HEARING FROM GOD & DOING HIS WILL
On Friday afternoon Margaret and I are heading for the coast for a brief holiday, so I have been busy preparing my next sermon in the Book of Acts series in our local church. I have been allocated Chapter 21, and am highlighting the first 15 verses.
Paul is on another Missionary journey and comes to Tyre, he found a group of believers and spent seven days with them. We read in verse four that “they told him by the Spirit not to go to Jerusalem, this statement seems in conflict with further verses in the same chapter, Paul moved on to Caesarea and stayed in the home of Philip the Evangelist (one of the seven deacons mentioned in Acts 6) and a certain well recognised Prophet came through called Agabus who prophesied over Paul that he would suffer many things when (not if) he goes to Jerusalem. Were the Believers in Tyre wrong? not at all, they had discerned “by the Holy Spirit” that Paul would suffer if he went to Jerusalem, so out of their love and concern for him, they encouraged him not to go. Verse 14 we read they agreed with the Prophet, and said “The will of the Lord be done”.
I think Paul knew in his heart he had to return to Jerusalem and the Prophet’s words confirmed what he knew to be the right thing to do.
It sure isn’t always easy to find and then do the will of God, I have shared previously and will again here, the “Harbour Lights Teaching” promoted I believe by the late R.A.Torrey. In the past when a ship came into harbour at night it had to line up numerous lights on the shore and I guess in the water, and when these all lined up, the Captain knew he was in the right channel and would not hit the rocks or get into shallow water. There are four lights we need to line that will clearly assist us in finding the will of God.
THE PEACE OF GOD.
The Bible says the peace of God is the judge or umpire in our heart, and it is so important that we have this, but the peace of God alone is not enough, sadly in the past we may have been swayed by this, or know of others who made the statement “I have peace about this matter” and later it was proved they were wrong. The peace of God MUST also line up with the Word of God.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?
It is a lie of the enemy for a believer to say they have peace about a matter even though what they want to do is in conflict with the Word of God. What we want to do must always be in agreement with the teaching and principles of the Word of God.
CIRCUMSTANCES
This is an interesting one, just because the circumstances are negative doesn’t mean it is wrong, neither just because the circumstances are good, does it mean we can go ahead, these must line up with the other lights. At the beginning of 2009 at the height of the Global Financial Crisis we put our house on the market, as we had decided previously we wanted to move into a Retirement Village, and we had seen a place near Margaret’s sister which was excellent. We actually received an offer the very same day we listed. Almost 8 years later we have no regrets.
GODLY COUNSEL
We should seek out the wisdom and counsel of older Christians and learn from their experience.
WHEN THESE FOUR LIGHTS LINE UP YOU KNOW YOU ARE WALKING IN THE WILL OF GOD
The next challenge is learning to hear the voice of God. God can and does speak to us in and through many and varied ways such as:
- A word of exhortation from a fellow believer
2. The words of a Prophet
3. Through the teaching and preaching of God’s Word.
4. The still small voice of the Spirit within
5. BUT especially through the Word of God, we must learn to “rightly divide the Word of truth,(not taking verses out of context).
WHAT STOPS US HEARING GOD SPEAK TO US?
- Sin in our lives (it is like spiritual wax in our ears).
- The aging process, deafness, or I know it all already.
- It has been said “to hear God’s voice we must turn down the world’s volume”.
- Not spending time in the Word of God.
LET ME MAKE A RADICAL STATEMENT
GOD WANTS TO TALK TO US EVERY DAY
Please take time to read 1 Timothy 4:13 and 2 Timothy 3:16
SOME PERTINENT QUESTIONS
Do you have a systematic Bible Reading Program?
Do you spend time in the Word of God EVERY day?
Do you prepare your heart before you read the Word?
I strongly recommend you don’t open your Bible until you have prayed first.
Do you know what it means to meditate on the Word?
Reading gives you information meditation will give you revelation
WHY ARE THERE TWO GREEK WORDS FOR THE WORD WORD?
God does nothing by accident, let me encourage you if you have a Strong’s Concordance, to look at the references where Rhema is used, I believe it is very significant. I believe it is that “seed (1 Peter 1:23) the divine sperma that God wants to place into the womb of our heart EVERY DAY. If you don’t like the word Rhema, what about the Scriptures that speak of the Word being QUICKENED to us, it is the same action as I understand it. Paul challenged Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:15 to mediate. If you don’t know or don’t understand what Christian Meditation is (as opposed to Eastern Religions definitions) write to me and I will tell you.
Biblical Discipleship is so important, as a young Christian it can be very much hit and miss when it comes to hearing God speak to us, that is why I am convinced we all need a Mentor to help us in our journey, and to learn to recognise God voice, in the noisy world we live in and to recognise the evil one’s voice and our own flesh speaking as well
ARE YOU CURRENTLY WANTING TO KNOW THE WILL OF GOD REGARDING A MATTER?
CAN YOU HONESTLY SAY YOU KNOW HOW TO REGULARLY HEAR GOD SPEAK TO YOU.
I sincerely pray this will help someone as they read this today, please write and let me know your response and comments please ?
