Dear Saddleback Family,
In last weekend’s message, special guest Pastor Mike Howerton taught how to listen and respond to God’s call in your life. As you go through your week, use the Message Action Plan below to help put the things you’ve learned into practice.
If you missed this message, click here to watch it online.
How to Hear God’s Voice
Mike Howerton
As you are seeking God’s guidance, do these five things:
- Make a commitment to serve God as you ask him to guide you.
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
Jonah 1:1 (ESV)
He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice . . . “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me . . .”
John 10:3b-4, 14 (NLT) - Incorporate these four practices for hearing God’s voice by taking the time to get in a quiet place where you can be still and listen.
- Quiet
- Priority
- Proximity
- Stillness
- Consider how God is guiding you through a life circumstance, whether good or bad.
- Ask yourself whether you are using one of these four reasons to opt out of God’s call.
- I’m too YOUNG
The word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:4 (NIV) - I’m too OLD
- I’m too BUSY
- I’m too COMFORTABLE
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.
Luke 1:38 (NIV) - Submit to God’s call by saying “yes, your will be done” to the guidance that you hear from him.
He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father . . . may your will be done.”
Matthew 26:42 (NIV)
Psalm 46:10a (NLT)
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Isaiah 6:8 (NIV)