God’s Voice

What is God’s will for your life? How do you hear His direction? How do you discern His voice?

In chapter 12 of Chase The Lion, Mark Batterson states,

How do you discern the voice of God? It starts with the Word of God. If you want to get a word from God, get into the Word of God. That’s how you learn to discern the voice of God. After all, it’s the Spirit of God who inspired the Word of God. And when the Spirit of God quickens the Word of God, it’s like hearing the voice of God in Dolby surround sound.

Christians want to do God’s will. We want to hear His voice, follow His lead, and accomplish His goals. The challenge is hearing His voice.

Mark Batterson reminds us that this should start with getting into the Word of God. Daily Bible reading places God’s words right in front of us. Studying Scripture helps us discern His voice.

The Word of God is alive and active. Scripture is God-breathed. We have the opportunity every day to read the Holy Word of God.

Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

II Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Read one chapter from the Old Testament and one chapter from the New Testament every day. Read carefully, meditate on the Word, and anticipate hearing God's voice.

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Before & After Age 30

I am reading Mark Batterson’s book Chase The Lion. Batterson leads National Community Church in Washington, DC and has written many inspiring books. In Chase The Lion, Batterson seeks to inspire us to pursue big goals for our big God. The book’s subtitle is, “If your dream doesn’t scare you, it’s too small.”

On page 48, Batterson tells the story of Albert Schwitzer: “It was a summer morning in 1896 when Albert made a resolution. ‘While outside the birds sang…I came to the conclusion that until I was thirty I could consider myself justified in devoting myself to scholarship and the arts,’ Schweitzer said, ‘but after that I would devote myself directly to serving humanity.’”

What a fascinating and inspiring resolution! Schwitzer had a heart to serve the Lord and serve others. He also realized he had knowledge to gain, skills to learn, and gifts to develop. He saw the first 30 years of his life as the season to sow into himself and prepare for the future calling God had for him. But, he was also determined to not live a life focused on himself. After 30 he was determined to serve humanity—to serve others.

There is a time for everything—a time to learn, a time to train, a time to prepare yourself. There is also a time to act, a time to serve, a time to bless others.

What season are you in? How are you making the most of today? How are you devoting yourself to growth? How are you serving humanity?

I highly recommend Mark Batterson’s book to you. You will be inspired and encouraged.

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Follow Me (Matthew 4:19-22)

After Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, he began his public ministry. In Matthew 4:19-22, he calls his first disciples. To Peter and Andrew he said, “‘Come, follow me…and I will make you fishers of men.’ At once they left their nets and followed him.”

He made the same call to James and John, and “immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.”

Isn’t it amazing that Jesus calls out to us and beckons us to follow him? He loves us, desires a relationship with us, and asks us to follow him.

The four disciples teach us a valuable lesson through their examples. They heard and responded. They immediately dropped what they were doing and followed him. They stopped their labor, changed their priorities, and focused on Jesus as their teacher, leader, and rabbi. And they were never the same again!

Has Jesus called you to follow him? The main focus of a Christian is Christ, and our main job is to surrender and follow Jesus. We surrender our will to his, our goals to his, and our desires to his. We stop leading ourselves and instead surrender and follow him.

This isn’t easy, and it isn’t our natural instinct. This requires us to humbly say Jesus is better, his ways are better, and his path is best. This requires us to trust that Christ is worth much more than anything we would give up to follow him.

Choose today to surrender your heart to Jesus Christ. Submit your every thought, word, and action to him. Drop everything and follow him.

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Popularity

In Practical Religion J.C. Ryle states,

“If you take up heart-religion I cannot promise you the praise of man. Pardon, peace, hope, guidance, comfort, consolation, grace according to your need, strength according to your day, joy which the world can neither give nor take away,– all this I can boldly promise to the man who comes to Christ, and serves Him with is heart. But I cannot promise him that his religion will be popular with man.”

We all want to be popular. We want people to think highly of us, praise us, respect us, and ask us for advice. Whether teenagers, college students, or adults, we want to be known, liked, and admired. Yet this longing trips us up time and time again.

