Notes from this week's podcast: Are You Hearing or Listening to God? with guest Tracey Wilson
Jo: Have you ever stood at the crossroads and wondered what is the next step? That next step will change everything about me.
You've prayed, asked God, brought God into the matter, talked to friends you can trust. What if that silence is a sign? How do you know?
Jesus Himself says: He who has ears to hear let him hear. Not just with our ears but hear with our heart and be ready to obey.
Today, we're going to unpack the path of hearing God's Word the way Jesus intended us to heart it, distinguishing between the hearing and the listening, explore why listening isn't passive.
We want to equip you to recognize God's voice and respond in faith.
Tracey: Are you listening? Obedience activates listening.
"I trust You but I don't always trust me."
"I want You to show me how to listen. Teach me what this means."
Samuel came with his yes available before he knew what the assignment was.
I rush in and rush out. I'm not there to listen.
We enter in relationship with Jesus and become His sheep. He is ours and we are His. And because of that relationship, the progression is so important. We hear His voice because we are in relationship. And He knows us and we know Him, then we trust Him and we obey. And we become one with His decision, purpose, will for our lives.
He knows Tracey. He knows Jo. He knows each listener.
Until I got in His presence to listen, I couldn't discern what was for me.
I was treating Him more like a consultant than an authority.
Jo: It could be fear of losing control.
God asks us as we come to Him to relinquish control. We may need to linger at the altar.
Tracey: "Lingering" is not a luxury but a necessity.
I don't want to miss Him.
I'm listening and I'm being obedient (even in the small).
Jo: The world teaches us: It's the next big stage you're going to be on, next big assignment, event. But with God, many times, it's the next step.
Tracey: There may be a thousand small yeses before you get one big one.
Humility has to be exercised. Lingering in the presence of the Lord has to be exercised. Saying yes has to be exercised. (The first yes makes the next yes easier.)
We choose whether or not we're going to listen.
Jo: And God is waiting.
Tracey: "Teach me." God has to examine my heart.
Repentance has to be exercised (every single day).
You have to come into the conversation with Him as Samuel did with your yes available, with your heart open willing to receive.
Jo: We may think we have our yes available but with a question mark at the end where it should be a yes with an exclamation mark at the end, ready to go, excited to go.
Tracey: Cultivate the ability to listen
1) Come with your yes available, willing for God to expose your heart.
2) Look for Him. Prepare your heart to be open.
Jo: We've made it another part of the to-do list to check off.
Tracey: This profound to me: This is God, the Creator of the universe. I'm so glad that He's still teaching me, still finding me in the places where I really need Him.
Jo: The Creator of the universe, who could be speaking to millions and trillions of people, but me. He's speaking to me.
He's paused. He lingered over you to speak this to you at this point in time because He's got the next step for you.
Tracey: (quoting Jo) You're going to get to a place that you've never been before and that you never want to leave.
Jo: You can't buy that atmosphere. You can't manufacture that storehouse, but it's there waiting for everyone of us.
Tracey: God doesn't give us something to own. It's not ours to own. I believe He gives us something to give it away.
God is not a God of conflict. If He gives us something, He will also order the time in which we're supposed to step into it.
Jo: It's simple but may not be easy.
We make it easy when we lean in with our yes already available.
Where are we? Where are we positioned? Are we willing to humble ourselves and listen to whom God brings across our path to speak to us.
Scripture for further study: John 8:43, John 10:27, 1 Samuel 3:10, Hebrews 3:15
