Embracing Silence: The Art of Listening to God

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Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, September 17th. Believers who seek spiritual guidance must be diligent and persistent. Today, let’s discover practical steps to strengthen your journey to know the Lord more deeply.

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2 Samuel chapter 7 and the first verse, 2 Samuel chapter 7. Verse 1. Now it came about when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies. So God had worked in David’s life in a wonderful way as a commanding general of his armies. He says he gave him rest on every side from all of his enemies that the king said… to Nathan, the prophet, see now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within tents and curtains. You know, the tabernacle that had been carrying through the wilderness all these years. He said, now here I am in this beautiful house made of cedar. And Nathan said to the king, go do all that is in your mind for the Lord is with you. But it came about in the same night that the word of the Lord came to Nathan, the prophet, saying, Go and say to my servant David, Thus says the Lord, Are you the one who should build me a house to dwell in? For I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the sons of Israel from Egypt, even to this day. But I’ve been moving about in the tent, even in the tabernacle. Remember, that tabernacle was symbolic of the presence of God. In the Holy of Holies, it’s where God resided, where he met the people. Wherever I have gone with all the sons of Israel, did I speak a word with one of the tribes of Israel, which I commended to shepherd my people? Israel saying, why have you not built me a house of cedar? Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant, David, thus says the Lord of hosts. I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be ruler over my people Israel. And I’ve been with you wherever you’ve gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make you a great name like the names of the great men who are on the earth. I will also point a place for my people Israel and will plant them that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again. Nor will the wicked afflict them anymore as formerly. Even from the day that I’ve commanded judges to be over you, my people Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you. When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendants after you who will come forth from you and I will establish his kingdom.” He shall build a house for my name, speaking of Solomon his son. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. And I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men. But my loving kindness shall not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.” And your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever. Your throne shall be established forever in accordance with all these words and all this vision. So Nathan spoke to David. Now, having heard what he said, here’s what happens. Verse 18. Now, I’m going to just take a part of this, and then I want us to look at this. Then David the king went in and sat before the Lord, and he said… “‘Who am I, O Lord God? “‘And what is my house that thou hast brought me this far? “‘And yet this was insignificant in thine eyes, O Lord God. “‘For you’ve spoken also of the house of thy servant “‘concerning the distant future, “‘and this is the custom of man, O Lord God.'” And again, what more can David say to thee? For thou knowest thy servant, O Lord God. For the sake of thy word and according to thine own heart, thou hast done all this greatness to let thy servant know. For this reason thou art great, O Lord God. For there is none like thee, and there’s no God beside thee, according to all that we’ve heard with our ears. Now. Here’s what I want you to think about for just a moment. We’ve talked about meditating and so forth. I want us to look at David and see how he meditated on this one occasion, because I think it’s so very important for us to see this. The scripture says that when the prophet said, this is God’s message, he went in and the Bible says he sat before the Lord. Now, What did he do? There are four things here I want you to jot down. The first thing he did was that he reviewed his past. Now, let me just say this. I think it’s always wise for us every once in a while to remember where we came from. So when you and I think in terms of spending time along with him and meditating, one of the smartest things we can do is take a few moments to review. And sometimes that isn’t just reviewing the day, but reviewing last week or last month. And sometimes to go back and be reminded where you began, when you were saved, that God in his grace reached down. It wasn’t you climbing and clawing out for God to do something in your life. It was God who revealed himself to you. It was God who gave you the desire in your heart. And so he said to David… I want you to review your past. And I think that’s always a healthy thing to do in our meditation. The second thing is that he reflected upon God. Now listen to what he said about God. Three things. First of all, he said, verse 22, For this reason thou art great, O Lord God. He reflected upon the greatness of God. And there’s an enriching thing that goes on in the human heart. When you and I take time to be quiet, and as David said, he said, As he thought about God, he meditated upon God in the night watches. What was he thinking about? He was thinking about the greatness of God, all these stars, the goodness of God, how God had blessed him, the grace of God, how undeserving he was. Here he was a shepherd born. The next thing, he was an absolute military hero. And he was the most pronounced hero in all of Israel. What was he doing? He was reflecting upon the goodness and the grace