HEARING GOD
Psalm 27:8 NLT
My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.” And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”
Jeremiah 16:1-2 NLT
The Lord gave me another message. He said, “Do not marry or have children in this place.”
John 10:27 NLT
My sheep recognize myvoice; I know them and they follow me.
John 14:17 CEV
The Spirit will show you what is true. The people of this world cannot accept the Spirit, because they don’t see or know him. But you know the Spirit, who is with you and will keep on living in you.
Acts 26:19 NLT
And so, O King Agrippa,I was not disobedient to that vision from heaven.
When was the last time you heard God speak personally to you? Do you even believe God still speaks to us these days? I will never forget sitting in a room of Christian leaders, as for hours they debated this topic, with many truly believing God does not speak directly to us today, that He only speaks to us through his Word, the Bible. I was stunned that men who believe the Spirit of the living Christ lives in each believer in the person of the Holy Spirit can no longer speak to us personally, that suddenly God is restrained and can only talk through his written Word, as you read the recorded words on those pages.
Of course, I believe with all my heart the Bible is the living Word of God. I have in fact banked my entire life and eternity on its validity and truth. I believe thisword is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path! I believe man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God!Countless times God has spoken, personally and directly to me through reading his Word. But how can any believe that with Almighty God living inside of us, he himself cannot speak to us? How can one ignore the very verses I wrote at the beginning of this article? How can we forget that God came to Abraham and told him to leave his home, and his extended family and go to the land God was going to give him? Abraham banked his whole life on that word and direction from God himself! How can we forget God’s personal message to Jeremiah, not to get married and have children? How do we forget God’s personal message and command to Noah to build an arc, and put the animals in it, for I am going to destroy the world with a flood? How do we forget God’s personal message to Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach and command them to repent? How do we ignore God’s personal message to Paul on the road to Damascus and Paul’s passionate, life-long commitment to that heavenly vision, no matter how much he suffered for it, in the doing of it?
I could not live if God did not speak to me. I would be lost, completely without direction, and purpose in my life.
I will never forget the first time God spoke directly to me, after weeks of dealing with me in a very personal, and direct way. That time was a bit like God’s dealing with Jonah, when Jonah rebelled against God’s personal word to him, and Jonah ran away on a ship to sea! God had men throw him into the sea, a giant fish swallowed him alive, and from that belly of the beast, he cried out to God in prayer! God saved him, had the fish spit him out on the shore, and Jonah went and did exactly what God told him to do.
During the course of almost 3 weeks in 1975, God almost killed me on 4 separate occasions. It was supernatural that I didn’t die. God was dealing with me very directly. At last, I repented. I stopped resisting God’s calling on my life to serve him for the rest of my life! God spoke to me after reading about John and Peter before the Sanhedrin, and God said to me, out at Brushy Creek reserve, while spending time alone with God, “Mark, would you like me to use you like I did Peter and John?” I said, “Absolutely, Lord.” Then God said to me, “I require one thing from you. You must spend time alone with Me!” As a result, I have spent thousands of hours in prayer and time alone with God throughout the last 48 years!
When God called me to plant churches, to use a unique strategy to reach lost people for Christ, it was God who gave me that unique strategy to reach young people with the Gospel. When God personally put it on my heart, through the Holy Spirit to start the Faithwalkers conferences and the unique way I designed them, it was God’s voice I was following and the plan he gave me. He crowned those efforts with great blessing.
When on Oct. 31, 1976, I met Kathy for the first time at a Christian retreat, seeing the devout, genuine sincerity of her faith, and her singular devotion to Christ, I went home and spent the next week in much prayer asking God if I should marry her. He told me “This is the one, go and speak with her.” I followed God’s Spirit’s voice to me, and drove to Ames, Iowa, having never been there before. On a walk with Kathy that day, in the soccer field next to the Towers where she lived, I shared with her what I had been thinking and talking to God about. I asked her if she would pray about marrying me at some time in the future. She stopped, turned to me, and said, “Mark, I have been wondering and praying about the same thing. I would be glad to pray about it.” After much persecution and many great trials, on May 5th, 1979 we got married! That was 44 years ago! We followed God’s voice, Gods calling in our lives. God has greatly blessed it.
I never imagined that after planting and pastoring churches for decades, a treacherous, catastrophic betrayal would occur. But once again, God spoke to me personally. God told me to resign, to begin a new ministry called Strong Disciple. God promised me he would raise me from the cruel death they inflicted on me, that He would call into being what did not exist before. I followed God’s voice even though there were others who wanted me to submit to the ungodly plan those who betrayed me were proposing, for the sake of “unity”. I knew I could not, that God had called me to walk away and start this new ministry. God did exactly what he said he would do. It has been absolutely amazing.
When I started this new ministry, God spoke to me, and said, “Mark, write weekly articles on faith, family, and fatherhood, call them Thoughts Provoking. I want you to pass on the wisdom and insights that I’ve given you.” Though Id never done this kind of thing before, God reminded me through the Holy Spirit, of the scripture in Psalms, My tongue is the pen of a ready writer! God said to me, “Mark if your tongue can say it, your hand can write it!” That word from God gave me all the confidence, and assurance I needed.
Friends, listen to God. Spend much time in prayer, faithfully read his Word, and listen to the voice of God, listen to the Holy Spirit living inside of you to the things God is telling you to do. This is the very essence of walking with God!
Always remember God may lead me in ways that are different than he leads you. He may lead you in ways that are different than he leads others. As different as God’s leading for Noah was different than God’s leading for Abraham. As different as God telling Gideon to tear down his father’s pagan altar, or telling Moses to go command Pharaoh to let God’s people go!
We have a relationship with the Living God, who lives in us, not just pages in a Book. The Book is vitally important. The Holy Spirit is equally vitally important. Gods voice speaks through both.
At the end of all time, when I stand before God, all that will matter then is this: did I do what He told me to do, both from His written Word and His personally spoken word to me.
Psalm 25:12,14 NASB
Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose! The secrets of the Lord arefor those who fear him!
Isaiah 30:21 NIV
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way; walk in it.
Helping you become a Strong Disciple,
Because of Jesus,
Pastor Mark Darling
