May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you. Eph 1:18 NIV
What [does] it mean to be just like Jesus? The world has never known a heart so pure, a character so flawless. His spiritual hearing was so keen he never missed a heavenly whisper. His mercy so abundant he never missed a chance to forgive. No lie left his lips, no distraction marred his vision. He touched when others recoiled. He endured when others quit. Jesus is the ultimate model for every person… God urges you to fix your eyes upon Jesus. Heaven invites you to set the lens of your heart on the heart of the Savior and make him the object of your life. Just Like Jesus (Max Lucado) In May 1995, a 34 year old construction worker by the name of Randy Reid, was doing some final welding on top of a nearly completed water tower in one of Chicago's suburbs. At one point, Randy unhooked his safety belt so he could reach for some pipes. But at that same moment, a metal beam slipped off a nearby crane, and bumped the scaffolding Randy was standing on. The scaffolding tipped, and Randy lost his balance. He fell 110 feet to the ground below. In landing, he just missed a pile of rocks and construction debris on the ground. Instead he landed face down on a pile of dirt.
A fellow worker saw the whole accident and immediately called 911. When paramedics arrived, they couldn't believe their eyes. They found Randy completely conscious, moving, and complaining that he had a sore back. Even though he went through such a horrendous fall, Randy still maintained his sense of humor. Because as paramedics carried him on a backboard to the ambulance, Randy asked one thing. He said, "Hey guys, be careful, will you? Don't drop me." When he arrived at the hospital and was examined by the doctors, and they discovered that the only injury he suffered was a bruised lung. Friends, I think sometimes our faith resembles Randy. God protects us from harm in a 110-foot fall, but we're still nervous about three-foot heights. By that I mean, we have faith that God will save us from hell and death, but we're afraid that He won't be able to protect us from the smaller difficulties we are going to face this coming week "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and ALL these things shall be added to you." (Matthew 6:33) "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In ALL your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths." (Proverbs 3:5-6) Tom Rietveld 2 Thessalonians 3:3
'But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.' - You have nothing to fear. - God will undoubtedly be faithful to you. - He undertakes to strengthen and protect you. - Receive it! He is faithful. PRAYER: Lord, You are my faithful God. I receive the strength and protection You have made available to me right now. Amen. Therefore every one who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock.
—Matthew 7:24-25 Let's be real pragmatic at this point as we investigate some practical tools to aid us in our journey of leaning our ear His way. Ten Effective Tools to hear Gods voice • Number One: Don't Make Hearing God Complicated! It is actually not hard to hear God. We tend to overcomplicate the whole matter. The following are three simple steps that help us, very simplistically, hear God's gracious voice. # 1 — Submit to His Lordship Ask Him to help you silence your own thoughts, desires and opinions. You want to hear only the thoughts of the Lord right now. Proverbs 3:5-7, "In all your ways acknowledge Him. And He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your eyes, fear the Lord and turn away from evil." James says, "Submit unto God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Before resisting always comes submitting. # 2 — Resist the Enemy Use the authority Jesus Christ has given you as His disciple to silence the voice of the enemy. Apply the Blood of Jesus over your life and resist the enemy. He will run in terror away from you. Great news! If you do what God wants you to do (first!), then He will do for you what you cannot do on your own! # 3 — Ask your Question and Expect God's Answer Ask the question that is in your heart, bring it before the throne of Almighty God. You must now wait for Him to answer. Believing that as you submit to God and resisted the enemy you can now expect that you will be filled with the knowledge of God's will with all spiritual wisdom and understanding (Colossians 1:9). Now, at times, an immediate reply will come—other times it is like a slow, simmering process—but the most important aspect is to ask, expect and receive. • Number Two: Allow God to Speak in the Way He Chooses. Don't try to dictate to God the guidance methods you prefer. Listen with a yielded heart. There is a direct link between yielding and hearing. He may choose to speak to you in a method that you are not accustomed to. He will speak through His written Word, through a person, through dreams, visions, through the quiet inner voice... Now having submitted, resisted and asked, do not dictate the way you want Him to answer your request. Allow God to speak to you in the way He chooses. • Number Three: Confess Any Known Sins. Psalm 66:18, "If I regard wickedness in my heart the Lord will not hear me." If the Lord doesn't hear you, then you're not going to receive the answer that you're hoping for, because He hasn't even heard the question yet. So the third point in hearing God's voice is one of the foundation stones of A, B, C Christianity—the confession of sins. Confess your sins. He is waiting to listen. He is waiting to forgive. Confess your sins to