Listen

On October 16, 2023   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Isaiah 50: 4

He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple, the Lord God has opened my ear.

When I began studying the Bible seriously, there was one thing that really amazed me. I was surprised how easily people heard God speak to them. I was unaware of God speaking to people today. I mean there were a few special ministers, I guess, that God spoke to, but not to regular people. That was not Biblical though and I had to face the truth. God didn’t lose His voice and people still hear Him today.

It is a good thing that God is still speaking. We need to hear His voice today. You too can begin to hear His voice clearly if you do not do so now. First, you must believe that He will speak to you. This verse ought to help in that regard. Ask God to open your ear then ask Him to speak to you. Next is the hardest part of all; find some quiet in your life. I don’t mean you have to just sit in a dark room for hours, though if that is what it takes for you to hear God it would be well worth it. In my own life I found that I had very little quiet in my world. There was almost always some kind of sound machine on in my world. If it wasn’t the television, then it was the radio or stereo. Sometimes I was listening to Christian teaching tapes, but even Christian teaching tapes and CD’s do not take the place of the voice of God.

I was amazed at how little time it took for God to begin speaking to me. In fact, I discovered that He had been talking all along, I was simply unable to hear. As soon as I set my heart to hearing God, there He was.

One word of caution, and this is something I did almost clinically in the beginning though automatically today. As you begin to hear a voice in your head, check it out against the Word of God. God will never contradict His word. If what you hear doesn’t line up with the Word of God, reject it. I also asked God to confirm His word to me. When I thought I had heard God speak to me, I would ask Him to confirm it by another witness and He always would. Usually, He would show me a scripture that agreed with the word I had heard. Sometimes he would use a minister to confirm it. Regardless, I didn’t move until I was certain that it was indeed God.

And that is all there is to it.

Also see: John 10: 27

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Promised Health

On February 8, 2022   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Deuteronomy 7:15

“And the Lord will remove from you all sickness; and He will not put on you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known, but He will lay them on all who hate you.”

We are on the third verse of the healing series and here is what I have learned so far. Both of the first two verses seem to suggest that a key ingredient of health is listening to the voice of God. Now, I suppose that should not come as a surprise but at the beginning of this series, would you have expected that to be the first point Father expressed? And, don’t be surprised that I said that this is what I am learning because I am right there with you. The first verse said, “give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments,” (Exodus 15: 26), so I am asking and listening along with you.

Today’s verse comes from a section in Chapter 7 subtitled, Promises of God. So, now you can say you have a promise from God regarding healing. He promises He will remove sickness. Here is the interesting bit though. You can tell that verse 15 is a continuation of previous verses. It even seems that it might express the result of what came before and, in fact, this is true. I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but maybe God does. You have to go back to verse 12 to find out the context of this passage. Verse 12 reads, “If you listen to these regulations and faithfully obey them, the LORD your God will keep his covenant of unfailing love with you.” How great is that!? Even more interesting is that the verses between 12 and 15 include blessing your food and drink. So, here we are again. If we will listen to the Lord our God and obey Him, He will remove sickness from our midst.

Do you remember that the Jews had specific dietary guidelines and that those differed from other populations? What is that about? Do you think those guidelines were exactly what these verses speak to? I am not suggesting that God is telling you to go kosher. I am saying that He speaks to His people, leading them to healthy choices. I want to be clear in this too, what He speaks to me may not be the same as what He speaks to you. Maybe one person is advised to give up dairy or wheat while others are not. What I am explicitly saying is that Yahweh wants to remove all sickness from you because of the love covenant He made with you. He leads us to good health because that is what love does. It is imperative that we learn to inquire of Him and then to listen and obey.

Now, here is the hard part, listening. Tell the truth, do you sometimes get a little nagging feeling down inside of you about what you are eating? Do you get thoughts that would lead in a particular direction if you heeded them? Or, perhaps you hear a thought go through your head about drinking more water or getting up and walking a bit. God is rarely a loud voice in your head. He is gentle, more often nudging than pushing. We all need to become experts at hearing God’s voice and that often begins by listening to some of the quiet thoughts which float across your mind.

God is removing sickness from among us, as He promised to do. Our part in the bargain seems to be listening to His commands and faithfully obeying them.

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Comfort and Assurance

On April 1, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Jeremiah 29: 12 -14

Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. And I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes.

Comfort and assurance, those are the two feelings I want to transmit to you today. It is my hope that these verses reassure you about the God who wanted to be a Father. He longs to be found by you. He wants to hear what you have to say. He is listening.

How many people simply long for someone who will listen to them? We have a Father who desires conversation with us. I think of how we pray and I wonder if it is what He has in mind. Further, I don’t think it is even what we want. Is it fulfilling to recite our laundry list of needs and wants or do we really crave talking with Him and having Him really hear us?

