In this Issue:

Hearing God Speak - 4

Ministry News - We'll miss Mac Sisson, Survey results, Rrecomended blog and Awakening conference

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Hearing God Speak

4. - Consider the Content

In previous newsletters; we completed the first three segments of this series on Hearing God Speak:

• Examine Your Expectations
• Come to Christ
• Master the Minors
• Consider the Content
• Excuse the Excuses

In the introduction, Examine Your Expectations, we realized that God speaks to all of us, but may not be saying what we expect or want to hear. In Come to Christ, we looked at salvation as the first step of a conversational relationship with Him. In Master the Minors, we considered some foundational disciplines of life that may seem ‘minor’, but must be mastered before you proceed to higher plateaus. Today we’ll see that we need to Consider the Content so we’ll know if it’s a word from God or something else.

When you turn the dial on a radio you find that there are many stations to choose from. How do you decide which one to listen to? The content. You listen and then choose the station that’s playing what you need to hear.

In your relationship with Jesus - When He speaks to you – do you respond like a cat or a dog? There’s a big difference. When you call the name of your pet; what does it do? If it’s a cat, the only response may be a slight twitch of it’s tail.(that’s cat for ‘don’t bother me’) It’s been proven that cats understand words, but they’re just naturally independent and aren’t particularly motivated to please you. Unfortunately, this is the kind of response God gets most of the time.

On the other hand, your dog lives to please you and will come running, tail wagging with glee. Sheep are kind of like dogs and not at all like cats. They develop a relationship with their shepherd and come to him when called. That’s why shepherds can bring their flocks together and let them mix in the same pen. When it’s time to leave, all they have to do is call and their sheep follow. Jesus used this picture to teach us an extremely important lesson:

It is possible for you to know the voice of God and be able to differentiate it from all the other ‘voices’ in the universe.

That may seem a little mystical, but think about it. How did God inspire the Bible? All those writers heard something that they recognized as the voice of God. For most of them it was not a thundering voice from the heavens, but a still small voice within.

Jesus, the prophets before Him, and the apostles that followed Him all taught and practiced a personal relationship with God that included receiving personal direction from the Holy Spirit. Consider Romans 12:2:

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. NKJV

Perfect will of God for who? You. God has a plan for your life. And not only that; He has a plan for your life today. People who get in the habit of listening for God’s direction find that He daily directs them to divine appointments for witness and ministry.

But how can you be sure the ‘still small voice you’re hearing is from God. The Biblical test for a prophet was that his prophesy was verifiably correct.(Deut 18:21-22) If it proved to be wrong, it wasn’t from God. You should apply that same principle to the voice of God in your life. If God has spoken to you; it will be verifiably correct. Remember, God is not secretive. He wants you to know His voice.

Here are several Biblical ways to consider the content of what you’ve heard so you can be sure you’ve tuned-in to the Lord.

• Does it agree with scripture? God never contradicts His written word. This is why it’s so helpful to be a student of the Word, but even if you’re not; you can talk to those who are.
• Is it Christ-like? Is this instruction from God consistent with the life of Christ? Keep in mind the reaction of Jesus when the self-righteous religious leaders threw the woman caught in adultery at His feet. Thoughts that come from your subconscious will generally lead you toward being the legalistic Pharisee or the self-indulgent sinner. The Holy Spirit will always lead you toward the heart of Jesus.
• Ask a friend to pray with you. If God can speak to you; He can say the same thing to your prayer partner. If they don’t get the same message, back up and spend more time in prayer and Bible reading.
• Ask for a scripture promise. Ask the Lord to reveal/confirm the answer to your prayer by leading you to a specific scripture verse. Here again; it’s so important that you be reading the Bible regularly.
• Put out a fleece. A sk God to do something specific to confirm that you’ve understood Him correctly. The term comes from Gideon putting a fleece on the ground and asking God to make the fleece wet with dew and the ground dry.(Judges 6) The next day he asked God to do the opposite thus proving he had understood God correctly. In my opinion, the Biblical application of a fleece comes after God has spoken to you. You’re not seeking a word from Him; you’re seeking confirmation.

In short, you learn to recognize the voice of The Good Shepherd the same way sheep do. Every time you hear Him speak and confirm it with the tests above; you become more and more confident.

Sometimes you mess up, but that too can help you better recognize the difference between His voice and your own subconscious. However, a mistake is sometimes debilitating. You thought you were doing just what God had told you, but it turned out to be a mistake. Now you’re terrified that it will happen again.

The worst possible thing you could do is decide not to listen for the voice of God out of fear. The first time the SOS distress call was used on the high seas was the night the Titanic sank. Not far away was the ship California that could have come to their aid, but their radio operator had turned off the radio and gone to sleep. Know why? He had sent a message to the Titanic that the California had stopped because of so much ice and the response from the Titanic radio operator was, “Shut up, I’m busy!” He was busy because the rich passengers on the Titanic were demanding his time to send radio messages to Europe and America.

Isn’t it amazing that two young men, doing a job most thought of as a curiosity, held the fate of so many, and didn’t know it? From then on it became law that ship radios had to be monitored 24/7.

I hope you would never say to the Lord of the universe, “Shut up, I’m busy.” Or even worse, turn off your spiritual radio because you’re frustrated and would rather just go to sleep.

Well, we’re learning that Hearing God Speak is no simple task and even when we’re doing our best to listen; it can be difficult to understand. Next time we’ll work on getting a clearer signal by removing noisy interference.

