Growth Group Week 2 - Expect to Hear

I'm still in awe after our Friday night women's growth group meeting last night. As I mentioned before, we're reading the book Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer (daughter of Tony Evans). Yesterday we talked about Part 1, Hearing God's Voice. In the first chapter, Expect to Hear, we reviewed the book of Habakkuk and the kind of relationship he had with God. Habakkuk wasn't afraid to ask God why. "Why haven't You heard my cry? When are You going to do something about our circumstances?" (see Habakkuk 1:2-3). Habakkuk knew God enough to know that the situation in Israel didn't please Him, yet as far as Habakkuk could tell, God wasn't doing anything about it, so he asked How long and Why? We do the same thing when we reach that point of desperation; we want an answer from God and we want it NOW.

God's answer to Habakkuk is interesting. Verse 5 starts by stating, "Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days." In essence God was saying, "I am doing something, you just haven't noticed it." Many times in our despair we don't see God's hand in our lives and we suspect He isn't listening to our pleas, but He's always there, behind the scenes, working miraculously in our lives.

The verse continues, "you would not believe if you were told." God knew Habakkuk would find His answer hard to believe. What about us? If we call out to God and are looking for a specific answer, the one WE think best, we may not hear Him when the answer is different, what He KNOWS to be best. Let's face it, many times we have selective hearing; we only hear what we want to hear or what we think God should be saying. But just as the answer to Habakkuk's question was shocking enough to have him question God again (verse 6), he also knew God would answer him, and he "stationed himself in the ramparts awaiting what God would say" (see Habakkuk 2:1).

Habakkuk expected God to answer him, and he waited faithfully. We discussed reasons why we might not expect God to speak to us. Busyness was one of the first obstacles. We get so engrossed in our daily lives we don't give God the opportunity to speak, or we're just too occupied to listen when He does. Impatience was another reason. We pray, pray, pray some more, God doesn't answer in the time frame we expect, and therefore we simply assume He won't speak to us. The other block we put up is fear and unworthiness. "Why would God want to speak to me? It's not like I'm in some big ministry. I'm not a pastor. I'm nobody important." This is a common belief, that God only speaks to preachers, or missionaries, people whose lives are dedicated to ministry. But as the Bible shows us, when God spoke to Moses he was a shepherd running from the law, who didn't consider himself worthy to do the work the Lord was calling him to do because he wasn't a public speaker. And what about Samuel? When God first spoke to him, he was a just a boy of 8. Anyone may think a murderer on the run or a small boy unworthy of hearing from God, yet God used both these men in a powerful way because they were willing to listen and obey. Are we?

There are 3 activities we can engage in to create an atmosphere for listening to God's voice: prayer, meditation on His Word, and worship. The ladies gave some incredible testimonies on how God's presence was felt in each life during this past week, but none was more amazing than what we experienced last night. As one of the ladies gave a prayer request, another lady spoke a word from God confirming a decision the first lady was asking guidance for! There were tears of joy as we realized that, just as we had been reading and studying a few minutes before, if we expect to hear from God, He will speak to us. As another of the dear ladies said, we were blessed to be there and witness the hand of God and the assurance that He wants to speak to each one of His children, in His own intimate way. I left the bible study last night feeling like I was walking in the clouds. It was such an amazing experience. I feel in my heart that God is going to continue to bless this group in a powerful way. What's more, I'm expecting it!