June 21, 2016 - The Five M’s of Correctly Hearing God

June 21st, 2016 - Thoughts for your Week

Scripture Verse

Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For those who find me find life and receive favor from the Lord.

Proverbs 8:34-35

What hinders me from hearing is that I am taken up with other things. It is not that I will not hear God, but I am not devoted in the right place. I am devoted to things, to service, to convictions, and God may say what He likes, but I do not hear Him. The child attitude is always, “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears”.

Oswald Chambers

The Five M’s of Correctly Hearing God 
(taken from “Discerning the Voice of God” by Priscilla Shirer)

1. Look for the MESSAGE of the Spirit: Listen to the Holy Spirit. Consciously turn your attention inward to see if what you are sensing carries the weight of God.
2. Live in the MODE of prayer: Submit what you hear back to God in prayer. Throughout your day when the issue comes into your mind, pray it back to God.
3. Search out the MODEL of Scripture: Carefully consider the scriptures. Does what you think or hear contradict the character of God or the Word of God?
4. Submit to the MINISTRY of Eli: Seek the counsel of a wise, more mature believer who can discern God’s leading in his or her own life.
5. Expect the MERCY of confirmation: Ask God for confirmation and expect Him to give it to you. Sometimes he’ll use the Bible, or circumstances, or even another person.

 The Holy Spirit will never tell us to do anything that isn’t in God’s will. He speaks exactly what he hears from the Father. Our responsibility is to cooperate by obeying His promptings and bathing ourselves in the Word and in prayer.

- Priscilla Shirer

“Spend your time and energy in training yourself for spiritual fitness. Physical exercise has some value, but spiritual exercise is much more important, for it promises a reward in both this life and the next.”

1 Timothy 4: 7-8 (NLT)

“Be sure to pay attention to what you hear. To those who are open to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But to those who are not listening, even what they think they have will be taken away from them.”

Luke 8:18 (NLT)

When God is silent…

“God’s silence may be hardly noticeable at first. You may still remember times when God spoke to you, but you gradually realize you’ve not heard His voice for a long time. If you realize you are in a “drought”, immediately seek God and ask Him what adjustments your life requires so you can once again enjoy fellowship with Him. It may be that you disobeyed His last instructions to you and that He is waiting on your obedience before giving you a new direction. It may be unconfessed sin or a damaged relationship. It is possible that you have done too much talking in your prayer times and that He wants you to listen. God’s silences can be powerful times for Him to communicate with you.

- Henry Blackaby