Chapter 02 - How to Hear God Through Urim and Thummim
The Urim and Thummim
1 Samuel 28:6 And when Saul inquired of the LORD [Yahweh], the LORD [Yahweh] did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets.
There is nothing more damaging in a family than when parents play favorites. I know I have personally worked with many people who have had this experience growing up and it can really mess you up.
It messes with your whole perception of life and of relationships and even your view of marriage. It can destroy somebody's life.
Unfortunately, it is a sad truth that in the church there are many believers walking around who had parents who played favorites. And when you are not the favorite, you grow up with the idea that there are some people in this world who are special and who have things handed to them and then there are the rest of us.
We are the ones that have to work hard to get what we want in life.
The problem with this kind of upbringing is that you start to view God in this way too. You start to think that God has favorites.
When it comes to hearing God's voice, you can get yourself so whelmed and frustrated. You can find yourself trying so hard to just hear from Him, striving to get some of His attention that you miss one important fact.
Here is an important fact to remember: Your Heavenly Father is not like your natural father.
You don't have to be a little child pulling at his pant leg saying, "Daddy, look at me." Trying to shout, trying to scream, trying to just get His attention.
Your heavenly Father is not like that. In fact, He is the kind of parent, that when you are ignoring Him, rejecting Him and running your own way, He runs after you to get your attention.
When you least expect it, you turn to find Him reaching down to pick you up and to give you love you did not deserve.
God Wants to Speak to You
However, you have this image of the Lord that is based on your relationship with your natural father; on your upbringing, and on how you have been programmed to view the world. And this thinking says, "God gives revelation to some and not others. The heavenly father speaks to some and not others."
Now, one thing I want to smash is that entirely wrong concept. Our Father does not speak to some and not the others. He is not a father that will just have a conversation with one child and not speak to the other.
He wants to speak to you. He wants to communicate with you. This is the first conviction that you need to get when coming to hear God's voice.
Not only does He want to speak to you, but He is already speaking to you all of the time!
You don't need to keep trying so hard. The truth is that it is your very trying and striving that is blocking the voice of God in your life.
The reason why you are not hearing Him is that you are so busy running around trying to get His attention that you don't hear or don't see the obvious that is right in front of you.
There is a big thrust in the church concerning prophetic revelation. There is too much emphasis placed on the gifts and on getting revelation for others.
Now, that's fantastic and the body of Christ needs it - but until you can come to a place where you can hear His voice for yourself, what do you have to give out to others?
Only Hearing for Others Is not Good Enough
Now, perhaps you have learned to minister to others and to get revelation on their behalf. Unfortunately though when it comes to your personal life, it feels like you always fall short of the mark.
You feel that you are not spiritual or holy enough for God to speak to you about your own life.
Here is a vital fact to remember: The day you became born again, you became as holy and righteous as Jesus Christ because you stand in His blood.
When you stand in Christ and the Father looks down at you, do you know what He sees? He sees the blood of Christ, that cleanses you from all sin and all unrighteousness, and you stand as perfect before His eyes just as Jesus Christ Himself is sinless and pure. (Go read 1 John 1 for a confirmation on that)
He looks upon you with love, and He wants to give and He wants to speak to you. If you can get that conviction, then you are well on your way to begin hearing the voice of God for yourself.
If you can stop the striving for a moment, you might come to realize that He has been talking to you all along.
You have been so busy running around, while all along the Lord has been standing right by your side saying, "Hello, I have been standing here all along. If you would just be quiet and come and listen, you will hear my voice."
Expect the Unexpected
Perhaps the way you are hearing God's voice is not what you expected. That is what this particular book and certainly, these first few chapters are about. They are all about teaching you how to identify the Lord's voice in your life.
I am not even going to go on to sharing with others until you have learned to master this in your own life. We are going to go into the practical stuff on ministering to others soon enough, but for now I want you to identify the fact that God has been speaking to you.
By the end of this chapter you are going to jump up and down and say, I have been hearing His voice!
Once you get that conviction and once you start seeing that, your spiritual life is going to take off in a hundred directions because God hasn't been silent. God hasn't been ignoring you. God does not have favorites.
