Listening To God

So, in our last exciting installment, Kris was once again up against the ropes and getting the snot beat out of him ....  But, something intervened and Kris got to thinking about John, chapter 8 ...

As I meditated on this exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees, I could not help but focus in on two verses: 43 and 47 :

 ⁴³ Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 
47 Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.

The whole argument revolved around the Pharisees claiming to be family of Abraham, yet planning murder, and Jesus claiming to be of the family of God and claiming innocence.  Neither were talking the other's language, but it was the Pharisees whom were at fault (as usual).

If you want to claim to be a child of the King, you have to be able to speak His language.  Pretty simple really, you don't speak the language - you are not of the family you claim to be.

Listen to what it means to really listen to God.
Psalm 46:10 Be still and know I am God
Psalm 19:1   Heaven declares the glory of God

1.  Quiet!
God is talking!
But you have to get past your distractions to hear Him!
The world
Your games
Your pleasures
You have to stop in order to listen

2. Decide!
You want to really hear what God has to say.
It must be Scripture based.
Not the world's voice.
Not your denomination's voice.
Not your pastor's voice.
Not your favorite TV/radio personality.
Not the author of some book!

It is you reading  your Bible and studying!

3.  Hang On!
God's Word will progress in you!
It is called growth.
There is no spiritual pill.
It all has to be learned, just like knowing His voice in the first place!

4.  Stay On Target!
God's Word is Jesus, the Bible says so.

Keep the message constantly on Jesus - not religions, not denominations, not personal opinion.
The message will never violate His word - it not about spirituality.
The message is God's voice - it can only be Jesus.

*****

And so I sat and thought on this.
It made sense.  I can hear because I know the language.  I am frustrated with others because they have not had a chance to or choose not to learn the language of God.  Driven by desires I can not understand (and really God, it is okay for me not to!).  They live in a world alien to me.

And I have those I do not communicate well with.  We are close and yet artificially distant. Twin sets of protection mechanisms - where none should be called for.

And I prayed for wisdom as to how to proceed.
And I prayed for knowledge to rectify the problems.
And in fear, for it equally could have gone horribly wrong, but it didn't.

And tonight I sit here in peace with at least one resolution in my life .....