Listening by writing

The fourth of Mark Virkler's Four Keys for Hearing God's voice is "journaling". Virkler says, "I call the process "two-way journaling," and I have found it to be a fabulous catalyst for clearly discerning God’s inner, spontaneous flow."

Consider that much of the book of Psalms is simply David's written dialogue with God.

Rose Starr in Denver, CO explains how the discipline of "listening by writing" is impacting her life...

"Spending time listening every day is a new thing for me. It has been challenging since it's a new skill and I don't feel "good" at it yet. However since I've been writing as I listen, I'm amazed that in a few short days I am writing more and more. I feel that God is indeed speaking to me and the thoughts that are flowing from my head/heart onto my paper are from Him. It's been so encouraging. I mean, why wouldn't I want to hear from my Papa every day? Then as I gather with my CO2 (church of two) or house church I have all sorts of things to share about what God is teaching me!

John

For more about Mark Virkler's Four Keys, see http://www.cwgministries.org/Four-Keys-to-Hearing-Gods-Voice.htm

Henri Nouwen: "The real work of prayer"

The prime directive of the LK10 Community is to "Listen, obey and teach others to do the same."  (Jn. 10:27)  This is our entire discipleship "program" because we believe everything else flows from this 
intimate conversational relationship with Jesus.


But, what do we listen for?


Henri Nouwen (pictured in photo) is immensely helpful at this point.  “The real "work" of prayer is to become silent and listen to the voice that says good things about me."


The starting point for all of life and ministry is learning to listen to God.  And, the starting point for listening is learning to hear the "good things" Papa has to say to me and about me each day.  Many of us grew up in homes that had more critique than affirmation.  More criticism than blessing.  And, those words of criticism are what our "ears" are attuned to.  Our hearing must be retrained one day at a time to hear the "good things" that our heavenly Father wants to say to us.


Implications for church?  Huge!  This should be a community where we together are "listening to the voice of the one who says good things" about the others in the family.


One place you can deepen your ability to hear the Lord in this way is in a learning community called The Foundations Course.  For more on this, go here http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/2011/09/foundations-course.html


And, for more from Henri Nouwen, see below...


To gently push aside and silence the many voices that question my goodness and to trust that I will hear the voice of blessing-- that demands real effort. 
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World





Biography


Fr. Henri Nouwen  was born in the Netherlands, where he was ordained to the priesthood and earned his doctorate in psychology. After nearly two decades of teaching at the Menninger Clinic in Kansas and at the Universities of Notre Dame, Yale and Harvard, he left to share his life with mentally handicapped people at the L'Arche community of Daybreak in Toronto, Canada. He is the author of many books on spirituality and psychology, including The Return of the Prodigal Son, In the Name of Jesus, and The Life of the Beloved.

"The Life of the Beloved"

I would like to speak to you about the spiritual life as the life of the beloved. As a member of a community of people with mental disabilities, I have learned a lot from people with disabilities about what it means to be the beloved. Let me start by telling you that many of the people that I live with hear voices that tell them that they are no good, that they are a problem, that they are a burden, that they are a failure. They hear a voice that keeps saying, "If you want to be loved, you had better prove that you are worth loving. You must show it."


But what I would like to say is that the spiritual life is a life in which you gradually learn to listen to a voice that says something else, that says, "You are the beloved and on you my favor rests."


You are the beloved and on you my favor rests.

Jesus heard that voice. He heard that voice when He came out of the Jordan River. I want you to hear that voice, too. It is a very important voice that says, "You are my beloved son; you are my beloved daughter. I love you with an everlasting love. I have molded you together in the depths of the earth. I have knitted you in your mother's womb. I've written your name in the palm of my hand and I hold you safe in the shade of my embrace. I hold you. You belong to Me and I belong to you. You are safe where I am. Don't be afraid. Trust that you are the beloved. That is who you truly are."

I want you to hear that voice. It is not a very loud voice because it is an intimate voice. It comes from a very deep place. It is soft and gentle. I want you to gradually hear that voice. We both have to hear that voice and to claim for ourselves that that voice speaks the truth, our truth. It tells us who we are. That is where the spiritual life starts -- by claiming the voice that calls us the beloved.

Listening (to God) is learnable (3)

There is a great deal of talk these days about being "missional" Christians. But, in the third and last part of this interview, Marty has a different take on this. In fact, he talks about the shift he has made from being "just missional to being incarnational". The focus, for Marty, is no longer trying to "figure out" how to be missional. Rather, it is learning to live like Jesus who was in constant communication with His Father. Marty references Jn. 12:49 where Jesus says that the Father told Him not only what to say but how to say it.

What this means for all of us in the Luke Ten Community is that "mission flows from listening". We are not missional because we are focusing on being missional. Rather, we focus on listening and see everything else (community, worship, mission, etc.) flow from that.

