How To Listen

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, August 2nd. First Samuel, Chapter 3 sheds light on how to develop the skill of hearing the voice of the Lord. Let's listen to the final message in Dr. Stanley's series on listening to God. I was asleep one evening and you'll recall that the Lord spoke to Samuel in verse 4.

It says that the Lord called Samuel and said to him, Here I am. Then he ran to Eli and said, Here I am, for you call me. But he said, I did not call. Lie down again.

So he went and lay down. He thought Eli was calling him. The Lord called yet again, Samuel. So Samuel rose and went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me. But he answered, I did not call, my son.

Lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him. So the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he rose and went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me.

You can imagine he's getting a little disturbed by now. Then Eli discerned that the Lord was calling the boy. And Eli said to Samuel, Go lie down, and it shall be if he calls you that you shall say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant is listening.

So Samuel went and lay down in this place. Then the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel said, Speak, for thy servant is listening.

Isn't that a beautiful way to answer God? Speak, for thy servant is listening. He was listening to God.

Eli taught him how to listen to God. If you're going to listen to God, remember this, that listening is not a passive experience. Listening is an active experience. It's not that we're just going to sit and God's going to say it all.

But listening is both not just passive, but it is actively experiencing God communicating with us. And to do that, there is an attitude involved. It's not just an attitude, but an attitude is involved.

It's an attitude and an activity. So first of all, let's begin with the word expectantly. If I'm going to listen to God, I must come to him expectantly. I must expect him to speak to me, call unto me, and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. All through this book, you and I have the promise that God will indeed speak to us. Secondly, I must come to him quietly.

Be still and know that I am God. If I am going to listen to God, I must be quiet and let him do the talking. How can God speak to us if we don't take time to listen?

And quietness is essential to listening. My soul wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him. Which brings me to the third attitude, and that is patiently. My soul wait there upon him.

In quietness, expectantly. There are some things God is not going to tell us instantaneously. There are some things he's only going to tell us after we have waited a season of time.

One of the reasons is because we're not always ready. Every time you and I wait upon the Lord or listen to him does not mean that we are ready to hear what he has to say. Sometimes he will tell us some things that we're not ready to hear. Sometimes he will withhold some information until we are prepared to listen to what he's saying. But to be willing to listen to him patiently. That is, there are times when God may draw out our faith and stretch our faith.

He's promised to speak to our heart so we can expect him to speak to us. Therefore, when we come to him expectantly and quietly, we must likewise exercise patience because he is not compelled to tell us everything we want to know instantaneously. Number four, actively. Listening isn't just passive, it is active.

Actively, what do I mean by actively? I mean actively meditating upon the word of God. If God is speaking and I am listening, it isn't just a matter of sitting around waiting for God to say something, but rather I must be actively meditating upon the word.

Colossians chapter three, listen to this verse. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns, spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Listen, if I'm going to hear from God, it is very important that I spend time meditating upon the word of God. He says let the word of God richly indwell you. Meditating upon the word of God is an active way of listening because oftentimes when I'm not searching for any particular thing, when I'm not seeking a particular answer, God in the time of meditation and quietness will indeed speak to our heart. Actively meditating upon the word of God.

All right, number five, confidently. What do we mean by confidently? I mean simply this, confident that as I listen to him, I will hear what I need to hear. It may not always be what I want to hear, but God is committed to speaking to us what we need to hear. And as we've said before, he doesn't come to us with prefaces, he doesn't come to us with introductions, he speaks to us exactly what we need to hear. So we must listen confidently that what I need to hear, I will surely hear without question. All right, next, humbly. I must listen to him humbly.

Now what do I mean by that? I mean as you and I come to him, we must come in recognition, listen to me carefully, in recognition that we are totally dependent upon the Holy Spirit to teach us the truth. If you come to him with the idea that, well I've studied this and I know this and I can do this because I've done it before, God knows how to humble you in the process.

We need to come to him humbly. Look if you will in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. This is a very important passage in learning to listen to what God is saying to us. Now listen to verse 12. He says, Now we have received, not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God.

