HOW TO GET BETTER AT LISTENING TO THE LORD

HOW TO GET BETTER AT LISTENING TO THE LORD

I went with a friend to a Bible Study. I didn’t know anyone except the person who invited me.  Haven’t been around new people in quite a while, so I made a big effort to remember people’s names, but out of five, I only remembered two. But I’m glad I made the effort because it means a lot to a person when you remember their name. The Lord remembers all of our names, and the Apostle Paul tells us: “Therefore become imitators of God [copy Him and follow His example], as well-beloved children [imitate their father] (Eph. 5:1 AMP). So I want to get much better at remembering people’s names!  

 

We let ourselves get distracted by our own thoughts, rather than listening with our full attention to what the other person is saying. God puts certain people in our paths for many reasons: to bless us, to teach us, to wake us up to something new, or so that we can be a blessing back to that person.

 

Many times, we get so busy thinking about so many things that our brains either race into the future or reflect on the past, instead of staying in the present. The result is that we miss out on quality time just listening to each other. We’ve forgotten how to have a conversation.

 

What if we slow down enough to really listen to each other? Besides practicing consideration and love for each other, it’s great practice for listening to the Lord.

 

First John 4:20 says: “For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” I could say: “For he that listens not to his brother who he sees, how can he listen to God who he doesn’t see?”

 

Listening is an act of love. If we want to get better at hearing from the Lord, we can take steps in the right direction by practicing listening to one another.

 

When we make the effort to listen to someone, we don’t want to let our minds take a selfish trip to the past or an anticipatory trip to the future. We want to do our best to let our hearts and minds engage in the present. A conversation with another person is not all about us. It should be about learning about the other person and loving them with God's love. Getting to know their name is a good first step in showing them God’s love.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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SAMPLE BOOK with 6 of the 61 chapters from the complete book. We all have God-given powers. These true stories show us how to tap into these powers and understand and utilize them for awesome results that will help us and those around us. It includes these chapters: LORD OF SABAOTH, JEHOVAH-NISSI, SPEAKING FAITH, I KNOW THE BOSS, GOD LIKES TOO MUCH, AND A CHAPTER ABOUT MOTHERS.

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DELIGHT

DELIGHT

A friend wrote this to me: “The Bible says that for everything there is a season. There have been so many seasons in my life, and they have bridged the gamut from absolute disaster to delight beyond my wildest expectations. But in this season, right now, I am beginning to experience the harvester and the sower passing each other. My prayer requests and heart's desires are beginning to run and chase me down. This is so new, the baby is still crowning on the way out.”

 

As it says in Amos 9:13: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine and all the hills shall melt [that is, everything heretofore barren and unfruitful shall overflow with spiritual blessing] [AMP].”

 

This is what God spoke to the Israelites after they’d spent a long time in captivity and struggle. They yearned for deliverance and the blessings they’d once known. I think we all go through times when we yearn for better times, without so many struggles, a purer time of happy days and more delight.

 

The Message Bible translates Amos 9:13: “Things are going to happen so fast your head will swim, one thing fast on the heels of the other. You won’t be able to keep up. Everything will be happening at once—and everywhere you look, blessings! Blessings like wine pouring off the mountains and hills. I’ll make everything right again for my people: They’ll rebuild their ruined cities. They’ll plant vineyards and drink good wine. They’ll work their gardens and eat fresh vegetables. And I’ll plant them, plant them on their own land. They’ll never again be uprooted from the land I’ve given them. God, your God, says so.”

 

That’s exciting, and I believe that’s what’s happening now for God’s people around the world. We can expect restoration. “And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten. And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed” (Joel 2:25-26).

 

And new things: Isaiah 48: 6-7 says: “From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known. They are created now, not long ago; before today, you have never heard of them, lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’”

 

And Isaiah 43:19: “Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”

 

These new blessings that God and the Lord Jesus have for us are so new that we won’t be able to attribute them to anything but the sheer magnitude of God’s love for us. We are going to start getting more prayers answered and new blessings before we even get the requests out of our mouths. I’ve started to see it happen, so I expect it to spread.   

 

Start writing down your delight list today 😊. I think it’s going to be a long one!

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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STRETCHING OURSELVES TO LOOK OUTSIDE THE BOX

                                    

STRETCHING OURSELVES TO LOOK OUTSIDE THE BOX

Research in Quantum Mechanics has shown that an electron or a photon of light existing in a wave form changes into a particle form when observed. The remarkable double slit experiment studied the nature of subatomic phenomena. A photon of light was to pass through two slits. When it was not observed, it acted like a wave. But when observed, it behaved like a particle.

 

This is very much like how the Lord communicates with us. Wisdom from above is all around us in wave-like quality, ethereal, and sometimes, we don’t quite grab it. But when we observe these peripheral thoughts, they become like the particles: clear, substantial, and real enough to affect the way we think and act.

 

To bring that Godly knowledge or wisdom into our reality, we have to look outside the 9 dots of our own finite minds. I’ve often found that heavenly revelations are literally floating at the edges of my peripheral vision.

 

I can be going along in my own thoughts, and all wound up in work or people’s problems or any number of other things, but I just know that there’s something else I’m supposed to see.

 

The Lord wants us to look outside of the box. The phrase “thinking outside the box” originally comes from the popular “nine dots” puzzle. I’ll show you. Here are the 9 dots:

.         .         .

