January 16, 2011 Forward Motion Faith

Thanks to a friends book entitled: “Invited to the Deep End – High Risk Living for Serious Christians” for the subheadings on this blog.  Honest, Bill, I am not plagiarizing!

Hearing and Listening

Came by the church tonight to pray and meditate and tweak my message for tomorrow.   Then it happened.  I wasn’t expecting it to…but it did.  I wasn’t ready for it but it happened anyway.  I didn’t ask for it but it happened anyway.  He spoke.  He spoke to me.  He spoke to me about you.   He spoke to me about the service tomorrow.  He caused me to “change up” my message for tomorrow.  Yep…He did it again.

I love my relationship with the Holy Spirit.  I pray that as you draw near to Him He will draw near to you.  I want you to hear the Holy Spirit on a regular basis.   Oh there are times He will “mess” you up…but He will always be right!  He will always be on time.  He will always be sensitive to you if you are sensitive to Him.  He is a Gentleman.  He will not compete with other voices.  He wants His voice heard but he will not compete with any other voices.  You and Him.  He wants your ear.

A friend of mine, Bishop Bill Isaacs wrote in one of his books titled “Invited to the Deep End” about “high risk living for serious Christians” some awesome principles for life challenges and spiritual dynamics for everyday living.  Let me “steal” one or two of them from chapter six of his book.

Paul wrote in Acts 20.23 that the Holy Spirit “testifies to me in every city.”   Isaacs goes on to write some subheadings to this chapter on hearing the Holy Spirit.

• The Holy Spirit Spoke to Paul Personally

Paul heard from the Holy Spirit in a personal way and you can rest assured that when the Holy Spirit finished – it was for the edification of the body of Christ.    He speaks to us personally to edify the church and to both confirm and affirm us in our relationship with Him.

• The Holy Spirit Spoke to Paul Often

I mentioned in an earlier blog that my favorite passage in scripture is Psalm 46.10 “Be still and know that I am God.”

The Holy Spirit really does want to communicate the will of the Father to us.  If somehow we could silence the unnecessary voices to hear the One necessary voice – life for us on a daily basis would be much easier.

• The Holy Spirit Spoke to Paul About His Future

We all have a desire to know about tomorrow.  The problem is not in knowing – it’s how we go about seeking future knowledge.  From witchcraft to palm readers who market themselves like Kroger does grocery items – there is an abundance of venues for knowing…or attempting to know the future.  There is only one true method of knowing the future – know the One who knows the future.  The operative in that statement is the word “One”.  There is only One who can reveal the future with precision.  Several times in Scripture God used incidents and people to speak to Paul about his life and his life journey.  Yet there was always that clear distinctive voice of the Holy Spirit. 

Seek Him out.  Let the Holy Spirit speak to your spirit man.

As we move into Forward Motion Faith throughout this fast I want to encourage you again – take time to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.  Be still…very still and listen with a tender heart.  He will speak.  Trust me.   His Word is at stake and He is not a liar.  Are you listening?