The Magnificent Journey by James Bryan Smith Chap. 4

THE MAGNIFICENT JOURNEY by James Bryan Smith

Chapter 4—Listening to God

1.  Opening Prayer, from a position of full pardon, full acceptance
                                   -----------------------------------------------------
Why is it that when we speak to God we are said to be praying,
but when God speaks to us we are said to be schizophrenic?  Lily Tomlin

2.  Has God ever spoken to you?
·      Did you share it with anyone?  Why?
·      Statistics p. 54
·      Living from above leads to having the mind of Christ—here and now

3.  The Bible is full of stories about people who heard from God
·      Adam
·      Abraham
·      Jacob
·      Moses
·      Samuel
·      Elijah and Elisha
·      Jesus—baptism, transfiguration
·      Saul/Paul on the road to Damascus

4.   More modern leaders and saints
·      Patrick
·      Francis
·      Teresa
·      Luther           
·      Calvin
·      Wesley
·      Martin Luther King
·      Hymn writers—“In the Garden” p. 59.
·      Even you and me

5.  Is it really God?
·      Doubts and uncertainties—do you have them?  Does everybody?
·      What do they cause us to do?

6.  Forms of Communication
·      Signs, fleeces, our own thoughts, other people, scripture, sermons...  What else?
·      How did God speak to people before the written Word?
·      Joan of Arc—declared a heretic and burned at the stake for hearing messages from God, Michael the Archangel and St. Catherine that made her able to win the war for Charles VII. She heard them as quiet thoughts in her head—reported as saying “How else do you suppose one would hear from God?”  After her death she was declared innocent of all charges and named a martyr.

7.  Why do we want to hear from God?
·      Motives—what is God most likely to answer?
·      Bible Roulette

8.  How shall we approach God when we want Him to speak to us?
·      Psalm 18, 27, 40, 61; 
·      Lamentations 3:56
·      How have you asked God to speak to you?

9.  Testing the word
·      Pray for protection
·      What does “worthiness” have to do with it?
·      Does it contradict the Bible?  Would God ask someone to sin?
·      Circumstances often confirm what you heard. P. 65

10.  What does God sound like?
·      Gentle authority but like our own voice/thoughts
·      Challenging, comforting, “I am with you.”
·      We must choose to learn to hear Him.

11.  Creating Conditions
·      Surrender and ask God to speak to you.
·      Don’t limit how He can speak to you.  (the helicopter and the flood)
·      Create space through silence.  Our inner quiet gives God space to speak.
·      Journaling prayers, questions, ideas can show you how God speaks over time.
·      Don Sterrenberg is prayerfully paraphrasing the Psalms.  God can speak to us through such exercises.

12.  Speak, Lord  p. 70
·      Pay particular attention this week to the Hearing Practice on p. 71


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