Last Night! How to Hear! -- plus, Recap

So far Pastor David Chotka has covered

the first two steps to “Hearing God’s Voice.”

People, even from other churches,

are coming to him to pray!

Recap …

Day 1: The first step to knowing and hearing God is the Word of Christ. And Pastor David called all of us to repent of our lack of passion for God’s Word. It is a clear speaking and teaching, available every day.

Last Night, Day 2:

When most of us say “we want to hear God,” we mean that we want audible, discernible words to be spoken to us. So Pastor David’s first key point was to remind us that words are a secondary form of communication in every mind. Words are merely expressions of a deeper language – pictures, feelings, and impressions.

To prove this he said, “Try not to think of an elephant.”

Did anyone immediately call to mind the letters E-L-E-P-H-A-N-T? No. We all saw a picture of a big gray animal in our mind. That’s our primary communication language!

Then he said something like, “Try not to think of an elephant in love with cactus.” Immediately we saw pictures in our head AND we could FEEL as little bit of the poor elephant’s unrequited and rather prickly love. Every culture may use different words, but we ALL have a common picture in our head for elephants and common feelings in our heart for love. That’s our primary language.

So if our primary language is pictures, feelings, and impressions, then how does God – our creator – generally speak?! (Ahhh! We’ve been listening for the wrong thing!)

With that, Pastor David began focusing then on how God speaks through the Witness of Spirit.

His key verse was Colossians 3:15 -- let the peace of Christ be the “referee” within your hearts. When we are faced with a decision, we should “weigh our options,” by taking it to the Lord in prayer. As we contemplate these options, one should begin to bring us peace, while with the other options we should feel the peace begin to diminish. That’s the Holy Spirit! The peace is refereeing! It is showing us God’s will.

It’s as simple as that!

But here’s the complication … We’re sinful. We want what we want. We often “hear” what we want to hear. We can easily lie to ourselves.

That’s where Day 1 and tonight’s Day 3 come in.

• The first check, discussed on the first night, is whether our peace is in line with the Word of God? (Indeed, the more we saturate our lives with the Word of Life, we’re less likely to find peace in ungodly options anyway! 

• Tonight we will cover some of the finally checks, including accountability through faithful friends who are Christians. Pastor David says, “Who should you check your feelings with? Faithful followers with a sweet, sweet spirit!” 

These are practical suggestions – saturated in scripture and told through lots of real life examples. 

Tonight's the Night - How to Hear God!

Pastor David Chotka discussed:

How to hear the wonderful,

mysterious “voice of God.”

“Except it’s not mysterious,” he says.

“It should be normal!”

Recap …

Last Night – Before we can “hear the voice of God,” last night we learned about the necessary precondition to hearing. Pointing out a huge problem in every western church, Pastor David called us as individuals to repent of not spending enough time in the word.

8:30 Sunday Sermon – “You can’t grow, Til you say what you know.” Along the road to Emmaus (Luke 24), two disciples did not know of Easter yet. All they could speak about was what they knew – which included crucifixion, questions, worries, and doubt. But when they “said what they knew” – even imperfectly – Jesus met them there.

Too many of us shy away from speaking, fearing we’ll say something wrong (or fearing that our questions may not seem holy enough). This story encourages us to speak honestly – for example, “I fight intentionally every day to believe … in spite of my grief.” Say it, he says, and watch the level of faith rise (in you and those you tell it to).

Sunday School – There’s a pattern, he said: 1) a few small disagreements, 2) then an economic stress (maybe something breaks, causing a big bill), 3) then there’s an illness, 4) then bigger conflicts erupt (often among leaders).

Have you seen this? Pastor David told repeated stories of this pattern and gave three hints to fighting this spiritual warfare:

1. Name your faith, claiming and re-claiming the Blood of the Lamb!
2. Start testifying to the ways God’s worked (retelling past victories produce new victories in the present),
3. Be willing to give up everything – even to die – to achieve God’s will (The enemy makes us defensive and defenseless by causing fear. When we’re willing to give up everything – even to die – he’s lost all his weapons!)

11:00 Sunday Sermon – In Isaiah 6, when the prophet encountered the living God, the angels were singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” In Hebrew and in the Bible, if you said something once, “It was the intended plan of action” – it was a warning, for example. If you said it twice, it was set in stone. If you said it three times – which only happened a few times in all of scripture – you couldn’t say it any more clearly.

While it was important to introduce us God – as holy, Holy, HOLY – Pastor David’s main point (unfolded more clearly on Sunday evening) is that God “changed his mind” about a hundred times in scripture. Wait! God never changed his mind on the BIG things – would he send his Son, the Messiah (these are the things repeated again and again and again). God never changes his mind on the things repeated twice and set in stone. But often God would say something once – and conditionally. For example, “Forty days more and Ninevah will be overthrown.” It was a warning. In the days of Jonah, Ninevah repented and God “changed his mind” and relented.

Pastor David’s call, therefore, was to pray and pray and pray and pray … until we hear a clear “yes” or a clear “no.” And then pray some more, until is confirmed with a second “yes” or “no” and clearly. Indeed, today’s circumstance – even if it lingers for years – may be a temporary condition rather than an eternal plan set in stone. Our prayer, therefore, can truly change the way things are.