I am convinced that most Christians continue to walk in brokenness for decades even though they have been born again.  The promise of being raised to walk in newness of life or in being a new creation is a potential transformation for the believer.  Many of the promises of God’s kingdom are there for the taking but they must be taken.  In Christ we are given a position of righteousness and holiness but we know our condition does not always match our position.  Transformation is the process that begins to make our condition line up with our position. Although transformation comes by the power and ministry of the Holy Spirit we are required to partner with him in that change.

Many believers recognize their brokenness and their sin but simply feel shame and condemnation while crying out to God to change them.  Many of us are waiting for the “transformation fairy” to whack us with his magic wand while we are sleeping so that we wake up a changed person with no effort on our part.  The radical life change God promises is our promised land flowing with milk and honey.  When God brought Israel from Egyptian bondage to that promised land, he told them the land was there for the taking.  He even promised to go before them to drive out their enemies but they could not sit on the wilderness side of the Jordan while he did all the heavy lifting. They would, in fact, have to enter into many battles with the enemy in partnership with their God to experience the fullness of the promise. In doing so, God intended for them to grow in faith and in their relationship with him. God is relational so his transforming work in our lives will be in partnership with him.

Our part is actually simple.  We only have to open ourselves up to Jesus totally and invite him to come in and do whatever is needed to heal us and set us free.  It’s simple but not so easy because few of us totally trust Jesus with every part of our life…the good stuff, the bad stuff, the hidden stuff, and the stuff we locked away so long ago that we can’t remember where we put it.  For most of us, it is the hidden stuff and the locked away stuff that we hold close and refuse to entrust to Jesus.  We think if he ever discovered those things he would reject us or shame us or not protect us from the engulfing pain of those memories and so we don’t acknowledge then or surrender them to his ways.

Opening yourself up to Jesus is very much like going to a doctor.  First, you must acknowledge that something is wrong that exceeds your own ability to diagnose or heal.  You may deny the problem, mask it, or medicate it.  But if you do, you only burn great amounts of energy attempting to manage or hide symptoms rather than affecting a cure.

Your part is to seek out the physician and tell Him everything.  Having told him everything, you then must allow Him to administer his own tests.  You may have to submit to poking and prodding, deep tissue scans, stress tests, or blood work. But to withhold information or to refuse to submit to His scans will put you at risk. Even after you have submitted to His diagnosis, you must faithfully follow His treatment plan…not just the parts you like, not just when you feel like it, but faithfully and consistently for deep healing to occur.

As we partner with the Great Physician, we must go to him and tell him everything.  We must invite him to evaluate our condition, scan us with his word and his Spirit, and prescribe treatment.  After his thorough diagnosis of our souls, we will still need to take his prescriptions and stick with the regimen until healing and change has occurred.  After that, we will need to return to him regularly for checkups to prevent our old condition from re-establishing itself. Then, we will need to walk out a healthy spiritual regimen to keep the flesh, the world, and the enemy from poisoning our souls once again.

But all of that begins with a courageous decision to abandon our protective walls and trust Jesus with everything in our past, present, and future. That is our part and it requires faith. Your flesh will push back against the decision and demons will scream at the thought.  But Jesus is faithful, gentle, trustworthy, and skilled.  The truth is that he already knows what you are hiding from him and he has not rejected you.  He continues to knock on the door hoping for an invitation to come in and bring his healing touch with him. I hope you will trust him today and give it all to the Healer, the one who died for you.

When I was being trained for ministry years ago, my instructors would often argue that God no longer intervened in the lives of men through miracles. The contended that we have the complete revelation of God in scripture and a sufficient record of all God’s miracles for man to believe. Therefore, miracles were no longer needed.

Of course, their view of miracles was that they were only granted for a certain season to authenticate the claims of Christ to be the Son of God and to validate the apostles so that we could believe that what they wrote and spoke was inspired by God.  Once those miracles were recorded, their function was fulfilled.

Of course, I accepted their explanation at the time because these were men who were revered as scholars and great articulators of the Word in my denomination. But looking back, I see that they had a very narrow view of miracles. The assumption that God acted in miraculous ways only to validate Jesus and a few apostles misses the point of many miracles and ignores a number of scriptures.  As you follow Jesus through the gospels he does say that the miracles he performed demonstrated that he had come from the Father.