How are they given? He says they are given to us by the Holy Spirit, not the Spirit of the world, but by the Holy Spirit. Which means, listen carefully, which means if the Spirit of God is the one who is showing me the truth, expounding the truth, if the Spirit of God is the one who is speaking to his Spirit within me, that makes two requirements of me. First of all, I must have a right relationship with him. And that right relationship is what?

That right relationship is that I must be filled with his Spirit and secondly, I must learn to walk in his Spirit. And then by faith, by faith I am to listen. You see, if we, listen, he says grieve not the Spirit of God. Quench not the Spirit of God. If I am grieving God by saying yes to sin, quenching the Spirit by saying no to God, how in the world is the Holy Spirit who is the receiver and communicator to my Spirit, how is he going to reveal to me what God is saying if I am walking out of the Spirit? If I am grieving the Spirit of God, quenching off the Spirit of God, how can he speak? One of the primary reasons that people do not hear anything when they talk to God is simply because they are not living in the Spirit, not walking in the Spirit, not filled with the Spirit, walking in the flesh and their whole lifestyle is one of quiet, quiet rebellion against God. Going to have my way when he says be ye being filled with the Spirit.

If the Holy Spirit is not dwelling within you, the Bible says you're not a Christian to begin with. Secondly, if he is quenched and grieved, he cannot deliver to you the message of God because you're not listening. The grieving, quenching believer is saying by his actions and attitudes, I refuse to hear what the Holy Spirit is trying to say to me. If you're refusing to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to you, you cannot hear God which means, my friend, that most of the praying that goes on when the Spirit of God is being quenched, the Spirit of God is being grieved is useless, babbling into heaven and God is not hearing it.

It makes a difference how we live as to what we hear. My attitude toward him, these things make a difference in what I hear and one of the primary reasons is this, if I am in the flesh and not in the Spirit, in my attitude and my actions, I'm not going to hear God say anything. Listen, you can be a believer and you can be living the normal, natural, Christian life as most people would characterize that and be in total error, not believing the truth but error because you're not listening to the Spirit. We are totally, absolutely, unquestionably dependent upon the work of the Holy Spirit to give to us the mind of Christ at any given moment of our life. And you see, when God begins to speak, he wants us, in fact, he's not going to do it until we say, Lord, apart from the genuine work of the Spirit, I know that I am helpless to receive from you. Think about this, you can't make God tell you anything one split second before he gets ready. I mean, you can fast and pray and weep and give, you can do a thousand things, doesn't impress him one bit. He wants to talk to us, he wants to tell us and sometimes he has to wait but we must humbly come before him. Seven, openly. That is, we must come to him openly.

Now what do I mean by openly? I mean this, I must be open to hear God correct me as well as comfort me. I must be willing to hear God convict me as well as assure me of what I'm asking him about. And you see, when we come to God in our little narrow way and we present him our list of requests and get up and go on our way and do not hear what God has to say, it may be he has a word of comfort.

It may be he has a word of correction. And if I come to him only for comfort and only for prosperity and only to feel good and better and best and only for what I want to hear that will suit me and only what fits into my plans, I'm not going to hear God say all he needs to say. Then attentively. If I'm coming to him I'm going to listen to God, I must be willing to listen to him very attentively.

Now what do I mean by that? If I am really going to hear what God says, I must live daily, listen to me, attentive to what others say to me or at least attempt to say to me. Learning to listen to him, I must listen attentively while my focus is upon him. I likewise must have my spiritual antennas out to what God may be trying to say to me through someone else.

Not only through someone else but through my circumstances. He will speak to us through our circumstances and so what we must do is be attentive to be able to judge and discern what is really going on around us. What is really happening? What is God trying to say in this given instance? We are to come to him attentive that anything God allows in our life, Romans 8 28, any circumstance I should look for the fingerprint of God. You and I must learn to live attentive to God speaking to us through others and likewise through our circumstances. Then the word carefully. I must learn to listen to him carefully.

