Hearing God

Hello Becky,
I pulled Dallas Willard's book off my shelf again and started reading it again. The book Hearing God===Developing a conversational relationship with God. I then looked up in my old documents and found something I wrote to myself during a meditation a few years back. It was entitled Hearing God speak. I read it through a few times just to see if my thinking has changed on the subject since that time a few years ago. I can't say that my thinking on the matter has changed. And you are absolutely correct in what you said conserning "seeing things through the lens of the teachers we have studied under and the lens of our own experience". Two of the 5 greatest powers that mold us Becky (according to Tozer) are the people we keep company with and the books we read or the "voices" we listen to. Obviously you have kept company with many I have not kept company with and you are well read from authors I have never even heard of. You have also listened to many other people (voices) that I have never chosen to listen to or would have --had I the chance (probably). Is it any wonder that we don't see eye to eye on a lot of issues.
Well, we are in dialogue mode and I will sign off for the weekend. Love you. Can't wait to get through the winter here in south Brazil.
Dad
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God leads us and directs our footsteps and we need to put ourselves into position to hear His voice. We need to converse with Him daily. We need to be in His Word and consider ourselves every bit as important as the men of faith in past generations. He still is about saving the lost. He is still using His host of angels to accomplish His purpose. He says to them “Move and do this or do that” and they accomplish His purposes. He speaks to us as well to speak on this or that subject, to do this or do that or not to do this or that. Sometimes He says to wait upon Him. Sometimes we want answers now but He is not about to let us in on what He is doing. We must learn patience and in the meantime just grow in our reliance upon His goodness and grace. He is perfect in all His ways. What am I to do today? Keep on fearing Him and loving Him and listening to Him and be ready to go and do whatever He commands. It will always be doable with His enabling.
What is hard right now is that we are under supported. That is what the print out says. Is that really the fact though. Is God ever under supporting His servants? Will He not supply us with all of our needs through other means? We may have to practice better economy. We may have to let our need known to others. We may have to just ask Him about these things and get His ok on letters to write or pastors to call . We do however need to recognize that in His good time He will supply no matter what. Why, because He has promised to meet our needs. If we need to go back home to raise funds then we can assume that He wants us away from the field for His reasons or wants us back in the states to accomplish something there or He is in the process of teaching us something we need growing in.
God is really not needing us to have any special gifts of miracles or languages or healing powers these days to get the attention of anyone. They all have His Word and if they don’t believe His Word then there is little hope for them any way. He can put within them this disposition to trust His Word. We as His children do need to shine as lights in our character before the world so as to be living proof of what God and His Word has produced and by His Spirit is continuing to produce. We are new creations and living proof that something good, supernatural, uplifting, liberating, free has happened to us. God wants to call others to His Word and to His Message through us His disciples. We are to be daily guided by Him and listening to Him and empowered by Him to accomplish what He has to be accomplished now on the road to bringing about His final purposes here on this earth. Does He have to give people the gift of seeing into the future today? I think not. Does He have to give people the gift of healing to accomplish His purposes in the world today? I think not. He does the healing according to His will and purposes. We just pray that His will is accomplished in the life of that person and believe in the future goodness and favor and grace of God. If He chooses not to heal then I must just leave it to His Sovereign will and be content in that. He will give me grace to even find contentment in the difficult things.
Am I content with the growth of our people out in Cai? Yes and No. I am thrilled with what He has already done but I believe He wants to do much more. I am convinced that He wants that work to grow even more and that He wants to use weak vessels like Dan and Diana Richner and Randy and Sarah Southwell to move that work towards independent status. This is our calling right now and when He calls us to move on then that calling will be rather clear. What about God speaking to me about Marcio? Did God have to give me a special revelation in this matter? No! I do believe that God could not have made it more clear to me that this was not the time for Marcio and Catia to be working with us at Cai. Could I have been mistaken? I believe not! Do I need some kind of confirmation in the future such as hearing that Marcio has strayed from the good path? No, I don’t need any such confirmation. What I need is to be in position to hear God speak. Being daily in His Word and walking in obedience to His Word and Having the right desires in my heart and walking in humility recognizing that this is His work and not mine, are all key to hearing God and being directed by Him. I believe that Marcio is far better where he is presently because it is where God has directed his steps and God has even used me to help him get there and at the same time protected this work from being harmed.
What do I want God to speak to me about in the near future? I guess it is just the daily things. I want Him to speak to me about how to best help others ---principally my family and our people at Cai. I want Him to guide me in what to share with our People. I want Him to guide me and us as to where we should expend our energies and giftedness. I want Him to guide and speak to Maicol, Lu, Douglas, Daniel and Rodrigo and all of our people associated with this ministry so that they too will be guided into useful service and bring God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit great glory. Without Him we will all fail. Without listening to His Voice we will be frustrated and fail. Today Father, I want to hear Your voice and be led by Your Spirit and know and do Your will and I have every confidence that You will give me the grace to be successful in hearing Your voice, doing Your will and being all that You want me to be. If I fail then Father it will be my fault. It will be because I am living according to my flesh and am about doing my thing and not yours. If this happens I will be disciplined of course by a loving Father who will help me to confess and repent of my sin. Hopefully that will not be necessary today.