Thank God for our last WCO Prayer
Conference where we were reminded of and taught the word of God. For me, every
minute at the Conference was an experience I would like to relieve but I guess
God would prefer for me to go forward with what I received instead of relieving
the experience. The one thing that was certain is that God desires for us to go
forward so He let us know that He is all we need to go forward. Of course that
does not mean that God does everything and we do nothing; it only means that because
He is God who creates and also knows all the path we could ever take as well as
the end of the journey, He is able and willing to provide all we need if we
could trust Him enough to seek counsel from Him and just obey His instructions
and I guess this is where it gets tough because His instructions sometimes can
be very confusing particularly in the face of current day realities. Moreover,
we live in a world that likes to believe that God is so outdated He does not
understand the present day realities. Of course to the world, those
instructions are totally silly. No wonder the hymn writer says “He works in a
mysterious way, His wonders to perform.”
1 Corinthians 1: 27 – 28 “Instead, God chose things the world considers
foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things
that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised
by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to
nothing what the world considers important.”
So we were counseled to listen
out for instructions from the Word and the Word is Jesus Christ the son of God.
He can choose to speak to us directly or through His written word which
suggests that we must pay attention to His written word. The only way we learn
the voice of God is by building on our relationship with Him and there is no
achieving that without building a relationship with the written word. No one
who stands afar would be able to discern His voice accurately. The stronger our
relationship is with people, the easier and faster we are able to recognize
their voices even when we can’t see them and in the midst of many voices.
Relationship definitely plays a major part in identifying the voice of Christ
not withstanding how and when He speaks. Sometimes we hope to learn to discern
His voice without building on our relationship with Him but that isn’t really
possible. It is like saying you will know when I speak without knowing me. You
have to have heard me a number of times to recognize my voice when you hear it.
You can get to know me so well that even when I write you recognize me even
without seeing my name.
John 10: 26 - 27 “But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep.
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
Voice is very powerful because man
is greatly impacted by what he hears. God speaks to His own and this has nothing
to do with what generation one exist in but has everything to do with whether
or not one belongs to Him. In every generation, there are people born of the Spirit,
as a result of which they are known as the children of God, with whom God
certainly communicates. These are people to whom God is Father and Redeemer and
a father would definitely communicate with his children. No father consistently
communicates with his child through another except if he is unhappy with the
child. Sometimes we might be a little confused as to what our father is saying
which is why he has other children that you can speak to with a view to getting
a clearer understanding of what he is saying but he would speak to you. When we
desire better understanding it is wise to speak to those children who also have
a good relationship with Him but we very often prefer to speak to children who
barely themselves speak to Him or have a relationship with Him; how then can
they help us understand what God is saying? The mind of God is often times not
revealed in one word. You put many words or sentences together to get a clear
picture. You need to wait patiently to get a good understanding instead of rushing
of with half a sentence.
1 Samuel 3: 9 “So he said to Samuel, ‘go and lie down again, and if
someone calls again, say, Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.’ So Samuel
went back to bed.”
We must listen to God in an attitude
of obedience. Very often we already conceived what we want and how we will get
it so that unwittingly we already put ourselves in that place of disobedience.
When we make that decision to truly walk with God, we must be open to His
instructions. Preconceived notions are usually a problem with walking with God.
Our minds are made up in a particular direction so that it is even difficult to
realize that God is saying something totally different from what we think He is
saying all because of what we had assumed He would say. It is time to return to
listening to God if we desire to go forward by Him. God definitely still leads
His own.
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