If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me.  But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” (Jn.10:37-39)

And yet, many of the miracles Jesus performed were not motivated by a need or desire to prove who he was but purely out of compassion. In the first chapter of Mark, Jesus encounters a leper who asks for healing. Mark tells us that out of compassion Jesus touched him and healed him and then told him not to tell anyone how he was healed.  To the Gadarene demoniac of Mark 5, Jesus directed him to tell people how God had displayed his compassion by delivering him from his torment. In Luke 7, Jesus raised a widow’s son from the dead because he felt compassion for her.

If you  chase that word “compassion” through a concordance you will see that Jesus (and the Father) were motivated to perform many miracles, including the feeding of the 5000, because they were touched by the suffering of ordinary people.  On numerous occasions Jesus told those he had healed or set free not to tell anyone. If Jesus were simply looking for validation from these miracles he would have instructed them to go tell everyone.

There is a great deal of suffering today that science, medicine, and psychology still cannot touch. I prayed for a good friend and a great Christian leader yesterday who, from a medical perspective, has terminal cancer.  The best oncology can do is buy him some time at the cost of a great deal of suffering through chemo.  We are asking for a miracle of healing because God’s heart is still touched by the suffering of his people.

To believe that God only healed, raised the dead, and cast out demons to validate the Bible is to miss his character completely. If God is good and if he is love then he cares deeply about our pain and our suffering. Miracles are simply an expression of that love and his great grace. Like salvation, miracles are not earned by our goodness or even great faith.  They are given from the compassionate heart of a Father because he cares. Miracles do not flow from our belief in what God can do but in our belief of who God is.

Certainly the side effects of miraculous healing, deliverance, provision, and protection are the praise of men, the glory of God, and the reality of Jesus. But we can believe God for miracles today because he still cares. Yes, God heals in church services and in great revivals, but he also heals in hospital rooms, living rooms, the garden department at Lowe’s, the center aisle at Wal-Mart, and, of course, at Starbucks.

He does so because of his unfailing love and compassion for hurting people.  Is everyone healed? No.  Is God’s heart for everyone to be healed?  Yes. I know that because there is no sickness in heaven where God’s will is perfectly expressed.  I know it because Jesus never turned down one person who came to him for healing. God’s will is not always done on this earth. There are also mysteries related to healing that we have yet to understand.  But many are healed, many are delivered, many are protected and provided for in miraculous ways.  And when more of God’s church begins to expect their God to work through miracles the more we will see and experience personally.  Simply put – expect miracles because it’s who God is.

I believe it was John Wimber who used to say that “faith” is spelled “r-i-s-k.” Life without risk requires no faith.  A life that truly attempts to emulate the life of Christ is full of risk.   I know couples and individuals who live in the most dangerous regions of the world to share the gospel with radical Muslims.  I know couples and individuals who lead underground house churches in China and North Korea who face the real possibility of beatings and imprisonment every day.

These are followers of Jesus who depend entirely on the power and protection of heaven for their ministries and these are also the followers who see God do amazing things on a regular basis – healings, dramatic and improbable conversions, miraculous provision, words of knowledge, miraculous protection, and so on.  If you attend a church that is involved in world missions at any level you have heard similar stories.

As you heard those stories you probably applauded these great men and women of faith but thought that such a life of risk and miracles was beyond you.  You may have thought that you would love to see the power of God manifested in such ways but assume such miracles are reserved for missionaries in third world countries. Or, perhaps, a bit of cynicism deep in your heart questioned whether these “Acts-like” moves of God actually happen anywhere anymore.  After all, you have never seen such things with your own eyes.

Here is the thing. The economy of heaven is abundant but not wasteful.  The power of God is not poured out where it is not needed and it is not needed where there is no risk. I will also tell you that “risk” comes in many forms for believers and not just in third world nations.  Believing God and acting on that belief is risky even in America.  We typically don’t risk death or imprisonment (although that seems to be on our horizon) but we do risk rejection, embarrassment, and disappointment when we pray for miracles.

