We are to posture ourselves to hear from God. At this point in time, we can no longer afford to be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. We are to be intentional in our pursuit of Him, awaiting to hear His voice in the innermost part of our being.

The Word of God is not just to be seen as any other book to read.  It is living and powerful as we allow His Word to be lived in and through our lives by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, translating it to our daily encounters and experiences with Him.  It is our manual of life.  It is the nearness of God through His spoken word to us.  “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (Romans 10:8).  It is about meeting with the One Who loves us the most with His plans and purposes for us.  It is all about meeting the very Author of the Word, the very Author of our lives.   

Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow Me.”  (John 10:27) That means we have been created and fashioned to hear Him when we acknowledge Him as our Lord.  

Lord means someone having power, authority, or influence; a master or ruler. It could also mean a feudal superior, especially the proprietor of a manor house.  It is a title used to refer to God or Christ, and could be an owner of land or other real property.  It talks about ownership and our sense of belonging to the One Whom we call, “Lord”. It determines our identity in Him that we are no longer our own once we come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, Who is in you, Whom you have received from God? You are not your own;  you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV)

The enemy always wants us to be handicapped in our faith and convinces us that there is a hotline to God that only the five-fold ministry is entitled and have access to.  He always wants to disqualify us from hearing God’s voice ourselves because when he succeeds in persuading us, it deprives us from having an intimate relationship with the Lord where His truth is revealed that dislodges his lies.  He knows that when we meditate His Word day and night and the Holy Spirit highlights His “NOW-WORD” to and for us, we become unstoppable because His Word never fails.  We set our faces like flint, never budging until we see His promises come to pass, knowing that the Lord our God is faithful and He is our ever present help Who never puts us to shame.  The enemy knows that when the light of His word shines forth in us, darkness is swallowed up without resistance.  Try putting the light switch on at night.  As soon as the light illumines, darkness is overcome by it. 

It is time for us to arise and shine for the light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon us.  It is time for us to set aside time to feed our spirits by the Word that is spirit and life.  There is nothing else that can spiritually nourish us but His Word.  There may be self-help books and lectures that are good, but they have their limits and are only beneficial to our souls (our mind, will and emotion). 

It is time for us to stop waiting to be spoon-fed all the time by our spiritual elders.  We pursue and nurture our own personal relationship with Him by drawing near to Him and hearing Him personally.   

Intimacy cannot be built and established with others around us and that, too, with other voices fighting for our attention and affection.  Yes, there is always time and space allotted for us to be trained and equipped by our teachers and pastors, but the divine intimate chamber only has two slots, one for Him and one for you/me.  This is the place where He reveals Himself to us in a very personal way that touches our hearts like no other.  This is where His will is being made known to us and no one can snatch it away from us.  We get locked in into the truth when revelation of His Word happens. 

God gave us His love letter, His Word.  He gave us the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of knowledge, wisdom and understanding to abide in us individually forever to guide us into ALL TRUTH.  He postures us in our own race, our own lane, with our own giftings and callings that are irrevocable.  He has set His pace that perfectly suits each one of us.     Every one is His distinct masterpiece where no two people are alike. He has made us so special and so unique.  He has created us in amazing ways and made it possible for us to contribute to what He’s doing in this world, where we are called to complement and not to compete.  We are the body of Christ where every joint supplies.

Let us therefore position ourselves to hear from Him through the pages of the God-breathed, Living Word of God.  Let us set aside time where we find stillness and quietness around us.  Let us set aside a place away from possible distractions that may hinder us from being touched by His presence.  Let us commit to posture ourselves to receive from Him with an open hearing heart, eager and expectant to hear Him speak.  There is something about our expectation that becomes a landing strip for His Word to land on the fertile ground of our hearts. 

What a powerful reminder indeed what A. W. Tozer once said, “The one who does not expect God to speak will discount every single time when God does speak.”

Another attitude that we need to learn to cultivate is highly regarding what we hear as His voice and not discounting it as just our own.  Attribute it as God’s breathed word personally directed to us and nothing less.  Know that when we believe and acknowledge Him as our Good Shepherd, we see ourselves as His sheep in His sheepfold who know and hear the sound of His voice and we follow.  A stranger’s we do not. 

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:  And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” (John 10:27-28)  I so love the Voice translation of this verse that says, “My sheep respond as they hear My voice; I know them intimately, and they follow Me.”

