The thing I love most about teaching beginners’ classes in prophecy is that look of joy and amazement on people’s faces when they realise that they have heard God’s voice for another person for the first time.

We should never lose the wonder of hearing the voice of God—whether for others or ourselves.

But sometimes over the passage of time, familiarity, staleness, or just plain weariness can rob us of that sense of awe, joy and privilege.

Early last year I was burnt out and in a place where it was difficult to hear from God. But now, the communication—and the wonder—is back.

So, how can we retain or recover the wonder of hearing God’s voice? Here are a few suggestions:

1. Reflect on the Privilege and Power of Hearing God’s Voice

Adam heard the voice of the Lord as He walked in intimacy with Him in the garden. (Gen 3)

And yet later, Moses wondered that Israel had heard God’s voice and lived. (Deut 4:33)

Such was the destructive power of sin on humanity’s relationship with God that upon hearing God’s voice Israel cried out,

‘We will die if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer.’
(Deut 5:25)

The Power of God’s Voice

I have come to realise that the ability, power and strength of the voice of God is far beyond my capacity to perceive.

• Using His voice, God created the heavens and the earth
  (Ps 33:6, Gen 1)

• God’s voice shatters His enemies (Isa 30:31)

• God’s voice is heard in creation’s majesty—the roaring of the waves, thunder and lightning, the events of nature (Ps 29)

John heard His voice like a trumpet (Rev 1:10) and as rushing waters (Rev 1:15); Daniel, ‘like the sound of a multitude.’ (Dan 10:6)

Paul was taken to heaven and heard ‘inexpressible things.’

Reflecting on this causes me to wonder.

2. Consider What Jesus Has Done

That you and I can hear the voice of God and live is a truth that demonstrates His incredible grace.

Jesus reconciled us to God through His death on the cross so that the voice that once threatened death to Israel can bring LIFE to us.

In John 10:27, Jesus said, ‘My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me’.

God desires an intimate relationship with you and I even more than we want it with Him—He created us to fellowship with Him and to hear His voice. He wanted it so much that Jesus paid the ultimate price.

And this causes me to wonder.

3. Remember it is About Relationship

When I was burnt out, it took me a while to realise that I had made the mistake of equating ‘listening to God’ with a type of performance—and I had nothing left to give.

I needed to get back to relationship.

Think about when the phone rings and you pick it up. How different are your responses when the caller is:

• A telemarketer
• Someone you love

You see it’s not about the Voice—but the Person behind the Voice.

When we are in love with Jesus, we look forward to hearing Him speak to us in our everyday lives.

4. Put Yourself in a Place to Encounter Him

We need to position ourselves to encounter God and hear His voice, and what that looks like will be unique to each of us.

For me, it firstly meant recognising and repenting of wrong beliefs that had trapped me in a lifestyle of performance.

I then rediscovered His grace.

It also meant being creative with my devotional life, trying new ways to journal, and discovering a new appreciation for the Bible’s personal message to me.

It meant paying attention to my ‘spiritual pathways’ and realising that spending time with God outdoors and with listening to fresh worship music helped me to personally encounter Him.

As I did these things—as I put myself in a position to encounter God—I began to hear His voice breathing life back into me.

5. Explore the Unique Ways the Holy Spirit Speaks

‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says…’ Rev 2:11

One day we shall look upon Jesus’ face in all His glory, and hear His voice in all its strength. For now, we hear Him speaking to us by His Spirit.

However, we need to realise that God speaking is not like a person speaking.

When we talk about ‘hearing God’s voice,’ we are using an earthly expression to describe a heavenly concept. We simply do not have a framework to understand it

You and I use words, speech and body language to communicate. However, the Holy Spirit has endless ways that He can communicate with us.

We hear His voice, not with our physical ears, but with our heart and our spirit.

Throughout the Bible there are many different ways God spoke to His people.

In the book of Acts alone, we see God speaking through prophecies, dreams, visions, angels, leaders, signs, the inner voice of the Spirit—and so on.
There are many ways in which the Holy Spirit can speak to you. Meditate on what the Bible shares about this and be open to hearing Him in new and fresh ways.

The Wonder Recovered

This year, my sense of wonder has returned.

