How do you hear the voice of God?
Who you are becoming defines your life.
God assigns honor by who you are becoming.
Your identity is not achieved, but received.
It's received by the person who speaks the loudest in your life.
When the world calls you something, listen to what God calls you.
Redeemed.
Saved.
Justified.
You have to be very careful by whom you allow assigning your identity to.
Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
God identifies you beforehand as a doer of good works.
What you want leads to what you are.
It gets to the heart of what you are.
We want our way.
We are fine if others do it our way.
Lord, I want what you want for me?
The disciples had one request, which is not how to walk of water, but how to pray.
Luke 11:1 (ESV)
11 Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”
The Lord's prayer is a recipe for prayer. It starts with worship.
2 And he said to them, “When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
We look at life through our own eyes not God's.
Prayer is making it about Him.
We're yielding our worship and our will in prayer.
It's not about God yielding to our will.
Actually, we don't want to hear from God until we're desperate to hear from Him.
Why do we have to get desperate in our circumstances to want to hear from God?
Do you believe that God still speaks?
He speaks to us through His word. He speaks to us through the Holy Spirit.
John 14:16-17 English Standard Version (ESV)
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Why don't we hear from God more?
1. Busyness. Computers, Cell Phones, the Media. We're not paying attention. We must be still and know that God is God. You've got to remove the distractions from your life.
Luke 10:39-40 English Standard Version (ESV)
39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.”
We need to get into the Word, and hear from Jesus. We have to be self feeders in God's Word.
2. Competing voices. When we overload in our ears, it effects our sight. Our overloading on electronics is drowning out our hearing from God.
3. Unprepared hearts. He's giving us nuggets, but our hearts are not prepared for them. There's nothing wrong with the seed, but the problem is you. You have to prepare your heart to hear what He is saying.
1 Samuel 3:1-4 (ESV)
3 Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.
2 At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place.
3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.
4 Then the Lord called Samuel, and he said, “Here I am!”
We must get around God and His house, so You can hear Him. You must be around the right people and stay away from the wrong people.
How do I cultivate my heart?
1. God speaks as we read His word.
Psalm 119:105 English Standard Version (ESV)
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
and a light to my path.
2. God speaks as we cultivate His presence. God is looking for worshipers. John 4:21
3. God speaks when we get planted in His Church. You can't love the husband and hate His wife.
Psalm 92:11-13 English Standard Version (ESV)
11 My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies;
my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.
my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.
12 The righteous flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 They are planted in the house of the Lord;
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 They are planted in the house of the Lord;
they flourish in the courts of our God.
Positioning is everything.
Notes from Jeremy Foster, Hope City Church.
https://hopecity.com/sermons/fill-blank-part-2/
No comments:
Post a Comment