““So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?” Luke 11:9-13………………
A beloved brother in the Lord shared a story with me one day about how the Lord transformed his marriage in a most wonderful way. Essentially the Spirit of the Lord took Him aside, sat him down in a room in his house, and began to speak to Him. Plainly and clearly, God’s Holy Spirit spoke to His heart, convicting Him of what He hadn’t been doing in His marriage, what He needed to do in His marriage, leading Him to repentance, giving Him a changed heart, a new vision for his marriage, and the strength, courage, desire, willingness, and plan of action for his marriage. Now in case you’re wondering what exactly the Lord told him, and expecting me to share in this message what the Lord said, please don’t be disappointed. This message isn’t about the man, nor about the marriage, nor about how God transformed the man’s heart and marriage. This message is about hearing from God.
One of the saddest, and most tragic, falsehoods I have heard preached from the pulpit, and seen manifested both in numerous preachers and people in ministry as well as in countless followers of Christ, is the notion that God does not speak to His people. Oh, sure, they will say God speaks to us in His Word. But they never go farther than that. The Bible most assuredly makes clear from start to finish that God DOES speak to His people by His Spirit through His Word. AND the Bible makes clear God DOES speak to His people INDIVIDUALLY and PERSONALLY and SPECIFICALLY regarding their lives ALWAYS IN LINE WITH HIS WORD. He speaks directly to our hearts by His Spirit in line with His Word!
God’s followers who have received the gift of the Holy Spirit, who have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, who have not merely been sealed and indwelt by the Holy Spirit when they were born again spiritually when they received Christ as Lord, but who have either at that time or subsequently been baptized with His Spirit, in other words infused with God’s power, and spiritual gifts, and everything necessary to live for and to serve the Lord and to help build His forever Kingdom of followers, CAN and SHOULD hear from God just like my beloved brother in the Lord did that day.
How can we best hear from the Lord? How can we best hear Him speak specifically to our own hearts about our own lives and His will for us and anything else He desires to speak to us? It is imperative that we spend time with Christ daily, that we are ever in God’s Word and measuring all we believe we hear from God against His Word because He will never speak against it, and that we are solidly planted in Christ’s body and assembling with other followers to worship God and to learn of Him and to teach and bless others and to seek godly counsel as the Lord leads which in part will help us when needed to discern if in fact we have heard from God, and that we are continually seeking God, taking the love, time, and care to hear God, and obeying God.
Christ’s followers in the Bible when He was on earth with them, and after He returned to heaven and left them with the promise of God’s Holy Spirit, HEARD FROM GOD. So should we who follow Jesus. Hearing from God is an absolutely fundamental part of having a personal relationship with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we’re not hearing from God, why might that be?
- We need to be born again spiritually and have received the gift of God’s Spirit.
- We need to be studying and living by God’s Word.
- We need to be planted in Christ’s body.
- We need to believe we can hear from God.
- We need to be seeking, hearing, and obeying God.
- We need to measure what we believe we hear from God against His Word to make sure it is in line with His Word.
- We need to seek godly counsel from fellow Christ followers if and when and as the Lord leads to help discern what we are hearing is indeed from Him.
Are you hearing from God? If not, I couldn’t encourage you more than to begin seeking and hearing and obeying Him this very day!