Tag: Listening to God's voice

“I am Praying to God. I am Listening for God’s answer and I can almost hear Him speak it to me. There is so much static. What am I to do now?” Daniel 9

Daniel 9:3. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

I don’t know about you but one of the most frustrating things in life is trying to listen to the radio when I am driving and suddenly there is all kinds of static!

This is especially true when I am on the road cruising, and I am tuned into my all-time favorite music stations and life is deemed by me to be so very good.

I am just driving along when there is an important ball game on, and the static arrives, and your ears and nerves start to hurt from it, then you carefully scroll through the channels and all you can find is a station of some other noise that you cannot stand to listen, and it seems to be right between the two numbers.

Everything was great. Cruising the highways. Now the static arrives. You can’t quite seem to dial your place of “ultimate” peace back in. You try to fine tune with all of your might but it isn’t distinct or clear.

Delays, Distractions, Disturbances and Worldly Static interference prevail.

This is never truer then when you are forced to try to turn over to an AM radio station while driving! You begin to question the signal strength of the station.

Static on the radio is one thing but static when you are trying to hear God is even more frustrating. There is an example from the pages of God’s Word of static when it comes to hearing from God that I want to remind us all about.

Daniel 9:1-6 NKJV

Daniel’s Prayer for the People

9 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

3 Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. 4 And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, 5 we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. 6 Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

Let’s set the scene.

Daniel and the Children of Israel are in captivity.

Because of their own rebellion, hard heartedness and disobedience, prophecy has been fulfilled and they are slaves to Babylon.

Familiar with Scripture, Daniel knows the foretold length of the bondage is coming to an end and so he begins to call out to God to remember them.

He reminds God of the promise that the captivity will last a certain period of times – 70 years.

Daniel 9:7-17 NKJV

7 O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.

8 “O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. 10 We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. 11 Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore, the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him. 12 And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.

13 “As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. 14 Therefore the Lord has kept the disaster in mind and brought it upon us; for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. 15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly!

16 “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. 17 Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake [a]cause Your face to shine on [b]Your sanctuary, which is desolate.

Daniel Fasts. Daniel Prays and Daniel approaches God. He acknowledges their wrongdoing and then he reminds God of an example of God’s ability to rescue.

Some of us would hear God if we would simply acknowledge our own culpability and responsibility for the situation, we are in.

But we also need to learn a key here in getting response from God.

We pray to God. We remind God, even though He hasn’t forgotten, what He has done in the past. In the process, we are reminded that He can do more than we ever dreamed of or expected! It increases our faith to reflect on His faithfulness.

Daniel 9:20-23

“While I was pouring out my heart, baring my sins and the sins of my people Israel, praying my life out before my God, interceding for the holy mountain of my God—while I was absorbed in this praying, the humanlike Gabriel, the one I had seen in an earlier vision, approached me, flying in like a bird about the time of evening worship. “He stood before me and said, ‘Daniel, I have come to make things plain to you. You had no sooner started your prayer when the answer was given. And now I’m here to deliver the answer to you. You are much loved! So, listen carefully to the answer, the plain meaning of what is revealed:

So, he gets immediate response. But watch and listen – here comes the static.

Daniel 10:2-3, 12-14

“During those days, I, Daniel, went into mourning over Jerusalem for three weeks. I ate only plain and simple food, no seasoning or meat or wine. I neither bathed nor shaved until the three weeks were up.

“‘Relax, Daniel,’ he continued, ‘don’t be afraid. From the moment you decided to humble yourself to receive understanding, your prayer was heard, and I set out to come to you. But I was waylaid by the angel-prince of the kingdom of Persia and was delayed for a good three weeks. But then Michael, one of the chief angel-princes, intervened to help me. I left him there with the prince of the kingdom of Persia. And now I’m here to help you understand what will eventually happen to your people. The vision has to do with what’s ahead.’

In this instance Daniel goes from immediate communication to kneeling and fasting and wading and waiting through static.

He prays for 3 solid weeks and there is no response.

Then 24 days later an angel shows up and says the first moment you prayed you were heard but I ran in to static.

The enemy resisted.

Remember our enemy is called the prince and power of the air!

He works in the air ways to convolute and delay deliverance.

His power is best exhibited in the air ways.

Think about that a moment –

the enemy flexes his muscles in our lives by trying his best to control what we hear. That is why we so often see people derailed and detoured by something they hear – or more often than not – they thought they heard.

