Listening to God

Posted: 2012-04-03 19:51:10 by: David Wilkerson and David Nelson

Listening to God   by David Wilkerson   (with conclusion by David Nelson 4-1-12)

Please read this very good short message by David Wilkerson and at the end I will give a conclusion. This little article sparked my thoughts and what came out in my conclusion was bigger and bolder than I thought it would be.

Most Christians don't listen to God. They go to Him only to talk! Yet the Scriptures reveal that any person who was ever used of God learned to remain in His presence until hearing from Him.
Scripture makes it clear that the Lord wants to talk to every one of us: "And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left" (Isaiah 30:21).
I heard of a little girl suffering from leukemia who was struggling with the thought of dying. One morning when her mother came into her room, the girl was all aglow and happy. "What has happened to you?" her mother asked.
The little girl answered, "An angel came to me and said I was going on a trip. God came and took my hand and walked with me through a beautiful garden. He told me, 'You're coming here tomorrow to be with Me.'"
God spoke to that little child and took all the pain and fear from her heart. When she left to be with Him the next day, she had total peace.
When you are intimate with Jesus, do you receive direction from Him? Does He tell you what to do and when and how to do it? Some Christians don't believe God does this but Jesus says, "My sheep hear my voice . . . and they follow me" (John 10:27).
In your trial, get alone with Jesus and cry, "Lord, You're the only One who can help me. Only You know the way through this trial, so I'm going to stay here till You tell me what to do."
This is the kind of praying that is pleasing to God. It means stopping everything, all activity. Only then will you hear Him speak clearly to your heart: "You must make things right with this person." Or, "Just stand still till next week. Don't get in a hurry. Sit in My presence and trust Me." He will give you clear directions.

This is a message God has laid very heavy on my heart and I’ve been speaking this message in the past years as often as I can. Many Christians are not hearing from  God. (David Wilkerson says most Christians are not). This is more serious of a problem than we realize. Just about everyone in the Bible who did anything for God heard from God and got instructions from Him. Do we just talk in prayer or do we also hear things from God? God may speak to us at any hour of the day and give us instructions, but have we trained our heart and spirit how to hear and discern His voice?

Here is the cruxt of the matter, the meat, the main thing. Can we say, “I will not move till God moves.” Moses said to the people we move when the cloud moves, we stay when the cloud stays. Moses also said, I will not go Lord, unless you go with us. But we become nervous, we want to push ahead, we want to accomplish and succeed and be active. We ask ourselves, Am I missing His will, am I dull of hearing, am I waiting when I should be doing? The rest is to trust that He will show us what to do. If we are nervous, worried, troubled, that is not rest. Trust that He will speak loud enough and clear enough that we will hear and know what to do and when to do it. “I will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon Me,  because he trusts Me. But don’t we already know what to do, the Bible tells us, just do what it says? Jesus did not heal everyone he saw, only the ones the Father told him to heal. Jesus did not visit prisoners, widows, and orphans every day but as the Father showed him when and where. He only did every day what the Father told him to do, and we are to do the same (do what the Spirit shows us). “You will fulfill all the righteousness of the law who walk by the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:4)

I have wanted nothing more in my life than to preach and teach everywhere, every day, everything God is showing me, but things don’t always happen the way we have imagined. I am preaching and teaching on the internet as God gives me things to write and I go to the places where God has opened a door (or where He has said, you are to go there).

If we can learn to rest and wait upon Him, and hear and move as He speaks, this is what He wants. God is ready to speak and give instructions to each of us. Will we learn to hear? Do we trust that He can speak loud enough and clear enough so that we will not miss His will? First say, “I want to do your will, I want to hear you Lord.” Then say, “I want to have the heart like your servant of old David, a man after God’s own heart, who will do all God’s will in his generation.” I want to have a heart to do all your will Lord. If you are sincere in this and seek the Lord diligently, God will speak to you and show you what to do. Can you say, “I will not move till God moves?” I will not do, till God speaks.  Jesus did nothing on his own authority or of his own initiative but only what the Father showed Him.

This is not a new idea,  this is something old from the Bible. It may sound like something new and daring. But what  good will it be if we build a house that the Father did not tell us to build, we labored in vain. “Unless the Lord builds a house, those who labor, labor in vain.” Noah built an ark, Abraham left his country and heard promises from God,  Moses went back to Egypt to set the Jewish people free, Gideon tore down idols and got a hand-picked army as God showed him what to do, Jesus began His ministry at 30 and ministered for only 3 years, Paul began a new ministry and ended up writing letters to churches from prison, etc. as the Lord gave them all instructions.

God wants us all to come back to a time of instructions. A time where we clear away other things, we wait upon the Lord, know His voice, and do the things He has called each of us to do. We are to be like watchmen on a watch tower and only what we see and hear from the Lord is important. That will be a vision for us to write down and pass on to others as He directs. (our gift to the Church) Your work may be different than you thought or may work out different than you would like, but you will know that God spoke to you and you will know your God. That’s what God wants for each of us now.

You may say this is too scary, it’s too bold, I can’t do it or I won’t do it! Maybe that is why God has so few who are listening to Him and doing exploits? Will you be one of the bold ones who will say, I will wait for God, I will go out where He is and find out what He wants, He will speak, He said I will know His voice (His sheep know His voice), I will wait and hear. He is ready to show someone His daring plan! Are we ready to do what He says? Do we really want to hear God? He is ready for someone to step forward. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. He may give you a Big Idea. If it is His idea it is Big. Enough with man’s mediocre works! Where is the God of Elijah?

David Wilkerson has said in the past that he has built things that God never told him to build. The time is now for us to hear clearly and build what He says.