Thursday, September 2, 2010

How to recognise when God speaks - 1

Anticipating the voice of God - Expect to hear it

Many of us don't really believe God will speak to us and give us specific directions concerning the details of our lives. We claim to believe that God speaks, but we are secretly discouraged because we don't see evidence of His voice in our lives. We need to approach the father with an expectancy that he will speak.

"God will speak to the hearts of those who prepare themselves to hear, and conversely, those who do not so prepare themselves will hear nothing even though the word of God is falling upon their outer ears every Sunday". AW Tozer.

Clear communication with God begins when we approach God and His word with anticipation, expecting him o speak.

Read the story of Habakkuk.

In Habakkuk 1: 2-3, the discouraged prophet asked 2 questions of God: "How long?" and "Why". Which are questions that many of us ask. When the circumstances of life seem to be closing in on us and we see no end in sight, we want to know how long we will have to continue calling out to God with seemingly no response. We also want to know why He would continue to allow the circumstances we face. We all have requests that we have been bringing to God for a long time. Are you still waiting in anticipation for an answer or are you losing hope.

In Habakkuk 1:2-4 we note that Habakkuk became increasingly discouraged and started to lose confidence that God would answer him.

In Habakkuk 1:5, God gave Habakkuk spiritual vision. The prophet received encouragement to look around and observe. While Habakkuk waited on God to answer, God was already answering. Even though Habakkuk was not seeing god respond in the way and timing he expected, God was speaking and moving. He always is even in silence.

Read Habakkuk's second prayer 1:12-13.

After seeing his circumstances through new eyes, Habakkuks level of anticipation increased.

His 1st prayer was doubtful and accusatory his 2nd was expectant and confident.

Not until Habakkuks approach to God changed did he begin to receive directions from God as to what he should do.

" If we come to him doubting his ability to speak, we will have a difficult time listening. So we must come expectantly" Charles Stanley.

Bible verses to remember: Write them down and memorize them

Psalm 5:3
proverbs 3: 5-6
Micah 7:7
JEREMIAH 33:3

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