Video Bible Lesson - How Can I Hear From God? by Adam Weber

1/2 Hour of God’s Power with Scott Ralls

3/26/2020

How Can I Hear From God?
by Adam Weber

My wife says sometimes I talk too much.
It’s a little embarrassing to admit, but I know it’s true. If you have a pulse, I can and will talk with you. A lot.
“You need to give others a chance to talk and just listen,” she’ll tell me.
Just listen.
This is good advice for having a conversation with a friend, coworker, or stranger. I mean, it’s a basic social norm and a common courtesy that one acquires by the age of 5. It’s important to listen to others. To give others a chance to speak and share. To give each other a turn to talk.
But it’s also good advice when it comes to prayer and talking with God.
To give Him a turn.
To give God a chance to speak.
To listen to Him.
While many of us, especially us extroverts, are good at talking with people, we often struggle when it comes to speaking with God. Prayer can be overwhelming for many because we don’t know the words to speak. That said, when it comes to prayer, the most important part isn’t speaking. It’s listening!
Listening and giving God a chance to speak isn’t just good advice, it’s necessary and vital to having a true conversation with God.
Now, we can hear from and listen to God at any place and at any time, but we must know what the voice of God sounds like.
The best place to start knowing His voice is by opening up the B-i-b-l-e. #SundaySchool. By seeing His words come alive. As we read, we come to understand the character and heart of God. We come to know His promises and truths. His ways. We see what God has said in the past, which gives us a good idea of what He’ll say to us today. And what He won’t say to us. We come to know what His voice sounds like.
Unlike we naturally assume, when God speaks in the Bible, it’s often not in a loud booming voice from heaven that stops traffic. Instead when God speaks, He does so using a still small voice.
Instead of brashly breaking into our lives, He stands at our front door and gently knocks.
Instead of shouting when we don’t listen, we’re told that He draws us to Himself with His kindness, not His anger.
When it comes to hearing from God, often the main question that we need to answer is the most basic one: Do we want to hear from Him?
If we do, we need to give God the space and room to speak.
More practically, invite God to speak and then be quiet.
Turn off the noise. Instead of checking Twitter between meetings, be still for three minutes and listen.
Get into the Bible. Again, we have to be able to recognize God’s voice if we want to hear it.
Declutter your life. Is every ounce of your day full (including every evening and weekend)? Good luck hearing from a God who whispers and quietly knocks.
If we want to hear from God, we need to give Him time.
Time to share.
Time listening.
Time and availability to speak into our lives.
We need to.
Just listen.
Intersecting Faith & Life: Give God the space and room to speak to you today. Put away the distractions and open up His Word — because He has things He wants to say to you.
For Further Reading:
Jeremiah 29:12
Jeremiah 33:3
James 1:22

#Jesus, #Christian, #Bible, #Salvation, #Heaven, #God, #HolySpirit

Streams in the Desert

Streams in the Desert

Look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it (Gen. 13:14-15).

No instinct can be put in you by the Holy Ghost but He purposes to fulfill. Let your faith then rise and soar away and claim all the land you can discover.
--S. A. Keen

All you can apprehend in the vision of faith is your own. Look as far as you can, for it is all yours. All that you long to be as a Christian, all that you long to do for God, are within the possibilities of faith. Then come, still closer, and with your Bible before you, and your soul open to all the influences of the Spirit, let your whole being receive the baptism of His presence; and as He opens your understanding to see all His fulness, believe He has it all for you. Accept for yourself all the promises of His word, all the desires He awakens within you, all the possibilities of what you may be as a follower of Jesus. All the land you see is given to you.

The actual provisions of His grace come from the inner vision. He who puts the instinct in the bosom of yonder bird to cross the continent in search of summer sunshine in the Southern clime is too good to deceive it, and just as surely as He has put the instinct in its breast, so has He also put the balmy breezes and the vernal sunshine yonder to meet it when it arrives.

He who breathes into our hearts the heavenly hope, will not deceive or fail us when we press forward to its realization.
--Selected

"And they found as he had said unto them" (Luke 22:13).

