hearing the Lord

check out my new blog too

God has speaking to me lots about writing about something i see as crucial in my relationship with Him, hearing Him and more important listening to Him.

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. John 10: 27-28

If we are followers of Christ we listen to Him, we hear His voice and are obedient. The Holy Spirit is our direct line to Jesus who is our direct line to Father

Sometimes I struggle with hearing God, sometimes I think I'm completely missing it. I get down on myself because I talk to God and sometimes the answer doesn't seem tangible.

God speaks in silence
1. sometime we cant hear God because we are too loud ourselves, or not willing to sacrifice our precious me time to pray and silence ourselves, ready ourselves to hear.

2. When he doesn't seem to respond sometimes its because He wants us to learn through the bible, because He has given us a lot of answers, if we were disciplined enough to study it and ask God for wisdom and revelation (Ephesians 1:17-19)

3. sometimes we are just in the desert, its not a bad thing.(matthew 3:16- 4:11) Jesus was in the desert, he was driven out there by the Holy Spirit right after Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove and the Father said this is my Son whom I am well pleased. we often panic when we are in the dry places, but its so important to trust God in this place because this is when the devil will try to tempt us to fall away from Christ.


God wants us to be sold out! willing to hear His voice, willing to learn in ways that may seem "foolish"!

1. sometimes God tells me to stand up and then 5 seconds later tells me to sit down. He has given me one dream and then given me a completely different dream. and told me this one is for now and this one is long term " be willing to bend to hear my voice".

2. be willing to hear "I Love you" simply said be willing to hear what is biblically true if you hear " I would like you to help that poor person" do it and hearing can be a feeling you get it doesnt have to be a audible voice haha or it can be that quite voice that it usually is for me. and then even right after hearing " i love you" be willing to be corrected God corrects those He loves, if you have sin that you haven't confessed sometimes God puts it on your mind but sometimes He speaks through silence at this time especially when it comes to direction or ministry, He wants us to sort it out before we go any further.

3. Even Jesus heard satans voice. We are not immune to hearing demons voices. if anything that is being said to you is condemning, not said out of love rebuke it don't tolerate or entertain such thoughts. God loves you, you are found worthy in His sight. God brings conviction of sin God will specifically point things out. Satan loves to accuse, bring condemnation on you don't mix the two. use scripture to rebuke the devil, but most importantly be willing to believe what God has said for you, confess sin if you need but find freedom through Jesus dont let satan accuse you.


live the Bible out God is a teacher let Him teach you

Isaiah 61
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn

God is love, so walking with the spirit of God means that we are love, dont harden your hearts to showing love to your enemies. be quick to forgive. carry your cross. proclaim Gods love fearlessly. dont let anything get in between you and God. it may block his voice. He is quick to extend his arm, to those in need.

ask Him questions, nothing is too little. be willing to read His answer. seek Him out. be willing to hear His answer. quite yourself. dont worry, dont control. know that He loves you and has hope for you. He wants to be intimate with you. dance with the trinity.

this is in short what God has been teaching me lately, any opinions, any advise, anything you think i completely missed. i want to hear from you, because God speaks through people.

I think this is part one I might revisit this soon. focusing on fear of the Lord, false humility, love language, and might even get into prophecy.

-chad

additional blog

I have made a new blog as a creative solution for me to Blog more.

http://facethewestsayhello.blogspot.com/

titled three interesting things
hopefully it can refresh my love for writing, give me the ability to make both blogs what i want them to be.

grace and peace.

ambitious

I'm thinking about starting a new Blog with a different focus because i think what i really am needing is something more creative, more interesting, shorter posts. different perspective on life. it will be called 3 interesting things( im thinking i might spice the title up a bit) and it will be daily or at least 5 a week. it will consist of 1 picture, one bible verse, and one thought provoking question or quote, or maybe it will just be a loose three interesting things. another ambitious thing in my life is that i want to become a morning person, usually i feel like i over sleep, or at least i know if i get less sleep it doesnt really effect me. so i want to wake up at 6 on weekdays get an exrended quite time in the morning as half an hour doesnt seem long enough.
i hope you eagerly expect my first 3 interesting things

i like how my ambition comes at 12am
chad

olympics so far

well i have been in Vancouver for a week now arriving here last Tuesday, It has been incredible and yet quite overwhelming.

so the organization More than gold really felt the mandate to join with existing ministries and so we are doing alot of work with salvation army and other more independent ministries one of them being something called the great room on the down town east side on w hastings which is a place where women can go to learn skills to dare to dream of a life other than street life. i cant begin to describe the place here is a website that might explain more http://linwoodhouseministries.typepad.com/ . The work we are doing with salvation army is diverse but mostly we are offering radical hospitality by handing out hot chocolate and coffee at alot of main skylink stations. but yesterday i spent 5 hours turning old bed sheets into rags because they had a abundance of sheets and they wanted to sell the rags to mechanic shops around town to raise funds so they can do more outreach.

