Have you ever felt frustrated, wanting to hear from God but feeling like the heavens are silent?
CC Image courtesy of Waiting for the Word on Flickr
Our Heavenly Father sometimes gets accused of being a bad communicator. However, that reputation is definitely NOT deserved.
God speaks clearly in the following five ways:
ONE: Creation — shows that God exists, shows His character, and that there is a higher moral code.
Romans 1:20 (GW) “From the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly observed in what he made. As a result, people have no excuse.” Most of the world acknowledges that since there is a creation, there must be a Creator.
TWO: Commands — The Word of God, the Bible.
2 Timothy 3:16 (GW) “Every Scripture passage is inspired by God. All of them are useful for teaching, pointing out errors, correcting people, and training them for a life that has God’s approval.”
God has given us a Master Manual, a handbook for life, the Bible. It is the clearest way He speaks. In Scripture He reveals Himself and His love for us in sending Jesus to die for our sins and rise again to give eternal life for all who receive Him.
Scripture contains His instructions for living including:
The Ten Commandments (not Suggestions!)
The pure teachings of Jesus
Instructions on the church in Acts and the Epistles or letters to the churches.
Information about the end of the world.
THREE: Circumstances — opportunities, open doors, life situations, or as Henry Blackaby calls this, “Seeing where God is working and joining in it.”
Jesus regularly performed ministry based on circumstances. He came across people with needs and ministered to them. (It was all in God’s sovereign plan from a wider perspective. But from the human viewpoint, it looked like circumstances.)
Paul wrote: “…pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word…” (Colossians 4:3a ESV) Likewise we should pray for “open doors” or circumstances through which God is speaking to us.
FOUR: Community — godly advice from other believers in the community or family of God, the church.
“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.” (Proverbs 12:15 ESV)
FIVE: Conversation — listening prayer or hearing from God through His speaking to us, usually not audibly, but through an impression, a conviction, a leading or a prompting.
In my next blog I share more about this last way God speaks through conversation: “How to Hear from God.”
I also wrote on this topic: “Strategies for Hearing from God.”