Hearing God's Voice

My car pulled into its parking place at the courthouse and chugged to a stop. I grabbed my purse, slammed the door behind me, and strolled towards my office. The sun beamed down on a perfect summer day. My steps were effortless, my thoughts carefree. From behind me called a voice, like a friend, “Gloria!” As I twisted around to look, I yelled back, “What?” But to my surprise, there was no one there. The shock of the moment stopped me still in my path.

I looked around to see if anyone had heard me yell, but no one was in sight. Since that day I have heard God’s voice many times, in various places. And yet, I’ve never taken it for granted. It has never become an ordinary occurrence.

Hearing voices is not something we share with others lightly. We fear that family and friends might think we are weird or at the worst, mentally ill. However, in God’s kingdom it seems to be the norm. Not weird at all. In fact, in God’s kingdom hearing from Him is considered to be a blessing.

Jesus surely knew that His saints might have problems understanding hearing His voice, because He taught several truths about it. For instance, when He was making the analogy about Himself being the Shepherd, He said, “...the sheep listen to his (the shepherd’s) voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” (John 10:3,4)

He said, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice. ...” (John 10:16) and “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27) It seems that Jesus wanted us to know that hearing His voice is part of the job, so to speak. A natural, normal event. Therefore, when it happens to you, don’t be alarmed. Simply say to yourself, “This is normal. I am Jesus’ sheep. I hear His voice. I am His.”

What else do you do if you hear the voice of God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit? First of all, remain calm. Evaluate quickly whether God is telling you to do something. If He is, then obey. Plain and simple. If God’s voice tells you to do something, then take action, and do it. Don’t hesitate. Don’t procrastinate. Don’t try to reason it out in your mind. Move! Very often if you take time to think about it, Satan will try very hard to talk you out of doing what God told you to do. He’ll even try to convince you that you didn’t really hear from God at all. Or, worse yet, that you aren’t worthy to hear from God.

One of Satan’s favorite tactics is to say, “Who do you think you are–to be hearing from God? You didn’t hear from God. That was just your own thoughts! Do you really think that God would talk to you? Who do you think you are anyway?"

Just remember when you hear, “Who do you think you are?”, that it is the devil trying to put you down. A red flag should go off in your mind, and you should reply, “I am a child of the living God–holy, righteous, washed in the blood of Jesus! That’s who I am!” Remember that God will never ask you who you are. He knows who you are.

Your ability to take action determines your success. Just like young David, who picked up five smooth stones and ran toward the giant, swinging his slingshot over his head, and yelling, “The battle is the Lord’s!”, your ability to walk in victory lies in direct proportion to how swiftly obedient you are to God’s voice.

On the contrary, there are dire consequences in not obeying the voice of God. For instance when the children of Israel, during the time of the Judges, did evil in God’s sight, God’s anger burned against them. He admonished them, and they repented and He forgave them and sent them a new judge to rule over them. But finally in Judges 2:20 God said, “Because this nation has transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not listened to My voice I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died...” In other words, God removed His protection.

But, what if you haven’t heard the voice of God? What if no one has called your name? Does that mean that God doesn’t want to talk with you? By no means. There could be several explanations for the problem. Maybe it is just not the right time–yet.

Remember that hearing from God doesn’t depend on you or whether you have everything perfectly in order in your life for it to happen. Look at Saul. He did not have his life in perfect harmony with God’s when Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus. After all, Saul was a persecutor of believers. When Jesus said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”, it wasn’t because Saul was a nice guy.

There exists many erroneous beliefs concerning one’s ability to hear God’s voice, such as:

• You have to be alone to hear God. Saul was not alone on the road to Damascus. Several men traveled with him. And they also heard the voice. (Acts 9:3-8) And Jesus was not alone on the mountain when he was transfigured and heard the voice of God say, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to Him.” (Luke 9:28 & 35)

• You have to be still in order to hear God. Jesus was not being still when the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form like a dove. He was being baptized. A voice came from heaven saying, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22) Because He was being obedient, God was moved by love to tell Him so.

• You have to be thinking about God. Experience tells us that this statement is not true. In fact, its very opposite is true. Most often you will hear from God right in the middle of thinking about something else. For instance, many saints relate of hearing God’s voice while they are washing dishes at the kitchen sink and thinking about their children or driving down the road thinking about their jobs or their vacation. It almost seems like God likes to surprise us by injecting Himself into our thoughts at the most unlikely times.

