September 19: Listening with Samuel

We’re on our 11th segment of the hour of prayer!

How can we listen to God? If we look back at time we spend in church, in Bible reading, and in prayer, He doesn’t usually speak to us audibly.

First – we must learn to recognize His voice. Vic Eliason, the long time director of VCY America, told me how when he had the opportunity to speak to a college full of preacher boys, he spoke on the child Samuel. The Lord called to Samuel and he didn’t recognize God’s voice (1 Samuel 3:4). God called to Samuel again and he still didn’t recognize God’s voice (1 Samuel 3:6). God called to Samuel a third time and he still didn’t recognize God’s voice (1 Samuel 3:8). Eli finally guessed that this was God talking to Samuel, and told Samuel how to recognize who was speaking (1 Samuel 3:9).

As Vic shared with me, too many people are called into the ministry by their mothers, and not by their Heavenly Father.

But many people have the opposite problem – their Heavenly Father is calling them, but their earthly father says “the ministry doesn’t pay much, but if you get a good job you can support a lot of missionaries.”

God doesn’t want what we can do for Him (in case you’ve forgotten, He’s omnipotent {all-powerful}, and we are impotent {no power}), He wants us.

Like Samuel, take time to lay quietly (1 Samuel 3:15), and learn to discern what voices are talking to you. (Our friend Carl Kerby even has a talk on this topic!)

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