Hearing His Voice (Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness, Day 8)
This blog has been temporarily overtaken by my Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness Challenge. You can find out more by checking out the Introduction.
Probably one of the greatest assets in this whole journey is an ability to sense the Lord’s voice and leading. Truthfully, this is why we’re even attempting this experiment. We’ve been disconnected and unable to hear. So it’s great that things are beginning to open up as far as my ability to hear His voice.
This morning I was driving to meet with another leader in the body of Christ for breakfast. While I was driving, my mind drifted back to two different friends that I had in my early days as a believer, one in high school, the other in college. Each of these guys turned to Jesus or returned to Jesus during our friendship. In each of these relationships, my hope was that these friends would be life-long buddies who would serve the Lord side-by-side with me. Each of them eventually fell into deep sin and rebellion. One has even publically denied Christ. Neither of these friends had been on my mind prior to that point, but after thinking through each of their situations, the Lord’s voice broke in: “Many are called, but few are chosen.”
When the Lord spoke these words, they hit me like a thunderbolt, and I began to see the biblical parable come alive in my spirit (Matthew 22:1-14). Guests invited to the wedding feast, each making excuses for why they could not come. And then from there I saw others from our day come and talk to Jesus about their busyness. Lord, I have this business to start, Lord my kids have this event they’re part of, etc. My heart was struck by the tenderness of the Lord in the midst of the seriousness of the situation. There are many that are called but few will make the adjustments to be ready for the feast. And I saw all the times I and others had done the same things. My heart was tender. I very much did not want to go to my meeting. I know this is a message that needs to be shared…I share it here because it came as part of this thirty day challenge, but it is so much more than that.
This seems to be one of the increasing realities of this challenge. I get quiet before God and listen. Nothing happens. Then as I’m driving or talking or working, I begin to hear the voice of Jesus. My guess is that being faithful to listen doesn’t just extend to our 30 minutes. It makes us listen better constantly.
One last thing. Tonight he showed me that part of the reason I haven’t heard as much is I haven’t done a few of the things he told me to do previously. Now I’m making a list and going back to finish them. Faithfulness is key in this journey. If you have something the Lord has shown you and you haven’t done it yet…consider this your friendly kick in the pants. Go do it!
So, how have you been hearing His voice lately? Let me know in the comments section.
Join us on the “Thirty Days to Greater Fruitfulness” experiment. For the rest of September we are spending 30 minutes in silent prayer listening to Jesus and then acting on what He asks us to do. Then we blog about the changes that are occurring in our lives through the marriage of listening and obedience. It’s not too late. If you’re just checking out that experiment feel free to jump in. And if you want more information, you can check it out here.
Photo Credit: September WallPaper Calendar by DewDreams
Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness: Week One
This blog has been temporarily overtaken by my Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness Challenge. You can find out more by checking out the Introduction.
The following posts were from the first week of our Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness Challenge:
Day 1 Distractions and Peace
Day 2 The Cost of Disobedience
Day 3 Strengthened To Obey
Day 4 Confusion
Day 5 Answers, Dialogue, and Faith
Day 6 The First Signs of Fruit
Day 7 Avoiding Busyness
Join us on the “Thirty Days to Greater Fruitfulness” experiment. For the rest of September we are spending 30 minutes in silent prayer listening to Jesus and then acting on what He asks us to do. Then we blog about the changes that are occurring in our lives through the marriage of listening and obedience. It’s not too late. If you’re just checking out that experiment feel free to jump in. And if you want more information, you can check it out here.
Photo Credit: Calendar by Adreanna Moyer Photography
Food For Thought: Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness
Every week here at Pursuing Glory I try to bring together the best posts I’ve found that will equip the end-times church to operate in her God-ordained destiny. These are the best blogs, articles, books and other resources related to our purpose here at this site. Feel free to visit, comment, and make use of the resources found at each site.
I just finished my first week of my Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness challenge. I’m really excited about the results so far, but blogging every day has definitely taken a lot out of me, especially when I was already in the middle of other series. I’m also going to include a link at the bottom of every “Food For Thought” throughout this month that will direct you to a post that contains the Thirty Day Fruitfulness posts from the previous week.
An Analysis of Jim Belcher’s “Deep Church” This is a guest post by John Zens on Frank Viola’s blog Reimagining Church. John looks at the issues found in the book Deep Church that I hear repeated throughout the body of Christ but seem to be missing the point. John argues that we need to stay true to our biblical foundations in search of a “deep church.”
Discipleship within simple/organic/house churches Felicity at Simply Church blogs about a common spiritual discipline that allows mutliplying house churches to disciple new converts quickly and effectively. We’ve been using this process for a year now with some significant fruit.
Organic Discipleship @ The Jesus Virus Ross Rhodes has written a phenomenal guide to discipleship within organic communities that contains too many posts to list here individually. If you’re part of an organic church, check out “What Is Organic Discipleship,” “Organic Discipleship #1 The Place of the Bible,” “Organic Discipleship #2 The Place of Prayer,” “Organic Discipleship #3 The Bible In Community,” “Organic Discipleship #4 Prayer in Community,” and “Organic Discipleship #5 Pray for the Lost.”
Lessons Eusebius Taught Me Maurice Smith at Parousia Network Cyber Cafe reflects on his journey through Ecclesiastical History by Eusebius, the 3rd Century Christian historian. He shares eight lessons that the house church movement and the larger body of Christ can definitely benefit from.
Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness: Week One Check out what we’ve been doing here at this blog through out the Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness Challenge.
Photo Credit: Design Probes – Food for Thought by centralasian.
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 