..."and a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the way of holiness; evil minded people shall not travel on it, but it shall be for those wayfarers who are traveling toward God. (Isaiah 35:8, adapted)



Tuesday, April 17, 2018

It's Easy to Hear God

Did you know that it's easy to hear God? I'll bet that surprised you since you might not think so. I've encouraged my home group to write down a few things they have been seeking God about but with the expectation and the proclamation that it's easy to hear God and that they will obey when they hear.
A few weeks ago I was praying at the altar at church and God showed me that He clearly speaks to me but that I then take what He says and kind of put it through a test, passing it back and forth between "yes, I think its God" and "no, I'm not sure." I then run it through some kind of spiritual counterfeit machine and then i wait to see how i feel about it! All so that I can be sure I'm "hearing God" and not the voice of my own soul or the voice of the enemy. You could say its me trying to be careful and it is but it really ends up being kind of an insult to God and my relationship with Him.
What if you did that with your closest friends? What if they said something to you and you said, "Be right back, I've got to figure out if its really you saying this. " For the most part we know what our closest friends would say in any given situation, so why don't we feel confident in trusting that we can hear God? Do we know Him that well? If not, His Word is calling to be read and known! "His sheep hear His Voice, the voice of another they will not hearken to!"
Are we trusting the part of us that is flesh and wants its own way more than the part of us that loves God and is born of His Spirit and wants to hear God, indeed lives on every word that God speaks?
What if our daily proclamation was "I easily hear and confidently obey what God speaks to me!" I dare you to try this. You see, what happens is that we get so bogged down into questioning the hearing that we do not end up doing much at all. You would soon find out that if the enemy of our soul knows that you are going to act on what God says then he will no longer be able to use this stalling tactic on you.
Do you think Jesus had a hard time knowing the will of God? He said, "Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing" (John 5:19)... It was easy because it was his first and only priority! Any hindrance was pushed out of the way. He HAD to hear what His Father was saying.
Will you occasionally get it wrong because of your humanity? It is a possibility, but a self-correcting one. Isaiah writes, "If you go the wrong way—to the right or to the left—you will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the right way. ·You should go this way" (Isaiah 30:21). And the thing is one thing has changed to make it even easier since Isaiah's day: now that Voice is within you if you are a believer! Obviously, the voice of God never tells you to do anything contrary to the Word of God. God is not going to tell us to hurt someone, to hurt ourselves, to go against His commandments, to act against the nature of who God is, etc.
When we live to do the will of God, we will know very quickly when we have gone off the path because the Holy Spirit, in our spirit, will warn us. "Danger! Will Robinson, Danger!" God wants us to tighten up our ability to not only hear God but to obey Him in this hour. Please start to walk in the place where you expect to hear God easily "for as many are led by the Spirit of God are the sons and daughters of God" (Romans 8:14) and "all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory" (2 Corinthians 1:20).
God is speaking clearly today, have a listen! and then obey!
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P.S. I hear God saying that someone will read this and think they are so far away from hearing God. OK, so, no matter where you are at, how far away you feel from being able to hear God's voice, if you will ask Him, you will know the next simple step you must take. That is all you need. Take that step, and the next one will be given to you. Step by step, we can walk out of the darkness into light.

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