The Voice of God

Many times for me, I can't get a particular passage out of my mind. The more I meditate on it, the more God gives me a message to share and I just can't get rid of it. I can only attribute it to the Hly Spirit working in my life.

 

Many times, a certain idea (not quite the word, but the only thing close enough, I guess) keeps coming to mind. I prefer expository, so it gets to be rather funny when a topic is running loose betwixt your ears. But God will keep the idea alive, and then (after I've chewed it through), He takes me by the hand and leads to the passage(s) that He wanted me to go to to start with .

He hasn't failed to come though for me yet!

In Christ,
Trotter

 

I am supposed to preach next Sunday and I was looking at some notes I have made... Hermanutics and such, thinking He would have me preach from them... No such luck, so far... He has brought a few passages that pertain to calling and serving, but still has not "told" me exactly what I am going to preach. Ah well I am sure that as I pray and study and pray some more, He will provide the direction I need to deliver His message.

 

I mostly preach through a book of the bible,and once the Lord leads me to the book and confirms this by giving me the first message, I'm assured that He will lead me through.I found myself between books this summer, and without any specific burden for any specific book. I did find myself interested again in the pictures of Christ as Shepherd in Psalms 22-24, so started there, thinking I'd surely get some direction after finishing Psalm 24! I'm now in Psalm 29 and I guess this is the Lord's direction for now--since He gave me the messages up to now. I find it interesting, also, that whenever I try to pull a sermon out of the "sermonic arsenal" (thinking "piece of cake!") I find I spend as much time re-editing and re-doing it to a different preaching point.So-- no cake! Oh well--"Where He leads me I will follow--what He feeds me I will swallow".
Blessings,
Dave

 

Often the Holy Spirit is that still small quiet voice that we need to focus in on, shutting out all other distractions.

 

Sermons come from experiences in the ministry. I had to avoid potholes on the roadway to the church, and my sermon that Sunday was titled: There are Potholes on the Road. Relating it to the potholes to faith; to growth; to heaven.

I think God speaks to us in so many ways. We just have to keep our hearts tuned to Him. I start my preparation early in the week by developing outlines, fully alliterated for ease of memory. I then develop each thought in subsections. I then spend Friday and Saturday polishing the sermons.

Cheers,

Jim

 

I usually get a thought or idea in my head that just will not go away along with the compelling urge to follow that idea through no matter what or how crazy it sounds. This is how God speaks to me. How do I know? Because every "urge" I have gotten like that has always turned into a major blessing in either mine or another's life and God always get glory in the end results.

 

I have found that if I do not write out at least a hazy outline, then the end product tends to be mostly opinion instead of God's word.

That is not to say that God won't work through that, but I have found, as for me, if I line out what God has shown me, then when I preach I will follow what God has laid before me instead of chasing down stray rabbits.

In Christ,
Trotter

 

Isn't it fascinating when we consider the fuzziness of discerning the voice of God over against our own imaginations? It never really is cut and dry. I always have to hold something I believe the Lord laid on my heart tentatively. Some of the sermons I felt so sure of when I first preached them have not seemed so good down the road. And usually this happens when I preach some great "truth" that seems so true to me but isn't really grounded in Scripture. But of course, at the time, I was so enamoured with my own brillance I didn't see it.
That's why over the years I've preferred expository preaching. When I was full-time Sr. Pastor, I had a preaching calendar a full quarter ahead when I finally got in my zone. Yet I found that, although the texts, titles, and a tentative proposition had been laid out weeks, even months, ahead of time, the individual sermons still showed an immediate relevance, at least at the best of times.

 

For me, I begin sensing an idea, and then I read the Bible, talk to others, pray, and the idea keeps growing. If I simply can't shake the idea, I go on to develope it, say, for a sermon, or for a visit I need to make. If I can shake it, I listen for another idea.

There is not really an easy way to explain this process. IMHO.

Rufus

 

Pro 15:33 The fear of Jehovah is the instruction of wisdom; And before honor goeth humility.

Psa 111:10 The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all they that do his commandments: His praise endureth for ever.

Pro 9:10 The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom; And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Just a few thoughts...

Dave.