| OUR NEED TO HEAR GOD James W. Goll HIS GLORY REIGNS B. Childress Apr 02 2010 08:00AM
"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Revelation 3:20 Does God really speak today? Will He speak personally to me? If I listen, will He speak in such a manner that even I can understand? Thank God, the answer is yes? And, believe it or not (I expect you will believe it by the time you finish this book), God Himself wants all of us to hear what He is saying - more than any of us do! Each of us was created with a deep inner longing to hear our Master's voice. He didn't make us to be mechanical robots that just march around doing preordained things. Our Father God created us to have fellowship with Him. It is our birthright to have an actual relationship with our God. If our yearning for an intimate relationship with the lover of our souls is to be fulfilled, hearing His voice is a must. We cannot grow in our relationship with God unless we draw near to Him, trusting that He wants to speak to us personally. Jesus came to restore humankind into the sweet fellowship that Adam and Eve first had known in the Garden. Sin cut them off from God and they could no longer be close to God. Sin in the same way today cuts off each of us from God. But sin doesn't have the final word. Because of the cross and the shed blood of Christ Jesus, we can be restored to fellowship. One of the main reasons Jesus came was to enable us to walk in restored communion with God. From my perspective, the greatest need in the Church today is for believers to clearly hear the voice of God for themselves. For us to reach our potential for a intimate relationship with God, we must be able to communicate with Him. Communication with God goes two ways: (1) talking to Him and (2) listening to Him when He talks to us. To have good communications, we must learn how and when to speak up and how to push the "pause button" in order to listen. Most of us seem to do okay on the first one. But we have to take the time to learn the lost art of listening to Him, expectantly. It Takes Two Fellowship is not a one-way road. It takes at least two, with both parties - in one another's presence - sharing attentively in some kind of communion. Our relationship with our heavenly Papa was never meant to be a long-distance telephone conversation. "Available" is God's middle name. He is just aching to spend time alone with each of us. He yearns to hear from us. He wants us to know how attentive He is. As I travel in my ministry, I am often away from my family for days at a time, but I diligently attempt to keep in touch with what is happening at home. Some times I do a better job than at others. Using today's wonderful modern technology - cell phones, faxes, email and such - my wife and I attempt to keep in touch. But cell phone calls and email messages do not compare or replace being with my dear wife and family. Sometimes I just need a hug! True love requires being together. The greatest key to hearing God's voice is cultivating a love-based relationship. Mark Virkler states it this way: "The voice of God, I've discovered, is Spirit-to-spirit communication, the Holy Spirit speaking directly to my spirit." True fellowship requires that both parties speak and listen, both sharing their hearts deeply with one another. This is the key to keeping all relationships fresh and alive. In an atmosphere of truth, we share our heart with someone else. Communion with God is much more than a ritual or an "information time." It's Spirit- to-spirit time! Dutch Sheets said, "What topic could possibly deserve more of our attention than listening to God? When the source of all life and wisdom speaks, those who would be wise listen. The foolish either don't care to or don't learn how. The fruit of both is the same: destructive ignorance." We do not want to walk in the path of destruction but in the path of life. Oh God, deliver from formulaic Christianity and restore to us the pathways of constant dependency. Teach us the ways of life. Teach us to live transparent, shared lives. As for me, I want to hear His voice and intimately know Him, not just on a casual basis, but also on a daily, vibrant one. Join me and thousands of others who are leaning to hear the Master's beckoning voice by leaning our ear toward Him. Come with me now on a journey of beginning to hear and (love hearing) God's voice. How It Began with Me By the grace of God and the influence of my praying mother and church community, I grew up knowing that Jesus was my best friend. As a child, I would go on long walks in rural Missouri and just talk incessantly to God. Often, while gazing into the skies, I would try to listen to see if He had anything to say back. As the youngest child, with two older