Journal

Hearing from God

Posted on May 15th, 2005, in the evening

I've spent the weekend leading worship with a group from Penrith Methodist Church on a retreat in Newcastleton, Scotland (my first expedition over the border, even if only a few miles!) It's been a great weekend (thanks all!) made even better by the opportunity to listen to Ken McGreavy, who was sharing from the word.

I'll repeat a point Ken made that has really helped me in my thinking about hearing from God. I find it easy to get tied up in knots about "am I hearing God right?", "what does it mean for God to speak?" etc. but Ken made this simple observation: that our confidence should be in God's ability to make himself heard rather than our ability to hear.

What a release! And it makes so much sense from scripture. Constantly throughout the Bible people hear from God who had no intention of doing so, and often utterly despite themselves. If that's the way things are there's just no need to get uptight about the whole business. My own experience bears witness to this truth as well. God is perfectly able to communicate.