God's Voice in the Silence: Part 2

Well, we are continuing our series on The Transformed Life. We are looking at the core values, or foundational beliefs that we hold as a church community that Kelley and I have not just recognized, but experienced as being the keys to a life that is transformed by God.

I’ve quoted from James 1:22 quite a bit in the last few months, and I believe it’s a scripture we all need to memorize because it keeps front and center the reality of the Christian life. / / But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

Sometimes that can feel a bit like we’re advocating for a works based Christianity. Saved by our doing good. Saved by our following the rules. And it maybe feels that way because essentially says ... do what [the law] says and... God will bless you for doing it.

But we know that’s not it, right? We know we are saved by grace through our faith in Jesus Christ. So, let’s break that down a bit this morning.

The ESV says it this way, / / But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Alright, I want to ask you a question:

If a go to a financial advisor and they tell me exactly what to do to get out of debt and live a life of financial freedom, and I go home, and do nothing of what they told me, will I experience the outcome I want from what that financial advisor told me to do?

Of course not...

If I go to a gym and the trainer walks me around the whole room, explains all of the exercise machines, how to use them, the best way, best method, even takes the time to show me. But then I just go over to the counter, order myself a jacked up protein shake and sit down and watch the other people work out, will I benefit from all that I was taught?

No, we know that.

What if I go to a counselor, and I am able to talk things out, and it’s good, because I have found a safe place to talk about things, and even in the moment the counselor walks me through some good things, and I am able to experience a level of freedom, and that counselor says, “This is really good, we made great headway today. Now, what you want to do is take this and go home and apply it everyday, because this is going to take time to walk out your new reality...”

I mean, a Dr told us that. That person spent years getting a degree that qualifies them… We believe it don’t we? Of course we do. BUT, what happens if we go home, life kicks in, we don’t do what they said, we get distracted, don’t apply the good things we were taught.... Even though we gained some headway in our lives, will it last? Will it maintain?

Probably not, right?

This is why Paul says in Galatians 5:1, / / So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.

This is interesting, isn’t it? On one hand James seems to be telling us to follow the law, and on the other hand Paul seems to be saying be careful not to follow the law. Is that possible? Is that confusing?

It’s all about how they are saying it.

James says ...if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, or the ESV says, But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty...

They both use the word “perfect”, and that word is / / teleios and it means complete, brought to its end, finished, wanting nothing necessary to completeness. It doesn’t need anything else to be completed, it has been completed. Jesus says in Luke 24:44, And this is right at the end of his time on earth, after he’s been crucified and put in a tomb and raised back to life, he’s spent time with his disciples and he says, / / “When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.

...the law, prophets and Psalms must be fulfilled… That word, fulfilled is / / pleroo, and it means to be full, to be complete, the end.

When we look into the perfect, or completed, fulfilled law of God, what do we see? The Messiah, Jesus Christ, the One who actually completed its requirements, fulfilled its purpose. This is what James is talking about.

But, then on the other side of things, Paul is essentially saying, this MUST be how we see it because if we don’t see that Christ has set us free by fulfilling or completing the law we will be left thinking WE still need to be the ones to fulfill it, and when we do that, we WILL fail, and we will be enslaved to it.

See, Paul understood it, because he’s also the one who wrote the book of Romans and in Romans 6:16 he writes, / / Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

Look at how he says that. First of all, what does he NOT say? He doesn’t say, follow the rules, be a good Christian by obeying the rules. He says, choose to obey God, and when we choose to obey or to live a life of obedience, it results in doing the right thing, righteous living. Jesus said that over and over again, didn’t he? If you want to be my disciple, be faithful to my teaching, follow me, follow my teaching, be obedient to or submit yourself to my authority. Deny your way, embrace God’s way.

Paul is essentially warning us that the law, or let’s bring it to terms we understand today, the bible, can end up being a hindrance if you’re simply reading it as a book to try and follow a set of rules. Galatians 5:1, don’t fall back into slavery of the law, what’s the law? The Law is the Old Testament books that outlined the covenant between Israel and God. It’s the bible. Why would he say this? Because, you can read the bible and not fully understand what it is saying, and as a result live your life trying to accomplish things you aren’t meant to, or doing things in a way that God never intended!

We just read it, right, Luke 24 says, / / Then he [Jesus] opened their minds to understand the scriptures.

