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# I will listen to the Lord and do what He tells me.
- URL: https://www.belonging.house/i-will-listen-to-the-lord-and-do-what-he-tells-me/
- Published: 2026-09-21T10:20:49.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-21T10:20:49.000Z
- Description: Listening to God is not a religious practice, it is a normal way of life in the Kingdom.
- Author: Christ John Otto

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Listen to the Lord and do what he tells you.

This is the heart of the Twelve I wills.  
We move from spiritual values to practical values.  
Artists and creative people work in the practical world  
with real things.

On Thursday I was sitting in a coffee shop  
in Greenwich Village  
with my sketchbook.  
I was drawing little thumbnail sketches of the  
monthly prayer letter  
that will be going into the mail this week.

A man came up to me from across the room  
and said,  
"Wow, you can really draw."  
I thanked him, and said I used to make my living this way.  
And then he said  
you know the future is going to be  
those who do real things  
and those who do digital.

Last night I had dinner with a close friend  
and we were talking about his job  
being transformed by AI.  
And he said the same thing,  
AI is going to transform our world,  
but it is going to make the real  
more important.

We are navigating a time when there are unprecedented  
challenges.  
The only way you can navigate this time  
is to learn to listen to God and do what God says.  
Not listen and obey.  
You are not God's pet dog.  
You are called to rule and reign and partner with God.  
You are called to hear his voice and follow.  
Back in the 90's a friend said the day was coming  
when listening to God would determine whether  
you were safe or headed to danger.  
Last October God said  
don't go back to London.  
It was unexpected,  
but not long after that they arrested people  
who were praying on the streets in London.  
Listening to God is essential.

I want to highlight a few things in this talk.  
I talk a lot about listening to God  
because it is a core part of our mission.  
We are raising up an army of artists  
who will listen to God.  
And I often quote Isaiah 55  
when I teach on listening.  
We have to learn how to think like God.  
As Paul says in I Corinthians,  
we have the mind of Christ.  
So first, I want to talk about what listening to God is not,  
and what it is.  
And give some practical directions.

You can do a lot of "spiritual looking" things  
but they will circumvent the process of hearing from God.  
One of the biggest dangers  
in the Christian life  
is the use of religious ideas  
to support your diseased thoughts and beliefs.

So the first thing that mimics listening to God,  
is taking fifteen minutes in the morning  
to read a nice devotional thought,  
and then going on with your day  
just like every body else.  
People have bragged to me  
that they don't let their Christianity  
influence their politics, business, or decisions.  
That's nothing to brag about.

You aren't listening to God,  
You are living as a materialist  
secular person, with a religious candy coating.  
That's probably why so many of these kinds of books  
are pastel candy colors.  
I have my "Color me Spiritual Bible.”  
There was a song we sang on the revival circuit  
called  
"Stirred but not changed."  
It was not popular  
because it said people go to conferences,  
have an emotional moment,  
but nothing in their lives changed.  
So listening to God is not  
doing morning devotions and then going out  
and being just like everybody else.

The second thing that can look like  
listening to God  
is Bible study.  
Now, friends,  
I love the Bible,  
and I do love Bible study.  
Recently a friend asked me about how  
my talks are so well researched.  
I told her that I just have a habit of learning every day.  
Over thirty years, that is going to accumulate.  
And let me tell you the truth,  
If you are really studying the Bible  
with the help  
of the Holy Spirit,  
God is going to speak to you.

The danger is very subtle,  
you can start by getting excited  
about all that you are learning  
and you begin to dig into the Bible  
because you think that the Bible is going to give you life,  
and you stop engaging with the author.  
Studying the Bible can be a form of self-protection,  
that keeps you from being vulnerable.  
Bible study can puff us up,  
and pride will stop your ability to hear God,  
and see what's really there.  
Jesus himself  
said that you search the scriptures  
thinking that in them you will find life,  
but you ignore the Author of Life standing in front of you.  
And this is the problem,  
we lay over the Bible our thoughts and ideas,  
so that when God does something that is outside our  
perceptions--that were formed from our soulish Bible study,  
we reject God.  
We reject revivals.  
We reject prophets.  
We reject Messiah.

So we have to learn to listen to God  
through the Bible,  
not study the Bible instead of listening to God.

The Bible is what leads us into listening to God.  
Listening to God is Teshuvah:  
the act of returning to God.  
God's ways  
not our ways.  
God's thoughts not our thoughts.

The third common mistake that people make  
is running around to speakers, conferences,  
books, and ministries looking for that word from God.

Sadly, because a lot of "ministry" is just plain old commerce,  
people think that marketing is credibility,  
and consuming spiritual junk food is hearing from God.  
People selling stuff will teach you to buy more.

And when we look around at the church  
all we see are people who are unchanged,  
going from one spiritual fad to another.

Listening to God is  
connecting with God in relationship.  
You cannot get into a relationship with God  
and not be changed.