• You have to be Jesus or an apostle to hear God. Saul was neither of those people when he heard the voice of Jesus on the road to Damascus. Neither was Samuel when God called his name in the night. Samuel was a child. And he did not know the voice of God until the priest, Eli, explained to him what was happening. (1 Samuel 3:9)

So, how can you hear from God? For one thing, listen. Keep your spiritual ears alert. Secondly, talk to God–aloud. If you talk to Him, it’s very likely that He will talk back to you. Tell Him, “Lord, I have my ears attune to hearing your voice. I am your sheep. You are my shepherd. I listen to your voice, and I follow You. I am your obedient servant.”

It is very likely that someday you may be singing in your shower, soaped from head to toe, when you’ll hear your name spoken, and you’ll know it isn’t your thoughts. You’ll wash soap out of your eyes and look around, and you won’t see anyone. Just remember to say like Samuel, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

Copyright 2011 Gloria Fisher.

Practices of the Early Church

"And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And those who had believed were together, and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. And day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved." Acts 2:42-47

This World Is Not My Home

Psalm 39:12 "Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; do not be silent at my tears; for I am a stranger with Thee, a sojourner..."

John 1:10 "He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him."

1John 3:1 "See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us because it did not know Him."

Have you ever moved to a new city? There’s a lonely feeling at first. Once I moved from a large city to a small town, and initially I felt a little disoriented and isolated. I was always on the lookout for someone like me. In the grocery store I noticed all the other women hoping to get a glimpse of someone I thought might have something in common with me. Whenever I pinpointed someone, I rejoiced on the inside and rushed home excited to tell my husband, "I saw someone today that I might be friends with!"

As a Christian I feel the same way. For most of my life I’ve felt like this world is not my home. I have felt temporary, merely on my way somewhere else. Actually like John Denver in his song, Rocky Mountain High, "going home to a place I’ve never been before."

Prior to knowing Jesus and accepting Him into our lives we seem to belong in this world. We can say we’re even friends with it. We find a lot about it to love. But when we love the Lord and begin following Him and growing more like Him, the world eventually becomes alien to us. Why does this surprise us? John says in his gospel that Jesus was in the world and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. Therefore if we are like Him the world won’t know us either.

Do I want to be a citizen where Jesus was an alien? Do I want to love a world that hated Jesus? No, I don’t. Often I wonder if Jesus was excited, as I am, when I see someone who looks like they could be my friend. What does He look for in a friend? We know He doesn’t look on outward appearances but instead looks at the heart. Are we meek, honest, kind? Do we possess the fruits of the Spirit so He’d be proud to call us friend?

The more we love Jesus, the closer we grow to be like Him, the more alien we feel in this world that is not our home. Our hearts yearn for that other home away. In that true home there will only reside true friends, true family, our true life. We’ll be more at home there than we will ever be here in this world. Come soon, Lord Jesus, and take us home!

The Ones in the Room With Jesus

I often wonder what it must have been like to walk and talk and be in ministry with Jesus when He was on earth. In hindsight it’s easy to think that we’d have faith enough to be among the Twelve. But would we? The Twelve didn’t have the benefit of evangelists on television or the benefit of the New Testament. And yet they were eventually faith giants.

In Mark 5:21-24, 35-43 there is the account of Jairus, the synagogue official, who came to Jesus because his twelve year old daughter was near death. Jairus was a desperate man. He humbled himself before Jesus, falling at His feet and earnestly entreating Jesus to go with him and lay His hands on his daughter. Could we do that? Probably. If we were afraid enough, if we were desperate enough? For our child? Yes. But would we really expect Jesus to leave where He was and follow us?

For Jairus Jesus did what Jairus asked. He left the crowd at the seashore and followed Jairus to his house. On the way, however, some people came from Jairus’ house to inform him that his daughter had died. More than likely, those people were men whose wives were back at the house with the mother of the little girl. Jesus heard this report and immediately told Jairus to "not be afraid any longer, only believe." The next sentence states that He allowed no one to follow with Him except Peter, James, and John. Why was that? I’m convinced it was because He wanted only people with faith in the room when He came to see her. He already knew that the people from the house believed she was dead. They told Jairus not to bother the Teacher anymore. But Jesus needed people who were not afraid in that room. Jesus did not want fear and unbelief to follow Him into the room.

