Chapter 1: Do You Hear What I Hear?

Do you hear what I hear?

Do you hear Me now?

Do you hear Me now?

Do you hear Me now?

Now, I have a question I want to ask you. If God wrote you a personal letter every day, would you read it?

I'm going to ask you the question again: If God, The Almighty God, wrote you a letter every day, would you read it? Would you find the time to read a personal letter from an all-knowing, all-seeing, everloving Source who told you in advance that He would make "all things work together for [your] good?" Would you want to know what the sole Creator of the Heavens and Earth had to say about your day? For most people, this might seem impossible, but the truth is God is always trying to speak to us. The real question is, why don't we always hear Him?

Here's our challenge: we spend six days a week focusing on family, work, health, finances, and all of life's other demands. Then, on Sunday, we think that if we go to church—brick and mortar or bedside—God should show up and quickly show out before lunch or the game (preferably both) so that we can have the rest of our day to do as we please. I mean, that's not too much to ask of a God who parted a whole sea and created a living man out of clay, right? Surely that same God could straighten out our issues in a five-minute conversation, right? The short answer is yes, He could, but with God, as with anything else, what you put in is what you will get out. God is no exception. He is a God of order and a God of process. If we don't put enough time into the process of connecting with Him through reading His Word, then we cannot get the full-spectrum benefit of His wisdom and guidance.

I want you to begin to see the Bible as more than just a Christian book of speeches and stories; see it as God's personal language and vocabulary. The more we interact with it, the more we begin to understand it—especially if we have someone helping to translate it for us. That's what the Holy Spirit does. He clarifies scripture and helps us become well-versed and more fluent in God's language, God's ways, and, ultimately, God's will for our lives. Don't miss out on what God wants you to know. Rest assured, God is always speaking to you.

Do you hear Me now?

Do you hear Me?

Do you?

The Post Office Analogy

What do many of us do when we can't hear from God as often as we'd like? When we feel like God is turning a deaf ear to our needs? We treat Him like a post office with special delivery options!

Some of us attend church on Sundays, specifically looking for Priority Express Mail Service from God. We say, "Lord, I need a blessing now! Do it now, Jesus! I'm even willing to pay extra for it!" In other words, we try to turn an on-time God into an on-demand God. We hurry God along, expecting faster delivery of His wisdom, word, and presence so we can return to the busyness of our hectic schedules.

For others who might not want to get up early for a long Sunday morning sermon, we go to Bible Study during the week for First Class Mail Service instead. It's not as fast as Priority Express, so our package (or message) might take a little longer in the week to reach us, but we're okay with that because we'd rather pay less in "sleep equity" to get our package on Wednesday evening instead of Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, God has a word waiting for us on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, too! I'm not minimizing the importance of Sunday services or Bible studies, but I want you to understand that God speaks every day!

Often, we get off course during the week because we're not getting fed a daily word. So, we become malnourished. Then we show up on Sundays starving for a word to revive and sustain us. We become so desperate that we approach God with a "right now" spirit. We need Express Mail or, at the very least, Priority Mail!

God tries to tell us many things, but most of us have a whole bunch of unopened mail from Him stacked up. Important, personal messages that have insight, ideas, and answers specifically for us just piled up, unchecked, and unused.

Has anybody ever neglected to pay a bill because you didn't open a letter? Truth be told, when I didn't have the money, I didn't want to open the letter, but by not opening it, I could have missed out on good news, too!

As a pastor and a business owner, I get a lot of mail. I once found a letter in my office with a check in it. I had the letter so long that the check had expired! I wonder how many checks you missed by not checking your mail. I wonder how many appointments you missed by not being where God wanted you to be because you simply didn't read your daily mail.

God's Unchanging Nature

Do you hear what I hear?

Hear this clearly: Malachi 3:6 (NKJV) says, "For I am the Lord, I do not change." If God spoke to Adam and Eve in Genesis, don't you think He still wants to talk to you?

And look at what Hebrews 13:8 (AMP) says about Jesus: "Jesus Christ is [eternally changeless, always] the same yesterday and today and forever."

