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God’s Word needs to be alive and active in you NOW. It needs to be acted upon and listened to and done NOW.
So how do we have God’s Word LOUD within us as the dominant voice:
Read it
So be strong and brave! Be careful to do everything my servant Moses taught you. Never stop reading The Book of the Law he gave you. Day and night you must think about what it says. If you obey it completely, you and Israel will be able to take this land. Joshua 1:6-8
Everything in the Scriptures is God’s Word. All of it is useful for teaching and helping people and for correcting them and showing them how to live. 2 Timothy 3:16
Let the Holy Spirit teach you and speak to you.
However, as it is written:
"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him"—
10but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 1 Corinthians 2:9-11
This takes TIME and practice… its like learning a friends voice over the phone or working out how your husband and wife really think and feel about things or being able to recognize what the baby wants by its cry… it takes time, its relational, it’s a learning process…. It wont happen over night but it will happen. God is in the business of teaching us how to hear His voice. He doesn’t throw us in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and say SWIM – it’s a day by day process and if we’re willing to hear and learn it goes well!
But the Holy Spirit will come and help you, because the Father will send the Spirit to take my place. The Spirit will teach you everything and will remind you of what I said while I was with you. John 14:26 The Holy Spirit teaches us!
Do it. Obey it. Live it…
Obey God’s message! Don’t fool yourselves by just listening to it. 23If you hear the message and don’t obey it, you are like people who stare at themselves in a mirror 24and forget what they look like as soon as they leave. 25But you must never stop looking at the perfect law that sets you free. God will bless you in everything you do, if you listen and obey, and don’t just hear and forget. James 1:22-25
Simple eh.
Read it. Let the Holy Spirit teach you. Do it.
Smith Wigglesworth puts it like this:
“There are four principles we need to maintain:
First, read the Word of God.
Second, consume the Word of God until it consumes you.
Third believe the Word of God.
Fourth, act on the Word.” Smith Wigglesworth
“God is looking for men and women whose hearts are firmly fixed on Him and who will continually trust Him for all he desires to do with their lives. God is ready and eager to work more powerfully than ever through His people, and the clock of the centuries is striking the eleventh hour. The world is watching and waiting to see what God can do through a life committed to Him. And not only is the world waiting but God himself awaits to see who will be the most completely devoted person who has ever lived; willing to be nothing so Christ may be everything; fully accepting God’s purposes as his own; receiving Christ’s humility, faith, love, and power yet never hindering God’s plan but always allowing Him to continue His miraculous work.” — C.H.P Streams in the Desert, July 18.–
Here am I, Send me!
i collect words. i collect quotes. and frankly, twitter is the best place for it. these are some of my fav from the past wee while…
Liam1957 RT @PastorDaveJ: For the sake of more than a billion people who haven’t even heard the Gospel, are we willing to risk it all?
ShainaTeix The fact that it’s never been done before doesn’t intimidate the Lord. -@thebanning
davidstarlingm "The best Bible translation is the one that you read and obey." (Richard Wurmbrand)
tijuanabecky @fireball3316 I like that, Read, Consume, Believe, and Act on the Word of God.
CF_20 God is not dead. The Gospel has lost none of its power. It is we Christians who have lost OUR power with God. -Wm Burns
soulsupply PRAYER POWER: "Pray all the time, and make it a habit to listen with all your heart for His voice." @luciswindoll
ashleymmc RT @ispeakhiswords: Let us approach EACH day expecting to see the goodness of the Lord manifest.
theramp "When we remember what God has done in us, not telling our story is not an option." -Damon Thompson
LeslieBlueEyes I just sat down at the computer and poured my thoughts out to Jesus. He already knows them, but I need to see them for what they really are.
theramp Not much is needed to produce change–just the revelation that God is who He says He is.
PaperBoy17 When thinking of heaven, After time, I must give in and say, "it will be better than I can imagine." Sadly, the opposite is true for hell.
and of course, im on there, collecting away and adding some of my own flavour, look me up and follow me:
fireball3316 Let’s grow up and be real now peeps. God’s Word is God’s Word
last night our awesome pastor came and spoke at the best housegroup in the world… he spoke on discouragement and it was relevant and timely and oh so good!
one particular point that leapt out a me was a DID YOU KNOW?
read this first: from 1 Kings 19
The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you." 8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night.
This journey we read about Elijah taking took him 40 days and 40 nights. He was strengthened supernaturally by the food the angel fed him with.
The thing is, the Did You Know – that journey from where he was to Horeb usually took 3 days by foot.
Yet it took Elijah 40 days and 40 nights.
I love how the bible asks us to read between the lines.
Nowhere does it explain WHY it took Elijah so long to reach the mountain of God, where he had a phenomena encounter with God and was restored into ministry.
Perhaps it took that time for his heart to heal from the fear and discouragement.
He had lost his way, and perhaps it look time for him to find it again.
Perhaps it took great physical, emotional and spiritual effort to just put one foot in front of the other.
Yet he did it. He persevered. He walked. He endured. He reached his destination.
Often when we’re returning to God we want to snap our fingers and be instantly restored. When you think about it provisionally (am i using that word in the right spiritual context????) we are – we are saved, covered by grace and forgiveness, children of God, with the righteousness of Jesus Christ as our own righteousness… yet when we walk away it takes time and effort to walk back and change our own mind and mindsets and refind faith.
The good news is that Elijah got there. the angel sustained him. God made the way. Elijah didnt give up.
If we put one foot in front of the other, if we make forward motion, if we do the things we used to do first love wise (to slip into Revelation – letters to the churches) then we will get there and encounter God…
When you’re tempted by the greener grass on the other side of the fence, it might be time to water the grass you’re standing on.
