The Lifestyle of Listening

Week 4

We are going to be talking about the lifestyle of listening. The reason we call it this is because as we learn to hear the voice of the Lord there is a lot of applications for this in the church. We always think of the pastor hearing God's voice before he preaches, asking the Lord what kind of truths he is supposed to minister. That is an obvious application. It might also be obvious to us that as we come to the service to ask the Lord if we have a part in that service. What may not be quite as obvious is that the practice of listening to God can be carried into your week. It is a practice that can be done all of the time. It is actually a lifestyle of learning. One of the greatest things that helped me learn to hear the voice of the Lord was not just to learn to hear God's voice when it came time to move in the gifts of the Spirit, but when I learned to listen to the voice of the Lord in every day life. God speak to me, not just about spiritual matters or official church matters, but speak to me about anything You care to speak to me about. Let's make this a lifestyle. Let's hear Your voice over and over throughout the day about everyday routine matters, or even special matters of the day. That gives us a tremendous amount of experience.

I want to show you the benefits of learning to hear God's voice. Now we can serve and love the Lord all of our lives and raise a godly family and still never really get to the place where we are hearing God's voice with clarity, consistency, and confidence. We go through life, hoping that we are making the right decisions and doing our best. We consult with the Lord, trying to discern what He is saying to us to the best of our ability, but never really making it to that place where we really feel like we are hearing the voice of the Lord. Many Christians are in that position, aren't they? There are many advantages to hearing the voice of the Lord clearly and precisely. The best way I can illustrate hearing God's voice with clarity, consistence, and confidence is to talk for a moment about submarine communication.

Different Methods of Communication

Now in the United States Navy, there are different methods of communication with the submarine. The first one is called digital burst. A digital burst is where if the land base wants to communicate with the submarine or vice-verse - they do that via satellite. The submarine has the capacity to lock-on to a satellite and send a transmission to the land base. This transmission can take place in just a fraction of a second. One of the advantages to a digital burst is that it has a very high rate of transmission. You can send a lot of information very, very quickly - bounce that information off of the satellite and back down to the submarine which receives that information. The disadvantage to a digital burst is the submarine has to be surfaced. It has to have its antennae up to a place where it can lock on to the satellite. This is a place of vulnerability to the submarine. One of the submarine's advantages is stealth. That is to say being undetected. It likes to get under the water so that it will not be detected either by radar or visually. It does not like to be surfaced. Depth is a place of safety for the submarine. The reason the submarine has to surface is because the digital burst cannot penetrate the water. So if the submarine is submerged just a little below the water line, the signal from the satellite cannot reach the submarine. Therefore, it is out of contact with its land base. If something were to happen and the land base needed to contact the submarine, it could not do that using the digital burst.

Therefore, what has been done is to develop another method of communication that we call the ELF, extremely low frequency communication waves. The way this works is that there is an antennae buried in the upper peninsula of Michigan that is miles and miles long. It is a very long antennae, and it broadcasts a signal. The submarine receives a signal now that is penetrating through the water That is an ELF signal. Again in the upper peninsula of Michigan, there is an antennae that is miles long buried into the ground, and when they want to communicate with a submarine that is submerged, they reach it by using this ELF signal. The advantage to ELF is that it can penetrate the water, rock, everything. It can reach this submarine no matter how deep this submarine might go. This ELF signal penetrates all over the oceans of the world. The disadvantage to ELF is that it has a very slow transmission rate. It communicates very slowly. We said that in a digital burst that you can communicate pages and pages in the fraction of a second. So a submarine can theoretically surface, send and receive a message, and submerge again in a very short period of time, minimizing its vulnerability. The advantage to the ELF is that it never has to come to the surface. It never has to put itself in the place of vulnerability because it never has to come up to the surface. The disadvantage is that it cannot transmit pages and pages of information in the fraction of a second. The transmission rate on ELF is about 30 seconds per letter. You can see that if they wanted to send out operational orders from the land base and they had even a paragraph or two of information to communicate, you are talking potentially hours and hours of data transmission. IT is very inefficient, but it can reach the submarine no matter where it goes.

What has been done is that they have devised a system where each submarine has a code group of letters. The radio operator on the submarine is always monitoring this signal, always listening. While he is listening, if the land base sends a message to them that maybe is only three, four, or five characters, that code group means that they are supposed to come to the surface. The land base wants to talk to them, so they are supposed to come to the surface and get a digital burst message. So the submarine surfaces, gets its digital burst message, and then quickly submerges again. It minimizes it's time of exposure and at the same time it is always in communication with the land base. It really is a very interesting system of communication.

God Has Different Methods of Communicating

How does that relates to us listening to God's voice? Because God has a number of ways to communicate with us. God is a communicating God. He really wants to get His message across to you. God loves to talk. You may remember that when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden that they were disfellowshipped with God. They no longer heard God as they once did. Sin dulled their hearing. They now had a sinful nature that they did not previously have. Rather than God saying that they could not communicate any more, God said He really wanted to communicate with them but in a different way than they did in the garden. God implemented a number of different communication methods in order to have communicate with mankind. He communicates through His word. He wrote the Bible to teach us what His communication is. He teaches us through preaching. He instituted the ministry of the prophet to give us prophetic words. We have godly counsel. The Lord has also sent angels to bear messages to men on occasion. The Lord has used dreams. He has used a number of ways to communicate because God really wants to get His messages across to us. He doesn't want to have that breach in communication.

Life's Experiences

Another way that God communicates is through life's experiences. Life's experiences are like the ELF signal. You know that is the signal that can reach you no matter where you are, but it's very slow. God using life's experiences to speak to us is like the submarine in ELF signal. You see God has a way of reaching you no matter where you are. When God wants to get your attention He has a way of doing that, doesn't He? When the finances begin to dry up, you cry out to God! When things don't go well and there are problems and complications with the children, we cry out to God, don't we? You may find in your own life as you look back that God has intervened in your life and orchestrated your situation and circumstances in order to get a message across to you. The good thing about this is that no matter where you are in life, the trials, tribulations, and experiences have a way of getting through. Even when we are preoccupied with life and focused on something else, God does things in order to get His message across. The problem with this is that it is really slow. It takes us a long time to catch on. God may take us through trial after trial and it may take years before it finally dawns on us - "Oh man, I know what this is about. God is trying to tell me this and that." You're finally going to get the message, but it is going to take years to get the point across. But if this is the only level of communication that is available to Him, that communication is just real slow. We may find our Christian maturity very slow in its progress. It may take years and years to catch on that God has really give us power over sign and we can rely on the power of the Cross and Christ in us to have victory over sin. We can begin to live a more holy and righteous lifestyle. Some people never get that figured out. They go to their grave saying they wish they had lived a higher life. Why is that? Because it just took a little long for this message to get through. They were a little hard headed and didn't catch on.

