Friends In Need – Hearing From God: A Mindful of Christ Message - Purity 1406

Good morning, welcome to the MT for Christ 247 podcast. I am M.t. Clark and this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or watch it on YouTube. Today's photo of the shadow of my house down by the river and all that remains standing of that All that remains standing of what was the mammoth tree that had stood and fallen in my backyard comes to us from yours truly as I captured the scene at the end of the workday, day off yesterday. I am sharing views of the workday on YouTube today, so check out the video for today's blog above. Uh, the photos show just how big the tree and that, and the job were. And, uh, today's first photo is the photo of the tree split in two, uh, that I had shared the other day on the blog, uh, to— you know, that was like right after it happened, um, that day. And then the next day I went out and took a photo of how it was laying in my backyard all the way up the— all the way up the hill. And the photo after that that I'm sharing is one, one of the workmen, his name's Sean, climbing the tree yesterday, walking across the tree with a chainsaw, basically cutting off branches because it was so huge. He had to actually climb up it to really start the removal process. And then we have a picture of Scott Salvador, who took over when I took over the operations when he arrived and started going to work. And here he is chucking some wood. Um, and finally the, uh, the finished work of this huge stump, still pretty tall, but, uh, that's all that's left. Uh, anyway, it is Saturday and I now know the answer to that age-old question, uh, how much wood Would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? As much as it needs to, because after yesterday's day as a chucker of wood on a crew of destroyers of trees, I can tell you from experience that nobody and nothing chucks wood unless they need to. After watching some men skilled in lumbering with their various tools and machines to cut move and obliterate trees, I am still in awe over the fact that we got 'er done. Men with the right know-how, technology, and motivation can do, and do much. And after accomplishing much yesterday, I am here to remind all of us that we, we need one another and we shouldn't be ashamed of or fearful when it comes to asking for help. I asked and I was blessed to receive it. Of course, although men could literally move mountains with technology, time, and effort, there are some things that men can only do and receive through God's power. And today I'm mailing it in by sharing a message from Lauren Ross Killey from Mindful of Christ Ministries that'll help us to hear from God. And Lauren writes from her article, her blog post, How Do I Hear from God? And she asked the question, how do I hear from God is a question a lot of believers may ask at some point or another. I know I certainly did. We will cover some practical ways to help you to hear God's voice. Firstly, I'd like to point out, as you already are already aware, that in order to hear anyone say anything, You need to be listening to them. Therefore, to hear God's voice, we need to learn how to listen to him too. But before we even get there, you need to be aware that we can hear a range of voices or thoughts throughout our day. And so it is important to recognize where each of these come from. These can be our own, our parents, other people, for example, family, friends, teachers. The enemy, or God. As you can see, there are many different voices and thoughts that we may think are our own. Some, some of these aren't very helpful. They are negative, limiting, and even destructive. For instance, we may say things like, I'm useless, no one loves me, uh, I don't deserve this, etc., etc., etc. But, but, but on the other side of this, we have the opportunity and are blessed with the fact that God speaks to us too. And, and, and so, and so Lauren shares how to hear from God. Uh, number 1, wait. Psalm 5:2 tells us, in the morning, Lord, you hear my voice. In the morning, I lay my request before you and wait expectantly. Evelyn writes, most importantly, we need to listen. By listening, I mean you need to wait. When we pray, we need to stop and listen, uh, giving God a chance to speak to us too. If you have questions for him, if you're asking for guidance, help, or direction, you need to stop and listen to what he has to say to you too. If you— we are talking to another person, there's no point in asking a question and not listening to their response. Is there? It's the same with God. Take time to stop and wait and listen out of what he has to say to you too. And number 2, read. Hebrews 4:12 says, for the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Uh, we have been blessed by the Holy Bible. This is the word of God, and as this verse tells us, it is alive. The words from this most precious book speak to your mind, body, spirit, and soul. Everything you need to know is in there. I've heard this acronym for Bible before: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. So we can use it. The whole of the Bible is God-breathed. 2 Timothy 3:16. In this book, God is speaking to you. To know, to know what God is saying, you need to spend, uh, to need to know what the Bible is saying, you need to spend time in it, reading this, um, reading this precious gift. Boy oh boy. Um, uh, number Well, number 3 is to meditate. Uh, Psalm 199:15 says, I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. Biblical meditation is key if you are to hear from God. It talks about meditating before throughout the entire Bible. We are to meditate on God's laws, his love for you, everything he has done, his promises. By focusing on him, sitting with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we learn to be with him, getting to know and recognize him and his ways. Therefore, we will learn— we will learn how to hear from God too. Number 4, time. Matthew 26:36, uh, says, then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, sit here while I go over there and pray. At the end of the day, time is what you need to invest in to hear from God. Building a relationship with him is, is key, and the key to a relationship is time. So use the above ways to spend time with him. Get to know him. Thank him for what he has done. Worship him. Simply be with him. Get rid of any distracting distractions and spend time being alone with God. That was all from Lauren Ross-Killey from Mindful in Christ Ministries. And amen. I— my thanks to Lauren Ross-Killey for sharing this message through the email I received from her ministry on Wednesday. Sign up to receive those emails and check out Lauren's work at Mindful of Christ Ministries by going to mindful of christ.net. Sometimes