How to hear from God

Have you ever wondered how to hear from God? The past 2 weeks, Scotty Scruggs at Sanctuary (www.sanc.info) gave 2 awesome sermons on this topic. Please check out the website for the podcasts, but below I will post my notes from the sermon series entitled Get Smart.

Part 1 - How you know if God is leading you in a certain direction (May 22, 2011)

Though at times God may show miraculous signs to show you that He wants you to do something like how he did for Gideon (see Judges 6:17), this is more of an exception. The reality is when we set up God with a test, we normally don't get a sign from the Bible. However, the story of Gideon does show that God wants to speak to us when making decisions.

7 key points:

1) The assurance of God's love (for you)

• This is a fundamental prerequisite since nothing you choose to do can change the fact that you are loved by God
• However, most of us instead seek approval or the others rebel against it as our way of functioning
• 1 John 4:18

2) The characters of God's kingdom

• The answer will have to do something that God is doing in the world. Our decisions will become more congruent with His
• Is our decisions in line with God's character?

3) The shape of your strengths (something you are made to do to give you joy)

• It is a process of narrowing down the list of possibilities of who you could be to who you actually are
• Is it even you? Which words give you meaning?

4) The demands of reality

• Need to see if it is realistic - financially, emotionally, for your family, etc.
• Luke 14:28-30
• However, God may call you to do something unreasonable if that is the case. God will then go out of the way to make it clear to you

5) Wisdom of community

• Normally great decisions aren't made in isolation
• Community to help process your thoughts/strengths/wisdom
• But at the end of the day, it is your call

6) Presence of peace

• Decisions should never be made from a place of desolation. It should always move you to a place of contentment
• He won't lead you to fear, doubt, anxiety, discontentment, desparation
• Don't choose out of anger, greed, frustration

7) The goal is Christ

• Only goal is to glorify Jesus
• Phil 4:21
• to live is Christ = to seek His life before your own

Part 2 (May 29, 2011)

What do you think Jesus is saying to you at this point in your life? How do you know? These are 2 questions that every Christian should be able to answer. How do you hear God?

People struggle to hear God's voice secondary to the way we arrange our day to day lives. It has to do with how you live your life.

The 7 prominent barriers that keeps you from hearing God in your day to day life:

1) Hurry

• You are always sitting on the edge of your seat, busy, stressed, fatigued, exhausted physically and emotionally
• Our culture equates business with success
• It is almost impossible to hear God when we are exhausted
• 1 King 19:4-9 - when Elijah is broken down/worn out God's response is to REST. Take a sabbath
• You need to ruthlessly eliminate hurry in your life if you want to hear God - Dallas Willard

2) Selfish motives

• Telling God the way you need to have God do something so you can live your life for Him
• We see this not only in what we pray, but when we pray
• Forcing God's hand to act in our benefit
• We are free to ask for what we want, but need to trust and follow Him even if things aren't going our way

3) (Unchecked) Anger/resentment

• Matthew 5:23-24
• Our anger/resentment and our capacity to receive from God are at odds
• That type of anger can dominate your thoughts - it dulls your ears to hear the subtle whispers of God
• Go get help, seek reconciliation

4) Fear

• Look to see where your decisions are driven by fear/pain
• A common theme now is people fear loneliness and the decisions that they make based on that are not always the right ones
• There is a fear of failure, of disappointing others since we strive for approval from others, a fear of rejection
• God's voice = overcoming fear

5) The Voice of the Enemy

• Voice that wants to contort God's message
• Voice that condemns, belittles, casts doubts in your life
• Voice that tries to say things so you don't rely on Him

6) Ignoring/Avoiding Scripture

• 2 Timothy 3:16
• There is no substitute for a mind constantly renewed by Scripture

7) Who's in charge?

• You or God?
• Who's will matters most?
• Some dreams die when you follow God's calling, but in the process you get something far far better

Hope these notes help all of you =)

His servant,

Andrew