When God Speaks, Does Anyone Listen?: Hearing from God in the Age of the Indwelling Holy Spirit

By Jim Patton

When God Speaks, Does Any One Listen? When Jesus taught His Disciples for the last time before the crucifixion, He prepared them for the coming of the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit (John 16:7). Christ's death on the cross was not only going to make salvation possible, but it was also going to make it possible for the Holy Spirit to dwell within those who would believe in the Risen Christ. We are living in the Age of the Indwelling Holy Spirit. After we have accepted Christ's sacrifice for our sins and receive the Indwelling Holy Spirit, our entire Christian walk is dependent on how well we are able to relate to the Holy Spirit. The Indwelling Holy Spirit is to teach us all things (John 14:26), to convict us of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:8-11), to guide us into all truth, and to show us things to come, and to glorify Christ (John 16:13). Christians believe the Holy Spirit dwells within them, but no one seems to understand why He is there or what is the purpose of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. Christians believe we have a "personal relationship" with Jesus, but no one knows how to hear His Voice as was promised in John 10:4, 27. God does not take up residency in our bodies just because He has nowhere else to go; He dwells within us to minister to us and through us in the Power of the Holy Spirit. When God dwells within our body, He is capable of using the physical parts of our body just as our spirit does. He is capable of using our speech mechanism with manifestations that we sometimes refer to as prophecy or speaking in tongues and interpretation (1 Cor. 12:4-11). He is capable of using our language when speaking through us or other languages that we have never learned or may not even recognize (Acts 2:1-11). If we believe that God can speak through our physical bodies, why do we not understand that God can use our physical mechanisms to speak directly to us? Not only can God use our voice mechanisms to speak to us and through us, but He can also use our thought mechanisms to speak to us much like what we call thinking. Now, this does not imply that all our thoughts are God's thoughts; far from it! But, it is possible to "hear" God speak to us through our own thought mechanisms. We can learn God's Will for our lives if we learn to listen to God's Spirit that dwells within us. This is what Paul means when he tells us to "Walk in the Spirit" in the Book of Romans. We live in the Age of the Holy Spirit, but it is the best kept secret of Christianity. God removed the Veil of the Temple so that He could have direct relationship with each one of us individually, and we immediately nailed our own veil back up to separate us from God. We have allowed traditions, and ceremonies, and false teachings, and superstitions, and old customs and even the Bible to become barriers that keep us from having the direct relationship with God that He intended to give us through the Blood Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. God is no longer separated from man, but now man has separated himself from God. When Christ ascended into Heaven, the Holy Spirit came down so that we could have direct relationship with God. Unfortunately, while He came to dwell right inside of our bodies, we have spent almost two millenniums trying to find where He is. Once we understand where God is and why He is there, we can begin to have the Spiritual Relationship with God that He intended to have with man when He created Adam and Eve. The ministry of the Indwelling Holy Spirit enables born-again believers to become Christ-like and to live the Christian life in the Spirit. Only when Christians learn to be Spirit-filled and Spirit-controlled can there ever be revival in our churches and in our daily lives. This is the ministry of the Holy Spirit who lives within us and will come upon us to do the Will of the Father and to fulfill the promise of Jesus Christ the Son.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1489515747
• ISBN13: 9781489515742
• Release Date: May 2013
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 124 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 11.0" x 0.3" x 8.5"