Series: “Be Still & Hear God” – Part 3
“How to Get Guidance from God”
Pastor Jerry
Habakkak 2:1-2
————————————- Message Synopsis ————————————-
I received an e-mail some time ago with the following story called “Imagine if God had voice mail.” It goes something like this, “Thank you for calling heaven. Press one for Guidance, two for Requests, three for Thanksgiving, and (so forth)…”
Three weeks ago we talked about six ways that God speaks to us. He speaks to us through the Bible; through gifted teachers; through godly friends and family; through impressions, through pain, and through silence.
Today, I want us to go back and look at that fourth way, how God speaks through impressions. There’s a lot of confusion about “How God Speaks” but fortunately there is a six step process found in the Bible, in an Old Testament book called Habakkuk. In chapter one Habakkuk asks six questions of God. He’s asking God for guidance. In chapter two he does six things to prepare himself to hear God’s answer. If you’ll do those same six things you’ll find God speaking to you in your own life. In chapter three he gets the answers from God.
Let’s get right into these six steps of how to hear from God. In the scripture lesson we read: Chapter 2:1-2, Habakkuk …In these two verses we have the six steps on how to hear from God.
- Want. I must want to hear God.
I must be willing to listen. It all starts with desire, wanting to hear God. Habakkuk begins with these words “I will.” “I will climb up into my watchtower.” In other words he’s saying, I’m deciding to be still. It’s a choice.
The point is you’re never going to hear God unless you want to hear God. So it starts with your own desires. King David wrote in the Psalm 85:8 “I want to hear what God, the Lord, says.” Psalm 40:8 “My God I want to do what You want.” He says I don’t want to just hear, I want to do what You want me to do. I want to obey.
God speaks to people who decide in advance that they’re going to do whatever God tells them to do before He even tells them. How serious are you about wanting to hear from God? God called David in the Bible, “A man after My own heart.” Why? Because he was so good? No. Far from it. Why? Because David was passionate about wanting to hear from God.
This is the first step to getting guidance from God. I must want it. The second step is…
- Decide. You decide to withdraw
That means you get alone in a quiet place. Habakkuk said, “I’ll climb up into my watchtower.” That’s a Hebrew expression that means I’m going to get alone in a quiet place. The point here is you cannot hear God’s voice if you’re surrounded by noise. In Luke 5:16 “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Jesus knew He needed this to be a regular part of His life if He was going to sense God’s voice and hear God’s voice.
Do you ever realize the amount of noise in your life? It’s everywhere. So in order to get away from the noise we have to intentionally decide to withdraw. That’s why it’s so important to decide to remove as many distractions as possible so that you can be quiet and hear God’s voice.
The truth is God is far more willing to talk to you or I than we are to talk to Him. It’s one thing to hear God speak and if withdrawing to a quiet place was all you needed to hear God it would be a snap. But (1) wanting and (2) deciding are just the first two of six steps to hearing God. The next thing you do is …
- Wait. I calm my thoughts and emotions.
First, I want to hear God. Second, I withdraw to a quiet place. Then Third, I wait by settling down on the inside. In Habakkuk 2:1 he says, “…and I will wait.” In other words, I’m going to wait to hear God. You have to take the time to listen.
What do you do while you wait? Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God.” Everything in the world tries to keep you from listening to God. Especially the devil. He will remind you of all your weaknesses, all your sins, and all your mistakes. “What are you doing praying to God with your life messed up like this?” That’s not the voice of God. The Bible says if you are a believer “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” So focus on God’s love for you. That is something you can build your life on. These are the steps to hearing from God. First you (1) want to hear God. (2) Next you withdraw. (3) Then, in a quiet place, undistracted, you wait. The fourth step is…
- Watch. I let God give me a mental picture.
Watching for Habakkuk is, “I will look to see what He will say to me.” Why does he say I’m going to look at what God says? Doesn’t it make more sense to say I will listen to what God says? Sure it does. So why does he say, “I’m going to look to see what God says…”
The Bible Psalm 119:18 says “Open my eyes so that I may see the wonderful truths in Your word.” Here’s a very important point. God’s voice is often visual. What do I mean by that? I mean that sometimes God speaks to you by putting a mental picture in your mind. He will give you an image, a picture, i.e. the Good Samaritan; the prodigal son; & the cross.
The Bible is full of examples of God giving people a mental picture, a mental image while they were praying. In the Bible it’s called a vision.
If there’s anything that you need in your life more than almost anything else, you need perspective. Because most of the time you go through life with a little tiny narrow vision of life. When you see the big perspective, all of a sudden your problems seem a whole lot smaller in the whole scheme of things. So how do you get perspective from God? Let Him give you a picture.
Remember Jesus said, “watch and pray,” not “listen and pray.” God wants you to expect an answer when you pray. That’s what it means to watch and pray.
These are the steps to hearing from God. First you (1) want to hear, (2) Next you withdraw, (3) you wait undistracted, (4) watch and pray, then (5) you
- Write. Record the ideas that you receive.
Habakkuk says, “The Lord gave me this answer. ‘Write down clearly what I’ve revealed to you.’” Because Habakkuk wrote it down we have the book called Habakkuk. He asked God a question, God gave Him an answer, he writes it down. If your prayer life is stuck in a rut, one of the things you can do as a solution is begin to write down your prayers. It helps you to see what you’re praying.
This by the way is called spiritual journalizing. It’s a habit that many, many great Christians had for centuries. You simply write down what you’re saying to God and you write down what God’s saying to you. Some people think praying should be more spontaneous? If David didn’t write down his prayers we wouldn’t have the book of Psalms. It’s a spiritually healthy thing to do.
God tries to teach us lessons through what happens in our life. I miss them all the time and I’ll bet you do too. We get so busy we rush right past them. Take some time just to set down and write out what lesson was God trying to teach you in your life through what happens.
These are the steps: (1) I want, (2) I withdraw, (3) I wait, (4) I watch, (5) I write and the last step…
- I worship. I thank God for speaking to me.
This is the natural response of hearing from God: To worship. This is what Habakkuk did in chapter 3:2 he says “Oh Lord, now I have heard Your report, and I worship You in awe.” When you receive God’s response to a prayer or to a question it makes you love Him more.
The other week I said, sometimes God speaks through silence. Why is God silent sometimes? There’s a lot of different reasons. God may be saying, “I’m not ready to tell you.” He may be saying, “You’re not ready to hear it.” He may be saying, “I want you to trust Me.”
Taking these steps that we talked about today will revolutionize your prayer life if you do it. It’s one thing for you to sit here and listen to this. It’s another thing to practice it.
However, for you to hear God, you have to “Be Still…and Listen…”