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Trekker
Member



Joined: 2011/7/29
Posts: 683
northern USA

 Re:

QUOTE: "I would advice you to stop beliving that teaching that you can hear Gods voice.I used to live that that for 15 years and never ever did I hear Gods´s voice."==JOSEF83



Josef, plenty of us HAVE heard God speak. However, God speaks very seldom, and He also never wastes words. He is no chatterbox. : )

God spoke to me just once in a voice that i could hear, in my mind, and it was a voice of conviction which drew me to repentance. Another time, however, he seemed to only speak to me through Providence. And i knew it was the Lord's doing because once again it was communicating a biblical precept and the need for repentance. In fact, if any voice or communication is said or thought to be of the Lord and does not communicate to a person to repent of something i would highly doubt it is from the Lord. The Holy Spirit's job is to:
1. convict the world of sin & righteousness
2. testify of Jesus Christ
3. teach or remind you of The Word

So if the voice fails to do one of those three things then there is reason to doubt it.

If someone hears God speak it in no way means they are more spiritual, and if someone does not hear God speak it could mean any number of things. We don't read of God speaking audibly to Ester or Mordacai, for instance. Nor did He speak directly to Hannah or Job when they wanted Him to (although God finally spoke to Job at the end of his trial).

There are many times we may be totally missing Him speaking because other things in our lives are just too loud or our own desires or emotions crowd out His voice. Sometimes, for example, i have sensed things but just couldn't put my finger on what i was discerning or picking up on, as if the "vibe" was not loud enough. It always turned out later to really be something, and always a situation in which i deeply regretted not having had better perception (or reception!), because there really was something to that "vibe" or "voice" i was getting. Often though, it was so fleeting that i was unable to pull it into focus long enough to concentrate on it.

I think the more tender a person's heart is, the more likely they will hear God speak when He finally chooses to. And of course, the more time they spend in the Word and/or prayer, etc. But God is a person of few words, and never wastes them.

 2012/7/22 1:19Profile
Blayne
Member



Joined: 2012/5/27
Posts: 274


 Re:

Hi! 'Learn'

More to add to your question asking, "Jimp and Blayne, Pls talk more about how God speaks to you. How his voice is like. Thanks".

I thought I should tell you about a circumstance that seemed in every way to be from God but was discovered to definitely not to be so.

To make a long story short, when I was introduced to the gospel of repentance, I was an utter and complete mess ... both psychologically and emotionally. I had been damaged and injured in multiple areas of my life. Not only was I a lost sheep who had fallen off a cliff ... I had fallen to unfathomable depths and hit every crevice and tree branch on the way down.

Like I said, it's a very long story. But before beginning to tell you it, I should at least first mention that during the time of my being introduced to Jesus, I met a man who was a missionary for Youth For Christ. Him and I were fond of having arguments about God and the Bible during my ardent searching time. Anyways, the missionary challenged me saying, "If God doesn't prove Himself real to you in twenty-four hours, you and I will go down the street telling everyone that God is dead. But if God does prove Himself real to you, then you must walk down the street with me and tell everyone He's alive".

It was a worthy bet which I couldn't lose sortta' thing. I was either gonna' discover God or save this eager missionary a lot of grief an' aggravation.

So, that night I returned home to my rooming-house and dropped off to sleep without much of a second thought about the missionary and his challenge.
The next morning I awoke with my right knee-cap severely sore and swollen. I didn't have a clue how it happened. And, when I attempted to walk, it became a screaming pain.
So, I stayed home all day all anxious about my knee. I had plans to burglarize a building with some accomplices that evening and I was afraid that I'd miss the 'big score' and have to eat even more free stale donuts and sandwiches.

By evening time, my knee had swollen even more. I was beginning to panic. It was then that I got the idea to stumble down to the Storefront Mission and ask someone there to drive me to the hospital.