and the other days have been pretty awesome one day we had prayer station which was us standing in a fairly busy sky train station and wearing a smock that says prayer changes things and a little sign saying free prayer. standing boldly giving people eye contact not there with any agenda other than to offer prayer to those who ask. we got to pray for quite a few christians but alot of people looked at us and i could see how intently they were reading, some of them seemed to not have the opportunity to stop and so we prayed for them without them. and we have also done quite a bit of work with a free concert series here in vancouver put on by a group of christians with a huge list of artists so we hit the streets handing out information about it.

my internet is getting shoddy so im going to have to put this blog out now
keep us in prayer
today we are handing out hot chocolate

-chad

update letter short version

well i am currently writing a update letter to update alot about what I'm up to but ill point form it just so i can not worry about blogging too much.

first of all God is really good, how hes alive and well around the world even though alot of what we concentrate on is that bad stuff He is at work, and at work in us(that means you)

-I am leaving to go down to seattle and then to vancouver, I am leaving tomorrow. we are spending from the 9th to the 23rd in vancouver doing ministry, being Gods hands and feet at the Olympics and throughout vancouver. Pray for unity and strength as we do this intense much needed work. pray for our travels, it snowed a bunch here this weekend and we dont really want too much more snow or ice to slow us down, and also for our flights and bus rides and entries and re entries of the border.

-I am still trying to stay in contact with seemingly alot of people, facebook seems like the easiest way but it really seems to be very impersonal and non relational, pray for my communication and relational skills as they seem to be lacking.

-I was given the option of going back to st. lawrence Island this spring or to Hati, which was a really hard decision for me, i struggled back and forth for a long time God seemingly telling me to do both, It has just become clearer to me that God is wanting me to continue to dream about Alaskan ministry while taking me out of Alaska for a short while. I still have yet to give my final decision but its due tomorrow, seemingly God directed me to 1 Thessalonians 2-3 it kinda reminds me that I can still be a big part of the things God is doing on the island while i am on a different island being obedient to my call there, and reminding me that Gods timing is a lot better than mine. it seems weird in those verses that its satan stopping them from getting to the people because i believe its God calling me to Hati, but thats not the part of those verses that were really speaking to me. we are still sending a small team of staff to st. lawrence island but the DTS which I am a staff on is going to Hati.

-I thank God for all my friends and family, and I pray for you guys, I think God is really showing me alot more about you guys and your faith and how he is at work in you guys. just keep pressing into God, He never gets tired of loving you. I pray for my friends who are having troubles (health, family, etc) too, because I know that God is faithful and that sometimes we lose sight of Him and yet He is still right there beside you. And I pray for my friends who are still searching or maybe tired of searching, I pray that God will meet them where they are and that they will acknowledge His grace and love.

its great being here in alaska, God really blessed me with this opportunity even if it means "suffering" I really want to pour my life out as a offering to God, and to grow even more in love with Him and His people. I saw 4 eagles flying about 150 feet above the ground just circling in the sky, and it reminded me of the four students here, they are flying, learning to fly, but there will be times for them to come down, humble themselves so that they can serve each other, the body of Christ, and the lost people of this world, and God will provide the grace for us to do this. Thanks be to God amen

love

In one sense we are always traveling

And traveling as if we do not know where we are going

In another sense we have already arrived

We cannot arrive at the perfect possession of love in this life

And that is why we are traveling and traveling in this darkness

But we already possess love by grace

And therefore in that sense we have arrived

And are dwelling in that light

But Oh! How far are you and I go to

find that love in whom we have arrived



Thomas Merton

God has been rocking me with the fact that He is love.
everything he does, He does out of love. pure and untainted. A love we could never understand.
so beyond comprehension so awesome. He not only speaks all our love languages He created them all.
He gives gifts to all, yet to those who believe in Him they find purpose in what they have received, and they find a lot more.
even when we fear the Lord we need to do it out of how much we see that He loves us, cause if you view God as a angry dad your missing the fact that He wants to pour his love over you. He poured His judgment out on His Son so when He disciplines you which He will if you are His child its never out of judgment He just wants to pour His sons blood on you, his mercy His grace, and healing. Ive learnt that sometimes the Holy spirit leads you and sometimes it drives you, like Jesus was driven out of this whole baptism scene into the wilderness and to the temptation, its out of love that he allows things to happen, sometimes he tests us with hardship, sometimes what the devil trys to do for bad God turns into something good.

The Greatest Commandment

³⁴Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:

³⁶"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" ³⁷Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'^b]">[b] ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'^c]">[c] ⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

what are we called to do first love people or love God, which takes priority some churches have to consider that they may be too focused on trying to love God and some churches have to consider that they love people more than they love God

We need to embrace Gods love, embrace fully the relationship we can have with him by the blood of the Son. Not be status quoe Christians who live on the basis that they have said a prayer, or on the basis that they are doing Gods work, or on the basis that they go to church every sunday. What are works without faith and what is faith without works. NOTHING! What is Christianity without God, who are we trying to fool. It about a relationship with God, if we arent seeking a intimate relationship with God the truth isnt pretty.

so back to the quote at the top we have arrived at Gods love, you accept Jesus and you are given the right to become a child of God PERIOD But do you want to be a child that doesnt have a relationship with your Father, id say your adoption agency might take your kid away if there was no relationship between the parent and child. we are constantly traveling under His love towards His love