John 1:33 - [John the Baptist said], "I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.'"
Yesterday, many of you were very helpful in sending thoughts on the hindrances to listening to God.
Today, God's word tells us that John heard God speak. In the verses surrounding today's verse, God teaches us all how to listen as John did so that we too can hear God. Here's the memorable pattern God teaches us for listening:
1) REmember that God wants to speak to you and wants you to hear. Furthermore, God faithfully sends His Holy Spirit to "poke" us and remind us that God is talking.
2) REpent of the things we listed yesterday that hinder our listening when we foolishly ask God to "cut us some slack." Here's a list of hindrances that one person sent in, using the acronym "slack":
S - Self-centeredness, Shame,
L - Laziness, Lifestyle,
A - Addictions, Anger, Apathy, Arrogance,
C - Captivity, Carelessness, Conceit,
K - Kitchen-sink (everything else!).
Again, God faithfully sends His Holy Spirit to "poke" us and call us to repent so we can listen.
3) RElent, which means to finally agree to whatever's been previously resisted. In this case, we stop resisting God's word and agree to it. Again, God faithfully sends His Holy Spirit to "poke" our soul to surrender to and agree with God's word. In other words, God's Spirit stirs our heart to a living faith, and we stop resisting the Spirit and surrender to it and agree with it. In sum, we listen.
4) REmain, which means we stick with Jesus. We follow him as our Lord. We stop going our own way. We "sit" at his feet like Mary did when Jesus came to her house. After all, what good is it if Jesus sets us free from the hindrances to listening if we just use our freedom to leave him and listen to somebody else? Remain!
These four things are how God teaches us to listen and works faithfully by His Spirit so we can listen.
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
No comments:
Post a Comment