During the past couple of weeks I have heard God speak to me personally in many ways:

• A conversation with my pastor that rocked my paradigm
• The words of a stranger who walked into our church for the first time
• A lone eagle in the sky during time out with God
• An insight from the Bible that has fed me for days
• Circumstances that could only have been orchestrated by the Holy Spirit

Last week The Hunk and I were ministering when I heard God’s voice for a woman in the room. As I shared the word, I watched her face change from defensiveness, to amazement and delight.

And right at that moment I fell in love with the Holy Spirit and prophetic ministry all over again.

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Related Posts:

Face To Face With God: Can I Have A Relationship Like Moses?

When your Devotional Life Is Dry: How To Fall In Love With The Bible Again

Spiritual Renewal: Café Moments With God

© Helen Calder   Enliven Publishing

Would you like to find out what your spiritual pathway is? I have included a simple assessment at the end of this post.

How do YOU best Connect with God?

A spiritual pathway is a way that you commune with God most effectively and naturally. Utilising your spiritual pathway is a great tool for spiritual renewal.

I first learned about the concept of spiritual pathways reading Bill Hybel’s book, Courageous Leadership.

In the chapter, ‘The Leader’s Pathway’, Bill concisely outlines 7 pathways [1].

I immediately recognised myself in three of these:

1. Worship Pathway

Fresh new worship gives voice to what is on my heart and helps me experience intimacy with Jesus. It is a means of being personally refilled with the Holy Spirit.

A new worship CD, discovery of an anointed song on YouTube or iTunes, especially if it is ‘Live’ worship, refreshes and uplifts me spiritually.

2. Contemplative Pathway

Introverted by nature I love my ‘cave times’ with God. I enjoy spending time alone, praying and reflecting with my Bible and journal—accompanied, of course, by my current favourite worship music.

3. Creation Pathway

Give me wide, open spaces where I can appreciate the beauty of creation, and I am refuelled beyond measure.

My favourite pictures consist of scenic photography and on my computer’s Desktop are inspiring pictures of nature’s beauty.

The Hunk, not surprisingly, is completely different from me in the way he connects best with God. His pathways are:

4. The Activist

My hubby has to be on a mission, fired up for a cause and spreading the fire. One of his favourite sayings used to be, ‘Two thirds of God’s Name is ‘Go.’ Of course, that phrase used to rile this Contemplative up!

5. Relational Pathway

No lone silent retreats for him—The Hunk takes his big strides forward when sharing and praying with other people.

Creation Pathway.

Yes, we do both share this pathway—and are blessed by times spent alone and together in the Great Outdoors!

There are two pathways I haven’t shared here. These are:

6. Serving (Caregiving) Pathway

I have a friend who has a serving pathway—feeling fulfilled and connected to God best when she is busy serving.

7. Intellectual Pathway

Identifying this as a pathway helped me understand a friend who loves hanging out with huge texts and books from ‘Thinkers’ in church history.

Others are Different

Discovering the concept of spiritual pathways has helped me to get closer to God. It has also helped me to appreciate that others do not connect to God the same way that I do.

I have learned not to place expectations on my husband, for example.

I have also learned that my spiritual pathway (or others) is NOT a sign of spirituality or Christian maturity.

Not Being Limited by Spiritual Pathways

As with other tools, such as personality and spiritual gift identification, spiritual pathways has been criticised by some as ‘putting people in a box.’

Personally, I think we should see the concept of spiritual pathways as a starting point, not a limitation, to perceive and discover the way God has wired each of us to uniquely commune with him.

How to use Your Spiritual Pathway to be Refilled with the Holy Spirit

Identifying my spiritual pathways helped me experience renewal when I was suffering from ministry burnout. Like other efforts related to my Christian life, devotional times had become a labour and a duty. I simply had nothing left to give to any task.

When I realised I needed to take deliberate action to be refuelled, I reviewed my spiritual pathways.

Recognising the value of my creation pathway, I began to schedule whole days to go out in the wilds, where I would pray and worship. I would return from these days feeling revitalised and refilled. This simple exercise contributed to my recovery.

Spiritual Pathways Resources:

Bill Hybels’ helpful summary of spiritual pathways draws from Gary Thomas’ book, Sacred Pathways [2]. Gary Thomas adds several other pathways to the mix. These include:

• Traditionalists—loving God through ritual and symbol
• Ascetics
• Enthusiasts

John Ortberg has picked up the concept of spiritual pathways in his book, “God Is Closer Than You Think.”

