Tag: hear God

8 Tips on Fasting

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date January 10, 2021

Jesus Expects Us to Fast, but Do We?

Jesus fasted (Luke 4:1-2). Should we follow his example? Though his disciples didn’t fast (Matthew 9:14), he said when he returned to heaven, the time for fasting would resume (Luke 5:34-35).

In his well-known Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches about fasting. He says, “when you fast (Matthew 6:16-18).” He doesn’t say “if you fast.” It seems clear that Jesus expects us to fast. How’s that going for you?

Here are eight tips about fasting, that I’ve learned the hard way through experience:

1. The Purpose of Fasting Is Not to Get God’s Attention

If our intended outcome of fasting is to get our Lord to notice us, we’re missing the point. We don’t need to do anything special to garner his attention.

He loves us regardless of what we do or don’t do. We don’t need to earn his consideration. Fasting so that he will grant us favor may irritate him more so than win his appreciation.

2. The Purpose of Fasting Is Not to Abase Ourselves

When we fast, we do not deprive our self of food as an act of mortification. We do not seek to degrade ourselves. Fasting to produce pain accomplishes nothing of merit.

3. The Purpose of Fasting Is Not to Suffer

Fasting isn’t about us suffering as an act of devotion. Though it’s correct that as we stay true to our faith we may suffer as a result, this suffering is what others impose on us. It’s not self-inflicted.

4. The Purpose of Fasting Is Not to Gain Respect

Some people who don’t fast are in awe of those who do. But the intent of fasting is not to win the approval of others or garner their admiration.

If the opinion of others is why we fast, their esteem becomes the only outcome.

5. Don’t Fast to Achieve Side Benefits

Fasting often has positive physical outcomes. Aside from possible health benefits, fasting can produce weight loss and boost productivity. But if these become the motivations for fasting, forget about realizing any spiritual outcomes.

6. The Goal of Fasting Is to Connect with God

When we fast, we push aside the physical to focus on the spiritual. As we do, we draw closer to God and experience him in a more intimate way that might not have otherwise been possible.

7. The Goal of Fasting Is to Pray and Listen

When we fast, we can take the time we’d normally spend in meal preparation and in eating and use it to pray and listen to God. By denying our physical desires, we heighten our spiritual awareness.

8. The Goal of Fasting Is to Better Align Our Perspective with God’s

When we fast and connect with God, pray, and listen, we can better comprehend reality through his eyes. Instead of trying to get God to see things our way, we can better see things his way.

Fasting helps us to relate with the viewpoint of our Creator more effectively.

Conclusion

When done the right way for the right reasons, fasting helps us connect with God through prayer and listening to him. As we do so, we better align our perspective with his.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

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Tags fasting, hear God, prayer

Christian Living

Learn How to Receive Holy Spirit Insight

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date January 3, 2021

Learn how to receive insight from the Holy Spirit

Discover How to Hear God’s Voice and Discern Spiritual Direction

I’ve shared with you the arc of my faith journey, the spiritual transformations I’ve experienced so far in my life. I built upon that by relating my experiences in reading the Bible and praying for my children and future generations.

Next, I decided to share how I learned to hear from God and receive Holy Spirit insight.

A Key Question

People often ask me how they can hear from their Creator. It seemed a great idea to tell you how I learned to discern God’s voice. Alas, I’ve already blogged about it. Not once, but twice. (Yes, I write so much that I sometimes forget what I’ve written.)

Though the two posts share the same essential tips, read both to get the full picture. Each post has unique content that can inform the other.

I realize the way I discovered how to hear from God may not work for everyone, but it will work for some. I pray it works for you.

Building on this theme of listening to God and discerning his voice, I covered Simeon and Anna who both encounter baby Jesus shortly after he is born (Luke 2:22-40).

God reveals to Simeon, a godly man, that he will live long enough to see the long-anticipated Savior. One morning the Holy Spirit prompts Simeon to go to the temple. Simeon obeys and meets baby Jesus, just as supernaturally promised.

Anna, who already spends much time at the temple, also sees Jesus. She praises God and confirms the baby is the Savior who the people anticipate. How does she know this? The Holy Spirit reveals it to her.

I also wrote about hearing God speak from an Old Testament perspective, about Moses and Ezekiel. At that time, not everyone had God’s Spirit living in them and only a few could discern God’s words.

In this case, people who wanted to hear from God, would seek an intermediary.

Today’s Truth about Holy Spirit Insight

Today it’s no longer necessary to ask someone to inquire of God on our behalf (but if you need to, don’t be shy about asking for help).

Through Jesus, we all have the gift of God’s Spirit living in us. If we follow Jesus, we all have the potential to hear God’s voice and receive Holy Spirit insight.

This doesn’t mean everyone can do so—at least not yet. But the capacity resides within us. To realize Holy Spirit insight requires us to pursue it and practice.

