More Than Words: Hear His Tone - His Heart

We're in the month when Jesus said, 'My sheep hear My voice...'

How's that working?

Some feel like they hear through a tin can with a string. Fuzzy. Faint. A massive challenge - despite the size of the can and the length of the string.

God's desire is that we hear up close and personal - like a whisper spoken into the ear by one who really knows us.

For we need to hear more than the words - we need to hear the tone, the heart, and the trust.

Why? When we hear like that, we know that we are known to the bone, and that He's speaking into the deep place in us.

To know that we're known leads us to fully follow Him rather than conform to any religious pattern - no matter how 'anointed' it may seem.

This three-fold pattern is crucial to our response when we hear Him say something just plain painful to wrap our minds around - even when it's good news.

For example, when He suddenly says 'Yes' to something so long delayed that we've abandoned hope for it.

Zech in Luke 1 was such an example: A truly good and noble man worn weary by praying for a child that never... ever... ever... came.

He had had the faith to ask - but in the moment, he lacked the kind of faith to receive.

Then again, it could come out of left field.

For this is also the month when God sent Gabe to Mary with a wild word to walk out.

Something that had never... ever... ever... crossed her mind.

Are we sincerely open to the 'enormity of the possibility' He sets before us?

Why would God address this now?

As a culture, nation, and church, we are in uncharted waters. The necessity to hear well, from His heart to our heart is paramount.

Too many in the church still function with a 'can and string' manner of hearing.

No wonder the world does not perceive the vibrancy of His life in us.

For tone, heart, and trust are heard in the close whisper of The Lion.

We hear when we're brave enough to let Him near.

Stephen

Replay of this Deck teaching on YouTube.

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