These are the disciples of Jesus who know scripture, who have read it AND had him teaching them for 3 years, and yet, in this moment it suddenly all makes sense! It is no longer about us fulfilling the requirements of the law, because HE did! But it wasn’t that they figured that out on their own, it was because Jesus opened their minds to understand what the scriptures had said he had come to fulfill...

And this is important, because today, we are going to jump into Part 2 of God’s Voice in the Silence. Last week we looked at the invitation to / / intimacy // In-To-Me-You-See. We looked at the fact that the enemy works overtime to try and get in the way of intimacy, it’s been his game since the beginning, and if he can win the war of shame in our lives, the result is hiddenness - like Adam & Eve in the garden, we hide from His presence.

Life, and I don’t mean life in general, but true life, the life Jesus offers, is found in embracing the difficult, becoming comfortable with having conversations we would rather not have. Why does it seem easier to just walk away rather than work things out? Why does it feel more natural to hide or isolate when we’re going through stuff? Why does it feel safer to not share our lives and what we are truly feeling?

If you missed last week I want to encourage you to go back and watch it. Go on our youtube channel or our website or on our facebook page and watch it. Jesus is bringing healing as we are looking at these topics of transformation. This isn’t just teaching, this is opportunity to embrace and experience the God who loves you and cares more for you than anyone else in this world ever could.

So, we’re talking about God’s Voice in the Silence. Today we are going to be looking at the practical application and aspect of a God who speaks and wants to speak to us.

Two things we have to settle in our hearts and minds when we begin to think or talk about hearing the voice of God.

/ / God is real

/ / God wants to speak to you

Hebrews 11:6 says, / / Anyone who wants to come to him [God] must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

The ESV says, anyone who wants to draw near. Basically it’s saying, if you want to get close to God, first of all, you have to believe that He exists, but more importantly, that he WANTS you to come to Him, to be close to Him. What is the reward for seeking? FINDING! God WANTS you to seek him, so that you will find him.

Listen, when we were kids, the goal of hide-and-seek was NOT to be found, we get that. But, when we became parents, that changed, didn’t it? When we play hide and seek with our children, as a parent we make sure our toes are sticking out from behind the curtain, or we make a little snicker “by accident”… we WANT to be found… God WANTS to be found!

Acts 17:27, Paul is preaching and he says, / / His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him - though he is not far from any one of us.

Jeremiah 29:13 says, / / If you look for me [God] wholeheartedly, you will find me.

So today I want to talk through 4 very basic, simple, and yet incredibly profound steps to having a consistent relationship of intimacy with God and learning to hear His voice. Remember, that’s what we’re talking about here. The four foundational beliefs, or core values of our church:

The Love of God as Father

Intimacy with God in relationship & Hearing His Voice

Restoration of the heart and mind

Being Equipped and Encouraged to Engage with the world around us.

OK, so the first key in cultivating Intimacy and Hearing God’s Voice is...

/ / 1. Be Still

We read this verse last week, Psalm 46:10, Be still and know that I am God.

Know is the word / / yada, it’s a word of experience, not simply of knowledge. Look at what it means: acknowledge, acquaintance, comprehend, consider, discern, discover, cause to let or make known, to be, make, make to be, or make yourself known.

So, the first thing we need to recognize when it comes to hearing the voice of God is that it’s not just about hearing the voice of God, but it’s about having these yada moments, an experiential moment with God where He makes himself known to us as we make ourselves known to him. In-To-Me-You-See. Again, Jeremiah the prophet, sharing the heart of God, / / You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

That word heart is for your inner being, the core of who you are. It’s defined as the inner man, the mind, will, heart, soul and understanding.

So, be still. Learning to be before the Lord.

The NASB translates Psalm 46:10 in this way, / / Stop striving and know that I am God.

Another couple translations say, / / Stop fighting, or stop your fighting, and know that I am God.

But I like this one, the Contemporary English Version says this, / / Our God says, “Calm down, and learn that I am God!”

There is a real sense here of, Stop what you are doing. And I know, how dare He…doesn’t God know how absolutely busy we are? Doesn’t he know how busy life is? Doesn’t he know the kids don’t stop, the husband doesn’t stop, the wife keeps adding to the honey-do list? Doesn’t he know how busy I am?