Speaking Directly

There is another method of communication that I equate with the digital burst. This method of communication is when God speaks to us directly. We learn to hear His voice. We understand that God speaks to us today, that we are made to hear His voice. We are sheep of the Good Shepherd and we have learned what it sounds like. Thereby, we are able to lock on to His voice and we pick up a tremendous amount of information in a very short period of time. When you learn what God's voice sounds like and you begin to listen to Him and make this a lifestyle, you are going to find God communicating to you volumes and volumes of information. The Lord will speak to you about your personal life, your children if you are a parent, your workplace, your spiritual gifting, ministry. God will talk to you about just about anything you are involved in. He talks so well and He can communicate so quickly. He can give you keys that will unlock problems that you have been struggling with for years and years. You have been doing it the slow way - through trails, life's experiences, and finally you have begun to get vulnerable to God. You have surfaced out of your own self-interests where you have buried yourself deep in your own life and problems, oblivious to what God has. When you come up out of that, you make yourself vulnerable. You break the surface and then you can receive communication from on high. God can communicate very quickly. God can unravel your problems and dilemmas in the fraction of a second. It is tremendous. The challenge to us that we have to be vulnerable to God. We have to open our heart to God and say, God, I know that when You talk to me You may tell me some things that I don't necessarily want to hear. You might tell me to lay my own selfishness down and focus more on my mate. You might tell me that the way I am going is the way I ought to go. We have to make ourselves vulnerable to the Lord instead of being deeply in our own life situation.

I do not consider this a disadvantage, but I do consider it a challenge. This is actually a wonderful thing to come up higher and be sensitive to the Lord, but it is a challenge, isn't it? The Lord wants to communicate with us using digital burst. To get His point across to us, He wants to communicate quickly and it is through this process that God can cause you to accelerate in your Christian maturity to a tremendous degree. You can find yourself doing mighty exploits for the Lord that previously would have been unimaginable for you. You can find yourself gaining years and years, maybe decades, in your Christian experience because God is communicating with you directly.

I want to talk to you about hearing God's voice in your personal life using the equivalent of digital burst. That is hearing God's voice as a lifestyle, listening to Him day by day. It expedites things to a tremendous degree. But before I tell you how to listen to God in your personal life on a regular basis, I want to tell you some of the things that God will not talk to you about. I want to speak to you about what God does and does not talk about.

God is Not a Gossip

The first thing we want to understand is that God is not a gossip. God hates gossip. I would like to define gossip for you. Gossip is not simply a bad report or a falsehood. Gossip is when you talk about anything when you are not part of the problem or the solution. It can be true, correct, right as far as the factual report, but if it doesn't concern you and you are talking about it anyway, it is gossip. God did not intend for us to talk about the issues of our neighbor's life, unless we are part of the problem or solution. Otherwise, we should stay out of it. You can be real glad that God is not a gossip. That gives you the safety of knowing that God is not going to talk to your friend or neighbor about your personal problems unless they are part of the problem or solution. God is not a tale-bearer. He just does not go around talking to others about the problems that you are having in your life.

Proverbs ll:l3 says, "A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trust worthy man keeps a secret."

Proverbs 20:19 says, " A gossip betrays a confidence, so avoid a man who talks too much."

What does that mean? God is going to talk to you in your own personal life about the things for which you have responsibility and authority. If you are a parent, God is going to talk to you about your life and the life of your children. They are under your authority and you are responsible for them. Therefore, God wants to talk to you about them. If you are a pastor, God is going to talk to you about your own life, children, spouse, and also about the lives of the people entrusted to your care. He is going to talk to you about your sheep. Why is that? Because you have responsibility for them and God wants to help you and feel you in as to how you are to pastor them, mentor them, and train them. If you are an employer and have employees, God will speak to you regarding your employees. But if you are a saint sitting in church, God is not going to talk to you about another saint sitting in church if you are not part of the problem or solution. Do you understand that? What this does is that when we realize what God does and does not talk to us about it helps focus our faith.

Now some people just have a bad attitude, critical spirit, and they just like to dig up junk about people. They like to talk about it. They say, "God showed me that so and so has got this sin in their life." The first question is not is this accurate. The question is, "Why are you talking about it?" They say "God told me." "Well wait a minute. I want to question that whole premise that God would tell you about the life of someone else. Don't you know that God is not a gossip?" We are asking God to speak to us about things about ourselves and things for which we have authority and responsibility. Things that we have no business meddling in we can rest assured that God does not walk to talk to us about those things.

God does have privileged communication. There are times when God wants to speak to you because He might talk to you about the life of another, but you are not supposed to say anything. This is privileged communication. The reason He might do this is that He may want to teach us by example. This is an exception to the rule, but it can happen. He might tell us something that is going on in someone else's life in order for us to learn from that.

For example, you might really admire and respect somebody in the church and wonder why they seem to always have it together, and the Lord might speak to you and say, "This is because they are really spending a lot of quality time with me." This is privileged communication. This is information you are not supposed to approach that person with or anybody else. It is just between you and Him so that He can instruct you and teach you. This can be either positive or negative.

Another example is that we see somebody in the news and they have an unethical dealing in their finances or a moral failing, and the Lord might speak to us and show us some of the reasons why that developed so that we can learn and avoid the same pitfall. Please keep in mind that this is the exception, not the rule. So that when you start asking God to talk to you, you don't automatically start looking for this kind of information. Furthermore, it is not for the purpose of judging people. We really have to get over this in the Body of Christ. Some people just have a judgmental, critical, blaming spirit and they just want to rake through the dump, seeing what kind of garbage they can find on people. That is their nature. That is not the purpose of the voice of the Lord. You can be real thankful that God is not going to talk to them about your life!

Our Personal Life

If God will not talk to us about certain things, what will He talk to us about? We want to start off talking about our personal life. This is the lifestyle of listening. God talking to us in our personal life. God wants to speak to us about our intimate relationship with Him. He wants to speak to us in order to bring us into an intimate relationship with Him.

Mark 14:36 says, "And He said, Abba Father, all things are possible unto You. Take away this cup from me, nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will."

So Jesus is speaking to the Father, and He calls Him, Abba. Abba is Aramaic for the Father. In our vernacular, it might be "daddy" or "papa." It is an intimate term.