Christianity that believes our faith is simply about living moral lives, fatalistically accepting the ebb and flow of life on a fallen world, and first experiencing the power of God at the resurrection takes no faith beyond believing that Jesus died for our sins. A greater and more biblical level of faith is required when you begin to ask for miracles and even more when you begin to participate in those miracles.

Even in America, acting in faith involves risk. Sharing your faith with a close friend or family member risks rejection and damaging the relationship.  Sharing your faith with a stranger also risks rejection and ridicule or suddenly feeling the responsibility of helping a new Christian grow and deal with all the baggage.

Praying for actual miracles in the realm of healing, broken marriages, children lost to addictions, and provision risks disappointment. What if the person you prayed for isn’t healed? What if the marriage isn’t saved? What if your child continues living on the street fighting addiction?  How do you handle that?  What do you think about God and his promises regarding prayer?  What do you think about your own faith and your own relationship with God?

When you step out in faith there is risk and some of the risk is found in your own disappointment if you don’t see your prayers answered as you anticipated.  Then like Jacob, you have to wrestle with God, your faith, and your theology.  Do you keep on praying for supernatural healing even after your loved one dies? Do you keep praying for troubled marriages even though one still ended in divorce? Do you keep trying to believe God for your child?  Faith says, “yes,” even in the face of past disappointment.

If you are a believer who only expects the ordinary and only prays for the ordinary you will rarely face disappointment or a crisis of faith. You will rarely wrestle with your understanding of God. But stepping out and asking for the extraordinary like praying for supernatural healing in a hospital room where everyone else is praying for an easy passing is risky.  But that is what faith does and that is when God shows up in supernatural ways – even in America.

I believe the reason we don’t see the miraculous move of God in America as we do in third world nations is that we often have been trained not to ask for miracles so we “have not because we ask not.” Sometimes it is because we trust in science and medicine rather than the God who created the very things science has not yet understood.  We often pray as if God’s ability can only match what science and medicine can do in the natural and so we only ask God to do what science and medicine can do without him.  Sometimes we fail to ask because we don’t want to seem extreme or weird to our religious friends.

God does not pour out power when his people make no demand on that power.  The demand comes when they ask for the impossible in the name of Jesus.  If you want to see God move in amazing ways, you must place yourself in risky positions where nothing happens unless God shows up.  At some point, the joy of being willing to risk will overwhelm the fear that was once attached to that risk.  As go further into deep water with Jesus, we will see greater and greater things.  So…swallow hard and ask big. It is absolutely God’s will for your life.

In the spiritual realm, authority is paramount. Those of us in Christ live under grace but the rest of creation, seen and unseen, operates under law.  Law operates on the basis of authority and the power to enforce that authority.  That is one of the reasons that the Spirit has gone to such great links to assure us of the authority of Christ.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations … (Mt.28:18-19)

God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. (Eph.1:20-21)

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, proclaiming, “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah, for the accuser of our comrades has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. (Rev.12:10)

While Jesus has all authority we often forget that the Word of God has authority as well. The Bible not only contains truth and principles for living but edicts from the King.  Prophetic statements and commands are not just insights into the future or words to live by but they must come to pass because the King has declared them.  Those who stand in opposition to the word of God stand in opposition to the power and authority of heaven.

The phrase “It is written” is repeated throughout scripture and it carries the weight of “this is what the king has declared so it must be carried our or fulfilled.” When the Hebrew writer declares that the Word of God is “living and active” (Heb.4:12) he is saying that the word of God is not just ink on a page but that the Spirit of God and the powers of heaven move to activate that word in our lives and in the earth.  Paul says that the word of God is the sword of the Spirit and is part of the armor God has given us to stand against the enemy (Eph.6).  Most of the armor named is defensive and protective but the sword is an offensive weapon as well.  The Word of God is to be used as a weapon to not only protect us against the enemy but to take ground from the enemy as well.

When Satan confronted Jesus in the wilderness at the end of his forty-day fast, Jesus rebuffed each temptation with scripture and began each response with,“It is written. “  Jesus not only was aligning himself with the Father but was activating the word of God by declaring it against the enemy.  Jesus did not get into a dialogue with the devil but simply declared the word of God over the temptation and the situation. Matthew ends the account by telling us that the devil left and angels came and ministered to Jesus.  Remember, Jesus was operating as Son of Man rather than Son of God. When we declare the word with authority over the enemy or a work of the enemy, we can expect the enemy to leave and angels to minister.