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Ministry news:

Mac Sisson, 1947-2010

Mac (Peggy’s brother) passed away suddenly March 8 in Arkadelphia, Ark. of a heart attack at the age of 62. He was our biggest encourager. Google his name and you’ll find that he was an encourager to many. In fact, it was the core of his being. Like his father before him; he loved to bless others.

Mac was born 40 years after his time; he should have been part of that ‘great generation’. He didn’t care for technology or being trendy. He was Christian, loved America, loved his family, worked hard, and lived for others.

He eventually got a cell phone, but sending something to you with a stamp was his preference and he did it regularly. A picture, a card, something cut from the newspaper. He just wanted you to know he was thinking about you.

He didn’t own a pair of jeans or tennis shoes. I never saw him in anything but street clothes. His parents gave him a new pair of dress shoes every Christmas and he’d take last years pair off and put the new ones on. We gave him a pair of tennis shoes one year just to see what would happen. He had a good laugh then gave them to his son, Alan.

He read the newspapers religiously and was an encyclopedia of current events and politics. He believed it was un-American to be uninformed and a moral obligation to vote intelligently.

Another way Mac was like so many of the great generation – though he laughed easily and often; he hid his hurt. At his core, his desire was to bless you, and laying any of his burdens on you just wasn’t something he could do.

Thank you Lord for Mac. I miss him.

Pray! Network – blogs and forums

I asked you a while back if you knew of any blogs where folks talked about their prayer issues. Phil Miglioratti (who has some great blogs of his own) pointed me to Pray! Network. It’s what I’ve been looking for - a place to share ideas with people from many different perspectives.

For instance, a lady mentioned 4/4 prayer as if everyone would know what it was. That’s probably true in her denomination, but I’d never heard of it so I asked her to explain. Here’s some of her answer:

We pray…using the 4/4 pattern of prayer from the Lord's Prayer:

1) Upward - adoration, worship of who God is as revealed through this passage (Heavenly Father, hallowed be Your name);

2) Downward - Because of who God is in this passage, how do I need to respond? (Your kingdom come; Your will be done)

3) Inward - Our requests. What does the passage prompt me to ask God for - for myself, and for others near me. (Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.)

4) Outward - Using the passage to pray for one another, and to commit ourselves to living out what the Lord is calling us to. (And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.)

She went into quite a bit of detail on how they did each step with a different way of praying. That’s the second part of the 4/4. It was very good and I think helpful to a lot more people than just me. My point is that blogs like this help us learn from each other. I encourage you to click on this link and join the Pray! Network web site.

http://www.praynetwork.org/

You can use the web site without joining of course, but I suggest that you do. And you don’t have to participate in discussions to benefit from them. Click on ‘FORUM’ at the top of the Pray! Network web page and then click ‘All Discussions’. Find a discussion that you’re interested in and scroll down to the bottom of that discussion. There you’ll find the option to ‘Follow’ that discussion. Click on that and they’ll email you anytime someone adds a comment.

Results of the survey

We would still like to have more of you to take our survey if you participated in our prayer conference more than a year ago (and have not yet done the survey). Please click here to take the survey.

Here’s a synopsis of the results:

• Everyone recommends it to other churches.
• A majority of respondents felt that the conference was more effective than most events their church had hosted.
• 20% said it was the most effective event they’d ever had.
• The area of greatest long term effect is in personal relationships with God
• The area of least long term effect is in the area of congregational prayer.
• Using a scripture at the beginning of the prayer time is the technique most used. Guided silent prayer is a close second.

Pastor recommends follow-up prayer conference

Dr. T.O. Spicer helped me put together the first Awakening conference and here’s some of what he had to say about it:

Dear Brothers in Christ,

I write to provide you with information concerning the expanded conference ministry of Lowell Snow. I enthusiastically endorse Lowell's ministry as a spiritually gifted teacher and seriously encourage you to invite him to follow-up his original prayer conference with the second one on Prayer for Spiritual Awakening in the Real World…

Last fall, I approached Lowell about a follow-up conference on spiritual awakening… The results were excellent; attendance increased each evening; and comments were consistently positive.

I am convinced of two things. First, the original prayer conference laid the foundation well for the second one on Prayer for Spiritual Awakening. Second, many of our members felt they got more out of the second conference than they did out of the first.

In Christian Love, T.O. Spicer, Jr,. Pastor, Sang Ave. Baptist Church, Fayetteville, AR

If you’ve hosted the Journey Into the Presence of God conference of prayer; I hope you’ll contact me about hosting this follow up conference.

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Easter Pictures

We took pictures on the back porch because the wind was blowing. Kind of looks like we're running for congress with the flag.

Me, Keith, Peggy, Natalie, Kale, and Meredith.

Matthew has moved to LasVagas, NV so we missed him this year.

Spiritual Awakening -

Prayer in the real world

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Prayer Conference Promotional Videos

The Journey Into the Presence of God conference of prayer is so unique that many struggle to understand what it is. If you're considering hosting the conference or purchasing the DVD Set; the following videos should help.

1. Click here to view the one minute publicity video suitable for promotions during a worship service
2. Click here to view the seven minute preview of the conference that's great for showing to church leadership.
3. Click here to view the seven minute explanation of the conference by Lowell Snow.

These are the videos from the Promo DVD which is available at the web site and comes with the DVD Set.