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