Again, we find this in Romans 8:15. "You have not received a spirit of bondage to begin to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba Father." Isn't it interesting that Jesus called the Father, Abba? Now He is saying that you have received the spirit of adoption, and you should cry Abba Father. In Galatians 4:6, again we find the word Abba appearing there. In Vines Expository Dictionary it says that Abba is the word framed by the lips of infants and betokens unreasoning trust. Isn't that precious? The Lord wants to bring us into a place of intimacy. It may seem foreign, but we have to trust Him and follow where He leads.

Let me give you an example of how this might work. I was praying on an occasion, and I was saying "Lord, I want to know you more. Please reveal your personality to me." And the Lord rebuked me saying, "I am not a prostitute." And I said, "What?" He said, "Don't come in here and ask me to expose myself so that you can have a big thrill." I realized the Lord was telling me that I was not spending quality time with Him. I was breezing into the prayer room, spending 5 minutes asking God to give me a revelation of Him. Then I was saying I have to go. The Lord says no, it does not work that way. If you want me to reveal Myself to you, I like to be chased. I only do that in a place of intimacy. The Lord spoke to me. That was a digital burst. He spoke very directly and quickly to me and I realized that I was not handling my relationship with the Lord properly with regard to revelation. The Lord was asking for more intimacy. When I get into a more intimate place with the Lord, He is more than glad to show me who He is.

Parenting

He also wants to speak to us about parenting. This has been one of the most beneficial areas in my own life. I think the reason for that is that when I was six years old my father was killed in Vietnam. So I had no role model. I had no father to follow by example. So my concept of fatherhood was a blank slate. When I began to have children of my own, I did not really know how to father them. So my philosophy is when you want to know how to do something, you go to the very best and learn from them. Who is the very best father? God, isn't it? I began to ask the Lord, "God, how do I be a father? Teach me how to father." The Lord has been so good and He has taught me all manner of things with regard to parenting. He has taught me through digital bursts. Now it may have taken years and years to learn if I just went by experience and I might have ended up with grown children, looking back with regret thinking if I had only known then what I know now. When you go with the voice of the Lord, where God can speak to you right now, God can really talk.

I remember one situation where I was disciplining my son, Jonathan. He was probably four or five at the time. I was not getting results. It was one of those times when I was frustrated. I had been telling him what I wanted, and it wasn't catching on. Jonathan was just not paying attention. I was aggravated and I picked him up and looked him right in the face. I didn't shake him or anything, but I remember picking him up, looking at him face to face, eye to eye. I said, "I want you to understand what I am saying here." Of course, I was upset. I wasn't verbally abusing him, but obviously I was upset and had intense emotions going on. I said, "Now look, here is what I want." The Lord spoke to me right in the middle of that. He said, "Put him down. That is too intense for him. You are an adult and bigger than he is. Your presence is overwhelming, and when you bring him up to your face and speak to him eye to eye, you are overwhelming him emotionally. He is not capable of dealing with that kind of communication." The Lord rebuked me and I have never done that since. See I could have learned that through the school of hard knocks or I can learn it immediately. God can speak directly to me.

We teach a class on prophetic parenting. We are doing more and more of that as time goes on. We called it prophetic parenting or spirit-led parenting. What we are trying to communicate with that kind of terminology is simply to listen to the Lord as you parent your child. Let this be a lifestyle. We are talking about day in and day out when you do not feel at your best or particularly spiritual, listen to God's voice. Here is what the Lord began to speak to me. First of all, He began to show me the nature of my children. This one has this nature, and the second one has a different one all together, and the third one has a third nature that is not like either one of the other two. Now that we have a fourth, as she grows we will find that she will be different as well. The Lord began to speak to me and show me that each child receives in a different way. Each one learns in a different way. My second oldest child, Joy, receives best when she has a lot of affection and reassurance, cuddling, and holding. She needs a lot of reassurance in our relationship. If I provide her with that atmosphere, and then give her discipline and correct in that environment, she learns a lot better. Joy does real well with that. Melody, on the other hand, is so pleasant, laughing, and outgoing, but oblivious to us at time. A message will not get through. I can tell her that, and she says, "OK, Daddy." Then she runs and plays and goes on and does what she wants. She does not get what I'm trying to tell her. With Melody, it is more consequences in the discipline. You just have to parent each child differently. How do you know? God shows you. He speaks to you and says, "Do this with this child." There have been other times when I have been in the middle of spanking my child, and the Lord said, "You're wrong.. Your spanking them not because of what they have done wrong, but because you are in a bad mood.." I had to apologize to my children. Daddy is wrong. I should not have done this. You did not deserve this. Would you please forgive me? I tell you want - that will straighten you out in a hurry.

Marriage

Then, there is the voice of the Lord in marriage. God wants to speak to you about your marriage. Wow! I am telling you that when you learn digital burst communication and making communication with the Lord a lifestyle, God can really do good things for you. When I first got married, God told me to treat my wife like a queen. Now after nearly fifteen years of marriage, I would like to be able to give you a report and say that I have always done that, but the honest truth is that I have not. Sometimes I have failed miserably and other times I have done well. Here is what I found out. I asked my wife if I could tell this and she said yes. Mary was raised in a family where she developed a fear of criticism and a mistrust of men. I did not know this, and I don't think she knew it. It was there, but she was not aware of it. I was raised in a household of boys, where if you wanted to get your message across, you had to just about write it in the sky. Nobody was listening. So my style of communication was if you don't feel heard, say it louder. Now here is what happened. We got married. Mary had a fear of men and a fear of criticism, so she was just a little bit distant. When she was distant, I did not feel heard. When I don't feel heard, I get a little louder. When I get louder, she has a fear of men that really causes her to withdraw. When she withdraws, I really don't feel heard!!! We would just go into a downward spiral. What if I had just listened and obeyed the Lord. Treat your wife like a queen. The issue is not whether you feel heard. The issue is are you going to lay down your life for your wife. Will you sacrifice yourself? If I would have done that from the very beginning and consistently, I could have avoided a lot of pain and spared by wife a lot of pain in our marriage. And I would just venture to say that maybe the Lord spoke to her about she should handle the marriage. She could probably give the same testimony. So the point is that when we really learn to hear from the Lord, it can save us all kinds of headaches and heartaches.