Let us be on the lookout, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”  (1 Peter 5:8)  We should not be ignorant of his schemes and one of it is to fully persuade us that we need pre-requisites or qualifications to be able to hear Him speak.  A demand to do this or that or we need to excel in this or that to  gain access to God’s throne is a lie.  Or we need to be like this person or that to be welcomed into our Heavenly Father’s embrace.  Or we need to be perfect in our own way to be accepted in the Beloved.  Be watchful of these lies!   His Word says, “Let us therefore COME BOLDLY to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)  Jesus Christ paid the price for us to be at peace with our Heavenly Father with Whom the Holy Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirits that we are His children destined to call Him “Abba, Daddy!”, designed to be heard by Him and for us to hear Him.

We cannot be someone else or be someone more than who He created us to be to be able to hear Him speak.  Be fully convinced that as sons and daughters of the Most High God, He delights in speaking to us.  He takes pleasure in communing with us in the most personal and intimate way.  Even after the fall in the Garden of Eden, “The Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9)  If this does not encourage us, I don’t know what else will! 🙂

My 12-year old laptop conked out a few months ago and we all know that if we do not have one, it feels like a disability hahaha!  Thankfully, my old desktop is still working although it can no longer accommodate new updates and other programs.  One thing I desire is to have a new one.  Who doesn’t?

I have been searching, browsing, checking, inquiring and asking some people who are knowledgeable with computers.  I have considered a second hand or third hand unit  from those I know. 

One day, while I was in my morning prayer, I was reminded of the Lord being MINDFUL of us.  I went through this verse, “What is mankind that You are mindful of them, human beings that You  care for them?  (Psalm 8:4 NIV)

Mindful.  So, I was saying … if Your mind is full of me, what thoughts do you have for me at this very moment, Lord?  What do You have in mind for me?  I desire to know the focus of You awareness of me.   I know that “Every single moment You are thinking of me! How precious and wonderful to consider that you cherish me constantly in your every thought! O God, your desires toward me are more than the grains of sand on every shore! When I awake each morning, You’re still with me.” (Psalm 139:17-18 TPT)   His Word also says to cast all our cares [all our anxieties, all our worries, and all our concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about us [with deepest affection, and watches over us very carefully]. (1 Peter 5:7 AMP)  And so I did!  I trusted and rested in His faithfulness. 

When I finished my devotional time with Him, I did not get an answer.  But, one thing I was rest assured of was that I knew He would speak to me within the course of the day or in the days to come.  My heart was expectant.  My eyes were on the lookout.  My ears were ready, eagerly inclined to listen to what He is about to say.  

I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.

Wait on the Lord;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord! (Psalm 27:13-14)

Later that afternoon, as I was talking about my crashed laptop, a person who I highly regard just simply said, “I have been thinking about it and I will see what I can do.  I have a spare laptop with me but it does not have an adapter for charging.”  The very moment I heard the words, “I have been thinking about it”, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Lord’s thoughts of me were translated through this person.  Who else can make a busy person think of my minute need compared to her immensely occupied life?  Only the Lord Who is intimately mindful of us can.   

Though how great is the Lord our God, He knows the number of hairs on our heads. He knows when we lie down and when we get up. That is how personally aware He is of us.  In spite of Him being and having all the superlatives, He sees, knows and is fully aware of our every movement. 

“God’s love is meteoric, His loyalty astronomic, His purpose titanic, His verdicts oceanic. Yet in His largeness nothing gets lost; not a man, not a mouse, slips through the cracks. (Psalm 36:5-6 MSG)

A couple of weeks later, His promise came to fruition. I was handed with a laptop. All glory to our Living God Who is forever mindful of us. Blessings to the one whom the blessing of the Lord flowed through.

With what had happened, I could easily think … oh it’s just a coincidence that this person thought of it.  Or maybe she just thought of it, discounting the move of God in my life.  But because I asked Him through His revealed Word that I personally scribbled and journaled, I knew He spoke and what He has spoken He manifested it and made it good.

“God is not man, that He should lie,
    or a son of man, that He should change His mind.
Has He said, and will He not do it?
    Or has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it?”  (Numbers 23:19 ESV)

What is He speaking to you? What is His mind full of when it comes to you? Create place of intimacy spiritually and physically. He surely will show up and show Himself strong. We live because He speaks. Truly, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, thank You for giving me Your Word, Your very own love letter to me that I may know You, the One True God, through Your Son, Jesus Christ, Who came to reveal You to us.  Thank You, Jesus, for redeeming us from being slaves and into being sons and daughters by the power of Your Precious Blood.  Create in me a heart with a holy expectation that desires and anticipates that I have the honor and privilege of knowing Who You are by the power of Your revealed Word to me through hearing You speak to me.  Thank You, Holy Spirit, for always guiding me into all truth, teaching me, molding me and enabling me to acknowledge the deep promptings of my heart and highly regard them as Your still small voice that powerfully transform me into Who You created me to be and walk in it.  Amen!