Today's discussion centers on the importance of listening to God's voice. Lent offers us a chance to turn inward and hear God's guidance to overcome temptation. The episode highlights the story of Samuel, who learned to listen and obey God's call, demonstrating that even in our youth and vulnerability, we can receive profound messages. We also examine practical ways to cultivate the habit of listening for God's voice through Scripture and personal listening. As we navigate our spiritual journeys, pause, be still, and invite God to speak into your life.

Takeaways:

1. Listening to God's voice requires quietness and the willingness to obey His guidance.
2. During Lent, we should reflect on how we can listen to God's inner voice effectively.
3. The story of Samuel illustrates the importance of obedience when God calls us to action.
4. We can learn to discern God's voice by immersing ourselves in His Word regularly.
5. God communicates with us not just through scripture, but also through personal impressions and dreams.
6. Practicing being still is essential for hearing God's voice in our daily lives.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. www.bible805.com

Hi, welcome to the Hobo Soul Podcast of road advice from the Bible and from me, Yvon Prehn, someone who's a little further down the road of life.

little further down the road of life.

I'll talk to you every weekday for about five to 10 minutes, with periodic longer talks on serious Saturdays. Let's get started with our topic today, which is.

Lenten devotion Day 12 Listen to Jesus Voice.

During this Lenten season, we're looking at the quotes and challenges from my devotional book and journal In Dying We Are Reborn, that you can download for free on www.bible805.com. Each day there's a daily quote and challenge from the book, which I'll read to you and I'll then share my comments on them.

Today's quote comes from Pope Benedict xvi

Where he said, "Lent is like a long retreat where we can turn back to ourselves and listen to the voice of God in order to defeat the temptations of the evil one."

Today's challenge

God does speak to his people. He speaks with a clear inner voice. If you quiet yourself enough to listen.

The boy Samuel said, speak, Lord, Your servant is listening. When we pray that we must be prepared to obey.

my comments

The story about Samuel laying in his little bed in the temple and hearing the voice of God was one of my favorite stories when I was a child. Now let me share with you the short version of the story. If you're not familiar with it, it's from the Old Testament in our Bibles.

And as often happened with the people of Israel back then, they were not following God as they should. The high priest at that time, who should have been the spiritual leader of his people, wasn't doing a very good job of it.

Among other issues, it tells us that Eli, that was his name, he had two grown sons who were priests themselves. But it says they were sleeping with the women who came to the temple.

And when people would bring some meat for the sacrifice, they grab the best parts of it before it could be sacrificed and keep it for themselves to eat. And the Bible said it kind of sums it up in this way, it says Eli's sons "made themselves contemptible and Eli did nothing to restrain them."

Well, at the same time, a little boy named Samuel was a ward of Eli's, and he was being brought up in the temple. And though he was fairly young now, we're not sure exactly his age, he was lying in bed one night and he heard a voice.

He thought it was Eli calling him, and he ran to ask what he needed. Now this happened a couple of times and you know, Eli would go, no, I'm fine, I'm fine. Go back to bed.

But finally Eli realized that it was the Lord calling the boy. And so he told Samuel to go back to bed. And when he heard the voice again, he was supposed to say, "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening."

Samuel did that, and instead of what we might have expected from God, perhaps a child friendly encouragement. Glad you're growing up in the temple. Whatever. No, God gave this little boy a very tough message.

He told him he was pronouncing judgment on Eli, very severe judgment, where he and his sons would be killed. When asked the next day about God's message, Samuel, it says in 1st Samuel 3:18, "told him everything, hiding nothing."

It couldn't have been easy.

But he obeyed. Young as he was totally dependent on Eli living with him in the temple, he obeyed and pronounced God's judgment.

From that experience of listening and obeying God, he went on to live a life as one of the greatest prophets of Israel and had many times when he needed to deliver God's messages to powerful people, which he did faithfully. Now, what's the application for us?

I don't imagine many of us will be called to pronounce judgment from God to the powerful, but all of us are called to listen to God's voice in our lives. Here are some thoughts on how to do that.

Pete Greg, in his wonderful book How to Hear God, A Simple Guide for Normal People, which I do highly recommend, is quite helpful in this area. He divides the book into two areas through which God speaks--God's Word and God's Whisper.

God's word is foundational.

If we want to hear God, we must read it often, deeply and repeatedly. And from that, not only do we learn history, facts and assorted theology about God, but we learn his voice, his character, what he's truly like.

I found that kind of study has helped me tremendously in life. And for example, when someone asks me something like, well, why does God allow little children to starve?

When we know our God, we can answer very correctly from seeing how he works through all of scripture. God doesn't do that. He doesn't want it.

It is his people, his creation that he gave free will to, who create wars, gouge food pricing, hoard, and all sorts of things that result in food inequities. And when natural disasters and famines strike go people, the ones actually listening to his voice, do all they can to alleviate the situation.

And then we can challenge whoever asks us and what are you doing about it? Currently, there are many fantastic resources that help alleviate suffering.

Another example, we can cry out and say why is this happening to me?

But we can listen to his voice in His Word that has so much to say about how he loves us and can turn any difficulty into good. And no matter what the current pain, undeniably a day is promised when pain will be no more.

But there's more. God's whisper.

It will never go against, contradict or add new revelation to His Word.

But God does speak to us personally through impressions in our minds, through dreams, and through a voice that is not an audible voice, but a voice our heart hears. The common thread in both these ways of listening to God through His Word and His whisper and is that God doesn't yell.

He doesn't jump up and down and do all kinds of crazy things to get our attention. He's always there, ready to speak to us, but for us to hear him. This is what he says. Be still. He says that I think literally.

I think he means literally be still.

Be still as you read His Word, closely listening as you do.

Be still before you pray.

Sit quietly for a moment and let him speak to your heart before you start talking to Him.

Be still.

When you can't sleep at night and trustingly as Samuel did, say, "Lord, speak-- your servant is listening.

Or the way I often put it when it seems God has kept me awake, I say, "Lord, what do you want to say to me?"

I made that my habit for many years and I often get a thought or impression. I keep something to write on by my bed and write those things down.

Often the impressions involve a solution to a question, a Bible teaching dilemma. The Lord has given me entire lessons and series ideas when he wakes me up in the middle of the night,

I have to go get my computer and write them down. He also seems to help in on life challenges I've been working on.

Sometimes it feels like God smacks me as he will remind me of something I need to stop doing, maybe a direction in ministry that isn't best for me or something I need to make right that I was blissfully ignoring. Sometimes it's clear what the Lord wants.

Sometime the next day I think through and look up what he said in the Bible to make certain that I'm aligned with what he has previously told me. I pray for wisdom. I pray for confirmation if necessary.

His speaking to you personally doesn't need to only happen at night.

As we go through our days, we can continuously have the heart attitude of speak Lord, your servant is listening when we ask that when our heart truly wants to know his will and is willing to obey, he will answer.

In closing for this Lenten Devotional which is a special Hobo Soul series that I'm doing for Lent, I'd encourage you to pause take time to share with Jesus your response, thoughts and prayers to what you just heard. You can do this quietly in your heart or you can write it out.

I have a free journal with the quotes, challenges and space for you to write in that you can download at www.bible805.com let me close in prayer for you that as Jesus went into the wilderness to solidify his calling, that you during this time retreat to a place spiritually where God can send significantly deepen your relationship with him where he can speak to you regardless of the temptations and distractions in your life and that you'll come out of it with a clear sense of his calling for you and a commitment to follow it. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. Amen.