John Ortberg & Ruth Barton include an assessment based on the above 7 common pathways in their resource, ‘An Ordinary Day With Jesus’

This questionnaire, which I don’t have personally, but was utilised in my church, was helpful. However, I did find their emphasis on the corporate (church) context rather than personal devotional life—especially in the worship pathway—a little disappointing.

A Questionnaire To Help You Discover Your Spiritual Pathway

Following is a simple checklist that can help identify your spiritual pathway, using the 7 pathways described in Bill Hybel’s book, Courageous Leadership [1].

On a scale of 1 to 5, with one being ‘least describes me’ and 5 being ‘most describes me’, label the following points in each group.

Add up your scores and see which pathways you score highest in. These may be your preferred spiritual pathways. Note that like me, you may have more than one.

For a more comprehensive questionnaire, especially if you are leading a group, check out John Ortberg and Ruth Barton’s resource ‘An Ordinary Day With Jesus

Relational

• I love to pray with others and feel God’s presence more when I’m praying with others than when I’m doing it alone.
• I would rather do Bible study & journal with others than alone. I thrive on the discussion that comes out of these times together.
• I love worshipping alongside others
• It is hard for me to have solitary devotional times; I’d much rather be seeking God with others around me, spurring me on (& vice versa!)

Intellectual

• I feel closest to God when my mind is fully engaged
• Give me an intellectually stimulating book any time!
• My best devotional times with God have me poring over commentaries and studying the Bible
• I love research & study; it brings me closer to God

Service / Caregiving

• I feel closest to God when I’m serving
• I feel fulfilled when I’m doing voluntary work
• I am most aware of God’s presence when I’m doing something for Him
• I am happiest when worshipping God by helping others

Contemplative

• I love to spend time in solitude, and busyness drains me
• have a large capacity for prayer and for private worship
• I am a deep thinker; there’s usually a lot going on inside me!
• I would like to put boundaries around my schedule so that I can spend more time alone with God

Creation

• I feel close to God when I’m surrounded by the beauty of nature
• My best devotion times have been moments when I’ve been on a walk, or looking at a view, or staring out to sea…
• The wonders of creation leave me in awe of God
• I love to spend time in the Great Outdoors; that’s where I feel most connected to God

Worship

• I feel closest to God when I’m worshipping Him
• Putting on worship tapes or CD’s add life to my devotional times with God
• I love worship times in the church services; that’s when I feel I touch God
• If I lack opportunities to spend time in worship, I start to feel dry.

Activist

• I feel close to God when I am engaged in ministry at a fast pace
• I am a person of action!
• I thrive spiritually in a highly challenging environment
• I connect with God best when I’m using every ounce of energy to serve Him!

[1] Bill Hybels, Courageous Leadership, 2002, Zondervan, Grand rapids, Michigan

[2] Gary Thomas, Sacred Pathways, 1996, Zondervan, Grand rapids, Michigan

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Related posts:

Spiritual Renewal: Café Moments With God

Spiritual Renewal: How to Receive an Impartation of The Holy Spirit

When Your Devotional Life Is Dry: How to Fall in Love With the Bible Again

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©  Helen Calder    Enliven Publishing

For those readers who are interested in the online prophetic training course, there is a new update here. Read this if you would like to know about the opportunity to receive free prophetic coaching as part of an initial pilot training project.

Welcome to the third in this series of podcasts on the topic of identifying and breaking through barriers to growth in your gift of prophecy.

In this session, I outline

3 kinds of desire that you need to have to grow in your gift of prophecy

**Desire is what motivates us to keep close to God and on track with our spiritual gift of prophecy. Discover how to regain the gift of desire when it has waned.

Some quotes from this podcast:

• be like Elisha who pursued Elijah for his mantle..
• desire the Giver AND His gifts
• If you feel that you have lost that sharp edge of hunger for God and His Presence, it’s time NOW to get back
• love that leads us to desire to help people and grow Jesus’ Church is vital

Click on the message title below to listen to the 12 minute podcast in MP3 format. To save the file to your computer right click on the link and select “Save Link As …” (Firefox) or “Save Target As…” (Internet Explorer).

How to Overcome Blockages In Your Prophetic Gift, Desire

The next in this series of podcasts will be on how to identify and be released from hurts or wounds that you have sustained in relation to your prophetic gift.
__________________________________________________________

Related Posts:

Podcast series:

Pt 1: How to Overcome Blockages and Barriers to Growth in Your Prophetic Gift – Intro

Pt 2: How to Overcome Blockages and Barriers to Growth in Your Prophetic Gift – Identify Your Season

© Helen Calder Enliven Publishing

Like Moses Did, You Can Have Intimacy With God

There is something compelling about the image of Moses speaking directly with God, standing with the cloud of God’s Presence at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. (Ex 33:7-11)

• How did it feel to be that close to God?
• What did God’s voice sound like?
• What must it have been like to know that God wanted to spend time talking personally with Moses—sharing His own intentions and feelings?