in life we need this, uh, we need a little help from our friends. So don't remain isolated and alone. Ask for help if you need it. If you don't have friends, step out in faith and friendship by joining and serving at a local church. We can receive help and friendship, but we need to be bold and courageous and go outside of our comfort zone. We don't have to be afraid of the unknown or new experiences. Um, you know, that's where God is calling us to, and that's where he is inviting you to walk and talk with him. As always, uh, let's see, today's Bible verse, uh, verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on false prophets and teachers, and today's Bible verses are 1 John 4:1-3 from the New King James, uh, Version. The Bible says, the word of God says, uh, beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus comes has come in the, in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world. Today's verse falls under the 10th point of our Counseling Reference Guide resource section on false prophets and teachers. And that 10th point is test the spirits by the word of God to see whether or not they are from God. Aye, right. Uh, today's verses, you know, tell us pretty clearly that we are to be diligent in examining the spiritual atmosphere around us by testing the spirits. And they tell us very, uh, very clearly how to know the difference between good and evil. No matter what things look like or how nice, helpful, clever, or sweet people can be, we have to ask the question: where is God in all this? What does this person, these people, or this organization really think about the meaning of life? What do they think about Jesus? This is your discerning of spirits measuring stick. If it's not Christ, it's Antichrist. No Fifty Shades of Grey here. It's the difference between darkness and light. However, we do have to be careful and know our Bibles and hear from God on the regular because Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. And sometimes the spirit of antichrist likes to present itself as a different view of Jesus or different view of Christ. And if that different view of Jesus denies his incarnation, his deity, his teachings, or his resurrection, the spirit of antichrist is running the show. So be wise and discerning and follow the real Jesus depicted in the Bible and the one who brings the Holy Spirit to live in you. When you put your faith in him. As always, we encourage you to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford, and today's message is based on Galatians 3. Alford prompts us to read a chapter of scripture from the New Testament in his devotional morning and evening, and from verse, uh, from chapter 3, he shares a portion of verse 2, which says, the hearing of faith. And Stephen Alford writes, Paul says in Romans, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, Romans 10:17. This verse is in, in effect teaches that the Holy Spirit is received by the hearing of faith, Galatians 3:2. The Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. John 3:5. And Stephen Alpert writes, I conclude that the spiritual process is: the word enters the heart, faith is begotten, faith receives the Spirit, and a man is born again. Or The seed of the word falls in the womb of the heart. There faith lays hold of it, and through faith the Spirit imparts new life. And Stephen Ulper ends by praying, teach me these great truths, dear Lord, that I may be a faithful minister of a new covenant. Amen. Amen. And, um, yeah, we have to, uh You know, we have to hear from God. And here, you know, faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of God. So we have to listen to the Bible, we have to know what it says, and, um, we have to spend time in it. And we have to speak to the God who's written it, uh, who's with us always. Um, we have— if we want to hear from God, we have to spend time with him, we have to read his word, we have to wait, and have to meditate on his word, as Lauren pointed out in her message from Mindful of Christ Ministries. That's, um, that's what this whole blog and this podcast and this YouTube channel is about, is about encouraging Christians to enter into a deeper relationship with our Lord by fully surrendering to him, um, and to do, uh, something with the word of God. Basically to practice it, to practice your faith. So walk the walk of a Christian as well as talk the talk. And that's what we do because we've discovered great benefits from that. And that has been— has led me to do other things like our Celebrate Freedom support group that meets on Wednesday nights. We begin again on this coming Wednesday, July 24th. If anyone's in the Capital District of New York, you're invited to join us for, Christian Recovery slash Discipleship group that'll teach you how to be free in Christ. And also, and along with that, speaking of freedom in Christ, um, just a reminder that Freedom in Christ Ministries, ficm.org, is offering courses this fall, uh, discipleship courses, many different courses. One of which I am leading on Tuesday nights at 6:30 PM. It's for men only, and it's 6:30 PM Eastern time. If you want to join that class, go to ficm.org, look for the Freedom in Christ class at 6:30 on Tuesdays for men only, and sign up. And, uh, we'll be able to encourage you, um, with great, uh, teaching and a process of prayerful repentance that could alleviate your spiritual conflicts and your personal conflicts and lead to a breakthrough in your walk as you experience your freedom in Christ. Well, it is Saturday and we're ex— we're ex— yeah, exhausted. But we're gonna, we're gonna pray for good weather today. It looks like it's nice outside so far and We're going to go to the beach, I believe, as my stepdaughter has friends over, and we are, uh, we want to enjoy the summer. So there'll be swimming and beach fun, prayerfully. So that's our day, and we, we encourage everyone to go out and enjoy their life. And when you're out there walking and talking with God, just, um, thank him for what he's given you. And we usually do that with a prayer, so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much for all that you do for us. We pray for anyone out there listening or reading or watching today's message, that they'd be blessed, uh, that you'd come alongside them and their prayer requests and invite them into a deeper walk with you. And Lord, we just pray as always that you go before us, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, Uh, lead us in the way we should go today. It's all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom, Lord, and, uh, we need a lot of help with that. Lord, we, uh, thank you, we praise you, and we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Good. Have a wonderful day.