our Father in Jesus' great name. A clean heart is a prerequisite to hearing God. • Number Four: Have You Obeyed the Last Thing God Told You to Do? If you haven't obeyed His last orders, why do you think He would give you new ones? He's waiting for you to do what He's already told you to do. This alone is one of the main reasons people don't think they are hearing from Papa. He has already spoken—you already know what is required of you. Now go do, for Jesus' sake! It's the issue of obedience. Go back and finish your last orders could be a word of wisdom needed so that you can continue in life's journey. • Number Five: Get Your Own Leading. God will use others to confirm your guidance, but we must learn to hear the voice of the Lord for ourselves. God is a jealous God. He wants to talk with you. Become secure in your own identity in Christ. Realize that you are a son or daughter of the Creator of the universe in your own right. He has promises to lead His own and has given us His precious Holy Spirit to be our guide. Is He yours? Don't be wrongly co-dependent upon others. At the same time, don't jump in the other ditch by over-reacting and cultivating an independent and rebellious spirit. You've got to, and you will learn to, hear God for yourself. • Number Six: Don't Talk about Your Word Too Soon. This is a really wise one. I wished I had known this one a bit earlier on in my life! I think the dreamer Joseph might have wished he had heard this one also! The main purpose of waiting is to help you avoid the not-so-obvious pitfalls. Have you ever considered that God might like to share a secret with a trusted friend? Have you considered asking permission before opening wide your mouth and repeating everything you supposedly know? Oftentimes, God does speak something to us ahead of time, before it comes into being. His word comes to prepare us and to change us to be the vessel qualified to do what has been spoken. He will prepare us for that which lies ahead. • Number Seven: God Will Confirm What He's Telling You. Realize God does use others to confirm His word. It's a part of a safety net of protection. Second Corinthians 13:1 wisely states that God will confirm His word by two or three witnesses. This particular truth is quoted three times in the Bible. God will confirm His word by the witness or testimony of two and three others. Isn't that wonderful! If it really is God, He will speak the same or similar thing more than once. So—in other words—you don't have to go running off with just a one-time word! If it really is from God, it will be confirmed. Rest in that fact. Believe that the Lord will speak through those in relational authority in your life. Trust the Lord and pray for those in authority. There is safety in the multitude of counsel. • Number Eight: Be Aware of Counterfeits. Satan loves to counterfeit. He has no originality—He's just a copycat! If there's a counterfeit, what does that mean? It infers that there's something authentic and real out there. The enemy only counterfeits what is real. Counterfeit money...Why is there counterfeit money? Because there's real money and it has power. Why does the enemy have counterfeit voices, counterfeit occult, counterfeit experiences, and even counterfeit supernatural encounters? Why? Because our Lord of Hosts has the real power, the real dreams, myriads of angels, and the true guidance system. God is a supernatural Being. People are born with a void that only the voice of God can fill. But beware of counterfeits from the dark side. They exist to trap you; flee from them in Jesus' name! • Number Nine: Practice Hearing God's Voice. Yes, practice hearing the voice of God, and it will become easier. It's like picking up the phone and recognizing the voice of a friend. You know their voice because you've heard it so much. If I want to know His voice, I've got to spend some time with Him. The voice of the Holy Spirit is so lovely to me today. I would never want to grieve Him. We must get to know the voice of our Master and it only comes by spending time with Him. The more you practice, the easier it becomes! • Number Ten: Cultivating an Intimate Relationship. From God's perspective, the most important reason for hearing the voice of God is not just to know the right things to do—it is knowing the Source Himself! If you don't have good communication with a person, you don't have a vibrant relationship with them. True guidance is getting closer to the Guide. We grow to know the Lord better as He speaks to us. As we listen to Him and obey His word, we make His heart glad. Our relationship with our Papa God goes so far beyond information, guidance, dreams, visions, angels, and all the wonderful supernatural stuff. It goes so far beyond that. It's all about intimacy with Jesus. The gifts of the Spirit are appetizers to whet our desire for more of God Himself. The voice of God is used to create a deeper hunger within us so that we might come into closer communion with Him. The reason to hear His voice is really simple: to cultivate an intimate relationship with our Abba Father. Our Daddy wants to commune with us even more than we want to commune with Him. Draw near, He is drawing near to you. So, that's some simple foundational thoughts on hearing the voice of God. I hope these tools will get added to your tool chest 'cause it's time to listen up! The Holy Spirit has something He wants to say to you! Blessings to You! Encounters Network • PrayerStorm • Compassion Acts The moment we close our minds and stop learning from God, that moment we stop being useful to the World.
