I got the following as a response to one of my blogs and thought I’d let you look over my shoulder as I answered her:
I too am in a transitional stage and it seems when I am quiet and still, I still can’t seem to hear God. Am I trying to hard? How do you not try so hard?
My response:
That’s the million dollar question isn’t it? I wish I could give you a definitive answer, but without knowing you that would be impossible.
But God knows what you need to know. God knows how to slow you down and help you not try so hard. And he is able to do this.
Take a deep breath. Relax. Simply know that if you’re going to get how to hear him, he will have to do it. And rest in that, because he is really good at teaching people how to hear him. Tell him you want him to teach you. Ask him to help you recognize the soft whispers of his voice as they blow through your mind or as you hear them in the voices of other folks you know, even if they are unaware that God is using them to speak to you. Whenever you feel like trying harder, treat it suspiciously and step back a bit. Take another deep breath and just ask God to show you in his way and in his time.
He will teach you how to trust him to do that. I like where you’re heart is at, and I’m sure he does too.
It also reminds me of a question I was asked in Atlanta a couple of years ago. “Do you really think you’re good enough to hear God every day? What a question? The obvious and only answer is a resounding, “No!”; None of us ,p.are good enough for that.
But perhaps the question is, “Is God big enough to get through to me every day?” That gets a resounding yes. If I’ll listen and watch for him, he is fully able to get past whatever doubt, struggle, ignorance, or presupposition to help me understand him and the way he is dealing with me.
Good advice. I find that every time I think "I" have attained something in being able to hear Him, He allow me to be deceived, or deceive myself. Who can tell? But, then I realize I got caught up in myself and started moving too fast and I would come back to rest and wait to pick it up again.
We should not fear this. This, too, He uses for good for the easiest way to become deceived is to become over-confident in our ablility to hear Him. He does it all. Our job is just to seek His face, trust HIm and obey. I must trust Him, not my ability to hear Him.
Good advice. I find that every time I think "I" have attained something in being able to hear Him, He allow me to be deceived, or deceive myself. Who can tell? But, then I realize I got caught up in myself and started moving too fast and I would come back to rest and wait to pick it up again.
We should not fear this. This, too, He uses for good for the easiest way to become deceived is to become over-confident in our ablility to hear Him. He does it all. Our job is just to seek His face, trust HIm and obey. I must trust Him, not my ability to hear Him.
Yeah, it’s not who we are, it’s who HE is.
Yeah, it’s not who we are, it’s who HE is.