True Spiritual Growth.......Dr. Charles Stanley

True Spiritual Growth

Dr. Charles Stanley

James 1:17-27

If you want to genuinely grow in spiritual maturity, it is not enough to simply be instructed by the Word of God. You may love going to church or listening to Christian radio programs. You might talk about everything you hear and assume you're growing because your knowledge is increasing. However, if you don't actually grow closer to God by allowing His Word to change you from the inside out, your head will merely continue to fill with information. You might even sound like a godly person who is admired for the ability to quote chapter and verse. But if you don't take the next step and allow God to touch others' lives through you, you're missing the point.

Spiritual growth is the result of practicing the truth you receive from God. He wants you to give away what He gives you--that is, by loving and serving others and sharing the truth of the gospel. Our example is Jesus, who said that He did not come to be served, but to serve even the lowest outcasts in His society (Matt. 20:28). He could have exalted Himself and spent all His time preaching and teaching. Instead, Jesus did only the Father's will, which was to reveal His heart of love to a broken world. The Lord sacrificially involved Himself in people's lives, and He calls us to follow in His footsteps.

God's plan is to reach the world through you. If that weren't the case, He would have taken you to heaven as soon as you were saved. But you are here for a purpose--to live out Christ's life alongside hurting people who desperately need to experience His love.

Is This a Delay or a Dead End?

Is This a Delay or a Dead End?
LYSA TERKEURST

“When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, ‘Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’” Exodus 32:1 (NIV)

Have you ever felt God calling you to step out in faith, only to find yourself wondering if you heard Him wrong?

I understand.

For many years, I thought my calling to write was a dead end instead of a delay. I received rejection letter after rejection letter from the many book proposals I'd sent to publishers. I was so frustrated! I started wondering if I’d heard God incorrectly when this passion to write was placed in my heart.

I didn’t realize I was confusing a delay with a dead end. But I think we do this all the time. We put a period where our life story may just need a little string of dots …

In punctuation, there are terminal points and pausing points. A terminal point is a period, a question mark or an exclamation point.

But there are far more options for pausing points, such as the comma, semicolon, colon, the em dash, and my personal favorite, which drives my editors a little batty: the ellipsis.

What in the world does all of this have to do with biblical Truth?

When we confuse what’s really a pausing point with a terminal point, we can get into trouble. And that’s how the people of Israel got themselves into a mess of trouble while waiting for Moses to come down from a mountaintop meeting with God.

Exodus 32:1 tells us, “When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, ‘Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.’”

What “happened” to “this fellow Moses” was that God was giving him the Ten Commandments. A pretty important pause. But because the people didn't understand the delay, they decided they couldn’t trust God.

So, they took matters into their own hands and had Aaron form a false god to comfort themselves and combat their confusion. In the end, their solution only added more chaos. And it cost them more than they ever imagined.

They got completely out of control. They became the laughingstock of their enemies. Many lost their lives — it says over 3,000 died. AND they suffered from a plague. (Exodus 32:25-35)

Of course, they could have avoided it all, including enraging Moses to the point where he threw the stone tablets God had personally carved for them, breaking them into pieces. But avoiding all of this would have required waiting just a little longer for Moses to return.

Oh, friend. When there is a delay in our lives, we must determine to fill the gap between here and there by intentionally proclaiming every hint of God’s activity. Just the fact that we woke up breathing this morning is evidence of His goodness. So, let’s make a list and keep acknowledging that just because God is silent in one area of our life does not mean He is silent in every area.

Also, let’s think about an area of our life where we’ve been waiting for what seems like an unreasonable amount of time. Let’s determine today to not mistake this delay for a dead end.

We can say out loud, “I will not run ahead of God in this. I will not manipulate or manufacture solutions. I will not give up until God confirms I should. I will keep seeking God, fully anticipating and trusting His perfect plan to unfold in His perfect timing and His perfect way. And if He does confirm this is a dead end, I will still honor Him.”

As for the delays in my journey to be a writer, I can look back and see that the Lord used those times in my life to develop my character to match my calling — and I’m so thankful He did.

So let’s trust Him today. And choose to believe He is packing great purpose into our places of pausing.

Heavenly Father, I confess that all too often I confuse pauses with end points. Remind me that my thoughts are not Your thoughts, and my ways are not Your ways. Help me not run ahead of You, but instead fully seek You. I trust that Your plan and timing are perfect. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

TRUTH FOR TODAY:
Isaiah 55:8-9, “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” (NIV)

A Prayer for Celebration

A Prayer for Celebration
By Gwen Smith

There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. - Luke 15:10

Jesus told parables to expose the depth of love that God has for humanity. The Pharisees showed blatant disregard for people who they didn't perceive to be as religious as they were and who didn’t act like them. What a contrast.

