God Speaks..Craig Denison Ministries

 God Speaks

Craig Denison Ministries

Weekly Overview:

You and I have been given the invaluable gift of communication with God. Last week we learned about the process of making the soil of our hearts soft and receptive to God. This week we’ll learn some different ways to receive the seed of his word. May your communion with God flourish as you engage in continual conversation with your loving, present heavenly Father.

Scripture:“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” Jeremiah 33:3

Devotional:

For too much of my Christian life I believed God didn’t like to talk. My experience led me to think that God only spoke a few times in history and only to people like Moses, David or Paul, but never to a person like me. Then one day God spoke to me. I asked him a question out of desperation and he spoke. The Creator of the universe broke through the walls of my misconceptions and spoke to my heart in a voice so clear it couldn’t be mistaken.

After God spoke to me so clearly, I began to take time to listen. And in making space for God to speak, my life began to be transformed by consistent, internal conversation with my heavenly Father. You see, Scripture makes it clear that God loves to talk with his children. John 8:47 says, “Whoever is of God hears the words of God.” Jeremiah 33:3 says,“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” Isaiah 55:3 says, “Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live.” Psalm 32:8 says, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.” The list of Scriptures goes on and on. In story after story the people of God hear God and know his will. The Bible is clear that God speaks to all of us as his children in a way we can understand through any and every means possible.

God speaks through all sorts of avenues. Most assuredly, he speaks to us through his Word. The Bible is one of our greatest gifts as Christians. It is the very word of God, “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). God also speaks directly to us through his Holy Spirit. John 16:13 says,“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” And Scripture reveals how God speaks through his creation. Romans 1:20 says that God’s “invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”

God loves to speak. He isn’t silent. He isn’t distant. He longs for you to live with the knowledge of his love and perfect will. The question isn’t whether God speaks. The question is, will you listen? Will you choose to submit yourself to him—to receive and obey what he would tell you? The first time God spoke directly to me he asked me to do something incredibly difficult. It didn’t make total sense. But I knew he spoke. And in submission I obeyed his command and my life has been different ever since.

Listen to God today. Quiet your soul and receive the gift of conversation with your heavenly Father. God has placed his Spirit within you—closer to you than you can fully comprehend. You are unified with God. Ask the Spirit to reveal to you God’s word today. Ask God to make you aware of any and every avenue he desires to speak through. Then listen with an obedient, receptive heart to all the wonderful things he longs to tell you.

Guided Prayer:

1. Take time to quiet your soul. Confess anything that you feel is in the way of your relationship with God. Hand over to him anything that’s troubling your mind. Receive his peace, and wait patiently for him to speak.

“Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live.” Isaiah 55:3

2. Listen. Ask the Spirit how God feels about you. Ask him for his will and direction. Pay attention to any thoughts, inclinations or changes in your emotions that come from the Holy Spirit. Allow God to speak in any way he wants.

“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”Jeremiah 33:3

3. Now thank God for speaking. Worship him because he isn’t distant. Let the truth of his nearness transform your perspective and emotions today.

Listen to God throughout your day. Engage with him in consistent conversation. Practice listening to him in all circumstances. Ask for his help and understanding in anything that troubles you. The rest of this week we’ll be practicing hearing God through different ways he chooses to speak. May this week lead you into a deeper and more satisfying relationship with your heavenly Father as you engage with him in continual conversation.

Extended Reading: John 8

What to Do with Our What Ifs..Megan Evans

 What to Do with Our What Ifs

By Megan Evans

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” - 2 Timothy 1:7 (NLT)

Worry has a way of igniting a series of “what-ifs.” These thoughts trickle down from our heads to our hearts with a lit fuse ready to detonate an explosion of fear. Yet, sure-footed in God’s Truth, we can stomp out these sparks quickly and rest in His peace instead.

Satan knows the effect of God’s power and peace in our lives and tries hard to deter us from trusting the Lord. It is the classic cartoon scene of the coyote chasing the roadrunner. With a baited trail, the wily coyote waits nearby to drop an acme anvil or blast TNT. Worry stems from fear, and ultimately these fretful thoughts and emotions are crumbs the enemy uses in hopes of luring us into traps of faithlessness and hopelessness.

However, the Bible reminds us in 2 Timothy 1:7 that a spirit of fear is not from God. Therefore, the pesky cartoon scene that plays out in our hearts and minds is no match for the Lord. Thankfully, we fight with God’s power, or dunamis. In fact, the Greek word for “power” used here in this verse is where we get our word “dynamite.”

Praise God! We can find peace and sound mind, and we can demolish our fears with God’s power and love. We can do hard things, and we can overcome impossible situations because God is bigger than what we see and experience in this life. He is bigger than our greatest worry.

As we consider what to do with our what-ifs, we can lean into Jesus today for His Wisdom and Strength. Power over worry is not found in ourselves. Instead, 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 reminds us that “we use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.” 

Therefore, when we find ourselves worrying, the first thing we should do is pray. Ask God to abolish this fear and strengthen us with His Truth. It is important not to ignore our what-ifs but to compare what we are thinking and feeling with God’s Word. Memorizing a verse like 2 Timothy 1:7 is a great way to take worried thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ. In addition, 1 Peter 5:7 (NLT) tells us, “give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” You may even find it helpful to journal your prayers and record the date to remind yourself that a particular fear has been left at the cross. 

Consider some areas of worry you may have for yourself or others today: 

• What if I fail?
• What if I find myself in need?
• What if I’m waiting for answers?
• What if my health declines?
• What if I made past mistakes?

It is easy to rattle off a list like this, and perhaps you can think of a few more. Yet, what a difference it makes when we allow God’s Truth to stomp out worry. It stops fear in its tracks. Praise God! In place of our what-ifs, we will begin to see God’s glory in action in every scenario. In Christ we can live bold instead of timid. 