Encouragement and Strength

Another part of hearing God's voice in everyday life is for encouragement and for strength. God wants to encourage us and sustain us. When we go through difficult times, God wants to speak to our heart to encourage us. If we don't know how to communicate effectively and efficiently with the Lord, we may be denied the encouragement and the strength that we need from the Lord. When I graduated from Bible college after four years of studying the word of God and learning how to organize and deliver sermons, I felt so thoroughly prepared that I just could not wait to be used by the Lord. The Lord put me in a process where He was making the man before He released the ministry. That meant that I went through seven years that were my personal hell. At least that's what it felt like. I've already heard it said that "I'm not afraid of the seven years of tribulation, I've already been through mine." That kind of applies. It felt like God had just put me on the shelf, and I was waiting. I did not want to wait. I wanted to go, go, and go. I had spent four years in Bible college preparing and I was ready to run. But no, the Lord said to wait. He spoke to me, and He told me the process. He said, "I am making the man of God, before I release the ministry. I am doing things in your own heart. This is a personal time for you and I to get some things right." Because of that He encouraged and strengthened me. It gave me hope, patience, and endurance for that process. If I had not heard from the Lord, I would not have had that. I would have thought, "What had I done wrong? Why are ministry opportunities opening up?"

Direction

Another area in which God wants to speak is direction. God wants to speak to us and tell us what our destiny is. Have you ever asked yourself why you were put on this planet? Why do I exist? God, what is it all about? What is my destiny? Because really the maintenance mode that I am in right now is not enough for me. I just can't bear to go on just to go on. The reason I'm living is just to sustain more life, and this is not purposeful. God can give you direction in your life and identify for you what your purpose is and what part you are supposed to play. He can give you that kind of direction that brings meaning to your life. If you don't know how to communicate with the Lord efficiently, we go back to the ELF signal. That very slow one, and God tries to teach you through life's experiences showing you who you are and why you are here. It may be only at the end of your life that you find out what your life was all about. Isn't that painful?

Emotional Wounds

God's voice is for emotional wounds. We have wounds that we pick up in life, and God has a way of speaking to us and healing our hearts, ministering to our needs, and He can do that so effectively if we learn how to listen.. When we go through a painful experience or when we are offended, if we will sit down with the Lord, God can speak to us and minister to our hearts. He can bring a tremendous amount of healing in a very short period of time. The word of God does not promise that we are never going to be hurt, but Jesus does promise that He will heal our hurts. It is only as we learn to listen that we can receive the words that He has to speak to us that will bring healing into our lives. So that we will not carry the burdens all of our lives.

Let me just conclude this session, by bringing up Phillipians 3:15,

"Let us therefore, as many be perfect or mature, be thus minded, and if in anything you are otherwise minded, God will reveal even this to you."

Maybe you don't even know what those hurts and wounds are, but God will reveal it to you. He can speak it to you in a digital burst, show you where the hurts and wounds are, and then if you will stop and listen, He can quickly speak to you a healing word. I know in my own life that just as I spent time with the Lord that God will minister to my heart and love on me, and speak to me about how proud He is of me. This heals my hurts and loves them away. Amen.

God wants to speak to us very efficiently, and so there is a tremendous advantage to learning to listen to God's voice, getting those digital bursts, becoming vulnerable to the Lord, and making hearing God's voice a lifestyle.

Week 4 Activation:
Hearing God's Voice in Our Personal Life

This week we are doing an activation to give you the opportunity to hear the voice of God in your personal life. (This will be private between you and God.. we will not use partners this week. So feel free to be as honest and deep with the Lord as you can, because this will be a confidential thing).

There are three different formats you can use for this.. select the one that most appeals to you. If you desire, you can repeat it using different formats. This activation time will be a precious time to hear God for yourself. Expect God to speak to you, because he very much desires to.

The three formats are:

format one:

Write it down.. either with paper and pencil or type into a file on the computer.

format two:

Speak it into a tape recorder. Some people hear better when they do not have to write. So listen to God and then speak (record) what he says onto your tape. Alternate between listening to God and recording what he says until God is done speaking. Later on you may desire to transcribe the tape into a written record.

format three:

Just listen ... simply get with God in a quite place and invite him to speak to you. On the plus side, this is the easiest for many people.. just a natural outgrowth of devotions or prayer time or quiet time. On the minus side, you do not generate a record of what God says, so it is often difficult to remember the details of what he speaks to you, especially as time passes.

If you try one of the other formats and they do not work for you, you will probably find this format easier. Please feel free to use it. However, if you do use this format, please plan to set some time aside right afterwards to jot down notes about what God said to you.

STEP BY STEP PROCESS

1. Understand the context

   Remember that God is a communicating God and he desires very much to communicate with you in a clear and easy to understand manner. We are going to have a couple of personal topics that you will ask God about, and then listen to (and in most cases record) his answer to you. This may sound strange at first, but many find that this is a very powerful way to hear God. It can be very useful in the future when you need to hear God on a specific subject.

   If you can trust God to speak through you to others, then you can also trust him to speak directly to you. In fact, it may be easier to hear God for yourself, as God promised that his sheep will hear his voice.

2. Believe You Will Receive

   Remember, that you are a born-again, blood washed, redeemed child of God, so if you have Christ within you, you also have the Mind of Christ.

   When we ask our Father for bread, he does not give us a stone (Matt 7:9). Because you are God's child, you can safely trust that he will in fact meet you and give you a revelation for you partner when you ask him to.

3. Sanctification - Activation Prayer

   Pray this together as a group before you begin to work individually with the Lord. The group leader may wish to lead this prayer out loud with the others agreeing silently, or you may all want to pray it out loud together.

   Dear Lord, In the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, I come before your throne. I am washed by the blood. Christ lives within me. Not just in part, but in my whole being. I bring every thought of my mind and soul into captivity to the mind of Christ. I will listen to you what you have to say to me, trusting you to communicate with me. If I am recording (writing or tape), I will not question it, I will write it down or speak it out as I hear it and then I will trust you to confirm or correct it later on when I prayerfully review it with you. I am a believer, and I expect to receive. I thank you for speaking to me. Amen.

4. Prayer of Covering And Protection

   The purpose of this short and specific prayer is to bind any hindering or religious spirits and to release faith and anointing. Feel free to use whatever words you choose for this but it does not have to be long and involved. Be sure to add this part (you are free to use your own words):

   In the name of Jesus, by his power and authority, we take authority over ever demon and interfering spirit and we forbid any enemy activity in this exercise. Satan (and any of his demons) you may NOT interfere in this or imitate God's voice to us as we open our hearts to hear the Holy Spirit. We take authority over fear, anxiety, doubt and unbelief in the name of Jesus and we command you to leave now.

   Lord, please come and be in charge of all that happens here (in this activation) ...... please release your spirit of prophecy and speak to us.