I think of Yahweh Father sitting in the middle of a large room. We, like small children, have been arranged in a big circle around Him. We have our eyes closed. Then He says, “Okay, come find me!” My word! We open our eyes and He is right there in front of us. It is so easy. But then, we become adults and we can’t find Him. Are our eyes wide open and yet we cannot see Him? I can see our adult selves roaming all over the room looking and asking each other, “Do you know where He is? Have you seen Him?” It must be frustrating to be God. He keeps saying, “I am right here; right in front of you.” And I say to my neighbor, “Did you hear something?”

When we were children, in our hearts and chronologically perhaps, we opened our eyes and, with great glee, ran to the Father and jumped all over Him. Let’s do that again. Let’s be five years old and not care, or even think to care, what others think. Let’s go talk with Dad and tell Him all the things which are on our minds and hearts.

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Listen

On March 5, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Numbers 2: 1 – 2

Now the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, “The sons of Israel shall camp, each by his own standard, with the banners of their fathers’ households; they shall camp around the tent of meeting at a distance.

One of the grandest precepts for us to accept and subsequently incorporate is that we can hear the voice of God speaking to each of us. Especially on this side of the Protestant Reformation, we should be people who are zealous to talk with God and hear His responses. Yet, we have fallen into a pattern of “praying” to him and then walking away. It is vital that we each hear the voice of God so that we may be led according to all His good intentions.

In the Old Testament, people heard God speak. Obviously, God was able to be heard by these two. Yahweh laid out a complete picture of where each tribe should pitch its tent in the camp and the order by which they should proceed when they traveled. If you were to read chapter 2 of Numbers, you would find that there is great detail in the instructions given by God.

Consider the building of the Tent of Meeting. It was completely designed by God and communicated to people. They heard the voice of the Lord right down to the color of the fabric and precise measurements. How is it that they could receive such detailed instructions from God, and we struggle to hear His voice at all?

I hope you will engage that question. Why are we not hearing God speak? Why don’t we all have a strong dialogue with God? It is not His intention that we live separated from Him. His desire is that we live in Him and with Him. He even said that he wants to make his abode with us (John 14: 23). That means He wants to live with us. Wouldn’t it be odd for someone to live with us but never speak with us, for us never to exchange thoughts and ideas? That seems very odd and yet that seems to be many people’s experience. So, either, we haven’t allowed God to make His abode with us, He isn’t speaking or we aren’t listening. What do you think?

Maybe you should ask Father about this. Maybe you should ask Him if your joint communication is where He wants it. Of course, then you will need to listen for an answer. Be still, turn off the TV and the telephone and listen to the voice within you. Take a few minutes to create quiet in your environment, both on the outside of you and the inside. Then listen. If you have trouble hearing, ask Him to help you but as you ask, believe that He will answer. Then be still and listen. And be persistent. If you are not hearing God or not hearing Him as well or as frequently as you would like, then persist. I promise that if you will allow Him, He will teach you.

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Listen

On January 11, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Hebrews 12: 25 – 26             New Living Bible

Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven! When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.”

The God’s Word Translation reads, “Be careful that you do not refuse to listen when God speaks.” When God spoke to the Israelites, they did not listen. Are we listening? Do we want God to have to raise His voice because we refuse to listen to His calm, still voice within us? We know what happens if He raises His voice even a small amount. The earth cannot bear up against the power of His voice.

Sometimes we need to be shaken, I don’t deny that. However, we are also His voice in the earth as was Moses. God won’t have to shout if we continue to go into all the world and share this good news about Jesus. And do you know that sometimes the best oratory is a whisper. There is no good in us trying to shout down our neighbor. Love has a gentle voice and that is the voice people need to hear, that God loves them and is not condemning them. I don’t want Him to have to shout because we didn’t carry His message to the lost.

I am concerned that modern Christians do not bother to try to listen to God. Maybe He wants us to pray for Israel or Mexico. Maybe He just wants us to pick up the phone and call a friend. Regardless, God wants us to listen to Him and I worry that we are not doing a very good job of that. The devil has tricked us into living in a fast paced environment so that we feel we don’t have time to listen to God. We don’t often slow down long enough to ask Him His thoughts. Ministers are guilty of this too. We get so busy doing “God’s work” that we forget to spend time with God. It is ridiculous, I know, but if you think about it, how many of us really ponder the Word or seek God’s voice? It really is epidemic in the church. How, then, are we going to set the captives free? How shall we be like Moses when we don’t hear the voice of God. Is God going to have to shout at us like He did from Mount Sinai? They didn’t listen to Moses even though he carried the message from God and spoke for God so God had to open His mouth and they didn’t like it. We need to not make the same mistake. God still sends messengers every day with His words, His messages. Are we pausing to consider these words from God? If we don’t listen to Him, who will? It is in our job description.

We need to heed this caution, “Be careful that you do not refuse to listen when God speaks.” It is not too late to set a New Year’s resolution. Seek God’s face daily and train ourselves to listen to His voice. If you need help, I am always here to assist you. Be blessed!

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