Relationship with God

3 secrets to hearing God’s voice

3 Comments / Relationship with God / Tom Stuart

I recently had a breakthrough in hearing God’s voice. With my wife leaving on a weeklong winter getaway with some family members, I decided that I would set aside that time to focus on my relationship with the Lord. There have been several big rock items in my life that I have been wrestling with for some time regarding God’s will and I determined to press into Him for some answers.

Originally I thought I would take a few days to get away by myself at a silent retreat center in the woods, but then was inspired instead to dedicate my home as my own silent retreat center. Basically I declared it a no media zone, simplified my schedule and spent my non-working hours in the morning and the evenings spending time in His presence.

For the Christian, one of the biggest challenges is developing the ability to tune into and listen to the Holy Spirit. God wants us to know His will for our lives through having full access to the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit. I established that in my last blog post entitled “Limitless, beyond the movie.”

Since God’s thoughts and ways are so much higher than our own we desperately need help to access and understand them. (Isaiah 55:8-9) In the New Testament we are told that the mind of Christ is revealed by the Holy Spirit. “No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” He helps us to “understand what God has freely given us” by revealing “the mind of the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 2:11-13) That is “full access’ and is meant to be the norm for every believer and follower of Christ.

Setting aside my retreat week reconfirmed this truth for me and also reinforced the fact that there are things every believer can do to increase their ability to access the mind of Christ.

Here is my list of the top three things I did to position myself to hear God’s voice. When God chooses to speak, these three things will insure that you hear Him.

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Limitless, beyond the movie

2 Comments / Overcoming, Relationship with God / Tom Stuart

I recently saw the movie “Limitless.” Although I would not endorse the morals of the lead character nor the gratuitous violence, I found the story intriguing. “Limitless” is about a man who is enabled to access 100% of his brain’s capabilities by taking an experimental drug called MDT. This pill allows him instant mental access to everything he has ever heard, seen or read with computer-like precision. It thereby imbues him with superhuman abilities and provides him the wherewithal to be a success at anything he seeks to do.

This sci-fi thriller is based on the premise that we human beings use only 20% or less of our brain’s power. Thus it is fascinating to think about the possibilities if we were actually able to miraculously use all its available reservoir of power. Nothing would be impossible.

The movie stirred my thinking about a parallel limitless possibility. What would the Christian life be like if we could access 100% of the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and power? Imagine having full access to everything the Holy Spirit knows, sees and is doing in any given moment. And better yet, imagine having the ability to release His unlimited power to meet the need and challenge of that moment.

Unfortunately our batting average at connecting fully with the Holy Spirit is about the same or less than our utilization of our brain. It leaves us living life at a level far below the Great Designer’s intention.

Jesus of course is our model of a full-access Spirit-filled life. John the Baptist’s description of Him in the verse quoted at the outset of this article encapsulates the secret to Son of Man’s amazing abilities and power. He was given by His Father unlimited access to the Holy Spirit.

Unfortunately our tendency is to dismiss the possibility of living and moving in the Holy Spirit the way Jesus did. We do so because we reason that in addition to being the Son of Man, He was the Son of God. But Jesus consistently made it clear to His followers that a life empowered by full access to the Holy Spirit is a birthright granted to every spiritual son and daughter. (Ephesians 1:14)

And not only that, Jesus also promised that “”anyone who believes in Me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.” (John 14:12 NLT) And it was Jesus’ ascension to His Heavenly Father that set the stage for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and empowered the church for a “greater works” ministry.

So why then don’t we see these greater works, especially in our own lives? Why is it that most of the time, we only access a small percentage of the full power of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us? There are no easy answers.

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Living a holy life begins in your closet

Overcoming, Relationship with God / Tom Stuart

The secret to living a holy life is in your closet. That’s right, if you want to know how to live a life that demonstrates the holiness of God you need to look in your closet.

In an earlier blog post I established the fact that from a Christian perspective, holiness is a gift from God and not a product of self effort. Holiness like salvation, comes through faith in Jesus Christ. When we open the door of our heart to Christ, the Holy Spirit comes in to take up residence in our lives and declares us holy by virtue of His holy presence within us.

He does not stop in the entry way or just in the living room, but makes His way into every room of our spiritual house. And surprisingly, the first place He makes a bee line for is our closet. Why? Because He has a whole new wardrobe He wants to hang there to insure that we begin to look like the child of royalty that we have now become. And as He begins this thorough house cleaning of our lives He has a Salvation Army truck waiting at the curb to dispose of all our old, tattered and filthy garments of sin and self-righteousness. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) At any rate good riddance to the old, bring on the new!

And what an amazing ensemble of clothes He provides. First there is “the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” which we are encouraged to put on when we put off the old self. (Ephesians 4:22-24) There are also the “garments of salvation” and “robes of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10) And as holy people whom God loves He provides us with the clothes of “tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” (Colossians 3:12) But that’s not all. For our spiritual battles He also stocks our closet with the six piece full armor of God. (Ephesians 6:11-17)

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The biggest misunderstanding about holiness

5 Comments / Overcoming, Relationship with God / Tom Stuart

The word holy and its derivative holiness are two of the most misunderstood words in the Bible. It is surprising because they are used over 460 times in the Old Testament and 230 times in the New Testament. The problem however is not in understanding the meaning of this important concept. Everyone would agree, including Merriam Webster, that to be holy means to be set apart and devoted to God and His purposes. Both the original Hebrew and Greek words for holy clearly convey this.

Where there is confusion is in understanding how someone or something becomes holy. Most people think that holiness is a result of something we do. It is a common belief that holiness is what happens to us when we conform our attitude and actions to God’s holy will. Nothing could be further from the truth.

To begin to comprehend any Biblical truth or concept it is always insightful to go back and look at the passage of scripture where it is first introduced. This is called the principle of first mention. When we go to a concordance we discover that the word holy was first used in the book of Exodus. It is a very familiar passage of scripture where God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and called him to be the deliverer of the Israelites. “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5 NIV)

Now we need to ask the question. What made the ground holy? Was it Moses’ response? Was it his final acquiescence and conformity to God’s will? No, the ground was holy before Moses arrived. In this instance, it is obvious that it was holy because a) God said so and b) He, the Great I Am Who Am, was there.

It could go without saying, but it is important to note that wherever God chooses to be is holy, simply because He is holy.

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The great cost of forgiveness

Relationship with God / Tom Stuart

Dealing with sin back in Old Testament days was a time consuming, expensive and bloody affair. Whenever someone sinned, in order to receive forgiveness and re-consecrate themselves to God, they were required to experience up close and personal the consequence of their sin. They had to take one of the best animals from their own flock and parade it through their neighborhood to a place of worship, while bearing the embarrassment and shame of their sin. Before the priest, they were to lay one hand upon the head of the animal thereby transferring their sins to it, and with the other hand slit its throat and kill it. The priest would then collect the blood, place some on the horns of the altar and pour the rest out at the altar’s base. Then the animal had to be skinned, the fat removed and burned on the altar. Now tell me, if that is not a deterrent to sin what is? Sin directly affected not only the pocketbook and the conscience, but cost an animal its life while creating a gory mess. The writer of Hebrews puts it succinctly: “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” (Hebrews 9:22)

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