One of the most common reasons we don’t hear God on a regular basis is that we don’t “turn aside” from our daily activities to hear Him. Jeremiah prophesied this: “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). The heart of the matter is really the matter of the heart. God wants us to value our relationship with Him by not treating Him like a cosmic bellhop or a casual friend.
Dependence on God
Duncan Smith
The most important thing I’ve learned as a leader is to inquire of the Lord. I ask myself, ‘Holy Spirit, what would you like to say?’ It’s a practice that has become like muscle memory for me, always checking what the Lord thinks at any moment. Keep developing the ability to listen to the Holy Spirit. We can all grow in how much we ask Him, how much we listen for His prompting, and how much we choose to be obedient to His word.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die, I risk my whole eternity on the resurrection.
John Mark Comer
Jesus came out of the wilderness with all sorts of clarity about his identity and calling. He was grounded. Centered. In touch with God and himself. From that place of emotional equilibrium and spiritual succor, he knew precisely what to say yes to and, just as importantly, what to say no to. Hence: as the Gospels go on, you quickly realize the quiet place was top priority for Jesus.
Pete Scazzero
Our confidence is not in our love for Jesus which is fragile, fickle, and limited, but in his love for us which is unbreakable, faithful and without conditions.
John G Lake
Many Christians thinks it’s all right if they pattern after Jesus in a sort of way. They imitate Him, and they do the things which He did; that is, they outwardly do them. They perform kind acts, and they do other things which Jesus did. But the secret of Christianity is not in doing, the secret is in being. Real Christianity is in being a possessor of the nature of Jesus Christ. In other words, it is being Christ in character. Christ in demonstration. Christ in agency of transmission. When one gives himself to the Lord and becomes a child of God, a Christian, he is a Christ man. All that he does, and all that he says from that time on, should be the will and the words and the doings of Jesus just as absolutely. just as entirely, as he spoke, and did the will of the Father.
Francis Chan
God is not just one thing we add to the mix called life. He wants an invitation from us to permeate everything in every part of us. In the same way, seeking a healthy balance of the Holy Spirit assumes that there are some who have too much Holy Spirit, and others who have too little. I have yet to meet anyone with too much Holy Spirit. Granted, I’ve met many who talked about it too much, but none who are actually overfilled with His presence.
Paul David Tripp
Every painful thing we experience in relationships is meant to remind us of our need for God. And every good thing we experience is meant to be a metaphor of what we can only find in Him…. We settle for the satisfaction of human relationships when they were meant to point us to the perfect relational satisfaction found only with God.
Jean-Baptiste de la Salle
The more you abandon to God the care of all temporal things the more He will take care to provide for all your wants. But if on the contrary you try to supply all your needs Providence will allow you to continue to do just that, and then it may very well happen that even necessity will be lacking to you. For God will reprove you for your lack of faith in reliance on self.
Lou Giglio
It’s possible to not be okay, and believe Jesus is okay at the same time.