Check Your Hearing!: Seeking God's Will Part 4

This is Part Four of a series called Seeking God's Will. If you are new to this series, I suggest you read Part One, Part Two, and Part Three before reading this post.

I was watching TV this week and I was struck by a commercial that I have seen about a million times. There's a good chance that you have seen it too. It's AT&T's "Hey Marcel!" U-verse commercial. Poor Marcel, he's sitting there trying to watch his show and all the other shows are literally screaming for his attention. The premise of this commercial is that you don't have to choose who to listen too because you can view multiple channels at one time so you don't miss a thing. I've included it below.



What jumped out at me wasn't that this is a great commercial, but how true it is that we have so many things in our lives that are screaming for our attention. They want to be heard and they will make their presence known. Last week we talked about hearing God, but how can you be sure that you are really hearing God when there are so many other voices calling out for your attention? That's what I want to talk about today.

I call this "Check Your Hearing". What I mean by that is that the third and often most vital step in seeking God's will for your life, is checking that you are hearing God correctly when He speaks to you.

How to Check that You are Hearing God Correctly:
Checking what you are hearing from God is called using discernment (to perceive by the sight or some other sense or by the intellect; see, recognize, or apprehend). There are a couple of ways that you can discern whether what you are really hearing is from God, and I recommend using more than one.

• Reading Scripture
• Talking to Older Christian friends and mentors (it's best if you talk to more than one person even)
• Circumstances in your life
• What you feel God is telling you through time in prayer

These items are in no specific order, and all of these things are important. Any one or two of these things by themselves can be skewed--Oh! there was an ad about a car sale in the paper today...God must want me to buy a car! I think you better stop and look at some other things going on before you rush out and sign those papers. The more of these things that come into line, the more sure you can be that you are truly hearing and seeking God's will for you.

Most importantly, take the time to find out what God is really saying and what is really going on. Very rarely does God lead us into the biggest decisions in our lives on the spur of the moment or a mere whim. God is a god of order. He has a plan and He has known it from the very beginning. He has been using the circumstances over the course of your whole life to prepare you for where you are right now. He isn't just going to throw things at you blindly.

Questions to Ask Yourself:

• What am I learning from God's Word about this situation?
• What do I feel like God is telling me when I pray?
• What are the older Christians in my life telling me about this situation/decision?
• Have there been any circumstances in my life that have confirmed what I have been learning in scripture and what I have been hearing in prayer and what my Christian mentors are saying to me?
• Have a really prayed about this?

If you can answer "Yes" to all of these questions then you are on the right track to Seeking God's Will for your life!

Listen to God: Seeking God's Will Part 3

If you didn't read the title, this is Part 3 of a series about Seeking God's Will. I highly recommend that you read Part 1 and Part 2 before continuing on in this post.

So anyway, I don't know about you but I have had a really crazy last couple of days! The long and short of everything that is going on right now is that on Monday somone vanadlized our neighbor's dryer and stole our fabric softener, and this morning my wife found our fabric softener in the gas tank of our minivan. Sounds like great fun doesn't it! It's in these crazy times that it can really be hard to hear God. We are too busy being distracted and overwhelmed by all the things happening around us and to us to take the time to really talk to God and listen to God. That's what we are going to talk about today.

Step Two: Listen to God

"The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them."
— Ralph Nichols

I think this quote also applies to God. The best way to get to know God and His will for your life is to take the time to listen to Him. If you are too busy talking you will never be able to hear the answers that God is trying to give to you. Psalm 46:10 reads, "[God] says, 'Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.'" The best way to listen to God is to "be still". Listen for what God lays upon your heart. Wait to see if God gives you an idea. Stop talking!

Quick Review:
Step One - Talk to God
Step Two - Listen to God

Next week we are going to talk about how you can make sure that what you are hearing is coming from God.

Listening to God Resources:

Talk to God: Seeking God's Will Part 2

Normally I am not really one for doing series but lately it seems that I just have so much to say and I know I have to break it up or no one is ever going to read it all. I laughed a little when I thought about it because it made me feel like I should come with a packing slip Jimmy box 1 of ???. Anyway, random but just couldn't resist sharing. So like I said this is a continuation of the previous Seeking God's Will posts. If you are just now reading I suggest that you start with Seeking God's Will: Part 1.

