Prayer Series Sermon Four - "Following where God is leading" (Jeremiah 33:1-11)

1. Hearing God’s Voice – could there be barriers?

How can we hear God’s voice?
How can we recognise God’s guidance?
How can we know where God is leading?

These are really tough questions!

We know that God has spoken in a variety of ways to characters in the Bible: to Adam and Eve in the garden, guiding and making promises to Abraham, to Moses through the burning bush and on Mt Sinai, giving leadership advice to Joshua and all sorts of help to David. God spoke to Saul (who became Paul) on the Damascus road which brought a complete turnaround in his life. And when Peter was stuck in a wrong mindset concerning the Gentiles, God corrected him in a vision. In fact the whole book of Acts is full of evidence of God’s guidance (which allowed for the ongoing establishment of church communities).

We know that prayer is a two-way conversation with God where we should have the expectation of God speaking to us. If we don’t get any sense of God’s voice to us, might there be certain things that have got in the way or become barriers in our communication with God? What would they be?

(a) Not being quiet enough and still enough for long enough.

(b) Having an unrepentant attitude – not being willing to ‘fess up to clear the slate, or being too satisfied with the way things are – not really looking for personal growth or not willing to be stretched in any way.

(c) Being close-minded – not really being open for the answer – an unwillingness to accept an answer that differs from our desire or that involves (significant) change, having a preference for the easy and convenient answer.

(d) Placing conditions on God’s answer, eg. I am prepared to do that … if you do this, or I will go there … as long as this doesn’t happen.

(e) Not being willing to embrace God’s will as the highest agenda. If this is the case, then why would God speak to us! We might also prove to be a little deaf, if we don’t like what we begin to hear.

(f) Wanting to remain passive from a safe praying distance and wanting God to do everything else and make it all happen – we don’t plan to do anything about what we hear.

(g) Looking too far ahead or for something too big. God’s next step with someone may be just a small character adjustment. Until this happens, nothing else can.

In preparation to receive God’s guidance, such barriers would need to be replaced by: an ability to be silent, a commitment to confess wrongdoing, a willingness to receive answers very different from where you started, undertaking a motive inventory – moving beyond self-centred agendas toward the magnitude of God’s will, a readiness to get involved as appropriate, and a trust that God will never lead you astray.

2. Jeremiah 33:3 – text and context

Jeremiah, who lived 25 odd centuries ago, was one of God’s true prophets, who certainly sought God’s guidance, listened to God’s voice, took God’s guidance fully on board, and was able to communicate such leading to the people of Israel.

Because the people were, generally speaking, nowhere near as in tune with God as Jeremiah was, this meant that Jeremiah was often unpopular, especially given the challenge of his messages. [In fact at this time he was even imprisoned because he had so got up the establishment’s nose.] God’s true prophets, like Jeremiah, brought serious and significant challenges and calls for change. On the other hand, the popular (yet false) prophets brought easy, convenient and popular answers, which always in the long-run let the people down and ultimately caused national ruin.

God said to Jeremiah, one who had already proven to be ready to hear God’s voice, the words, “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known” (33:3). Then God gave Jeremiah a vision of a very different and far more positive future than seemed currently possible. This was an unimaginable, yet glorious, vision! Despite the people’s “wickedness” that had got them in so much hot water with the Babylonians, and brought so much destruction to Jerusalem and ruin throughout Judah and Israel, there will come a time where recovery and healing would be possible – a new sense of well-being and security would arrive.

It is so difficult for God to look down on a world full of selfishness, injustice and violence, and often the evil deeds of human beings upon one another will bring their own destructive outcomes (as we see in verses 4 & 5). Yet when the dust settles, God is still the same loving God that he has always been, and offers a partnership in a way forward. This will all come out of God’s heart of mercy and forgiveness, and a compassion for humanity that can even move beyond such distrust and rebellion. This all might take a couple of generations to work itself through, but the promise of God is sure nonetheless.

This was a vision that despite the current state of affairs, and the shocking behaviour and decision-making that had led to the nation being in their current state, God had not forgotten the people and would indeed open the possibility of a wonderful new future. Such an occurrence and such a renewal will provide a fine testimony to the restorative power of God (even in the face of prevalent evil), such that people will again experience joy and sing thankfulness to God. This would all allow Jeremiah to paint a positive picture for the people of Israel, yet at the same time challenging them to return to their first allegiance to their Creator God – the Lord who had graciously made the earth, calling his created peoples to love it and nurture it and be peacemakers within it.