As we do, we may not always hear fully, but hearing something from God is better than hearing nothing.

If you don’t try to hear Holy Spirit insight, it won’t happen.

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Tags hear God, Holy Spirit, Jesus

Christian Living

Do You See Visions from God?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 20, 2019

Once Reserved for Prophets, Now All People Can Have Visions from God

A friend asked me about hearing from God and of visions from God. I often think about hearing from the Holy Spirit, but I infrequently consider visions, even though visions are one way that God communicates with us.

Visions in the Bible

Mentions of visions occur thirty-six times in the Bible, mostly in the Old Testament. The first time is when God tells his people that he will reveal himself to his prophets through visions, that he will speak to them in dreams (Numbers 12:6).

The book of Ezekiel records the most visions, followed by Daniel. And the bulk of Revelation is one epic vision.

I suspect the most well-known verse about visions is when God says he will pour out his Spirit on all people. Then there will be prophecies, dreams, and “young men will see visions” (Joel 2:28). Notice that Joel says all people will receive God’s Spirit.

The fulfillment of this happens at the first Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4).

Hearing from God in the Bible

Interestingly, the phrase “the Lord said” and variations thereof occur over 400 times in the Bible, ten times more often than visions. This suggests it’s more likely we’ll hear words from God than we’ll see visions.

Receiving Visions from God

I hear from God often, usually whenever I ask and sometimes when I don’t. My requests to hear him often start out like young Samuel, “Speak, Lord. Your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:10). Then God puts his words into my mind.

It’s up to me to discern which of those words came from God and which emerged from my own imagination. With practice, it becomes easier to separate the two.

Though I have had visions from God, they aren’t often. As far as I recall, I’ve never asked for a vision. They just show up. Usually they occur when I’m asleep and sometimes as I enter or leave sleep: a semi-conscious state, a trance.

The book of Acts notes that both Peter (Acts 10:10) and Paul (Acts 22:17) fell into a trance and God spoke to them through a vision.

For me a vision from God seems much like a dream. It’s up to me to discern which came from God and which came from myself. Again, with practice it becomes easier to know the difference.

Hearing from God and especially seeing visions from God happen more frequently when I fast and even more so as I pray and listen to God during a fast. That’s when he speaks to me, mostly through words and occasionally through visions.

Of course, I don’t need to fast to hear from God, I merely need to listen.

And where did my thoughts for this post come from? They came during a fast. I was praying and listening to God. I asked him if he had anything to tell me about visions that I could share with my friend. Then I heard from the Holy Spirit. This post is the result.

Thank you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Tags fasting, hear God, Holy Spirit, prayer, Visions

Christian Living

The Spirituality of Silence

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 14, 2018
4 Comments on The Spirituality of Silence

In Today’s Noisy World We Need to Reclaim the Ability to Deeply Listen

We live in a noisy world, with too many things vying for our attention. Though we can’t help some of it, much of the noise that permeates our existence is the distractions we create.

We can’t stand silence, not even for a couple seconds, so we fill that void with the clutter of sounds and activity: television, music, social media, and more.

It’s time we embrace the spiritual discipline of silence—the spirituality of silence.

Consider the Noisy World That Surrounds Us

Look around at social gatherings and public places to see how many people pull out their smart phones at an instant to occupy even the smallest of lulls in conversation or spaces in activity.

There’s a constant assortment of inputs that attack our ears and assault our minds.

And increasingly, one input is not enough. It’s checking email or social media, while having a conversation with someone else. Or it’s talking on our phone as we talk to the person sitting next to us.

There are even people who go down a rabbit trail on their smartphone as they listen to a sermon. There’s also a two-device mentality, such as watching TV and surfing the web.

With this constant deluge of sounds and attempt at multitasking, we’ve lost the ability to truly hear. We need to learn how to deeply listen and to recapture the gift of silence.

This is not only practical, it’s also spiritual. It’s the spirituality of silence.

When we can embrace a gap in sounds, we’ll regain the ability to listen to what happens around us. This readies us to hear anew.

Silence Prepares Us to Hear Others

How many times have you been talking to someone and sensed they weren’t really hearing you, that they had ceased listening? It’s like we’re having a one-way conversation in the presence of another person.

They stop responding and cease giving visual and verbal cues that they’re listening to.

When in the presence of others, turn off all devices and stifle distractions. Allow a moment of silence to be part of our interaction.

This provides time to think about what we’re saying before we open our mouth. It gives the space to hear, truly hears, what other people want to tell us.

And then it prepares us to properly react with thoughtful responses and insightful thoughts.

Silence Prepares Us to Hear Ourselves

Not only does our noisy world prevent us from truly listening to others, it also interferes with our ability to listen to ourselves. How often have we heard or thought, “There’s so much noise that I can’t hear myself think?”

