First prayer, persevering prayer that takes us boldly into the throne of grace to find mercy when we are in need. Prayer that never gives up until the Holy Spirit comes and leads our prayer time, and prayer that changes the way we think about ourselves because we are in the presence of God.
Second read the Bible, because in it we are told the God's big story. We are told how God determined to redeem mankind and how Jesus was God come among us. Jesus is the word of God and he said of himself that he was the fulfillment of the law, the prophets, the Psalms, and all of the wisdom literature. As we continually drink of the word of God we will be filled with understanding of Jesus and as we are continually filled our minds will be renewed. A renewed mind filled with God's words will be able to determine when something we hear is from God and not from Him.
The third way of hearing the voice of God in the context of the body of believers, the church.
There is nothing so exciting to me as when the people of God gather together to worship and the Holy Spirit begins to move around the room touching different ones with things to offer in the meeting. In the meetings of the church where I am there is a microphone at the front of the room and men who are given the responsibility of listening to the things that God gives to his people and then helping to place those in the meeting so that what God is communicating to everyone will be clearly seen. It works and it is fruitful, but not everyone gets to be part of the meeting, mostly because of time constraints and such.
During the week, the church meets in smaller contexts in which fewer people get together and there is opportunity for each to hear the voice of God together. God loves to speak to his corporate church while they are meeting together in whatever context in order to bless, encourage, and comfort those who need help, but he also loves to give his words to people to give to someone else.
The people of God were not meant to be loaners. When Jesus saved us he connected us to a family. In this family, Jesus is the head and we are all members of each other for the mutual building up of each other. If we were on our own we could convince ourselves that God said something that he didn't.
Let's use the relationship that I talked about in one of the other posts. This person hears God say that the relationship they had with their husband is bad and that the new one is now the one that God is going to bless, remember that. Let's step back a minute and say that this person ran that word through the scripture test, the redeemed perspective test, and the Holy Spirit test and it passed. Why? We know that it shouldn't have passed any of them, so why did it pass them all. The heart is deceitful. We, as the people of God, have a redeemed spirit that is pure and holy, but we are still in this flesh that is full of sin. We can convince ourselves that something is God that is clearly not. We are not slaves to sin, but we can decide to be slaves again. To let our frustration give way to unbelief that God is for us and decide that instead he wants us to be happy and successful, on our terms.
Here I would like to briefly tell a Bible story. In the Old Testament in the book of Numbers, there is a story of a king named Balak. He was in the land next to where the children of Israel were when they left Egypt on their way to the promised land and he was afraid that they were going to invade his land. There was a man who was a prophet in the land whose name was Balaam so Balak called him. He sent a group of men with the promise of riches to Balaam if he would come and curse Israel for him. Balaam went to inquire of the Lord and the Lord said "do not go with them for Israel is chosen." The men left and went back to Balak who sent another group to Balaam with the same request. Balaam saw the money and instead of sending them on their way, went to inquire of the Lord again. This time the Lord said, "go with them, but only say what I tell you to say." What happened? Did God change his mind? Balaam left on his donkey, but the Lord was angry that he was going so he sent an angel with a flaming sword to stand in the middle of the pass. The donkey saw the angel and resisted. Balaam became angry. The donkey still resisted and pushed against the side of the cliff so that it hurt Balaam's foot. Balaam began to curse, swear and beat the donkey. God gave voice to the donkey and he spoke to Balaam then God opened Balaam's eyes to see the angel with the flaming sword. He repented of going after God had first told him not to, but God let him go and bless His people instead of curse them.
This is what can happen to the people of God when we convince ourselves that what God wants for us is what we want for us. It is not always true and we need to be able to listen to the counsel of the Lord that redirects us from bad thinking to good thinking, and from a wrong view of God to the right view. It is sometimes tricky and that is why we have been joined to a family.
Friends that know you and love you might be willing to tell you what is right and help you, but if you are connected to the people of God we are one with each other. What affects you affects me. You are no longer struggling on your own. If we sin we hurt the church. We are not on our own bearing our own consequences, no it affects the church. When I resist temptation, it helps the church. When I speak a word of correction and receive correction myself, the church is helped. Remember, we are one body but many parts, but one with each other.
With these things in mind praying, reading the Bible, and building together with the church. We will be able to hear the voice of God for ourselves and each other, build the church up in love as each part does its work, and learn to know God together until we all see Him face to face.
What a wonderful day that will be. Amen
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