If God has not changed and Jesus does not change, then that also means their delivery systems have not changed. So, it's not a question of whether God delivers. The true question is, are we available when their deliveries are made?

Look at what Psalm 81:8 (AMP) says: "Hear, O my people, and I will admonish you..." Admonish means to advise or give wisdom. "I will admonish you – O Israel, if you would listen to me!"

God's asking the children of Israel to listen to Him. We have to assume God wants to tell them (and us) something He was speaking about.

Psalms 81:9 (AMP): "Let there be no strange god among you, [n]or shall you worship any foreign god."

In this verse, I believe God was trying to warn us not to allow different voices to speak into our lives. If we're not careful, those voices could become gods.

"Pastor, what do you mean by "gods?"

A god (with a little "g") is something that we give so much time, money, and attention to that we make it a priority in our lives over God. Be it a person, a TV show, a car, or even a goal; we can all think of something that has become so important to us that it distracts us from building a stronger relationship with God; that is something that He would consider an idol or a "god."

Three Areas to Check

You can determine what you have turned into a "god" in your life by checking these three areas:

Area One: Time Allocation. Where you put your time is a great indicator of what you consider a god. I know during football season, I spend some extra hours watching games; for others, it may be some other programs. Well, if you know more about players than prayers and more statistics than scriptures, you might want to revisit your holy playbook and rethink your life's game plan.

Area Two: Talent Utilization. How much of your gifting are you allowing God to use? Just write it down and start looking at your totals. Make two columns and start listing your God-given gifts in one column. In the other column, write how you use each gift to glorify God or help build His kingdom. If you see more gaps in one column than the other, that will tell you if you have or haven't been making what's important to God important to you.

Area Three: Money Distribution. All we have to do is go through your bank statements to determine where your "gods" lie. Matthew 6:21 says, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also!"

So, take some time to examine your time allocation, talent utilization, and money distribution. You will realize quickly which God or gods reign over your life.

Seriously though, God says that we should not have any alternative gods so that we can keep a proper balance in our lives. I love football and basketball, but once I see that they take too much time from my praying, studying, or attending church, I know they have become out of balance. There's nothing wrong with liking any of them, but we must be careful not to turn them into idols. Otherwise, before we know it, we'll make choices based on things instead of God.

Back to Psalms 81

Psalm 81:10 (NKJV): "I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out from the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it."

God tries to remind the people of Israel about where he brought them from and what he brought them through so that they would listen to Him and continue to have victory over their adversaries with His help. He said, "...open your mouth wide and I will fill it." God not only wants to help us win, but He wants to supply our needs, too. He said you shouldn't just open your mouth a little bit. Open your mouth wide because He wants to fill it with whatever we need! The challenge is, will we listen to Him?

Voices and Choices

In John 10:27 (AMP), the Lord says, "The sheep that are My own hear My voice and listen to Me; I know them, and they follow Me."

Now, notice He says "My own" and "My voice," meaning some sheep are listening to another voice. Listen to me carefully: you are where you are in life based on the voices you heed and the choices you make. I'll repeat it – you are where you are in life based on the voices you heed and the choices you make.

Okay, let me say it another way through a funny story. If you've ever been in a fight, you can relate.

I remember this young brother. Micky was his name. I don't know if that was his real name or a nickname; I just knew everyone called him Micky. Micky was probably about 6' 6" or 6' 7". He had an afro, and I had dreads. He liked to play basketball, but he was not good. I, on the other hand, was not great, but I was better than good.

Anyway, students would play pick-up games during recess. At the time, I was dunking on people. One day, Micky decided he was going to block my shot. I just loved when people wanted to block my shots because that's when I could really get the good dunks in! Well, right after I dunked on him, I kind of said something smart because that's what I usually do. After I said what I said, Micky went and got the broom from the school's janitor and swung it at me! He missed, but I knew things wouldn't end there.

