5-21-06

How to Love God More: Part 9 
Listening to God

Summary: 

Review

We are learning how to love God with all our heart and how to really know Him and have fellowship with Him all through the day. That starts by gaining an appetite for God (hunger and thirst for Him). We learned 5 ways to do that – Beg, Wait, Remember, Taste and Fast. 
Then we talked about seeing God and feasting on God. The invisible God can be seen by looking at the creation in such a way as to see His attributes reflected as in a mirror. We are learning to “check our mirrors” every few seconds all day long. 
Then, each time you see a glimpse of His glory, you sit back and enjoy it. That’s called eating and drinking (or feasting). It’s not enough to just think about how great God is. And it’s not enough to just see how great He is. You have to experience that greatness, and learn to enjoy that experience more and more. That’s what will cause love to well up in your heart for God. Ps.141:4 talks about the delicacies of the world, and Ps.36:8 talks about God’s river of delights. So we are getting into the habit of always asking ourselves, “Am I about to eat Satan’s delicacies or drink from God’s river of delights?”

Listening
Now let me ask you this question. (This is the question I really wrestled with when I first started learning all this): When you check your mirrors, and you try to see God’s glory reflected in the world around you, should you start by looking at the creation and try to think of illustrations of attributes? Or should you start with a specific attribute and then try to find that in the creation? Is it better to say, “Oh, there’s a tree – how does that reflect God’s glory? And there’s a mountain, which attributes of God can I see in that? Etc.”? Or is it better to start with one attribute, say God as my refuge, and then look everywhere in the creation to see that attribute reflected?
When I started doing this, I did it the first way. But that didn’t really work that well. I would look at a fence post and think, “How does that reflect the glory of God?” and the answer was, “I have no idea.” Then I realized something. Where does God reveal His glory in the clearest way? In Scripture. In the creation He displays His glory, but in Scripture He actually speaks to you. So today I want to talk about listening to God. If you are going to build a love relationship with someone, there has to be two-way communication. You will never get to know a person any better if you don’t listen to that person – and that’s even more true with God than with people. You have to talk to them and listen to them talk to you. And if you’re trying to learn to love someone the listening is especially important. God is constantly communicating to you – guiding you through life. You can ignore Him or you can listen to Him.
Be Carefull
Now this is one area where you need to be really, really careful and discerning. (Discernment is a super-important virtue that most Christians ignore completely. It’s the determination of what is true and what is not.) When it comes to listening to God, most Christians believe things that are not true. 
Some people believe listening to God means emptying your mind of your own thoughts and then just sitting there until some other thought comes into your mind that didn’t seem to come from you. And if it seems like something good, they assume it’s from God. Those people are always saying things like, “God told me to do this or that.” Some of them claim to hear a voice, others say it’s just a feeling. That is the wrong way to listen to God.
Another wrong way is what I call Bible roulette – just randomly look at a verse in the Bible, take it out of context and apply it in a way that doesn’t fit its true meaning. Suppose someone is trying to decide whether he should buy a piece of property. So he flops his Bible open and randomly points to a verse and it happens to be a verse about someone buying a field with some good result. And so he assumes that is a message from God that he should buy the property. That is a wrong way to listen to God. God does not speak to us that way. God does not speak through misuse or misinterpretation of His Word. Misinterpreting God’s Word is a sin that grieves Him. Making a verse mean something different from what it meant when it was first written is a terrible sin.
Another thing people do is they try to tell God what He means by circumstances. “God, if I flip this coin and it comes up heads, that means You want me to play in the school band next year.” So then he flips the coin, and it comes up heads or tails, and he walks away thinking God has told him something. But did God really say anything? No. If I tell God what a coin flip is going to mean, that’s me telling God something – not God telling me something. A lot of times people dictate things to God and then imagine their own voice is actually God’s voice talking to them. Is God in control of whether a coin comes up heads or tails? Yes. But are we in a position to tell Him what He means by that? Are we in a position to say what heads means and what tails means? No. 
So how do we hear God’s voice? If He doesn’t speak to us through our feelings and impressions, and 
He doesn’t speak to us through our own interpretations of circumstances, and He doesn’t speak to us through misinterpretations of His Word, how does He speak to us? Through correct interpretations of His Word. That is the only way God speaks to us.

Heb.1:1-2 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son

In the Old Testament God spoke through the prophets and in the New Testament He spoke through His Son. That’s all there is. Don’t try to add anything else. 

Revelation 22:18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.

So God speaks to You only through His Word. And obviously it has to be correct interpretations rather than incorrect interpretations. If we are going to think God speaks to us through incorrect interpretations then how could we possibly know for sure what God is saying? If God speaks to us through wrong interpretations of His Word, then I could read the commandment, “Thou shalt not steal” and say, “I interpret that to mean that it’s OK for me to steal.” Obviously God meant what He said and nothing else. If He had meant something else He would have said something else. So God only speaks to us through His Word and only through correct interpretations of His Word.