Moses had an intimate friendship with God that no one else at that time shared. And yet, this relationship is available to each one of us, should we desire it. (John 15:15, 2 Cor 3:12-17)

It has been said, ‘you are as close to God as you want to be.’ A glimpse of Moses’ prayer life shows us the nearness to God that is possible.

Intimacy—God’s Idea

Our word ‘intimacy’ comes from a Latin word meaning ‘innermost.’

An intimate friend is someone with whom we can share our deepest personal feelings. ‘INTO-ME-SEE’: Intimacy implies a high level of transparency in a relationship.

Intimacy is what Adam and Eve had with God at the beginning of creation, when the Lord walked in the Garden of Eden with them. Intimacy is what they lost when they disobeyed God’s word. (Gen 1-3)

Intimacy of relationship is what Jesus died on the cross to restore; hence, we know it is very important to God. (Gal 4:4-6)

As it has been said—‘If God seems far away, guess who moved?’

God has already done all that He can to restore intimacy with us. He is waiting for us to make the move towards Him.

6 Ways Moses’ Face to Face Relationship Challenges Me

As I contemplate Moses’ friendship with God, here are the truths that confront me:

1. God Wants to be Close to me.

The pillar of cloud moves towards the Tent of Meeting, where Moses has kept his appointment with God.

The depth of God’s desire to spend time with me, and the price He has paid to do so is beyond my ability to comprehend.

• I know He desires to be with me—too often, I move to meet Him hesitantly. Today, I choose to take bold, firm steps towards God

2. There is Always More of God to Encounter

Moses has a ‘face to face’ friendship with God. He speaks with Him in the cloud of His Presence. And yet, Moses is still dissatisfied with his current experience of God.

‘Lord, show me your glory.’ (Ex 33:18)

• There is always more of God to encounter; dare I, like Moses, request it—and what will happen when I do? Lord, show me your glory, increase my capacity to bear it.

3. Intimacy Involves 2-Way Conversation

Moses shares his concerns with God, but he also listens as God shares His own plans, thoughts, and feelings.

There is a place of intimacy, beyond the self-absorbed prayer I have known, where I can move from self-consciousness to GOD-CONSCIOUSNESS.

• I wonder—when was the last time I listened to God as He shared His feelings and plans? Lord, may I hear Your voice today.

4. A Friend or an Onlooker—I Get to Choose

The people of Israel stand at the entrances to their tents, watching in awe as Moses enters the Tent of Meeting.

The people of Israel were onlookers. They saw the distant cloud of God’s presence but did not hear the conversation. All they knew of God’s words were what they heard second-hand from Moses (Ps 103:7)

• Am I content with being an onlooker while others get close to God? …I say, ‘No’…  I want to see You Lord, I want to hear Your voice for myself

5. Withhold, or Disclose my Inner World?

Moses does not hold back his thoughts, his grievances, his desires. His life is an open book to God.

I can open up my real inner self to God because I am safe with Him. Nothing is hidden from God, He knows all about me anyway. His grace is the remedy for my weakness, His forgiveness the remedy for my sin.

• God says, ‘Come to Me as you are.’ (Heb 10:19-22) Will I reach for more of the intimate relationship with God that Jesus has paid the price for?

**One day when my daughter was small, we were walking to church when it started to rain. I shrunk against the side of the building to avoid the damp; after all, the rain would spoil my hair. My daughter leapt out into the rain, her arms flung wide, yelling out, ‘I just want to get wet!’ That’s the attitude I want to have towards the Presence of God. The Kingdom is for the children (Matt 18:3)–will you join me?

The people of Israel stand at the entrances to their tents, watching in awe as Moses enters the Tent of Meeting. The pillar of cloud, which has been leading the people of Israel in their journey out of Egypt, moves towards the entrance of the tent. Now it stays, positioned at the doorway, while the LORD speaks with Moses

‘face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.’

(Ex 33:7-11)

Related posts:

Spiritual Renewal: Cafe Moments With God

© Helen Calder    Enliven Publishing