{"id":1437,"date":"2014-01-10T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2014-01-10T15:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mtvpastor.com\/?p=1437"},"modified":"2014-01-10T09:00:29","modified_gmt":"2014-01-10T15:00:29","slug":"4-ways-that-god-speaks-to-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newwineskins\/4-ways-that-god-speaks-to-you\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Ways that God Speaks to You"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>Back in high school I went through a Bible study (a few times) called \u201cExperiencing God\u201d that helped inform a critical question for many of us: how does God speak to us? On <a href=\"http:\/\/mtvpastor.com\/2014\/01\/08\/the-biggest-resolution-you-can-make-this-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Wednesday<\/a> I talked about the fact that <strong>following Jesus is as simple as identifying and taking the next step<\/strong>. But how do you identify the next step? God will tell you what that is? How does God speak to you? That\u2019s what I want to talk about today.<\/p>\n<p>Now I firmly believe that God reserves the right to speak to any of us in any manner he chooses. It could be through a donkey (Numbers 22:28), a burning bush (Exodus 3:4), or a gentle whisper (1 Kings 19:12). But I also believe that there are four primary ways that God speaks to us today:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bible<\/strong> \u2013 The Bible stands as God\u2019s written revelation to man. These words, preserved for thousands of years, still speak to us today, because the Word of God is living and active (Hebrews 4:12). That\u2019s why you can read a verse in Scripture and it seems to jump out at you. You immediately become convicted, as if God is speaking to you and identifying the next step He wants you to take.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prayer<\/strong> \u2013 Prayer is a conversation we have with God. When you pray, there will be times when you sense God impressing something or someone on your heart, as if He\u2019s identifying the next step in your faith that He wants you to take. God speaks to us through prayer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Circumstances<\/strong> \u2013 We\u2019ve all experienced this before, when the circumstances of life seem to conspire together around us. Some may call it coincidence or karma, but there are times when the coincidence is too obvious too inspired. When all the doors close, or that person just happens to sit next to you and start a conversation, or when an opportunity presents itself. Many times it\u2019s God sovereignly dictating the circumstances in your life to reveal the next step that He wants you to take.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Church<\/strong> \u2013 This represents other Christians, wise counsel (according to Proverbs), believers who speak into your life at just the right moment. Many times God chooses to use other believers as a mouthpiece to help identify the next step that He wants you to take.<\/p>\n<p>God will speak to you through the Bible, prayer, circumstances and the church. And they\u2019ll always be in agreement. God will never contradict Himself when He speaks to you. Once you identify the next step that you need to take in your faith, it\u2019s up to you to take it.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back in high school I went through a Bible study (a few times) called \u201cExperiencing God\u201d that helped inform a critical question for many of us: how does God speak to us? On Wednesday I talked about the fact that following Jesus is as simple as identifying and taking the next step. But how do [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2490,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[139,141,262,271,474,577,1002,1110,1342,1557],"class_list":["post-1437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bible","tag-biblical-truth","tag-church","tag-circumstances","tag-experiencing-god","tag-god","tag-next-step","tag-prayer","tag-speak","tag-what-im-teaching"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>4 Ways that God Speaks to You<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Back in high school I went through a Bible study (a few times) called &quot;Experiencing God&quot; that helped inform a critical question for many of us: how does\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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