I believe deliverance is more effective when our commands for the enemy to leave are prefaced with the word of God.  “It is written, ‘I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you’”(Lk.10:18).  “It is written, ‘Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord’” (Phil.2:10).  “ It is written, ‘these signs will accompany those who have believed: in my Name they will cast out demons’” (Mt.16:17) and so forth.

The word of God has authority.  Heaven will move to backup the edicts of the King with his power.  As you read through the gospels, Jesus spoke God’s word from the Old Testament over and over with authority.  You can sense from the passages that Jesus was absolutely convinced that if it was written it would surely come to pass and if it was written that was the place to take your stand. His example challenges us to know the Word and believe the Word as well. It is on the Word that we can stand and by the Word that we take ground, for it is written, “Man does not live by bread alone but be every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  Every command, every directive, every promise that we stand has come from the Kings mouth and that word will surely fulfill its purpose.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Pet. 2:9-10)

We are continuing to look at who we are in Christ and using Peter’s text above as a launching pad.  The Psalmist declares, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. “ Another way of expressing that thought is, “a man lives up (or down) to his view of himself.”  Knowing who you are matters.

Peter says by the inspiration of the Spirit that we are a holy nation.  Those who are in Christ make up a nation whose primary quality is holiness. Holiness comes from the Greek word hagios and is the word from which “saints” or “holy ones” comes in the New Testament.  Although it carries the idea of moral purity it also speaks of something set apart for service unto God.  God has always longed for a people he could call his own who had a heart for him.  He used the same language as he was calling Israel out of Egypt.

Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” (Ex.19:5-6)

God communicated his heart for his people with the phrase, “treasured possession.” What we discover from the Old Testament is that a covenant based on law rather than grace is not sufficient to establish the kind of relationship God has always longed for.  God always knew that.  He just wanted us to know that. And so, he called you and me and every Jewish believer into that relationship through a covenant of grace based on the blood of Jesus.

What he wants each of us to know is that we are holy in his eyes. We have been chosen out of the world and set apart for a very special relationship with the Father.  He wants you to know that in his mind, you are very separate from the people of the world who have not accepted Jesus.  It’s not that God doesn’t love those individuals but he chose you and you responded to his call so that you are in a unique relationship with the Father by covenant.  You are his treasured possession. You are viewed by the Father as his personal and very special treasure.  Treasure is interesting.  We seek it, value it, and protect it.  That is what God has done for you.  But we also put treasure on display.   That is also what God does with you.

God’s word says that you are the light of the world. You are a city set on a hill.  You are the salt of the earth. You are a star shining in a dark sky. You are the apple of God’s eye.  We don’t always want to be put on display because we are not sure we want to be seen or inspected by the world.  But…that’s who you are. That’s why we have been encouraged to live a life worthy of the calling we have received.  We are to reflect the Father’s glory to those who see us and he will enable us to do so if that is our heart’s desire.

Let me be a little transparent with you.  I used to think that we, as believers, were loves and treasured as a group rather than as individuals.  I saw myself as just a face in the crowd like fans at an NFL football game when the head coach stepped to the microphone and said, “We love you guys!” Well, I never received that personally and I often thought God loved me in the same way… as a fairly anonymous face in the nation or the church that he loved.  But, a verse in Hebrews 12 changed my mind.

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. (Heb.12:22-23).

In this verse I discovered that “firstborn” is plural.  It could be interpreted “the church of the first born ones.” What the Lord showed me was that each of us has the standing of being a firstborn to the Father. In a sense, each one of us is his favorite.  He knows us, delights in us, and plans great things for us, as any Jewish father would do for his firstborn son.  That’s why we are told that we are co-heirs with Christ. We are not a face in the crowd but we are each a well-worn photo in our Father’s billfold that has been shown to others time after time.  In Isaiah 49, Jehovah tells Zion, his people, that they are “inscribed on the palms of his hands” and that he “delights in his people” (Ps.149:4).