Guidance 
But that leaves us with a problem. What if you’re trying to decide whether or not you should play in the school band next year? What Bible verse do you look up to figure that out? How does God guide me through life? I have to make thousands of decisions every single day. Does God guide me in each one of those? Yes, He does.

Ps 48:14 For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end. 

Ps 73:24 You guide me with your counsel,

Prov 6:20-22 My son, keep your father's commands and do not forsake your mother's teaching. 21 Bind them upon your heart forever; fasten them around your neck. 
22 When you walk, they will guide you;

Isa 58:11 The LORD will guide you always;

Psalm 119:24 Your statutes are my delight; they are the men of my counsel.

That last verse is really interesting.  In the Hebrew it literally calls Scripture “the men of my counsel.” The President of the United States has a group of people called his cabinet. That is the group of his most trusted advisors. They are the top experts in the country in their area. When he has a hard decision he gathers his cabinet together and gets their advice. Any time you face some hard decision in life you can gather around you, in your bedroom, the greatest cabinet of counselors and advisors in the world. At any time you can gather in your bedroom Solomon (the wisest man who ever lived other than Jesus Himself), the Apostle Paul, Moses, Peter, Isaiah, John, Matthew, David… And as they all sit around you and counsel you from the pages of Scripture you can be assured that it is not the counsel of those men, as wonderful as that would be, but it is the counsel of the Holy Spirit. Not one trace of the error of human wisdom that those men had found its way onto the pages God has preserved for thousands of years for you.
Sometimes we fall into looking at the Bible as a teacher and not a counselor. It should be both. It should teach you about doctrine and it should show you which option to choose in the next decision you have to make in your life. There are people who will go to the Bible to learn doctrines and information about God and about truth in general, but when they need specific guidance and counsel for some decision or event in life, they run to every counselor but God’s Word!
One of the frustrating things about going to people for advice on what to do is people will so often give you advice that’s no good. The people who are giving you advice, so many times haven’t really thought through your situation. Or they aren’t applying biblical principles in their advice. Or they are suggesting things based on wrong assumptions about you or your situation. Or they don’t really know you well enough to understand you.
When you need advice the best thing you could do is run straight to the Bible not just as your teacher but as your counselor. That’s a counselor who knows your situation perfectly (far better than you know it yourself). The Holy Spirit knows your sins, He knows your blind spots, He understands the points where you are thinking rightly, He weighs perfectly the pros and cons, He sees the future plain as day, He knows His will for you, He deeply loves you and would never misdirect you, He knows the hearts of all men and how other people will do… What a Wonderful Counselor!  
Not too long ago I heard some church leaders who were facing an extremely difficult problem say this: “there is no Scripture that instructs in this area.” They couldn’t find any Bible verse that they thought applied to that situation, so they reverted to human wisdom and started making decisions based on their own wisdom instead of Scripture. Don’t ever say, “There is no Scripture that applies to this.” That is never true. God has literally thought of everything. He didn’t give us a Bible that can sometimes help and other times can’t. 
So many times in Scripture God is called our Guide or our Counselor. Think about that. Sometimes people think of the Bible like a map that shows the way you should take. But it’s not just a map. It’s a guide. What’s the difference between having a map and having a guide? For one thing, a guide knows when you’re going the wrong way – a map doesn’t. I don’t think the 23rd Psalm would be quite as precious to people if it said, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He hands me a map and says, ‘Good luck. See you later’.” He doesn’t just give us a map. It says “he guides me in the paths of righteousness.” 

Isa 30:21 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."

Ps 43:3 Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me;

Ps 48:14 this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end. 

Ps 73:23-24  Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. 24 You guide me with your counsel,

Ps 139:9-10 if I settle on the far side of the sea, 
10 even there your hand will guide me,

John 14:16-18 I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. 
18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 
It’s really an amazing thing that God has promised to be a Guide for us. Our goal should be to learn to enjoy being guided by Him. It is an incredible thing to be walking along the path of life behind such a wonderful Guide, who loves you and who knows where He is leading you and who knows what kind of guidance you need. A guide who understands your blind spots and which things are likely to lure you off the path. A guide who knows not only where you need to end up but what route you should take to get there. A guide who has all power and total willingness to guide you, and who has promised to do so.  That’s an incredibly wonderful thing! And if I can’t enjoy something that wonderful, something is wrong with me. 
All my life I’ve thought, “I need to follow Him.” And that’s true. But now I realize I need something more than that. I need to not just follow Him; I need to learn to enjoy being guided by Him. I want to be a glad follower. 

Ps 63:8 My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.

David’s soul followed so hard after God that it was like he was stuck to God. I want to be like that – so my soul clings to Him and I follow hard after Him. That word is used of the uniting of a man and wife. It’s also used of an army chasing down another army that’s running away. So it means to stick to and follow hard after. 

