Good question. If you are asking that question then we are already at a good starting point. The big area we are moving into here is listening prayer. Learning to have a conversational relationship with God. This means that instead of just talking to God, we give Him a chance to speak to us. I know that many Christians do not believe this to be part of our faith but it is clearly something we see in the Bible. And why would God do so much to restore us into His family and give us the Holy Spirit and not speak with us. It doesn't even make sense.
First of all I want to suggest a couple of good books on hearing the voice of God; The first one is Walking with God by John Eldredge and the second one is Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God by Dallas Willard. Dallas deals with the more controversial aspects and the objections. I encourage you to read them even before you begin listening prayer. I am not going to deal with the controversy in this post. I want to encourage you that it is real and it is available and it is amazing. I will say that I understand the fear that folks have when people start "hearing from God" Many people do wacky things under this premise. However, you can just as easily start a cult using the bible. So that is not a catch all either.
Caution: In order to move forward in this journey it is imperative that you are a true Christian who has been born again. This means that you have the Spirit of Jesus in your heart. It is also important to know the bible and understand key Christian doctrines. It is also important to have a friend who is a mature believer and who has experience in this area and who knows you personally and is mentoring you through. More about how my own walk looks in the next post....
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Thanks for the book references I'm going to track them down.
All I know is that if people don't hear from God in this day and age, what kind of age are we living in. Eli the priest lived in a day when the word of the Lord was rare (1 Samuel). Why was that? Because people didn't want to hear from God and the leaders of the day weren't inspiring the people to do so either. We find out later that Eli's sons were taking part in corrupt activities at the temple. It didn't inspire people to seek God. It pushed away and made the importance of God be diminished.
We have to set our ear to God's voice as Jesus mentions in John 10. The sheep know the shepherd's voice and a stranger's voice they simply will not follow.
If you haven't heard from God lately, I'd question your pursuit. Is it monthly, weekly or daily that you say from your own mouth... Okay, God what now? What do have to say to me right now? What do you require of me at this moment?
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