and the power of God in his life. The third thing that I think is good, and that is to remember, listen, to remember the promises of God. Look in verse 28. And now, O Lord God, he says, thou art God and thy words are true and thou has promised this good thing to thy servant. If you’ll think about it, when you and I spend time alone with Him, reviewing our past and reflecting upon the greatness and the goodness and the grace of God in our life, and then to remember the promises of God, maybe the promise God gave you that day, or promises that He’s given you in the past, and you wonder, well, Lord, when are these things going to come to pass? So as David sat before the Lord, he was meditating upon God and reviewing and reflecting and remembering the promises of God. And then he makes his request in verse 29. So he is requesting his petition. He says, now, therefore, may it please thee to bless the house of thy servant. that it may continue forever. And he goes on to finish his prayer there. So think about your life for just a moment and time you spend with God. And sometimes somebody says, well, you know, I don’t know what to do and how to do it. So it isn’t just a matter of reading and praying and reading and praying, but there is something about reflecting. Because what you’re doing when you’re reflecting upon your past, you are giving God the opportunity to say, see what I did here? Look what I did there. Wasn’t that me? That wasn’t you? That was my grace. And that was my goodness. And that’s my power in your life. So what are we doing? What’s happening is when you and I reflect upon him and review our past, our faith begins to grow and it grows in this very subtle fashion. During that time, God is doing something in our mind and our heart and our spirit. He is building our faith as we review what he’s done in a given day or week or a month or year or over your past. And as you and I reflect over the past and review what God has done in our lives, failures as well as successes, and how God has intervened and how he’s answered our prayer, all of that is a part of doing what? Of worshiping and adoring him because we see the handiwork and the grace of God. Now, so let’s get into the tough part. What is required of me? So let me just mention several things that I think are absolute essential requirements, and I’ll give you a verse to most of these. The first one is this. There has to be a season of time. You have to set the time to do it. If you don’t do it, it is not going to happen. I guarantee you, you will never find time to meditate upon God. So meditation requires a season of time, time to be alone with him. Sometimes I get up in the morning and I may spend a lot of time or very little time. It depends on what’s happening. But sometime during that week, most of some day is just going to be spent listening to him. What does he say? Sometimes he may give me some direction. But here’s what I love about God. Listen to this. While there are patterns in the way God works and there are principles by which he works, God also has these unexpected appearances. I don’t mean physically. But he has these unexpected, joyous times that he just comes down, makes himself so known to us that you just know that you are sitting or standing or kneeling in the presence of Almighty God. And you don’t have to say a thing. Not a thing. And you know what? God doesn’t have to say anything. Season of time. Secondly, stillness. It isn’t just a matter of giving him time. You can’t give him time and be doing anything. Psalm 46, be still and know that I am God. And you see, I could be sitting at my desk thinking, I’m going to meditate upon the Lord and be doing this and putting the pencils over here and adjusting this and reading and be still. Sometimes that means you don’t do anything. You don’t do anything. Stillness means that I have the capacity or I discipline myself to sit quietly before him and don’t do anything. You may close your eyes or you may not. But I want to challenge you with something tonight. I want to challenge you either tonight or whenever. You go home. I challenge you to sit in absolute silence with your eyes closed and say nothing for five minutes. Oh, you say, I can do that. About two minutes, you’ll open your eyes and check the clock. You’ll think, I’ve been sitting here 10 minutes. No, you haven’t. My soul, wait in silence upon God only. Be still and know that I’m God. Meditation requires a season of time. Meditation requires stillness. And meditation also requires seclusion. Now I want to turn to a verse that’s, as many times I’ve read this, I stopped at verse 35. Look in Mark chapter 1. Look in verse 35 at Mark 1. And in the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus arose and went out and departed to a lonely place. He’s by himself and he was praying there. And we don’t know how long he was there, but listen to this. And Simon and his companions hunted for him, couldn’t find him. And they found him and said to him, everyone’s looking for you. Here he is up there talking to the father, doing the most important thing that he could do. And when they found him and sort of creeping up on him and saying, we need to find out what’s going on. He said, Jesus, everybody’s looking for you. And I can imagine Peter says, and you’re sitting up here doing nothing. And all these folks are looking for you. That’s about what Peter would probably have said. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus placed his meditation with the Father over healing, teaching, preaching, ministering to people because it was the priority of his life? Now, I’m all for prayer groups. I do believe in those, absolutely. But when it comes to our growing in our intimate relationship with him in prayer and meditation, seclusion. By yourself. Nobody. Not anybody. You say, what about my husband and my wife? Well, you can pray with them. But God needs you also secluded by himself. That season of time. That stillness. Secluded. Just you and God. Seclusion. Third word. Fourth word. Silence. It isn’t enough to have a season of time and to be still and to be secluded, but absolutely silent. If God’s going to speak to me, he’s not going to butt in and to override my conversation with him. He’s going to wait until I finish. There is something about being absolutely silent before God. So I want to challenge you. To sit five minutes still with your eyes closed and don’t say a thing. Absolutely silent before God. The next word is self-control. Now, why do I say self-control? I just pass on with that one to say, sometimes it’s not easy. Because… There’s a thousand things to think about any time of the day. Self-control means I must learn how and govern my thinking. And so one of the wisest things I can do is just open the word or if it’s at nighttime or morning or whatever. And just read some portion of scripture and ask the Lord to speak to my heart and to quieten my spirit. So I can be quiet. So I can be still. And so I can listen very carefully. And so self-control is a very important part of that. Number six is sensitive. And that is to be sensitive to what God says. Now, whether you’re reading or being quiet or being still, whatever it might be, We have to learn to be sensitive that when our spirit moves, we are to take heed to what the Spirit of God is saying to us. Now, sometimes that’s not always easy to discern. But when you and I are still before the Lord, I do believe that God wants to speak to all of us. Now, there are people who say, well, read the word, do what it says. That’s it. God doesn’t speak anymore. I pity people who believe that. Now, God’s not going to say anything that contradicts the word, but he will take his word and work in our heart. When you and I learn to be sensitive, what that means is I am listening, not with my ears, but with my spirit. I’m listening. And sometimes I will find myself lying in the bed and just asking God to speak to my heart and just to be quiet. And I want to hear whatever he’s saying. Does he speak every time? No. I wish he did, but he doesn’t. You know what that does? It keeps me coming back. It keeps me listening and it’ll keep you listening. To be sensitive means that I am attentive to anything God may be saying. And whatever he says, he will confirm. And God will give us clear direction. And whatever, listen, when God speaks to your heart, you’ll know it. Maybe not at first. And I wouldn’t say this is always easy to discern at first. And sometimes people tell me God says things I know he didn’t say because I’ve said to you before, some things don’t even sound like God. I mean, nothing is going to contradict the word of God. It doesn’t even sound like God. But there are things that do sound like him. And whatever he says to you, if you have any question about it, you just tell him, now, Lord, I’m sort of new at this, and I’m not sure I understand fully. So, Lord, I need some kind of a confirmation because I want to be obedient to you, and I want to do the right thing. So, Lord, I need you to just confirm that in some fashion. That doesn’t upset God. God knows we’re children learning to walk. Learning to listen. And you see, learning to listen to God is one of the most precious lessons we ever learn in life. Being sensitive. Last word. And that is a submissive spirit. If I’m going to meditate upon him and God’s going to speak to my heart, then my spirit must be submissive to him. Lord, whatever you want, the answer is yes. You see, when you and I come to him to listen, the answer is yes. Yes, Lord, what do you want me to do? Yes, yes. Not, I’m going to consider it, God. You see, if I will know the will of God about something so I can consider it, you know what God’s going to wait for? Until my will is submissive so that whatever he says, then he’s going to show us. That doesn’t mean that we don’t know the will of God sometimes before we’re willing to do it. But oftentimes when it’s something that we don’t know the will of God about, don’t know which way to turn, and we don’t know what we would do if he didn’t show us, that kind of thing, then I think oftentimes God waits until our spirit becomes very submissive. Now listen. There isn’t anything in life that you and I will learn more valuable than what we’ve been talking about tonight and these other nights. About learning to just relate to Him and listen. Nothing in life can equal that. Listen. Listen carefully. There isn’t anybody in the world that can take God’s place in your heart. Nobody. Husband, wife, children, parents. Nobody can take God’s place. And so when you and I are open to the Lord God, and we’re sensitive to Him and we want His best in our life, He is going to unveil Himself and He’s going to reveal His best. But I do believe this, God will never do any of this unless there is a hunger in my heart for it. And I’m saying to you that God loves you. He wants to be intimate with you. He wants to reveal Himself. He wants to unfold. And show us the truth about ourselves and about him. He is a personal, intimate, loving father. And he’s waiting on us. We are not waiting on him. Father, we love you and praise you and bless you. And how precious you are when we think about how great you are. And so I pray that you’ll teach us how. In our own private world… to develop this relationship with you so that whatever goes on in the world around us, no matter how tumultuous, there will be this awesome sense of indescribable peace, this awesome sense of indescribable presence, that we’ll know that we are walking in the presence of holy God and that our heart is full of you. but we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Thank you for listening to the Requirements for Biblical Meditation. If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.