5. Get Comfortable

   Find a place that is relatively free from distraction.. preferably a quiet place. If you are writing the word, have pen and pencil handy, or if you are doing it on the computer, open your editor so that you are ready to begin typing. If you are recording this, have your tape recorder handy. You may desire to have worship music playing quietly in the background, or you may prefer silence... use whichever works best for you when you are in your quiet times with God.

6. Press into God

   If you are comfortable with praying in tongues, begin praying in the spirit. Otherwise worship or quietly ask God to speak to you. Look deeply inside, listen closely, see and hear what God is saying. Do this for about a minute. Then, no more praying, only listening, for about 30 to 45 seconds.

   This allows you to really tune in.

7. Time To Listen

   We want to ask God to speak deeply and personally to us about certain aspects of our lives. Below are three different scenarios you can use to launch into listening to God speak to you. Please read over them and decide which you will use.. you may need to go back and repeat step 6 after you select a strategy before you actually start. But we want you to be spirit led even on the selection of the questions you ask God. So we are providing three scenarios. Chose one and ask God to speak to you:

   scenario 1:

   Ask God two questions:

   Lord, what is the greatest hindrance I have in serving you?

   Lord, what is the aspect of my walk with you that most pleases you?

   scenario 2:

   Ask God either of the following questions:

   Lord, please show me how you see my heart
   or
   Lord, are there any idols in my heart to hidden areas I'm not aware of that you'd like to reveal to me?

   scenario 3:

   Do you remember all of the emotions or feelings that happened around when you got saved? Maybe you had a powerful deliverance experience or maybe you felt the weight of the world life off your shoulders? Maybe you sensed God's love for the first time? Was it a transforming experience? If the Lord was going to do another major work in your life in the near future, ask the Lord what he'd like you to do to prepare for it.. ask the Lord what issues of your heart need to be addressed.

   If you have selected format one, write down (or type on your computer) what the Lord says. You may have some periods of "waiting" between when you write one thing and when God speaks the next to you.. it is perfectly ok to have those pauses.

   If you have selected format two, speak what the Lord says into your tape recorder.. you will probably alternate between listening to a phrase or two, then speaking/recording it, then listening for more. Or, you may be able to speak it as you hear it, with no pauses or delays between hearing and speaking. (Later on you may desire to transcribe the tape).

   If you have selected format three, then just listen to what God has to say to you.. feel free to prayerfully interact with him on it. Immediately after you are done, jot down notes about what he said to you.

   Please note:

   You may need some times of 'listening waiting' in between hearing from God. So when you stop hearing, don't immediately assume God is done. Instead ask him if he has more to say to you and wait a few minutes.. often God will have more to say. Don't be afraid to have hesitations where you wait on him before he says more to you.

8. Optional .. repeat it..

   Select a different scenario to ask God about. You may also want to experiment with using a different format. If you wrote it the first time, you may want to try speaking into a tape recorder. If you did format three (just listening) the first time, please do try repeating the same scenario using either format one or two. Once you have just listened to God on a subject, you may find it easier to listen and record (write, type, tape-record) at the same time if you go back and ask God about that same subject again.

-- End of Week 4 --

Week 5 Teaching
The Lifestyle of Listening - Part II

We are continuing our discussion on the lifestyle of listening, part II. This is our fifth lesson on Hearing God's Voice Now. In Part I, we talked about listening to God in our personal life. We talked about such things as intimacy, parenting, marriage, encouragement, direction, emotional hurts and wounds. Now we want to talk about what God might speak to us in other areas of our life.

We want to start off talking about how the Lord may want to talk to us about our ministry life. The Lord wants to talk to us about how He wants to use us, and what our purpose is in Him, our roles and gifting in the kingdom of God. Therefore, I'm not just talking to those of you that are called to full time ministry or those just called to a pulpit ministry. I'm talking to each one of you because every one of you has a ministry. Isn't that right? We're going to talk about various aspects of hearing the voice of God in a ministry context. That is to say in a context of hearing God's voice in order to minister to others.

The Gift of Prophecy

The first thing I would like to talk about is hearing God's voice and the gift of prophecy, or really any of the gifts of the Spirit, but specifically the gift of prophecy. After all, prophecy is a gift from God and we have to learn to hear from God before we can speak it. So we want to hear God's voice first and speak second. Many times when somebody is learning to prophecy, you may have seen this. Perhaps during a worship service in the church and as worship is going on, perhaps there is a little bit of a lull between choruses. That is an opportune time to prophesy. Someone gets up and begins to prophesy. As they do that and they speak forth the message they feel God is laying on their heart, they begin to prophesy and then they fall silent. They know they are not quite finished, and you know they are not quite finished either. They seem to have gotten a blockage, therefore, they are quiet for a few moments. Probably in their heart, they are saying, "God, get me out of this one. I stood up, and I was faithful." Then, they start to prophesy again. Then they go quiet again, and start up after a few moments. It's like somebody learning to drive a stick-shift in an automobile. Sometimes that is what it is like when somebody is learning to prophesy and they are just a beginner. The gift of prophecy is like they go, and then they stop, and then they go. I thought I would address that in the event that some of you have faced that. Maybe you have a fear of getting up and prophesying and finding yourself in the middle of a word and you go blank.

Let me explain why that happens. Oftentimes what happens is as a person is worshipping the Lord, God will drop something in a person's heart. It is certainly not the whole message He is going to speak through them. It is probably just the beginning of the message. They stand up in faith, wanting to be pleasing to the Lord, and they begin to say what God has put in their heart. When they say that and get to the end of that and are expecting more to come and nothing more comes. Then they kind of go quiet and suddenly more comes.

What is happening is that they are trying to learn how to listen and speak at the same time. You see when we first learn we are sitting in our seat hearing from the Lord and as we stand up to prophecy, we have stopped listening and started speaking. A person who is new at this does not know how to do these functions simultaneously. So they speak, and then what they have to say is finished, and then they go quiet. We are all in an awkward moment while they are listening. Then when they have listened, they begin to speak again. That is why you have that jerky stop-start type of action.

What the Lord wants to do is get us to the place that we can easily speak or prophesy as we are listening simultaneously. So as we are prophesying the first part, we are hearing the second part. As we are prophesying the second part, we are hearing the third part. Until finally, it is just a flow. It just flows right out of you without that start-stop jerky type of experience. When you are hearing the voice of the Lord with regard to prophesying, learn to listen as you are speaking.