So, then, this is who you are.  You are holy and set apart from the entire world in a covenant relationship with a heavenly Father who views you as his treasured possession.  You are loved as a firstborn son by one who writes your name on the palms of his hands.  You are pursued, valued, protected and often put on display because he delights in you.  You wonder how he could delight in you?  Because he sees the end from the beginning and knows who you will be when he has finished crafting you for you are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus (Eph.2:10). So rejoice today because your Father in heaven is rejoicing over you.

After 30 years of pastoral counseling and working through my own “issues,” I am convinced that nearly every personal struggle walking into a pastor’s or therapist’s office has been birthed out of a negative self image.  Most of us come into the world hungering to know who we are.  Our view of ourselves is shaped by the responses of those around us. We ask a few basic questions in a multitude of ways.  Who am I?  Do I matter?  Does my life have significance? Am I worthy of love? Am I competent? Do I belong?

These basic questions begin to be answered immediately after existing the birth canal.  When I cry, do I matter enough for someone to comfort me, feed me, or change me?  Am I loveable enough that people fuss over me or hold me close?  Do I have enough significance that I am protected and nurtured?  When I am cared for,  fussed over,  and played with, the answer to these essential questions is “Yes.”  A lack of these parental responses or blatant neglect and abuse trumpets a huge “No” to these questions. A huge “No” breads all kinds of issues in the life that individual.

As we get older the refrigerator door becomes littered with crayon scrawls that we pushed into our mother’s face asking if she liked each one (our way of asking if we are competent or capable).  As we get older we measure our worth by the number of friends we have on Facebook, the number of parties we are invited to in junior high, the number of accolades we place in scrapbooks or see in our high school annual.

For the rest of our lives we are still scanning the horizon for clues about who we are and if we matter.  After forty years of marriage couples still ask one another, “Do you love me?” which is code for, “Am I still worthy of love and do I still matter?”  Many humans go to their graves with unhealed wounds because a father or mother never said “I love you” or I’m proud of you.”

God crafted us and understands more than anyone our deep need for confirmation that we matter, that we are capable people, and that our lives have significance.   Even the Son of God needed to hear, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Our heavenly Father spends a great deal of time in scripture answering each of those questions for us.  They are answered with a resounding “Yes” for every person in Christ.

They were answered first by the cross where our heavenly father paid the ultimate price to retrieve us from the enemy.  Beyond that we have been pursued, adopted, grafted into his beloved Israel, declared to be the righteousness of God, appointed as ambassadors of Christ, seated with Christ in heavenly realms, honored to be kings and priests on the earth, given the very presence of God to live within us, granted immediate access to the throne room of the creator of the universe, promised that our Father will never leave us nor forsake us, given purpose and destiny by the King of Kings, and given supernatural gifts that surpass any earthy talent that can displayed on a stage or in any arena.  On top of that we have been made more than conquerors and will sit in judgment on angels.

Think about who you are in Christ.  You matter. You belong. You have an amazing  destiny written in heaven.  The Holy Spirit lives within you, so are supernatural.  You are a son or daughter of the creator of the universe. You are his appointed representative on the earth.  You are flat amazing! God says so. Take that knowledge with you wherever you go today.

This is the final installation of Hearing God.  If you desire to hear the Lord speak, you may need to consider and deal with any hindrances in your life to hearing him.

Hindrances to Hearing God

 1.  Religious Preconceptions.  (See 2 Kings 5:11-12)

Sometimes our religious training puts God “in a box” so that, when He doesn’t act according to our preconceived notions, we dismiss or reject what He is doing.

2.   Working for God rather than seeking God.   (See Isa. 58:2-9; Lk. 10:38-42)

Sometimes we get caught up in doing all kinds of things for God rather than seeking God himself.   Martha was busy serving Jesus, but Mary was sitting quietly and listening to Him.  Jesus declared that Mary had chosen the better option.

3.   An Unresponsive Heart  (See Ezek. 11:19, Heb.3:8)

Hardened hearts do not make good receivers.  If your heart has been hardened by life so that you are bitter, guarded, distrustful, or always in control ask God to break down those strongholds and give you a softened, trusting, and responsive heart to His love and His word

4.    Unrepented Sin.  (See Ps .66:17-18)

Take an inventory.  If there is a persistent sin you love, excuse, or justify, acknowledge it and submit that sin to God and the cross. If God is going to speak freely to us, we must love Him above all things and all people.

