1819 Your Seeking Era

Have you ever questioned how exactly you’re supposed to hear from God? If he is your guide, then how do you receive his guidance? Maybe you’ve heard people say things like, “The Lord told me this…” or “God asked me to do that …”, and you’re like, “REALLY … how does he do that?!!!”

If you feel like you’ve never heard God tell you much of anything, you’re certainly not alone. If you’re unsure of how to receive his guidance, you’re in the right place to hear exactly what you most need to hear today. By the end of this devotional, you will finally understand the precise steps to hearing from God.

To learn, we’re going to go to someone far more qualified than myself. Someone who has a track record of divine guidance from God that lead to one impossible victory after another. David.

Yes, we talked about David yesterday. The youngest of Jesse’s 8 sons who was left out in the fields to tend to the sheep when Samuel showed up at the house and said the Lord had sent him there to anoint the next King. But even when he was in the wrong place, even when he was left out, even when he was overlooked, God specifically chose him.

Then, after he was chosen, his life went back to much the same. He kept tending those sheep. He kept fighting off lions and bear in those fields. And all of this was his understated and unannounced training. Training for a destined battle and predetermined victory.

Now I don’t know about you, but I have an in depth skill of avoiding battles. I don’t like confrontation. I would prefer to let you have your way and think you’re right than fight you over it. I want nothing to do with a battle. But some battles are destined. What if the battle you find yourself in today has a predetermined victory. And what if that victory will be a result of the years of training you went through in fields where no one recognized your work?

GOD HAS YOU IN TRAINING NOW FOR A DESTINED BATTLE AND PREDETERMINED VICTORY. Be faithful in your field, my friend.

In 1 Samuel 18, after David defeats Goliath, King Saul takes note of this young teenager, and finally, so did everyone else. The women start singing David’s praises over King Saul’s praises. So what do you think happens next … King Saul becomes enraged with jealousy. For the next several chapters we see the King constantly planning a sneak attack to kill David. David is always on the run, hiding, fearful for his life, all while King Saul is in relentless pursuit of the one he is so jealous of.

And suddenly we start noticing a theme in scripture. Time after time, David asks the Lord very specific questions for his next steps and he receives very specific and clear answers.

1 Samuel 23: 2-5 “David asked the Lord, ‘Should I go …’ ‘Yes, go …’ the Lord told him. So David and his men went.”

2 Samuel 2: 1 “David asked the Lord, “‘Should I move …’ ‘Yes,’ the Lord replied. Then David asked, ‘Which town should I go to?’ ‘To Hebron,’ the Lord answered.”

How was David able to ask God such specific questions and get such specific answers? Isn’t this what you want in your life? It’s most certainly what I want. I want to know that I know that I know God is directing me. I want to know for sure that prompting, that thought, that open door is from God … but I often don’t.

The truth is, sometimes I question if that’s God speaking to me or just my vivid imagination making up things. I wonder if sometimes I want to hear from God so badly that I assign his voice to ordinary things that happen by chance. Looking back I realize often that door wasn’t really opened by God, I squeezed my own self through and forced my way in.

I bet if you’re being honest you often do the same thing. You want to hear from God, but you’re not sure how. And when you think it might have been God, there’s so much room left for uncertainty. How do you know when the dream you had last night was a divine message from Heaven, versus the after effect of 3 slices of pepperoni pizza?

As I read David’s specific questions to God and the specific answers he received in turn, I realized two things.

1. I realized God had a plan for every detail. God knew the town David was to go to, the way to get there and the perfect timing for him to go. God was truly in every detail.

And here’s what I’m coming to understand, your life and my life are under the same infinite care, the same divine wisdom and the same heavenly involvement as David’s life was. God has a plan for you just as he had a plan for David. God has a preferred future for you and an aligned path to get you there right on time. BUT, IF YOU’RE FAILING TO SEEK GOD FOR THAT PATH, YOU MAY NOT BE ON IT.

So far in my life, God hasn’t written on billboards or put messages in the sky. If he speaks to me through dreams, it’s really confusing because my dreams are random and bizarre. Typically in my dreams I’m half-dressed on some stage with no speech planned, or I have a retreat house full of people and I kinda forgot to buy food or plan adventures. I’m generally unprepared and totally inadequate in my dreams. If God is talking to me in those dreams, what exactly is he saying? I’ve heard the audible voice of God once 25 years ago and I often question if I really did or if I just made that up.

So how in the world can David be so certain of God’s answers. How did he hear him? How did he know that was God?

And that leads me to the second big realization here …

2. There were many chapters between the introduction of David as a shepherd boy and the first time we read of David asking God a specific question and receiving such a clear answer. What happened in the chapters in between?

In the chapters between, David was growing closer and closer to God. He was learning to seek him, learning to trust him, and ultimately learning God’s voice. It takes 7 chapters before we see God’s first definitive answer to David. How many times had David asked in those 7 chapters? How many times had David asked and heard nothing? How many hours did David spend praying? How many sermons did he listen to? How many journals did he write in?

That’s what we don’t see.

But that’s where we are.

We’re in the 7 chapters no one writes about.

What if this is where you just keep asking God, no matter how uncertain you are. What if this is where you keep praying even when it feels like nothing is happening. What if this is where you dig deeper, devote your life, surrender your plans and seek God over ever detail.

And what if this is what it takes to get to the point where you can ask God, “Lord, should I go?” and you hear a definite, “Yes, go!” What if the chapter you’re in now leads you to a future chapter where you can ask God, “Which town should I go to?” and the Lord tells you clearly a specific place.

But, you don’t get to that chapter without this chapter. Yes, this chapter where you’re praying without a clear answer. This chapter where you’re seeking but not sure exactly what you’re finding. This is your SEEKING ERA! The Finding Era will come.

David was able to ask God specific questions and get specific answers. And you know what that shows us … that shows us it’s REAL! It shows us that’s possible for us too. We are God’s chosen girls. We are heirs to his Kingdom. We house his powerful Holy Spirit. We have the potential of hearing from God the same way David did.

So, what are the precise steps to hearing from God?

Step 1: ASK
Step 2: KEEP ASKING
Step 3: DON’T STOP ASKING
Step 4: PRACTICE RESPONDING

I’ve found the more I practice responding to what I believe might be a prompting from God, the more I understand what is a prompting and what is not. Sometimes I’m right and sometimes I’m wrong. I’m still learning. But the more I practice responding in faith, the more confidence I’m building in knowing God is involved in the details, he does hear my prayers and he is answering.

In Matthew 7:7 Jesus says, “KEEP ON ASKING, and you will receive what you ask for. KEEP ON SEEKING, and you will find. KEEP ON KNOCKING, and the door will be opened to you.”

That’s what David did in the chapters in between. No one wrote about that. No one gets excited about asking over and over again and thinking something was God then finding out it wasn’t. No one preaches on seeking and not finding … for years. No one writes books about knocking on every dang door until you get so discouraged you just start banging down doors to end up in the wrong rooms with the wrong people.

But that’s the truth. And that’s how you learn. That’s how you grow.

Don’t give up in this chapter. You ask. You keep asking. You don’t stop asking. And you practice responding.

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