Listen & Be Wise

 

Proverbs 23:19

Listen, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in The Way.

    Listen. Pay attention. Consider what I am saying that you may comprehend exactly the words which I speak. Hear what I have to say, think on these things which I have said, and then act on what you have heard. 

    Be wise. Be men and women of God, obedient to His Wisdom, as were the three young Hebrew men who were captured in Daniel 1:17, 20. Be men and women of honor: don't just hear The Voice of God speak, but be obedient and do what He says to do. 

    Listen. His Voice is not always a thunderclap. He is the still small voice that whispers to your hearts. He is the calm in the storm. He is the gentle curvature of wing that encircles and comforts. 

    Be wise. Be wise in the ways of The Lord that you may live according to the wisdom of The Word. Make wise choices. Put God first: honor Him with our lives: choose what is right and do that Every Single Time. 

    Listen. Hear the words of my instructions as student to student, disciple to disciple. Take in the knowledge which I have gleaned from my walk with The Lord and what I have learned throughout my years. 

    In The New Testament, The Lord directs our attention to the flower-covered fields: Consider the lilies. What is there to consider in lilies? In Matthew and Luke the lily blooms for a day and is then gone. Yet God chooses to clothes them in beauty. 

   Consider this: In Hosea 14:5, Israel is compared to a lily whose growth comes from the dew. We need God to be the dew for us, too. We need Him to cause us to grow in the way He would have us to grow. 

'I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and take root like the cedars of Lebanon.' 

    Without God as our Instructor, our Teacher, our God, we will get nowhere. Our days will be lived in futility. Our hearts will have gleaned nothing from The Word of God because we chose not to consider what He had to say. 

    Direct your hearts. Lead your hearts. Don't let your heart dictate your actions. Following your hearts is a fool's game. The heart is deceitful and cannot be trusted to make wise choices on its own. We need to guard our hearts-Proverbs 4:23. 

    Learn to rein in your hearts. We need to train our hearts in The Ways of The Lord. And that is only accomplished when we Listen to His instructions and Obey His directions. 

Proverbs 28:26

He who trusts in himself is a fool, but one who walks in wisdom will be safe.

    Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us that not only are we to trust in The Lord, but we are to do so with the understanding which He gives us and not in our own dense way, so to speak. Our minds tend to wander when left on their own. But when we are focused on the things of The Lord, the wandering becomes a thing of the past. Now we are motivated to 'stay the course'; to 'run with endurance the race set before us'.  

    We have made the decision to put God first in everything we do, and when a conscious decision to follow The Lord Jesus Christ is made, then He takes up residence in our hearts, and our hearts no longer wander. We are a 'new creation' and our new roots are settled in The Word of God. 

    Now God makes our paths straight. Does this mean that our lives are comfy now? Not hardly. When we put God first, He lays out the way we should go, whether we climb the mountain in front of us or tell it to get out of the way. Many an obstacle in The Way, has kept a person from being fully committed to Listening to and Obeying The Word of God. 

    It may look like a narrow path, but it is also the safest course of direction for living a life that glorifies God. I hope you remain committed to Listening, to Being Wise, to Directing your hearts in The Way. I know I am. 

    

    

Undefeated-Learning to Listen to God

 Deuteronomy 28:7

The LORD shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated in front of you: they shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways.

    This verse is part of the blessings God gives to His people when they are aligned with His Word and obey His Law; not just the letter of the Law, but The Spirit of The Law. Deuteronomy 28:1 "And it shall come to pass, if you shall hearken diligently unto the voice of The LORD your God, to observe and to do all His commandments which I command you this day, that The LORD your God will set you on high above all nations of the earth."

     Hearken diligently means to 'listen intelligently, attend to what is being said, obey what is being stated'. It is to listen with understanding and submit to The Word being given by God. This is doubly impactful upon us when we remember John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."  

     God gave us The Word (John 1:1-3, 14) for our salvation, that we might live in Him through His death and resurrection. It is up to us to believe on The Name of The Only Begotten Son of God. 

Romans 10:8-10, 13 "But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved. ... For whosoever shall call upon The Name of The Lord shall be saved." 