/ / Be still. Stop your fighting. Stop your striving, and calm down.

This doesn’t mean you suddenly have to come up with an hour a day carved out to just be quiet before God. I do understand life is busy. This has always been a struggle for me because I’m what you would call a doer. I feel accomplished when I have finished a task, I don’t necessarily feel accomplished at anything if I’ve stopped and sat and done nothing for an hour, even though it’s not nothing, it’s the most important thing in the world, connecting with the God of the universe, my brain will tell me, Ya, but you didn’t get anything done… Now you’re behind on your work. Now you are going to be late. Now you’ve messed up the rest of your day.

And the problem is that I usually hear all of those things BEFORE I want to spend time with God which then fights against the desire to even take that time.

IF you do this, you won’t get done what you need to get done.

IF you use this time for prayer, or reading the Bible, or just being still before God, you’ll be behind the rest of your day.

And it becomes a fight of wills. Will I get done what I “need” to get done, or will I take the opportunity to have a yada moment?

Now, this is assuming you want this.

This is assuming you actually want to encounter and experience in relationship the God of the universe. And I can’t assume that because not everyone does. There are a lot of people who are happy to simply live with a knowledge of God. Knowledge of God is good, but they never truly understand or pursue a relationship with God.

And for many people God exists as a concept instead of as a real, personal being. This is why we started with Hebrews 11:6, / / If you WANT to be close to God you have to first believe he exists and then believe that he wants to be close to you as well.

That’s 3 things right there:

/ / I believe God does exist

/ / I want to be close to God

/ / I believe God wants to be close to me.

If those are all true, you believe God is real and you WANT to develop a relationship with Him and you believe He wants to honor that and be found by you, then the first step toward this is to take some time, stop striving, stop fighting, calm down and be still.

Now, some practical points here. How many of you have tried to calm yourself down maybe not for this, but just to stop and be quiet for a minute and relax and suddenly it’s like all the things pop up? And your mind is flooded with this barrage of external and internal noise! This takes a bit of work!

First, we want to / / Remove the Outer Noise:

/ / Put the devices down...

Get away from your phone, your tablet, your computer

This might be a tricky one, putting that phone away, or on silent and not looking at it, or maybe you need to leave it in the other room for a while. Listen, the world will keep turning if you’re unplugged for a bit.

/ / Get alone

Another tricky one, but again, this is about giving an intentional focus to God. Think of it this way, if you’re going to meet someone to have a conversation, or you are going on a date, what do you do? You take it really seriously, you schedule that time, you put it in your calendar to make sure you don’t forget, and you then go and physically meet somewhere that is conducive to the type of meeting / encounter you’re having. A date might be at a swanky restaurant, a meeting might be at Starbucks, or lunch at your favorite pub…but you’re intentionally setting aside time and making an effort to meet with a person in seclusion to connect with that person.

IF we believe God is real. AND we believe that God wants to have a relationship with us. AND we want that relationship with him, then making this a priority and a focus should be just as important as any other intentional meeting we make.

/ / Remove physical tension

Make yourself comfortable. If you’re awkward or uncomfortable that’s probably all you’ll be thinking about.

/ / Pick a time that works for you.

Maybe it’s first thing in the morning before anyone else gets up. That’s when I spend time reading my bible, before there’s any noise, any distraction and I am not feeling like I need to be working. In that moment it’s me and God with my bible in the dark and quiet of the morning. Yes, it’s meant setting an alarm for earlier than I want to get up. Yes, it’s meant forcing myself out of bed when I’d rather close my eyes and sleep again. But honestly, it’s come to a point where I don’t want to live without it. I love that time. I look forward to it, and I miss it if I miss it.

/ / Atmosphere is important

Instrumental worship music can actually help in setting a tone and atmosphere for time spent with God. It can help remove external distractions and help calm you down.

Remember Psalm 46:10, / / stop striving, stop fighting, calm down, be still...

This is simply following the example of Jesus. How often do we read in the gospels that Jesus went off by himself to pray. Mark 1:35, / / Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.... where he talked with God… where he connected with His Father.

