Testimony of hearing God’s Voice
by Steven E. White

This last week I felt the Lord giving me a word regarding my current path in life. I'd been praying and listening for guidance on what to do after I finish the degree I'm working on. For the past several years I've become gradually more distant and taciturn toward the church, for a number of reasons. This last January I was finally at a place where I could come to Dwight and share what had been going on and start turning my walk back toward the Lord. With the start of the new men's small group and some other changes in my life, I believe I finally heard something from Him, though the answer what not what I expected.

This is what I heard: "Why are you eager to learn what's around the next corner in your path in life, when you're not correctly on track in your daily walk? Focus on where you are now, stay Faithful to the path I've already shown you, and you will see Fruit."

The picture in my head as I heard this was: I am on a hand-cart on a railroad track. I am moving through a valley, deep and kind of dark in places. I've just come out of a heavily wooded area, there was little visibility there and sound didn't carry. I was coming into a more open and brighter area of the valley. Ahead I can see the track starting to rise and take a sharp turn to the right quickly passing beyond the hills into what I do not know. This is the change in my life I feel is coming and have been seeking knowledge of. As I look around, I feel the cart vibrating under me while I'm moving forward; it's not a smooth efficient journey. Kneeling and peering under the cart I see that the wheels are not fit flush against the tracks as they should be. I hear a voice telling me the message I wrote above. If I turn myself, for the cart is an expression of my will, and focus on His path for me and stay on that path, I not only will travel with greater speed, but I'll have momentum coming into the turn ahead and be able to take the hill at speed. If I'm not correctly on the track, it may still be possible to surpass the hill, but the journey will be much longer and harder than if I'm moving, if you will, at God Speed.

Obviously this translates nicely to our everyday walk with Christ. Focus on Him and what's He's giving to us to do, Faithfully keep our walk straight day by day, and we will see the Fruits of our labor manifest in our lives.

-Steven E. White

2011 A Year of Tending: focus, faithfulness, fruit
Rev 2:5 to restore First Love for Christ and for one another
ask grace to remember, repent and redo.

Repositioning to fire up first love: Small groups

Acts 2:42-47 Holy Spirit places us not only in the body but into small groups. In small groups we pray, share and practice ministering together. We share how Christ has been present in our daily prayer and lives all week. That one night together can stir us to “remember, repent and redo” all week long and keep stirring our hearts in the warmth of “first love.” On the other hand, when left alone all week, our fire and love will tend to grow cold because of sin and the spirit in the world.

Like a fire needs fuel and needs stirred, imagine a fire of burning logs compared to lone logs which lose their heat.

A physics teacher explains why lone logs don’t burn completely or produce much heat. A lone log can only heat the immediate area around it, consequently by itself it loses energy. A lone piece of wood cannot create an atmosphere of heat whereas wood bundled together actually create a micro environment where heat is conserved and passed to each other increasing the overall temperature. Together logs create air flow pockets, by lifting each other up and allowing oxygen to access more surface area. They burn hotter. Three or more pieces together form sheltered pockets of glowing embers that reflect heat to each other thereby sustaining the burn. Logs grouped together reduce the surface to volume exposure to cold air and increase the surface to volume area for hot air, each stick reinforcing the others ability to burn hotter and more complete.

Holy Spirit knew what He was doing in putting His burning ones in small groups that met house to house. These small groups bundled together reduced their exposure to cold air and reinforced each other’s ability to burn hotter and more complete.

Believing and togetherness were not separate acts. To believe was to be together and to be together was central to their believing. Scripture reads, “Those who believed were together,” not, “Those who believed stayed at home.” Through the small group we see the House God builds is to be set ablaze with passion and love so that we overflow into the world around us. We burn better for him when together. -PD

What does is mean to meditate on Scripture?

Meditation on Scripture is something the Bible instructs us to do. It is more than just concentration. It comes from a Hebrew word (maggah) meaning “to murmur” or “mutter,” or the word suach meaning “to talk to oneself.” The New Testament word equivalent means “to ponder or imagine,” such as in Luke 2:19 where Mary “pondered things in her heart.”

Meditation differs from studying in that studying focuses on understanding while meditation focuses at obedience. When we study, we ask questions of a text while meditating is responsive and we let the text ask us questions. Studying is head work. Meditating is heart work. Meditating may focus on a single phrase or word of a verse.

Meditating helps us to ask, “What is God saying to me?” and respond to God like Samuel did with, “Speak, Lord, your servant will hear.”

Meditating centers around taking in Scripture or a Biblical story as we would food. We take it before the Lord in quietness and begin to digest it until it becomes a part of us. If our Bible studying is solely from a critical or evaluative approach, we will only end up agreeing with what it says. That doesn’t always meant that we HEAR HIM. To meditate on Scripture means that we are catching the Spirit.
Psalm 1:2 says that the righteous man meditates on his law “day and night.” That means in the good times and bad (when the light is shining and when it isn’t). The more we meditate on God’s Word, the deeper it soaks into our spirits. When it comes alive inside of us, we discover that His power ignites us and it becomes our desire to follow Him more closely.

Take time to meditate on the verses as you go through these daily exercises. If you do, they will become more personal as God’s Word clears your thinking.

In Him,
Richard Linberry