Friday, July 16, 2010

Getting to Hear God's Voice, Tuning your Receiver

One of the greatest benefits of our salvation has to be that of hearing God speak to us personally. There can be no intimate relationship with our heavenly Father without it. But, as easy as it is for us to speak to Him, most of us believers have a hard time hearing His voice.


This is not the way the Lord intended it to be. This is an abnormality. We are spirit beings who should live in the supernatural, as its the parent realm and faith is what reconnects us back into that realm from this physical realm we live in.

Learning to clearly distinguish God's voice is invaluable. Instead of going through life blindly, we can have the wisdom of God guide and protect us. There isn't a single person reading this letter who couldn't have their life radically transformed by hearing the voice of the Lord better. If you have sickness or disease, one living word from the Lord will instantly heal you. If you are in financial crisis, the Lord knows exactly how to turn your situation around. It's just a matter of hearing His voice. You might be at the brink of death and yet one tiny piece of information could tremendously save your life.

For example some URA staff could have been involved in the bomb blasts at Kyadondo if it wasnt for CG's invitation to the drive in at NIP. Maybe the Lord was behind that very unusual gesture, but the point is that God was behind the protection of the URA staff from that explosion.

The Lord constantly speaks to us and gives us His direction. It's never the Lord who is not speaking, but it's us who are not hearing. Jesus made some radical statements about hearing His voice in John 10:3-5. He was speaking about Himself as the Shepherd of the sheep and the only way to enter the sheepfold.

"To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice; and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers."

Notice that He said in verse 3, His sheep hear His voice. He didn't say His sheep CAN hear His voice or SHOULD hear His voice. He made the emphatic statement that His sheep DO hear His voice. Its like saying Living beings breath air, period. So as a sheep you have been inbuilt with a God hearing device, the question is whether you use it.

Most Christians would question the accuracy of the above statements since their experiences don't line up with what I am saying. But it's not what Jesus said that is wrong; all true believers can and do hear the voice of God; they just don't recognize that what they are hearing is God's voice.

Radio, television and mobile phone transmitters send out signals twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week; but we only hear them when we turn the receiver on and tune it in. A mobile phone is a receiver as well. Failure to hear the signal doesn't mean the station isn't transmitting. If your phone loses network it is not the problem of MTN or Warid.

Likewise, God is constantly transmitting His voice to His sheep, but few are turned on and tuned in. Its just like saying that God is always posting emails to your mailbox, but the question is ...do you access it and read them, before you complain that God is not communicating?

Most Christians are busy pleading with God in prayer to transmit when the problem is with their receivers. They are haranging God to drop them directions when they do not open their mailboxes which are incidentally very accessible.

The first thing we need to do is fix our receivers or get into the habit of accessing and reading our spiritual emails — believe that God is already speaking or sending emails and now it is time for you to embark on listening in or reading your messages.

However, note that is gonna take you time, some serious persistence, and steady focus. The average Christian's lifestyle is so hectic, it isn't conducive to hearing God's voice. In URA with all the pressure and balanced score card and perfomance objectives, life has become even more hectic.

For instance, what is your typical answer to the question, "How are you?" Many of you probably answer something about being very busy or something like "very stressed". I often say, "I'm busier than a mother with triplets." All of us seem to be busier than ever, and that's one of the BIG reasons we don't hear the voice of the Lord better. This is the trend everywhere.

We're just too busy. There's hardly any space for quiet time even for our earthly darlings. We are just super busy, we even take work home with or without good planning. Everything is an emergency. Any time that we free up is promptly taken up by entertainment, fellowship or overnights. There is always stuff that is awaiting.

Psalm 46:10 says,

"Be still, and know that I am God."

It's in stillness, not busyness, that we tune our spiritual ears to hear the voice of God. You can only know God when your engine is in idle state rather than in motion. The Lord always speaks to us in that "STILL, small voice" (1 Kings 19:12, emphasis mine), but often it's drowned out amid all the turmoil of our daily lives. We run a very tight ship.