Intersecting Faith and Life:
Most of what we worry about isn’t a reality, but even when we experience hardship, it doesn’t change God’s character and love. It just means we get to lean into His strength and protection. His power and presence are with us in the midst. How can we ever do life without our Savior? And we don’t have to!

In the good days and bad, God is our Strength and Confidence, our Provider and Giver of daily needs and spiritual gifts. He is our Comforter and Healer. In Christ we stand with our Redeemer and Victor! For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity but of power, love, and self-discipline.

What are some “what-if” thoughts that have taken your mind captive today? What specific fears can you identify and surrender to the Lord today? Stomp out fear by praying God’s Word over each one and live boldly with Christ in His power and victory.

Further Reading:

• Philippians 4:6-7
• Matthew 6:35
• Psalm 55:22

Aligning Our Hearts with God’s Heart..Cara Meredith

 Aligning Our Hearts with God’s Heart (Psalm 139:19-24)

By: Cara Meredith

Today's Bible Verse: If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. - Psalm 139:19-24

Sometimes, I have a tendency to pick and choose pieces of scripture that made me feel good. Psalm 139 is no exception. What I want to do is camp out in the first two-thirds of the psalm, seeking guidance and basking in the reminder that God created me in my inmost being, knitting me together in my mother’s womb (13). I want for that feel-good smile to come to my lips, as I remember the words spoken from David to God and lean into the heart-knowledge that I am fearfully and wonderfully made, that “your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (14).

But if I keep reading past verse 18, I start to feel uncomfortable, and my friends, discomfort isn’t always something I want to feel. I’m prone to skip over the rest of the psalm, especially those four verses that don’t seem to sing a song of consoling guidance. If I’m honest, I want to even try and understand a set of verses that feel saturated with more hate than love.

When I start to dig into the text, I learn that the concept of “hate” was not actually about emotion, but “mostly an expression of preference and support.” According to one commentary, it speaks to bigger ideas and cultural patterns of preference and loyalty.[1] Additionally, it is not the kind of hatred our 21st-century minds often think it is, after all, another writer says that is not “followed by malignity or ill will.” Instead, like Jesus modeled for us, it is “accompanied with grief, pain of heart, pity and sorrow.”[2]

Does this not change the way you interact with these four verses?

For me, when I think about all of this, I can’t help but think of David’s humanity – a humanity that was nestled in a deep and intense love for God. Perhaps like the rest of us, David wants nothing more than to honor, revere and love the one who created the deepest parts of his identity. It’s not so hard to then imagine that part of this honoring meant a soul so deeply intertwined with God’s that it resulted in real emotions, not of hate, but of grief and pain and sorrow.

After all, these emotions of the pain God not only felt then, but continues to feel now – even for those who choose to hate and rebel against God’s love – changes the way I interact, not only with this song, but also with the world around me.

I suppose the invitation is then simple: if our hearts are aligned with God, then our hearts will break for the things that break God’s heart. We will seek justice, just as God seeks justice for every beloved child, and we will desire wholeness and flourishing for all – even for those we are tempted to call our enemies and for those who continue to rise up against God.

I trust it just might be the same for you.

A Prayer to Know God As Father..Lynette Kittle

 A Prayer to Know God As Father

By Lynette Kittle

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’”-- John 14:6

Many people who ask Jesus to be their Lord and Savior stop there. Grateful and relieved to have their sins forgiven with the hope and promise of Heaven, they never go beyond their Salvation experience to understand how Jesus is the Way to having a close and personal relationship with our Heavenly Father.

But as wonderful as being freed from sin’s grip, God doesn’t want us to stop there because Jesus is the door, the gate to knowing Him as Father.

John 10:9, “I am the gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.”

Likewise, John 6:44 explains how God the Father is the reason, the drawing force to why we are able to invite Jesus into our lives and receive eternal life, as “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

Fatherless Believers
Many men and women in the world have had hurtful, wounding experiences with imperfect earthly fathers. As well as there are countless individuals who have never known, met, or even know who is their biological father, much less experienced a loving father figure in their lives. Because of growing up disappointed, hurt, or fatherless, many reject seeing God as their father, not knowing how or wanting to relate to Him. Yet God calls us to be His sons and daughters. As a result of many earthly fathers failing or abandoning their children or just not knowing how to be a father to their kids, many individuals struggle with relating to Him as their Heavenly Father.

Jesus Is the Way to Our Father
But God the Father’s heart all along, ever since man and woman’s Fall in the garden, has been to restore us as His sons and daughters, and Jesus is the way He provided to bring us back to Him. Ephesians 2:13 explains, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Through Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection, Jesus accomplished God’s will on earth, to redeem and restore us to His Father. As 2 Corinthians 6:18 explains, “And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

Jesus fulfilled His mission on earth, to come and restore us as sons and daughters to the Father. “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus”(Ephesians 2:6). Because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3).

Let’s pray:

Dear Father,
Thank you for loving me and sending Jesus to the world to free me from my sins and give me eternal life through Him (John 3:16). My heart is forever grateful to You for providing a way to be reconciled to You (2 Corinthians 5:18). Through Jesus, You provided the way for me to be Your child and to know You as my Father.

Mend my heart, Father, from earthly fathering wounds. Remove all walls and barriers that built up over the years to resist receiving Your love and presence in my life. Prepare me to be willing to welcome you into my life as my Father. Show me how to be in a father-child relationship with You. Open up my heart to relate, receive, and reach out to You as my Father. Teach me to see myself as Your child.

Thank you for calling me one of Your children. As 1 Peter 1:3 explains, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

In Jesus’ name,
Amen