devotionSIXTEEN - WHAT CAN YOU HEAR?

THINK ABOUT IT

A ringtone which prying elders can't hear -- if you think it is just a teen fantasy, step aside. Cellphones, which youngsters can hear but most adults can't, are now in vogue in American schools.The technology is based on the fact that most adults gradually lose the ability to hear high pitched sounds and was developed in Britain.But recently, it has spread to the US where schools are banning students from bringing cell phones to class rooms.The use of peculiar ring tones came to light recently in a school in New York where the cell phones must be turned off in class rooms, New York Times reported.

The Times said last week, a high pitched ring tone went off that set teeth on edge including their 28-year old teacher.

When she asked whose cell phone it was, the students were surprised and asked her how could she hear it when it should be inaudible to adults. But apparently her ears had not yet lost the sensitivity.

TAKE A LOOK

1 Corinthians 2:9-16 - (NLT)
9That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, "No eye has seen, no ear heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." 10But we know these things because God has revealed them to us by his Spirit, and his Spirit searches out everything and shows us even God's deep secrets. 11No one can know what anyone else is really thinking except that person alone, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit. 12And God has actually given us his Spirit (not the world's spirit) so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. 13When we tell you this, we do not use words of human wisdom. We speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truths. 14But people who aren't Christians can't understand these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them because only those who have the Spirit can understand what the Spirit means. 15We who have the Spirit understand these things, but others can't understand us at all. 16How could they? For, "Who can know what the Lord is thinking? Who can give him counsel?"But we can understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.

ACCORDING TO TODAY'S SCRIPTURE, WHO CAN HEAR WHAT GOD IS SAYING?

Here's some insight notes:
2:14-15 Non-Christians cannot understand spiritual truths, and they cannot grasp the concept that God's Spirit lives in believers. Don't expect most people to approve of or understand your decision to follow Christ. It all seems so silly to them. Just as a tone-deaf person cannot appreciate fine music, the person who rejects Christ cannot understand truths from God's Spirit. With the lines of communication broken, he or she won't be able to hear what God is saying to him or her.

If you know Christ as your Savior, you have ears to hear God. If you are not living in obedience to Christ every day, your spiritual ears will lose sensitivity to God's Spirit and you will not understand God's communication to you.

Listening to Jesus and obeying His commands will keep you hearing the ringtone of God's Spirit.

TALK ABOUT IT
Thank God for the presence, power and work of His Holy Spirit in you. Confess any way in which wanting your own way has dulled your spiritual hearing. Thank Jesus for always listening to you. Ask Him to help you listen to Him and obey His commands consistently. Praise Jesus for revealing His mind and truth to you as you respond to Him in love.

TRY IT

1. Read today's passage again and "listen" to God's Spirit.
2. Be consistent in a daily time with Jesus. Remember that intimacy with Jesus through time in God's Word and through prayer and worship. This will make your spiritual ears very sensitive to hearing God.
3. Whenever you hear your cell phone ring in the next few days, let God remind you that you can hear from Him through His Holy Spirit.

Have a blessed week ahead! God loves you and Revelation loves you!
kev

devotionEIGHT - Hearing God's Whisper.

I was having coffee with a friend recently and he was sharing about how he had developed the practice of being ready to learn from any and every situation and person that he encounters. This willingness to learn from everyone requires opening oneself to what God would teach you at any given time. My friend’s thoughts struck me because if we are ready to see what God will teach us in any situation, then we may begin to realize just how active God is in our world every day.

Perhaps our eyes would become opened and we would see more and more of what he is doing all around us, all the time.

Perhaps . . .

I think a lot of times we want God to do something big—a neon sign in the sky would be helpful at times—and tell us exactly what his will is and where to go, what to do, and what it all means.
But God doesn’t work like that.

When God called Abraham out to start a new people, he simple asked him to “go to the land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). Um, thanks, God, that’s really specific instructions, can I get some more detail here? Go. Go where? To the land that I will show you. Where is this land? Start walking and I’ll show you . . .

God was with Abraham every step of the way—even through mistakes that Abraham made—in order to bring him safely to a new land where he would start a new nation. Was there a big golden road map dropped out of the sky? No. But Abraham ended up there safely nonetheless.

In 1 Kings 19, we find Elijah on a mountain asking a question of God, and God tells him to stand on the mountain and he will pass by. Elijah waits, and the wind picks up and becomes so violent that it shatters rocks. Now that’s impressive, lots of wind, rocks shattering. But God was not in the wind. Next comes an earthquake. Okay, I mean, earthquakes do happen, but they do get people’s attention . . . that might be a good way to announce yourself, God. But God wasn’t in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire. Well, fire’s a good metaphor, God, a big fire would really get people’s attention. But God wasn’t in the fire. “And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper” (1 Kings 19:12). It’s at the whisper that Elijah covers his head and goes to the mouth of the cave to hear God.

God was in the whisper.

In the quiet . . .

In the space . . .

See, God will not shout to get our attention; rather, he waits for us to become attuned to his whispers. To do that, we need space. We need stillness. “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). Be still . . .

Goodnight Revelation,
kev