The word LISTEN conjures a feeling of SOFTNESS because it requires us to be QUIET. But raging behind the listening curtain is a full-fledged, raging WAR. Especially when it comes to listening for God’s “still soft voice.”  Listening means we need to quiet our own mind and pay attention to a sound. For Christians, that sound is God.    lis·ten: give one’s attention to a sound.    I...

Early this morning while reading the Book of Proverbs I came across the word SLUGGARD and it stopped me in my tracks. Here it is:    “As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed.” Proverbs 26:14    It’s a word that, for me, has a cartoonish ring. A bit farcical. And a lot destructive because God did not create us to snooze through life. It keeps us from listening...

I struggled mightily this past weekend. My joy had drifted into stasis, momentarily absent from my consciousness…and I did not know why. Nothing had changed in my life. Nothing had changed in my relationship with God. And nothing had changed in my life’s purpose. Were my thoughts and heart being held hostage by some speck of negativity that appeared on my radar screen late in the week before this...

It’s time to shine some light on a word Satan uses as a debilitating weapon to prey on Christians: ABANDONMENT. The timing is right because we are halfway through this month’s exploration of how to LISTEN for God’s voice and a sense of abandonment is one of the most common barriers between a believer and God.    The issue is not whether we will ever feel abandoned. All believers, to one...

Bad news is lurking in every corner. Always has been. Always will. For you. For me. For everyone. Especially, it seems, in the 21st Century’s technology-driven and media-fueled circus.      One of the biggest barriers to listening for God’s voice is our fear of hearing “BAD NEWS.”    My fight to win the bad-news battle starts with a commitment to LISTEN for God through both...

I had a very clear lapse of judgment yesterday. It all started when my attention was captured by a trio of rambunctious boys playing in the cul-de-sac. The next thing I remember is grabbing a unicycle propped up in a lonely corner of my garage and wheeling it to the street. For a brief beat or two, I forgot about my age (and stiff back) and started off on my one-wheel ride. That immediately activated...

This month’s exploration into LISTENING for God’s voice has taken us through several ways to improve our ability to hear him: 1) Have the DESIRE to hear God; 2) Make sure to eliminate the DISTRACTIONS that make it impossible to listen, let alone hear, God speak; and 3) Remember that if we are not hearing God, it’s ON US because God is NEVER silent. Today I woke up thinking about the BENEFITS of listening...

The 2916-year-old tree towered hundreds of feet into the heavens with a circumference of an astonishing 71 feet. I stood under it mesmerized and listening to the still-air, nothingness it called home. All I could think about was how quiet the scene was right then at that moment, save the soft wind whistling through the leviathan’s sturdy frame. How peaceful it made me feel on this picture-perfect...

Christians often mistake their own thoughts for the voice of God. And that can be very dangerous. If the thought is not from our born-again Spirit–which is one with God’s Spirit—it is from: 1) Our carnal mind; or 2) Satan’s darkness.    God communicates with his children by running thoughts across our spirit’s channel.    “But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him...

I take my SPIRITUAL PULSE on a regular basis to make sure I am fully connected to God and living a Christ-like life for him and his Kingdom. Integral to that process is checking on how well I’m listening for God’s voice. I do that by regularly asking myself piercingly tough questions (below) about me being “interruptible.” WHY? Because failure to conduct this kind of introspective examination can...