Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt

Does God speak to you? I don’t mean in some mystical weird way. I mean does He speak to your heart about Himself and His will for your life? He wants to!

Romans 8:16 TLB reveals God desire to speak to us through His Holy Spirit who lives in the heart of every believer. It says, “For His Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God’s children.” God wants to communicate with us. In John 10:27 Jesus said, “My sheep know my voice.”

God’s voice is like that of the perfect parent. I grew up with great parents. They always wanted good for me. They gave me wise counsel. They tried to correct me when I was headed down a wrong path or had wrong thinking or a bad attitude. They encouraged me in everything that was good and right. They helped me in any way they could whenever they could. That is how the voice and leading of God is, only exceedingly beyond anything parents could feel and know.

God wants good for you and He alone knows His plan and destiny for you. John 16:13 (NLT) “…He (the Holy Spirit) will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. ” Only He knows and only He can reveal the truths you desire to know. But, it is His will to do so! If we will open our hearts and trust the Lord, and if we will read His word and prayerfully seek Him daily, He will speak to us and reveal more and more of His will for our lives through His Word! Isaiah 50:4 (NLT) “The Sovereign LORD has given me His words of wisdom, so that I know how to comfort the weary. Morning by morning He wakens me and opens my understanding to His will.” 

There are three main reasons parents withhold certain information from their children. The first is, because they are not mature enough to understand it. Secondly, they are not mature enough to receive it. And third, because they don’t want to hear it. Two of those three are simply maturity issues. God won’t speak to you about what you couldn’t understand. But He will about what you can, if you’re not a mocker! God isn’t interested in shoving anything down our throat. He’ll begin to reveal things we desire to know when the maturity issues are resolved and the desire to learn from God and trust Him are present. Remember that the words, “Don’t cast your pearls before swine” are the words of Jesus. He was basically telling His disciples to not spend time with those whose hearts are closed to hearing and learning from God! God speaks to our heart and teaches and guides us when we worship Him and desire to learn from Him. If you reject that, He’ll leave you to yourself.

Daily, God helps the most impoverished, handicapped, and abused people, rise to magnificent achievements and positions of influence. God desires to redeem and restore every life to a place of blessing! God wants every person to be a recipient of the love and sacrifice of Jesus. And with the help of His Holy Spirit, He has made every person to be highly capable hearing from God and achieving great things. But, we are also highly capable of wandering and going astray—especially when our life is void of Christian atmospheres and environments like church, bible studies and small groups, and places of community where we can grow in the loving encouragement and support of others from the body of Christ! Isaiah 53:6 NLT reveals, “All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on Him (Jesus) the guilt and sins of us all.” We will go astray and leave God’s voice and loving guidance behind, and when we void our lives of the community of His people, we ourselves silence the voice of God. That’s why God gave us the Holy Spirit and the Church—so that we aren’t left to our own voice and reasoning which is flawed or blinded by carnal and fleshly desires!

So the beginning of hearing the voice of God is surrendering your life to Jesus, and then spending time in His Word, in prayer, in Church, and in the community of other believers growing together in Him. God wants to and will speak to you through each of those experiences and lead you in His ways if you’ll give yourself over to them.  More Next time on this subject! 

James 4:8 (NKJV) “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” 

In His love,
Pastor Tim Burt

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