Notes from this week's podcast: Did God Speak a Word to You?

When God gives you a word, how do you know that? 

Fasting, from my perspective, gleaning from the Word is a time that you deny the flesh of food and/or drink at the time that you seek the Lord. And you seek the Lord through the Word to feed your spirit man the Word as you draw near to God for various reasons. 

Many times during a fasting and/or praying as you seek the Lord, what happens is that God gives you a word. God speaks to you. You hear the voice of God speaking to you, directing your heart about a situation. What do you do with that word? What do you do with what you hear -- the voice of God saying to you? How do you handle that so that you glean all that God has for you. 

How do you know when God is speaking to you? It will always align with the Word of God. It will never be contrary to the Word of God -- never contradict what God says in His Word. And many times I will tell you for me, when I know I'm reading through the Bible, and it's like all of a sudden, a scripture will just almost leap off the page at me. In other words, it will be so astounding, it's like it leaps in front of me, like I cannot not see it or not pay attention to it. It's that profound.

But it's not every time when God speaks a word to you, you're reading the Word. It may be that your pastor, your preacher at church is preaching and he speaks a word and that just speaks to you. Many times it will leap, deep down in you, like it causes you to pause, take attention, and ask "what is that?"  "What are you saying?" When God gives you a word or speaks to you, the Holy Spirit many times will use that word to speak direction or give you peace about a situation or conviction depending upon where you are. Many times the Word goes to work in your life, to bring about something that God has intended in a specific time, moment or matter for you.

* That word will reveal the character of God -- God always wraps it in love. And it will glorify God. When God speaks, He always speaks truth. He never deceives you. So test the word. Find out what that word is all about.

Perhaps during this season of fasting and praying, or perhaps you've been in your Bible drawing closer to God, and you've got a word for the year. What does that mean? What I generally surmise from that is that people got a word of direction or a word to meditate on for the year. And generally they've heard God's voice -- that God has been speaking to them through a word, and they get a specific Scripture about it. Well, what do you do with that word? And how do you get all that God wants you to glean from that word?

Some steps to do with that word so that that word becomes power, that word becomes part of you as God personally spoke it to you.

 (1) Get a piece of paper or a card and write it down. Write it in your own handwriting. It does something for you to be more involved and it becomes more part of your life. Post it or put it somewhere you will use it (in your Bible, in your journal, on your bathroom mirror) Many of you memorize that word. Make it a part of you. Then you can meditate on it. When you meditate on it, God then can enlarge that word in your life. He makes it a part of your life to continue to speak to you, to direct you, to guide you in situations. 

(2) Go back to your Bible and read that word in context. What does that mean? [Read] the story around it or the situation around that one scripture. We get a more in-depth understanding of what was happening to understand the voice of God. 

> Read the entire chapter or a few verses before and a few verses after it. 

> Understand why God was saying what He was saying at that moment and then why God is saying it to you at this particular time because once you read it in context, you have a greater understanding of the voice of God, of the heart of God, of what God is doing and you will invoke the Holy Spirit to begin to teach you to begin to direct you, to give you guidance in living that word, applying that word. 

(3) What is that word saying to you? Look up the words. Do not be presumptuous that you just know what each word means. (Old Testament = Hebrew words; New Testament = Greek words)

> I will take a scripture and a blank piece of paper. Take each word of that scripture. List one word on a line, straight down the page. Use Strong's Concordance & Webster's 1812 Dictionary. Then write out the meanings, definitions. Read it all together as one scripture. Allow the Holy Spirit to give you clarity of what's going on. 

(4) Examine the situation. When God spoke that word to you, what was going on in your life when you heard that word? Explain enough what was going on in your life when you got this word. Because that is going to help you understand the why of the word. It will help understand the action behind the word. 

(5) Allow God to work that word through your life. Invite the Holy Spirit to take that word and move among that word in your life. Allow God through the power of His Holy Spirit to work and act and be on your behalf. 

* Don't just put the word on a shelf and every now and then think about that word. 

Because when God speaks a word, He's doing something -- it's special, something directly for you, between you and God. 

(6) If it's something that's not too personal, share it with another person. By sharing, you can be encouraged. If it's something that God is calling you to action, it can hold you accountable. It may become their prayer for you. 

(7) Many times, when God gives me a word, I make it a prayer back to God. Ask God to intervene and take action according to that word so that His desired purpose can be achieved through that word. 

That word is God -- God being God to you. 

(8) Know that it is the voice of God. It's His voice falling on me. That word becomes a part of me. As you begin to encounter that word, embrace that word, walk out that word, live that word, you may get to know God in a more intimate way by that word. You may love to a greater level of trust in God. You Amy get to know the ways of God more. 

* See God, when He speaks, He wants us to get to know Him and trust Him.

So don't just get a word and then say, "I've got a direction." Get to know God more intimately. See God working more closely on your behalf. And, really, it can grow you to a depth where you see that this is just me and God. 

Lastly, through this word, I want you to exalt God. This word is for me. >> This word is really so that God will be exalted in your life. Take you attention to the throne of God and see God. Begin to praise God for speaking this word to you. Take the attention off of you and put your focus on Him. 

Through this word, God can be all He wants to be for you and that it does nothing more but to bring greater intimacy between you and God as your hear the voice of God and God directs your steps and you become more like God and you see you need for God in every day situations.