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Job Essentials: Hearing from God

Ron Ford August 2, 2022

Why is it important that you to learn to hear from God?

Here’s a simple answer to the question – Power Ministry is NOT magic!

If Power Ministry was magic then you would be able to control it, and, theoretically, do whatever you wanted with it. It would make you powerful and significant to others – that’s the lure and attraction that magic has always had for people. But Jesus’ ministry in the Power of the Holy Spirit was not mere magic. In fact, the power of God that flowed through Jesus so overshadows the meager power levels of those who put their hope in magic that it is embarrassing (see the story about Simon the Magician in Acts 9:9-13). 

Jesus demonstrates what the restored human life looks like. His life shows us how God’s power is shared with us, how it is delegated to us, but that it is not ours to control as we wish. Jesus’ example shows us that Power Ministry operates on the principle of delegated authority. God, who has all authority and power over creation, from time to time commissions one of us to handle something that he wants to be done on earth. You can be sure that when he “delegates” a task to us, he makes available to us all the commensurate authority and power we will need to achieve his purposes.

Now here is the crucial question: how does God delegate a task to us? The answer is to look closely at Jesus, who is the living demonstration of how it works. 

“So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” John 5:19

There is one catch: for this to work, we have to learn to listen and hear God like Jesus did.

John Wimber, Signs, Wonders & Church Growth Conference, 1985, Anaheim, CA

Learning how to hear from God

The notion that we need to learn to hear God may seem like a strange idea. It seems like it would be more spiritual if something powerful would have to happen to someone, maybe a powerful experience or an angelic visitation, and then a switch would turn on in your head and suddenly you would be able to hear God’s voice.

The truth, however, may seem stranger than fiction. To look at the average human, you wouldn’t think that they were created to know God and to hear him, but according to Bible, its true. These two capabilities are essential and necessary requirements to function as an image bearer in God’s good creation. 

Learning to hear God is not self-creating something that wasn’t there before, like teaching yourself to fly. The process of learning to hear God is about learning to do what you were made to do. We have to learn to hear him because we have never done this before. We have spent our lives listening to the voices that have dominated our minds for all these years. Hearing from God isn’t automatic, we have to learn how to discern the difference between our own voice, the enemy’s voice, and our Father’s voice. 

Hearing from God in order to be encouraging to others

God is love, right? That means God wants to love people, right? Love is up close and personal not distant and uninvolved. How does God choose to speak to those he loves? How does he give his gifts and express his compassion and his mercy? 

His preferred method is direct, hand-delivery from one of his own children. Remember what we said earlier in this course; “whenever you hear the phrase “Power Ministry”, just know that we will be talking about what you get to do when God, the Sovereign King of all Creation uses you to serve people with his transforming love and mercy in the Power of His Holy Spirit, just like Jesus did.

Hearing from God to facilitate God's healing

Often God will speak to us to show us what he intends to do.  Learning to pay attention and then have enough faith to speak or act on it, is easier said than done, but it must be done if we are to fulfill our mission with Jesus.

Hearing from God to help others come into relationship with Him

Evangelism, the announcement of the gospel of Jesus’ kingdom and the call to come in faith to Jesus for forgiveness and new life is a higher priority on God’s list than it ever will be on ours. He has gone to extreme lengths to be restored and reconciled with his fallen, wayward, but beloved human creatures. It is not surprising then that, if we will listen to God’s voice, we will find that he is ready and willing to guide us and provide for us what we need to see and hear so we can help him reach those he loves.

The challenge for us is to start paying attention and learning how to hear from God so that we can be part of what he is doing in the world around us.