(A four part teaching series on the foundational role of "listening to God" as it relates to the gift of prophecy. These articles will have some excerpts from my recently published book "Prophecy in Practice", by Monarch Books, Crowborough, UK.)

Abraham - The One Who Listened To God

God said to Abimelech about Abraham that "he is a prophet and he will pray for you and you will live" (Genesis 20:7a). Have you ever considered Abraham as a 'Prophet'? God had no difficulty calling his patriarch by this name. His life was very prophetic! But notice, his life was marked constantly as one who communed with, listened to, and encountered the living God. Prophecy and listening to his voice are inseparable!

He moved his whole family out of Mesopotamia on the strength of God's voice. "The Lord said to Abram, leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you" (Gen.12:1). This one communication launched Abraham on a journey of listening to God. His final destination depended on it!

The Lord appeared to Abram in Shechem a few years later and said, "to your offspring I will give this land" (Genesis 12:7). The patriarch graduated from seeing to hearing. The Lord appeared to him once Abram arrived in the promised land. Hearing God does have a vast array of manifestations. We will consider some of these manifestations during the next three weeks of teaching. It is essential to watch for God's word to come to you. We could go on right through to Genesis 25 and list the various encounters he had with God's voice. Let this truth stand: that Abraham was a prophet of God because he listened.

The question we need to ask is what gave Abraham such an open heaven? Did he have some special 'in' with God? It can be answered in two ways I believe.

Those who pray get to hear His voice! There simply is no other way to state it. There is no quick method to revelation except through waiting on God. Abraham is a prime example. A training time is always required for such a lofty calling as a 'prophet'. John Sandford suggests in his ground breaking book on the prophetic gift, "The Elijah Task", that "it shall probably take no less that a dozen years" to be released into the office of a prophet. With that bit of news please don't throw this article out the window! There are three increasing levels of prophetic practice according to Graham Cooke in his book "Developing Your Prophetic Gifting". They are the gift of prophecy, prophetic ministry and the prophetic office. We need to commit to the process. The Lord is presenting to us the opportunity of growing in the gifting and it has a lot to do with developing a life of prayer.

We often want an easy way in. "Let some recognized prophet impart the prophetic unction to me so I can skip over these years of prayer" has been a secret wish of mine. I have come to realize that the way Abraham became a prophet really is the best way. Three times in scripture Abraham was called "the friend of God" (2 Chr 20:7; Isa 41:8; James 2:32). This dear man got so close to the Lord in prayer that He kept telling the world about their friendship.

Genesis 15 describes one of Abraham's long and intense discussions with God. These friends actually talked together. All too often we pray like a machine gun, blasting heaven with our requests. God just wants us to ask Him a question and then wait for His response. Abraham's prayer time, or shall we say interaction time was so intense that he spent all day walking about the animals that God had requested as a sacrifice. He even fought off the birds of prey that came to disturb his offering to God (Genesis 15:11). Maybe birds of prey have been stealing your time of communion with God?

The telephone bird is dangerous. As soon as we get into our closet to seek Him, the phone rings. Fight off the disturbance! Turn the thing off when you begin to pray.

The task bird is ever present to steal us away from Him. Just recommit yourself to early morning prayer, and urgent tasks seem to suddenly appear from out of nowhere! John Wesley said that when he had a very busy day of ministry before him, he would have to spend more time in private prayer. We all too often let the 'task birds' steal us away from our greatest friend. Our hidden life must always be greater than our public life.

This brings us to the second reason God's voice was so real to Abraham. Simply, he had come to understand the lesson of "mutual accessibility".

In that classic passage on intercession in Genesis 18:16-33 where Abraham pleads for Sodom, we encounter a very interesting truth. As the three heavenly visitors left Abraham on their way to destroy the wicked city of Sodom, we read in vs. 22 this pregnant statement, "but Abraham remained standing before the Lord". The NIV Study Bible text note suggests an ancient scribal translation and renders the verse, "but the Lord remained standing before Abraham". Both of these translations seem equally acceptable. It also provides a wonderful illustration of the mutual accessibility that existed between God and His prophet, or shall we say between God and His people. One of those three visitors at Abraham's tent was called "the Lord" - an appearance of Jesus in His pre-existent state. The friend of friends, the One who sticks closer than a brother had come to talk with Abraham. He was in no hurry to leave this precious intercessor/prophet until the task of mercy was completed. He was as interested in saving Sodom as Abraham was. He just needed someone to stand in the gap and cry out for them. Even if we hear a word of judgement that could well descend on the earth, it is our task to stand before the Lord and cry out for mercy.

