Hearing God

I might have mentioned before that our District Superintendent, Rev. Jeff Brown, who oversees our church as well as the other Alliance Churches in the Lower Peninsula and around Toledo, has asked that each pastor set aside a day for prayer and fasting. I did this on Tuesday evening into Wednesday and, as part of the day, spent some time reading a book I had ordered last year but hadn't found the time to do any reading in -- Hearing God; Developing a Conversational Relationship with God by Dallas Willard.

I may have mentioned that phrase before, "conversational relationship". I'm convinced it is key to experiencing all that God has for us in our life.

In the book, Willard's task is dealing "with hearing God as it bears upon a whole life in the will of God - upon the question of who God wants us to be as well as (where appropriate) of what he wants us to do." (page 12) Rick Warren, if I'm remembering right, mentions this in The Purpose Driven Life as well.

The issue I'm really excited about though -- in reading this book -- is developing a lifestyle of continually communicating with God. We may have talked about this in Discipleship Group when we discussed the discipline of prayer. It is important that we have a daily time with God, but also important that we realize that our relationship with him isn't just limited to that morning (or bedtime, or whatever and whenever it is for you) "transaction".

"The biblical record always presents the relationship between God and the believer as more like a friendship or family tie than like merely one person's arranging to take care of the needs of another." (page 23)

How exciting!