I think most people have a pretty good sense of when something is about to go wrong! My friend said, "Jomo, you know you're going to have to fight Micky before the week's out, right?" I knew it was coming, but I just didn't want to admit it. It was just a matter of time. Later, at home, my friends and I started shadowboxing. I had to get myself prepared for the inevitable!

There are some days when you're just going to have to fight. You don't want to fight, but some fights just come to you!

A few days later, I was standing in front of Mr. Samuda's class; he was my Spanish teacher. He was also our school's Athletic Director. I had my foot on the wall conversating with a young lady. This was pre-Jesus! Suddenly, I see Micky coming around the corner from the end of the hall.

Usually, your antennas go up when you know you're about to fight! I saw him coming around the corner, and he had that look. If you don't know the fight look, it's kind of a smirk, but it's not a smile. The person walks towards you with their head cocked to one side. When I saw Micky coming at me like that, I said, "Okay, let me pay attention!"

In one moment, I was talking to the lady. Then, next thing you know, I could hear myself shout out, "dang!" He caught me! Micky sucker-punched me! Now I was a world-class wrestler (in my head), you know. If anybody grew up in my time, we all watched WWF matches (now WWE) on TV. As soon as I felt the punch, I grabbed him by the legs and body-slammed him! My friends said all they saw were Micky's legs flying through the air. Once I got him on the ground, I just kept hitting him until Mr. Samuda came and got me off him.

Mr. Samuda took me to the office and said, "Jomo, I can't believe you're fighting in school! Why didn't you come tell us?" I never understood that! Who's going to go tell a teacher, "Hey, sir! I don't know if I will get whooped today, but there's a high probability that a beatdown will go down! I don't know where it's going to happen; I just know I need to be ready." I said, "That doesn't make any sense! How am I supposed to tell you when a fight will happen? When you get hit, you just respond!"

What does this have to do with the message in John 10:27 about God's sheep hearing His voice?

The voice told me to get ready; the voice told me to look up, that he was coming around the corner. But I was preoccupied with that young lady and I chose not to listen to the voice. Instead, I continued to conversate with that young lady, so I got caught with a punch to the head. I was lucky to recover from that, but God was trying to give me a heads-up. How many times in your life did the voice try to save you, but you decided to do something different anyway?

Life is all about voices and choices.

My friends Omar and Derrick and I used to walk to school together every day. Derrick had said to me, "You know you have to fight him, right?" Omar had said, "Let's shadow box so you can be ready!" My friends thought they were doing the right thing by gearing me up to fight, but when I look back over my mistake—because, you know, I got suspended and all the other stuff—it was the voices I heeded and the choices I made that got me into that mess. Truth be told, most of the time, when we get caught up, it's because we are listening to everything else but the voice of God.

Jumper Cables

We've all heard those voices saying the wrong things at the wrong times!

"You not going to let them talk to you like that, are you? You better not do something about it..."

These types of people are called "jumper cables." Just like jumper cables can start up a car, they can also jump-start you to something you should not do. They're around you when you say things like:

"You know what? I'm going to work on my marriage!"

"I'm going to work on myself."

"I'm going to go back to school and finish."

Jumper cable people respond with, "Why are you going to do that?

Jumper cable people are people who will discourage you from doing the right things in the eyes of God and man.

So, we must be mindful when we find ourselves in bad spots. It was the voices we heeded and the choices we made. Your life is based on three things: choices, decisions, and consequences. We should spend most of our time analyzing the consequences of our actions. With the process, we give God time to speak to us with discernment.

How Do I Know It's God's Voice?

"Now, Pastor, how do I know it's God's voice?"

Well, God is not going to say, "Put sugar in their tank."

God's not going to say, "Put their car on bricks."

God is not going to say, "Cut them." That's not God.

God will not go against His character, for He is love. He says, "Love your neighbor (Matt. 22:39)." He says, "Forgive them for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34)." That's God. So you have to fight that urge of your flesh because the flesh says, "You cut me, I cut you...you cuss me, I cuss you," and you've got to fight that flesh because the flesh is real. The flesh loves to lash out and sin.

