Summary:

Coming into an ability to hear what God wants to say to us should be one of the greatest things we ever reach into the Father for. Any good conversation should be two sided. Always talking and never listening won’t get you very far in your walk with God. It’s not our pastor’s or shepherd’s responsibility to go and get a word from God for us. We have to develop an ability to hear from Him for ourselves, and the directions He wants us to take.

Show Notes:

• We are encouraged to pray to the Lord, but we need to also listen. Listening is a tough skill to learn. A good conversation should always be two sided.

• It’s natural for people to want their opinions heard, so they tend to talk over others. But when you’re listening to the Lord, who are we, to talk over Him?

• One of the biggest challenges when trying to hear God are distractions and how to deal with them. As we keep reaching in to hear Him, the blessings, favor and power of God start to come through.

• A key to help you with these distractions is worship. Just start telling the Lord that you love Him, praising Him and showing Him adoration, which calibrates your heart and lifts you up into a better place.

• Andy learned early on as a shepherd to encourage people, especially younger ones, who expected him to tell them what to do concerning situations, to go to the Father themselves for their direction, rather than having him tell them. This caused them to connect and interact with the Father.

Quotes:

• I believe there’s a steady flow of information pertaining to us, about us, coming from the throne of God all the time. So we need to learn how to get into a place where we can hear that.

• When you start to hear the Lord and see the blessing, favor and power of God in the things that He says, it really helps.

• We learn through repetition and leaning into that relationship with Him. We learn the sound of His voice and the ways He speaks to us. It’s learned behavior.

• People think that the holy guy, the pastor, the shepherd, apostle, prophet, or evangelist is the one who is supposed to hear God. My responsibility is to tell you that you can hear God as well as I can.

• God would rather talk to you about you than He would like to talk to someone else about you, which makes sense from just a purely logical position.

References:

Hebrews 13:5

Take Away:

It’s not the responsibility of your pastor or shepherd to go to God for direction for your life; it’s your responsibility to hear God and to know what He wants you to do, and where He wants you to go. To do this, you have to learn to listen for His voice and allow Him to speak to you, as you commune with Him. Being able to hear His voice is one of the most treasured things you can ever have from the Father.