John Brown is my friend. He isalso my brother and mentor, but, because mentor misses a certain organic nuance, I prefer to name him as a spiritual father the Lord has given to me. For the past fifteen years, John has willingly and graciously offered to take responsibility for me as a shepherd. I trust him with my life. I also love that he recognizes that I choose to be a biblical Christian and so appeals to my sensibilities in matters of avoiding counter-biblical, cheap imitations and for buttressing my desire for doctrinal integrity.
Earlier in our arrangement of teacher/disciple I recall telling him it would break my preacher heart to bits if I found out he was a false teacher and fraud. A decade and a half later, still no worries. That matter’s pretty much been long laid to rest.
And this is why I’ve shared my friend with you in these podcast episodes. You wouldn’t know it from these recordings but John preaches long. I mean, lo-ooo-ng. If you ask me, not long enough; I could listen to revelation flow from his heart for hours on end…and have. I wish we could’ve done that with our sessions. But I know what I’ll do, I’ll have him back as my guest – soon, and regularly. Maybe we’ll turn this into a tandem…a, um, buddy-show. Yeah, that’s the ticket!
In this installment of our mini-series on hearing God, John will again draw another fascinating account from his personal archive. Today’s ‘yikes!’ story will illustrate that God doesn’t speak into a vacuum, but will only reveal Himself to vessels willing to not only know His will but also carry it forward by His grace. Even the hard stuff.
He’ll also provide some instruction and fatherly guidance for our discerning between the many voices that occupy space in our minds. When is it God, when is it my own self-talk, and when is the enemy disguising himself as a good guy?
Before I pipe down and let you get to the business of listening to our conversation, allow me to leave you with the following amazing resources that will aid you in these matters, and will greatly bolster your faith:
From the picture you may deduce that coffee is a wonderful conductor for hearing God’s voice. There’s only one cup – not because I’m inhospitable – but because John won’t drink it. At all. Nuts, huh? But he still hears God…somehow…
Join me, won’t you, for a second sit-down with my friend and mentor, John Brown. Our dialogue is about hearing the voice of God and distinguishing His voice from our own, or from a more nefarious source.
Oh No, He Didn’t! Did He?
In today’s episode, John gets downright personal, sharing two stories (of his many!), recounting crucial moments when the voice of God was needed – as much for others as for himself. These stories will have your jaw hitting the floor!
In the previous segment, we learned there is both the hearing of faith (God speaking in our time) and the obedience of faith (His love language is our obedience) to complete the circle of communication.
The Definition of Faith
The scripture tells us “faith comes by hearing and that such hearing comes by the RHEMA (the specific message we hear in a moment) of Christ (Romans 10:17).” Faith always starts with God.
We’ve already uncovered the truth that hearing is ineffectual without the doing, so, using this revelation we discover that faith is defined as both hearing the life-giving Words of Christ (which are never in conflict with the written Word) and carrying out whatever the message instructs.
A Freebie!
John references a book that changed his thinking on the matter of God speaking to us. That book, Remarkable Miracles by G.C. Bevington can be found here. I’ve too been greatly blessed to read it and will get a copy to the first one who emails me your request along with your mailing information.
Part 3 of this dialogue on hearing God will be posted on Friday as I’m running a day behind on my postings this week due to circumstances beyond my control.
Hey! Thank you for listening. If you have any gripes or criticisms, address them to John. Any praises, I’m all ears.
