On learning to discern and hear the voice of God, and learning how to follow His leading.

Psalm 46 says:

Psalm 46

1God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

2Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

3Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

4There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.

5God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.

6The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.

7The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

8Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth.

9He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.

10Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

11The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

What follows (below) is some very good advice, from Jim Goll, on our learning to listen to, and discern, the voice of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Truly Psalms 46:10 is one of my favorite verses of scripture; and it is because of something the Lord showed me a while ago, which I will share with you here.

God is eternal, meaning that He doesn’t exist in time and space. We, as part of His creation are all linear thinkers, and we see time and space as in line, that has a start and finish… but that’s not so with God!

What science would call our time/space continuum is all a part of God’s creation, which He created for us, for our benefit; but it is not where heaven is, and it is not where God resides.

Of course, certainly He enters into our realm, from time to time; and Yeshua (Jesus), who is Himself God incarnate, was born into it; but nevertheless God exists outside of both time and space.

So actually, what we refer to as “ETERNITY” is not a long time, not at all; but it is the absence of time all together.

From God’s perspective, He can even take us out of our time and space continuum, where we exist our time, and He can reinsert us anywhere else, whether in the past, or in the future; as I believe He did when He showed Moses, in Genesis, what happened during the creation; or when He showed John the Revelator the end of days, in the Book of Revelation. I believe in both instances, Moses and John actually saw the events they wrote about in the Bible.

Though this all may hurt our brain to think about, it is what it is; and it is my belief, anyway, that what I have described here is the nature of the world we live in; and also it is an example of our Omniscient (all knowing) God, to know the end from the beginning, on any issue… including every detail and circumstance of our life!

Psalm 139:13-16

13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
16You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.

How else would all of this be possible, for God to know each one of us in this way, before He laid the foundation of the world; to where we each even have a book in heaven, with our name on it; where God has scheduled each and every day of our life!

Not only that, but the Bible also says that He has predestined our life, and that we each have a specific plan and purpose, and a destiny that God desires for us to fulfill.

From our point, the first order of business, or every individual, sometime between when they come into the world, and before they leave, they must have an encounter with God, which comes when they begin to seek after God, with all of our heart, mind and strength; and then having been born-again (without which Jesus said that no one can see the Kingdom of Heaven—read John chapter 3), we then must learn to die to self; and then pick up our cross daily.

As the Apostle Paul put it, we are as in a race, where we must learn to discipline ourselves, in order to win the prize… which for us is to spend eternity with our Lord and Saviour, and with our Heavenly Father, as members of His reconciled and restored family!

In order for us to win this race, however, it is not necessary for us to be the first to cross the finish line; but only that we not quit, and that we stay in faith.

Along this path, called our life, we are to stay in constant communion and in fellowship with our Lord, through the intimacy and fellowship of the Holy Spirit, which has been given to us, who now lives equally inside of every one of us who have been born-again.

The Bible even teaches that for all those who have made Jesus Lord of their lives; who love Him; and who are also about their Father’s business, and are called according to His purpose… that for those people God will enter in to every circumstance of their life (both the good and the bad) to work it together for their good. Selah

What an awesome and wonderful truth that is, and an absolute blessing and comfort for us to know, that truly God is involved with every single detail and aspect of our life!!!!

What the Lord showed me was that in our life, all too often, owed to the many stresses, trials and tribulations that we are faced with, in the course of our life, our minds are all too often focused on something we fear will happen tomorrow; OR we are regretting some mistake or error in judgment that happened in our past… and if our mind is in either one of those two places, then we are totally missing God; who is ONLY available to each of us in the space of this present moment… in the what we call the “NOW!” Selah

Shalom,

Skip Barland

From: The ElijahList [mailto:propheticword@elijahlist.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2010 12:30 AM
To: Skip Barland
Subject: James Goll: Are You Listening to the Holy Spirit?

<img width=”315″ height=”71″ src=”cid:image007.jpg

James W. Goll:Listen Up: The Holy Spirit Has Something to Say!

This week I am following up on the theme on Hearing God’s Voice with a little teaching excerpt from my book, The Beginner’s Guide to Hearing God. So, here are some practical tools to help your hearing. Listen up! The Holy Spirit has something He wants to speak to you!

Listening with Expectation!

James W. Goll

Listen Up: The Holy Spirit Has
Something to Say!
Practical Tools to Help Your Hearing

Therefore every one who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock.
—Matthew 7:24-25

Let’s be real pragmatic at this point as we investigate some practical tools to aid us in our journey of leaning our ear His way.

Ten Effective Tools for the Trade

• Number One: Don’t Make Hearing God Complicated!
It is actually not hard to hear God. We tend to overcomplicate the whole matter. The following are three simple steps that help us, very simplistically, hear God’s gracious voice.

# 1 — Submit to His Lordship
Ask Him to help you silence your own thoughts, desires and opinions. You want to hear only the thoughts of the Lord right now. Proverbs 3:5-7, “In all your ways acknowledge Him. And He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your eyes, fear the Lord and turn away from evil.” James says, “Submit unto God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Before resisting always comes submitting.

# 2 — Resist the Enemy
Use the authority Jesus Christ has given you as His disciple to silence the voice of the enemy. Apply the Blood of Jesus over your life and resist the enemy. He will run in terror away from you. Great news! If you do what God wants you to do (first!), then He will do for you what you cannot do on your own!

# 3 — Ask your Question and Expect God’s Answer
Ask the question that is in your heart, bring it before the throne of Almighty God. You must now wait for Him to answer. Believing that as you submit to God and resisted the enemy you can now expect that you will be filled with the knowledge of God’s will with all spiritual wisdom and understanding (Colossians 1:9). Now, at times, an immediate reply will come—other times it is like a slow, simmering process—but the most important aspect is to ask, expect and receive.