You have got to have your own relationship with God. You’ll starve if you live from Sunday to Sunday – because you can encounter God every day at home in your own bedroom.
In the OT we have the picture of the manna falling, the Israelites were instructed to collect an omer of manna – to prepare and eat what they needed but not to store up any for the next day. Those that stored the manna found the next day it was rotting and full of maggots. It had to be collected each day. Likewise in our own relationships with God it is nourished and developed through relationship and the manna God pours out upon us every day…
Jesus answered, "It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ " Mathew 4:4
If the grass looks greener on the other side then water your own grass – spend time with God, find your satisfaction in Him, grow up and repent and seek Him and find Him.
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Hebrews 11:6
The challenge for all of us to be keep on tuning the ears of our spirit to what God is saying to us through His Word and by His Spirit and to not just let it go in one ear and out the other but to stop drop and roll and hear and listen and learn and obey and do it.
Today if you need to make things right with God do it.
Today if you need to repent of putting your fingers in your ears, do it.
Today if you want to hear God’s voice afresh and know He is with you and calling you, do it.
this is an awesome song written by this guy as a suggestion for the rugby world cup NZ song… it captured something in my spirit so just had to share!
Matthew 24:3 “What will be the sign of coming and the end of the world?
- False messiahs
- False christs
- Deception
- False hope
- False salvation
- Wars
- Unrest
- Political dramas
- Famines
- Injustice
- Greed
- Poverty
- Earthquakes and natural disasters
- Persecution
- Oppression
- Selfishness
Sound familiar?
Matthew 24:27 “The coming of the Son of Man will be like lightening that can be seen from east to west.”
Visible
Supernatural
Electric!
Powerful
Dramatic
Bright
Sudden
Spectacular
Heavenly
Matthew 24:29-31 CEV
29Right after those days of suffering,
”The sun will become dark,
and the moon
will no longer shine.
The stars will fall,
and the powers in the sky will be shaken.”
30Then a sign will appear in the sky. And there will be the Son of Man. All nations on earth will weep when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31At the sound of a loud trumpet, he will send his angels to bring his chosen ones together from all over the earth.
Matthew 24:44 Always be ready! You don’t know when the Son of Man will come.”
the bible.
and another book i highly recommend is The Heavenly Man about Brother Yun.
it is moving.
remarkable.
heart breaking.
humbling.
inspiring.
i had heard much about this book and knew it was about persecution and suffering in China, but thought it was set 1940sish…
it is set in the late 1980s-2000′s. aka MY time. your time. OUR TIME. NOW.
this is brother yun’s story of what God does in his life and through his life.
it is humbling to read.
it stirs the heart towards God.
there arent really words to describe it.
but read it.
i want to read it again.
i want to own it and give it away and away again and again.
“There are four principles we need to maintain:
First, read the Word of God.
Second, consume the Word of God until it consumes you.
Third believe the Word of God.
Fourth, act on the Word.”
Smith Wigglesworth
Gold and silver are mined,
then purified;
2the same is done
with iron and copper.
3Miners carry lanterns
deep into the darkness
to search for these metals.
4They dig tunnels
in distant, unknown places,
where they dangle by ropes.
5Far beneath the grain fields,
fires are built
to break loose those rocks
6that have jewels or gold. 7Miners go to places unseen
by the eyes of hawks;
8they walk on soil unknown
to the proudest lions.
9With their own hands
they remove sharp rocks
and uproot mountains.
10They dig through the rocks
in search of jewels
and precious metals.
11They also uncover
the sources of rivers and discover secret places.
Where Is Wisdom Found?
12But where is wisdom found?
13No human knows the way. 14Nor can it be discovered
in the deepest sea.
15It is worth much more
than silver or pure gold
16or precious stones.
17Nothing is its equal–
not gold or costly glass. 18Wisdom is worth much more than
coral, jasper, or rubies. 19All the topaz of Ethiopia and the finest gold
cannot compare with it.
20Where then is wisdom?
21It is hidden from human eyes
and even from birds.
22Death and destruction
have merely heard rumors
about where it is found.
23God is the only one who knows
the way to wisdom,
24because he sees everything
beneath the heavens.
25When God divided out
the wind and the water,
26and when he decided the path
for rain and lightning,
27he also determined the truth
and defined wisdom.
28God told us, “Wisdom means
that you respect me, the Lord,
and turn from sin.”
Job 28
i only discovered this passage this year, despite having read the bible several times. and it excites me so!
i believe and get really excited by 1 Corinthians 2:9-11 “However, as it is written:
“No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him”— 10but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.”
The Holy Spirit lives within us and one of the blessed “things” He does is to reveal to us who God is and the heart of God. God calls us to draw near and seek Him. though seeking Him may take time and pursuing. It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter. Proverbs 25:2 God hides himself in a way, He hides His truth and we have to find it and seek it.
We are like miners, delving into the Word of God and seeking His ways and His revelation.
Miners carry lanterns
deep into the darkness
to search for these metals.
They dig tunnels
in distant, unknown places,
where they dangle by ropes.
i love the imagry. seeking God sometimes isn’t the easiest task, but oh how rewarding it is! it may take stepping back from circumstances and friendships and “stuff” to take the time to seek God and to walk in His ways that please Him, but it is worth it. We fearlessly seek God. We put Him first. We seek Him by faith.
With their own hands
they remove sharp rocks
and uproot mountains.
do you see the analogy? do you hear my heart here?
Dont you want to be one who ” uncover the sources of rivers and discover secret places.”
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