5.    Unforgiveness   (See Matt. 6:12-14)

God says that a relationship with Him depends on our willingness to forgive others as he has forgiven us. Decide to forgive those who have wounded you.

6.   Distrust (Fear)   (See Ps. 62:8)

If we distrust God, fear that he will not act in our best interests, or protect us from too much pain, we will not want to hear from Him. Sometimes we don’t want to let God into the secret places of our heart because we are afraid of what he might say or what he might ask us to do about those things. Trust Him.  He loves you more than you love yourself.

7.   Half-hearted Faith, Double Mindedness   (See Ja. 1:6-8)

If we are only partially committed to live for God or if we want to serve two masters – God and whatever else we love that competes with Him – we will not hear from him as clearly or as often as we want.  God is a God who must be first and the only “god” in our lives.

8.   The Enemy  (See Eph. 6:10)

Satan will often try to interrupt your attempt to hear from God with distractions, feelings of condemnation, “brain static,” etc.  Before you begin to be still and listen for God’s voice bind the voice of Satan by the blood and the authority of Jesus.

Be sure to examine yourself regarding these hindrances and deal with each one through repentance and a renewed commitment to serve and trust the Lord.  When you do hear from God, you may hear him as a thought or a stream of thoughts that arise in your mind spontaneously.  You may hear one word that God wants you to consider.  You may receive a mental image, an impression, or a prompting that you understand intuitively.  You may even hear an audible voice, though that is usually the exception and not the rule. Just remember, God wants to speak to you and speak to you often.

Now that you have some framework for hearing God and testing the voice, I want to offer some guidelines for developing a life in which hearing God is the norm.

Guidelines for Hearing God

Sometimes God bursts into our lives with a thundering word as He did with Saul on his way to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9).   But most often, His is the “still, quiet voice” of Elijah’s cave (1 Kings 19:11-12).  Our part is to become effective receivers.  The voice of God fills the air like radio waves.  But if we are to hear His voice we must be tuned to the right frequency.  The following guidelines help us “tune in” to God.

1.  Expect to hear from God.  (See Jn. 16:12-15)

Jesus promised that He would send His Spirit to teach us, remind us, lead us, take from Him and speak those things to us, bear witness with our spirit, etc.  Expect what Jesus promised.

2. Be willing to hear from God about every area of your life.  (See 2 Cor. 10: 5)

Taking every thought captive to Christ means submitting every part of our life and soul to him.  If we want to limit God’s involvement in our life and declare certain areas “off limits, ” we will not hear from him often.  Those will be the areas about which he wants to speak most, since those areas will be the strongholds in our lives that keep us from being free in Christ.

3.  Invite Him to speak. (See 1 Sam. 3: 8-9)

Ask Jesus to speak and invite Him to say whatever He wants to say to you.

4. Be still and know….  (See Ps. 46: 10)

Stop your busyness.  Learn to sit and listen quietly.  Be willing to wait for his voice.

5. Be patient.  (See Ps. 130:5)

Often, we will need to wait on the Lord, sitting quietly for a while.  God may also choose not to say anything that day but keep asking and listening.

6.  Enter His presence with worship, the Word, thanksgiving, and prayer.  (See Ps. 100: 4)

The psalmist tells us that praise brings us into God’s presence.  In addition, seeking God through his word and through your prayer language prepares you to hear him more clearly.

7.  Write down what you hear, see or feel.  (See Hab. 2:1-2)

God’s word is precious. Journaling is an effective way to remember what God has spoken to you personally and to see his hand on your life as you review your journal from time to time.

8.  Act on those things that you believe you have heard from God.  (See Jn. 14:21)
Sometimes God will speak things that are just to be received rather than acted upon.  But when he tells us to do something, we should act.  Obedience brings greater revelation. Disobedience quenches the Spirit and hinders our hearing from God. Again, if he is asking you to take life-altering actions, test the spirit and seek confirmation.