You may also find in the gift of prophesy that God might put three, four, or five things in your heart before you begin. You might be aware that there are several different elements to this prophetic message. As you get up and yield yourself to the Lord, and you don't prophesy what you think you are going to prophesy, the prophesy kind of takes a different direction. In your mind, you are thinking about the two or three points over there that you thought you were going to talk about. I want to give you a word of encouragement that many times when God drops a word in your heart, that those first few points may have been given to you by God as a frame of reference. We talked about this in our last teaching. It is like the stage, or backdrop. It just gives us a point of reference about what God wants to talk about.. But as the prophecy goes forth, He ends up talking about whatever He wants to talk about, and we end up sitting down. We think, "Man, I was going to talk about this, but I ended up prophesying something else, and I feel like I didn't end up doing what I was going to do, or somehow there are things still left on my list, so to speak." When that happens, just go with the flow, and don't worry about not covering everything that you thought you were going to cover. Because as I said, many times God will drop things in your heart and you will be aware of them. You will think that you are supposed to prophesy them. God knows the whole time that He is not going to let you say those things. They just serve to orient your thinking, point you in the right direction. They help turn your head to make you look in a particular direction. When you look in that direction, you end up taking off from there. You end up prophesying that. Not these other things that you thought you were going to prophesy. Ok?

Now that applies to any of the gifts of the Spirit. You do not want to get into the place where you are directing the voice of the Lord. You may think, "Now wait, I was going to prophesy this, so let me bend this back around and prophesy the things I was thinking about." Now you would be in the driver's seat and in control. You do not want to be there. You want to let God control. Let God say what He wants to say, and you sit down and be real satisfied with the results, even if you didn't cover everything that you thought the prophecy was going to cover.

The Gift of Healing

Then, we have God's voice for physical healing. We know God wants to heal today. Now, when you have gifts of healing and you lay hands on the sick and they recover, one of the most powerful expressions of the gifts of healing is when they listen to the Lord and God begins to speak to them, revealing to them some of the physical needs present. When there is a word of knowledge, coupled with the gift of healing, that is a real powerful combination. We have seen this where not only will the gifts of healing flow, but first of all God will speak to your heart, telling you this is the person and this is the need. You have heard the voice of the Lord. Now go pray for them for that need. Then when you pray for them, the gifts of healing kick in. Healing takes place. That is a neat combination that when you pray for people for healing, that you listen to the Lord. Who am I supposed to pray for? What's wrong with them? How am I supposed to pray for them? Then, you pray. Let me listen to the voice of the Lord, and combine my listening with gift of healing. That is a real powerful thing.

Intercession

So there we have the gift of prophecy, the gifts of healing, and then we have intercession. How many of you are prayer warriors? Here is how hearing the voice of God in intercession can work. This is a real powerful combination as well. Do you remember the Persian Gulf War? When we were watching that and we find out about precision guided munitions or Smart Bombs. Some of them are TV guided. Maybe you saw on the news or documentaries where there was a camera in the nose of that bomb. The pilot in the plane has a little joy stick and he by looking at a screen in his cockpit, seeing what the camera sees in the nose of that bomb, is as if he is sitting right in that bomb. He can steer that bomb into that destination. Maybe you have even see this looking at the target and you are getting closer and closer until finally the screen goes blank. That is a TV guided munitions. There is also radar and laser guided. Laser guided is where they put a laser designator, like a flashlight shone against a wall, and point it at a target. It is an invisible light and you cannot see it. A second plane will come and drop a bomb and that plane will see a reflection of light on the target and will home right in on that reflection of light. It is very, very accurate. You've seen where they put a bomb right through a door or air shaft. Spirit led intercession or hearing the voice of God in intercession is like those precision guided munitions or Smart Bombs. You see we have the power of God, and as God tell us what to pray for and when to pray, that is like those precision guided munitions. Now your prayers are guided by the voice of the Lord. You are praying for the right person, the right thing, at the right time. Your prayers home in right on their target, and the power of God is released right on target. Instead of being in the place thinking, "Well, I'm an intercessor and am not real sure who to pray for or what to pray or when to pray, therefore, I am going to pray as it seems best to me." Well, first of all thank God you got that far. Thank God you have a heart to pray and to intercede. But there is a higher level. That Spirit-led intercession or hearing the voice of God as you pray and intercede.

Deliverance

Then we have the voice of God in deliverance. When God wants to free people from demonic spirits and the hold of demonic spirits, He wants to speak to us. Let me just tell you how God can speak to us to make the deliverance process so much more effective and efficient. One of them is when we are able to discern the type of spirit that is involved. What do they need to be delivered from? God speaks to us. Then God tell us what the stronghold is. What was the open door for this demonic spirit? How did it get there? As we perceive this, and God speaks to us, if the person is in the place to converse with us, we can lead them in a prayer where they renounce that. We can break that stronghold. It removes a lot of the power of the demonic spirit We can also discern how that demonic spirit came in. How did it get there? Was it a spirit that came down the family line? You know there are generational sins. Deuteronomy 5:9, says" the iniquity of the fathers is visited to the third and fourth generation." When there are sins, there are usually demonic spirits, kind of like flies around a dumpster. Where you have trash, you find flies. Where you have sin, you have demons trying to get involved in that. So where sins have been in the family line, a lot of times demons try to follow that. It could come through trauma. There are a number of ways, spirits get into a person's life, and you want to find that out. It is not necessary in order to bring someone to deliverance, but it sure can help. Therefore, you want to listen to the voice of God regarding deliverance.

Preaching and Teaching

Also, you want to learn to hear God's voice in preaching and teaching. There are just so many applications for hearing God's voice. This is why we say that hearing God's voice is a lifestyle. You should always be listening in all areas of your life. I remember when I was doing some research for this set of teachings, and this was l0 years ago. Remember the first lesson, we talked about John 10:27, l0:l6, l0:4, and I was amassing these verses to give evidence to the fact that we do hear God's voice. I stumbled across another one. When I read it, I thought, "Okay, this validates what I wanted to say." The Lord quickened to me and said, "No, don't use that verse." I said, "Why, Lord?" The Lord said, "Because it doesn't say what you think it says. You read it quickly and casually, and it appears to say what you think it says, but that is not what that verse really means.." I had been in too big of a hurry to research the verse, and so I just said, "Okay, God, we're going to leave that one." It was a little bit of a struggle. Isn't that amazing? Because I wanted to give evidence to prove a point. So I left it out and came back later and did the research on it. I found out that sure enough. That was not at all what it meant. Now how many people could have been sitting in on the teachings and had actually heard that other verse and realized that No, this guy didn't do his research. If I can't trust him on that point, maybe he made mistakes on other points as well. It undermines the validity of the teaching. God wants to speak to us as we are researching his word.