OK, once you’ve removed all the Outer Noise and you’re quiet and you’re like, “God, speak to me...” what often happens is that your Internal world suddenly kicks in to high gear. You begin thinking of all the things you need to get done. The grocery list pops into your mind. You start thinking about the person you didn’t get back to, you need to text, but it’s too early, you can’t do that right now. Work has been troubling you. The boss has been on your back. All the cares of the world suddenly flood your mind and heart. What do you do? That doesn’t feel like being still, does it?

We have to / / Remove the Inner Noise, and this is all practical.

/ / Write down lists.

If it’s things you need to get done, shopping, reminders of what you easily forget etc… that’s just your brain being your brain acting like God created it to act. So, don’t get upset, utilize that greatness and write down the things you don’t want to forget so you can get to the being still and knowing part.

/ / Reminded of sin / shortcomings?

This can happen. Sometimes the devil will try to throw shame at you, “You don’t deserve to meet with God, He doesn’t love you. You messed up the other day. You aren’t a very good christian. You haven’t even been reading your bible. Get your life together first, then you can maybe have an experience with God...”

This is super simple. If it’s sin, or something getting between you and God, follow this simple 3 step process: / / REPENT // FORGIVE // REMIND

REPENT for any sin, any action you’ve caused. Repent for anything and everything that comes to mind. Clear your heart and mind of wrong doing and distraction that come between you and God. Repentance isn’t a dirty word, it’s a really wonderful, freeing word. Remember, repent isn’t a groveling woah is me pity party, it actually means to change the way you think. So, God help me see your truth about these situations, help me see the truth about your forgiveness, help me see the truth about how to live righteous before you.

FORGIVE yourself. If God has forgiven you, you should forgive you. And God HAS forgiven you if you’ve repented and asked for forgiveness the Bible says He is faithful to forgive us.

REMIND yourself, remind the devil, remind the world that you have been redeemed by God’s grace, that you are righteous because of Jesus Christ, not your own works, that you are saved by faith, believing in Jesus, because of His great grace, his free gift of salvation.

/ / Atmosphere is important

Here’s another way that music can help. It’s been scientifically proven that music helps activate the right side of our brain, which is the creative side of our brain, and often times it’s the analytical side of our brains that kicks in, the don’t forget, gotta figure it out, problem solve some things because we’re finally quiet and you haven’t done this for so long, your brain chimes in, “Hey, I have some things I want to get cleared up...”

You can help quiet that down with some gentle instrumental music.

Here’s a Pro-Tip for you this morning. / / You can’t make time. We can’t create time. We can only take the time we have. And if we are waiting for things to be less busy, less hectic, or the right opportunity to come along where we just “feel” like doing this, it won’t happen. You have to TAKE the time and be intentional about meeting with God, and Hebrews says that if we seek, we will be rewarded with finding. Jeremiah says if we pursue, we will be met with God. David in the Psalms says that if we will be still before Him we will know, experience Him.

/ / 2. Look Up

This is where we learn to direct our attention to the one we’re there to meet with. Hebrews 12:2 says, Look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith...

This is also a recognition of How God speaks. Paul, in the book of Ephesians talks about something really important. He wrote in Ephesians 1:16-18, / / …praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you...

Ok, he’s asking for wisdom & revelation. That’s what we’re asking for, right? Revelation is a revealing. And what does he pray for that will aid in this...that the eyes of your hearts would be enlightened. This is what I would call your spiritual vision. The bible talks about this in reference to our imagination, and God using our imagination, or the eyes of our heart, having spiritual vision, to speak to us.

In 1 Chronicles 29 King David prays before all the people of Israel and says these really great things about God, honoring God’s Kingdom, giving him glory and saying that all victory and majesty are His, in His hands are power and might, all things come from God, He’s blessed them etc… and in vs 18 he says, and I’m reading this from the KJV, / / …keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee.

Keep these things in our hearts so we might see them in our imagination and our thoughts…

In Jeremiah 31:33 it says, / / “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts...”

Write them on their hearts…a very visual word for a place in us that is not God literally writing on our physical hearts, right?

Do you see what’s happening here? God is using visual language to explain what is happening in the spiritual realm that we can not see.

Habakkuk was a prophet in the Old Testament and wrote the book by the same name, and it says in Habakkuk 2:1, he describes how he’s going to listen for what God wants to say to him, / / I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guardpost - sounds like finding a quiet place to focus on God doesn’t it? And he continues, / / There I will wait to SEE what the Lord SAYS and how he will answer my complaint...