The truth it what they thought they heard was actually a twisted version of what was actually said. So, in order to be able to defeat this power of the air we need to learn some lessons based on Daniel’s experience that will help us tune in.

1. We need to hear that we are heard.

I want you to notice an incredible truth from this account.

This passage says on two different occasions that from the moment Daniel even thought about or began to pray that he was heard. The rate of response varied but the rate of God hearing Daniel’s request was consistent. Immediate!

Our petitions and requests hit God’s ears not when they cross our lips but when they cross our mind! I believe it is so important to recognize this because I have noticed we tend to think because we struggle to hear that God struggles to hear.

So strong was this on my heart today I just write to assure you today that even when static interference has become the new standard of normal for us as we pray and try hard to listen for and harder still to hear God, even when we, like Daniel, consistently long for response but hear nothing we all need to know:

God absolutely hears us from the very exact moment we begin to think about it.

There may even be occasions when the answer may seem to arrive too late to us, we need to, instead trust, to rest in the knowledge that the answer is on its way.

Isaiah 65:24 – Before they call, I will answer while they are still speaking, I will hear!

Maybe in old song form – Oh yes, the answer is on the way, this I know Jesus said it I believe it to be so. Our Heavenly Father knows the need before we pray, and we can be rest assured the answers on the way!

2. Static reveals resistance and should cause us to rejoice.

I pray that I am about to blow your mind . . . Interference reveals interference!

Why bother even telling you something so elementary?

Because I get genuinely concerned that a lot of us make the mistake of equating silence as a sign or indication of God’s lack of concern or love. I have watched people get mad at God because they fail to realize that if there is static it doesn’t mean God doesn’t care it means the enemy is at work to stop their answer.

In fact, I am going to make an odd statement to you today!

If you are confronted with static, you should rejoice!

The more static you are encountering the more encouraged you should be because that is a sure and certain indication that the enemy knows a response is coming from God and he is doing everything he can to stop you from hearing it.

More Static Interference should strengthen your resolve. Too often we let static stop us in our tracks. The first little taste of any interference and we turn off the radio. Which brings me to the third to be valued lesson we can gain from Daniel.

3. The proper response to static is persistence.

Daniel is doing his very best to hear and instead there is nothing but static and silence. But notice he doesn’t give up. He keeps listening. He keeps tuning in.

No answer after day one he is persistent. No answer after week 1 he is even more persistent. No response 10 days in he yet persists. Nothing after 2 weeks . . . No change leads to no change . . . He continues. Answer released on day one but not received until day 24. Persistence 100% wins wars, persistence 100% prevails.

Some of us are always stopping one day short, one service short, one moment short of reception of miracle. Keep fine tuning.

If resisted, don’t back up, don’t give up, don’t let up instead press in harder.

If the enemy is resisting this hard and is resisting this long the answer must surely and certainly and most absolutely 1000% be worth all of the wait.

We can’t become too soon frustrated with static that we change channels.

Some of us have been praying for months even years and it is like tuning into and hearing and listening to an AM station at night in response – 100% static.

Why such a level of static?

Why does God seem to take long to answer prayers?

Sometimes God waits to answer our prayers because He trusts us to make the right decision.

Other times, God requires us to patiently wait for an answer so we can build our faith and trust in Him.

And on some occasions, God gives us answers, but they may not be what we’d hoped for, instead the answers are exactly what God knows we 100% need.

What we can learn from Daniel about delayed answers to prayer

The Lord promises to respond to our prayers, particularly the prayers we prayed in faith.

While that may be true, there are time when we feel like God’s not responding to us.

We’ve prayed and prayed but the answers just don’t come when we want them to.

These delays frustrate us.

What do we do when the answers to our prayers see, to come late?

How do we respond when God’s responses to our cries and prayers seem slow in coming?

We keep praying in faith.

Relentless faith

Many of us tend to point the blame on God when the answers to our prayers seem late. We tend to ask Him “why” the answers don’t come, “why” they arrived late, or even “why doesn’t He hear us.”

We are always quick to blame God who actually knows what we will pray for before we pray, responds in the fastest time possible

– right at the very exact moment we pray.

Actually, we are the ones who should keep praying when the answers to our prayers seem delayed, not God.

Consider Daniel, who experienced such a delay.

Here are some things we can learn from his experience:

God’s answer is sent immediately

We read in Daniel 10:12 that God sends His reply the moment He hears our prayers.

“Then he said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words.””

