Hearing From God For Yourself

Hearing from God for yourself
January 2011
by John Paul Jackson
http://www.streamsministries.com/

A well-placed, well-detailed prophetic word is a powerful thing. Not only that, but it can make the person who gives it look really, really good! However, the more information we receive from the Lord ourselves, the easier it will be for us to complete what He has set before us to do.

For example, I could receive a clear word from God for someone and tell him, “The Lord says you are going to marry a woman named Brenda.”

What is the natural response when we hear words like that? From here on out, that man is going to be looking for women with that name. Eventually, he will find one, and, as he remembers the word I gave him, it would be very simple for him to jump to conclusions. Well, I like her. I don’t know if I really love her — but John Paul said I’m going to marry a woman named Brenda, so this has got to be her!

Five years later, that man is really angry with me. I never would have married this woman if it weren’t for John Paul. Look what he got me into!

Conversely, wouldn’t it have been better if I had given him the opportunity to make his own decisions? For instance, I could have communicated the same message by saying this instead: “The Lord wants you to know that your loneliness is not going to last forever. Get ready.”

This allows the man to come to his own conclusions. Wow! I wonder if this is the one for me? He has the option of the woman being “the one,” and he has the option of her not being “the one.” And he gets to work through it.

Then, five years down the road when the two of them are facing a difficult time, he won’t blame me! Instead, he’ll go to God and say, “God, You told me this was it. You’re the One who told me to do this! I need Your help!” Do you see how this works?

We need to get direction from God for ourselves no matter the decision we are facing, whether it is a move from one house to another house, a job change or even a car purchase. The more direction we can get from God, the better the situation will be for us. Why? Because anytime we hear from God, we are going to run into difficulty completing what He told us to do. The enemy is not going to sit back and say, “Oh, man! Bob just got direction from God! There is nothing we can do.”

Instead, in most cases the enemy will try everything he can to make the exact opposite take place, saying, “Bob got direction from God. Let’s try to convince Bob he didn’t get direction from God. Let’s do everything we can to convince him he heard the opposite!”

This is what happened with Joseph in Genesis 37. He was given a dream from God, and you can almost hear the enemy’s response to it: “He got a dream from God. His brothers are going to bow down to him. He is going to become a ruler over his people. Let’s sell him into slavery! You go move upon his brothers. You start instigating that type of thought process. I’ll prepare the slave drivers to come along this path. The brothers will cast him into a pit, and when the slave drivers come along, they’ll sell him into slavery. Joseph will be so discouraged that he won’t have any faith to believe what God said, and it won’t happen! This is the way we will destroy God’s plan!”

The enemy will attempt to destroy our faith when we have heard God’s voice. But if we cling to God and purpose in our hearts to see what He sees and to receive direction from Him, we will not be rocked when hard times come. We will understand what the enemy is up to, and it will actually encourage us to keep going. After all, if the enemy cares enough to try to discourage us, it will really discourage him if we press through to achieve that which God designed and called us to do.

The more we receive from the Lord ourselves, the easier it is going to be for us to see His purposes accomplished in our lives.

If you'd like to know more about hearing from God, I offer a course called "The Art of Hearing God." You can find out more about it by CLICKING HERE.