SEE what the Lord SAYS. Shouldn’t he have said, I’m going to wait to hear what He says to me? but he says I’ll wait to SEE…why? Because he knows that the Lord speaks to us often times using the eyes of our hearts, our imagination, our spiritual vision or spiritual hearing.

Another Old Testament Prophet, Joel, says in his book, Joel 2:28, declaring the word of God to the people of Israel, / / “...I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.”

This is how God speaks to us. Sure, He is God, and if he wanted to, he could meet us like he did with Paul on the road to Damascus. That story is in Acts 9 and in vs 3-4 it says, / / As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”

Wow, bright blinding light, knocks ya to the ground and a voice out of nowhere starts talking to you. Turns out to be Jesus...

Or maybe like Moses when he first heard the Lord. He’s walking through the wilderness with his father-in-laws flock of sheep and Exodus 3:2 says that as he was passing by mount Sinai, / / There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush...

And he takes notice because the bush isn’t actually being consumed by the first and then the bush starts speaking to him.

What about a little Dr Dolittle experience…We could be praying for that… In Numbers 22, God sends an angel to block the path of a man named Balaam, he’s riding on his donkey, and the donkey can see the angel, but Balaam can’t, so the donkey stops walking. Balaam gets so frustrated that he ends up beating the donkey, and the bible says in Numbers 22:28, / / Then the Lord gave the donkey the ability to speak, “What have I done to you that deserves your beating me three times?”

This is probably one of my favorites. Maybe God wants to speak to us like He did to the King of Babylon in Daniel 5. Babylon had conquered the city of Jerusalem and in the process they took some of the gold and silver items from the temple of God. Took them home and put them in the treasury. Well, years later a new King, Belshazzar, has this big party, and tells his servants to go get the cups from God’s temple so they can drink wine from them. God isn’t too impressed and in Daniel 5:5 it says, / / “Suddenly, they saw the fingers of a human hand writing on the plaster wall of the king’s palace, near the lampstand. The king himself saw the hand as it wrote, and his face turned pale with fright. His knees knocked together in fear and his legs gave way beneath him.

All of those would make it really obvious that God is speaking, right?

Your cat starts talking to you, or you see a floating hand writing on your wall, your tree in your front yard catches fire and starts talking, calling out your name....

But these stories, although amazing, and showing that God does speak, and that God is powerful, are not normal. I’m not saying don’t ask God to speak to you these ways, but, I can give you an almost fool proof way to hear God’s voice… it’s what Habakkuk says, / / I’m going to LOOK to SEE what He will SAY.

I’m going to quiet myself down and focus my eyes, the eyes of my heart, on Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith.

Think about the power of the imagination that God himself gave you when he created you.

How many people remember things by seeing them in their minds eye? I think it’s absolutely fascinating that we can see something not with our eyes while our eyes our open and we are focusing on something else.

Nobody think about a pink elephant. A big, pink elephant with a blue monkey sitting on its head, eating a banana...

how many people see that? You can’t help but think it and when you think it you see it?

Even more so if we say something we’ve seen before. If you’ve seen the original cartoon Aladdin, don’t picture Abu, the monkey being turned into an elephant by the Genie, don’t picture it....too late, you already did… If you’ve seen the movie, you are probably seeing that seen in your head, *poof* the monkey turns into a big ol’ elephant.

What if I start talking about some familiar bible stories:

Jesus taking a loaf of bread and giving thanks as He prays, blesses it breaks it up and hands it to his disciples and then feeds 5000 people on a hillside.

Jesus riding on the back of a donkey, walking through the streets of Jerusalem with everyone laying palm branches down on the ground in front of him.

Jesus walking on the water past the boat filled with disciples. It’s the middle of a raging storm and he calls Peter to come out of the boat and walk on the water with him...

Do you see all of those things? You’re literally doing what David asked of the Lord in 1 Chronicles, that the word of God would be kept in the imagination of your thoughts and your heart. And you saw it all while sitting in this room with your eyes wide open.

Again, we are following Jesus lead here. Jesus said in John 5:19, / / “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing...”

We covered that the first week, Does the Father love you? Yes

Does the Father want to show you all that he himself is doing just like He showed Jesus? Yes

God is going to speak to you, through the still small voice in your heart, through a picture in your mind, through a vision or dream.