In part one, we learned that seeking God's will is really all about seeking God. You can't find God's will for your life if you don't know God. Seeking God and hearing Him speak is not a formula. A + B doesn't equal a miraculously clear word from God--I wish it did. It would make life so much easier! However, there are some simple steps that will lead you down the right path toward finding God and His will for your life. Today we are going to talk about the first step in seeking God's will.

Step One: Talk to God
I really hope that this seems like a no brainer to you. Duh, to get to know God we should talk to Him through prayer. Prayer is basic but it is also very, very important. In fact, prayer was so important that Jesus made sure to teach His disciples how to pray. You've probably even heard that lesson--hint it's called The Lord's Prayer. You can read about it in Matthew 6:5-15 and Luke 1:1-13.

You can't expect to know God or God's plans for your lives without talking to Him. Think about your best friend. What would your relationship be like if you never talked to them and you never spent any time with them? I bet you wouldn't be very close. You might not even be friends at all. It's the same way with God. You can't be close to Him if you don't spend time with Him, and part of spending time with Him is spending time in prayer. If you need suggestions on things to talk to God about try reading 10 Simple Prayer Ideas for Teens by Rethinking Youth Ministry.

More Resources on Prayer:

Seeking God's Will: Part 1

Hello, everyone! Good morning and welcome back to SURVIVING Student Ministry. Okay. Enough with the formalities!

This past week I have been thinking about and praying about our annual summer mission trip. Due to the economy and other financial situations it is even more important than normal that I (and my wife) seek God's will about the whens, hows, wheres, and whys of Villebrook's Mission trip. This started me thinking and I realized that Seeking the Will of God is not easy so I might as well write about it. I plan to break this up into three or four or more sections so it won't be crazy long. So here we go...

Seeking God's Will: Part 1

Let's start with the basics...

What does it mean to Seek God's Will?
According to Dictionary.com, Seek is a verb which means:

1. to go in search or quest of
2. to try to find or discover by searching or questioning
3. to try to obtain
4. to make inquiry
5. be sought after, to be desired or in demand

So if you chip down to the very basics/simpliest meaning, to seek God's will it to go in search of what God wants for you and your life. God wants you to inquire (ask) Him what His plan is for you. He wants you to seek Him and to desire to know Him and His plans for you.

What does the Bible has to Say about Seeking God's Will?
"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.'" Jeremiah 29:11-13

According to Jeremiah 29:11, God has a plan for us. This plan is His Will, and we will only find God's Will for us by Seeking God himself. To find God, we must "seek [Him] with all [our] hearts."

These are the basics. Now we have a foundation and basic understand of what it means to Seek God's Will. Next time, we will begin talking about How we can seek God's Will for us.

Check Out More Verses about Seeking God:

Deut. 4:29	Job 8:5-6
Deut. 12:5	Ps. 24:3-6
1 Chron. 22:19	Heb. 11:6

Discipleship 101

Too often Christians go around speaking church-ese and expecting everyone to understand them. They take for granted that everyone knows all the church lingo and should understand them perfectly when often people don’t. Today I want to talk about being a disciple.

Who/What is a Disciple?
The definition of a disciple is:
• A follower of a master, spiritual teacher, religious leader, or guru
• One who lives by the teachings and lifestyle of his/her master
• One who holds the standards and ideals set by his/her master
• One who wants to be like his/her master

The New Testament uses the Greek word mathetes when talking about disciples. This word generally refers to a student, pupil, or apprentice.

What does is mean to be a Disciple of Christ?
As Christians we are to be Christ’s disciples, but what does that really mean? Considering what we have just learned. Being Christ’s disciples literally means to be an apprentice of Christ—one who holds to the standards and ideals set by his master and wants to be like his master. We are to be followers and imitators of Christ.

This is Discipleship 101. Now that you know what it means to be a Disciple of Christ, next week we will talk about the Cost of Discipleship.

Thinking Back on David Nassar

I was thinking back today about this guy called David Nassar. Nassar is an author and evangelist. I have heard him speak and it's amazing to see and hear the passion that God has given to this man. In reflecting, I realized that part of the reason Nassar is so passionate and his faith is so real is that it cost him. Becoming a Christian wasn't just something that he did on a whim. Below, I have included a video of a portion of Nassar's testimony.



David Nassar was born in Iran. He grew up as a Muslim in a Muslim household. Later, his family moved to America. After high school David was invited to church by a friend and eventually he chose to follow Christ. When he decided to get baptized his family disowned Him--a common practice in Muslim families when someone leaves the faith. Still Nassar followed Jesus. I believe that God rewarded David's obedience and sacrifice and blessed it by allowing him to see each of his family members come to Christ.


