Today we begin a new message series entitled “How To Hear God Speak.” This is an incredibly important topic. People who hear God speak to them are successes in life, people who don’t hear God speak end up failures. People who hear God find joy in fulfilling God’s purpose for their life. People who don’t hear God miss out on God’s purpose.
Just this past week, someone made the following comment on my blog “No matter what I try (and I’ve tried for 30 years), I don’t hear God. I listen. I pray. I read the Word. I’ve begged. I’m bitter and sour to the fact that – as bad as I want a relationship with Christ, I don’t have one. I’m seeking a true relationship with God, a real relationship like I have with anyone else.” If you can identify with that comment, then this series is for you. If you hear God speak sometimes, but you want to hear Him more clearly, then these messages will help you.
I’ve entitled my first message in this series “Preparing To Hear God.” My basic premise is that God is a speaking God. The Bible shows us a God who is not silent, but a God that has spoken throughout history and continues to speak today. The problem is not that God isn’t speaking, the problem for many people is that they are not prepared to hear God.
Right now in the air of this room, there are thousands of electronic signals flying around. Cell phone messages, text messages, wireless internet signals, but we are all unaware of the content, because we either don’t have the proper equipment or it is not tuned into the messages. What is the equipment you need to hear God? In order to hear God speak, in order to be guided by God, you need to be a child of God, you need to have a relationship with God. At the end of the service today, I’ll give you an opportunity to begin that relationship. However, some people have that relationship but it is very weak, they are not really tuned into God’s wavelength very much.
Many people have not prepared themselves to hear God. That’s what I’m going to talk about today. But before we get to the question of “How can I prepare to hear God?” I want to look more closer at the question “Why is it important to hear God?”
To hear more about this topic, listen to my July 1, 2007 message entitled Preparing To Hear God
Pastor Walker,
Visiting your site, I was encouraged with the blurbs and comments about how God speaks to us. Then, I listened to the message on this page. I cannot understand how you can say “People who hear God speak will be successful in life, that those who don’t hear God will be failures”. While this is certainly true in the kingdom of God it is never true according to the standards of this world. By that standard, Jesus and Paul were abject failures.
In my opinion, this attitude, that success in this world is God’s will for those who love Him, borders on heresy, and is the reason the church in America today is totally ineffective in reaching the poor, the disposessed, the people who need Him the most. When you say, God loves those who succeed, you imply he does not love the poor.
The story of Lazarus says otherwise, as do most of Jesus’ commands.
During my life I’ve seen the church move from where it should be (the inner cities) to the suburbs. They listen to messages like your’s and think God is blessing me, I am doing His will by protecting myself and my family from everything that is wrong in this country.
How sad,
Mike
Mike,
You must not have listened to my whole message. Here’s a quote from my first point:
In this message, as in all messages, I define success as being successful in God’s eyes, not in the world’s eyes. So, I agree with your points and so does my message, if you listen to the whole thing.
Pastor Walker,
Thank you for your prompt response, and please accept my apologies for my hasty critique.
Mike