Let's get back into Psalms 81. Look what it says in verse 11:

"...but my people will not listen to my voice, and Israel did not consent to obey me. So I gave them up to the stubbornness of their own heart to walk in the path of their own counsel."

Get away from people who have your problem. Get around people who have your answer.

I'm going to say it another way: get away from people who have your weakness, and get around people that have strengths you desire. Weakness will enable more weakness. Get away from that. Why? Because they will make you feel comfortable in your sinful nature(issue). That's why you see those with similar issues often hang together because nobody will hold them accountable to improve and grow.

The Caller ID Analogy

Okay, let me take you back real quick. Do you remember the time before Caller ID? When the phone rang, but you couldn't identify who was calling? This story is for those forty and above. Once you answered the phone, you knew the voice, and no one had to tell you who it was.

How could we discern their voice with no Caller ID? It's because we had a relationship with the person, and we spoke to them long enough that we could identify their voice. Our ability to hear God's voice is based on the time we invest with Him. The more time we spend with Him, the greater our ability will be to discern His voice.

We must change our interaction with God from only being when we come to church to when we get up in the morning and throughout our days. We must open our daily mail from God because overnight mail costs too much and wastes valuable time. It's so much cheaper just to listen. Every day, God has a message for you, but we must avail ourselves to receive it.

I ask you the question again, if God wrote you a letter every day, how long would it take for you to read it?

My Prayer Journey

You must grow and be able to position yourself to where, every day, you get some word in you and give God time to speak to you. For those who may not know, I've been praying to and for the masses consistently every morning for over a decade now, and I believe it's a part of my purpose. I got word from God that this is a part of the assignment He gave me.

I was at a point in my life where I was trying to figure out my direction, and in that season, I decided to tell God that I would commit to praying every day. Within the first week, I had already overslept one day. I went to the bathroom, and when I turned the light on, I heard an audible voice say, "Where were you?" I knew I was home alone. Still, the voice was there, and I could not deny what I had heard. I was instantly convicted. And since that day until now, I have been diligent in seeking God daily in prayer. To be clear, God doesn't audibly speak that often in this journey called life but uses many forms of communication to give us instruction. The purpose of this book is to give you an understanding of the different ways He communicates with His children.

When I started on my prayer journey, my prayers were not as long and strong as they currently are. My prayers grew based on my relationship with God growing. I would pray using God's word for God's will is revealed in God's word, which is God's will for your life (the best plan for your life). As my biblical knowledge grew, so did the length and intensity of my prayers. The greater our relationship is with God, the greater our obedience should be to His word. So, when people say, "Pastor, I don't know how to pray," I know that's no excuse for not learning how to pray.

Wrestling With Obedience

I remember a time when I was wrestling with how much I should give for one of our annual giving days. I told God I was going to give $10,000. So, as I was in a car line waiting to pick up my kids, I started negotiating with God. Does anybody negotiate with God? Come on, let's be honest. So, I started negotiating with God. I said, "Lord, when I give $10,000, you don't expect me to tithe too, do you?"

And God said, "You told me at the beginning of the year, 'Lord, I'm going over and beyond this year.' And then God said, "Jomo, remember what you said?"

And I responded, "I did say that, didn't I?"

Guess what, family? We all wrestle with obeying God's voice. Your wrestling might be different from mine. God tells you to go over there and help that person, and you struggle to do it, saying, "Lord, they are nasty and rude." Well, could it be that God put you in that position because that was your assignment, but you won't listen because you can't get past your feelings? Feelings, nothing more than feelings; stop catching them.

Let's get back to Psalms 81

Psalms 81:13, let me say it again: "Oh that my people would listen to me, that usually walk in my ways."

Psalms 37:23, look what it says here, oh this is good: "The Lord directs the steps of the godly he delights in every detail..."

"Pastor, why is this critical?" You need to know that God cares about small matters, too. You don't have to wait for the big stuff to call on Him; you can call on Him for every detail.