The enemy, however, seeks to delay or prevent God’s response from arriving to us

We then read in the following verse how the enemy prevented Daniel from receiving God’s reply in the soonest time possible.

“But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days…”

This means there’s a war in the heavenlies for the answers to our prayers.

Are we going to stop praying just because the answer is delayed?

Are we going to quit on God because “He doesn’t seem to respond”?

I absolutely, fervently pray that we don’t.

In fact, I pray that we respond exactly like Daniel did when his prayers remain unanswered:

He fasted and kept praying for a time until he received the answers.

“In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.” (Daniel 10:2-3)

Soon enough, the answers did arrive. They arrived because God made them arrive:

“But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia.” (Daniel 10:13)

In closing

Friends, God does answer our prayers, but the devil seeks to discourage us from seeking God.

The more we pray, the more the enemy tries to hinder our prayers from being answered. We should never ever give up on praying for God’s answers to arrive.

Keep praying. Lean in harder. Lean in longer.

Be persistent in Prayer –

1 Thessalonians 5:14-18 NKJV

14 Now we [a]exhort you, brethren, warn those who are [b]unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. 15 See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

In the meantime, ….

While the static interference seems to go on forever and ever – (lingering amen)

Romans 12:9-13 NKJV

Behave Like a Christian

9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. 10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; 11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, patient[a] in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; 13 distributing to the needs of the saints, given[b] to hospitality.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Heavenly Father, what a comfort and joy to me that You know and understand the deepest longings of my heart. Thank You that You know the end before the beginning, and hear and answer my prayers before the request forms in my heart or crosses my lips. Thank You for beautifying my requests and providing the answer that is best for me. Teach me to pray into Your will for my life, and align my heart’s desires to Your perfect will. This I ask in Jesus’ name, AMEN.

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To know God, to believe in God, to Follow Jesus, We Need to Learn to Listen to His Voice. Exodus 3:1-5

When all is said and done, and the whole Truth is being Told, OUR problem when it comes to OUR listening is not God hearing us, it is us hearing God.

Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling,
calling for you and for me;
see, on the portals he’s waiting and watching,
watching for you and for me.
Refrain:
Come home, come home;
ye who are weary come home;
earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
calling, O sinner, come home!

Exodus 3:1-5Amplified Bible

The Burning Bush

3 Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro (Reuel) his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb (Sinai), the mountain of God. 2 The [a]Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing flame of fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was on fire, yet it was not consumed. 3 So Moses said, “I must turn away [from the flock] and see this great sight—why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he turned away [from the flock] to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then God said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet [out of respect], because the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

If I were to ask you ladies if you husbands are good listeners, most of you would probably respond with a resounding: “no.”

If I were to ask you gentlemen if your wives are good listeners, most of you would probably respond in much the same way the ladies did.

If I were to ask you parents if your children are good listeners, I believe I would get a lot of “no’s.”

If I turned that around and asked you teenagers if your parents listen to you, I am sure that I would get a loud and resounding “no.”

If I were to ask each Christian man or Christian woman if you were a good listener to the voice of the Lord, I believe the answer is “no” once again even though the Bible says in John 10:27-28 that my sheep hear my voice.

In these days in which we are living in, we must learn to be good listeners if we are going to be followers of God, the Father, His Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Do you know who the best listener is?

It is God.

All the way from the very deepest place in all eternity – God heard!

In the Book of Exodus, the Lord tells us (Exodus 3:7) that the Lord heard the cries of the Israelites under the cruel hand of the Egyptian taskmasters.

Psalm 5:3, the psalmist confirms that the Lord hears my prayers.

Psalm 20, the Lord confirms that He hears my cries in times of trouble.

Make no mistake about it: The Lord listens well to ALL of His Children.

Our problem when it comes to listening is not God hearing us, it is us hearing God.

In the Book of Revelation in the Lord’s messages to the seven churches John writes under inspiration of God these words, “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

And then in the Gospels Jesus used that same expression. Mark 4:23 (NKJV) 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Those were Jesus’ own words and He recognized that many do not hear him.

So, I have to ask myself the question:

“What is the problem that I don’t hear God?”

And that is what we are going to look at today.

What hinders us from hearing the Lord?

To do that I want to look at the encounter at the burning bush when God spoke to Moses, and he heard clearly what God had to say.