• Number Two: Allow God to Speak in the Way He Chooses.
Don’t try to dictate to God the guidance methods you prefer. Listen with a yielded heart. There is a direct link between yielding and hearing. He may choose to speak to you in a method that you are not accustomed to. He will speak through His written Word, through a person, through dreams, visions, through the quiet inner voice… Now having submitted, resisted and asked, do not dictate the way you want Him to answer your request. Allow God to speak to you in the way He chooses.

• Number Three: Confess Any Known Sins.
Psalm 66:18, “If I regard wickedness in my heart the Lord will not hear me.” If the Lord doesn’t hear you, then you’re not going to receive the answer that you’re hoping for, because He hasn’t even heard the question yet. So the third point in hearing God’s voice is one of the foundation stones of A, B, C Christianity—the confession of sins. Confess your sins. He is waiting to listen. He is waiting to forgive. Confess your sins to our Father in Jesus’ great name. A clean heart is a prerequisite to hearing God.

• Number Four: Have You Obeyed the Last Thing God Told You to Do?
If you haven’t obeyed His last orders, why do you think He would give you new ones? He’s waiting for you to do what He’s already told you to do. This alone is one of the main reasons people don’t think they are hearing from Papa. He has already spoken—you already know what is required of you. Now go do, for Jesus’ sake! It’s the issue of obedience. Go back and finish your last orders could be a word of wisdom needed so that you can continue in life’s journey.

• Number Five: Get Your Own Leading.
God will use others to confirm your guidance, but we must learn to hear the voice of the Lord for ourselves. God is a jealous God. He wants to talk with you. Become secure in your own identity in Christ. Realize that you are a son or daughter of the Creator of the universe in your own right. He has promises to lead His own and has given us His precious Holy Spirit to be our guide. Is He yours? Don’t be wrongly co-dependent upon others. At the same time, don’t jump in the other ditch by over-reacting and cultivating an independent and rebellious spirit. You’ve got to, and you will learn to, hear God for yourself.

• Number Six: Don’t Talk about Your Word Too Soon.
This is a really wise one. I wished I had known this one a bit earlier on in my life! I think the dreamer Joseph might have wished he had heard this one also! The main purpose of waiting is to help you avoid the not-so-obvious pitfalls. Have you ever considered that God might like to share a secret with a trusted friend? Have you considered asking permission before opening wide your mouth and repeating everything you supposedly know?

Oftentimes, God does speak something to us ahead of time, before it comes into being. His word comes to prepare us and to change us to be the vessel qualified to do what has been spoken. He will prepare us for that which lies ahead.

• Number Seven: God Will Confirm What He’s Telling You.
Realize God does use others to confirm His word. It’s a part of a safety net of protection. Second Corinthians 13:1 wisely states that God will confirm His word by two or three witnesses. This particular truth is quoted three times in the Bible. God will confirm His word by the witness or testimony of two and three others. Isn’t that wonderful! If it really is God, He will speak the same or similar thing more than once. So—in other words—you don’t have to go running off with just a one-time word! If it really is from God, it will be confirmed. Rest in that fact.

Believe that the Lord will speak through those in relational authority in your life. Trust the Lord and pray for those in authority. There is safety in the multitude of counsel.

• Number Eight: Be Aware of Counterfeits.
Satan loves to counterfeit. He has no originality—He’s just a copycat! If there’s a counterfeit, what does that mean? It infers that there’s something authentic and real out there. The enemy only counterfeits what is real. Counterfeit money…Why is there counterfeit money? Because there’s real money and it has power.

Why does the enemy have counterfeit voices, counterfeit occult, counterfeit experiences, and even counterfeit supernatural encounters? Why? Because our Lord of Hosts has the real power, the real dreams, myriads of angels, and the true guidance system.

God is a supernatural Being. People are born with a void that only the voice of God can fill. But beware of counterfeits from the dark side. They exist to trap you; flee from them in Jesus’ name!

• Number Nine: Practice Hearing God’s Voice.
Yes, practice hearing the voice of God, and it will become easier. It’s like picking up the phone and recognizing the voice of a friend. You know their voice because you’ve heard it so much.

If I want to know His voice, I’ve got to spend some time with Him. The voice of the Holy Spirit is so lovely to me today. I would never want to grieve Him. We must get to know the voice of our Master and it only comes by spending time with Him. The more you practice, the easier it becomes!

• Number Ten: Cultivating an Intimate Relationship.
From God’s perspective, the most important reason for hearing the voice of God is not just to know the right things to do—it is knowing the Source Himself! If you don’t have good communication with a person, you don’t have a vibrant relationship with them.

True guidance is getting closer to the Guide. We grow to know the Lord better as He speaks to us. As we listen to Him and obey His word, we make His heart glad. Our relationship with our Papa God goes so far beyond information, guidance, dreams, visions, angels, and all the wonderful supernatural stuff. It goes so far beyond that.

It’s all about intimacy with Jesus. The gifts of the Spirit are appetizers to whet our desire for more of God Himself. The voice of God is used to create a deeper hunger within us so that we might come into closer communion with Him. The reason to hear His voice is really simple: to cultivate an intimate relationship with our Abba Father. Our Daddy wants to commune with us even more than we want to commune with Him. Draw near, He is drawing near to you.

So, that’s some simple foundational thoughts on hearing the voice of God. I hope these tools will get added to your tool chest ’cause it’s time to listen up! The Holy Spirit has something He wants to say to you!

Blessings to You!

James W. Goll
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Author: SPARKS FROM THE ANVIL OF LIFE

This is an open forum where we look into and investigate the Rhema Mysteries of God's Word; and also other issues of importance for our day and time. View all posts by SPARKS FROM THE ANVIL OF LIFE