Listening to God is going to challenge you.

Listening to God is probably going to  
push you out of your comfort zone,  
and God is going to show you those parts of your life  
that you don't want him to touch.

And ultimately,  
learning to listen to God  
is going to teach you to live  
from the inside out  
and be guided by the mind of Jesus in you.  
It is Jesus in you  
flowing out of you.  
When you surrender your diseased thoughts  
and beliefs  
and receive his thoughts that are full of life,  
you begin to be transformed.  
You can always tell the tree by the fruit.

So let's talk about the process of listening to God.

I have a simple method  
that will retrain your life  
in a short period of time.  
Many folks come to me and say  
God doesn't speak to me.  
When they follow this process  
they start hearing from God.  
I don't want to make promises,  
but the average person  
starts hearing from God in less than a month.

The first step is to turn off the noise  
and get quiet.  
For some that means not running around  
from one thing to another.  
If you are into consuming media  
this will be really hard.  
For some, the process of getting still  
and finding quiet is the most difficult part.  
And for some,  
just doing this reveals a lot of unhealed areas  
that need restoration.

I suggest  
finding a quiet place  
and turning everything off.  
It might take a long time to settle down.  
If it does,  
put your hand on your heart and say  
"Settle down soul. You can rest and listen to God."

It's helpful to keep a notebook  
and whatever writing instrument you like.  
Start fresh,  
this is not introspective journaling.  
This is keeping of record of your growing relationship  
with God.

Once you start to rest,  
take out your Bible.  
I ask people to start with the Gospel reading.

You need to go to Jesus first.  
Jesus is the Word.  
If you have seen Jesus you have seen the Father.  
And when you go to Jesus  
you discover if you are one of his sheep.  
He is the Good Shepherd and his sheep hear his voice.  
So we go  
and we hear Jesus.  
What did Jesus say?

And I ask people not to do a Bible study  
and analyze what Jesus said.

If you do this,  
you will switch into your head,  
and into information mode.  
You want to engage with your heart  
and relationship mode.  
Head mode is a form of self-protection.

So I ask people to do a very simplified  
version of Lectio Divina.  
We are going to read this gospel reading three times,  
slowly.  
The first time  
you listen with you head.  
What jumps out at you?  
Was it a word or a phrase? Was it a detail?  
The second time  
you listen with your heart.  
And this naturally flows into prayer.  
Lord, what are you saying to my heart today?  
And you are going to engage with God.  
And then you do this a third time.  
This time,  
you listen with your hands.  
Lord,  
what are you asking me to do?

This naturally flows into the questions  
that I used in my own life  
as I listen to God.  
Lord,  
what's on your agenda today?  
Not my agenda, yours.  
What are you asking me to do today?  
And whenever you ask God a question,  
stop.  
Wait.  
Hopefully you have come into a place of rest in this process  
so you won't have crazy thoughts,  
but you might.  
That's okay.  
You are a human being in a crazy mixed up world.  
Nobody is perfect.  
You will make mistakes.

You are engaging with God  
and letting God give you his thoughts.  
And over time  
you will tune into the way Jesus thinks.  
Jesus  
by the Holy Spirit lives in you.  
If you humbly submit to this process,  
you will start to learn to let the Holy Spirit think through you.

Then I ask God  
who He wants to be for me.  
I get some interesting answers.  
This morning was  
"I am the one who is going to make  
everything work out alright."  
Hmm.

Not complicated.

Then I ask God  
who he wants me to be today.

Then I ask God how he is praying for me.  
People get shocked by this one,  
but the book of Hebrews tells us  
that Jesus is the High Priest who ever lives to make intercession for us.

And from here,  
I sometimes sit  
and listen to see if Jesus has something to say to me.  
Really pay attention if God asks you a question.  
In 2016  
God asked me "Do you trust me?"  
My answer was no.  
That took me on this overseas adventure  
that was like a saga.  
In the end  
I learned to trust.

And here is the most interesting  
part of this daily rhythm,  
it shouldn't take long.  
If it takes more than half and hour  
you are missing something.  
And it should begin to feel natural and normal.  
You were created to be in the image of God  
and to be in constant communication  
with your heavenly father.  
Many times  
my daily time with the Lord  
just drifts into work,  
daily life,  
and the conversation that began in the morning  
continues all day long.  
It is not a religious practice,  
it is a normal way of life in the Kingdom.

And many times  
my daily rhythm unfolds into prayer  
for the world.

And God will say things  
to me  
and he will give his perspective,  
and that will color the entire day.

And in the ongoing dialogue  
with Jesus  
I discover who I really am  
and who he really is.  
And it is no longer about doing something.  
It is about being a whole person  
and out of that wholeness  
everything else happens.

And out of being whole,  
we can live the practical life  
that God calls us to.

I will pursue excellence in my craft,  
and continually choose to grow and learn.