Photo credit: WingedWolf (Creative Commons)
If there is one key skill in simple/organic church, it is listening to God. This skill is foundational in almost all we do.
In my experience, however, God tends to speak to me about the things I ask him questions on. So if I never ask him about finances, he is not likely to speak to me about money. If I never ask him about reaching out, he isn’t likely to tell me who to speak to.
I often ask him questions about the things I’m learning about. A year or so back, I was learning about the Kingdom of God. This study raised a number of questions in my mind. One example: the Word is very clear that God is in control of everything, and yet it also says that Satan is the ruler of this world. How can both be true?
So I started asking God questions about his Kingdom. “Lord, show me how both these things can be true at the same time” A series of illustrations came to my mind which I wrote down. One of these was a picture of a drug infested housing project here in the States. Who rules that place? If you ask most of the people who live there, they will say the drug lords do. Yet actually the US government has final say. They could send in riot police to clean the place up, but they choose not to. So both statements are true.
When I spend time waiting on the Lord, I will usually ask him, “Jesus, what do you want to say to me today?” and most times what he says to me is relevant, Scriptural and occasionally very specific too. But I’ve also learned to ask very definite questions, and when I do that, I find the Holy Spirit often brings very specific answers to my mind.
How about you? Do you ask questions of the Lord?
3 replies on “What we hear from God depends on this…”
I do ask questions, about many different things. I believe in faith (and occasionally by sight) that he answers the questions about day-to-day guidance, though they are rarely as specific as some you have shared. But I also find I seem to get guidance on some more doctrinal questions, like your one about the kingdom. For example I ask about the right way to understand the ‘nasty’ bits in the OT; why is there so much suffering; why do we seem to see less healings than we are promised, and hence how should I pray; what is the Spirit doing with spiritual gifts today; hell; how does God deal with people who’ve never had the opportunity to hear about Jesus; etc, and I feel I am getting some answers.
There have been times when I’ve asked questions very conversationally, but only now and again. I think this is very good advice, Felicity; I’ll try to be more deliberate and more frequent in my asking.
There is a sense in which he’s with us all the time and like an old friend we can walk with him without words, knowing that we are seeing the same things and thinking similar thoughts.
But we should chat with him, shouldn’t we? Like a little child with a parent. Children are just full of questions although they sometimes misunderstand adult answers.
Thanks for the encouragement. I intend to talk more and ask plenty of questions.
UnkleE, I like your questions. Would love to hear some of the answers to these thorny issues too.