Would you be willing to give up everything you know to follow Christ? What about all your possessions? What about your family? If you answered "No" maybe you should stop and take some time to consider who Jesus really is to you.

Where's the Beef?

This past weekend was DNOW. I don't know if you have ever been apart of a Disciple Now weekend or not but you should try it sometimes. In fact, one of the senior adult women in our church that my wife and I affectionately call Grandma Edna said that she thought we should have an adult DNOW weekend. The thought made me smile, but I wonder if an adult DNOW would go over as well as the one we do for the youth.

I mean there are some key ingredients to a DNOW weekend that I just don't see adults getting into. #1 You go away from home and sleep on the floor of someone else's house (along with 10-20 other people) for a whole weekend. #2 You spend the weekend alternating between crazy fun activities and doing Bible study and worship. #3 You have to get uncomfortable so that God can speak to you.

This year, the whole theme of DNOW was Where's the Beef? It was based on the passage in the book of Hebrews where the writer explains that by now the Hebrew Christians should be digging deep into the meat of the Gospel rather than relying on the feel good, easy to swallow Spiritual milk that they received as baby Christians. When you sit down to a meal of spiritual meat, you have to be willing for God to dig in there and remove your deepest and darkest sins and possibly even change your life.

Teenagers resist this at first because they like having things their own way and they don't want to take a chance that God will ask them to change the way that they live their lives, but eventually most of them will yield to God. They see the potential that God has for their lives. They want His best for Him. They are willing to change. That's where I think most adults fall short. Just like teens we are stuck in our ways. We are comfortable. We don't want God to change us. But what really holds us back is that too often we hold onto our stubbornness and pride and we refuse to yield to God. So we miss out.

Where's the Beef? It's right there in the Word of God waiting for you to dig in and enjoy it. The real question is, can you handle the beef? Can you handle what it takes to get to the beef?

Will you let God change your life?

I Don't Know What to Pray

"...the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." Romans 8:26

It's been one of those days...who am I kidding? It's been one of those months! It seems that everything I pray for is bouncing off the ceiling. When God does answer my prayers it seems like they are the ones that I never actually verbalized. That leaves me feeling more than a little confused. Now I don't know what to pray.

Thankfully, God promises that when we don't know what to pray the Holy Spirit intercedes for us (Rom 8:26). This is a lot of what I have been experiencing lately. God has truly met my needs and has answered the desires of my heart that I didn't really know were there until they were answered or couldn't find a way to put them into words.

So even when my prayers seem to be bouncing off the ceiling and I don't know what to pray. I can rest in the promise that the Holy Spirit intercedes on my behalf and that God hears and answers those prayers. Besides, they put my true needs so much better than I ever could.

Thank you, God, for sending the Holy Spirit to live in me and to intercede on my behalf.

Is Organization Your Best Friend?

When I was in college, I did an internship in youth ministry. I learned many things that semester, but there was one thing that my youth minister mentor beat into me. Over and over I would hear it and in this ministry there was no way to ignore it. “God blesses organization!” So either I was going to embrace this creed and it was going to be my best friend for the semester or I was going to ignore it and it was going to become my worst enemy. Well, I don’t know about you, but I don’t like confrontation so I decide it would be better to make organization my friend than my enemy.

1 Thing I have learned about organization: God Blesses It!
At first, I thought that this was just the gung-ho ravings of a ministry that was way to controlling and up-tight, but I was wrong. As I began to willing practice organization under God’s direction and guidance, I found it was true. God does bless organization! Now, I realize that is why Jesus taught on such passages as Luke 14:28-30.

”For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'”

This passage is about counting the cost and planning ahead and in the end leaving it all to follow Christ. That’s just what God wants us to do in life and ministry.

1 Tip for improving your organizational skills:
I offered you one thing that I learned about organization so I will offer you one tip to improve your organizational skills. If you want to be more organized learn to be an effective communicator. This can help you to get organized and stay organized by reducing confusion between you and the people you work with or live with or minister too. A person who learns to communicate thinks to ask if the gym is already occupied before they plan a 3 on 3 basketball tournament. A person who communicates remembers to tell their youth sponsors about the team meeting planned for next month. The list can go on…and on…and on. Okay. You get the picture.

1 Question for you:
Now I have one question for you. Do you want to be blessed? If the answer is yes then I hope you will start learning how to be organized because I firmly believe that God blesses organization!