Listening, are we?

 W R I T E R | Chaun

God speaks. He speaks actively, constantly, quietly, profoundly, through dreams, through visions, through His word and I could go on and on. The question is: are we listening? I grew up in a pretty conservative church that taught the only way God speaks to us today is through the Bible. So I would read a chapter or two, take what I could from it and then say my prayers which essentially went something like this…”dear God thank you for this and that and please help me by giving me this and this and this etc, amen.” That was just the norm for me and I never really gave it much thought. Then I went to Scotland where I stayed for 6 months doing a discipleship program through an organization called YWAM. The very first week the classes were on hearing the voice of God. I figured that seemed pretty basic and I probably wasn’t going to get much new revelation from that week of lecture. Little did I know that very first week would be a big part of completely changing the way I viewed my relationship with Christ. John 10:3-4 “To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice and he calls his sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice” Now of course Jesus is referring to himself in this scripture and we are His sheep, we are actually referred to as sheep multiple times throughout the bible. Jesus says clearly that his followers will know His voice. Now that struck me as quite interesting because I had only really read His words but I had never really heard His voice. I started to wonder why? Why wasn’t God speaking to me? And when one of my teachers prayed in front of the class I realized that it was completely different than how I had been approaching it. She quieted herself, praised God the Father, asked Him a specific question (even as simple as what do you want to speak to me today?) and then she gave Him time to respond. Then, it really struck me, I wasn’t hearing God because I wasn’t even giving Him the chance to respond. Now, this is when it can get a bit confusing i.e. the many ways of hearing and discerning God’s voice. There are many debates and beliefs out there about exactly how God can speak to us but I am not going to delve into that. When I am talking about hearing His voice I am not talking about a big loud booming audible voice, (Ivam sure he can speak that way if He so chooses) however it does seem quite rare. I am talking about hearing Him in our hearts and minds. The biggest question when it comes to this is how do I know if I am just hearing my own thoughts or God’s? This was a tough one for me but it just took time and practice to learn and be able to discern the voice of Jesus. Even now in my prayers sometimes I can be unsure of who is speaking but here are some basic principles that can help: -Does what you are hearing line up with what God says in the Bible? -Are you asking a specific question and getting a response? -Don’t just look for a simple yes or no answer, God can say so much more than this -Don’t be afraid to ask other fellow believers for discernment -When asking God for a word for others start with a group of believers and give yourself the freedom to fail and keep practicing When I came into my discipleship program I had a pretty narrow view of God and realized that I had put Him into a box that I could be comfortable with and understand. But God doesn’t belong in a box! He is the infinite creator of the universe who desires to have a deep personal relationship with us and this isn’t possible without communication. God blew my box apart when He started to speak to me through my dreams, through the words of others and directly to me through visions and words. He spoke to me in ways that I thought only belonged in the Bible stories. I didn’t believe these things were possible for me. Praise Jesus that He still chose to love me and speak to me despite my lack of faith and understanding. So I don’t know if this may be new to some of you or maybe it is old news and you have already experienced God speaking to you. Either way I encourage you today to just take some time in prayer, ask God a specific question and let Him reply because the King of Kings desires to speak to you!