Enjoy Listening
You hear a lot about listening to God and obeying Him. You need to pay attention to what He says in His Word, and obey! But it’s not enough to just listen to Him and obey. It’s also important that you enjoy listening to Him. God doesn’t just want you to do His will. He wants you to want His will. He wants you to want the same things He wants. He wants you to love what He loves and hate what He hates. 
Have you ever had a really close friend that just seems to have everything in common with you? You both have the same favorite food, and the same favorite song, and you both love to do exactly the same kinds of things, and the things you are excited to talk about that person is excited to talk about. You really feel close to a person when they are like that. That’s what God wants with you.
If you want to really be close with Him, that’s your goal. You need to get so close to Him that you know what He’s thinking. And you know what He desires – because it’s the same thing you desire. And you know what He hates, because you hate it too. The great thing about listening to God speak through His Word is you get to know His heart. His Word perfectly reveals His heart. People aren’t like that. They will say things to you that don’t really come from their heart. But not God. Every single thing in Scripture perfectly represents what is on His mind and how He feels. And so you can enjoy listening to Him, because while you’re listening you can be thinking, “Right now I am being exposed to the very heart of God!”

How to do it
I realize this is kind of tough for you guys, because you don’t have all the dictionaries and commentaries that I have. So when you read the Bible, if you read a verse that says God is majestic, you might not have what you need to look up the word and find out what that really means. So I have made up a little guide to help you. Before you come to the Bible, always pray for help like David did.
John Piper has a trick for remembering some important things to pray for: IOUs

I – Incline my heart toward Your Word.

If your heart is tipped toward the world or toward sin or toward fun or toward anything else, then when you read the Bible it’s not going to thrill your heart. For it to work your soul needs to be inclined toward God’s truth.

O – Open my eyes to see wonderful things in Your law. 

If God doesn’t answer that prayer then when I read all I will see is boring things.

U – Unite my heart.

Usually when I sit down to read the Bible my heart is all over the place. Part of me is thinking about what I just got done doing. Part of me is thinking about what I need to do next. Part of me is thinking about how hot it is, or how hungry I am, etc. Part of me is thinking about how long this is going to take so I can get back to doing something else. Part of me is thinking about school or one of my friends. And there is only one tiny piece of my heart left to focus on God’s glory. So I need to ask God to unite my heart so I can put everything else aside and focus totally on what God is saying to me in His Word.

S – Satisfy me.

Let me see enough of Your glory in Your Word to satisfy the longings of my soul. Let what I read today really hit the spot.

We’ll start with Ps.5.

Talking to God
Let me just say a few things about prayer. Most people don’t like prayer. And the result of that is it’s usually the part of the Christian life that they have the most trouble (obviously). That’s how it’s been all my life – until the last few months. 
Now I love my prayer time. It’s kind of hard to put my finger on exactly what made the difference, but I can tell you a few things: 
I started writing out my prayers. That never worked before, but this time it did. I think one reason is because I changed my attitude about prayer. I used to think the more people and things I prayed about, the better. So I got so I was spending tons of time in prayer, but I was mostly just rattling through my list. I tried to pay attention to God, but I didn’t have much success.
But now I have a totally different attitude. I don’t pray for people or anything on my list during my morning prayer time. (I do pray for people, but that’s at another time in the day). My goal in my morning prayer time is just one thing and one thing only – to spend time with the Lord in such a way that I have an awareness of His presence and I enjoy His presence. I listen to His voice in the Psalms, and I watch for His glory, and I sit and think about Him, and then just start writing. It doesn’t matter how much I say. It just matters how much fellowship I have with Him. I might spend the first 15 minutes just saying, “God, my heart is dead as a doornail right now. I’m looking at this Psalm and I’m seeing nothing that moves my heart. I feel like I’m as blind as a bat to Your glory. Please, open my eyes...”
Then when I start to see wonderful things about Him in His Word, and that starts to have an effect on my heart – and I have some joy over it, then I just savor that, and say things like, “God, I love this. I love this time with You. Please, give me more of what You just gave me.” 
I’ve stated measuring my days by how my fellowship with Christ went. I used to measure a day by how much work I got done or how much fun I had. That’s a terrible thing to do. If the definition of a good day is getting a lot of work done, then my time with the Lord interferes with having a good day. If the definition of a good day is having a lot of fun, that’s a terrible thing. Because the more time you spend with the Lord the more it will interfere with having a good day.
But when I changed my definition of a good day to a day when I had great fellowship with Christ, that made a huge difference. A day when I get tons of work done, and do my workout, and get my office cleaned up, and accomplish everything on my list, but I don’t have good fellowship with Christ that day – that day is a total disaster. A complete waste. It’s a day I will deeply regret on Judgment Day. That was a huge change in my thinking. I used to think a day like that was a great day. Now I realize it’s not.
On the other hand, if I have a day when I get nothing done that’s on my list, but I’ve had good fellowship with Christ, that day is a huge success. 100 billion years from now in heaven you will be saying, “I’m so glad I spent that day that way!” Until you can make that shift in your thinking prayer will always be an intrusion in your life.