It was a gruesome and slow walk, but I reached the door of the Storefront Mission and hobbled up to the food distribution counter. A man was standing there; I recognized him as the head Christian cheese of the place. So, I told him about my need to visit the hospital.
And, what do you think this guy replied?
I should have half-expected it; because he always walked around the mission like some holy saint. Not piously arrogant; but always smiling an' happy about himself which caused me great suspicion.
The Christian head cheese says, "I'll drive you to the hospital if you first let me pray for you".
The last thing I needed was some holy-roller comedian at this point.
But I was desperate. Actually, I was terrified that I was gonna' discover that I had some incurable disease 'er sumthing.
So, I told the Christian cheese, "OK, you can do your magic wand trick, but yuh gotta' promise me that you'll take me to the hospital afterwards."
The head cheese motions me to a rear office and I follow him in and sit on one of those old wooden swivel chairs that that he musttah' found at a cheap rubbish-an'-ruined sale.
The guy says, "Do you believe in God?"
I answered, "Well, certainly. You'd have to be awfully stupid not to believe that there is a God."
Then he asks, "Do you believe in Jesus Christ?"
I replied, "Yep, history has written all about Him."
He then asked, "Do you believe that God can heal you?".
I had to think about that for a moment before answering, "God can do anything He pleases!"
"No", he said, "Do you believe that God still heals people today?"
Now that was a tough one to answer.
I guess he saw my bewilderment and so asked, "Do you believe that God is the same yesterday, today and forever?".
"Well, I guess He is", I replied.
At that point the man lays his hands on my head and prays aloud ... all I heard through the fog everything happening at the time were the words "Power of God ... from the crown of his head to the toes of his feet".
Nothing spectacular happened. I mean the room's fuse panel didn't blow and I didn't see any strange looking lights 'er anything like that. But I did feel a little tinge of warmth.

Just when I was about to say, "OK, let's get me a drive to the hospital", the man turned and quietly walked out the office door. I was, as you can imagine, more than a bit perturbed. After all, this head cheese Christian and I had a deal.

As I prepared to struggle out of the office chair, I suddenly realized that there wasn't anything wrong with my knee. Not a thing! I was shocked. I just couldn't believe what had happened.

I became frightened ... very frightened. The first thought that came to me was that God had stopped the world to heal my knee ... and, this same God could just as easily kill me on the spot if He so wished. That wasn't a very comfortable thought to have on the evening of committing a burglary.

By the way, the head Christian cheese man was once a celebrated Pentecostal pastor in the USA. One day God told him to pack his stuff and move and set up the Storefront mission which was later to be named the "Stepping Stone Coffee House". I gratefully learned much from this man; he was a very faithful man of God.

Anyways, that's really not the story I intended to tell you. I only told you so that you had some inkling that I was certainly not yer normal everyday kinna' sinner guy. I was a real mess of a guy.

Now, I will hurriedly tell you the story about how I became convinced that God was purposely arranging things for my life through a series of different well-meaning people and events.

Can you believe that only three months after my hearing the Gospel that God decided that I should attend a Bible College? I was still smokin' like a furnace and my morning Bible verse was "And smoke came out of his nostrils". I was still vulgar and very much a basket case of a personality.

But hey! Who's gonna' argue with God's arrangements, ay? It started by someone offering to pay my way to Bible College. It progressed with the Bible College offering me a scholarship. It was all became so tidy when I was offered free room and board.
Oh, an' all this was done with the rudimentary 'Gideon's Fleece Method' too. That surely put the Good Christian Saint label on the package, right?
Wrong!
So, this former burglar skipped off to Bible College with every confidence that nothing this well arranged and put together could be anything but God's will.
Did I mention that I was something of a hell-raiser too?
Well, that side of me followed me to Bible College as well.
The Bible College saints were especially coming down hard on me about my nicotine habit. Some of them had prayed up a storm while I was keeping busy unsuccessfully trying to quit.
One night I was feeling more than a bit mischievous and I borrowed someone's half-ton pickup and stole a life size concrete statue of Jesus from the nearby Roman Catholic grotto and plunked it down right in front of the Bible College Chapel door. Just so everyone got the point of my grievance, I stuck a cigarette in the statue's lips and promptly returned to the dorm to catch some sleep.

