The First Thing He Tells You

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Now with extremely limited availability, contact your local retailer for inventory information. This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Running with Horses, a podcast devoted to inspire you concerning a relationship with Almighty God that empowers you to accomplish things you never thought possible. Shirley Weaver wants to take you there.

And now, here's today's episode. Something that is really key to opening the door and being able to tap into and understand and receive the way that God intervenes in the life of the believer, answering prayer, moving miraculously, other ways as well, is the fact that when He speaks, the first thing that I hear Him say, if I can obey that thing, that part, the word that I hear initially, it becomes then a series of ongoing or progressive words from Him, so that one thing leads to the next, to the next, and to the next. And I find that it's not so much the first thing I hear that is like the big, big thing or the answer to my prayer as much as more often it is down the line, the second or the third or the fourth thing, et cetera.

And I'm just being, trying to sound practical here. Those are the things that open doors we did not know, did not even know, did not even know to ask for, was not on our radar, was not in our thinking, because you know, it is that divine level, that place in God that we can move into once we start. But we can't do it standing still. We can't do it reluctantly waiting for complete proof that we've heard the first thing. You know, I love the expression in the word that really tells us that a little child can really hear Him so clearly because they have innocence. Their heart and mind is innocent toward Him.

They just hear Him and they just can move as a result. So obedience is better, the word says, than our sacrifice. If we obey the first thing that we hear Him say, and we stay with it until we hear the next thing, that means I begin, I step out, step out, I obey the prompting of that still, small voice again, like in childlike faith.

And then soon, usually doesn't take very long, but even if it does take a while, you will hear a second step and a third, et cetera. Possibly even more powerful than the answer that you received with the first thing. So the opposite is true. We understand from that expression, obedience is better than sacrifice. It comes from 1 Samuel 15 verse 2, where we read, to obey is better than sacrifice. And this is as a result of the instructions that God gave to Saul, who was the king, and in following what the Lord said to him, what the prophet said, the Lord said through the prophet to him, then Saul obeyed in part, but not completely.

And we know the story. It didn't turn out well. And that's where we read how the prophet said to Saul, look, you didn't listen. You didn't hear what God said to do. And that has set in motion these undesirable events, these things that we didn't want. And sometimes people think that God did not answer their prayer or did not intervene when in fact it was something on their end.

In other words, we need to own those things. And we don't need to stand in the way to stand in the way of the outworking of God's supernatural intervention in our lives. This verse really applies to choosing to hear the Lord's voice and therefore being able to discern if it is or is not his voice, if his word is just a man talking or is sent from God. But I love, I just love this verse.

I think I love the wording. If any man will do the will of God, he will know. He will know.

He will have more understanding. And so that applies to our topic today, that if we will choose to do the will of God and not be so intellectual or mental about it, let the heart lead you. And once you hear that simple voice, that simple prompting, just follow that. If any man wills to do the will of God, he will know. And sometimes I interject the words, he will know the will of God, because that is not completely out of line with what that passage is teaching. If any man chooses to do the will of God and has made up his mind to do the will of God, it opens up so much that you wouldn't have otherwise or if you had not chosen to do the will of God. Also, another thing that really stands out to me is those two miracles at Cana of Galilee. They're in John 2 and John 4, two separate chapters in the book of John. One, probably one of the most well-known stories from the Bible about the wedding at Cana of Galilee when Jesus turned water into wine.

That story. And then also, probably a well-known probably a well-known story out of John 4, maybe not as well-known, but it's the story of how Jesus healed the official's son. And he did it really, the way that that was really carried out was by an act of faith on the official's part. So first of all, at the wedding at Cana that day, you remember verse 5 of John 2, Mary said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. And she instructed the servants ahead of anything that Jesus did. He had not made a move or taken any action to help with the situation that was happening there at the wedding, but Mary moved really by faith. She had an unction and a prompting that God intended to move that day. And when she said to the servants, do whatever he, meaning her son Jesus, whatever he tells you, things began to move in the direction of the water pots being, one by one, converted from water to wine, which was the finest wine that the master of the feast could serve. It was a demonstrative story in the Bible. It was a way of conveying how the miraculous that God does, in this case, through his son, but in our case, through our lives, applies to every part of life, that God is involved in every part, every element, every facet of our lives, not the things that we think are the most important or the most religious, but in the smaller things that we say, how could God be concerned about that? Listen, he is creator. He put the desire in your heart. He put vision in your heart.

He is concerned about those details as much as you. That's the story or one of the elements of the story out of this example at the wedding that day. And then secondly, John chapter 4 verse 50, Jesus said to the official who had appealed to him concerning the healing of his son, that his son was in another place at the door of death, very, very ill. And the official said to Jesus, please come to my house and heal my son. And Jesus responds to him. See, he stepped out in appealing to Jesus for the first thing.

And Jesus' answer exceeded his request. And he said to him, Jesus said to the official, go, in other words, go to your house, return to your house, your son will live. And the man's response, he believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. And verse 51, here it is, and as he was going down to his house, he responded to Jesus. He responded to Jesus. Jesus said, go on your way, your son will live. The man believed him, what Jesus spoke, and he began his return to his home. And as he was going, the servants of his house came to him and said, your son is recovering.

