Scripture Reference
The Lord, the Author of Communication
I just want to say up front: I, by no means am going to tell you how God might desire to communicate with you in particular. An infinite, omnipresent Father with
the backing of the Holy Spirit has a multitude of way to communicate with His children. And while He could, in theory, have a unique way of communicating with every
individual on the planet, I think there are some common threads to how He communicates. I'm going to list a few here, in no particular order, before we get started into the what
of His communication.
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Prayer - this is where we dialog with the Lord. Well, that's the intent. I think a lot of people--and I'm guilty of this too--do a lot of talking, but rarely hang around long enough
to listen to what God may want to say back to us. If that's you, I have a challenge question for somethihg for you to later in this series.
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Scripture - God's Word really is God's Word. As you spend time reading, studying and meditating on Scripture, you will see how God uses it to communicate timeless truths with
guidance and direction for life.
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Creation - Romans 1:20 speaks of us being able to understand God's qualities through what He has created. When I think of this, I think back to a trip I took many years ago to
Kenya. It was striking to me how much closer I felt to the Lord during those times when we were completely surrounded by nothing but His creation--nothing man-made and no distractions.
- Holy Spirit - John 14:26 says the Holy Spirit will teach us all things and remind us of everything the Lord has said. The Holy Spirit is only permitted to echo the things God is
saying. You could say the Holy Spirit is the Father's biggest advocate. And the Holy Spirit is your biggest advocate to the Father. The Holy Spirit thrives when we are in
unencumbered communication with the Lord.
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Other Believers - Proverbs talks about the importance of having advisors or wise counsel in our lives. I can't tell you how many times someone has asked me for my advice or wisdom
about something, and when I tell them they say, "You know, everyone I've talked to has said the same thing." And my response is usually, "Sounds like God is trying to tell you something."
The Lord has strategically surrounded you with people He also communicates with. And sometimes what He wants to tell you, He will tell to someone in your life. (Hmmmm, this sounds like a
good topic for a devotional of its own.)
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Visions - This might be less common for most believers. Perhaps you've never experienced a vision or had a dream that spoke to your Spiritual life. There have definitely been a few
times in my life where a vision or a dream have been so powerful that they were life-changing. And the Scriptures are loaded with kings, prophets, and apostles who had visions and dreams that
guided them where God was taking them.
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Circumstances - I do think God can and does speak to us through circumstances, but I also think that sometimes we rely too heavily on circumstances. It's easy to lend too much credence
to circumstances, becuase we can see those unfold right before our eyes. Not much about circumstances is unseen. But our hope is in what is not seen! For me personally, God sometimes
uses circumstances to get my attention about something, but it's just that--to get my attention, so I can then start looking for other ways to know precisely what He might be telling me to do.
Not an exhaustive list by any means. So, I would just encourage you to really seek to understand the ways God communicates with you.
List #1 - Communication No-Brainers
In case you haven't figured this out yet, I love to communicate in lists--numbered, bulleted, starred, checked, whatever. I guess it's the mathemetician or computer programmer in me,
but I love a good list! So, I would love to break down this whole idea of discerning what you're hearing, seeing or sensing from God by listing out what I would call no-brainers.
We are going to center our discussion on James 3:13-18. Here is the Word from the ESV:
Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition
in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist,
there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a
harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
While God often wants to communicate to us a positive direction to take or a beneficial goal to pursue, sometimes His communication has to do with just cleaning up poor behavior, bad habits, and
unrighteousness in our lives. I will wrap up this week's devotional challenge with a list I'm going to call this the "no-brainer" list. Pulling these from verses 14 thru 16:
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Bitter jealousy - Not really sure why James chose to add "bitter" to jealousy. That word "bitter" in the Greek comes from a root word that means piercing or cutting. I would argue
that all jealousy fits into that category in one way or another. Maybe James is just emphasizing how jealousy works or what it accomplishes.
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Selfish ambition - There's a saying that pride is the mother of all sins. But, selfish ambition is right up there. Maybe it's the aunt or sister. Sorry ladies. Or the uncle or
brother. Whenever we are going after worldly pursuits and things of the flesh, we are moving away from the pursuits God has designed for us.