1. • Intercessors Make Good Prophets
   • The Lesson of Mutual Accessibility

Listening With Your Eyes

We have been qualified to enter the Holy place through the blood of Jesus and we have become God's covenant friends. He convenes His heavenly council at our tent on our behalf. He gives us the privilege of entering His court to intercede for the righteous in our modern day cities of Sodom. It is interesting to note that it was after this encounter that God called Abraham a "prophet" (Genesis 20:7a). Could it be that the greatest way to grow in the prophetic is the way of prayer? What has been your experience? Have you noticed any increase in the quality or clarity of His voice as it relates to the quantity of time you spend with Him? This is not hanging around God just to get a "word" for someone. This is about developing a hidden life with the Savior that transcends all other loves.

We have the great privilege of hearing God. Martin Luther staked his life on it! Rather than an elite group of priests hearing God on your behalf, we know the 'priesthood of all believers'. "[He] hath made us kings and priests unto God" (Rev 1:6 KJV). We hear Jesus' voice as He calls us by name (John 6:44). We also hear the Spirit's voice and in turn call back to God as 'Abba' or 'Papa', as children would say (Rom 8:15). We each have our own way of hearing God. For you maybe it's like Elijah's cave experience of the "still small voice" (1 Kings 19:12). For others, God will talk to them personally through scripture. For some others, God apprehends them with a technicolor, full blown vision and they have a word from God.

Yes, you can also hear with your eyes! While in a small group meeting one night God said to me, "Jim, look at the coffee table". A strange directive when you're seated in a circle in someone's living room. I was not there as a furniture appraiser but as a worshipper. However, I obeyed the Spirit's nudge, and I watched as the wood grain became a living picture of raging waves with a child at the point of death in the midst.

During a quiet moment following the worship I asked, "Is there anyone here who almost drowned as a child?" There was dead silence for a moment and then a dear lady responded to the word. She retold the story of her childhood when she almost drowned in the North Sea. After living with that trauma for many years, God came to her that night through a word of knowledge and ministered to her broken heart. That word came directly through a vision. You can hear with your eyes!

Saints in scripture also heard with their eyes! Take for instance Amos' experience (Amos 8:1-6). One day the Lord dropped a vision of a basket of ripe fruit before him, then He engaged him in dialogue. This is important to note because visions or pictures at the best of times need explanation or interpretation. Who better to interpret your vision than the one who gave it? "What do you see Amos?", the Lord asked. "A basket of fruit," he answered. Then the Lord began to apply this earthly vision in a spiritual sense to the nation of Israel.

Amos was actually a farmer. He had no great pedigree, nor prophetic lineage, except that he was inextricably joined to His Creator. The book of prophecy that bears his name in the Bible begins like this: "the words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa and what he SAW concerning Israel" (Amos 1:1).

Vision was, as he states, the basis of his prophetic oracle. Visions of locusts (7:1-2), fire (7:4-5), a plumb line (7:7-8), and even the Lord himself standing by the altar (9:1) were the foundation for the 'Word of the Lord' to be spoken.

God often speaks to us in language and symbols that come from our own frame of reference. Amos was a farmer/shepherd, so He spoke to him with rural imagery that was charged with meaning. God will do the same with you because He is a communicating God.

Visions are important to the life of the church. "Where there is no vision the people perish" (Prov 29:18 KJV). Visions are God's launching pad into a realm of discovery and intercession. They call us to pray, to seek God, to cry out both for wisdom and for a fulfilment of God's stated agenda. The Almighty is often showing you His door of entry into your heart, home, church, or city. If you have received a vision during these days, first establish it in the Word. Scripture is our the first and final judge. Share it with your church leadership and seek a gift of interpretation, knowing that the Holy Spirit is at work in the Body. The God of Daniel is in our midst, the One who makes the dark things plain and gives hope for the journey.

His Ways of Speaking

His ways of speaking are not our ways (Isa 55:8). We need to learn the way prophecy comes! Some of that teaching is actually hidden in the meaning of the five different Hebrew and Aramaic root words translated in our English text for 'prophecy.'

They have a wealth of expression and actually describe the way in which God's inspiration comes. Two of the words Ro'eh and Chozeh, underline the passive experience of receiving the prophetic message from God, while the other three words, Massa, Naba and Nataf describe the active experience of communicating God's message to the audience.

