Living A Life Of Listening

[Albert Finch]

Psalm 5:3 -- 'In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.'

Hearing from God is living with expectation toward Him because expectation places a demand on the Holy Spirit. We should live with expectation toward God twenty-four hours a day, for He abides within us at all times.

God does talk. He is speaking continually. Christians need to develop their receivers (their human spirits) which will enable them to tune in to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Ultimately, the Lord desires that we LIVE A LIFE OF LISTENING. If we insist on God speaking audibly to us, it basically breaks one of His fundamental laws -- It is impossible to please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6). It takes no faith to hear or obey an audible voice. But it does take faith to pay attention to the still small inner voice and witness of the Holy Spirit. It takes dicipline to command all manner of distractions to be still while we wait before God.

In beginning a life of expectation we need to keep a RECORD. Reasons for keeping a record:

1. The act of keeping a record is an act of expection in itself. You are expecting God to TALK TO YOU. Expectation pulls virtue out of God.

2. Impressions that you receive from God have a way of being quickly forgotten. Anything that God speaks to you is not a product of your reasoning mind or thought processes. Whatever way His voice comes to you, it all bypasses the intellectual reasoning process, and is given to your spirit. When the Lord 'drops' knowledge into one's spirit, it usually has nothing to do with the rationalizing process the mind was going through at the time. His voice may have actually interrupted our thought process.

In the first few waking moments of the day, while the mind is still fresh and coming out of sleep, the Holy Spirit will talk to us. It's as though He catches the brain off guard, and in those first few seconds and minutes (if we pay attention) we will hear the Lord. If we start our day by thinking of all that needs to be done, our minds will attempt to figure things out, and we'll shut God out of our thoughts. If we focus on Him, He will talk to us and direct our day.

AFFIRMATIONS

I live with expectation, I pray with expectation, I listen with expectation -- I hear HIS VOICE.

I take time to listen to the Lord to hear strategies for myself, my family, and the needs of the Kingdom.