Hear God’s voice

One of devotions I do regularly is The Word for Today. Todays one was about hearing God’s voice. I thought I would share it…

Hear God’s voice

‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says.’ Revelation 2:11 NKJV

You can read the same Scripture on different occasions, and it will speak to you in totally different ways. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus is attributed with saying, ‘You never step into the same river twice.’ And you never read the same Bible verse the same way twice. That is a testament to its heavenly author. And His illumination is based on His intimate and unlimited knowledge of your circumstances, your desires, your fears, your past, your personality, and your destiny. But you must take time to listen and cultivate your sensitivity to what He is saying. The story is told of a music trainer hired to work with opera singers who could not hit certain notes even though they fell within their vocal range. It was a musical mystery. The trainer did extensive testing on their vocal cords, but he couldn’t find any reason why they couldn’t hit those notes. Then, on a whim, he tested their hearing. And what he discovered was that these opera singers could not sing a note they could not hear. The problem wasn’t singing. The problem was hearing. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says.’ (Revelation 2:11 NKJV) Until you hear the voice of God, you won’t be able to sing His song. Why? Because you’re out of tune. That’s how we get trapped in sinful lifestyles and negative cycles and destructive patterns. But when you open up the Bible and truly hear the voice of God – His loving voice, His affirming voice, His graceful voice, His convicting voice, His authoritative voice, His powerful voice – your life begins to harmonise with the Holy Spirit.

Good leadership?

What makes a good leader?

Leadership is something that is vitally important in all areas of life. We have all had good leaders that we loved and bad leaders who we did not love as much.

When I was at Bible college I had to do an assignment on what we thought was good leadership. We had to come up with five points with both Biblical ideas and reflections on Christian leadership sources.

Surprisingly I found this harder than I expected. There is so many examples of Biblical leadership and thousands of resources on Christian leadership.

In the end I distilled my idea of principles of Christian leadership to the following five points.

1. Christian leaders need to cultivate an intimate relationship with God

2. Christian leaders need to have a servant heart

3. Christian leaders need to be shepherds of God’s people

4. Christian leaders need to live with character and integrity

5. Christian leaders need to be committed to making disciples

For me personally I really thought long and hard about these five things. Thankfully my lecturer agreed and gave me a good mark for it.

If you are interested you can read an online version of my article on my website below. It is a cut down version of my assignment.

Five Principles of Christian Leadership

Two weeks on women of the Bible

I have added four new Bible readings plans today to our website. The plan below looks at women of the Bible.

Two Weeks on Women of the Bible

Day 1 – Genesis 2 – Eve, the first woman.
Day 2 – Genesis 18 – Sarah laughs at God’s promise.
Day 3 – Genesis 24 – Rebekah’s marriage to Isaac.
Day 4 – Genesis 27 – Rebekah, the manipulative mother
Day 5 – Judges 4 – Deborah’s leadership frees her people.
Day 6 – Ruth 1 – Ruth and Naomi’s deep friendship.
Day 7 – 1 Samuel 1 – Hannah prays for a son.
Day 8 – 1 Kings 17 – A poor widow and the prophet Elijah.
Day 9 – 1 Kings 21 – Jezebel, an emblem of wickedness.
Day 10 – Esther 2 – Esther is chosen as queen.
Day 11 – Esther 4 – Esther’s courage at the risk of death.
Day 12 – Luke 1 – Mary and Elizabeth receive great news.
Day 13 – Luke 2 – Mary gives birth to Jesus.
Day 14 – John 11 – Mary and Martha and their brother’s death.

Time for a makeover

With 2024 upon us I thought it was time for an update and makeover for my main website at PASSIONAustralia.org.

The new look website is live and online now. Over the coming weeks I will be adding more resources that were on the previous site.

If you are interested you can find it here at PASSIONAustralia.org

Blessings,

Dave

Read the New Testament this year

If you would like to read the New Testament in 2024 you can download our free reading plan. In this plan you can read one chapter a day and you will finish it in September. If you read one chapter five days a week you will finish it in December.

If you are interested you can download it here. If you do not have a Bible you can find one online at www.biblegateway.com.