Tag: holy spirit

To Hear God’s Thoughts

by Nicky Wood

I believe that one of the most important things in my walk with God is the ability to discern His voice and to hear the Holy Spirit speak to my heart. Yet, this is the area that I often struggle with the most. I get frustrated if I don’t hear anything from Him when I need His direction, or when I thought I heard something specific, yet circumstances dictate otherwise.

For all the big decisions in life, and even all the little things, I want to be sure that I follow His leading and His voice. But God remains God, and His ways are sometimes shrouded in mystery (Job 11:7). What He tells us may not always be what we want to hear, but it will always be what we need to hear.

The Bible says in Amos 4:13 that God “…reveals his thoughts to mankind”. What a powerful verse! The God of the Universe is willing to share His thoughts with us! David even declares in Psalm 139:17-18 how precious God’s thoughts are to him. And he says that if he were to count them they would outnumber the grains of sand… God will never run out of things to say to us! I also believe that He speaks uniquely to each individual because of His perfect understanding of each heart that He created.

We know that He most often speaks through Scripture, and through other believers and circumstances, but there is a very special joy found in discerning His voice when He speaks to our hearts individually and directly. And although people very seldom experience an audible voice from God, I think of Samuel, lying in bed one night and hearing a voice calling him by name. He had never heard from the Lord before, and so he thought that it was Eli calling him. I love this story because it speaks so much of the character and the heart of our God. He did not want to frighten the boy by bellowing down in thunder and lightning from heaven and commanding the young prophet to listen. Instead, He patiently calls out three times in a voice that the boy must have felt very comfortable and familiar with (to believe it was Eli).

The thing is, God wants to speak to us. I know that I don’t always make the time to quiet my heart and listen to what He has to say. It’s much easier to have a one-sided conversation and ask Him what I need, but by doing so I know that I am losing out on one of the most precious gifts that God has given us, to be able to discern His voice and hear His thoughts.

Song of Songs 8:13: “O my darling, lingering in the gardens, your companions are fortunate to hear your voice. Let me hear it, too!”

In our love relationship with Jesus, He desires to hear our voice, just like the longing of the groom for his bride’s voice in Solomon’s beautiful portrayal from Song of Songs. But as in any two-sided relationship, He also has something to say. Even if it is just to tell you how much He loves you. Won’t you give Him the opportunity and open your heart to hear Him speak to you?

From life to death and death to life

by Nicky Wood

“Death and taxes” – nothing is certain but these, as the famous quote by Benjamin Franklin rings.

As believers, though, we have slightly less grim prospects and we can count on another certainty – the promise of an eternal life with God after we die because of what Jesus did on the cross for us.

I am sure most of us look forward to the day that we can spend an eternity with Him in heaven.

Yet, I would like to challenge how we think about one day when we die and how we can bring heaven down to earth while we are still alive in this fallen world.

Do you perhaps picture some kind of timeline in your mind when thinking about all this? Of life here and now until you die and then a new life in heaven?

What if life to death and death to life are actually running concurrently next to each other? While we are nearing our death on earth and aging each hour, at the same time, we are coming closer to our new life in Christ. The more we die to ourselves (the fleshly human nature) each day, the closer we get to experiencing the life that God has planned for us – the life that knows no end.

2 Cor 4:16: “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”

The irony of it all is that to be renewed inwardly, we need to die to the flesh within us to make space for the One, who can renew us daily. The “death to life” part doesn’t start when we die. It starts the moment we commit our lives to Jesus. Water baptism provides a wonderful symbolism of the death of the flesh when we go down into the water. The moment we come up out of the water we are born into our new Spirit-filled life.

God has given us a gift, not only of eternal life, but life to the full – John 10:10 (NLT) – rich and satisfying. We have the amazing promise of a fulfilling, God-enriched life on earth, the moment we lay down our fleshly lives and make space for the Holy Spirit.

It’s certainly not easy to lay down our selfish desires, and it’s the last thing Satan wants, because if the flesh is no longer alive in a spiritual sense, then he no longer has any hold on you. He cannot whisper thoughts into your ear that appeals to your fleshly desires if the self is in actual fact – dead.

The way to obtain a truly victorious life on earth is by accessing the power of God that raised Christ from the dead. But Christ had to die first before He could be raised in power. Jesus had to die first for Heaven to be opened for us. In the same way, we must die to ourselves first, before we can gain this resurrection power of God in our daily lives and concurrently we gain the ability of pulling heaven closer to earth.

Romans 8:10-11: “And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.”

What a pity then, if we had to die in the flesh first physically, before finding the new life God wants us to have. Spiritually, it is available to us immediately, to the extent that we are willing to die to the flesh – our human nature and the desires that are attached to it.

When Jesus hung on the cross and asked God to forgive those that crucified Him, He became our ultimate example of a life lived – dead to self. There was no self-pity, no anger or sadness or revenge planned. He didn’t even say a word while they mocked Him and tortured Him. All that mattered to Jesus was that God’s will be done. The insults and the blows to self didn’t matter because the one they were injuring, the self, was already dead even though He was still physically alive.

As we look to the cross, one of the greatest gifts we can bring Him is ourselves along with all our selfish desires and needs, and nail them to the cross. His scarred hands are big enough to take all that you have to give to Him, and in return, He will give you His peace and His freedom – in this life as well as the next.