sister, I always had wanted a brother. So Jesus became the brother I never had. Years passed, and I graduated from high school. But one thing remained the same - Jesus was right there with me as my close friend. At college, I hungered for more of God. This quest led me into divine collision with a group of people with whom this straight-laced, rural Methodist kid did not have much in common - the Jesus People. When I got filled with the Holy Spirit and released into His gifts in the Jesus Movement, it was like my little black-and-white TV set turned into OmniVision overnight. I was absolutely transformed. Suddenly, my life was very different. I had attempted to walk with the Lord all along, but now my life in the Spirit took a quantum leap. Somehow I had been able to detect His voice before, but in comparison to what I had previously experienced, now it was as if God had just given me a hearing aid. I really didn't know what to do with all this stuff - impressions, mental snapshots, hunches, knowledge, short thoughts and full phrases that were being released into my heart and mind. But the Holy Spirit became an awesome tutor to me on this immense learning curve. Still being quite young in this realm, I thought all believers lived this way. I thought that at last I was living the "normal Christian life." (And I still think it is supposed to be that way!) I didn't realize how many believers cannot point to one single instance of hearing God's voice for themselves. Yet even with my heightened experience of God, I knew I needed more if I was to really advance in maturity in hearing and knowing His voice. A Desire for Discernment In the middle of my junior year at Central Missouri State University, this drive to know God led me to cry out for discernment. Late one night, I went to pray with another Jesus freak in an episcopal church where a friend's father, an evangelical, Spirit-filled Episcopal priest, was the rector. At the front of the sanctuary, on the wall close to the Communion rail, there was a lighted candle. It was a symbolic representation of the light of God and presence of God. I loved sneaking away when I could to spend time in quiet reflection, as His sweet presence seemed to reside there. While basking in the light of His presence late that same night, I began to vocalize my desire to hear and know the voice of God better. I proceeded logically:
don't have any problem with the first part of the verse, "My sheep hear My voice." I know I have heard Your voice because in Revelation 3:20 it says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me." I have heard Your knock at the door of my heart and I am one of Yours.
either. I know that You know me, and You know me better than I know myself. I don't have any problem with that. But it's the third part of that verse that I have a big problem with, "and they follow Me." So, God, I need to do more than just hear Your voice - because I also hear my voice, the voice of my flesh, the voice of others, the voice of the world and the voice of the enemy, Satan. Therefore, if I'm going to be able to "follow You," I must do more than only hear Your voice. I need to be able to discern Your voice from the other voices. That night, my friend and I knelt in prayer and simply said, "Lord, we ask that You enroll us in Your School of the Spirit. Teach us not only how to hear but also how to discern Your voice from the voice of the stranger and all the other voices that contend for our attention. Please do this so that we can truly follow You." Perhaps there is a book in heaven called The Book of Godly Desires that God keeps a record in. All I know is that night in November 1972, it seemed to me that the Lord wrote down my name in His book. I enrolled in His School of the Spirit. Thirty-plus years later, I'm still taking various classes in that school. I don't think I've graduated from it yet. I want to be among those who are continuously learning how to hear and discern His wonderful voice and how to follow Him. How about you? Lessons from the Original Couple A good starting place in the School of the Spirit is the lessons we can learn from the original couple, Adam and Eve, as recorded in Genesis 3. After they tasted the forbidden fruit, God came looking for some fellowship with Adam and Eve - to walk and talk with them (as he does with you and me). In The Coming Prophetic Revolution, I wrote about what this must have been like:
changed? As a result of their disobedience, they experienced instantaneous barriers to their intimacy with Him. Walls shot up. After their sin they plucked off leaves from the nearest bush as quickly as they could and sewed coverings for themselves. They were hiding from the Lord their Creator for the first time in their lives.
