One Thing: Discern The Message
As I continue to flesh out this idea of ONE THING: SPEAKING A WORD FOR GOD, I literally cannot turn my mind off. Whether it is residual grief over the death of my friend from an overdose or conversations I have recently had with friends in ministry (both “former” ministers who bowed out or current ministers on the verge of doing so), this is where my heart is at the moment. I am content to stay here as long as it takes.
I am sticking with my story. The more I reflect, the more I am convinced that we must speak a word for God to the people. But the question eventually arises: HOW?
It is more than simple mechanics. You can pile public speaking courses on top of hermeneutics classes on top of preaching books and you still do not scrape the surface of the mystery of how God communicates His word through ministers to the people. But I offer four relatively elementary ideas as to HOW we speak a word for God. (And I did not read this in a book, swipe it from a professor, or rip it off of sermons.com). I will share the first thought today and the other three will follow.
DISCERN THE MESSAGE - I would rather listen to a testimony from a hillbilly preacher who could get a personal and passionate word from God than a polished pulpiteer who spends more time telling me what the Bible doesn’t mean that about what it does. I am not AGAINST education. I am FOR ministers staying spiritually sensitive enough to God’s Spirit that they can discern when He is handing them a word that He wants them to hand to the people. We must learn to listen deeply and hear the Spirit, discerning His message for those who need it.
Discernment means knowing the difference between hearing a lyric in a song that just sounds cool versus being assaulted by a lyric in a song that drips with truth and conviction and realizing that God used that line in that song to inspire your next sermon series. It means sitting still long enough in a quiet place so that God can isolate your busy mind and crowded heart so that only He has access to it. It is watching your children play and fight and interact and seeing all the spiritual parallels between them and yourself. And for me personally, I had to discover the mystical dimension to spiritual discernment, when that weird feeling in my heart is actually God revealing something to me.
Here is an example. Over a decade ago, I happened to see Axl Rose of Guns-n-Roses wearing an offensive t-shirt on TV that said “Kill Your Idols.” That phrase stuck with me but I could not figure out why, nor could I get it to go away. A year later I was reading in the Bible about King Josiah, a boy king who wiped Israel clean of all it’s pagan practices and altars and IDOLS. Josiah had killed their idols in order to turn their hearts back to God. Then I understood. And I prepared and preached one of the most passionate messages of my life called “Kill Your Idols” about a teenage King who would not tolerate any idol among the people of God. The inspiration came from a t-shirt. We must pay close attention if we are to DISCERN the message that we will eventually bring to the people. Next we must learn to….
December 14th, 2007 at 10:08 am
I could not agree more. I personally believe God speaks to us often, much more often than we would think. The underlying problem is much like the other relationships we have with our wives, children, or parents. We do not listen!!! The tv is blasting, the internet is calling our name, or our mind is on the job we left ours ago. I can not tell you how many times my wife, my kids and I could have benefited from each other if we had just listened to each other. If we all just slow down and point our lives toward him and listen intently, WOW what a difference that would make.
December 14th, 2007 at 11:41 am
Clayton, you see right on! thanks for the reminder to preach not only with passion, but with power from the Holy Spirit!!! That only comes through discernment. Thanks Clayton for being sensitive to the Spirit!
December 14th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
I recently read a book by Pastor Ronnie Floyd that contained a chapter entitled “The Power Of One Hour.” Floyd mentioned in the chapter that a pastor once told him spending a quiet hour with God everyday would do more for his ministry than anything else would do. That really stuck with me. Maybe we all ought to try out “the power of one hour” in our own lives and ministries.
December 14th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
Thanks brother.
January 4th, 2008 at 9:02 am
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