Monday, May 21, 2018

Prayer Challenge: Listen

Prayer Challenge: Listen
by Doug Freeman

Focus: God still speaks today.

Listen--To hear, respond internally, to receive and accept, and then to move forward in His will in obedience.

Psalm 4:1--Answer me when I call, O God [b]of my righteousness!
You have [c]relieved me in my distress;
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.

Genesis 3:1--Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from [a]any tree of the garden’?”

I John 1:1-3--What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

I. Voice Recognition

John 10:3-5-- To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”

John 10:14--I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me,

Five Ways to Recognize His Voice

1) Belong to Him (salvation)
2) Be familiar with the Shepherd and desire to hear His voice.
3) Follow Him in obedience.
4) Keep our hearts tuned to Him.
5) Trust and believe that He knows us best and has the best plan for our lives.

II. God Speaks in Many Ways--but primarily through His Word.
Psalm 119:105--Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.
Hebrews 1:1-3-- God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, [a]in these last days has spoken to us [b]in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the [c]world. [d]And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and [e]upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

God also speaks to people through visions, dreams, through a still small voice, generally not audible, but God will never speak something to me that contradicts the Word.

III. Selective Hearing Leads to Deafness.
Matthew 13:12-- For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.

The more we listen, the easier it becomes to hear His Voice.

Job 23:11-12--“My foot has held fast to His path;
I have kept His way and not turned aside.
12 “I have not departed from the command of His lips;
I have treasured the words of His mouth [a]more than my[b]necessary food.

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