Hearing Gods voice #4 Be the Answer

 

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Have you ever seen one of those pictures that might either be an old lady or a young maiden depending on how you look at it? They are kind of a mind game in a sense. Sometimes hearing Gods voice is the same way… 

 

Perspective in asking to hear Gods voice. 

 

You want to hear Gods voice because you usually want an answer because of a problem, pain or inconvenience… it may even be hidden in a spiritual desire. What do I mean? Well you may actually pray a prayer like “God give me more miracles, use me more”. Sounds great right? But if your motive is selfish, it’s really not a prayer God might answer.

 

Let’s break it down.  

What if when you face a pain or problem or even a selfish motive… what if instead of asking for God to answer it, you instead ask for him to tell you how you can persevere through it? Now immediately the 9 year old comes out of us… awww that’s not fair. I just want the answer. But I have found that God is pretty good at speaking to me when I want to be more like him and I am praying on how to be more holy and righteous rather than just asking for a quick fix. And lets be truly honest here… that is many times what we are asking for.  

 

What if you challenge your wanting to hear God for answers to make life easier with a challenge of wanting to hear Gods voice with how to be more like him in the middle of the challenge? 

 

Im my own life I have had seasons (remember that podcast a few days ago?) Seasons where marriage was tough… I prayed to God to change my wife. I prayed for a long long time… Then I started to pray “ok God if your grace is enough to get through a rocky season of marriage then this is what I want. I want enough grace to be like you and handle it no matter wether my wife changes or not. Guess what happened… We both changed. I changed first and I believe out of a right spirit it drew change out of my wife months later… yes months.

Then later in life my son put my wife and I through some challenges… challenges no parent wants to go through. But again I started praying “God give me the strength and character to handle this wether my son ever changes or not”. And he did, and in fact much faster than he answered my prayer about my marriage. 

And yes, my son got his life back on track and is now heading in the right direction. 

 

It is all a matter or perspective. Now when there are issues… thats a nice way of saying when life punched you in the face- I seek God for his change in my life. I might pray “God what do you want to teach me through this, tell me, show me… change me”. And I hear him with much greater clarity than any other way I might pray.

I know as men we like to make life our master and put our will to the test… and be relentless until that rock in life moves. But maybe just maybe God put that rock there to never move. 

I have shared this story before but its so true for todays podcast. A man is shaving one morning in the mirror and he thinks he hears Gods voice telling him to go move that huge boulder in his front yard. He is positive its Gods voice. he gets all excited about God giving him super powers like Samson… he cleans up, rushes out to the front yard and begins to push, for almost 30 minutes. Nothing. So he knows he heard Gods voice… so every day for a good thirty minutes at a time he pushes against that rock, for a week, a month for 3 months. Nothing. He gets up one morning and heads to the bathroom and starts to shave and is mumbling to God about how nothing has changed, what a dumb thing to try to do… every day for 3 months and nothing, NOTHING has changed. God speaks to him and says back away from the mirror. Look at your arms… they are thicker, look at your chest it is more muscular… your back is healthier and stronger… your legs are tighter and more sturdy… Then he whispers to the man “The rock didn’t change… but you sure did”. And he gets it.

 

Sometimes hearing Gods voice isn’t about getting the answer, its about becoming the answer. And you know who the answer is right? Exactly!