John

Listening (to God) is learnable (2)

Marty Reiswig is a church planter in Aurora which is east of Denver. Hobby Chapin is a church planter in Brighton which is north of Denver.

In the second part of this video interview (see below), Marty tells about "shadowing" Hobby as a way to learn to hear God and to see how this relates to leading house churches. I love the attitude that both of these guys have.

Marty illustrates the humility of a learner. "I want to hang out with you and learn everything I can."

Hobby illustrates the humility of a teacher who isn't "lording it over". "Let's hang out and learn together."

Notice also Marty's observation that Hobby does the same thing at all of his meetings (house church gathering, leaders' meetings, etc.) They check in with each other on the heart level and they talk about what they are hearing from God.

Take a look

John

Listening (to God) is learnable (1)

The video below is the first of a three part interview with Marty Reiswig, Hobby Chapin and Desi Starr where they are talking about how they learned to hear God's voice. This will also give you a bit of the feel for one of our MRTs (regional apostolic teams) here in Denver.

In this first part, Marty observes that much of his life as a Christian involved a "personal relationship with the Bible" but not much of a "personal relationship with Jesus". The transition to an intimate conversational relationship with Jesus hasn't been easy. Marty shares what has helped him in making this shift.

To think Biblically about this idea of hearing God's voice, compare John the Baptist with the religious leaders in Jesus' day.

In John 1:32-34, John the Baptist reports that the only way he was able to identify that Jesus was the Son of God was that "the one (ie, God) who sent me told me". The quotation marks in verse 33 are very important! John is reporting what he heard from God (and it didn't come through Bible study!).

Now, compare with the Jewish leaders in John 5:33-47. These guys "diligently study the Scriptures" (v. 39) but, according to Jesus, "you have never heard His (the Father's) voice" (v. 37). As a result, they were unable to understand who Jesus was or to come to Him for life.

Our conclusion is not to downgrade Bible study but to upgrade the intimate conversational relationship with Jesus. The Bible remains our "authoritative guide for faith and practice". But, we realize that the primary practice that it points toward is hearing God's voice and obeying.

Learning to do this is the journey we are on.

John

Listening to God: The three Ts

In today's video below, my good friend, Dr. Kent Smith (professor at the Graduate School of Theology at ACU), explains the three practices or rhythms that are the focus of the Apprenticeship for all three cohorts. (BTW, Kent's wife, Karen, is in the background.)

1. First practice. Individually spending time with Jesus as close to every day as possible. Entering into that intimate conversational relationship. This is the starting place and foundation for everything else.

2. Second practice. Connecting with one other person on the heart level as close to daily as possible. Sharing what we are hearing from God. This is the CO2 (church of two). This is the basic building block for every larger expression of church.

3. Third practice. Connecting with a spiritual family on a heart level at least once each week. Listening to God together. (called house church, simple church, etc.)

Note that Kent is introducing a new way to talk about how we listen to God which he calls the three “Ts”. Turn-tune-take.

1. Turn your attention to God. Quiet yourself. Fix your attention on God.

2. Tune into spontaneous thoughts and emotions. We believe that this is often how the Spirit communicates with us.

3. Take note of what you hear. Write it down. Two way journaling.

John

Mission flows from Listening

There's lots of conversation these days about becoming "missional Christians." But, how does this actually happen. Where does the motivation and direction come from?

Hobby Chapin, a church planter in Brighton, CO (north of Denver) has discovered that teaching people to listen to God's voice is more effective than exhorting them to be missional. Most of the people in his house churches are involved with daily "churches of two". As they learn to listen, mission (church planting, evangelism, etc.) occurs spontaneously.

CO2's naturally result in "missional Christians."

Listen to Hobby's comments on this below...

John Eldredge on Listening for His Voice

John Eldredge has been a great help to me in learning to hear God's voice. Below is a quote from Wild at Heart. He goes into greater depth on the subject in Walking with God. -John


Revelation: Listening for His Voice 12/17/2009

"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth." (John 16:12–13)

There’s more that Jesus wants to say to you, much more, and now that his Spirit resides in your heart, the conversation can continue. Many good people never hear God speak to them personally for the simple fact that they’ve never been told that he does. But he does—generously, intimately. “He who belongs to God hears what God says” (John 8:47).

The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice . . . I am the good shepherd. (John 10:2–4, 11)

You don’t just leave sheep to find their way in the world. They are famous for getting lost, being attacked by wild animals, falling into some pit, and that is why they must stay close to the shepherd, follow his voice. And no shepherd could be called good unless he personally guided his flock through danger. But that is precisely what he promises to do. He wants to speak to you; he wants to lead you to good pasture. Now, it doesn’t happen in an instant. Walking with God is a way of life. It’s something to be learned; our ability to hear God’s voice and discern his word to us grows over time. As Brother Lawrence said it, we “practice the presence of God.”

(Waking the Dead , 102–3)