Hearing God
Hearing God
No matter what anyone says, hearing God takes faith. That means there is a choice between doubt and believing.
This is the only way a true relationship with God, including hearing him, works. When someone says they heard God say something, they mean they are believing God said some thing to them. Generally, this is the only way hearing God works. There may be a few exceptions where the Lord literally appears and tells a person something, like on the road to Emmaus, but even this encounter required faith:
Luke 24:13Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven milesfn from Jerusalem. 14And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 15So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. 16But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.
Without a faith component...without part of the conversation requiring a CHOICE to believe, it really isn't hearing God. God actually requires faith:
Hebrews 11:1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. 3By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. 4By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks. 5By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. 6But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
No matter what anyone says, hearing God takes faith. That means there is a choice between doubt and believing.
This is the only way a true relationship with God, including hearing him, works. When someone says they heard God say something, they mean they are believing God said some thing to them. Generally, this is the only way hearing God works. There may be a few exceptions where the Lord literally appears and tells a person something, like on the road to Emmaus, but even this encounter required faith:
Luke 24:13Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven milesfn from Jerusalem. 14And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 15So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. 16But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.
Without a faith component...without part of the conversation requiring a CHOICE to believe, it really isn't hearing God. God actually requires faith:
Hebrews 11:1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. 3By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. 4By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks. 5By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. 6But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Faith pleases God because it softens our hearts. It is the wrestle to believe God that actually makes us ready to live with Him forever, as He always intended when He made man.
Genesis 3:1Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 2And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3“but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
Satan deceived man by introducing doubt to His interaction with God...."did God really say". Suddenly, as Eve failed to accurately recount what God had said, and Satan was working to sow doubt, the one person who's words were missing were God's!
Jesus paid for us to be filled again with a connection to God's voice by the Spirit. We hear God in faith...and really only in faith. Someone might have a dream and feel they know what it means. While a dream might seem clearer, it is 'less than' hearing God while you are awake and choosing to believe what you heard.
Jeremiah 23:28“The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; And he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?” says the LORD. 29“Is not My word like a fire?” says the LORD, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? 30“Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who steal My words every one from his neighbor. 31“Behold, I am against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who use their tongues and say, ‘He says.’ 32“Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” says the LORD, “and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all,” says the LORD.
A dream is great, but it isn't the same as consciously choosing to believe the words God speaks to your inner man. If everyone heard and obeyed God themselves, no one would be deceived! Hearing God is harder than hearing someone else's dreams. That is the point! It takes God's help to believe what you hear!
Its a 'still small voice' that God speaks to us in, in order to draw out faith. He likes the strong response to his faint whisper. The strong response to the whisper is training our hearts to believe what he says forever.
Faith will ALWAYS be required to converse with God. We will always have a choice to believe Him or doubt what He says!!
1 Corinthians 13:8Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. 11When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 13And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Love is laying down our lives for each other...we love because God first loved us. We love God by laying down our agenda and obeying His. We can only obey His commands if we hear Him!:
1 John 5:2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
To obey God I MUST hear Him. To please Him, I must believe what He tells me and respond to it. It is weak, it is faint, it is uncertain, but that is the point. Working the muscle of my faith makes me ready to live in faith forever.
Some might think, "I'll just obey the Bible." That is impossible without hearing God by the Spirit. The letter kills, the Spirit brings life:
2 Corinthians 3:5Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
We can't obey the Bible without God's real-time help. We are insufficient, and to think otherwise is arrogant! Even Jesus relied on what God said, not an interpretation of the Bible!
Matthew 4:3Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” 5Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple,
6and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ” 7Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’ ”
Jesus resisted Satan by an active conversation with God that informed the scripture. Satan knows the Bible. What makes a believer different is knowing God in a loving conversation.
This takes faith. It always has, and it always will.
No one hears clearly, we all see dimly, as in a mirror, but we are still required to look and hear! This is the heart-action, or exercise of live, that changes us and teaches us faith!
Even the great prophet Jeremiah first heard God faintly, in faith, then after he believed, he knew he had heard God when the thing came true!
Jeremiah 32:6And Jeremiah said, “The word of the LORD came to me, saying, 7‘Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you, saying, “Buy my field which is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.” ’ 8“Then Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said to me, ‘Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.
Jeremiah, Isaiah, Elijah...they had a nature just like ours, and had to choose to believe God, just like us!
James 5:17Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.
Are you carrying, in faith, a word from God that is changing who you are...softening you from the inside out? If not, you need to be! Ask and listen. You might be surprised!
Genesis 3:1Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 2And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3“but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
Satan deceived man by introducing doubt to His interaction with God...."did God really say". Suddenly, as Eve failed to accurately recount what God had said, and Satan was working to sow doubt, the one person who's words were missing were God's!
Jesus paid for us to be filled again with a connection to God's voice by the Spirit. We hear God in faith...and really only in faith. Someone might have a dream and feel they know what it means. While a dream might seem clearer, it is 'less than' hearing God while you are awake and choosing to believe what you heard.
Jeremiah 23:28“The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; And he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?” says the LORD. 29“Is not My word like a fire?” says the LORD, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? 30“Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who steal My words every one from his neighbor. 31“Behold, I am against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who use their tongues and say, ‘He says.’ 32“Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” says the LORD, “and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all,” says the LORD.
A dream is great, but it isn't the same as consciously choosing to believe the words God speaks to your inner man. If everyone heard and obeyed God themselves, no one would be deceived! Hearing God is harder than hearing someone else's dreams. That is the point! It takes God's help to believe what you hear!
Its a 'still small voice' that God speaks to us in, in order to draw out faith. He likes the strong response to his faint whisper. The strong response to the whisper is training our hearts to believe what he says forever.
Faith will ALWAYS be required to converse with God. We will always have a choice to believe Him or doubt what He says!!
1 Corinthians 13:8Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. 11When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 13And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Love is laying down our lives for each other...we love because God first loved us. We love God by laying down our agenda and obeying His. We can only obey His commands if we hear Him!:
1 John 5:2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
To obey God I MUST hear Him. To please Him, I must believe what He tells me and respond to it. It is weak, it is faint, it is uncertain, but that is the point. Working the muscle of my faith makes me ready to live in faith forever.
Some might think, "I'll just obey the Bible." That is impossible without hearing God by the Spirit. The letter kills, the Spirit brings life:
2 Corinthians 3:5Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
We can't obey the Bible without God's real-time help. We are insufficient, and to think otherwise is arrogant! Even Jesus relied on what God said, not an interpretation of the Bible!
Matthew 4:3Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” 5Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple,
6and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ” 7Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’ ”
Jesus resisted Satan by an active conversation with God that informed the scripture. Satan knows the Bible. What makes a believer different is knowing God in a loving conversation.
This takes faith. It always has, and it always will.
No one hears clearly, we all see dimly, as in a mirror, but we are still required to look and hear! This is the heart-action, or exercise of live, that changes us and teaches us faith!
Even the great prophet Jeremiah first heard God faintly, in faith, then after he believed, he knew he had heard God when the thing came true!
Jeremiah 32:6And Jeremiah said, “The word of the LORD came to me, saying, 7‘Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you, saying, “Buy my field which is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.” ’ 8“Then Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said to me, ‘Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.
Jeremiah, Isaiah, Elijah...they had a nature just like ours, and had to choose to believe God, just like us!
James 5:17Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.
Are you carrying, in faith, a word from God that is changing who you are...softening you from the inside out? If not, you need to be! Ask and listen. You might be surprised!
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