Exodus 3:1-5International Children’s Bible

The Burning Bush

3 One day Moses was taking care of Jethro’s sheep. Jethro was the priest of Midian and also Moses’ father-in-law. Moses led the sheep to the west side of the desert. He came to Sinai, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in flames of fire coming out of a bush. Moses saw that the bush was on fire, but it was not burning up. 3 So Moses said, “I will go closer to this strange thing. How can a bush continue burning without burning up?”

4 The Lord saw Moses was coming to look at the bush. So God called to him from the bush, “Moses, Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

5 Then God said, “Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals. You are standing on holy ground.

Point #1

Hearing God ‘s voice will require effort on my part.

Moses took his sheep to a place where He knew that He could talk with God.

Do I make the effort to go to a place where I can talk with God?

1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Moses lives in the land of Midian on the backside of the desert tending the sheep of Jethro, his father-in-law.

So, as we come to Exodus 3, Moses is going to take his sheep out to pasture.

But please notice here that Moses is not taking the sheep in the back pasture an acre or two from Jethro’s house. Look at a Map. Moses has set out to take them about twenty-five miles (25) miles to the pastureland around Mt. Horeb.

There were many mountain ranges near Midian, but Moses headed to a specific mountain range- Horeb.

Horeb has two meanings:

Mountain of YHWH and it is also called the Mount of God. You might have heard this Mountain also referred to a Mt. Sinai in some places. It would become the place later where God would then write, give Moses the Ten Commandments.

The fact that Moses would take those sheep that far tells me how badly Moses wanted to hear from God.

What kind of effort do you and I make to hear from God?

Are we “that” willing to get up early to seek the Lord since He gives us a promise in Scripture? 

Proverbs 8:17 (KJV) I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.

Isaiah went to the house of the Lord to hear from God, and there He meet the Lord High and lighted up.

And it was there that Isaiah carried on a conversation with God.

And Jesus would always go to a secluded place to listen to the Words of His Father.

In all three cases, there was an effort- to get up early, to go to the church house, and or to go some distance away to find a secluded place to talk to God.

What effort do we put in to listening to God?

No effort?

Then we are probably not hearing from God.

And actually, there are times that God must put you in certain places to get you to listen to Him.

I noticed that I am a pretty good listener to God when I am in a hospital bed.

I also notice that I am a good listener when troubles are attacking me at all sides.

But let me tell you what I have found out in my life.

It is so much better for me when I make more than the minimal effort to listen to God rather than just waiting for God to arrange the meeting to listen to Him.

Point# 2

Hearing God’s voice will require vigorously exercising a spiritual curiosity about what God is doing around me that a lot of Christians lack. Do I even look to see God doing things around me, do I bother to ask God “what are You trying to tell me?”

Exodus 3:2-3 (NKJV) 2 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So, he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”

Remember, Moses is working. He is managing a flock of sheep for his father-in-law.

Ladies, do you know how hard it is to have a conversation with your husband when he is at work?

Gentlemen, do you know how hard it is to have a conversation with your wives when they are trying very hard to prepare you your supper when you get home?

Most of you are going to get a one- or two-word answer and then bye.

Guys when they are working are single focused. Ladies are very diligent in their efforts not to undercook or burn the food, to not over or under season the meal.

I am sure there would be a lot of guys who saw the burning bush and said to themselves that is “just simply too weird” and kept on walking by. And after they passed it by, they would give no more second thought of it or about it.

Moses, on the other hand, had a spiritual curiosity, after all he did take his sheep to the Mount of God.

So, ladies, gentlemen, He may have been expecting something from God.

Moses approached near the bush and ultimately had a conversation with God.

With all the upheaval going on around us, any curious Christians should have begun a conversation with God as to why so much negativity is assailing them.

War in the Ukraine, raising prices at the Gas Pumps, Housing Costs, Student Debt, National Debt, Political intrigue, Economic Upheavals on Wall Street and other World Markets, Gun Violence, Hot button controversial topics such as the issue of Immigration, Abortion, Extremism are all making news at a rapid pace.

I would want to know: “God, are we to be preparing us for the end times?”

God are you just giving us a glimpse of what is going to happen in the future?

And that peaked curiosity starts a conversation with God just as that burning bush started a conversation between God and Moses which resulted in change.

Look for things God is doing in your life or in the world, be curious, because that just may be God’s way of reaching out wanting to start a conversation with you.

Point # 3

Hearing God’s voice will require an expectation that I am going to hear God’s voice. If I go into prayer not expecting to hear from God, I am not going to hear from God. Moses took his sheep to Mt. Horeb expecting to hear from God.