For most of us, we surround ourselves so much with sights and sounds that we’ve overwhelmed our ability to think deeply. And most of the time, we don’t even realize we’ve done it.

While in a recent moment of downtime, an action plan to a longstanding dilemma formed in my mind, well clarity for several book concepts came into focus. This occurred in a minute or two.

It only happened because I had removed all other stimulus and opened myself to the possibility of truly hearing what I was thinking.

Silence Prepares Us to Hear God

Even more important than us hearing others and hearing ourselves is hearing God. God is always with us, and I suspect he’s always trying to tell us something. He’s always speaking, but how often are we listening?

Though he could shout at us over the noise that we surround ourselves with, he seldom does. It’s not his way to force himself on us.

To give God our full attention and open ourselves to listen to his still, small voice, we need to remove our world of distractions and immerse ourselves in silence. When we have settled our mind and focused our attention, we can listen to our Creator and Savior.

This is the spirituality of silence, as it opens us to hear what matters most. When we shut out our noisy world and embrace the spirituality of silence, we prepare ourselves to truly listen to others, ourselves, and to God.

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Tags hear God, spiritual discipline, television

Bible Insights

Do You Know How to Hear God?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date September 4, 2018
4 Comments on Do You Know How to Hear God?

If We’re Ready to Listen, God Can Speak to Us through His Holy Spirit

In the book of Ezekiel we come across an interesting passage. Some of the leaders of the nation of Israel approach Ezekiel. They ask him to seek God’s input for them. They want to hear God, but they can’t do it themselves. They need help.

Either they don’t know how to hear from God or are afraid to approach him directly.

Being afraid of hearing God was exactly what afflicted his chosen people when they left Egypt. They begged Moses to serve as a go-between because they feared God. How this must have saddened him (Exodus 20:19).

Seek an Intermediary to Hear God for You

In the Old Testament the people believed that they couldn’t approach God themselves, that they needed an intermediary to act on their behalf. That usually meant a prophet or priest.

Those folks knew how to hear from God. And the regular people didn’t.

Many people do this today. They want to know God’s will in their life, so they seek the advice of a minister or spiritual leader. But they can seek God themselves, if only they know how.

Hear God for Yourself

Though not everyone in the Old Testament knew how to hear God, it’s different in the New Testament—and for us. After Jesus overcame the finality of death and left earth to return home, his father sent us the gift of the Holy Spirit.

If we follow Jesus, we have is Holy Spirit in us.

The Holy Spirit allows us to hear from God ourselves without going through someone else.

For some people hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit comes easily and for others it doesn’t happen.

For much of my life, I didn’t know what to do or how to do it, until a wise friend taught me how to hear from God. Since then I’ve been able to hear from God on a regular basis.

Hear God for Others

Even so, not everyone can hear from God or fully trust what they think they may hear. But if we’re able to hear from God, we can serve as an intermediary for them. This is what Ezekiel did for the elders who came to him.

But what God revealed to Ezekiel wasn’t what the leaders were hoping to hear, but that’s another story.

Today’s story is that through the Holy Spirit we can hear the voice of God. That’s what he desires for us, to hear him when he speaks.

[Read through the Bible this year. Today’s reading is Ezekiel 18-20, and today’s post is on Ezekiel 20:1-3.]

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Tags hear God, Holy Spirit, trust

Bible Insights

Do You Hear the Voice of God?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date March 27, 2014

Listening for God’s Direction

Some people tell me they’ve never heard God speak to them. Of those, I suspect many actually do hear him, but they don’t realize it.

For others, they need to train themselves to listen. And there may be a few people with something blocking their ability to hear him.

Consider the Israelites in the Bible. They heard God speak and were so fearful they begged him to stop. Instead, they asked Moses to serve as an intermediary between them and God. And God did as they asked.

God ceased talking to the people and instead spoke only through selected leaders, priests, and prophets. I suspect the rest of the Old Testament would have unfolded quite differently had they not made this foolish request.

However, Jesus changed all that, allowing everyone who follows him to approach God directly and hear from him. This may be in audible words, a small whisper, or words, thoughts, and images he places in our minds.

If we aren’t hearing from God, maybe all we need to do is ask—and then listen.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Exodus 20-22, and today’s post is on Exodus 20:19.]

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Tags hear God, serve God

Christian Living

How Does God Speak?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date January 26, 2014

In the post How to Hear from God I shared the five steps I followed when I first learned how to hear from God.

This affirmed some people, encouraged a few more, and frustrated others. I won’t assert that hearing from God is normative or required.

Doing so would only cause division in the church that Jesus started—and we already have way too much disagreement. What I will say is many people who don’t think they hear from God, actually, do. (If that’s you, carefully consider #4).

