How does God speak to us?
How does God get His message across to you? Do you find Him talking to you as you read the bible, in a person, in prayer or even a song. There are many ways that He speaks to us. Just as in yesterdays blog, the way He speaks will be different for each of us. Some people can miss the huge sign in front of them that says “ God Loves You” but will hear that message in a song they hear.
The best way for me to hear God is to listen to music. Music definitely speaks to my heart and soul. When I started back to Him, the first thing I did was break out some of the cd’s I had of christian artists, loaded them into my iPod and added a christian radio station to my car’s preset stations. I do a lot of thinking in my car as I drive all over the state and surrounding states. That is my down time most of the times. If I am tense or something is bothering me, I get in my car for a drive. Now, with the radio station and iPod I am able to focus on God as I am driving. It helps bring home the messages of God and the life that I want to live.
Another way for me to hear God has been thinking on what I should write about in the blog. It starts as thinking then it turns into me asking for God’s help to see what I should be writing about. How the blog came about was, one night I was trying to find a way to share what I am doing to come back to the life of God and Church. Nothing was really hitting me. Maybe I thought I was just to focus on my own faith and not worry about anything else that goes along with it but, for me what brought me closer to God in the past was sharing the journey with others. I just can’t internalize God for myself, I have to externalize Him as well. I went to bed unsure how to do this. Then I woke up out of a deep sleep and was like I need to start a blog about this. Granted at first I was like “ Did I really need a wake up call on this. Couldn’t it just wait till I woke up myself?”
The wake up call was not just about the blog it was God saying “I am listening to you and I want you to do this.” For five years there was no call for me that I answered. I had blocked all the calls from God. I started to look at the caller ID when I was asked to be Godfather but still wasn’t listening to voice mails. Then when I started to listen to the music again, I was hearing the messages God was leaving for me to hear. Now, with the wake up call, I was answering Him and not letting it go to voicemail anymore. There was no more of that feeling to hit ignore.
No matter how God speaks to you, take it from me, listen. God will speak to you the best way you can hear Him. We just have to open ourselves to the ways He speaks to us and to look for the ways we hear Him best.
God Bless and until the next blog, turn up the volume so you can hear God speak.
My experience with Baptist/evangelical theology can best be described as a wild Roller Coaster ride: a lot of great psychological, emotional, and spiritual highs and a lot of deep psychological, emotional, and spiritual lows. Why?
ReplyDeleteIn Baptist/evangelical theology, your Justification and your Sanctification---your essence as a follower of Christ...if you boil it all down...is really dependent on you and your feelings. Your salvation is based on you performing an action: making the correct decision… for Christ. And your assurance of salvation is based on you maintaining a sufficient level of feeling Christ’s presence within you that confirms that your previous “decision for Christ” was done correctly and sincerely. Why else would so many Baptists and evangelicals report having multiple “born again” experiences?
Do I feel saved? Do I feel I really repented in my born again experience? Do I feel that I truly had faith when I made a decision for Christ; when I prayed a version of the Sinner's Prayer? If I am really saved, why do I feel at times that my faith is so weak? Maybe I need to do the born again experience again; maybe I need to pray the Sinner's Prayer again, just to be 100% sure that I am saved. I want to know without any doubt that I am saved, and if I do not feel saved, I begin to doubt my salvation.
Baptist/evangelical theology tells me that I will always feel Christ's presence and strength inside me...if I am a true believer. But what if I don't feel him there sometimes? If it is true that I should always be able to hear God speak to me, in an inner voice or feel his inner presence move me/lead me to do his will, what is going on when I don't hear anything or feel anything? Have I committed some unknown sin and he is refusing to hear me? Or is the reason that I don't hear or feel him present within me... is because I'm not really saved!
I was so incredibly happy to find orthodox (confessional) Lutheranism and find out that my feelings have nothing to do with my Justification, my salvation, nor with my Sanctification, my walk with my Savior and Lord! My salvation was accomplished 100% by God. He placed the free gift of salvation in my "lap" before I even considered asking for it. He wrapped me in the "blanket" of salvation without my assistance. I am God's by his choice, not mine!
http://www.lutherwasnotbornagain.com/2013/09/tired-of-baptistevangelical-roller.html