Well, as you can imagine, the Bible College was in an absolute uproar about my mischief. They were beside themselves about how to rid themselves of me without appearing too cruelly unforgiving. The question, "What would Jesus do?', didn't apply because I was evidently beyond hope and remedy.So, the College Board quickly assembled and I was summarily expelled before lunch was served.

So, yuh see? Not everything that might appear to be God's doing really is His doing. Anybody with a half a brain in their head should have known that I wasn't ready to attend a Bible College. They should have considered themselves fortunate that I didn't rob the Collection Plate on my way out the door, sortta thing.

No, my scrambling off to Bible College wasn't God's doing. It was the work of misplaced enthusiasm; the result of pious thinking and the efforts of well-meaning people.

Sorry for the long story. But I thought you should know the reverse side of things too. We can get into a lot of needless trouble with an undisciplined eagerness to be a hero for God.

I've since learned that it is far better to be preoccupied with doing the works of God rather than working for God.

 2012/7/22 2:14Profile
Keylla
Member



Joined: 2012/6/17
Posts: 26
Brazil

 Re: sermon

I recommend:
http://media.sermonindex.net/14/SID14735.mp3


_________________
Keylla Amaral

 2012/7/22 7:37Profile
ET101
Member



Joined: 2010/10/26
Posts: 240


 Re:

Blayne; I hear you. After the sense of what I believed God was saying to me, I was looking for something extremely specific to confirm it - yes, as you put it, something 'mystical.' When it didn't happen, I thought I hadn't heard from God. Since then, I prayed more. ..and Ithink I just needed to correct the need for that 'mystical' confirmation. Meanwhile, I think God did actually speak to me.

I will seek God some more about it and share on SI if appropriate - it relates to preparation for end times persecution.

Jimp; It was wonderful for me when I heard God. God has spoken to be through dreams too before. It's very, very exciting for me. I think there-in was my downfall too. I thought, if God just spoke this thing to me, then He will confirm it in this one special way I had thought of immediately. It didn't come to be confirmed as I thought and I was disappointed (before returing to God about it and finding encouragement that maybe God was in it, and I just over-reacted in looking for the special confirmation). [PS: like your account, I'm also a young man who felt God's leading to leave his career and seek out seminary. In the process currently].

Also, Blayne; when you say that God speaks to us in our own individual ways, I agree. I have never heard an audible voice per se. I think I am just discovering and seeking to affirm my way of hearing God. It will come.

I agree with you Trekker about how God uses His words sparingly.

What a life story, Blayne!! I'm in the process of working out details for seminary and I'll be doing all I can to listen and obey Jesus as best I can.

Thanks Keylla; I'll listen to it.

 2012/7/22 8:57Profile
learn
Member



Joined: 2008/7/24
Posts: 613


 Re:

Thanks everyone especially Blayne.


Yeah, for me 1 of the ways God speaks is through an audible thought that suddenly appears.

Jimp,
its so awesome the way God tie you up with Leonard Ravenhill. I bet you two had a good chuckle about it.


_________________
geraldine

 2012/7/22 12:13Profile









 Re:

Great topic. The Lord certainly speaks to His people and He speaks to them in many different ways. My favorite story, and I know it to be a true one, was about a man in a grocery store. This man has a habit of buying his wife a flower every week. One week he went in to get his flower and as he was approaching the checkout, the Lord said to him " give that lady standing there the flower." Now, some may say it this way " I felt like I should give this lady the flower." And an other would boldly say "Thus sayeth the Lord to me." Yet God is speaking. Well the man had a mental battle. His own heart was saying " there is no way I can give this lady the flower, she might think I am trying to pick her up or that I am a crazy person." Yet, the " voice," or the " feeling," persisited and so did the battle until finally the man took a deep breath and approached the woman and said " The Lord wants me to give you this flower." The woman looked at him like a deer caught in the headlights. She reached out her hand and took the flower, paused and then said, with tears beginning to flow down her face " Just this morning I had asked the Lord in desperation, do you still love me, have you forgotton me?" She went on to explain that six months ago her husband of many years had passed away. He had the habit of buying her a flower every week. That morning she had been feeling very depressed and desired greatly to know that she had not been forgotton. They were both blown away by a God who loves and cares so much that He would arrange such a meeting. Now, did that man hear God? Certainly he did. Call it a feeling, call it the voice of God, call it the small still voice, but God speaks to His people and it is a beautiful thing.............bro Frank

 2012/7/22 14:14
Jer2
Member



Joined: 2012/2/19
Posts: 25


 Re:

Hello. I read here occasionally, not wanting to enter into discussions, though.