Second, and this is very important, most often we mistake the voice of the Lord for our own thoughts. That's right. I said the voice of the Lord comes to us in our own thoughts. Its like when your stomach rumbles to your mind about hunger, you wont say my stomach is hungry. Instead it comes out of your mouth as if its your thought. You say to yourself, i need to eat in a monotone or self-tone.

In the same way your spirit Man speaks to your brain or mind what he receives from God. Your new man communicates telepathically with God- The Holy Spirit and the two are in perfect harmony as your spirit is IDENTICAL to Jesus. One Spirit speaks to another spirit. Both are in the spirit realm, your body/mind which is in the physical realm simply captures it, as a thought and converts the thought into audio format when u speak or verbalize your thoughts

John 4:24 says,

"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

This is saying that communication with God is Spirit to spirit, not brain to brain or mouth to ear, the way we communicate in the physical realm. The Lord speaks to our spirits, not in words, but in thoughts and impressions. Then our spirits speak to our minds which we capture in our imagination or subconscious in thoughts and convert to words like, "I think the Lord wants me to do this or that."

The Lord doesn't typically say "You do this or that," like a second voice from outer space, but He will impress your spirit to do something, and then your spirit says, "I think I should do . . ." when it dawns on your mind. Therefore, we often miss the leading of the Lord, thinking it's our own thoughts.

Every one of us has done something that we later regretted afterwards saying, "I knew that was the wrong thing to do. Something tried holding me back but I insisted" We didn't feel right about our decision, but we followed reasoning or logic or pressure rather than intuition only to find that our impression was right all along and that it was actually the Lord speaking to us. Sometimes it is our senses or the carnal nature that clouds God's leading.

I learned this the hard way when I started making bricks for my house using the soil on my plot. Before I went into the venture something was holding me back and telling me to instead buy.

Initially I had incurred serious losses with the very 1st "tanulu" or Kiln when I began construction. Now later as I made bricks for the perimeter wall I felt an impression to quit the idea with the 1st porter handling the project. Matter of fact that "tanulu" had even collapsed during the baking process.

So I hired a more skilled porter but immediately my heart was not at peace with this guy, yet physically he was more energetic and skilled. I reasoned a lot with keeping this fellow at my premises as I gave him other duties apart from brickmaking in his free time. The truth is that guy was hardworking although he was a habitual drunko and sometimes he would steal our food which was in the store adjacent to his living quaters, to fund his drinking habit.

To cut the story short 2 years later this guy became the devil himself, there is hardly anything I ever profited in any of the work he undertook. Things would seem like they are shifting but then turn out badly in the end. On top of being a theif, I discovered that he had abondoned his family and kept rejecting my calls for him to get saved after preaching grace to him on many ocassions. Can u imagine my wife through her intuition felt that we should terminate his work immediately, however, being a man, I went with logic or my reasoning instead of my heart. I made some of the worst losses in terms of where I used the money for the house.

It was a terrible experience. As soon as this man showed his true colors, I knew in my heart that the feelings and thoughts I had were the Lord speaking to me, and I had dismissed them as my own. I made a decision there and then that I would never ignore my heart again.Sometimes we call this intuition but it needs to backed by scripture to know that it is not carnal. Women especially, have great intution developed from being mothers.

Psalm 37:4 says,

"Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart."

This verse has often been interpreted to mean that the Lord will give you whatever you want and has been used to justify selfish mortives, greed, and even adultery. But it doesn't mean that the Lord will give you whatever you want; it means that when you are seeking the Lord, He will put His wants or desires into your heart. He will make His desires become your desires. The Lord changes your "want tos." Then you will find that when u want something its like God himself wanting it, and God always gets His wants met.

A friend of mine survived the Sunday bomb blast because he got a sudden urge to go to the loos at the precise moment of the explosion. Again many guys survived because they decided to go to a different place on that fateful day.

