2 Steps To Improving Your Speed of Listening To God (Expanded)

One Sunday evening, after I had spoken at a church in the morning and then led their prayer meeting in the evening, a gentleman came to me to ask a question. He had seen me respond quickly to God’s voice and wanted to know how he could do it as well. The answer I gave him could help you too so I thought I would pass it along.

I basically told him he needed to do two things. First, he needed to walk outside his comfort zone more and make some mistakes. Second, because of the first one he was going to have to walk in a high level of humility. Let me unpack it a little more. I will add an important bonus at the bottom as well.

Make More Mistakes

First, my challenge to him was to try and step out of what was easy in listening to God. I enjoyed reading Joshua Foer’s New York Times Bestseller, Moonwalking with Einstein. It is about memory and the world memory championships and is not a spiritual book (I have embraced the nerd within). But he shared a principle that fits in this situation.

He describes a place in learning that he called the “OK Plateau”.  Basically he says you can get to a place in learning a skill where you feel good enough. You are not making a lot of mistakes. But at that point the only way to get better was to make more mistakes. By going faster, and therefore making more mistakes, you are actually able to learn more.

The same is true of listening to God. It is one thing to hear God when you have spent hours in His presence. It is another thing to listen as you are walking in the middle of a crowded grocery store. But in the stretching is new learning.

Walk in Humility

This leads us to the important second part. We must walk in humility. When I am walking outside of my comfort zone in listening to God I make more mistakes. This means I can’t be arrogant. It requires us to say more things like, “I think the Lord is saying this…I could be wrong…” I may even need to clean up some messes along the way.

Without walking in humility in listening you can produce a lot of damage. Coming at things from a “Thus sayeth the Lord” perspective gives people no out if they are hearing something different or if you make a mistake. We need a lot a grace and mercy for each other as we walk out the adventure of listening to God. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stretch ourselves (we should) but we just need to walk in humility as we do it.

A bonus thought is the encouragement to increase your reading of God’s word and walking it out. It is a fun place to grow. I recently read the excellent book by Rod Loy called Immediate Obedience. In it he challenges us to listen to God’s word and immediately obey. The book is full of stories of where that adventure took Him. I dare you to read the Word and obey what God tells you to do. Who knows where it will take us?

But if we are willing to make some mistakes and we are willing to walk with humility we can experience more of God. As we listen to the whisper of heaven we enter new zones of spiritual adventure. I want to go there even more. Do you?

[tweetthis]As we listen to the whisper of heaven we enter new zones of spiritual adventure.[/tweetthis]

Are you embracing emotionalism? (Updated)

Having grown up in the church all of my life I have heard the challenge against “emotionalism.” This normally follows someone, who is a young believer, doing something that out of order. This “emotionalism” can be attached to a lot of unhealthy things that can happen in a church. I live in the wintry, upper Midwest of the USA where we are affectionately called the Frozen Chosen. We are definitely on the calm side of the calm/emotional spectrum.

But this idea of the calm/emotional spectrum leads me to a challenge that people in my neck of the woods struggle. Merriam-Webster.com has one of the definitions of emotionalism as, “undue indulgence in or display of emotion.” And those of us who have seen this in church say a hearty, “amen.” Actually where I live a hearty “amen” could be called emotionalism.

What if you move to far in the other direction? What if our fear of emotionalism causes us to disengage our heart completely? If some of us expressed our love to our spouses with the same emotion that we express toward God we would end up in marriage counseling. Jesus called us to love the Lord with all our heart and soul. I think that includes our emotions.

[tweetthis]I will love the Lord with all my heart and that includes my emotions![/tweetthis]

We can miss out on a lot if we do not engage our emotions. Charles Finney would go so far as to say that “excitements” are the only way for the church to grow.

David’s wife Michal was appalled at David’s dancing and I can be in danger of becoming like her. The answer, as in most cases, is an internal look. Ask yourself, “Which end of the spectrum am I?” If you find yourself in an emotionless religion then you must find new ways to engage your heart. It may be scary for a couple reasons. One: engaging our emotions before God does not always feel safe to start with because we are not used to it. Two: we may fear that our friends will charge us with “emotionalism”.

I want to challenge you that the journey will be worth it and may just bring new life to your walk with Jesus. It will also give us more grace for brothers and sisters who happen to slip into “emotionalism.” You may provide healthy models for others on how to express emotion in their seeking of God.

For thoughts on emotion and prayer watch this and if you want to engage your emotions and are having a hard time start here

Confessions of a short person: Lessons in pursuit by a wee little man.

For those who have never met me, you should know that I have never been accused of being tall. As a kid there was never a line to try to get me to sign up to be center for a basketball team. This might be why I have a draw to Zacchaeus. At one of the churches I was pastor they even had an ongoing joke about me and Zacchaeus. I mean it would be just like me to have the song I am known for be, “Zacchaeus was a wee little man…” I am still scarred by the song, “Short people don’t deserve to live.”

But Zacchaeus got something right. And he has some important thoughts for each of us no matter how tall we stand. Zacchaeus is a model of passionate pursuit of Jesus.

First think of the desire he must have had to climb a tree. He had an opportunity to see Jesus and he wouldn’t pass it up. We have a continual opportunity to meet with Jesus so sometimes we take it for granted. Zacchaeus didn’t wait for later to go after Jesus. How much effort will we put into spending time with Jesus?

[tweetthis]How much effort will we put into spending time with Jesus? Let’s go after Him![/tweetthis]

Second, he didn’t let his dignity get in the way. Zacchaeus worked with the Roman government. He didn’t allow the thought of, “What will the Romans think if they see me in a tree?” keep him from His pursuit. How many of the people he had to collect taxes from did he see as he climbed up the tree? What are the things that are keeping you from a passionate pursuit of Jesus?

Finally, he let his encounter impact his life. After Zacchaeus met with Jesus his heard was changed. His life was changed. Meeting with Jesus led to more than just a good feeling. Will you allow your time with Jesus to change the outflow of your life? I often need to capitalize on what God does in my life so it doesn’t slip away.

[tweetthis]I often need to capitalize on what God does in my life so it doesn’t slip away.[/tweetthis]

Let me encourage you to not let anything get in the way of your pursuit of Jesus. If we let it any moment could truly change our lives. That could even be today!