Someone asked recently about hearing clearly from God.
"Should we not be visited by an angel from God, how can we hear God's truth?" The question came as a group of us recently spent time in Acts 27, where Paul was visited by an angel and told what would happen.
Unfortunately, most of us do not get regular angelic visits. At least not the kind where we see the angel and hear a voice (though, quite frankly, we Jesus followers probably get more daily, angelic help than we realize...see Hebrews 1:14!).
But what about regularly HEARING GOD'S TRUTH? Can we hear from God regularly?
No doubt about it. Here's how.
FIRST - take time to READ A BIBLE. Why? Jesus said it - actually, He prayed it. "Father, set apart my disciples by your truth. Thy Word is truth" (John 17:17). Any person who will prayerfully set aside time to read and reflect on what he/she is reading in the Scriptures will "hear" the Spirit of God speaking. "For the word of God is quick (living) and powerful (active), piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, discerning the thoughts and intentions of (my) heart" (Hebrews 4:12).
GO ahead...try it. Read Ephesians chapter 4 or 1 John 1, or Philippians 2. Take 30 minutes and read it over 5,6,7 times and think about what is saying...while you ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you. Unless the heart is hard and the ears of the mind stopped up, you will hear God's Spirit.
SECOND - take time to DISCUSS WHAT YOU'VE READ WITH SOME FRIENDS. "Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. We impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual" (1 Corinthians 2:12-13).
Did you notice the "group" dynamic in those verses. "We...we...us...We...to those" I've never been in a group of Jesus followers who are discussing Scripture without hearing from the Holy Spirit.
THIRD - ASK FOR WISDOM from GODLY FRIENDS WHO KNOW GOD'S WORD and ARE FULL OF GOD'S SPIRIT. I believe you can bring just about any "practical" question to a set of serious Jesus' followers who will listen and then open the pages of Scripture...and you will hear from God. Proverbs 12:15 "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice." God "gives wisdom generously, and is not stingy" (James 1:2-4).
My sense is this - there are plenty of God's "ministering angel-spirits" (Hebrews 1:14) who are at the ready to make God's voice clear as a bell in your everyday life. Read the Word, discuss the Word, listen to people of the Word.
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