Ro'eh

The word Ro'eh literally means 'a seer' and it occurs twelve times in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. Essentially, the root RO'EH, means 'to look at' or 'behold.' This word is used of the prophet in his 'seeing' or perceiving of God's message, especially, although not exclusively, with reference to the visionary. This word describes distinctively the prophetic revelation of the prophet through visions.

Chozeh

Here is another word translated in our English bibles as 'prophet' - Chozeh. It also carries the base meaning of 'a seer.' This word is used sixteen times in the Hebrew text. David Blomgren makes the distinction between these two words stating that, "although these two terms, ro'eh and chozeh may be used interchangeably, CHOZEH seems to be the broader term used to refer to either cognitive or visionary perception. The biblical release of prophecy in your life will often operate in the same manner.

God will first show you something and then give you the task of verbalizing that which was just impressed on the table of the heart.

Massa

The Hebrew term 'Massa' and its root, 'Nasah,' are used a total of seventy times in the Old Testament to identify prophecy. It means 'a burden' and it reveals the response of the one receiving God's message - it comes like a weight or burden upon them. That is what happened to me in that aforementioned prayer meeting. A literal weight came on my body. Read through Isaiah chapters 13-23 and one after another 'the burden of the Lord' comes upon Isaiah as he speaks God's word of rebuke and judgement over Babylon, Moab, Damascus, Egypt, Dumah, Arabia and Tyre.

Both Zechariah and Malachi use the phrase 'the burden of the Lord' in good King James English, while the NIV uses the word 'oracle' to describe a strong prophetic message from God. It's interesting to note the blending of prophetic terms in the opening salvo of Habakkuk's book of prophecy - 'The burden which Habakkuk...did see' (Hab.1 :1KJV). Here is a blending of a heavy strong word from God that came through a vision.

David Blomgren goes on to add another interesting highlight to the word 'massa.' "This same Hebrew word however, is also descriptive of the lifting up of the soul in the prophetic flow of the temple musicians as exemplified in the master musician Chenaniah who was master of 'song,' (Heb. massa here is a 'joy' or literally a 'lifting up', Ez.24:25). Also implicit within this word is the concept that the purpose behind the prophetic word, even when judgmental, is restorative. Even when denunciation is in order because of sin, it is a 'lifting up' prophecy, intended to bring them higher in God's ways. Indeed, the main concept behind this word massa is that of a lifting up, not a weighing down."

Naba

No less than 435 times does this graphic word for prophecy occur in the Old Testament. This Aramaic and Hebrew word 'naba' basically means "to bubble up, to gush forth, to pour forth." A clear image of the activity of the Spirit of God flowing from our inner most being as a river of life. This time however, the river is a river of words, words from God. Amos 3:8 says "the Sovereign Lord has spoken - who can but 'naba', prophesy." Joel 2:28 says, "your sons and your daughters will 'naba,' prophesy." That has happened to me many times. For example, one time I was at a youth prayer meeting and suddenly there was a 'bubbling up' within me to communicate God's heart. There are some theologians that actually consider this term as one that describes an ecstatic aspect of prophecy.

Nataf

Here is the second Hebrew word for prophecy that is used to describe the communicative dynamic. The prophetic message is in essence an interplay between a reception of God's words and the giving of those words through a human vessel, like you or me. While 'Naba' described the communicating of a prophecy like words that bubbled up from within, 'Nataf' actually pictures a flow of words that actually drop upon the messenger 'as drops of rain.'

In Micah 2:6-11, it is used four times as a descriptive term for prophecy. "It is not only a flow as water from the prophet's lips, gushing forth as a fountain, but it is also to be viewed as rain drops, falling from Heaven... the prophetic word is a word dropped by God from Heaven as rain."

I have often experienced this rain of God's thoughts upon me as I preach or pray over people. They come one by one and at times, I feel embarrassed as I wait for more insight to fall upon me. It is normal. One of the meanings of the word 'to prophesy' is just that - waiting for rain from Heaven.

However tedious the process, 'prophecy is an indication of God's approval and blessing on the congregation because it shows that God is actively present in the assembled church,' so affirms Wayne Grudem in his book "The Gift of Prophecy." More prophecy Lord! Send your inspiration into your Church because it's a sign that you are present in the midst of us.