4 So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”

I told you that Moses came to Mt. Horeb expecting to hear from God.

Let me tell you why I believe that is the case. I have two reasons that I say that:

(1) The way that God addressed Moses by calling out his name twice Moses, Moses. In the Jewish language when two words are repeated back-to-back it is for emphasis. It is like saying Moses I have been waiting for you.

When I was a young boy if my mother hollered “Tom, Tom” meant that she had been waiting on me. God was telling Moses; I have been waiting on you.

(2) Look at Moses’ response. He did not say “Yes, Lord” but rather “here I am”. I finally made it here.

Make no mistake, Moses walked 25 miles out of his way to Mt. Horeb expecting to hear from God. And God waited for Moses to get there.

Conclusion

Verse 5 says “…for the place where you stand is holy ground.” 

Wherever it is you and God are communicating (that is talking to and listening to God) that is Holy Ground.

It could be any church house, your back porch, or 25 miles from “wherever”.

When is the last time you have been on Holy Ground?

Today, Jesus invites you to Holy Ground.

Will you come talk and listen to God as the invitation is offered?

Will we try just that much harder to hear what the Lord is saying to us?

“Speak, Lord, for your Servant is Listening.”

“You have my attention, Lord, I pray my ears are hearing you correctly.”

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Lord God, my Way-maker, I know you have a destiny for me to achieve in this life. I want to follow the plan that you have laid out. Help me to understand and follow your call. Show me your will for my life and what I need to do right now to get started. Enable me to know who I am in Christ, and the special gifts and abilities you have given me. Give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation as I seek to know you more intimately. Gloria! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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God Speaks! Are we Hearing Him or Are We Instead Testing Him? Mark 12:28-34

Simplify!

“Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail …Simplify. Simplify.”

Those are the words of Henry David Thoreau, the American writer, who in the early 19th century, for two years, lived alone, isolated by the shore of Walden Pond in the woods of Massachusetts.

Simplify.

Do you have any interest in simplifying your life?

Does that sound appealing to you?

Do you feel like we tend to complicate things, even spiritual things?

In terms of the purpose of your life, what would God have you do?

We need answers, don’t we?

But where will you go to find your answers? Out into the woods like Thoreau?

Well, to discover answers it is helpful to use another quote by Thoreau’s: [he said] we must

“drive life into a corner and reduce it to its lowest terms”. “Simplify. Simplify.”

I believe Henry David Thoreau is right, because this is precisely what Jesus himself does in our passage today.

What is the most important thing you can do? Answer is “Simplify your life!”

What is the most important thing we can do in our relationship with God?

Answer: Simplify it down to its most basic terms: Hear God!

What is the most complicated thing we can do in our relationship with God?

Answer: Test Him! Repeatedly ask “Whom, What, Where When and Why!”

Hear God or Test God?

Hear God or Resort to “turning your hearing aids off” Selective Hearing

Trust and Obey unless you personally believe there is definitely another way.

Take your Bibles and turn with me to Mark chapter 12.

Mark 12:28-34Christian Standard Bible

The Primary Commands

28 One of the scribes approached. When he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which command is the most important of all?”

29 Jesus answered, “The most important[a] is Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[b] 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.[c][d] 31 The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself.[e] There is no other command greater than these.”

32 Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, teacher. You have correctly said that he is one, and there is no one else except him. 33 And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, [f] and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is far more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to question him any longer.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

The Sadducees come to Jesus to debate and to test him – their intention is to try and “trip him up” that they might publicly embarrass and humiliate him. They want to “hear” what Jesus has to say about how he prioritizes God and the Law.

Jesus “heard” their words very well. Jesus also heard their hearts beating at the anticipation of taking Jesus down in full view of the gathered and gathering crowds of onlookers who also waited to “hear” how Jesus would respond now.

But notice here Jesus “hears the question” and also hears the murmurs and the curious silence of those who have gathered, he does not hesitate in responding.

For Him the answer is obvious. And it should have been for all of them as well, seeing as how they “heard themselves’ reciting the ‘answer’ twice every day!

You see, the greatest of all the OT commandments came from Deuteronomy chapter 6, from a section recited daily by faithful Jews everywhere, even today; a confession called the Shema. It’s exactly what Jesus quotes in verse 29 and 30.