I’m reminded as I read this that I need to be careful about how I respond to people who don't share my faith in Christ. I need to value all of humanity and take a sincere interest in their lives regardless of what they believe. It can be easy to dismiss people who don't look like us or act like us or believe like us. But that's not what Jesus did.

Jesus showed us His heart for the lost. He went out of His way to teach and love them. He spoke life and shared the hope of salvation through the repentance of sins. He treasured those that society considered to be throw-away people and reached out to them in love. “For the Son of Man,” He said, “came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10)

To seek and save … and savor and celebrate!

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord, Thank You for seeking and saving me by Your grace. Thank You for loving me when I was hard to love. (And for the times when I still am!) Help me to see others as You see them. Break my heart for what breaks Yours. Please use me to point others to Your hope.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen.

Give thanks to God for your salvation and for at least 3 loved ones who have been found by grace. Pray for the salvation of 3 lost people who are yet to be found by grace.

Will God Forgive Even That?

Will God Forgive Even That?
By Chris Russell

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. -  Psalms 136:1

One thing that all of us as men and women have in common is that we are all very, very sinful. We are dreadfully evil in the sight of the Lord. We can read about this in the Scriptures. For instance, Isaiah says, “All of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.“ (Isaiah 64:6) This reality is written so deeply into our souls that we all have a sense of it whether we admit it or not.

Many people approach this reality in different ways. Some people claim there is no real thing as sin. Others believe that sin really isn’t such a big deal. However, no matter how we attempt to sweep this reality under the carpet, we will never escape its grasp or consequences.

From a Christian perspective, we have the ultimate deliverance from this pervasive presence of sin in our lives. We have… forgiveness! We have… mercy! The God of heaven and earth has told us that, when we confess our sins to Him, He will gladly forgive us. I love the message of 1 John 1:9. This verse says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” What an amazing release from the bondage of guilt and remorse for the many ways we have fallen short of God’s standard!

Furthermore, there is no sin that is so evil that it escapes God’s ability to forgive. God can reach all the way to the bottom of the barrel to offer His forgiveness. What a tragedy it is when people live their lives in this sinfulness but fail to seek God’s forgiveness. It is such a terrible thing when people miss out on the gift of forgiveness.

TODAY’S BIG IDEA: “God’s mercy is beyond human comprehension. His mercy endures forever!”

Today’s prayer: Pray that God will forgive you of any sin that you can think of that you have not yet confessed, and then live in peace knowing those sins have been cast as far as the East is from the West!

Look Up

Look Up
by Sarah Phillips

But he answered and said to his father, "Look! For so many years I have been serving  you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; but when this son of yours came , who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.” ~ Luke 15:29 – 31

I recently ran across a forum discussion about being single that stuck with me, a fellow single. The original posting went something like this:

"I really want to be married. I've waited years and years to be married. I've saved myself for my wedding night and lived a life pleasing to God. So it really pains me to see all these people who compromised their purity getting married and having children when I’ve lived chastely but remain single and dateless. They are being rewarded while I stay sad and alone. It's just not fair."

Have you ever felt this way? It's natural to feel frustrated when we make good choices and get burned while those who made poor choices seem to have it easier. Yes, most of us have empathized with the older brother of the prodigal son at some point. After all, he is the son that did everything right. We understand his pain in the opening verse.

But truthfully, the older brother wasn't much different from the younger. Both brothers believed a fallacy: If I do things my way, I'll win out. The consequences of a prodigal son's actions are often obvious – life often crumbles around them as they break away from God’s truth and embrace reckless living. But what exactly happens when we embrace the attitude of the older brother?