Jeremiah called for God’s voice, heard it clearly, and put what he heard into action. Jeremiah was being asked to put aside any doubts and fears about his and the nation’s current circumstances, and open his eyes to the new possibilities God was seeking to bring (on the basis of God’s own very good track record stated in verse 2). Jeremiah was to believe and trust in what God was saying so much so that others would be likewise convinced.

The movement of God in history is always “great”, but here we read that things were also “hidden” (v.3). Such things would be “hidden” only because the human community had not yet been ready to know them. If they had come to know them before they were ready, then it would be very likely that their lack of proper preparation would have completely compromised the outcome, twisting it and turning it towards their own agenda.

3. Prayer as a partnership

Why is it that we generally have no idea what the future holds, and that indeed Jesus teaches us not to worry about the future (and the dates and times of things)? It’s because we need to base our faith not on known outcomes, but rather on a trust in God’s wisdom in whatever circumstances might prevail. Otherwise our relationship with God will never develop beyond the superficial. We have to be ready to fully embrace the future on God’s terms.

So looking for guidance in prayer is first and foremost about learning and understanding more about who God is and what God is trying to achieve on earth.

American pastor Wayne Jacobsen in his article entitled “Beyond Prayer Requests” writes:

"Prayer enables us to discover what God is doing, to trace his hand in the circumstances of our lives. Through the vital communication of prayer, God transforms us in the process. Prayer, therefore, is not so much a means of manipulating the master plan, but of being shaped by the master’s hand."

Prayer is not so much about changing God’s mind, but gaining understanding of God’s will, and committing ourselves to participate in it. At the same time we are being fashioned and formed into the type of people who can partner with God in bringing about good outcomes.

Henri Nouwen wrote:

"To pray is to unite ourselves with Jesus and lift up the whole world through him to God in a cry for forgiveness, reconciliation, healing and mercy …

But most of all, prayer is the way to become and remain a part of Jesus’ mission to draw all people to the intimacy of God’s love."

We do not have to convince or remind God to be concerned about hurting countries of the world [like Haiti], for God is already involved with the suffering people there. Rather, prayer enables us to enter into God’s pre-existing love and see how we might also convey that love to the world.

Philip Yancey writes:

"When I pray for another person, I am praying for God to open my eyes so that I can see that person as God does, and then enter into the stream of love that God already directs towards that person."

God sees people with different eyes than us, for God can see how each person would be if Jesus held full sway in their lives. Through praying in this way, we can find ourselves loving people who many others cannot, and who we previously may have found it very hard to love.

4. Steps to gaining guidance – the ultimate search

Having dealt with the possible barriers to hearing God’s voice (above), how might we begin to experience God’s leading? [Some of this harks back to the ‘model prayer’ discussed last week.]

(a) By calming down our racing mind. We need to ‘chill out’ in God’s presence. This then allows God to bring an encouraging bible verse to our mind, and to helpfully interact with our thoughts and feelings.

(b) By expressing our appreciation for our current relationship with God, and our home in heaven with the ‘Divine Community’; bringing our thankfulness for all the blessings we have enjoyed, and spending time in worship and praise of God.

(c) By consciously and deliberately aligning ourselves with God’s will. This will be the way we can come closest to making the best decisions possible. I shouldn’t want what God doesn’t want for me! As we grow in our Jesus-following walk, we better understand the parameters in which we live that help us first attend to God’s will. Are there certain activities that tend to take us off track? These should be re-evaluated! We will always need to be seeking and praying for greater knowledge of God. Ultimately prayer is a means through which God’s will is done on earth, not ours.

(d) By directly asking God to reveal some helpful new understandings and offer some clear direction concerning the decisions we need to make. We would then need to pause long enough to let God answer. Listen to the testimony of Philip Yancey here:

Most of the time the Counsellor [God] communicates subtly: feeding ideas into my mind, bringing to awareness a caustic comment I just made, inspiring me to choose better than I would have done otherwise, shedding light on the hidden dangers of temptation, sensitising me to another’s needs. {God’s Spirit whispers rather than shouts, and brings peace not turmoil.}

(e) By being completely open to new ideas and possibilities, wanting and expecting new insight and understanding – not simply seeking God’s agreement to what we had already decided we wanted. We can verbalise what we think might be the way forward according to the best wisdom available to us, but do this looking for greater detail or subtle change or something totally different.

