SPEAKING STARTS WITH HEARING
Dec 18, 2017

Matthew 11:25 – At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
 
As Christians we are all called to speak for God. We are His representatives in the earth today and help the world hear His voice. However, speaking on behalf of God starts with hearing His voice. The Holy Spirit dwelling within us helps us to hear God’s voice, but there are a few things we can do to position ourselves to hear more clearly.
 

First, we must remain childlike. Being childlike means staying in a place of dependency on God – being aware of our need for Him. “Know-it-alls” have a hard time hearing from God. If we know everything, why would we even expect to hear from Him? When we realize that we don’t have it all figured out and we need His voice to help us in life, it increases our expectancy to hear Him. God responds to our childlike attitude with delight.

“At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” – Matthew 11:25

 

The awareness of our need to be childlike should actually increase as we mature as Christians. If we want to increase our ability to hear God’s voice, we need to ask ourselves when was the last time we stopped what we were doing to just be in wonder of God? When was the last time we came to worship Him without an agenda or always thinking “what’s next?”

Second, to hear God’s voice more clearly, we must be willing to respond. Unlike some of us, God isn’t talking just to hear Himself speak. The voice of the Lord requires a response when we hear it – the same voice that caused the universe to spring into existence should create something in us. Often, when we talk to God we expect Him to respond right away with the answer/timing we want, but we aren’t as ready to respond when He speaks.

“Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own.” -John 7:17 (NLT)
 
Recognizing and receiving Jesus’ voice as being God’s direction for us, starts with wanting to do the will of God. If we don’t even want to do God’s will, why would we expect to hear Him speak? However, when we cultivate a desire to respond to what He says, we often find that we begin to hear God clearer and more frequently.
 

Third, if we want to hear His voice, we must make sure our motivation for wanting to hear is a love for people. Having this as your motive will help you hear more than just about anything else you could do. God is love and He loves people. If those two truths are at the core of the motivation for what we are doing, then you can be sure that He will be tangibly present and wanting to be heard. God speaks to us because He loves us and wants to have a relationship with us – He will also speak to us because He loves others and wants to have a relationship with them.

“The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” -Galatians 5:6b

 
As great as faith is (you can’t even please God without it), if what we are hearing and doing in response isn’t coming out infused with love, it’s worthless. If we’ve been stuck hearing God’s voice, we may need to go get around other people. Ask God to help you see people as valuable; people that Jesus died for; people that He loves – then ask Him, “what do you want to say to them?” You can be confident that He will be the one who speaks. The devil will never prompt you to pray for someone, be generous to them or to say something to someone to let them know how much God loves them.

 

If we want to speak for God, it starts with hearing Him first. Let’s make sure that we doing what we can to position ourselves to hear God more clearly by remaining childlike, being willing to respond and loving people.

 

 

YOU ARE HIS MOUTHPIECE

Oct 10, 2017

1 Corinthians 12:27 – Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

Jesus can – and does – directly reveal Himself to people supernaturally, but one of the primary ways people encounter Him is by coming in contact with His Body. The same things that happened when Jesus physically walked on the earth should still be occurring today when people experience Him through His Body. The unseen parts of your being – your spirit and soul – are who you really are, but your body gives a physical expression to the real you. Just like your body expresses who you really are, the body of Christ reveals Him to the world. 
It’s a miraculous and humbling thing that He chose to do it that way in spite of all the people He knew would be involved. The fire and brimstone guy, the televangelist with the perfect hair, inflexible/dogmatic people and each one of us with all our quirks and imperfections. We represent Jesus to the world. We should be praying to represent Him well to the world because their view of Him is shaped to a large degree by their interactions with us. We’re all growing and becoming mature, so we don’t always get it right, yet He still continues to work through all of us to reveal Himself to the world. What a great responsibility He’s given us!
 
Most people have no problem thinking about representing Jesus by being His hands and feet. We can comfort the afflicted, feed the hungry and go help those in need. We see that we need to love our neighbor, heal the sick and dismantle the work of the devil when we see it. When looking at the world, it makes sense to us to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
However, as we represent him to the world, we often overlook that we are His mouthpiece and speak for Him as well. Just like a trumpet player moves the air and the mouthpiece makes a sound, God provides His Spirit and we give Him our voice. The concept of letting God use our voice to speak for Him is called “prophecy”.

 

Many times, the word prophecy gets a bad rap because of abuses people have seen or misunderstandings they have had, but it is a very real supernatural gift given by God to strengthen and encourage people. In its simplest definition, prophecy simply means to say what God is saying. God desires His people to speak on His behalf to the world – the apostle Paul even goes so far as to say we should all eagerly want to speak for Him. 

1 Corinthians 14:1 (NLT) – Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives – especially the ability to prophesy.

We are all called to be His mouthpiece and prophesy in some capacity. It can be as simple as saying to your neighbor, “God loves you!” Because God has clearly stated His love for the whole world in Scripture, when you say that to someone, you are saying what God is saying – you are prophesying. Valid prophecy will never contradict Scripture and the Bible is often a great starting point for speaking what God is saying to someone. God always has good things to say and because the Holy Spirit is the source of it, true prophecy will always be glorifying to Jesus and produce the following in people’s lives:

1 Corinthians 14:3 (NLT) – But one who prophesies strengthens others, encourages them, and comforts them.

Prophecy should produce the same things in people’s lives that happened when Jesus physically walked on the earth and spoke with people. Just like we should be doing the works of Jesus because we are His Body, we should also be speaking what He says to people as His mouthpiece. Speaking purpose and destiny to someone, giving them hope, reminding them that God loves them relentlessly, comforting them during difficult seasons – these are things that God is saying to people that we can let Him use our voice to declare.
 
There is much more to dig into regarding prophecy than can be covered here, but we can start right now by simply telling God that we are willing to be used as His mouthpiece and then looking for people in need of strength, encouragement and comfort. When you encounter people who need those things, ask God to speak through you to them – then take a step of faith to open your mouth!