Now what do we mean by that? Here's what God is saying because you have to watch this. Listen, God is saying that this book which is the word of God, this is the breathed word of God that's been written. He says that you and I, that everything we hear is to be sifted through this book. Before we accept it into our life, we're to sift it through this book. Anything that contradicts the teaching of this book must be thrown out.

It doesn't make any difference what the experience is or what the doctrine may be. If it contradicts the word of God, it must be cast out. Now the reason I say we must listen to him carefully is this reason. As he says here in Hebrews chapter 4, the word of God is discerning. He says it is active and alive and what it does, he says here is a body of truth and this body of truth, he says the spirit of God, the word of God divides that all the way down until the soul and the spirit are divided.

Bone and marrow, that is the innermost intentions and motivations of the life that nobody knows in our life but God. The word of God exposes. The word of God reveals. The word of God draws back the shade, pulls back the veil.

We're able to see it is manifest, it is brought to light. The light of God shines upon it and we're able to discern if what we heard was from God or if what we heard was not of God. So while we're listening very attentively to our circumstances and to others, while we're quietly before the Lord and patiently listening to him, whatever we hear must be checked out in this book.

And let me say this to you very strongly. I believe that God wants us to affirm and to confirm what we believe he's saying to us regardless of where it comes from. We must always go back to carefully ask, is this consistent with the scriptures? That is with the whole word of God. Now I'm not saying that you've got to know every verse in the Bible. I'm not saying you've got to know all of that, but I'm saying when he says let the word of God dwell within you richly, my friend, it is so absolutely essential that as you feed your physical body with food, with food, he says feed your spiritual life with the rich, nutritious word of God which will equip you to be able to hear from him very carefully.

And then the word submissively. If I come to him, I need to listen to him submissively. That doesn't mean you always will because sometimes you will listen to the Lord and when he speaks to your heart, you're not going to like what you hear. Now listen, that submission may not be there when I begin to listen, but it must be there soon if I'm really going to hear and hear fully what God wants me to hear. That'd be great to say, well, anytime and every time you come to the Lord just come submissively and that would be great, but the truth is we're still human. There's enough of that old humanity within us that some things we had rather not hear, but the question is, do you want to hear from God? Then the submissive spirit is very essential. And then gratefully, I must learn to listen to him gratefully.

Now what do I mean by that? I mean when we come to him, we come to him to listen in the spirit of gratitude. Gratitude that God the Father would love me enough to send his only begotten Son Christ to the cross.

That 2,000 years ago, they nailed him there, crown his head, pierce his side, nail his hands and his feet, mock him, jeer him, laugh at him as he died for me. Grateful for the crucifixion, grateful for my salvation. Listen, grateful that God the Father by an act of his grace plucked you out of the kingdom of darkness and put you in the kingdom of light. Grateful that God reached out when you were once at enmity with him and has made you a child of God.

When you are out of this household, he's brought you into his household. When he's presented to you every promise in this book, friend, listen, there's a thousand times, a thousand reasons for being grateful to God when we come to him and Paul said, Don't be anxious about anything but in everything but prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall garrison you about, shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. If that doesn't invoke gratitude, my friend, tell me what will. And the last word is reverently.

To come to him reverently, not carelessly, but reverently. Think about this. The God who hung the sun on nothing and hung this old globe on nothing and keeps the waters from falling off of it. This same God who created the intricacies of the human life, who created the ant and gave that ant the capacity and the ability to provide for himself. Who created the bird who knows exactly where to fly when nobody ever taught it.

Nobody ever taught a bird how to build a nest. They come into the world, God having created them with such capacity. The God who knows every single name of every single fish on the bottom of a giant Pacific miles deep, who knows everything out there and all the galaxies and all the stars. If you are willing to listen, God is willing to speak. And let me say one last thing to you. Can you tell me anything any more valuable in all of life? Then to know that God has spoken to you personally, answered your petition, and that in that given moment you have the mind of Almighty God.

Unquestionably. You can't buy it. You can't work for it.

There's not a thing in the world you can do for it. But what? Just listen. That's how much God loves you and me. Thank you for joining us in today's podcast, How to Listen to God. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.