(f) Through our study of the Bible – READ, IMAGINE, QUESTION, RESPOND, REST. For an explanation of this process see the first sermon in this series. Speaking though of questions we should ask ourselves when studying Scripture, Bill Hybels suggests regularly putting this question: “What’s the next step in developing my character”?

(g) When others are aware of our situation and are involved in prayer about it with us, then the way that they pray could start to bring some answers. Also as we involve ourselves in public prayer meetings that cover a variety of issues, as we concentrate and listen to the public prayers of others, there might also be some new insight to be gained that relates to our particular situation, that may not have even been intended by the pray-er. Prayer is a dynamic medium! This prayer may have been in reference to something else, but God’s Spirit is using this to speak to us nonetheless. As we ask the question, the answer may come from God through a very human voice.

(h) Through dialogue with trusted friends. Just creatively and prayerfully brainstorming options can help gain some good guidance. We can also ask others whether they might have quietly gained special insight about how to pray for our specific situations.

(i) Through being observant, watching out for what God might already be doing within the situation we are in the midst of praying about. When you go prayer-walking, because of particular concerns about your neighbourhood, you would naturally keep your eyes open, so that you don’t trip over something; but you would keep your eyes open more so to allow God to speak to you through your eyes.

(j) By not giving up too easily, nor allowing ourselves to become discouraged. While the prayer has always been heard, sometimes it takes us a while to notice how God is answering; sometimes God is trying to do something deep within us to prepare us to receive the answer; sometimes the time is just not quite right yet; sometimes the freewill of other people simply restrains positive outcomes! Soren Kierkegaard wrote:

The true relation in prayer is not when God hears what is prayed for, but when the person praying continues to pray until he [or she] is the one who hears, who hears what God wills.

(k) Through gaining peace in the knowledge that God has heard, is with us in our struggle, can be thoroughly trusted, is already active in the area we have prayed about, and God’s answer will be evident in due course. The matter may still be pressing and important, but through bringing it to God it has less power to cause us to worry. God’s Spirit can keep us calm in these times, such that we are more clear-headed to hear and observe what God is doing.

(l) Through knocking on doors of opportunity – through showing a willingness to act. We should pray as God’s co-workers (not as passive recipients). We are to pray anticipating that we will collaborate in the outcome. Just as the conversation that is prayer is a partnership between God and us, the positive and effective outcomes of our prayers will likely also require a continuing partnership. Yancey describes this prayer partnership as a “subtle interplay of human and divine that accomplishes God’s work on earth”.

5. Testing God’s leading

We would need to give some attention to some criteria by which we could ascertain whether it is truly God’s voice speaking to us, rather than competing and counterfeit voices.

For in 1 John 4:1 we read: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world”.

(a) It does not contradict scripture, and that it seems to truly be in line with God’s will in bringing about his kingdom on earth.

(b) It, like God, works for good – it will not cause harm, and indeed there is a real chance that it will bring broad blessing and encouragement across our family, church and community.

(c) It will connect with your revealed giftedness and be based on humble servant-hood (rather than self-promotion).

(d) That it isn’t an easy or comfortable option, but brings with it personal challenges, the need to take steps of faith, and has opportunities for spiritual growth.

In Acts chapter 4, when Peter and John were threatened with severe punishment if they kept proclaiming the name of Jesus, they didn’t pray that the religious leaders who were seeking to silence them would be wiped off the face of the earth (the easy option), and they didn’t pray for an escape clause from their mission (another easy option). Rather Peter and John prayed that they would be bold enough to continue to speak about Jesus and that their faith would stand up against any attack against them.

(e) That, having pursued a particular course of action, the door remains open and doesn’t close. Where we are on the right track, the way should become clearer, the green lights more prevalent and brighter, as the rightness of the endeavour becomes more apparent.

We can so easily though push against obviously closed doors while we miss others that are ajar. F.B Meyer suggests that we should be praying for all false doors to close, and for us to recognise that, even though it was reasonable (maybe even beneficial) to go down such tracks for a time, these were false leadings.

In following this check-list we will hopefully be delivered from the evil one, from wrong motives, from counterfeit guidance and from poor decision-making.

6. Personal testimonies

Would anyone like to give a testimony about how they have felt guided by God in the past!