Let's get back to Psalms 81

Psalms 81

11 "But My people would not listen to My voice, and Israel did not [consent to] obey Me.12 "So I gave them up to the stubbornness of their heart, to walk in [the path of] their own counsel.13 "Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways!14 "Then I would quickly subdue and humble their enemies and turn My hand against their adversaries; 15 Those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to Him and cringe before Him, and their time of punishment would be forever.16 "But I would feed Israel with the finest of the wheat; and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you."

Five Benefits of Obedience to God's Voice

Psalms 81. Look what happens:

1. God will subdue your enemies.
2. God will turn His hand against your adversaries. You're not going to fight your own battles anymore. God will fight them for you.
3. You will be blessed eternally.
4. God provides the best things. Notice He says the "finest wheat, the best honey." Why would you settle for anything less if God will give you the best?
5. God will satisfy you with good things.

Wisdom Key: Just Listen.

"Now, therefore, my son, listen to me, pay attention to the words of my mouth." Proverbs 7:24

That's all He's asking to do. Here are 10 Keys to Hearing from God

10 Keys to Hearing from God

1. Ask - Matthew 7:7-9 You have not because you ask not.
2. Have Faith - Hebrews 11:6 It's impossible to please Him without it.
3. Listen - Psalms 37:23 The steps of a good man are ordered by God.
4. Shut up - James 1:19 Be quick to listen and slow to speak.
5. Relationship order - Matthew 6:33 God must be a priority.
6. Scriptures - John 1:1-14 Jesus and the word are one.
7. Confirm - Mark 16:20 God always backs up His word.
8. Write it Down - Hab. 2:2 Write down what God gives you.
9. Location - Psalms 16:11 Proximity helps with frequency.
10. Listen to your conscience - Romans 9:1 Our conscience is our receiver to God

A Letter From God to You

I close with this letter from God to you:

Good morning. As you got up, I watched and hoped you would talk to me, just a few words, such as 'thank you' to me for something good in your life. Yesterday or last week would do, but I noticed you were busy selecting the right clothes for work. I waited to hear from you again when you ran around the house collecting papers. I knew there'd be a few minutes to stop and say hello, but you never slowed down. I wanted to tell you that I could help you accomplish more today than yesterday if you could just give me a little bit of time. At one point, you waited 15 minutes in the chair with nothing to do. I waited to hear from you then I saw you spring to your feet. I thought you wanted to talk to me, but you ran to the phone and called your friend. I watched as off to work you went, and I patiently waited all day long to hear from you. With all your activities, you're too busy to talk to me.

I noticed you looked around at lunch. Maybe you felt embarrassed to talk to me. You glanced at three tables over and noticed some of your friends were talking to me, but you wouldn't. There was still more time left than I hoped that we would talk. You went home, and you had many things to do. After you were done, you turned on the TV. Just about anything goes there, and you spend many hours watching. I waited as you continued to watch TV and eat your meal, but again you wouldn't talk to me.

At bedtime, you were totally tired. After you said goodnight to your family, you plopped into bed and fell asleep. I had so much I wanted to be a part of your day. We could have done so much more and had so much fun together. I love you so much that I wait every day for a thought, a prayer, or thanks. Well, maybe tomorrow. I'll be waiting.

Your friend, God.

Question: How much time does it take to talk to God? "Morning Lord. Thank you, Jesus." The more time you give God to speak to you, the greater the conversation is. We have a responsibility to speak to God, but we have a greater responsibility to allow God to speak to us.

We all do what's important to us and make time for what's important to us.

Question: If someone said they loved you but never made time for you, would you believe them?

Question: How do you think God feels about your relationship with Him? Do you only talk to Him when you need Him?

Simple Ways to Talk To God

• Hello, Lord; thank you for life, breath, and strength.
• Thank you, Father God, thank you for all your blessings.
• Thank you for my job.
• Thank you for my kids.
• Thank you for the home I'm in.
• Is there something I need to know?
• Is there something you want me to do?

Whatever way God communicates to you, learn that voice well. As our relationship with God grows, so do the ways in which He communicates. As babies, God will communicate to us in grand ways. As our relationship with Him grows, we will pick up the subtle ways in which He communicates with us