    And though this newfound faith in Jesus' Name is our greatest blessing, it has also put a target on our backs and a price on our heads. We have attained 'illegal' status all over the world, for many people seek our demise hoping to wipe out God's people, both His elect people and His called people. For we who were not initially given God's people (Gentiles: anyone who is not a Jew) have been "called out of darkness into His marvelous Light." 1 Peter 2:9-10. 

AT THE CROSS - Chris Tomlin

I Am Christian's Ears

 

ISAIAH 6:8

Also I heard the voice of The Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

    I am Christian's ears and I hear the voice of The Lord speaking to me, too. And like the prophet Isaiah, Christian's mouth said, "Lord, here am I; send me." 

    I hear The Lord speaking to me when I am silent before Him ~ Psalm 46:10; Habakkuk 2:20; Zechariah 2:13. 

    I hear The Lord singing over me ~ Zephaniah 3:17.

    I hear Him in the night ~ Job 35:10; Psalm 42:8.

    I hear His voice in the garden ~ John 17; John 20:18. 

I hear Him speaking to me in The Scriptures ~ Jeremiah 7:2; Nehemiah 8:1-6. 

    I am Christian's ears and when I hear my Lord speaking to me, I am attentive and ready my heart to be obedient to His direction. 

    I hear Him call my name ~ John 3:16, 17; Romans 10:13 ~ I am a whosoever. First He calls me to serve Him, then He calls me friend ~ John 15:15. 

    I hear The Lord call me to obedience to His Word ~ John 15:14; 1 John 2:3, 5:3. 

    I hear Him calling me to pick up my cross and carry it ~ Mark 8:34.

    I hear His voice telling me that I will suffer for Him - 1 Peter 2:21.

    I hear the voice of The Lord calling me to forgive every offense and every slight and every sin against me, that He might be able to forgive me ~ Matthew 6:14, 15.

     I hear the voice of The Lord calling me to rest in Him ~ Matthew 11:28.

    I am Christian's ears. I hear, I listen, I learn. 

SANCTUARY

OVERWHELMED 

RATTLE 

WORD OF GOD SPEAK 

Come, Worship the Lord

 In The Beauty of Holiness 

Psalm 29:2
Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

 

As the wise men did who came to see the Baby King, who first actions on entering His home were to kneel before Him and worship Him. And, yes, being fully God and fully man, I believe Jesus knew why they were kneeling. 

The English word worship comes from the Hebraic word shachah (shaw-khaw') which means to bow down, to kneel, to prostrate one's self to. It is used 172 times in the Old Testament. One of these verses mirrors the verse given today: Psalm 96:9 "O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth."

So, I asked the Lord for a Word for this new year and I got more than I asked for.

Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

Stand. See. Ask. It is this word ASK that is important. For when we ask a question, we expect to be given an answer. Many times it is not the answer we want so we ignore the answer given. But God says to LISTEN.

LISTEN as defined by dictionary.com

We are to Ask God, Hear  God's answer(s), and follow God's directions. That's LISTENING.

Waiting to hear from God also requires Listening for that still small voice. It is not enough to Listen for God's voice if we don't know what God's voice sounds like. And how do we know God's voice? Open our Bibles and spend time with Him in the Word He has written. Seek His face in prayer time with Him. After all it takes at least two people to have a genuine conversation. When it comes to prayer, the other person must be GOD; otherwise we're just talking to ourselves. 

The universe does not answer prayer. Sending your requests out into 'the universe' isn't going to do you any good. Neither Allah nor Buddha nor any other created god can hear you, answer you, love you nor die to save you. Only GOD. 

Therefore, we should turn to God in prayer. Not just seeking what He has for us in the day we are given, but seeking His face in all its glory and drawing near to Him just to be with Him. 

When we are in a romantic relationship with another person, do we separate ourselves from each other? Do we speak to others but not each other? That's not a relationship, that's not even a friendship. God desires our nearness, which is why He draws near to us. He is ever reaching out for close companionship with His people. 

Let us draw near to God at the foot of the cross and the empty grave. For it is here that we begin to hear His voice more clearly.