I heard from the Lord a lot when I was quite young, then received the teaching that it isn't good to try to hear God speaking to one's spirit. The fear was that we would open ourselves up to deception this way.

Thirty fairly dry years followed.

When I began to learn again to hear the Lord, my first-love relationship returned, greater than before. It has been so vital to hear the Lord! Life has gone in such a different way than it would have. God gives specific leading, answers questions, gives warnings and encouragements, and directs our steps into ministry to others.


I have started a blog for anyone who wants to share about depending on the Lord, hearing from Him, and so on. This has made such a difference in my walk with God, and in friends' Christian lives. A couple of the posters on this thread seem to want to pursue this further, so I want to let you know of the blog. Please share some there, if you wish.

The blog is set up under a different email, so I can't attach it to my profile. It is musttalkwithjesus.blogspot.com

 2012/7/22 14:37Profile
Blayne
Member



Joined: 2012/5/27
Posts: 274


 Re:

Hi! 'Jer2'

Thanks for sharing your thoughts an' experience. It's so good to have other Christians stand up together in a chorus of testimony about God ... about Who is and how He behaves towards His people.

Ummm, I visited your musttalkwithjesus.blogspot.com Site. You have chosen a remarkably suitable BlogName!
Unfortunately, the ability to Post a Comment to your Blog is a bit awkward because it's restricted to Social Account memberships. What's the chances of you investigating to have the Comment area open to individual Names/E-Mail Address jus' like how SermonIndex handles things?

I did enjoy your Blog's inital Post though. Thanks for the effort you're putting to the task over there.

 2012/7/22 15:42Profile
Jer2
Member



Joined: 2012/2/19
Posts: 25


 Re:

Blayne, thank you for looking at the site.

It's not so easy to use as SI, for sure. Each post only has room for 5 separate comments, but if we are sharing, and not taking sides or arguing, we can use continue in separate posts.

There are three ways to comment.
-Set up a Blogger account. This is quick and free, and you can use any email address, not necessarily social media.

-Use your name and your website address, if you have one.

-Comment as an Anonymous poster. Here, you don't have to open a blogger account. Within the post, you can sign your name, you just won't have a user name.


EDIT: I just opened the comments up to receive Anonymous commenters. It took a few minutes to find out that this wasn't the default.

I would love to hear anyone's experiences listening to God!

 2012/7/22 16:14Profile
InTheLight
Member



Joined: 2003/7/31
Posts: 2850
Phoenix, Arizona USA

 Re: Discerning the voice of God

Quote:
So, on top of testing the voice against the word of God, do you have any advice on discerning when it is and is not God?



What a great topic, discerning His voice within us.

Just some general thoughts to interject here first: Although there will be many times when we absolutely know He has spoken, we must always remember that we still "know in part" and "see through a glass darkly."

Also, I believe God speaks uniquely to us depending on our gifts so avoid comparing yourself to others.

But as you have learned, discerning His voice from others is important. It seems to me there are three main voices that sound within us, God, Satan, and self. It also seems that the best way to avoid the counterfeit is to know the genuine. To know the genuine we must be familiar with the character, motive, and fruit of the source speaking to us.
In other words, learning to hear His voice is dependent on our cultivating a close relationship with Him.

Character - God is love, just, good, merciful, holy, unchanging, etc. When He speaks He speaks from the nature of who He is. Learn His character

Motive - When He speaks it's always in the context of His good purposes. For example, He desires to conform us to the image of His Son. Learn His purpose.

Fruit - James 3:17 gives a sense of the fruit of His voice. Pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy. Learn His fruit.

Something that might be of help to you also is to keep a prayer journal to give you a reference point for your faith as you apply what He has spoken.

In Christ,

Ron


_________________
Ron Halverson

 2012/7/22 16:17Profile





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