So, what do we see here? We see a scribe coming to Jesus, listening in as Christ interacts with the Sadducees back in verses 18-27. From what we can tell, the scribe doesn’t seem motivated by jealousy or ill-will. He seems to ask Jesus this question because he simply recognizes there is wisdom in the words of Christ.

Here the Scribe was listening from a short discrete distance to the exchange of words between the Sadducees and Jesus. The Scribe was trying very hard to hear the responses as the conversation took place in real time.

As the Scribe was in the active process of hearing the exchange of words, he was also actively trying to hear the message both were trying to communicate to each other. Hearing these messages, the Scribe knew, would help him respond most efficiently and effectively back to both parties.

The conversation between the Sadducees and Jesus ends. And immediately the Scribe becomes more than just a little bit curious about the exchange, instead also becoming complementary at the words Jesus spoke (Verses 32-33).

Did you also notice the Scribe made no further effort to complicate the moment, add to the debate, by asking Jesus’ dozens more complex theological questions? I believe He heard the correctness and simplicity of Jesus’ few spoken words.

He undoubtedly had more questions he wanted to ask and have answered to suit his own particular nuanced theological interpretations, understandings.

He undoubtedly would’ve enjoyed sitting on a bench in the Temple to debate him. Instead, the Scribe heard the simplicity of Jesus’ words and approached him on the basis of that simplicity and acknowledged with Jesus the simplicity of them.

Simplify! Simplify! Simplify!

Now, I want you to notice something else here.

Do you see how Jesus takes advantage of this opportunity? Jesus is not simply humoring a peripheral question asked by a scribe with misplaced priorities.

This scribe has asked a fantastic question, and Jesus makes the most of the opportunity by giving not just the greatest commandment, but the second most important command as well.

What I’m saying is that this is not just a question that was important to the scribe. It is a question that was and is important to Jesus. Why? Because in it, Jesus has the opportunity to simplify the issue of man’s highest end before God.

And did you notice, the scribe understood the importance of Jesus’ answer.

His response to Jesus in verse 33 simply reveals that this man recognized how obedience to these commands was far more important than obedience to all of the sacrificial laws of the Hebrew Testament.

Such laws were simply worthless if a worshiper’s heart was not aligned with the simplicity of God’s greatest law.

And then something else odd happens. The text takes us in a very interesting direction. A Scribe steps forward and seeing that Jesus had answered well… he simply asks a sincere question of Jesus. “Which commandment is first of all.”

And Jesus again, answers wisely quoting scripture in verse 29. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength,” … and to that he adds, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

And then here, the really amazing thing happens.

We have a Scribe, an ‘expert in the law’ who “gets it” without further debate.

Not only does he understand what Jesus is saying… he takes it another step.

You see… one thing you have to understand about the Scribes is that they were very strict about following the rules… the letter of the law.

They made completely sure that they did everything just so. So much so they made everything far too complex, often missing the very simple point of what God was really calling them to do.

And Jesus, in a way of “rebuking them”… pointed them to the heart of their calling. Love God, and love neighbor. It’s as exquisitely simple as exactly that.

And the scribe echoed back to him… in verse 32.

“You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that he is one, and there is no other but he; and to love him with all the heart, with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

And Jesus replied back to him in verse 34… “seeing that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

Or we might also re-write that verse this way by adding to it this thought… “Jesus, knowing that the Scribe had heard him … “seeing that he answered wisely, ….” he said to him, “you are not far from the Kingdom of God.”

What made this Scribe so different?

Why, amidst so many examples of Scribes on the wrong side of it all, do we have this one shining example of a Scribe “gone right?”

Thinking about this, I believe there is enough evidence in today’s scripture for us to understand what makes this Scribe stand apart.

First of all… he came with a heart that was all about listening and hearing rather than a heart that was all about testing.

Instead of coming into the conversation with his mind already made up, already thinking his way was the only way… he came seeking to listen, seeking to hear, seeking to know… seeking to understand… perhaps even to actually learn God.

What about us? I think that we too… far too often fail to listen and rather come to the conversation with our minds already made up we are going to test God with a whole host of theological debates, exercises in theological semantics.

Here, in today’s lesson… we have a bunch of the “bad guys” (Sadducees) setting the example for those of us more inclined to incessantly question and debate …

Then we have the Scribe who models and sets the example of “enough debate!” Hear what God in Christ Jesus is saying to His Children through the length and breadth and width and height of His everlasting and ever living Holy Scriptures.

