WE CAN HEAR BUT WILL WE LISTEN?
by John Langford…
We have the capacity as Christians to know the will and purpose of God for our lives. There is no mystery to this but, simply a growing conviction that this is the way we are called to walk with our Lord!
The GPS (Global Positioning System) is a worldwide navigation system which is satellite based and used for various purposes to track the location or position of vehicles or vessels on the earth. It is quite an amazing piece of equipment as I recently discovered when using one of these to get up to Heathrow Airport.
This satellite-based system is apparently made up of twenty-four satellites that orbit the earth. These satellites enable someone using GPS in their car to lock onto a signal and travel to a destination using the unit’s electronic map. They are accurate to within a few metres.
The amazing parallel for us as Christians is the GPS of the Holy Spirit within our hearts leading and guiding us in every day life.
“I will talk to the Father, and He’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth.” So, if the Holy Spirit dwells within every believer then we have our own internal GPS operating 24 hours a day leading us into reality and life.
The GPS – our friend
“You are My friends if you do what I command you.” He is able and willing to lead us on in every aspect of life. We need to understand that friendship with God necessitates listening to the voice of the Father within our hearts.
The Holy Spirit is eager for us to learn to follow and trust His voice. “He will teach you all things.” That statement will encourage us to trust Jesus so completely that responding to His voice within will become life changing for us. Thank you Father for sending the Holy Spirit to live within us to teach, lead, guide and encourage us in our destiny. How do we run a home, raise children, build a business or share the Good News? He will, as our Friend, give us the wise counsel we need to grow up to become more like Himself as well as give us the necessary wisdom to answer those earlier questions.
Asking questions
When Jenny and I laid to rest a style of ministry entrusted to us we did so believing that the Holy Spirit had made it quite clear that this was His purpose for our lives.
We had people come to us and ask us certain questions about this move. Whose authority will you now come under? What about teaching? Will you still meet regularly? One or two folk even told us that we were depriving the body of Christ of our gifting and ministry.
Although we do appreciate checking things out with those we love and respect in the Lord about major changes in life, we realised that these questions were not the real issue. The right question to ask was, “Is this God calling you to lay down ministry?” It can be disconcerting to be asked certain questions and although we thought about them during this time we soon realised that God had made His desire for us, as a family, very clear and we were going to follow the Lamb where He wanted us. The GPS of your heart may be urging you to take steps to follow at this stage and my encouragement to you is to allow Him to lead you in His ways.
The Pros and Cons
How often have we heard believers use the phrase “Let’s weigh up the pros and cons, when making a decision” Or, God will open a door of opportunity for me! Yes, there are times when in His gracious love for us He does open up a door of opportunity, but, what about when two or three legitimate doors open? It is then that we need to enquire what the Holy Spirit wants of us at this particular time. The only way to follow the Lamb is to listen to the Holy Spirit within our hearts ‘Father God’s Sat Nav’
What will it take?
Have you ever wondered what it would take to bring about the glory of God in the earth today? The answer to that question is found in John, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
Jenny and I had to learn that fruitfulness was a result of listening to the Holy Spirit within us and following Him even when we did not fully understand at the time.
How graciously Jesus began to work in our lives by changing our focus away from a ‘performance’ oriented way of life to embracing what He has for us at any given time.
If you have had any kind of ministry profile, let it die, so that new life may begin within you! There is no hurry in this process of transformation, take time to listen, reflect and then act!
I implore you, as a fellow traveller; let us go on in Jesus, directed by the GPS of Heaven into an amazing freedom that He intended for us as His people.
Relationship & Fellowship
We have not been left as orphans. We can cry Abba, Father because we are sons and daughters of our heavenly Father. The moment we were born again we were adopted into His family and a relationship with the King of Kings was established through His shed blood. We are part of His family and without a doubt we are in relationship with God. He also wants us to experience fellowship or shared life with Him moment by moment, day after day so that the family likeness will grow and flourish. People will know he or she is one of God’s kids! We need to treasure and guard that element of our heart where life springs forth and through fellowship with the Father so enjoy chatting with Him and expressing love to Him throughout the day. This will become a lifestyle of worship and the Father seeks worshippers!
The cost and the call
“This is a hard teaching, who can accept it, cried the early disciples of Jesus when He spoke about drinking His blood and eating His body. The disciples would surely understand what Jesus was teaching here, but they did not listen with their hearts but rather with their ‘reasoning minds’ the scripture goes on to tell us that from that time on, “Many disciples left Him and followed Him no longer.”
When He asks the twelve if they wanted to leave also? their response is different. “We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” I don?t think they fully understood what He was asking even then, but they heard something in their hearts and chose to follow Jesus. The cost of following Jesus will produce within our lives richness beyond measure. Peter understood more fully on the beach some time later when Jesus asked him another question, “Do you love Me more than these?”
How encouraging to know that the GPS within our hearts will make clear the Father’s will and purpose for our lives. We can hear Him and follow His promptings. No matter what the future looks like it is always comforting to hear those words, “Follow Me!”
[by John Langford]