We may still attend church, continue to make righteous decisions, and maintain the appearance of wellbeing, but we begin to rot on the inside as we internally pull away from the Father's life-giving love. As I observed this forum thread unfold and reread the scriptures above, I saw three subtle dangers to the soul who suffers with Older Brother Syndrome:

Loss of spiritual clarity. When we embrace the stance of the older brother, our spiritual vision darkens because we turn our gaze away from Christ to fixate on someone else’s life. The older brother travels down an ungodly path because he fails to see things from his merciful father's perspective. From his corner, he cannot see that the prodigal brother suffered for his transgressions and repented with sorrow, nor can he see his own blessings clearly. He festers with envy over the celebration, and misinterprets his father’s forgiveness as a personal slight. While the older brother may justify his anger in light of the pain his younger brother inflicted on their father, the oldest son only increases his father's pain with his bitter, ungrateful heart.

Pride finds a foothold.  Let's face it - comparing our "goodness" to another's faults can only lead to a full-blown case of spiritual pride. And pride is deadly to the soul. It causes us to lose gratitude towards our Father, obscures our own need for mercy, and misleads us into thinking God owes us something. We may make ineffective -- even destructive -- attempts to grasp at the blessing we no longer trust God to provide for us.

Misery settles in. "Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours.” (Luke 15:31) Unlike the prodigal, the eldest brother had access to his loving father for his entire life. Yet his response to his father's joy does not reveal a joyful heart. Pride, envy, judgmental attitudes and perfectionism squeeze peace and happiness out of our lives. My sister wisely pointed this out to me recently: there's no point in comparing your life to another, "unless you are bent on being miserable."

So what can we do to find peace when we feel life treats us unfairly? When your frugal family reels from job layoffs while the Jones' still enjoy stable employment? When your godly parenting skills fall on deaf ears while the neighbors boast over their accomplished kids? I think its okay to acknowledge feelings of sadness, frustration, and even confusion. But at the end of the day, it's best to stop looking at others, and start looking up.

Intersecting Faith & Life: Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?" (Gen 4:6). Cain and Abel are another set of brothers who suffered from envy. Cain’s sin ultimately mastered him, and he murdered Abel. Is there anything you’re holding onto in your heart that is causing you to “look down,” away from the Father’s loving gaze? Ask God to remove it from your heart.

Why Did an Angel Roll Away the Stone?

Quote of the Day

"'Dear Uticus, Our preacher said that Jesus swooned on the cross and then His disciples nursed Him to health. What do you think? Signed, Bewildered.'
'Dear Bewildered, Beat your preacher with a cat-o'-nine-tails thirty-nine times. Nail him to a cross. Hang him in the sun for six hours. Run a spear through his side, embalm him, and put him in an airless tomb for thirty-six hours and see what happens. Sincerely, Uticus.'"
~Greg Laurie (from "Could Jesus Have Survived the Crucifixion?"

Today's Answer

Why Did an Angel Roll Away the Stone?
Matthew Henry

The angels frequently attended our Lord Jesus: at His birth, in His temptation, in His agony. But upon the cross we find no angel attending him. When His Father forsook Him, the angels withdrew from Him, but now that He is resuming the glory he had before the foundation of the world, the angels of God worship him.

The angel came, rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. Our Lord Jesus could have rolled back the stone Himself by His own power, but He chose to have it done by an angel to signify that having undertaken to make satisfaction for our sin, He did not break prison, but had a fair and legal discharge, obtained from heaven. He did not break prison, but an officer was sent on purpose to roll away the stone and open the prison door, which would never have been done if He had not made a full satisfaction.

But being delivered for our offences, He was raised again for our justification. He died to pay our debt, and rose again to gain our acquittal. The stone of our sins was rolled to the door of the grave of our Lord Jesus (and we find the rolling of a great stone to signify the contracting of guilt - 1 Samuel 14:33), but to demonstrate that divine justice was satisfied, an angel was commissioned to roll back the stone. The angel did not raise Him from the dead, any more than those that took away the stone from Lazarus’s grave raised him, but by this he intimated the consent of Heaven to Christ's release, and the joy of Heaven in it.

The enemies of Christ had sealed the stone, since this was their hour, but all the powers of death and darkness are under the control of the God of light and life. An angel from heaven has power to break the seal and roll away the stone, though ever so great. Thus, the captives of the mighty are taken away.

The angel’s sitting upon the stone, after he had rolled it away, is very observable and shows a secure triumph over all the obstructions of Christ’s resurrection. There he sat, defying all the powers of hell to roll the stone to the grave again. The angel sat as a guard to the grave, having frightened away the enemies’ guard; he sat, expecting the women, and ready to give them an account of Jesus's resurrection.