The three stranded cord: you, the word, and the Spirit of God.
The word of God is what has the power to change you.
The Spirit of God brings life to the things that you do for God.
It makes the obedience to the word alive instead of just works, so we need all of these components interwoven into all the things that we do otherwise we're easily broken.
When it's "I'm just standing on the word but I don't have the spirit of God to make that word alive," then it's just two. Sometimes we try to do it in our own strength and we leave God completely out of it, and that's when we are very easily broken.
The other extreme is yourself and the Spirit and without the word; it's unfocused.
Without the word we can find ourselves confused and it is not the Spirit of God at all.
Then it becomes something that is out of order. It easily can be seen and viewed as something that's weird and spooky, and it's unbalanced and it's easily broken.
So if all of these components are interwoven together they become a three woven cord that's not easily broken. We need the Spirit of God and we need the word of God applied to the very thing at hand and it will cause us to be able to effectively pull in a situation and have power. Without it, we really don't have a lot of pulling power
Like Samuel, we may not know the voice of God the first time He speaks to us.
The first time I realized I was dismissing the voice of God was at work. I had the thought, "you should check that quote again but I turned it in". Well, my boss found a mistake. While I was correcting the mistake I realized God loved me and was trying to save me from the embarrassment of the mistake.
Now when those thoughts come I recognize them as the voice of God. They are not my thoughts, they are higher than my ways. So whether I'm driving or working I just work at listening and not interrupting until He has completed sharing with me what He wants me to know. Then I focus on remembering because it was His words and I need to write them down to remember them.
When was the first time you recognized God was speaking to you?
I asked Liam a few years ago what the voice of God sounded like, he said gentle.
It challenged me because I was using a strong and aggressive voice to communicate.
What does the voice of God sound like to you?
How did the word come alive to you through this message?
When was the first time you recognized God was speaking to you?
God has probably spoken to me many times and I didn't acknowledge him... But the first time that I acknowledge God speaking to me was 2 years ago in Tabernacles when you, Pastor Aaron, had a word of knowledge of pain in the hips. And I think about that moment quite a lot. Because that's when my life changed forever. And it's funny how everything happened because I've become immune to the pain. And the pain wasn't always there it came and went. But I always felt discomfort. And when you said it, I don't remember a voice, I just became really emotional out of nowhere. And I…
When was the first time you recognized God was speaking to you? What does the voice of God sound like to you?
I wish that I could point to a particular first time. In my home growing up, being open to hearing what God had to say was something that was a regular occurrence and encouraged. What I can point to is that every time He’s spoken to me it’s not a loud overwhelming thing (like fear or condemnation or one’s own wants can be), but it’s been calm and persistent- a pretty good indication that it is indeed God and not my own thoughts. One of those instances was simply a “move your foot”: I was working on breaking…
When was the first time you recognized God was speaking to you?
I've felt for a long time that, as I was growing up, God was true to His Word that He is a Father to the fatherless. With me in ways and protecting me. But that's with me looking back from the now and recognizing, but not in the moments. The first time as far as I can recall for something specific was one day before work during Tabernacles. A quiet, but persistent thought/voice with a simple instruction to go for a walk. So I did. On that walk, the same way another persistent thought/voice, someone will be driving by and stop to talk to you. And that happened.…
When was the first time you recognized God was speaking to you? The first time I heard God speak to me was when I was about 7 years old. My oldest brother was doing his chore of burning the trash. (Back in the days when you could still do that!) He picked up an old jar that he thought just had water in it and threw it in the fire. Unfortunately, it was not water but gasoline that been used for the lawn mower and forgotten outdoors. Of course, the gasoline ignited and flashed up and burned his face. I was very upset and crying in my room asking God to let him be ok. I believe that God spoke…
When was the first time you recognized God was speaking to you?
I honestly do not remember the first time I recognized that God was speaking to me. I got born again at 16 yeas old and during that time, before I ran away from Him at 18, I know I heard from Him, at least once in a while that I knew--but I can't pin point the first time that I knew. A lot of my memory is fuzzy.
What does the voice of God sound like to you?
Most of the time His voice is gentle and pretty quiet, but I most definitely have heard His corrective voice to me that was much more firm and a time…