Greetings;
Children of God know that God forgives them and that God loves them, but maturing sons and daughters of God reveal a testimony of their love for God. Fathers in the faith are men and women who have learned to walk in the place of knowing the love of God, demonstrating the love of God, and helping children become sons and daughters of God in the character, nature, way, power, and authority of His love. This involves the activation, facilitation, and release of family members in hearing God’s voice in all things. First, and foremost, fathers empower a family culture that knows God loves them and they live in an intimate place of hearing God’s voice. This ‘first love’ testimony is the first of many testimonies in becoming overcomers in Christ in all things!
When we know God loves us, we hear Him in our hearts. Hearing God in our hearts is essential life-giving change in our lives. Hearing God reveals His mercy and brings us into His grace. Grace is the power to change our lives. Grace is the substance of God’s presence in our lives. Grace comes at a revealing of Christ in us. The key is how we think. We must submit our soul to our spirit once we connect our spirits to God’s Holy Spirit. The beginning comes by experiencing His transformation in our hearts. We experience a change within that causes us to become what God desires for us to be. We cannot do the will of God without being the will of God. Hearing God allows us to become the substance of the will of God – spirit, soul, and body.
Hearing God is not about receiving the right information in life. It is about being empowered for the right transformation in life. Much information can bring much confusion. God’s instructions bring the power of transformation, thus they empower the hearer to do and become. This doesn’t mean that we don’t have to do anything in order to hear. Sometimes we have to position ourselves to do in order to hear. This is why it is so important that we learn what the general will of God is in our lives. When we choose to stand in obedience to God’s general will, we hear His specific will in our hearts. When we position ourselves to do, we become. This is the proving ground for hearing God and the power of His grace at work in our lives. We do not become something by doing things, but standing to do positions us for the miracle of God’s voice in our hearts.
Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Hearing God produces faith in our hearts. There is no gap between us and God. We can hear Him in our hearts. When we hear Him we receive a revelation of Jesus Christ in our inner being and God grants us the power of His grace. The proving ground of God’s grace is the tribulation that comes against us. When we experience the pressure or the testing of life we find ourselves persevering. It is not a matter of disciplining the flesh. It is a matter of revealing the power of Christ within us. Perseverance is a joyful endurance that comes from the voice of God in our hearts. This is the testimony that proves to manifest the character of Christ within us and this is seen as our hope of glory. It is our hope of change that comes from within when we hear God’s voice. The testimony is for our full being. God’s will is for us to receive the salvation of our whole man.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We can’t hate the flesh, beat up on the soul, and pursue the Spirit. We must pursue the Spirit, delight the soul in Him, and present our body as a living sacrifice to God. Hearing God affects all of our being.
What is the will of God in our lives? I believe that God’s will in any situation is salvation in that situation. Salvation is not just the testimony of going to heaven when we die. It is a continual process and it includes the testimony of the life of God in any situation in life. Eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. This is a daily reality. Salvation is the power of eternal life in the testimony of our lives. God is constantly working things out in our lives.
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
O my goodness! I thought I was getting out of the situation! In order for God to work things out I must find Him in the situations of my life. It isn’t a matter of me escaping my daily circumstances.
God wants to move into our worlds with us. That might change the situation, but it is not intended to just get us out of a situation. If we don’t love God, it might not work out for us. We must position ourselves to hear God in order to stand in faith. Salvation is experiencing God in the situation. How you leave a thing is how you enter the next. We must know how to stand and where to stand in order to be in the right place at the right time for the will of God to work out in our lives. If we know God’s will we can have God’s salvation.
How would we know God’s will? We must forget about ‘what to do’ and simply connect ourselves to Him as a matter of relationship. He is our Father and we are His children. When we depend upon Him, we can trust Him. Knowing the will of God comes by allowing Him fill our spirits with the life of His Spirit. The will of God comes from the place of desire and faith. These things can only be birthed in the human spirit. When we receive the life of God’s Spirit in our spirits it carries the power of transformation.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