“May we one day acknowledge the difference between the two approaches. May we be willing to hear and listen to those simple truths so that we may hear. May we come with learning hearts seeking rather than with hearts that are testing.”

This “I Will” “first hear the Word of God, listen to the Word of God, listen to Jesus as he “keeps it simple smart” first is exactly what set the Scribe apart.

He was willing to keep the primacy of God first and really listen and pay close attention to that … and as a result he actually heard what Jesus was saying.

And this is my second point… the Scribe heard the message… and the message was this:

Talk with God, Hear God, Listen to God, Love God with all your 1) heart, all your 2) soul, all your 3) mind, and all your 4) strength. Again… the English words are good, but they come far short of what is being said in the original Greek.

https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/mar/12/28-34/s_969028

Take the time to go through each individual word of each individual verse.

Learn the Nuances. Listen to and then Hear God speak through the nuances.

For example, begin with the nuanced understanding behind

1) the heart… is so much more than this thing in our chests.

It not only represents the center of all of our physical being… it represents the very center of our spiritual life.

More than that, it represents all of our passion, our desires, our appetites, even our affections… and Jesus calls us to direct all of them rightfully towards God.

Then move on to learning the nuances of the rest – Soul, Mind and Strength.

God, through His Son Christ Jesus, is definitely trying to converse with you.

Insert yourselves into this picture – Become the Scribe, the Crowd, and Jesus.

Hear what God really has to say – what God really wants us to hear and learn.

Without making this section into its own mini sermon…

Just think about all the things in this life we are passionate about, all the things that take priority… more often than not, these things are not God. And yet… this is the example set for us in today’s scripture.

We are covenanted to make God #1.

We are covenanted to listen, hear, and learn from God first!

We are covenanted to be doers of the truth of God first!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Almighty God, we ask you to clean our minds and hearts of all the things that may prevent us from hearing your word. Empty our hearts of doubt and empty our minds of preconceptions and assumptions. May we know that you are the source of our knowledge. Prepare our hearts to be ready to accept your truth. Help us be capable of hearing your voice speaking to us. Gloria! Alleluia! Amen.

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Distracted from Believing in God or Driven to Holiness? Do We Wear our High-Tech or His Holy Headphones?

Back in those most ancient of days when the telegraph was the fastest method of long-distance communication, a young man had applied for a job as a Morse Code operator. Answering an ad in the newspaper, he went to the office address that was listed. When he arrived, he entered a large, busy office filled with noise and clatter, including the sounds of the telegraphs clicking in the background.

A sign on the receptionist’s counter instructed each job applicants to fill out a form, sit down and wait until they were summoned to enter the inner office.

The young man filled out his form and sat down with the seven other applicants in the waiting area. After but a few brief minutes, the young man stood up, had crossed the room to the door of the inner office, opened it and walked right in.

Naturally the other applicants perked up, wondering what was going on. They muttered among themselves that they had not heard any summons yet. They believed that the brash young man who went into the office made a mistake and because of his presumptiveness would be removed from the office, disqualified.

Within a few minutes, however, the employer escorted the young man out of the office and said to the other applicants, “Gentlemen, thank you very much for your interest and for taking time to come, but the job has just been filled.”

The other applicants began grumbling to each other, and one spoke up saying, “Wait a minute, I don’t understand. He was the last to come in, and we never even got a chance to be interviewed. Yet he got the job. That is so not fair!”

The employer said, “I’m sorry, but all the time you’ve been sitting here, the telegraph has been ticking out the following message in Morse Code: ‘If you understand this message, then do not wait, come right in. The job is yours.’ None of you heard it or understood it. This young man did. The job is his.”

Truth is: We live in a distracted world that is full of busyness and clatter.

Like those other applicants waiting in that office, people are distracted and unable to hear the message from a still, small voice of God as he speaks to them.

What about me? Am I too distracted? Am I tuned into God’s voice?

What about you? Are you too distracted? Are you tuned into God’s voice?

Do you hear him over your ultra-high-tech earphones when he speaks to you?

Are you and I distracted or are you and I listening?

Today, we are pondering this subject of “Ultra-High-Tech Holy Headphones: How to Hear God’s Voice” and the Lord and I want you to see exactly how God speaks to us through distraction so we can hear Him when He speaks to us all.

How many of you all wearing your earbuds have ever heard God speak to you?

1 Samuel 3:1-11 NIV

The Lord Calls Samuel

3 The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.

2 One-night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. 4 Then the Lord called Samuel.

Samuel answered, “Here I am.” 5 And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.