.         .         .

.         .         .

 

The goal of the puzzle is to connect all 9 dots using 4 or fewer straight lines, without lifting the pen and without going over the same line more than once. The key is to go beyond the boundaries to link all dots.

 

Thinking only within our limited frame of mind reminds me of a funny story about a guy I worked with. Brian needed to get new glasses. I asked him about his new glasses, and he told me the ones he had before were super fancy, all the bells and whistles, all the special features, and everything. When he went to the store, excited to get his new glasses, he put them on, and he hated them. He found that the frames were way too small, and he didn’t like seeing only through that little space. So, he had to send them back.

 

Like Brian, we want to see the big picture, and as Christians, we want to see it from the Lord’s point of view.

 

Isaiah 54:2 says: “Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes.” I think we can take that metaphorically, as well as what it says in 1 Chronicles 4:10: “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me!”

 

I think one of the biggest Holy Spirit blockers is that our minds are too full of other stuff, and we get preoccupied with it all. We need to find a way to ease our minds and slow the frenzy, so that we can even begin to look to the side for the things of the Spirit.

 

Everyone will find their own way to do this. Some people speak in tongues to calm their minds. Some take a hot bath. Others do deep-breathing exercises or other forms of exercise. I’m sure you can think of at least one thing you can do that helps calm your frenzied mind. And if not, pray for the Lord to show you some alternatives to try. “If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it” (John 14:14).

 

Some friends have said their best time to hear from the Holy Spirit is in the morning, somewhere between sleeping and waking. I tend to agree. But the Holy Spirit’s messages sometimes just hang there at the edge for days or even weeks until I’m calm enough to realize it’s there, and then I turn to observe. The results are always great.

 

God took a world that “was without form [worthless, confused] and void [empty, ruin]” (Gen. 1:2), renewed it, and made it beautiful. If He could renew a whole world, He can renew you and me.

 

It’s so worth it to look outside a small frame of mind and outside the 9 dots of carnal thinking. Let’s look rather to the truths He puts in our peripheral vision and “stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords” (Isa. 54:2).

 

Love, Carolyn

 

You can find more stories about how people apply the writings of the Bible to their everyday lives.

 

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CURIOSITY WITH DISCERNEMT

CURIOSITY WITH DISCERNMENT

Curiosity is okay. Learning about something? But have you ever noticed that too often people tend to be curious about bad things—ugly things, evil actions, etc., and down the rabbit hole you go. Curiosity without discernment doesn’t usually work out very well. That’s what got Adam and Eve in so much trouble!

 

The devil convinced Eve that God was holding back on them, wasn’t letting them see everything or know “important” stuff. But that was a lie! God was NOT holding anything back. It simply just wasn’t the time for them to know about the evil that was out there. Here’s the story, in Genesis 3:

 

 “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, ‘Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’ 

 

² And the woman said unto the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: ³ but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.’ 

 

⁴ And the serpent said unto the woman, ‘Ye shall not surely die: ⁵ for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.’ 

 

⁶ And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. ⁷ And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.”

 

And, because they disobeyed God, they had to leave the garden.

 

The devil presented himself as a beautiful and wise being. But it’s crazy that Eve would believe another created being, rather than the Almighty God. And yet we humans do that all the time. We choose to listen and follow the teaching, instruction, and information of another human being or some other created thing, rather than listen to our Creator, our God.

 

The Apostle Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 10:5 that for our own blessing and safety, we want to be “bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” Are we conscious of doing that all the time? How about even in the next 24 hours? It’s honestly not something most of us really have made a habit of doing.

 

In one of the most well-known Psalms, number 23, David says: “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” In other words, the Lord wants us to walk in a way that exemplifies Him, where we are going in a way that He leads, so that we are representing Him, showing people what it’s like to be with Him.

 

So, the question is, “Are we letting the Lord lead us in paths of righteousness for His namesake?” In other words, in the actions we take throughout a day, whether it’s scrolling FB, emailing or texting a friend, taking a walk outside, being the best worker we can be, etc. etc., are we letting the Lord lead us in ways that represent Him?

 

For example, on the internet, since our thoughts precede our actions, if we let our curiosity dictate which link we click next, we could be in big trouble. That is, unless we first bring that thought to Christ.

 

God knew way before 2026 what would be available for us to be curious about, what would attract us in a good way, and what would lead us in a bad way. That’s why way back in the time of the apostles, God gave a word to Paul for the believers. It was to help them, and now us too, to stay in the paths of righteousness in honoring God and being the best ambassadors we can be for Him.

 

Paul said we want to be “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

 

I challenged myself on this one! For me, since I’m by myself a lot these days, it’s not very hard to recognize those imaginations and thoughts that popped up and wanted me to follow their lead. So I could quickly ask the Lord, “Should I do this?” “Should I look at this now?” And if I get a “No,” then I felt like I was literally grabbing that thought from the air and throwing it down. And it felt great!

 

So, I encourage you to challenge yourself too. Just try it, for, say, an hour, more or less, whatever works for you.

 

I’m pretty sure you’ll find things getting a lot clearer when you try this out for a few days, and you’ll be excited and blessed with the results.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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LAST DAY OF FREE BOOK PROMO

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Love, Carolyn