0720 – Listening to God – Part 1 聆听上帝的声音–第一部分

Luke 5:16 (NKJV) So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.God does speak to us, and if we obey the inner promptings, remarkable things can happen!

According to Joyce Hugget’s book “Listening To God”, there are eight different phases of listening to God (the latter four phases will be covered in part 2 of the devotional). The first phase is relaxation and silence, where we deliberately let go of all tension, worries and frustration. It takes some time to come to this position, but in order for our spirit man to tune in to God, we must learn to tune out the external disturbances and voices from our soul (mind and emotion). This takes us to the second phase of awareness of God’s presence, where a profound sense of security is found in the Heavenly Father’s presence.

The third phase is surrender. To be real in the presence of God means we hand back to God all that we are, feel and want to be apart from Him—our job, security, struggles, pain, success and failures. We continually remind ourselves that our identity is in Christ and we refuse the futile struggle of trying to please men.

The fourth phase is acceptance where we allow ourselves to be moulded by God through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and not condemnation by the devil, because through the blood of Jesus, God remembers our past sins no more. Instead, we invite God to shine His light on current specific situations, sins and attitudes which block our ability to hear God. The Holy Spirit will reveal to us the areas where we need to change. There will be no peace in our hearts until we surrender to Him, obey His command and renounce them. He will prune us so we can be fruitful. Because it is a spiritual warfare, there will be rationalising, reasoning and struggles as to why we shouldn’t release or forgive certain people, but these have to do with pride, self-righteousness, lofty thoughts and the carnality that refuses to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

We often think we are tormenting those who have wronged us by harbouring bitterness or hatred against them, but in fact, we are keeping our mind and emotions imprisoned, and we are the ones who are not free! Therefore, we must take hold of every thought and bring it into captivity to obey Christ by forgiving. The Lord Jesus requires us to forgive seventy-seven times, so we are to release these people to the Lord. Take note of when you have released them, so when these thoughts come again, you can remind yourself that it has been dealt with!

It is a process of changing into His likeness. We will hear Him very clearly in this process, and it will be the same voice speaking to us whether we are at work or in our daily living.

Sermon Series: From the Closet to the Board Room (Part 1) – Listening to God


聆听上帝的声音–第一部分

路加福音5:16耶稣却退到旷野去祷告。

上帝确实对我们说话,如果我们听从内在的提示,就会发生非凡的事情!

根据乔伊斯·休格特(Joyce Hugget)的《聆听上帝的声音》一书,聆听上帝的声音有八个不同的阶段(后四个阶段将在灵修的第二部分中介绍)。第一阶段是放松和沉默,我们刻意放下一切紧张,忧虑和沮丧。到达这个点需要一些时间,但是为了使我们的内在灵人可以听见上帝,我们必须学会消除来自外部的干扰和来自魂(思想和情感)的声音。这使我们进入了知觉神同在的第二阶段,就在那里,于天父的同在中找到灵魂深处的安全感。

第三阶段是降服。于神的同在之中保持真实意味着我们将自己的一切,感觉和想要与神分开的:我们的工作、安全、挣扎、痛苦、成功和失败……交还给祂。我们不断提醒自己,我们的身份在基督里,我们拒绝试图取悦于人的徒劳挣扎。

第四阶段是接受,通过对圣灵的信念我们允许自己被上帝塑造,而不是被魔鬼定罪,因为借着耶稣的宝血,上帝不再记得我们以往的罪过。相反,我们邀请上帝光照那些当前的特定情况、罪和态度,这些都阻碍着我们听见祂的声音。圣灵将向我们揭示我们需要改变的领域。在我们向祂降服,服从祂的命令并宣布摒弃他们之前,我们的内心将不会有平安。他会修剪我们,使我们能多结果子。因为这是一场属灵的战争,我们对于自己对某人的不释怀或不饶恕会进行合理化、论证及斗争,而这些都事关骄傲、自义、傲慢的思想以及拒绝顺服耶稣基督的主权的肉欲。

我们常常以为对那些错待我们的人心怀苦毒或憎恨就能折磨他们,但实际上,我们禁锢了自己的思想和情感,而我们自己才是那些没有自由的人!因此,我们必须把握住每一个思想并将其捆绑,以饶恕来顺服基督。主耶稣要求我们宽恕七十个七次,所以我们要将这些人释放给主。要记住你是在何时释放了他们,以便当这些想法再次出现时,你可以提醒自己它已经被解决了!

变得更像主,这需要一个过程。在此过程中,我们将非常清晰地听到祂的声音,这不变的声音将对我们说话,无论是在我们工作的时候还是在日常生活中。

讲章系列:从内室进到会议室(第一部分)- 聆听上帝的声音