6 Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

“My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”

7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

8 A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. 9 So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So, Samuel went and lay down in his place.

10 The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”

Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

11 And the Lord said to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

I’m certain by the end of this devotion, if you’re one of God’s children, you’ll be more aware of the times when God was speaking, and more aware of when God will be trying to speak to you, and if you are not one of God’s children, then you will be more aware of how you can become one and then start to hear His voice.

The first thing you got to do to hear God’s voice is Tune In. You cannot listen to your favorite music or news program on the radio unless your radio is tuned in to those stations, can you? You can’t listen to Rock if your car radio is tuned to News, can you? Well, you can’t hear God’s voice unless you are tuned in to Him.

“He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” John 8:47

Young Samuel is lying down trying to sleep in the temple, the candles were still lit, so it’s about 2 or 3 in the morning and he cannot quite to get fully to sleep.

I believe His mind’s probably racing from everything he learned that day. You see, Samuel was perhaps 8 or 9 years old, and he was living with Eli, the priest. His mother Hannah had dedicated him unto the Lord as a baby, so Samuel as a boy learned the function of a priest under the Chief Priest – Eli.

So here Samuel is trying to get some rest and he hears somebody call his name.

He stands up, runs to Eli’s bedside and says, “Here I am, what did you want?”

And Eli’s like, “I didn’t call you, go back to bed.” So, Sammy goes back to the sack and the same thing happens. He hears somebody call his name, goes to Eli, Eli says, “It wasn’t me,” and he goes back to bed. The same thing happens a third time, and this time Eli catches on that God is the one calling Samuel.

So, Eli gives young Samuel some instruction on hearing from God and he goes back to bed, hears the voice of God, and then listens to what God has to say.

You see, at the beginning, Samuel didn’t quite know what was going on.

He believed Eli was calling him. He wasn’t tuned in to God, the Scripture says,

“the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.”

If he was tuned in to God, he would have known that it was God who was speaking to him, and he would have heard clearly all the instruction that God had for him.

So, what about you?

So, what about us?

Have we tuned in to God?

Can we or can we not tell when God is genuinely speaking to us?

A man and his friend were in downtown New York City, walking near Times Square in Manhattan. It was during the noon lunch hour and the streets were filled with wall-to-wall people walking in every which direction. Cars were honking their horns, taxicabs were all squealing around corners, sirens were wailing, and the sounds of the city were almost deafening.

Suddenly, one of the men said, “I just heard some crickets.”

His friend said, “What? You must be crazy. You couldn’t possibly hear crickets in all of this ridiculous noise!”

“No, I’m sure of it,” the man said. “I definitely heard a bunch of crickets.”

Shaking his head, “That’s way beyond crazy,” said his friend.

The man quietly interrupted his friend listened carefully for a moment, and then walked across the street to a long cement planter where several shrubs were growing. He stopped, looked into the bushes, beneath the branches, and sure enough, he located several crickets. His friend was utterly amazed.

“That’s just incredible,” said his friend. “You must have super-human ears!”

“No,” said the other man. “My ears are no different from yours. You see, it all depends on what you are distracted by what you are hearing and listening for.”

“But that can’t be!” said the friend. “I could never hear crickets in this noise.”

“Yes, it’s true,” came the reply. “It depends on what you’re listening for. Here, let me show you.”

He reached into his pocket, pulled out a several coins, and discreetly dropped them down on the sidewalk. And then, with the noise of the crowded street still blaring in their ears, they noticed every head within twenty feet turn and look to check their pockets to see if the money that tinkled on the pavement was theirs.

“See what I mean?” asked the man.

“It all depends on what you are hearing and what you are listening for.”

If you have ears to hear and are actually using them to listen, you can tune in to God, it doesn’t matter what’s going on around you, you can hear Him speak.

Ok, if you really, truly, genuinely, actually, actively want to tune in to God. Well, what ultra-high-tech earphones do you and God have on right in this moment?

Speak Truth: Are any of us even close to tuning into the same frequency as God?

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Dear Father in heaven, your Son promised that we would see him again if we wait patiently and listen to what the Holy Spirit says to us. Illuminate our hearts and send your Spirit in. All that is yours will be ours through your Spirit. I pray that I learn to quiet my mind so I can hear the Holy Spirit. I pray that I am filled with the understanding to know how to follow its guidance for me. Amen.

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