God wants us to hear His Voice. I am always fascinated that the Bible tells us in Genesis 3:8 that Adam and Eve heard the 'Voice of God' walking in the garden. God created the world with His Voice. The Prophetic Word spoken to us not only brings truth and wisdom but it empowers us to change. When Jesus said to the adulterous woman, "Go and sin no more" this was more than a command, it was an empowerment!I hear God's voice daily. If I don't, I feed my spirit and correct what I'm doing so I will. I want to always stay aware of what God's saying and what's going on in the spirit realm. This is relationship with God. Here are some of the ways of communication with God that I have experienced.
1. I hear God's voice through His Word.
God and His Word are 'one.' John 1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. ...And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." Jesus is the Word. Before He lay down His divinity and became a man, He was the Word. To hear God's heart, we need to know His Word. It builds a filing cabinet, a boundary in our understanding, and causes us to recognize His Voice. God will never speak anything contrary to the principle of His Word, therefore, should we ever hear anything that's outside His character, we know it's not God speaking to us. If you want to hear God's voice more clearly, you have to renew your mind and your thinking with His Word.
Sometimes when I am studying or reading the Bible, God will put a neon sign around a scripture - at least it seems like that that - and I know that God is drawing my attention to that truth and telling me, "This is for you." I then meditate on that scripture wanting to glean all the understanding that I can out of what God is telling me.
Often times God will bring a verse to my mind as I'm going through my day. This is His loving way of keeping us in line with His thinking, giving us answers to our questions or giving us something to share with someone else. I have loved when He has brought a thought to my mind that I didn't recognize as a scripture and then found it reading days later!
I want to add to this that bread becomes stale after a short period of time. God does not want us eating stale bread but wants to feed us fresh manna for this season. We need to be sensitive to what God is saying 'now' and not hang on inappropriately to what He said 'yesterday.' We need fresh manna, Living Water, and to be willing to move forward with God's leading. To do this, we will need to hear His Voice daily.
3. God speaks words to my mind.
I love when God says my name! A few years ago, I was putting laundry into the washing machine and God said to me, "Lynda, I want to bless you in every way." I fell to my knees under the heavy presence of the LORD. This was not a scripture but follows the character of God. As we commune with God, getting to know His character and presence, we recognize His Voice more clearly.
I've know my mom for a long time. (I won't tell you how long -lol.) When she calls me on the phone, even without caller I.D., she doesn't need to tell me who's calling. I recognize her voice. I recognize her voice because I've talked to her every day of my life.
It's the same with God. The more time we spend in His Presence, in His Word, the more easily and clearly we will hear His Voice. There is nothing more precious to me than God's Voice!
4. God gives me visions.
God has given me many visions. It's like He pulls back a curtain and lets me see into the spirit realm. He has shown me the River of Life, He has shown me 'as far as the East is from the West', He has shown me what happens in the spirit realm when I worship Him with dance. He has shown me angels delivering His Word and His gifts to people.
Sometimes I will see myself doing something, like a movie in my mind, and I will understand that that's what God wants me to do. I have seen demons on people and know to command them off and what repentance needs to take place in this person. Very recently I saw the word 'WORD' written on a woman's throat as we were praying for her before she taught the congregation. She then taught on 'The Word!' (love it!)
When I told my daughter what I had seen, she immediately responded with, "Your Word have I written on my heart!" The Word is written on her heart also.
5. God 'downloads.'
I don't know what else to call this. Sometimes God just 'downloads' something into my spirit. One minute I don't know something, then God does something and a few minutes later, I know and understand something completely. He doesn't tell me something in words but I can feel something happening and when it's done, I have a fresh revelation of something new. I always do my best to write it down and as I do, God gives me the words for what He just taught me.
6. Dreams
I often have prophetic dreams where God is showing me a truth or what's happening in the spirit realm. Again, I do my best to write them down as soon as I wake up and study them to let God give me greater understanding. I have found things I've written down from years past that God lead me to read again and that were very timely for what was happening now, years later.
7. God speaks to me through 'tongues'
In Corinthians it talks about the gift of tongues and the gift of interpretation. I heard a wonderful teaching a few years ago by Beverly Sheasby. She and her husband, John Sheasby, have a ministry called Liberated Living that you can listen to on line or receive monthly CD's. Mrs. Sheasby shared how the LORD taught her to interpret her prayer language and understand what she's praying! I have the most success with this when I first wake up in the morning, before I ever get out of bed. While my mind is still quiet, I begin to pray in the Spirit and let my mind 'listen.' It's during this time that I have had some of my most life-changing visions and Words from the LORD.
God wants to give us wisdom for every situation. He wants to spend the day with us, sharing all that we experience and show us His perspective on everything. He wants us to think like Him, act like Him, speak like Him. He wants to fill us with His love until we overflow onto every person we come in contact with. He wants us to be so in-tuned to His Spirit that we have a 'Word' for everyone we come in contact with - a life-changing, empowering Word to heal and equip the people He loves.
God wants us to hear His Voice.
No comments:
Post a Comment