Counseling

Then, we have God's voice for counseling. As we are counseling, God can show us beyond what the counselee is telling us. God can speak to us concerning the true root issues that are at play with this particular person. This is what they are telling you, but this is not really the bottom line. This is a fruit issue, not a root issue. Some people are very perceptive and they can get to the root issue. Other people are not so perceive, and they really need God to show it to them. God, what are we dealing with here? God can speak to us. So the voice of the Lord is invaluable for counseling. Those are some of the ways we can hear God's voice in our ministry lives.

Business Life

Then, we have our business life. I am speaking of our vocation, our career. So when I say business, I'm not just talking small business owners. I'm talking about anybody that works and our work life. God can speak to us in our work life in decision making. This is a wonderful area. There are so many decisions to make. God is the best decision maker there ever was. In fact, God has never made a wrong decision. He is perfect. He does it the best way every time. So you know that when you are making a decision and you disagree with God, the most you can hope for is second best. God already has first place. So the most you can do is second place in terms of the quality of the decision. So the idea here is, "Don't disagree with God." Go God's way. Do what God wants you to do. When you are making a decision, and you are in your workplace, go with God's decision. He sees the big picture. He understands it all. He knows what has happened in the past and what is going to happen in the future.

Personnel

Then we have the voice of God dealing with personnel, or other people in the workplace. Particularly, when you have authority over those people in the workplace. How many of you know that your business will benefit when you place the right people in the right positions? Having interviewed and hired people myself, you realize that it is not always easy to get the right person in the right slot. Whether you are hiring them in or transferring them into another position you want to fill, it is not an altogether easy thing to do. Because you know God knows that person. He knows who is going to blossom in a particular area. He also knows when a person is giving certain responsibilities what is going to shut them down. Rob them of creativity, rob them of effectiveness. Therefore, if you really want your business to go well, you want to get the right people doing the right thing. Some people have the mentality that when they need a job done, they just designate a person. Here, you do what I want you to do, not what you want to do. Now I know that you have a gift in a certain area and an aptitude in that area, but I need this other thing, so go over there and be faithful. Now there is a certain amount of merit to that, but a wise leader will realize that it is essential to get the right person in the right slot. If you don't do that, you may have the authority to make them do what you are asking them to do, but your business is going to suffer if it is not the right person in the right place. So listen to God. This works not just for Christian businesses. This works in the day to day workplace. If you are working with personnel, God can show you who is going to do well and where. He can show you how to work with them and how to interact with them. An effective leader wants to learn those things.

Financial Matters

God also wants to speak to us with regard to financial matters. Are you all beginning to get the picture that this is a lifestyle? You think of the area and that is where you can learn to hear God's voice. When you learn to hear His voice efficiently, accurately, and consistently with great clarity, you are way ahead. Some years ago, I believe in 1989, when the stock market took a great tumble (Black Tuesday), I had an associate in ministry that the Lord spoke to the day prior to the crash. The Lord spoke to this man and told him to get his money out of the market and put it in something else. This requires a high level of knowing the voice of the Lord. You need to have some experience in hearing God's voice with something like this So, the man pulled his money out of the stock market and put it somewhere else. The next day the market took a tumble, and the following day he goes into the office. Other men in his office are sharing how they lost money. One man said he lost $l0,000. Another said he lost $50,000. They asked him how much he lost. He looked at them and said he actually made about $l5,000. Because God showed him how to take his money out of one place and put it in another. Now again, a word of caution. This is not for someone who thinks, "Oh, this is a great idea. I'm going to use God's voice to make a pile of money." But if God has put you into that realm or level, He wants to speak to you about it. His wisdom is better than yours anyway. So start listening to God on a small level, and prove that it is the voice of the Lord and work your way up until you are hearing the Lord efficiently.

Strategic Planning

God wants to speak to us with regard to strategic planning in the marketplace. God spoke to Pharaoh and gave him a dream. Seven fat cattle coming up out of the river, and then seven skinny cows coming up and eating the seven fat cows. Joseph interpreted the dream and said there were going to be seven years of feast and seven years of famine. He told Pharaoh to gather up grain during the seven years of plenty, and then during the seven years of famine, Pharaoh would have everything needed. It turns out that that plan was so good that even surrounding nations during the famine came to Egypt and became debtor nations to get the grain. So God can speak to us in strategic planning in business.

Organizational Structure

God wants to speak to us about organizational structure. When I worked in the ministry of Christian International, I had an administrative responsibility. I am still associated with them, but I travel full time in ministry. We were providing college courses in our School of Theology to individuals to study the word of God. We also had colleges and local churches involved, so a church could set up their own college using our material. I was the Dean of the Bible College, and the Director of Education for our ministry. This organizational structure had been in place for a long time. It pre-dated me and also my predecessor. So the way we provided courses to individuals and churches had been done this way for a long time. So as I was trying to make our department more efficient and effective, the Lord spoke to me. He showed me that we were providing the same product to two different markets, and we have one department that handles the needs of the individual, and you have another department that handles the needs of the churches. It was almost like I could see a picture with two conveyor belts, and the two conveyor belts were doing the same thing with the same product. The Lord told me to consolidate. If you will consolidate these departments, you can reduce the manpower. Neither department had been working at capacity. Therefore, we consolidated and reduced the overhead. It had never been my intention to lay anyone off. That allowed us to allocate more people to research and development. We actually ended up making money in the process. Therefore, God can even help us in things like organizational structure.

Entrepreneurial Endeavors

Then lastly, God can speak to us in entrepreneurial things, endeavors, doing something new. God can sometimes speak to us, telling us it doesn't matter how good it looks, don't do this. As we obey Him and heed the cautions He gives us, He can save us from all kinds of heartache. God can also encourage us to get involved in a new area and it will bless us tremendously. But the idea is to hear God's voice in the process.

Now let me just talk to you about business for a moment. I want to encourage you. This departs just a bit from hearing God's voice, but it is a tremendous encouragement with regard to God being involved with your business. When I say business, I am thinking workplace. Whether you are an employer, employee, part time or full time, salaried or hourly wage, own your own business or work for someone else, I want to encourage you that God can be trusted in business. God is a businessman. This is real essential for you to know this because sometimes we think we don't want to turn our business over to God. You know it is a dog-eat-dog world out there. When you go to work it is not like being in church. But I want to encourage you that God is the ultimate business man. He knows business. In fact, God invented business principles. Let me explain it to you this way. In economics and in the free market economy we have here in the United States, the way that the value of good and services is determined is through supply and demand. Right? It is not it's intrinsic value that determines its price. It is the law of supply and demand. If supply is high and the demand is low, the price drops. if the supply is low, and the demand is high the price goes up. God invented that principle. Our intrinsic value is zero. In me, my flesh, there is no good thing. But because God loves us so much, the demand is high. He paid the ultimate price for us which is the life of His Son. You have value because God loves you. That is the only reason you have value. That is the law of supply and demand. God invented it.

