Daily Hope Devotional

If you want to recognize God’s voice and figure out whether you have an impression from Him or not, first you need to ask if the idea agrees with the Bible. Then, you need to ask, “If I follow through on this impression, will it make me more like Christ?” Philippians 2:5 says,  “In your lives you must think and act like Christ Jesus”  (NCV). God’s goal is to make us more like Christ, so He would not give us an impression that would lead us in a direction opposite that goal. James  3:17  is a great checklist for helping you to see if something is an impression from God when it comes to the character qualities of Jesus Christ:  “The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere”   (NIV). If your idea or impression is impure, then it’s obviously not from God. This may sound...

“Anyone who wants to do [God’s] will can test this teaching and know whether it’s from God or whether I’m making it up.”   (John 7:17 MSG) Jesus said in John 7:17 ,  “Anyone who wants to do [God’s] will can test this teaching and know whether it’s from God or whether I’m making it up”  (MSG). God doesn’t like it when people put words in His mouth and say, “God told me to do this,” when He really didn’t. So how do you know when it’s God talking to you? First, you have to ask if the idea agrees with the Bible. God is consistent. He will never contradict what He’s already said in His Word. God will never tell you to violate a principle that’s in the Bible. He’ll never tell you to ignore what He’s already said. He’ll never tell you to deny what He’s already said. Luke 21:33 says,  “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My Words will never pass away”  (NIV). That means if it’s true, it has always been tr...

“I will climb my watchtower and wait to see what the LORD will tell me to say and what answer He will give to my complaint. The LORD gave me this answer: ‘Write down clearly on tablets what I reveal to you.’”   (Habakkuk 2:1-2 TEV) Because Habakkuk wrote down what the Lord said to him, we have the book called Habakkuk. Because David wrote down what God spoke to him, we have the book of Psalms. They asked God a question, God gave them an answer, and they wrote it down. If your prayer life is stuck in a rut and you feel like you’re saying the same prayers over and over, one of the best things you can do is start writing down your prayers. It makes it more personal, and it helps you be more serious about your prayers. This is called the spiritual habit of journaling. It’s a habit that will help you refresh your prayer life. But don’t make it too complicated! Simply write down what you’re saying to God, and write down what God’s saying to you. After you get y...

There are two more ways you can test, if an idea or impression is from God. First, is it consistent with how God has shaped you? Before you were born, God planned the contribution He wanted you to make in this world, and He gave you the shape you need — the spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, passion, and experience — to be able to complete that contribution. He shaped and designed you for a specific purpose. Ephesians 2:10 says,  “We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do”  (NIV). God’s going to give you impressions that fit your shape. He’s going to give you impressions to fit how He’s made you. If you’re good at music, God’s going to give you impressions that lead you to use your gifts in music. I, on the other hand, am not good at music. So if I get an impression to go on American Idol, that’s not an idea from the Lord. If you get an impression that’s entirely contrary to the way ...

“[God’s] intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known.”     (Ephesians   3:10   NIV) When you think you’ve heard God tell you something, you might ask yourself, “How do I know if this impression is really from God? If you want to know if your impression is from God, you need to ask, “Does my church family confirm it?” You need the wisdom and advice of godly people in your life to help you stay on track. God never meant for you to go through life on your own. That’s why He created the church! We need each other. Nobody has all the answers. Nobody has it all together. Nobody knows the right decision every time. That’s why we need a church family. We need spiritually mature friends to bounce ideas off of and get feedback from. Ephesians  3:10  says,  “[God’s] intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known”  (NIV). If God has ge...

“I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what He will say to me.”   (Habakkuk 2:1 NIV) While you’re waiting for God to speak to you, you need to be ready for God to give you a mental picture. Habakkuk 2:1 says,  “I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what He will say to me”  (NIV). Why does he say “look to see”? Doesn’t it make more sense to say he will “listen to” what God says? God’s voice is often visual. Sometimes God speaks to you by putting a mental picture or image in your mind. Some of you may think, “That’s kind of weird — God putting a picture in my mind.” If NASA can receive pictures from Mars, don’t you think God can put a picture in your mind? Of course He can. So how do you look for a mental image from God if you’re not a visual thinker? Here are two ways that help me: Ask God a specific question.  James 1:5-6 says,  “If you want to know what Go...

After you withdraw to a quiet place to hear from God, you need to wait and calm your thoughts and emotions. You have to settle down! Habakkuk 2:2 says,  “I will wait to see what the LORD says and how He will answer” (NLT). This means stay put and be still until you hear from God. Why is that important? Because hurry is the death of prayer. The reason why you don’t hear God is because you’re in too much of a hurry. “God, I want to hear from you. But hurry up! I’ve got to make it to my next appointment.” God speaks to people who take the time to listen. You must want to hear from God, withdraw to a quiet place away from distractions, and then calm yourself and wait. There are four things you can do while you wait to hear from God. Relax your body.  When your body relaxes, it relaxes your mind. Then you’re more open and able to hear God better. Psalm 46:10 says,  “Be still, and know that I am God”   (NIV). Wait quietly.  Psalm 62:5 say...

