SCRIPTURE READING
John 14:20 (NIV); On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and
I am in you.
Discovering God’s purposes for our lives requires that we hear from Him. Call it what you
will; it requires prayer and listening to the thoughts, words, pictures, Scriptures, etc that God
impresses upon your heart. This is a blatant biblical truth. Jesus did only what he saw the
Father doing, and said only what He heard the Father saying because He was full of the Spirit
and was in constant communion with the Father. He listened. So with these words – “you
will realize that I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” – Jesus was making
it clear that we can be in that same communion with God. We can hear Him, and respond to
what we hear!
Listening to God needs to become a consistent and disciplined part of our personal time with
the Lord. Only then will we hear Him as we go about our daily business. As Eli said to the
boy Samuel, “go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is
listening.’” We will not hear God when we are sleeping, eating, working or playing if we have
not made a habit of taking intentional time to listen. There are many Spirit-filled Christians
who walk in the Spirit, obeying the voice of God with almost every step, but they weren’t born
that way. Our undisciplined, sinful nature does not naturally bend towards listening to anyone.
But as we listen to the Spirit, our nature will change too, and we will start to have a greater
understanding of what God wants of us.
PRAYER and MEDITATION
1. Is disciplined listening a regular part of your time with the Lord? How has your sense of
God’s voice grown or diminished in the past few months?
2. God is in you and you are in Him! Mediate on this. How can this be a transformational truth
in your life?
3. Take time to really listen to God right now. Ask HIM for questions that He wants you to ask
Him about. Then ask these things and listen to His answers.