True faith in Jesus and a life fully devoted to Him will not win us praise from the majority in the world. But look again at the promises Ryle lists in his second sentence above: peace, hope, comfort... Yes, these are true, and they are far better than the praise and popularity from men and women of the world.

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Becoming More Like Christ Everyday - (2 Corinthians 3:15-18)

“Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:15-18

Conversion is amazing! We go from blinded to seeing, from veils covering our eyes to seeing clearly. When the Lord renews our heart, we are free to live for Him by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our motives change, our hearts change, our goals change, and we long to become more like Christ.

The work of being transformed into the likeness of Christ requires a joint effort. God clearly controls, leads, and enables, yet we need to surrender to the power of the Holy Spirit and follow Christ. We surrender and place ourselves in a position to be transformed by God. We open our Bibles and pray and let God transform our hearts and minds. We allow God to work in us by attending church and youth group meetings. And we can yield to Christ in times of praise and worship.

Our holy God calls us to be holy because He is holy. It pleases Him when we make it our aim to be like Jesus Christ, and He has given us His Holy Spirit to enable us to grow in holiness.

God is all around us, but most importantly Christ Jesus dwells in us through the Holy Spirit. We are in Christ and Christ is in us.  He enables us to reflect the Lord's glory and to be transformed into His likeness!

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23 Marks of True Christian from Romans 12:9-21

At the opening of Romans 12, Paul urges us to offer our lives as living sacrifices as a form of worship.

In verses 9-21 Paul lists 23 lists qualities that should mark the life of a genuine Christian. We are saved by faith, and not by our actions. Yet our lives should reflect Jesus Christ and demonstrate qualities in keeping with a heart transformed by the power of God.

Let’s take some time today to evaluate ourselves in each of these areas. Let’s praise God for any good fruit we see, and let’s ask for his help to grow more and more in the days ahead.

1.        Let love be genuine.

2.        Abhor what is evil.

3.        Hold fast to what is good.

4.        Love one another with brotherly affection.

5.        Outdo one another in showing honor.

6.        Do not be slothful in zeal.

7.        Be fervent in spirit.

8.        Serve the Lord.

9.        Rejoice in hope.

10.      Be patient in tribulation.

11.      Be constant in prayer.

12.      Contribute to the needs of the saints.

13.      Seek to show hospitality.

14.      Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them.

15.      Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

16.      Live in harmony with one another.

17.      Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.

18.      Never be wise in your own sight.

19.      Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

20.      If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

21.      Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it^[i] to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

22.      “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”

23.      Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

***Romans 12:9-21 (ESV)

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A Child of God

In his book Practical Region, J.C Ryle writes about what it means to be a child of God. He considers Romans 8:14, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”

Let me share two excerpts with a few questions:

“They are lead away from sin – away from self-righteousness – away from the world. This is the road by which the Spirit leads God’s children. Those whom God adopts He teaches and trains. He shows them their own hearts. He makes them weary of their own ways. He makes them long for inward peace…They are lead to Christ. They are lead to the Bible. They are lead to prayer. They are led to holiness. This is the beaten path along which the Spirit makes them to travel. Those whom God adopts He always sanctifies. He makes sin very bitter to them. He makes holiness very sweet.”

Do you know you are a child of God? How has the Spirit lead you to holy living?

“If you are a son of God, I beseech you to walk worthy of your Father’s house. I charge you solemnly to honor Him in your life; and above all to honor Him by implicit obedience to all His commands, and hearty love to all His children. Labor to travel through the world like a child of God and heir to glory. Let men be able to trace a family likeness between you and Him that begat you. Live a heavenly life. Seek things that are above. Do not seem to be building your nest below. Behave like a man who seeks a city out of sight, whose citizenship is in heaven, and who would be content with many hardships till he gets home.”

Do you know you are a child of the King? How does this change the way you live? How can you honor Him in the way you live? How can you live a heaven-minded life today?

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