I for one had prepared to hang out that night and watch that cup final in an unsual place with my Wife, but I was interrupted by a late night visitor. Who knows I could have ended up there and we'd be both dead. Actually towards the start of the match I lost interest in going out and this was compounded when my wife suddenly abondoned the idea of partying that night.

That is the dominant way the Lord speaks to us, and we often miss that kind of communication. Its like missing timely intelligence information and then you wind up with a bomb blast.

As believers we need to get into the habit of listening. Some people who have advanced in these things have setup personal listening posts already. This is the best intelligence information you can get even it sounds crazy.

Am in the midst of making one of the most important decisions of my life. Ever since the Lord touched me with the revelation of Grace I have began feeling I should not be where I am currently. My desires have changed, and I don't want to be in a certain place anymore. And following those new desires, I intend to make a radical decision to quit.

There are many risks with that decision and I am sure some people might hate me for being "unreasonable". But when I look at the prospects and the divine purpose of my decision I know this is not the work of the devil. I stand to lose many opportunities, friends and about 1.2 million per month in Salary, plus possible hindrance in supporting the education of my children, but I also stand to gain much much more.

Madness is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result each time. I have been buried at this place for over 13 years with fear to make a radical decision, and as a result I have not experienced radical changes in my life. If you aim at nothing you hit nothing. If you aim at the stars you could easily hit the moon.

I have toyed with this idea since 2009, because of these adverse risks to my decision, I had backed off for a while and I have been absolutely miserable. This has been going on for 1 year and I feel I cannot take it anymore, I just know that I have to move and If I do It will spark off a series of activities in the spirit realm that are mainly to my benefit and calling.

When I read Romans 14:23, it says,

"Whatsoever is not of faith is sin."

With this verse I realize It is sin to be undecided and yet I feel the time is now. By the way the bible says the Just shall live by faith and that those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham, its like faith drives you into the spirit realm away from the physical carnal realm.

Back in the old testament people were spiritually dead but God was able to use them mightily whenever they put their faith in Him. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Samson were not exactly holy but God used them and yet He considered them friends. These guys were not saved, but through their faith they experienced God's power and were in a sense saved on Credit.

We are supposed to walk by faith and not sight. It is always better to make a mistake in faith than ignore God's leading. There is a strong connection between faith and the supernatural realm. Even non believers who follow intuition and God's promptings are far better than believers who do not and have gotten all rational and confused with indecision, double mindedness resulting from mixing law and grace.

Anyway I am determined to make a faith decision and I believe I will stick with it. As I pray and study the Word for guidance, let me share Colossians 3:15, which says,

"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts."

The Lord will always lead you into the direction that gives you the most peace. To be truthful, I don't have total peace in any direction, whether to stay or move on but just as an umpire has to make a decision and stick with it, I need to make the call. I have the most peace about quitting this place, so I intend to make the call and step out of indecision into faith, to the best of my understanding.

Already in my Spirit I feel like The Lord has already began giving me such confirmation and joy that I have no doubt about the decision. I know there will be an avalanche of opportunities and activity in the spirit realm the moment I put pen to paper. Somehow my sitting on the fence is holding up so many things including the deployment of angels to their assignments. Its that serious guys.

That one decision, possibly more than any other, might set my life on a course that might bring me to the place I never dreamt I would be. It seems I have not been living up until now.

I am convinced that our gracious heavenly Father speaks constantly to every one of His children in this way, giving us all the information and guidance we need to be total overcomers. There isn't a problem with His transmitter; it's our receiver that needs help, its our mailbox that needs sorting out. Its our mails that need to be read, its that intelligent piece of infomation that needs to be processed in a timely manner.

Most people are imploring God to speak, when it's our inbuilt hearing device that needs to be adjusted. Taking this faith-stance that God is speaking and then learning to listen and obey will transform your relationship with the Lord. It could even save your life. Am sure that most of the 7/11 survivors in Kampala did something similar to this kind of thing and survived.

If CG had not invited URA staff for the NIP drive in, many URA staff would have been among the dead of 7/11. That invitation could have been the result of a prompting by God.

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