Lord we pray that you guide us in Your truths ,forgive us our transgressions and iniquities for they are great. Keep us safe and deliver us for You are our refuse. We pray this in Jesus Name Amen Adapted from Psalm 25 Look back and thank God.
Look forward and trust God. Look around and serve God. Look within and find God!" God closes doors no man can open and God opens doors no man can close. John 5:19 teaches us that Jesus was obedient to Father God to the point of refraining from doing anything He did not first see the Father do (see also John 8:28-29) none of us are at that level yet but it should certainly be our goal.
Even though Romans 8:1 teaches us that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, many believers still struggle greatly with guilt and condemnation. We need to believe that if we repent and ask God for forgiveness we should not carry those burdens anymore. God forgives and forgets our sins if we repent of it. Psalm 103:12 and Heb 10:17-18
“Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.” (Ephesians 5:17 NLT)
Every day I talk to people who say, “If there is a God and he allowed me to be born and I’m still alive, what is his plan for me? Why am I here, and what am I supposed to be doing? How do I find out God’s will for me so I don’t waste my life?” The Bible says this: “So be careful how you live. Don't live like ignorant people, but like wise people. Make good use of every opportunity you have, because these are evil days. Don’t be fools, then, but try to find out what the Lord wants you to do” (Ephesians 5:15–17 TEV). It’s wise to figure out why I was put on Earth. It’s foolish to go through life without a clue. Fortunately, God doesn’t play games with us. He wants us to understand his will for our lives. When we look toward the wrong things, we create barriers to discovering God’s will. For instance:
First and foremost, God wants you to get to know him, like he already knows you. Once this relationship is established, everything else — career, family, goals, recreation, ambitions, finances, health, and friendships — will begin to fall into their proper place. Daar is 'n storie oor 'n luitenant wat vrywilligers vir 'n gevaarlike missie wou hê: "As jy kans sien, tree vorentoe." Almal kyk om hulle rond en gee dan saam een tree na agter terwyl hulle 'n niksvermoedende "vrywilliger" alleen laat staan. God wil nie "onwillige vrywilligers" hê nie. Jesus het gesê: "As julle my volgelinge wil wees, moet julle julle eie-ek prysgee, elke dag julle kruis opneem..." Hy wil mense hê wat bereid is om hul gemaksones te verlaat; om hul verwagtings op te gee dat die lewe volgens hul voorwaardes gelewe word; om alles op te offer vir mense wat dalk nooit sal weet hulle het dit gedoen nie; om die prys te betaal sodat God se doelwitte bereik kan word. En wat meer is, Hy verwag van ons om dit "daagliks" te doen. Toe Jesus gesê het, "... jy kan nie my dissipel wees as jy nie jou eie kruis dra... nie", het Hy ons nie gevra om iets te doen wat Hy nie gedoen het nie. Johannes sê: "Hieraan weet ons wat liefde is: Jesus het sy lewe vir ons afgelê. Ons behoort ook ons lewens vir ons broers af te lê." (1 Johannes 3:16). Is jy bereid om "elke dag op die randjie van die dood te lewe"? (1 Korintiërs 15:31 NLV). As jy mooi daaroor dink, besef jy dis moeiliker as die fisiese dood, want dit beteken dat jy jouself ontken en God gehoorsaam selfs al stuit dit jou teen die bors. Dit is waarvoor jy geroep is!
Sielskos: Jes. 34-37; Joh. 11:28-37; Ps 50; Spr. 26:27-28 |
Ana & Andre Schoonbee God uses us to motivate and encourage the body. Authors
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