When they arrived at the house, people were loudly weeping and wailing. Those people, probably the women, were afraid. They were hopeless. They had given up. Even when Jesus told them that the little girl was not dead, they laughed at him instead of believing what He said. Verse 40 says that "He put them all out." However, He did take the child’s father and mother with Him since He had already told Jairus not to be afraid. And he took His three disciples. Evidently fear had not griped them and driven out faith. Jesus drove out the unbelievers from His presence. The scripture doesn’t say that anyone in the room spoke except Jesus. Even Peter who usually has something to say stood silently by. In other words there were no words of doubt or unbelief spoken in the room. Only the words of Jesus. Only The Word standing there in the flesh spoke.

Jesus said, "Little girl, I say to you arise!" And she did! The people in the room were astonished but once again they didn’t say anything. Then He told them to give her something to eat. There must have been rejoicing and total gratefulness from these two parents. It is an amazing account of a miracle performed by Jesus. Would you have liked to have been in that room? I would have. I have to ask myself, "Would Jesus have been able to count on me to be one of the ones who had the faith to be there? If I had any doubts, would I have kept them to myself?" I pray that I would. Would you?

What does it take to be counted among the believers who have enough faith to raise the dead? I’m sure I don’t know all the things you need. But I know some: the anointing of the Holy Spirit to do it, the faith to believe that Jesus still heals and raises the dead, the calm demeanor to take on the task, the discernment to know who can be present and who can’t, and the ability to only speak words of faith. Yes, I would have liked to have been in that room. I would like to be counted among the ones with that much faith.

Blessed Be the Church That Lets You Rest

Have you ever been weary spiritually? Have you ever expended so much spiritual energy for the Lord that you’ve worn yourself out?

I have listened to pastors who have done that very thing. They are "weary to the bone" spiritually. Maybe they were building a church from scratch or raising money to pay off millions of dollars worth of debt on church buildings. Some pastors wear themselves out from counseling, from ministering to the poor, from fighting prejudice in bad neighborhoods. Every day from morning until dark they solve other people’s problems. They miss meals. They miss sleep. They set their own needs aside to tend to their flock.

There was a time when my husband and I lived in a small town where God sent us. We were prayer warriors for the whole city, and God blessed us with new police officers, with righteous school teachers, and with Christian city officials as a result of our work for Him. In fact we were so successful at changing the city with our prayers that the Ministerial Alliance asked my husband to be their president even though he was not a pastor of a church. In that capacity we held city-wide church services, community gospel singing, community Easter services, and the walls between denominations and races began to fall. The last work God gave us to do was to take the city for Him. We divided up the city with a map and directed teams to every street in town. We put the feet of believers on every street to pray and take that street for God until the whole town was the property of God Almighty.

By the time God released us after nine years of ministry we were weary through and through. God had used us up spiritually, and we needed a rest. We needed a rest from spiritual warfare, from intercessory praying, from being watchmen on the walls and much more. After we left that small town and moved back to a larger city we began to seek a new church home. We wanted to be in a large church, a church where we could fade into the furniture. We wanted to be invisible. Eventually we found such a home church.

It had a membership of 2,000 in two services on Sunday morning. For the first several months all we did was cry. The music was so beautiful, and the worship was so anointed that our hearts began to heal. But before the healing began we needed rest. We needed not to tell anyone what our gifts were or where we wanted to serve. Our spiritual tanks were empty. We needed a refilling badly. People asked us what we wanted to do, and we explained that we needed a place to rest. We were the ones who needed ministering to. And people were kind and patient, and they left us alone. They prayed over us. But they didn’t press us. For two years we did nothing at church except to show up and sit in the pew and soak up God’s love.

If you ever come across someone at your church who has been in ministry for awhile and who is worn out spiritually, please have patience with them. Let God refill them in His time. Love them and pray for them. When it’s time for them to minister again, they will. Be the church where God’s ministers can rest and renew. Blessed be the church that lets you rest!

Copyright Gloria Fisher 2011.