 Chronicles I was struck by the life of Saul, King of Israel.  He had it all.  All the driving words above applied to him.  He was the man you wanted to be seen with.  Saul would have been the one to know for business and politics.  He is the one people wanted to be like.  When you looked up success in the Hebrew dictionary there would be Saul’s picture. 

The end of Saul’s life came on Mount Gilboa in a battle with the Philistines.  Three of his sons died that day.  The army of Israel was being crushed and Saul was at his end so we are told he fell on his sword and died.  That was a tragic day. 

The death of Saul as described in 1 Chronicles 10 also includes a summary statement in verses 13 and 14 which struck me.

 

¹³So Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD. He failed to obey the LORD’s command, and he even consulted a medium ¹⁴instead of asking the LORD for guidance. So the LORD killed him and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.

We are told “the LORD killed him.”  Well, that is instructive.  There is more to the story than the physical details.  Just as there is more to the story of our lives than the physical details.  The Lord killed Saul.  The time had come.  The elements lined up.  The Lord was at work.  But there were the three strikes against Saul which are listed: He was unfaithful to the Lord, He failed to obey the Lord’s command, and he didn’t ask the Lord for guidance.  It seems the Lord is serious about His people and His expectations of them. 

In human terms Saul had arrived.  He would have been the envy of the people of Israel.  He was a success story.  In God’s evaluation Saul had failed and ultimately God killed him. 

What would that look like, I wonder, for the average American Christian?  The evaluation of success based on “Power. Position. Influence. Money. Status.  Boss. Ruler. Judge. CEO” would still be central.  The Lord would continue to use a different standard for success than many Christians.  He would look for faithfulness, obedience, and a relationship based on humility. 

Even for those who know what really matters it is challenging to stay consistent.  There is a difference in the way many Christians treat those they consider “successful.”  So, churches and Christian organizations use that as a marketing tool in their brochures, web sites and various conferences.  When a pastor or a speaker or an author is introduced the list of how many books written or sold is included, the numbers attending, the many countries ministered in, the accomplishments, titles or degrees are included.  Why?  Is that to indicate the individual’s faithfulness, obedience and humility or to highlight that person’s success?  It seems to me that often it is not just informative, but designed to prove this person’s right as a successful Christian to sell me a book, teach me a lesson, train me in some aspect of Christian living.  I have been sold and taught and trained as a result.  But I would like to move in a new direction.  One in which the Lord’s values are more central.  In my limited capacity I would like to be better at affirming those who practice faithfulness to the Lord, obedience to His commands and are routinely asking the Lord for guidance.  They may have great success or little success on the world’s stage, but they are living the right things and are exalted in God’s eyes. 

I would really like to avoid having my epitaph state that “the Lord killed him.”  And I would like to listen to the Lord and not wind up slowly then finally killing myself like King Saul did. 

The Lord is gracious, patient and kind.  His love is enduring.  I want to go His way.  

To be faithful, obedient and to listen to His guidance is true success.