Yet it does raise a series of questions about how this leadership by



the Holy Spirit comes about, and how one can know that that leadership

is actually taking place.

HEARING GOD

The whole area of hearing God is quite complex and we cannot treat every

aspect here. (See our web site below for a comprehensive disscusion in

our book "The keys To Hearing God Speak")

But how do we hear the Holy Spirit? In a miriad of possible ways from the

(very rare but nonetheless actual) external voice to a voice within

one's own mind, through the Bible or other books (when phrases "stand

out" in one way or another, through messages given to other people for

us (but of which we do need to exercise caution) to messages which

come to us from others without their being conscious of them, and so forth.

In all these, and other instances we need to be able to discern God's

voice from others. In the main this comes only through practice, but

through a practice closely coupled with the practice of faith. We shall

encounter many other people who will be eager to fill us with sceptism

about God speaking us and that can be a great challenge to our faith.

This seems to be notleast when God himself appears to be pushing our

faith to the limit.

HEARING IS NOT SEEING

Thus hearing God is not necessarily seeing what he wants or, sometimes,

even understanding what he wants. Faith does not only lead us to HEAR

God, faith is also about doing what one is told without necessarily

knowing what the outcome will be or what the actual purpose is.

Take a few New Testament examples. The parents of John the Baptist did not

know that he was to become the Baptist. They only knew that his

conception and birth were what God wanted and, indeed, were brought

about by God. They saw to his birth and brought him up without any

real indication of what he was to be about. They probably realised that

it had some connection with Jesus but, so far as we know, nothing more

than that.

Much the same could probably be said about Joseph and Mary. Certainly

they were given rather more information about Jesus. Without doubt

Mary knew Jesus was, in his humanity, the Son of God, which is why she

eventually became known as the "Mother of God". Not literally, as

everyone knows to be impossible, but in the sense of giving birth to

God in human form. Joseph had to take rather more of this on faith but

there is no doubt that he fully believed it. Yet even Mary had to ponder

these things in her heart (Luke 2. 19) because she did not fully understand

what it was all about. Nor would she realise what Simeon meant when he

told her that a sword would pierce her own heart (Luke 2. 35).

So hearing God tell us to do one thing or another does not necessarily

mean that we shall understand or foresee the eventual outcome, nor

even have any foreknowledge about the process and sequencing of events.

All our life in God has to be taken on trust, and trust, of course, is

the inseparable concomitant of faith: one cannot be separated from

the other.

DOING WHAT COMES UNNATURALY

For most of us, our natural instinct is want to understand, as fully

as possble, what we are hearing and what we are involved in. But, just

as a first principle in hearing the Holy Spirit speaking to us and

leading us, is to accept that he does precisely this, so a second

principle is that we should not necessarily expect to understand

everything about what he has said to us or led us into. Often we have

to do comes unnaturaly to us. That can be a hard lesson, especially

when it is spread out over a quite lengthy period of time. But it is

an essential lesson to continuing to hear him in future.