Listening to God

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedThank you for your prayers.

When I first started sending the Friday emails,
and speaking at retreats and events,
I was asked the same question
over and over again.
“How do I learn to listen to God?”

This was a hard question to answer at first,
because I had learned to listen to God organically.
And at first,
the answer I gave to people didn’t satisfy.

I told them to stop talking.

Then I said you have to get quiet.
And then I said you have to pay attention.

And then the hardest one of all.
You have to lay aside your own agenda.

I have learned a hard lesson over many years.
Most Christians listen to the sound of their own souls,
think that the sound of their soul is God,
and then ask God to bless their own soulish
beliefs,
agendas,
and visions.
And God doesn’t.

And when God doesn’t bless their agenda
they will use manipulation and control to get their own way.

A lot of what we call "ministry" is this.

Jesus said,
"If you abide in me,
and my word abides in you,
ask whatever you will and I will do it."
That means
you have to learn
to get comfortable
living in Jesus and his life.
And you have to listen for his word,
and let that word direct your prayers.

This is very different than finding verses
to back up your beliefs and barking them out at God,
in an attempt to change the spiritual world.

You have to listen to the living word
that God is saying in each moment
and do what the Lord is directing.
And when you do,
there is a flow
and you will be blessed.

The mechanics of listening follow:
The Belonging House community
reads the daily gospel lesson every day.
That means we start with Jesus and what he is saying
and tune our soul to him.
We spend at least fifteen minutes in quiet,
and we let God talk.
And we don’t.
And then,
we ask a few questions.

Lord,
what’s on YOUR agenda today?
It’s not about you.
Lord,who do you want to be for me today?
He wants to be in relationship with you.
Lord, how are you praying for me today?
He is interceding for you.

You learn to follow this pattern,
and wow,
you are on a fast track to listening to God
and doing what God tells you.

This works, and we see fruit all the time
in the lives of artists and creative people.
We now have a proven track record that
anyone can learn to listen to God in thirty days.

Our lives depend
on hearing the Word of God.
If you surrender to the One
who has the words of eternal life
every rough place will begin to be smooth
and every mountain will become a plain.

He Never Fails,

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