Wow, your son is recovering. So the official asked them, at what hour did you first notice this recovery was beginning? And they realized it was at the moment at the same time or in the same time frame that Jesus said, go your way, your son will live. You see how this works? It's not a one and done. It's not the way we think of things. It's not the way that we would lay it out.

It is that first prompting, your response to that first prompting, step out, move in faith with that. That's what you have. You don't have more.

You can't say you have more because you don't have more. You have this one prompting. And by the way, my experience is, it usually is very simple. It's not a hard thing. It's not beyond my ability, but sometimes it is beyond my will. My will is not there.

I'm not willing to risk the embarrassment or the humiliation of doing something so simple. Like this official spoke up to Jesus and appealed. Say, oh wow, my son is ill. He said, I need you to come to my house. That was the prompting he had. That was the only thing he knew. He didn't know Jesus was going to speak the word and that that was going to take care of it. He didn't know that his response to the next thing Jesus said was going to be the reason things began to happen. He didn't know any of that. All he had was the first thing. And as we said originally, if any man will choose to do the will of God, he will know.

He will know the next thing. That's my rendering of that verse, by the way. So I don't want to take it out of context, but you know, God's word is so rich.

The application is beyond anything. Sometimes then we can think, but it's the way that God speaks to our hearts simply. And aren't we humbled by that? We're not creating doctrine or a new approach or a strange doctrine. We are simply in our hearts responding to what we hear like a child in that childlike faith.

And just look at this example. There's one more. I love this one out of Revelation 3. It's, you know, the principle of when God knocks on your heart and you hear him and you open the door. This verse 20, Revelation 3, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear, underline hear, my voice and open, underline open, the door, I will come in to him, underline come in.

And I will sup with him and he with me. Jesus is standing here and we apply this to, I think most often I think of it in the context of someone coming initially to the Lord, of inviting him into their heart initially to be Lord and Savior. But also as we're talking today about hearing that gentle prompting of the Lord, it's the same thing. The Lord is standing at the door and he is knocking with that initial prompting and he says if you'll hear it, hear his voice, open the door, in other words receive what he's saying, he will come in and sup. What does that mean? It means that I've acknowledged his knock, I believe that I am hearing him and I believe what he's saying, what he is saying to me, I allow him in to my heart and my understanding.

Agreeing with him, that's really important, you wouldn't let someone in your home that was a stranger or that on some level you didn't have agreement with, maybe a neighbor, a friend. So there are many things we can say about this verse but here we can see it is like sitting down to a meal with someone, an exchange takes place, that exchange begins to grow, there's more interaction and fellowship, a friendly setting, maybe a growing bond of friendship, a growing bond of fellowship, and it can even become like having a meal with someone, can become a really confidential time, a really intimate time of sharing. And for the believers, for a believer sitting down to communion with the Lord, I'm thinking of the communion meal, having supper with the Lord, this is really something. You know what I mean? This is really something. This is not a passive occurrence, is it?

It's not. So again, just in this prompting, we are able to hear the Lord, we're able to hear him, and we're able to take that first step, we do it by faith, and as we do that by faith, then we hear from him the next thing. And then after we've heard again, we hear the next thing. And on and on, until this is really a lifestyle, I hear people talk about the miraculous, the supernatural, divine interventions in the life of the believer as if that is a remote possibility. And I hear people talk about remote possibility. That is a rare occurrence, you know, or maybe even like an extra biblical occurrence.

I mean, I hear all kinds of things. But if you keep it simple, and if you stay in the Word, you really open your heart to hear the Word, trust the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to you, you come away with this expanse, and this expanding lifestyle of what happened at the wedding at Cana, what happened with the official that day when he appealed to Jesus for the healing of his son, what Jesus is saying in the book of Revelation about standing at the door of my heart and knocking to see, well, will I open the door to him? How long will he knock before I listen? And hear that on the other side of the door is the answer to my most deeply held desire, my greatest prayer request, so to speak. And unlike King Saul, that I'm not trying to offer a religious life of sacrifices in order to please him, but that simple, small, still voice speaking to my heart and my response just to do it by faith, whatever he tells me, I do it. Pray that way.

Pray that way with me now. Father, in Jesus' name, you've heard our conversation today, and we ask you according to your deepest desire for our lives to be intertwined with you on this level and in this way that we open our hearts and our understanding and respond to that knock, that simple instruction. And as we respond, we hear you more and more. And as you've said, even more and more, as we see the day approaching, the day of your return, as we move closer and closer to that day, whenever it is, we become more and more aligned with you, hearing your voice.

We are so grateful for this amazing, miraculous opportunity to do that very thing. In Jesus' name, we thank you, Lord. We say amen and amen.

Hallelujah. So because of 1 Corinthians 2 16, every believer has the mind of Christ. That means we have the thought life of a king.

We have the thought life of the king. And because of Philippians 2, our role is to choose to have his mind, to have his mind over anything else. We let his mind be in us. We let his mind be in us. That's the way we do it. It's a simple thing.

We just allow it. Amen. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support this podcast, please share it with others. Post about it on social media or leave a rating and review. Don't forget to check out the show notes or visit acleartrumpet.org where you can subscribe to Shirley's email list. Download the ministry app and purchase your very own copy of Shirley's 365 day devotional, Running with Horses. Thanks again and we'll see you next time.