How to know if it is God speaking

"Passport: A Believer's Guide to the Kingdom of God" has a great checklist on pp. 36-37 on how to know if a voice that you're hearing is God speaking:

1. The voice of the Lord always agrees with Scripture.
2. You sense the thoughts are coming from your 'inner being', not just your mind or emotions.
3. The thoughts given by the Holy Spirit are often unlike your own ideas and sometimes have a 'that's not like me' quality. God may surprise you with a word that is not what you would have expected.
4. The word of the Lord comes with a sense of peace -- even the ones you don't like. When a thought stirs up fear, doubt, despair, confusion or anxiety, it is usually not the Lord. Those things are the devil's tools, not God's.
5. It brings God glory, not you.
6. Just because you want something does not make it wrong, but be careful about things where you have strong feelings. When I have strong feelings about an issue, I look for guidance from the counsel of Christian friends who are more neutral. Be careful about romance issues in particular.
7. Sometimes I know it is God speaking because I react with irritated anger. He is telling me the one thing to which I do not want to listen (but need to) and I get annoyed (see #3).

Change happens slowly

My small group through church currently is reading "Passport: A Believer's Guide to the Kingdom of God." The author, Tim Davidson, relates an interesting story on p. 33 about cultivating a listening spirit:

A church I was in once went through great difficulty. Things were becoming explosive. I walked in the woods asking the Lord what to do. Should I take some drastic action? Shake things up? Force a crisis? It was hard to hear. As I walked in silence, I observed many old dead trees that had fallen, but were still propped up by the trees around them. It would be a long time before they finally hit the forest floor. Then the Lord spoke: 'In my woods, change happens slowly.' In my spirit, I sensed he was warning me against being rash and trying to make quick and radical change. I was very grateful for this wisdom from God.

We are blades of grass

At church last Sunday, I had an interesting vision during worship.

I pictured everyone, not only in the congregation but in the entire world, as blades of grass worshiping God together. And we all knew that we should not cut each other down. Our focus needed to be on God, and we needed to help each other grow.

Take "The Shack" with a grain of salt

I finished reading "The Shack" by William P. Young this week. My sister-in-law was really excited about the book after reading it and wanted my wife and I to read it.

As I think about this book, I recommend taking it with a grain of salt. Portions of it seem blasphemous, but I believe that, if in the end "The Shack" is getting people to talk about forgiveness and God, that's a good thing.

It's definitely popular. "The Shack" is ranked number six in books on amazon.com and has inspired many spinoff books from other authors.

John Eldredge in Minneapolis/St. Paul on May 12

John Eldredge, an author whom I enjoy and I have written about on this blog, is coming to Minneapolis tomorrow. He will be speaking at Church of the Open Door as part of his "Fathered By God Tour 2009".

I will be attending and am looking forward to hearing him speak in person. He'll be speaking on the six stages of a man's journey, the essential path God has provided every boy and man to take in order to become a man in full.

I agree with about 90% of what he writes in his books. I have been underwhelmed by his podcasts, though -- he does not come across as a powerful speaker to me. Hopefully he will be more energetic in person.

Tickets are available through Itickets.com.

A book for women who have been abused by men

The News & Advance ran an article last week about Pastor Lewis L. Tucker Jr., who has written a book for women who have been abused by men. The book, "Damaged Goods: The Restoring Power of the Father's Love," gives the message to women who have been abused yet still feel that they need a man that God thinks you’re worth more than that; you need God in your life first before a man; and the Father’s love can restore you.

Tucker, in his ministry, has dealt with many women who have suffered abuse, whether it be verbal, physical or sexual:

One of those women called his wife last year, and Tucker says he knew what had happened from hearing his wife’s side of the conversation. He said God spoke to him, so he grabbed the phone and began ministering to the woman.

What Tucker had to say to her and what he says in his book boils down to is, first, God didn’t say a woman has to have a man. In fact, Genesis 2:18 says, 'And the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a (helpmate) for him.’'

'So,' Tucker writes, 'who needed who?'

Tucker's book is available through amazon.com.

Meet Mackintyre Garton: church builder

CBS News ran a very moving story about Mackintyre Garton, a boy from Lathrop, Mo., whom God told to build a church on his grandparents' farm. Unfortunately, Garton died at nine years old of a brain aneurysm and did not get to see the church built. More information on Mackintyre's Church is here.