Hearing from God starts with a desire. You have to want to hear from God! Habakkuk 2:1 says,  “I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guardpost. There I will wait to see what the LORD says and how He will answer”  (NLT). Habakkuk begins with these words: “I will.” In other words, he’s saying that he is deciding to listen to God. It’s a choice. You’re never going to hear God unless you want to hear God. It’s just that simple. God speaks to those who decide in advance that they’re going to do whatever God tells them to do before He even tells them. He does not play games. He wants you to desire communication with Him and for you to say, “God, you tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.” Once you decide you want to hear from God, you have to withdraw to a quiet place. Habakkuk 2:1 says,  “I will climb up to my watchtower,”  which is a Hebrew expression that means to get alone. You cannot hear...

Sometimes God speaks by saying nothing. This is extremely frustrating to us! But God has His reasons when He’s silent. You have to just wait and trust Him. If you run ahead of God saying, “I haven’t heard anything from God, so I’m just going to go ahead and do this” and you don’t trust Him, you’re going to have all kinds of problems and be filled with regret. There are many examples of this in the Bible. One of them was King Saul, the first king of Israel. He was getting ready to go to battle, and he went to God and said, “God, what do you want me to do in this battle?” But Saul hadn’t been right with God for a long time. The Bible says in 1 Samuel 28:6,  “Saul prayed to GOD, but GOD didn’t answer — neither by dream nor by sign nor by prophet”  (MSG). Saul tried to find an answer three different ways, and he still didn’t get it. So he got impatient. He got desperate, and he turned to the occult — something he had outlawed in the country. He said, “Go ...

God speaks through ideas from the Holy Spirit. He gives you thoughts. He gives you suggestions. He puts impressions or notions in your mind. When the devil talks to you, that is temptation. But when God talks to you in your mind, we call that inspiration. Jesus says in John  14:26 ,  “The Holy Spirit … will be your teacher and will bring to your minds all that I have said to you”  (Phillips). The Holy Spirit is our teacher and counselor. He’s like a personal coach! I know people who spend tens of thousands of dollars on a life coach. I’ve had a life coach for 30 years as we grew Saddleback Church. His name is the Holy Spirit. I’m constantly asking God, “What’s next, God? Holy Spirit, what do You want me to do?” Notice it says, “bring to your minds.” The Holy Spirit speaks directly to your mind. He doesn’t speak in an audible voice. I have never in my life heard God speak in an audible voice. Why would He n...

God speaks to you through friends and family, particularly if they are believers. Proverbs  12:26  says,  “The godly give good advice to their friends; the wicked lead them astray”   (NLT). We all have blind spots. You have things in your life that you’re never going to see that need to be corrected, so God puts people around you to tell you the truth. Everybody needs somebody in their life who loves them enough to tell them the truth. Do you have anybody like that in your life? Do you have godly friends who don’t just tell you what you want to hear but love you enough to level with you and say, “You know what? You’re blowing it right now. You’re making a big mistake. You’re full of pride. You’re going the wrong direction”? None of us see it all clearly. I’ve got about a dozen people in my life who have permission to get in my face and say, “I don’t care if you are the pastor of Saddleback — you’re blowing this. You’re wrong. Have you ever though...

“Christ chose some of us to be apostles, prophets, missionaries, pastors, and teachers, so that His people would learn to serve and His body would grow strong”  (Ephesians  4:11-12  CEV). How do you know when somebody’s talking if that person has this gift from God to be a teacher? Here’s how you know: Iif, during their teaching, there is a moment you feel like God is speaking directly to you — like you’re the only person in the room and the speaker is focused solely on you. In that moment, God has something to say to you. That’s how you know the gift of teaching is working. We pray for as teachers every week at Saddleback Church. There’s no way in a crowd the size of our congregation we could know the needs of everybody. So we pray, “God, we don’t know who’s going to be here and the things that have happened in their lives this week, but you do. Would you give us the ability to say something to th...

“A farmer went out to plant his seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seed some fell on a footpath, where it was stepped on, and the birds ate it.”   (Luke 8:5 NLT) If you want to hear God speak, you must first cultivate an open mind. What does that mean? It means you’ve got to be receptive. You’ve got to be willing. You’ve got to be open. You’ve got to be eager. You’ve got to be ready. The number one barrier to hearing God speak is resistance. So many people are closed to the possibility that God might speak to them. If you don’t think God can or will speak to you, guess what? He won’t. Jesus talked about this kind of soil — the footpath soil — in Luke 8:5:  “A farmer went out to plant his seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seed some fell on a footpath, where it was stepped on, and the birds ate it”   (NLT). As workers walk down the path between each row of a field, it becomes trampled down. The soil becomes compact and...