Previously they had run toward the sound of His footsteps. Now they ran in the opposite direction. Before, their response had been for joy: "Oh, wow, it's Father!" Now it was dread and fear: "Oh, no, it's Father!" They were guilt-ridden. Never had they had such an emotional reaction or even such a thought before! They had not known condemnation or fear or shame. Now, as a result of their disobedience, they ran and hid from the voice of God. This pretty well sums up the difference between the joy of hearing God and obeying His voice and the dilemma of hearing God's voice and not obeying. Here's the good news: God is searching for us. He is drawing near - whether we want Him to or not! He is the glorious intruder. God does not give up on His beloved; He wants to walk and talk with you. But there can be some sad news also - barriers to intimacy result when we choose to ignore what He tells us. So let's listen up and learn. We need Him. We need to hear His voice. Let's cultivate a heart and life that responds when He speaks. From the Pioneer of Faith Many pilgrims of the faith have walked this path before us. We can look to them and learn from both their failures and their successes. They needed to hear God in their day just as we do in ours. And God drew near to them in His loving grace just as He will draw near to us. With this in mind, let's look at the life of Abraham, who is called the father and pioneer of our faith. This man heard impossible promises from God, things that would require God's presence for their fulfillment. (By the way, a good test of whether we have heard God is that He rarely asks us to do something that we can do in our own strength or by our own effort. God doesn't want to give us a mere word - He wants to create a constant need in us for more of Him!) Abraham had to feel rather desperate and dependent, don't you think? God required everything of Abraham. Through miraculous intervention, the promised son finally was born - in Abraham's old age. But when this precious son, Isaac, reached early manhood, God spoke to Abraham again and told him to take his son and offer him as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah (see Genesis 22:1-2). What a test! But Abraham obeyed, and what an outcome! At the zero hour, God supplied a ram that could be sacrificed in place of Isaac, and God was satisfied. This makes Abraham our finest example of believing God and obeying Him fully. Have you ever had to learn the grace of yielding? Have you ever wanted to hold on too tightly to every little bit you have? I know I have. But as I see more of the revelation of His great love for me, I, like Abraham, eventually melt and yield to His kingdom ways. So will you as you too learn to walk this pilgrimage of faith. Abraham was called the "friend" of God (see II Chronicles 20:7). How did he become God's friend? Maybe it was because he was with Him so much. He became familiar with God's voice, and he learned to recognize even His shadow when He was walking past. I too want to be the friend of God. In fact, that is what I think hearing God's voice is all about. We Each Have a Desperate Need Many other people in the Bible are examples for us of how to maintain a personal relationship with God. As distinctly different as they are in personality and circumstances, they all show us a desperate face. Oh, to be like Moses, who talked to God face to face. But please, Lord, save me from 40 years of wilderness wandering! If we want to hear God in the gentle breeze as Elijah did, then we must be aware that it might involve getting the moody blues and hiding out in a cave. If we want angelic encounters like Daniel had, then we must get ready for the fire of God's furnace as well! If we want to do the impossible, we must simply respond as a young teenaged girl named Mary responded when she received the words of an angel and conceived a gift from God. (But God, that was a one-time deal, right?) Or simply be like Paul, the amazing apostle, who recognized that the words he heard from the Lord were to prepare him for the costs that lay ahead. There are scores of others, of course. They may seem famous to us now, but Abraham, Moses, Mary and Paul were only ordinary people like us. Each person ever created has a need and a longing to hear our Creator's voice. Each person can talk to God, and we can hear Him, too. Each person is created with the need to be continuously dependent on His voice. I think of the words of an old hymn: "I need Thee, O I need Thee; Every hour I need thee." We all need to hear and know the voice of our Father, the voice of the Son, Jesus, and that of the Holy spirit, our Helper, Guide and Comforter. All three desire to speak to us. It's all about being in God's presence. Veteran teacher and author Fuchsia Pickett states:
thoughts and our wills to choose His will to be performed in and through us. [This happens as] we cultivate our relationship with Christ. Perhaps you too will add your name to the list of those who heard God speak and then became strong in faith, doing mighty exploits in His great name. Remember, "faith comes by hearing" (Romans 10:17, NKJV). Take time to listen for His voice with all your heart. Are your ready to get started in a few lessons? Enroll Now! You don't have to wait any longer - classes start every day! School is in session at all times! You can enroll right now and be a student with me in the School of the Spirit, where we learn to hear the voice of God. Source: THE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO HEARING GOD, by James W. Goll, Copyright 2008, Regal From Gospel Light. |
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2010 - HIS GLORY REIGNS
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