Obstacles to Listening

In our growth as prophetic people, we need to apply the old football axiom -- "the best offense is a good defense". One of the best ways to get on the revelatory "highway of heaven" is to deal with our own obstacles to the listening process.

In my own struggle to hear God's voice, I have identified four obstacles that have been in my way. These seem to be rocks of offense for many who wish to mature in the prophetic. I'm sure there are many more obstacles or stumbling blocks that you could identify. Why not at the end of this article take some time and search out more rocks in the way of His voice?

The crowds experience in John 12:28-29 is all too common when it comes to really hearing God speak. After Jesus announced His soon coming death a voice from heaven said "I have glorified it and will glorify it again". The crowd that was there heard it and said that "it had thundered"! It wasn't thunder. They misunderstood the voice of God. This misunderstanding seems to be repeated down through the centuries - that is that God's voice is loud, brash and thunder like.

As we become quiet before the Lord we carry out the admonition of Scripture to "Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth" (Ps 46:10).

Isaiah encourages us to listen for God's quiet, gentle voice with our spiritual ears: "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk in it' (Isa 30:21). The prophets seemed to hear God's voice in their hearts. A passage in 1 Kings recounts how, in the midst of great personal distress, Elijah heard God (1 Kings 19:11-13). God asked him to stand on a mountain while He passed by. First "a great and strong wind rent the mountains and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord," but says Elijah, the Lord was not in the wind.

Then, came an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord wasn't in the fire. Finally there came "a still small voice." Elijah recognized God in that voice. When he heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went to the mouth of the cave. The voice said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" Elijah's soul was powerfully touched when God spoke to him through that gentle inner whisper.

We must learn to listen to His "still small voice" and stop waiting for thunder.

Prophet Habakkuk could teach us a thing or two about listening to God. One sure lesson would be on the danger of impatience. "I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me" (Habakkuk 2:1a). In the very next verse we read that the Lord replied to His waiting prophet. We don't know the length of time that transpired between these two verses. All we know is that God speaks to those who wait for Him.

Moses was no stranger to the voice of God. He spoke continually with the Creator. However one time he had to wait six days before God spoke to Him on the mountain. Six days, just think about that for a moment. Impatience could be the greatest enemy to a prophetic person. We want God's word "now" and He says wait six days.

Prophet Daniel also learned the secret of waiting on God. Daniel 7:1,9,11,13 says that "I looked... I kept looking..." This looking was a 21 day process while the archangel Michael fought in the heavenlies to bring revelation.

Lamentations 3:25-26 has the answer. "The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord". The process is better than the release of God's voice. On a trip to some distant city, the journey is more important than arriving at the destination.

There was a great opportunity offered the people of God at the foot of Mount Sinai. The Lord came down and spoke to them from the mountain. The scriptures say that they feared this encounter with God and His voice. "Speak to us yourself (Moses) and we will listen; but do not have God speak to us or we will die" (Ex 20:19).

Some of us have a similar experience of fear. Either we fear our own worthiness to hear God, or we discount what we hear as coming from God. Of course there are several sources of understanding or insight - the word, the flesh, the devil, our own minds, and the Lord.

1 Thess. 5:20-21 says "Do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything, hold on to the good". We have the task of testing His voice. But that process should not bind us in fear and keep us away from personal life changing revelations.

Paul the Apostle goes on to counsel us in Romans 12:6 "We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith." Peter was no stranger to fear. He adds this wise counsel in 1 Peter 4:10-11: "Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God". If the Lord is giving you a revelation to share with someone, don't let fear steal that word away from you. It's your Father seeking to speak life to one of His children.

David said from his own experience that "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him". We should fear the Lord and as a result receive revelations from Him and not the reverse.

God's voice at times is distant to us because we don't want it enough. The Lord speaks to this issue in Proverbs 2:3-5. "If you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God."

There are times when passion is the only answer to getting through to God. The early church lifted their voice together and cried out when they were told that the Apostles were not allowed to speak of Jesus in Acts 4:24.

Only spiritual hunger will overcome this obstacle. Jesus said "blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be filled" (Mt.5:6).

1. • The Obstacle of Misunderstanding
   • The Obstacle of Impatience
   • The Obstacle of Fear
   • The Obstacle of a Lack of Passion

Go ahead and make your own list of obstacles to hearing His voice that have been in your way. Do something about them, obey, intercede, repent and then get ready for His river of revelation!

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