Deep Impact 4

Seminar – Learning to Hear God’s Voice – Ollie Cleg and Andy Bennet

Praying (talking) is easy. But listening is hard. God wants to speak – to teach, comfort, encourage and discipline – but we don’t let Him in.

In the Old Testament God spoke through prophets, judges and Kings – the Spirit would come upon certain people at certain times but . . . 

Joel 2:29-30 ““Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on servants—men and women alike.” 

All people will have the Spirit poured upon them. When Jesus left the earth he sent His Spirit (Pentecost!). Now we live in the era Joel prophesied about.

So how does God speak to us today and how do we react to that?

• Revelation – what we receive from the Lord.
• Interpretation – we figure out what God is saying to us.
• Application – we figure out how it applies to our lives.

Today, God still uses:

• Visions- Acts 10:9-33 - like our own personal movie.
• Pictures – images in our minds
• Words – Acts 15:32 “Then Judas and Silas, both being prophets, spoke at length to the believers, encouraging and strengthening their faith.” – words spoken to us by others to strengthen, comfort and encourage and words given to us to share with others too.
• Dreams
• Through His Word
• Voice of God – audible to us
• Impressions

But how do we know if it’s God’s voice?

• By comparing it with the Bible
• 1 Corinthians 14:3 “But one who prophesies strengthens others, encourages them, and comforts them.” – God disciplines but He does not crush His children, those are the lies of the Devil.
• It’s also not likely to be from God if it’s horrifying or destructive.
• Have people you can share it with and pray about it with.
• Ask God if you’re not sure!

We also need to ask ourselves if we want to hear, if we approach in faith and if we’ll obey when He does speak.

After talking us through the above we did some practical exercises listening for God’s voice – in whichever way He might choose to “speak”.

I found this seminar particularly challenging. I have to admit to being a huge sceptic! And whilst I believe other people can be healed and have visions and audibly hear God, my belief that such things will ever happen to me is miniscule – non-existant even. I can’t explain why this is, it’s just the way I am. God’s “spoken” to me plenty of times – but always through Scripture or other people. 

I have been thinking recently though that whilst I spend time talking, I’m not so good at listening and I hope to build that into my routine real soon.