Here are some ways people hear from God:

Audible Words

I’ve not experienced this. I know only a few who have, and if they did, it’s not often or only happened once. God can speak in audible words, just as he did in the Bible. (See “God Speaks Through Audible Words.”)

Inaudible Words

These are words implanted in our minds by God. This is my primary experience (followed by the next two items). Sometimes it’s instructions to do something, in other instances it’s words to say, and it can be private communication.

This happens in the Bible as well. (See “God Speaks Through Inaudible Words.”)

Visions

God can communicate to us through images and scenes. It may happen in our waking hours or when asleep. Sometimes these vignettes carry obvious meaning and other times their vague or obscure nature requires interpretation.

The writings of Daniel, Ezekiel, and John all exemplify this. (See “God Speaks Through Visions.”)

Feelings

God can also direct us through our thoughts, a kind of a sixth sense, a knowing. People may say, “I just felt I needed to do this.” Other verbs that uncover this type of godly communication include: prompted, urged, and compelled.

People may say, “I can’t explain it, but it simply seemed like the right thing” or “I somehow knew what to say.” Examples of this are also in the Bible.

Many people experience this type of awareness, but they may not even know God is behind it.

In all cases, we need to exercise caution.

First, not all supernatural communication comes from God; be discerning.

Second, use the Bible as a benchmark to guide and clarify.

Third, seek the counsel of other godly people to confirm or refute any unclear communication.

One way or another, God can speak to us. For some, this is often; for others, infrequent. But when he does communicate, let’s make sure we’re ready to listen.

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Tags hear God, supernatural

Christian Living

How to Hear from God

For most of my life I was taught that God speaks to us through the Bible, and we speak to him through prayer. Together, these two one-way communication channels can result in a dialogue of sorts.

While this is correct, it’s only part of the story.

I more recently learned that God can also speak directly to us. This may be in the form of audible words—not that I’ve personally experienced them—God’s voice is more often unmistakable words planted into our minds.

When I asked a trusted friend for help, he gave me this advice.

Block out a half hour to an hour.
Remove all distractions.
Have a pen and pad of paper ready.
Ask God a question and write it on the top of the page.
Write down everything that comes to mind.

I followed these five steps, and after thirty minutes I had several pages of notes and clarity on my question. What I didn’t have clarity on was if this insight was my own, came from God, or was a combination of the two.

A few weeks later, I tried again. After quieting my own thoughts and shoving them aside, this time I’m quite sure God spoke to me. His words came quicker and the session was shorter.

After a few more attempts, I learned what God’s voice is like and how to distinguish his from mine.

Now I regularly talk with God this way, sometimes as a part of prayers or Bible reading, but most often not. We cover everything from major decisions to the trivial.

This is, no doubt, hard to comprehend to those who have never done this or been taught it. Me sharing my experience will certainly not convince anyone, but your own experience can. Give these five steps a sincere effort.

It may take a while, require patience, or necessitate some trial and error. But stick with it and you will one day hear from God.

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Tags doubt, hear God, trust

Bible Insights

A Personal Note From God

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date December 11, 2012

When Moses went up the mountain to get the 10 Commandments (the second time), God said “I will write on [the tablets] the words…“Imagine that, God providing written communication for Moses.

But it’s not just Moses, a few centuries later David said, “I have in writing from the hand of the Lord.. God wrote the instructions for David about building the temple, with all the details,” so there’d be no confusion.

Wouldn’t it be ”great if God would write things down for us?

Wait, he did—and we can read it every day.

As we approach a new year, I encourage you to read what God said every day. Consider it a New Year’s Resolution, one with eternal ramifications.

Check back next week for the 2013 Bible reading plans.

[Exodus 34:1, 1 Chronicles 28:19]

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Tags hear God, King David, Moses

Bible Insights

What if God Told You to do Something Crazy?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 23, 2012

A guy named Peter knew how to fish. That was his trade, his livelihood. When it came to catching fish, he was the expert.

Peter’s buddy Jesus was a carpenter by trade. He knew how to make things with his hands, things constructed of wood. He was an expert at woodworking.

So when the professional fisherman didn’t catch a thing, it seems strange for the professional carpenter to offer him fishing advice.

But that’s exactly what Jesus did to Peter, the novice told the expert what to do.

It would have been entirely reasonable for Peter to dismiss Jesus, after all, Peter had been fishing his entire life; Jesus had not.

Yet Peter set aside his pride and disregarded his experience, agreeing to do what Jesus said, just “because you say so.”

Sometimes what God tells us to do seems foolish, sometimes we know better and want to ignore his advice. But if we are truly wise we will do it anyway, just because he says so.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Luke 4-6 , and today’s post is on Luke 5:1-11.]

Read more about the book of Luke in That You May Know: A 40-Day Devotional Exploring the Life of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke, now available in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

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Tags advice, God speaks, hear God, Jesus, Peter