Week 3 - Day 2
THE RELATIONSHIP
Daily Directions
DAILY DIRECTIONS
Use a sentence or bullet points to finish these statements.
UP - Lift Up Your Praise
Lord, I praise You for …
DOWN - Bow Down In Repentance
Lord, I repent of …
IN - Take In God’s Word
STOP - Stop, Look and Listen
Maybe you grew up with the safety jingle, “Stop, look and listen before you cross the street.” That’s where the Daily Direction Stop, Look and Listen comes from. The idea in this Daily Direction is to not hang up the phone after sharing your prayer requests with God. Give God time to speak to you. Better yet, invite God to speak to you. Ask, “Lord, what do you want to show me or say to me?”
Last week when we looked at IN - Take In God’s Word, we saw that God has already spoken to us through His Word. The most important way that God speaks to us is through the Bible. To know God’s will, then, we need to know God’s Word.
Having said that, the Bible itself clearly tells us that God also speaks to His people through inner thoughts, a still small voice, visions and dreams, angel visitations and the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we should be open to these communications too. But we must also test them according to what is written in the Bible. These communications may never be treated on the same level as the Bible and they must not contradict the Bible. The Bible is God’s only infallible Word. But to be Biblical, it’s important to regularly pause and invite God to speak to us and to do this with the expectation that He will communicate to us and that we will obey Him. Once again, to hear is to obey.
God may show you something. An image or a circumstance or person’s face may come to mind. That may be God’s invitation to pray about that or reach out to that person. Or God may say something to you. You might think of a Bible passage, His Spirit may speak to your spirit in a still small voice or a thought may pop in your mind. These may be God’s directions for your life. Pray about it and ask Him how you are to respond.
If you sense God giving you some life-altering direction make sure you bounce it off other believers. Let the collective Biblical wisdom of your Christian community help you discern if this is really from God or not and how best to pursue God’s leading.
John 10:27 (NIV)
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
In this passage, how does God speak? What is the response?
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.”
In this passage, how does God speak? What is the response?
Acts 8:26-35 (NIV)
Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”
Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
In this passage, how does God speak? What is the response?
Acts 10:9-23 (NLT)
The next day as Cornelius’s messengers were nearing the town, Peter went up on the flat roof to pray. It was about noon, and he was hungry. But while a meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw the sky open, and something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners. In the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds. Then a voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.”
“No, Lord,” Peter declared. “I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean.”
But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.” The same vision was repeated three times. Then the sheet was suddenly pulled up to heaven.
Peter was very perplexed. What could the vision mean? Just then the men sent by Cornelius found Simon’s house. Standing outside the gate, they asked if a man named Simon Peter was staying there.
Meanwhile, as Peter was puzzling over the vision, the Holy Spirit said to him, “Three men have come looking for you. Get up, go downstairs, and go with them without hesitation. Don’t worry, for I have sent them.”
So Peter went down and said, “I’m the man you are looking for. Why have you come?”
They said, “We were sent by Cornelius, a Roman officer. He is a devout and God-fearing man, well respected by all the Jews. A holy angel instructed him to summon you to his house so that he can hear your message.” So Peter invited the men to stay for the night. The next day he went with them, accompanied by some of the brothers from Joppa.
In this passage, how does God speak? What is the response?
Acts 18:9-11 (NLT)
One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision and told him, “Don’t be afraid! Speak out! Don’t be silent! For I am with you, and no one will attack and harm you, for many people in this city belong to me.” So Paul stayed there for the next year and a half, teaching the word of God.
In this passage, how does God speak? What is the response?
Why is it important to test what you think you are hearing by the standard of the Bible and in some cases with the wisdom of other followers?
Have you ever experienced God speaking to you or showing you something? What was it? If you followed through with it, what happened?
Psalm 46:10-11 (NLT)
“Be still, and know that I am God!
I will be honored by every nation.
I will be honored throughout the world.”
The LORD of Heaven’s Armies is here among us;
the God of Israel is our fortress.
Even if you don’t sense anything when you stop to listen (which may often happen), why is it still a good practice to stop and just be still before God?
How would stopping to listen help you develop a personal, intelligent and interactive relationship with Jesus?
Lord, I hear You saying to me …
Now, with Your help I will …
OUT - Pray Out Your Requests
Lord, I pray for …
STOP - Stop, Look and Listen
Lord, what do You want to show me or say to me?
GO - Go Through Your Day
Lord, I pray for Your help as I anticipate these events today …