IRONMEN – Having a dialogue with your Father
Discerning our Heavenly Father's voice – Part 1
Let me start by putting this suggestion out there:
If you or I (now this is to men I am speaking to) can't hear or decipher when our heavenly father is speaking to us, then I suggest that our walk with God will result in either or combination of:
A leaving of that relationship
A religious based relationship ( I.e it's unfulfilling and unsatisfactory, but it fills a void to have some base line connection with God)
A frustrated one sided relationship with no genuine connection or spiritual and emotional intimacy
Okay, so before we go on, yes I did mention the word: “Intimacy”. I'm not being flippant, but intimacy (not sexual) in our friendships, relationships, is a “non negotiable”must have. The alternative, as is true for many of us, is skin deep, “maaaate”, untrustworthy and superficial connections – that's a slow death of a man's inner being, by a thousand cuts.
Now let's throw our Heavenly Father in the mix: If a man can't hear God's voice, discern when He's rebuking, teaching, encouraging, advising, listening to us, then how can we expect to “have a word from God, for another person”?
It is true, myself included, that for many of us, the concept of having a decent two way dialogue with our earthly fathers is not great, and to the extreme, where little to no relationship is present, the fruit of that man's life will be evidenced by dysfunction and poor choices.
“This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased”. Imagine if JC (or any of the prophets, disciples for that matter) had never been able to have a dialogue with God, be able to discern the Father's voice? JC would have been a walking mess, I'd predict he would have piked out in the Garden of Gethsemene. You'd want to be absolutely sure you heard your Father's voice when you ask him 3 times “Father, there must be another way.... but not my will, your's be done”.
Here's some more questions I think we should ask ourselves:
Have you ever asked God what He thinks of you? Much like a person speaking at your 40th Birthday?
Write it down
Are you specific with God? Do you generalise things? Do you think He's trying to get past your laundry list and wants to tell you something?
Have you asked God: “So Father what's on your mind? What do you want to talk about?”
When was the last time you had a good barny with God? I don't mean some polite “Yes, Father, no Father”
When was the last time you negotiated with God?
When was the last time He rebuked you, big or small?
When was the last time He told you something significant and specific about your future?
I ask these questions because I know He's more keen to speak directly with us than have us rattle off lists and religious statements. For crying out loud, He even states that He knit you in your mother's womb, you and I are in His image, we have his spiritual DNA on the inside of us, that He is a Father to the fatherless... He could go on (and He does – in the Bible). And even more so, God's big enough to take care of Himself, I could be out of line here, but I think given the option He' prefer to have an argument with you and get to the core of your issue, rather than a religious prayer that's been run over so many times it's part of the road.
So, feeling encouraged to get plugged in to fleshing out this issue?
Let's start with John 14:15-16
“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and ill be with you forever – the Spirit of Truth. The world can not accept him because it neither sees Him r know him. But you know him, for he LIVES IN YOU AND WILL BE IN YOU.... The Holy Spirit will teach you, remind you and will give you Peace”
“We will worship God in Spirit and in Truth”...
God is a person
God is Spirit
He connects by the Holy Spirit
How can a man hear God, if he rejects the Holy Spirit?
JC said: “I only do what I see my Father doing” How could JC know what his Father was doing if he couldn't see and hear God?
So how does this relate to me?
We need to turn on our inner man, turn on our spirit man, if I can put it that way. I can see in many men's mind, images they are having right now of men in circles, sitting down legs crossed, or some wacky man calling out ghosts in an abandoned house...
Truth be known, engaging our spirit is no more complicated and mystifying than being still and asking God to sit to next you. Before you know it, He's there in the form of the Holy Spirit, ready for a chat. Before you know it, you sense He has filled the room (God never just enters and takes a spot, He always fills it completely)with his Presence and you are more alert and engaged ready to talk and listen.
As Realmen, hearing our Father's voice and having what I call: A dialogue with God, is as fundamental to our successful future, as keeping fit and healthy. This topic to my mind is an easy one to overlook, because we walk through life assuming all Christian men are okay, so long as they are in church. But on the inside we're dying by a thousand cuts, because we either haven't quite figured out how to hear His Voice, or if it's really Him – ever had that one!? And more so, the whole concept of “spirituality” has to some men, been passively feminised, that we automatically shut down when the topic comes up. For other's the only way God speaks is via the Bible – period. Which is not a bad place to start, but limits God's ability to have an intimate father son relationship. No to belittle to Bible in any way, but could you imagine whenever you speak to your earthly father it's not with free speech, but always through a book?
In the next instalment, we'll look at the Barriers to Entry to hearing God's voice and Attuning our Inner Man to our Fathers.
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