Read Bible for Yourself

Paying Attention to the Obvious and Responding Sincerely How efficient our living would be if we would hear the voice of the One who made us, loves us and has etched the purpose of our lives in His palms. But is God hearable? The Bible takes on this all important question in a grand way. First, it presents the Framework for Hearing God, Our Tendency to Refuse to Hear Him, How Satan’s Voice Masquerades as God’s and therefore the Steps We Need to take to Hear God clearly. The Framework for Hearing God’s Voice 1. General Revelation Hearing God begins with our acknowledgment that there is God. Everybody who wants to hear God’s voice must first resolve for himself or herself that there is God, and he basis for such resolution is creation, through which God reveals His invisible attributes of immense power. We therefore stand condemned if we resolve in our hearts to worship any created thing rather than the creator or to put the voice of any created being above that of the C...

Jesus exposes the six usual characteristics of empty religion in His encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well, as recounted in John 4. 1. Excuses To the simple request of “Will you give me a drink”, the Samaritan woman disguises her stinginess by citing an age-long viewpoint that would take ages to untangle. How typical of the reasons merely religious people give for not doing good to others! 2. Ascription of Arrogance to Christ's Supernatural Power "Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well...?, she quizzed, when the Lord told her of the living water He is capable of giving. How many times have merely religious people not sought to scorn Jesus' Divinity, infallibility, vicarious death, resurrection, ascension, and His giving of the Holy Spirit and eternal life to those who believe in Him? 3. Flattering Speech “Sir, give me this water so I won't get thirsty...”, she phrased her request as if she had...

Breaking into Mature Christian Service Why did Jesus not just give in to Satan’s temptation at the beginning of His ministry (Matthew 4)? Why was Paul bold enough to rebuke Peter, an Apostle who had preceded him, when he was in error (Galatians 2)? Why did Elisha refuse to heed Elijah’s insistence that he stopped following him on the day of his departure (2 Kings 2)? There comes a stage in Christian development when the person has so matured in the knowledge of the Lord and His work that he clearly distinguishes between the Lord’s voice and other voices and chooses only the Lord’s. That is when he is ready to be used for the greatest impact as a Spirit-Driven servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Until then he is at one of four earlier stages of Christian maturation, namely, Discovery, Dressing, Deployment, and Drawn (all so named for the convenience of using the letter D) DISCOVERY: The person discovers his identity as a child of God, who must live the rest of his life servin...