Another example is marketing. Marketing is telling other people about your goods and services. Do you know what God calls it? Evangelism. It is getting out the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Bible is the most printed book of all time. God knows how to get out the word. God knows evangelism. He understands this principle.

God understand personnel and organizational structure. He runs the affairs of the universe, including this planet with five billion people and all of the angels in heaven with perfect order and structure. He even understands personnel and who to put in what position, including Judas. Sometimes when we don't understand this and we think God is removed from business, we conduct ourselves differently in business than we do in church. Maybe we do some things in business that we know God would not approve of. But when we realize that God fully understands business and we listen to His advice, God will bless and prosper us. When you learn to hear the voice of the Lord, it is like having the most high powered business consultant that ever was. He wants to help you every step along the way.

Summary

Let me summarize that as we learn to hear God's voice more efficiently in that digital burst (rapidly, openly), we will make much more progress in our Christian life. But if we don't learn that, God will still communicate with us the slow way - through trials and life experience. He really would prefer to communicate through direct communication.

Lord, I ask for each person here that you would help them to open their hearts to You and be vulnerable to You. So that You can speak to them with direct communication and speak to them all the things that You want them to know so that they can grow up in You and be who You want them to be in Jesus' Name. Amen

Week 5 Activation:
Hearing God's Voice in Our Professional Life

This week's activation is a build on of the previous weeks. Last week we heard God speak to us in a very private an personal manner. This week we will do something similar, but targeting our ministry or vocation or school (depending on where we are at in our life). This week we will be sharing what we hear with our partner, so that our partner can pray for us and agree with us regarding what God speaks to us.

We will be asking God to speak to us in a specific area of our life and writing down what He says. Then we will share what He said (or a summary of what He said if you prefer) with our partner. Our partner will pray for us regarding this. Also, your partner will share with you what God said to them, and you will ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in a spirit led prayer regarding what God spoke to your partner.

Thus we will each be hearing for God in two ways.. one is personally.. God speaking directly to us. The other is prophetic prayer.. God giving us a spirit led prayer ministering to the area our partner shares with us. The prayer is every bit as much a part of the activation as the listening to God, so do look to God to lead/direct your prayer for your partner.

STEP BY STEP PROCESS

1. Understand the context

   Remember that God is a communicating God and he desires very much to communicate with you in a clear and easy to understand manner. We are going to have a couple of topics that you may ask God about, and then listen to and record his answer to you. Then you will share it with your partner, and your partner will seek God for a spirit led prayer of agreement for you on what God spoke to you.

   If you can trust God to speak through you to others, then you can also trust him to speak directly to you. In fact, it may be easier to hear God for yourself, as God promised that his sheep will hear his voice.

   And God has appointed us as priests before him, so we can certainly trust Him to give us a spirit-led prayer of agreement for what God speaks to our partner.

2. Believe You Will Receive

   Remember, that you are a born-again, blood washed, redeemed child of God, so if you have Christ within you, you also have the Mind of Christ.

   When we ask our Father for bread, he does not give us a stone (Matt 7:9). Because you are God's child, you can safely trust that he will in fact meet you and give you a revelation for you partner when you ask him to.

3. Sanctification - Activation Prayer

   Pray this together as a group before you begin to work individually with the Lord. The group leader may wish to lead this prayer out loud with the others agreeing silently, or you may all want to pray it out loud together.

   Dear Lord, In the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, I come before your throne. I am washed by the blood. Christ lives within me. Not just in part, but in my whole being. I bring every thought of my mind and soul into captivity to the mind of Christ. I will listen to you what you have to say to me, trusting you to communicate with me. I will write down what you say to me, I will not question it but will write it out just as I hear you give it to me. Then I will trust you to confirm or correct it later on when I prayerfully review it with you. I am a believer, and I expect to receive. I thank you for speaking to me. Amen.

4. Prayer of Covering And Protection

   The purpose of this short and specific prayer is to bind any hindering or religious spirits and to release faith and anointing. Feel free to use whatever words you choose for this but it does not have to be long and involved. (If you need an example prayer, please refer to the week 1 activation.)

5. Get comfortable

   Find a place that is relatively free from distraction.. preferably a quiet place. If you are writing the word, have pen and pencil handy, or if you are doing it on the computer, open your editor so that you are ready to begin typing. You may desire to have worship music playing quietly in the background, or you may prefer silence... use whichever works best for you when you are in your quiet times with God.

6. Press into God

   If you are comfortable with praying in tongues, begin praying in the spirit. Otherwise worship or quietly ask God to speak to you. Look deeply inside, listen closely, see and hear what God is saying. Do this for about a minute. Then, no more praying, only listening, for about 30 to 45 seconds.

   This allows you to really tune in.

7. Select the topic

   We want to ask God to speak deeply and personally to us about certain aspects of our lives. Below are fours different options you can use to launch into listening to God speak to you. Please read over them and decide which you will use.. you may need to go back and repeat step 6 after you select a strategy before you actually start. But we want you to be spirit led even on the selection of the questions you ask God. So we are providing four options. Chose one and ask God to speak to you.

   Ask God to speak to you about one of the following areas:

   1. your ministry.
   2. your vocation or business.
   3. about your family if you do not work outside of the home.
   4. about school if you still live at home with parents.

8. Time To Listen

   Listen to what God says to you in this area and write it down.

   Please note: You may need some times of 'listening waiting' in between hearing from God. So when you stop hearing, don't immediately assume God is done. Instead ask him if he has more to say to you and wait a few minutes.. often God will have more to say. Don't be afraid to have hesitations where you wait on him before he says more to you.

9. Time To Share

   Both you and your partner will share what God said to you. If you are on an interactive online format (AOL, ICQ, IRC) then decide who goes first. Email partners just mail it to your partner when you are ready.

   First tell them which of the four areas you asked God to speak to you about. Then you can either share what you wrote down, or you can summarize it for them (e.g., share just the main points/themes of what He said to you.) When you have shared, your partner will minister to you and when your partner has shared, you will minister to them.

10. Time to Minister

    As the person shares what God said to them, listen to them with one ear. Listen to God with the other ear and ask Him to show you how to pray into this.

    Then simply began to pray the spirit-led prayer for your partner. If you are doing the activations by email, email the prayer to your partner.

-- End of Week 5 --
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