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Pride (boasting) - And there's the mother of all sins right on the heels of selfish ambition. Pride says, "I'm folding my arms, standing my ground, and doing things my own way."
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Being false to the truth - Kind of an unusual phrase, but likely means ignoring or turning away from what we know to be the truth to pursue the lies of the Enemy--and according to the
Greek words there, to do that deliberately or intentionally. This is where we says, "I know the truth, but I'm going to intentionally ignore that or turn away from to do what I want to do."
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Following earthly, unspiritual or demonic ways - You may be, like, "I'm not a saint, but I don't think I'm doing anything demonic." But maybe some of what you're hearing or sensing is
demon-like. That is, going contrary to the ways of God. The Bible often calls these pursuits "earthly"--lacking the direction or guidance or prompting of the Holy Spirit.
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Disorder - When our own lives are in chaos, there's no room for peace. And the Lord wants us to pursue peace.
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Vile practices - Or evil practices. Gonna yield again to the Greek here. These are ethically bad, wicked, worthless practices. Another picture painted here by the Greek is when we
take the easy way out of a situation. Following the Lord's ways and practicing righteousness is very often the most difficult path you can take. Many times the easy way out means compromising
where we stand.
I hope you made it this far into this devotional challenge. This is important. Whenever you wonder if what you're hearing or sensing is from God, you can rest assured that if it is in regard to cleaning
up anything from the list in your life, it is most definitely coming from the Lord. That is, it's a no-brainer! You don't ever have to say, "I've realized that I have this bitter jealousy in my life.
I wonder if it's God trying to tell me something about that." Or, "man, some things in my life are just flat out evil. Surely that can't be God revealing that to me." So, yes, yes, yes, it absolutely
is God trying to tell you that!
God wants us to pursue an intimate relationship with Him. He wants us to be about work that is for the benefit of the Kingdom. He knows that unrighteousness in our lives is always, always, always going
to hinder our ability to love Him, serve Him, love others, and draw people to Him. We don't need a cloud of witnesses or a thundering from the skies or confirmation from circumstances to know we are
hearing from God on these. Now, we may need some help on how to fix those things in our lives, but not on the fact that the Lord wants us to address them.
Next time, I'll give you a list and hopefully some guidance on discerning when it's not so clear if we are hearing from the Lord. In the meantime, as you read through the "no-brainer" list, something may have
checked in your spirit that you need to work on eliminating from your life.
Challenge Questions
These questions will give you something to think through, pray about, spend time with God on this week. Maybe you can talk through these with a trusted peer, mentor or leader. Keep writing stuff down!
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Looking at the list of how God communicates with us, what's something that stood out to you that could be a beneficial way for God to communicate with you that you weren't aware of
or aren't practicing?
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How could your time with the Lord change to allow you to better be able to listen to His communication?
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Have you been relying too much on circiumstances and not enough on God's other ways to communicate? If so, how? And how might you remedy that?
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As you read through the "no-brainer" list, was there something, or may be a few somethings, in there that caught your attention?
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How are those "negatives" manifesting themselves in your daily life? In other words, what practices do you see that may need to be addressed?
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Taking one or two of those "negatives", what are some things that you can specifically be doing this week to address those?
You may want to go back and read the devotionals on setting Spiritual goals.
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Who is someone--a peer or a mentor or an advisor in your life--that you could talk to this week to seek out some guidance and wisdom about those areas you need to address?
Praying Us Out
Lord, we just stop right now and acknowledge, maybe for the first time, that You are the author of communication. We submit to You that You are not a God of confusion and chaos. That You are
not a God who withholds love and guidance from Your children. That you are not a God who hides or shies away from those You love. Holy Spirit, help us to identify places in our lives that we
really don't need much more communication about--those areas where what we look at, listen to, and pursue are just plain driving us away from You and not to the safety and security of Your
protection and care. We love you Oh Lord, our strength. You are our rock, our fortress and our deliverer. Our God, our rock, in whom we take refuge, our shield, the horn of our salvation,
our stronghold. We call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and we are delivered from our enemies. Thank you Father. We love you. We lift up the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