9. Be open to seeing Jesus through the eyes of your heart as he reveals himself to you. (See    Eph. 1:17-19)

You may ask him to show himself to you in scenes from his word, from a place of safety where you have encountered him before, or a place that he shows you. Fix your eyes on Jesus. (Heb. 12:2)

10. Exercise authority over the enemy if you sense that the he is interfering with your ability to hear God.

Declare something like the following:

“In the name of Jesus, I declare that I have the mind of Christ and I renounce all the works of Satan along with the thoughts of the flesh and the enemy.  I now submit my intellect, my emotions, my will, and my imagination to Jesus and ask him to capture every thought and make it His.  I submit my mind to the Lordship of Jesus and in his name and by his blood I bind Satan and any demonic spirit from speaking to me. I command you in the name of Jesus to be silent and not to interfere in any way while the Lord Jesus speaks to me.  Amen

Hindrances to Hearing God in the next post.

When we believe that we may have heard from God, we are to test what we have heard or sensed.

     Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. (1 Jn. 4:1)

The first test for determining whose voice we have heard is always the Word of God.

We must determine whether or not the thought is consistent with God’s truth as revealed in His written word.  If not, disregard what you have heard. Of course, that also places a burden on us to know the Word of God well enough to test what we have heard against scripture.  We must always be aware that God will never contradict his word but He may contradict our understanding of His word.  Be open to the Holy Spirit giving you a new understanding of familiar scriptures as well as scriptures that catch your eye for the first time. If you are unsure whether a thought, a word, or an image lines up with scripture, share it with a spiritual mentor who has a strong biblical foundation.

There are four other good tests in addition to the Word of God.

1.  Does the “voice” or message seem consistent with the character of God or Jesus?

The character of God is revealed in the fruit of the Spirit passage of Galatians. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. “ (Gal. 5:22)

John tells us that “God is love” (1 Jn.4:8) and Paul gives us a working definition of love.  He says, “Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails” (1 Cor. 13:4-8).

The message and the “spirit” or “quality” of the message, then, will reflect those characteristics if it is from God. If the “voice” you hear is accusing, condemning, rude, boastful, mean, angry, or demeaning, it is not from God. If the voice asks you to do something contrary to scripture or if it violates his righteousness, it is not from God.

2.   Does the message produce peace in your heart?

Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you.  My peace I now give and bequeath to you.  Not as the world gives do I give to you.  Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid”  (Jn. 14:27). Paul also spoke about peace.  He said, “But the mind of the Spirit is life and peace, both now and forever” (Rom. 8:6). The fruit of the Spirit includes peace.

Sometimes God speaks things we don’t fully understand.  Sometimes He may send conviction about sin in our life.  Sometimes we may receive a word of discipline or a message about changes or even hardships we will be facing. But when God has finished speaking, there is always a sense of peace that surrounds His word.  God does not have plans to hurt us, but to bless us and, in our spirits, His word leaves that assurance.

3.    Do spiritual mentors sense that what you have heard is from God?

It is always valuable to have one or two spiritual mentors who have learned to hear God’s voice themselves and to share with them what you are hearing. They will often have a sense about the quality and content of what you are hearing that will help you develop your discernment.

4.  Confirmations

God is not offended when we ask him to confirm the word we believe we have received from him. In cases where we believe God is calling us to drastic action or significant changes in our lives, it is wise to pray for confirmation. Gideon asked for confirmation through the exercise of a ram’s fleece (see Judges 6:35-40) before he led Israel in battle. Jonathan sought confirmation through the verbal response of his enemies (see 1 Samuel 14:6-14) before he and his armor bearer attacked a Philistine garrison alone.  When we believe God has called on us to act in some life altering way, we may want to seek confirmation that we have heard him correctly.

Remember, we are not doubting God. We are simply making sure that we clearly heard from him and understood his intent. Confirmation can come in a variety of ways. Perhaps, circumstances line up in extraordinary ways or provision comes to us in miraculous ways. Individuals may come to us and tell us that God spoke to them about what we have been considering. We simply put our own “fleece” forward and ask for that confirmation just as Gideon and Jonathan did.  God honored their requests and we can expect him to honor ours. There will come a time when we will know God’s voice so well that confirmation will not be necessary, but as we are growing in this spiritual realm we may well want to seek his confirmation before acting.

