Receiving A Word From The Lord

RECEIVING A WORD FROM THE LORD

By Sister Renee

            Did you know that the Lord speaks to you through His Holy Spirit?  Do you know that He answers your prayers, and that he hears you and listens to you when you pray? In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: He heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears….Psalm 18:6KJV.  In your distress you called and I rescued you, I answered you out of a thundercloud…Psalm 81:7NIV.   As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me…Psalm 55:16KJV.    Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall…Psalm 55:22NIV.  Let’s talk about how to ask the Lord to speak to us, and how to open our hearts to hearing whatever he tells us.

 

             If there is something on your heart, something troubling you, you can ask God for a word.  The Lord wants you to come to him. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge…Psalm 62:8NIV.    Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back from captivity….Jeremiah 29:12-14NIV.   The word will be an answer to your prayer in the sense that it will give you direction. 

 

            We are told how to pray so that our prayers will be effective.  In Matthew 6:9-13, Jesus himself gives us a perfect example of how to pray in the Lord’s Prayer. He teaches us that our prayer should include praise and thanksgiving, acknowledgement of God’s supreme majesty over all that he has created, submission to God’s will, asking God to provide for us, and asking for forgiveness, as well as the strength to resist temptation and deliverance from evil. In Ephesians 6:18, we are told, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.  With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”(NIV).

 

            We must believe that we will receive an answer and not doubt.  Our fathers trusted in thee; they trusted, and thou didst deliver them…Psalm 22:4KJV.  Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.  Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer…Romans 12:11-12NIV.  But without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him…Hebrews 11:6KJV.  But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord…James 1:6-7NIV.

 

            We must wait patiently for our answer, without trying to rush God or interfere with His plans by taking our own actions. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him…Psalm 37:7NIV.  I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry….Psalm 40:1KJV.  I wait for you, O Lord; you will answer, O Lord my God…Psalm 38:15NIV.  It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.  It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord….Lamentations 3:22-26KJV. 

 

            The answer is not always what we expect or desire, but it will be what is best for us, and what is God’s will in accordance to his own purposes.  One example of this in the Scriptures is the story of Jesus’ good friend Lazarus, who became gravely ill. (John chapter 11)  His sisters Martha and Mary asked Jesus to come and heal their brother.  Jesus delayed until Lazarus died, and then did not arrive in Lazarus’s town until Lazarus had been entombed for four days.  The Lord then used this tragedy to perform a wondrous miracle as he raised Lazarus from the dead, so that his disciples and all who witnessed this could believe. (John 11: 15). In my anguish I cried to the Lord, and he answered by setting me free.  The Lord is with me: I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?…Psalm 118:5-6NIV.  Then Moses said,” Now show me your glory.”  And the Lord said,” I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence.  I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.  But,” he said,” you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”…Exodus 33:18-20NIV.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  But he said to me,” My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong….2Corinthians 12: 8-10NIV. 

 

            We must submit to and trust in God’s will as Jesus teaches us in the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew6:10).  In the garden at Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.  Yet not as I will, but as you will.”….Matthew 26: 39NIV.

 

            We must not fear.  Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.  When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee;  And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: When thou walkest through the fire, thou shall not be burnt.”…Isaiah 43: 1-2KJV.  When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: Yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet….Proverbs 3:24KJV.  The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust…Psalm 18:2KJV.

 

            We must trust God and know He is in control.  “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”…Jeremiah 29:11NIV.  Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is…..Jeremiah 17:7KJV.  For we know in part and we prophecy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.  Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known….1Corinthians 13: 9-12NIV.  Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted and thou didst deliver them….Psalm 22:4KJV.  Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.  They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm….Psalm 20: 7-8NIV.

 

***Many times the Lord is speaking to us but we do not hear his voice because we do not recognize a word from him when we receive it.  For help in knowing when the Lord is speaking to you, see Part 2- RECOGNIZING A WORD FROM THE LORD.

 

***If you would like to learn about personal prophecy and receiving and recognizing a word from the Lord in more detail, we found these books to be very helpful:

 

The Elijah Task, by John & Paula Sandford, Elijah House, 1000 S. Richards Rd., Post Falls, ID83854 (208)773-1647 www.elijahhouse.org Victory House Publishers-(800)262-2631

 

Prophets and Personal Prophecy- God’s Prophetic Voice Today, by Dr. Bill Hamon,( foreword by Oral Roberts), Christian International Ministries Network, PO Box 9000, Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459 (800 388-5308) www.christianinternational. org  Destiny Image Publishers, Inc., (800)722-6774