Over the last few weeks on the program, we’ve been discovering how it is that God speaks to us today and how we can get about hearing Him when He does speak. The question is – when it’s something big or important – how can we make sure that we’ve heard Him right? Because the last thing we want to do, is to get it wrong, right?

 

The Counsel of Others

It’s great to be with you again today in this last message in the four part series that I have called, “How Can I Hear God Speak to Me?" And today we are going to take a look at how God sometimes speaks to us through the people around us.

Just the other night I was asked to spend some time facilitating a discussion amongst the elders, the church council, of a particular church, not far from where I live. It seems that what had been going on was that there was conflict amongst some of the leaders and that’s not good. Leaders of God’s people shouldn’t be in conflict – they should act in unity.

The Apostle Paul, writing to his friends at the church in Philippi said this – Philippians chapter 2, verse 2:

Make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love and being in full accord and of one mind.

We were chatting about the fact that God has made each one of us differently – Romans chapter 12 – some of us are prophets, others servers, others teachers, encouragers, givers, leaders, carers. And I can tell you, a leader is going to have a totally different view of the world compared to say, an encourager or a carer – that’s because leaders are wired one way, the encourager is wired another way and the carer is wired yet another way, on the inside. That’s the way it is, because we are different. We see things differently and often, that’s the source of conflict.

Now, in this meeting, one of the elders of the church; an older man with a great deal of wisdom asked the sixty four million dollar question. He said, "Okay, so we are all different, with different points of view – then how are we meant to discern the will of God, out of all those different views?" And that my friend, is a very, very good question.

One of the things I’m prone to do is to race out and just do things – without listening to the advice of other people. It’s because my personality type is the "leader". I’m an action person. I work on the theory that if I make ten decisions today and get just seven of them right, I’m way ahead than if I only made three decisions but got them all right.

And my good friend Keith Henry, with whom I co-authored the book, “My Personality GPS”, he makes this point about leaders – he says that one of their natural weaknesses is they often fail because they don’t listen to advice. Those detail people – you know the sort – they analyse everything to the "enth" degree – those detail people naturally drive me nuts because they slow me down. I want to get on with things and they want to analyse things first.

But you know what I have learned? I have learned that without those detail people, I am going to fail at things because God is in the detail. The detail matters! And part of my growing up; my process of maturing is to value and to listen to the detail people because they are really, really, really important to me.

And I have come to realise that often God will speak to me through the gifts and the abilities of other people, even – let me say – people who in the natural have a tendency to drive me nuts. I love that – God has such a great sense of humour in dealing with our own immaturity.

Okay, what does God’s Word have to say on this issue – this answer to the sixty four million dollar question? When there are all these different perspectives, how are we supposed to discern God’s will? Well, there are a few fantastic bits of wisdom on this very thing in the Book of Proverbs – Proverbs chapter 15, verse 22, says:

Without counsel plans go wrong, but with many advisers they succeed.

Proverbs chapter 18, verse 2:

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing personal opinions.

Proverbs chapter 20, verse 18:

Plans are established by taking advice; wage war by following wise guidance.

Isn’t that great stuff? What God is saying to us here is that, if we rush off in a fit of pride because we think we know best, well, there’s every chance that our plans will go off the rails. But if we humble ourselves, instead of being more interested in our own opinions and listen to the advice of others, that’s how our plans are going succeed. I have to tell you this is something I have had to learn and I have learned it the hard way and the more I have learned it, the more I have succeeded.

We were recently planning something really new in the ministry of Christianityworks – quite different and quite new. And so we pulled together a group of very different people to plan and implement the project. Very different people, I have to say and with all that I am, I believe we heard God speak through this process. And with all that I am, that’s exactly what I think God meant for us to do. “Without counsel plans go wrong, but with many advisers they succeed.”

It’s awesome stuff! It is so easy to fall into conflict when teams of people are working together or at least trying to and yet, everyone sees things from a different perspective. And the key to discerning God’s will is mutual submission - that requires wisdom. Have a listen to what God has to say about His wisdom; the wisdom that comes from above. James chapter 3, verse 17:

The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.

The bit I really like in there, that strikes a chord with me, is the bit that says "willing to yield" – willing to get off its high horse, listen to the skills and views and gifts and abilities of other people as godly men and women that God has put around us. It’s when we yield that we hear the voice of God. Let me say it again: it is when we yield that we hear the voice of God. And there is a reason for that: James chapter 4, verse 6:

Because God opposes the proud but he gives grace to the humble.

So often we want to hear God speak; we want to discern the will of God: "God, what are You doing? God, what’s next? God, this is a tight spot, how do I deal with this?" And yet we ignore the good advice of the godly men and women that God has put around us. Hello!! Why? Because we are proud! Let me say this loving but directly – immature and foolish and proud, because as it says in Proverbs chapter 18, verse 2:

Like a fool, we take no pleasure in understanding but only in expressing our own personal opinions.

We all know people like that – we have all done that. We get on our high horse; we think we are right and we are not interested in listening to anyone else. And to stop doing that we need to humble ourselves.

Sometimes, as we saw last week on the programme, God speaks to us supernaturally, other times He speaks to us through the ordinary and the every day. Both are equally valid! And one of the great delights of my heart, something that I have grown to truly love is to hear God speak through the lives and the mouths and the skills and the abilities and the gifting and the experience of other people because by His grace He has taught me to get off my high horse, to shut up and to listen.

 

Dreams and Visions

Right now I want to go on and chat about dreams and visions, because that’s something the Bible; the New Testament talks about. But are they real? Does God really still speak through dreams and visions today or is this a phoney notion? I think they’re reasonable questions to ask when we are enquiring as to how God speaks with us.

Now maybe you are thinking, "Dreams and visions – aw, for goodness sake! Where is this joker coming from? Is he for real?" Well, my response is simply this: my heart; my passion is to dive into God’s Word, the Bible, to read it, to understand it as best I can and to live it. I’m a simple kind of guy and that’s how I approach life.

And one of the things that happen is that God often does things in ways that I, with my rational Western mind-set, perhaps wouldn’t have chosen had I been in His big shoes. Well, fortunately for you, I’m not – that’s the up side. But perhaps the downside is that if we accept God at His Word, then we have to accept that He is going to do things His way, even if they don’t always quite make sense to us.

So, what does God’s Word say about dreams and visions? I am going to share with you a passage from chapter 2, from the Book of Acts. God’s Spirit has just been poured out on these Christians and they are all talking in different languages – they are behaving as though they are drunk – literally. You can read it for yourself – the fifth book in the New Testament; the Book of Acts chapter 2.

Not surprisingly, the other Jews in Jerusalem at the time were pretty critical of this sort of behaviour. They are accusing these Christians of being drunk, so Peter the Apostle, stands up to explain. Acts chapter 2, beginning at verse 12:

All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.” But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in