So, practically here, remember these 4 words:

/ / DECIDE // ASK // PREPARE // APPLY

DECIDE for yourself that you will believe the word of God that says He speaks through dreams, and visions, through a still small voice in our hearts.

ASK God to speak to you through pictures, dreams, visions and spontaneous thoughts

PREPARE by keeping a journal with you when you pray, and on your nightstand while you sleep

APPLY these things by taking the time to spend with God, asking Him to speak to you.

/ / 3. Listen Up

Be Still, Look Up, and then Listen UP.

We believe God wants to speak to us. We’ve prayed and asked him to. Now what?

Now we wait, we focus on Him, and we give him time and space to speak. Maybe you have a thought. Maybe you remember a scripture you’ve read, or you see a picture, or a movie play in your mind. Maybe you feel, or sense peace, your body responds to the presence of God.

You can ask God questions, and then give him time and space to respond, exactly like a conversation with a good friend. A little trick, especially if this is a newer thing for you. Ask simple questions. Not because God can only handle simple question, but because you might only be able to handle simple answers at the moment. “God, is there anything you want to show me or say to me today? God, what do you love about me?”

Don’t ask questions that leave a tonne of room for confusion or doubt. Should I buy this house, or car. Should I marry this person, Should I quit my job and become a traveling circus clown, living the dream etc…

Also, give yourself permission to try this, to test it, and to make mistakes.

Remember, God is going to speak to you in the imagination or the eyes of your heart, and that still small voice. Not a big audible booming voice, a donkey or a finger writing on your wall, but if he does happen to do that, let me know!

/ / 4. Write It Down

The last thing we want to do is write down what we see, hear, sense or feel. And this is purely practical, but super important. First of all, the reason we do this is because our natural tendency is going to be to doubt what we hear. Even if it’s the simplest thing that we can’t argue with.

Maybe I ask God, “What do you love about me?”

And I hear in my heart, “I love the way you are with Kaylee, and how you express your love toward her.”

Oh, that’s not God, You think that yourself. You’re just trying to make yourself feel better because you’re actually a pretty lousy father, remember when you yelled the other day? Remember when you lost your temper?

And we suddenly are doubting that we heard God at all!

I’ve seen this happen more times than I can count.

The second thing writing down what we hear or see or feel is that it keeps us focused. The act of writing keeps our mind occupied so we can’t argue with ourselves, or over analyze. Don’t worry, there’s going to be time for analyzing.

It also means we don’t have to remember what we heard. We’ve got it written down.

And like I said, there’s time to test it, and this is when you can do that.

1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 says, / / Do not scoff at prophecies, but test everything that is said.

Prophecy is simply hearing God’s voice, and when we hear God’s voice we should test what we are hearing to make sure it lines up with the heart and character and word of God that we know to be true.

If you’ve followed these steps. Be Still. Look up. Listen Up and Write It Down, and you’ve asked God a question and you feel like He’s given you an answer, a picture or word and you’ve written it down in a journal, then ask these questions:

/ / Does it FEEL like it’s something God would say? Is it encouraging, uplifting, comforting?

/ / Does it line up with the Bible? The more you know the word of God the more you can trust what you hear when you are praying.

/ / Is it something you should pass by a spiritual advisor or friend?

Does it maybe not make sense? Or you’re just not sure about it? Do you feel your receiving specific direction and you want some confirmation? Ask a spiritual leader or friend in your life that you trust to weigh in on it.

And when I say that I mean someone in your life that you trust hears God’s heart. Don’t just ask any ol’ friend if what you heard is God if they don’t have the type of relationship with God that shows they hear Him for their own lives.

And that’s it. Hearing God’s Voice is that simple.

/ / Be Still // Look Up // Listen Up // Write It Down

This series, the Transformed Life, is about learning how to walk a path of God’s promises. It’s learning how to follow Jesus.

In John 10 Jesus says in two places, first he says in vs 14-16, / / “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father… They will listen to my voice… and vs 27 he says, / / My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

God wants to speak to you, to lead you and guide you in this life, and the key to having that happen in your life is being intentional about it. Remember, this isn’t always easy. Intimacy is In-To-Me-You-See, it’s not always comfortable or easy to open ourselves up to be vulnerable. But it’s the pathway to the transformed life!