More on Discerning God’s Voice in the next segment of this series.

Revelation:

One of the reasons many Christians don’t believe that God speaks to them is that they don’t recognize his voice when they hear it and don’t understand the ways in which the Holy Spirit reveals God’s heart to us.  Paul helps our understanding with the following passages.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.  For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.  This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.  The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Cor. 2:10-14)

 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.  (Rom.  8:16)

 In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul reveals the process through which revelation comes to every follower of Jesus. Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit searches the mind of God and Christ, takes their thoughts or feelings relevant to us, and reveals those thoughts and feelings to our spirit.  Our spirit, then, opens up those thoughts to our conscious mind so that we can perceive the mind and the heart of God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).  Because of that, we often hear the voice of God as a thought, an impression, a mental picture, a dream, or a vision that rises from our spirit into our consciousness.

Because this “download” from God’s Spirit to ours is experienced in the same way that we experience our own thoughts, we often dismiss a word of revelation from God as something we have intuitively known or discovered ourselves. Nearly every Christian has thought of someone spontaneously whom they had not thought of in days or weeks.  But suddenly, out of the blue, they think of that person and sense that they should give him/her a call.  When they do call, they discover that their friend or acquaintance was in desperate need of prayer or encouragement.  Then, that Christian goes on his way thinking about what a lucky coincidence all of that was.  What that person experienced was a revelation from God.  It was a “word of knowledge” about that friend and a prompting to make the call. God just spoke to that believer through the Holy Spirit but it seemed like an intuitive thought.

Many believers have had premonitions or foreboding thoughts about an event, an accident, or a disaster that they cautiously avoided.  They simply call it a premonition as if something had been floating around in the atmosphere and they had randomly sniffed a whiff of the future. What they actually experienced was a prophetic warning by the Holy Spirit.

Nearly all believers who study the word have had a moment when one scripture pointed to another and then another verse came to mind and suddenly a string of theological dots were connected that seemed like brilliant insight. What that person experienced was the Holy Spirit leading her into all truth and reminding her of things Jesus had said (Jn.14:26).  God had just spoken truth to that individual through the Holy Spirit.

My point is that Christians who don’t believe in the miraculous gifts of the Spirit or God speaking to his people today, have nearly all operated in those gifts themselves and have heard from God on many occasions.   They just call it something else because they have not been trained to expect the voice of God to come to them in a variety of ways.

The scriptures also tell us that God communicates with his people through dreams and visions. If we do not expect God to speak to us in those ways we will simply “write off” those dreams as something produced by our own minds and imagination.

If you, as a believer, have not been open to the voice of God coming to you, God has undoubtedly spoken to you or revealed himself to you on numerous occasions, but you simply did not know it was the Lord.  As a young man, the prophet Samuel heard God’s voice clearly and strongly on several occasions but believed it was a human voice calling to Him.  He finally asked Eli, his spiritual mentor, about the voice and Eli discerned that God Himself had been speaking to the boy.  It was then that Samuel began to recognize the voice of God in his own life.

As we come to expect God’s voice, we will learn that it has qualities that set it apart from our own thoughts.  Often there is a spontaneous quality when God speaks to us.  We simply know that the thoughts we are experiencing are not thoughts that have come from our reservoir of experiences nor are they expressed in ways that are common to us.  God speaks directly to us, not about us.  Dreams from the Father tend to be vivid and unforgettable.  Eventually, those who hear his voice on a regular basis will intuitively know it is God speaking to them as the Father, the Son or the Spirit.In addition to the inner voice of the Spirit, we may also hear from God in other ways as well – angelic visits, the audible voice of God, prophetic words, circumstances, dreams, etc. God desires to speak to his children in a myriad of ways and does so. .

Part of the joy of the Christian life is hearing personally from our heavenly Father in a variety of ways.I want to encourage you to begin to sense all the ways in a day that God has revealed himself to you and to begin to scan your own thoughts when you are in the Word or have been in prayer to sense the Father speaking to you.  Invite him to speak. Then listen.  Write down whatever you are hearing even though it will most likely feel like your own thoughts or imagination.  Tomorrow, I will talk about discerning whether what you hear is from the Lord or another source.