On Wednesday night my Bishop was talking about how he had to earn respect from his wife, my copastor. He had to show her that she could trust him and one of the things he had to do was be consistent in his ability to hear from God. I've heard alot of people say "God said this and God said that." But I sometimes wonder if everything they hear is from God or if their own desires and thoughts take over.
Bishop went on to say that it wasn't every now and then that he got it right but he had to consistently hear the voice of God. If this is what you believe God said then this is what should happen, right? Well I started to take a look at myself and evaluate my own ability of hearing God's voice.
I've started to write down the things that God has spoken to me and also when those things have been confirmed. In December, God sent me to sow ALOT of monetary seeds into family members, friends, and even strangers. I felt Him leading me to sow this and then that and then over there and over here. I was just like "Ok God." And I've already begun to see the harvest of those seeds.
One person inparticular is someone I've known for a while. She's one of the sweetest people I know and her testimony is so amazing. I was getting ready to go to church one Sunday and I felt God tell me to find her at church and sow a seed. So I stopped at the bank, found her at church, and sowed it. Two days later on a Tuesday, someone had stolen her ATM card. She didn't notice it until she pulled over at a gas station with her tank almost on empty. The only money she had in her purse was the money I gave her. Wow! Her telling me that boosted my faith and confirms once again that I can truly hear from God. (That's only one testimony.)
As I was about to walk out of the house the other day, this topic of hearing from God was on my mind. And this thought came up, "You know you hear from God when you not only hear the good but you also hear the bad.You know you hear from God when you not only hear the things you want to do but the things you don't want to do." Hmm that made me think. It's possible to have selective hearing when God speaks to you or even to confuse your own desires with the voice of God. If God ALWAYS answers the way you want Him to then................................................................................................................................................lol
To be honest, God jacks me up sometimes. He tells me things that I don't always want to hear but because I have faith in Him, I'll go ahead and follow Him even when I don't understand. It always seemed like some people's conversations with God were always so pleasant. It seemed like He always instructed them and/or confirmed for them to do things they wanted and desired to do and I didn't think it was fair lol I even prayed about that once but realized that as long as I'm doing what He told me to do, I can't worry about what other people believe that He's said to them.
God placed on my heart to join two new ministries at my church not too long ago. I had been waiting for the confirmation what seemed like forever. I felt pushed to join this ministry or that ministry and I honestly got extremely CONFUSED at one point. And I was so worried that the opinions of others were going to block God's voice. It was so draining because although I hadn't heard God, I was worried that He was speaking to me but was being tuned out causing me to be disobedient unintentionally. So for me the confusion made me just step back for a moment and reevaluate everything. I couldn't move until I knew for sure where He wanted me to go. So when He finally spoke, there couldn't be any procrastination. I was so desperate for His confirmation that I think I tuned into Him more than ever, exactly what He wanted. And once He spoke, Helps Ministry app was "signed, sealed, delivered, I'm YOURS!" lol
I say all that because I've learned the importance of truly hearing His voice, not just when it's convenient or when He says things I want to hear but in my everyday life. The world will always voice their opinions and there will be no definite direction if we always yield to opinions in place of God's direction.
So as my Bishop was saying, it's not just about hearing Him right every once in a while but really being consistent with His directions. If you're trying to get to a certain destination, skipping one of the directions is going to cause you to be lost. You have to follow the directions step by step to get to where you're trying to go.
Sometimes God answers right away and sometimes He doesn't. Sometimes He says yes and sometimes He says no. Sometimes His answer is what you wanted to hear and sometimes it's the last thing you wanted to hear. But I want 100% accuracy with Him. Hearing RIGHT is the difference between obedience and disobedience. And God usually instructs us with a whisper. So tune your ears!
Don't ask me why I'm just now reading this smh...but this piece is really good. I've never had the whole hearing from God thing down 100% and it's a bit frustrating b/c I think my life would be SO much better if I could tangibly hear HIM & not confuse it with my own voice.
ReplyDeleteyes you are quite late lol For me, I had to get it wrong a few times to realize how God's voice sounded. He definitely makes you LEAN in to hear Him..I'm still perfecting that too though.
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