As we mature in recognizing the voice of God, we may mature prophetically, including intercession, worship, preaching, discipling, and leadership. This concept applies to all the kingdom leadership dynamics Jesus bestows upon His Ecclesia – apostle, prophet, teacher, evangel, and shepherd.
To recognize the voice of God maturely, we should mature our relationship with Holy Spirit so that better recognition of Him produces better recognition of His voice. To mature in our relationship, we must know Him as a Person, as God, as God with and within us. To mature in that relationship is to mature spiritually.
God speaks today! Holy Spirit has a voice. He communicates by spiritual means. He reveals what God makes available to us. “The things freely given to us by God.”
“No man knows the things of God except by the Spirit of God.”
Consider how you may be substituting for this process in ways that maintains spiritual immaturity.
1) You wish God would reveal the things of man to you more than the things of God. You have a selfish motivation for revelation that tends toward using God for secrets or advantages that serve your own interests.
This leaves your spiritual immature because you are not functioning SpiritFirst with respect to your relationship with God, but you are maintaining a level of selfishness more in keeping with a child. God’s secrets are not the same as the secrets you desire to know in order to get an advantage, to avoid trusting Him and obeying without fuller exposures to His infinite knowledge.
You do not use Holy Spirit to get revelation. You surrender to Holy Spirit who reveals what He knows you should see and hear.
When God says, “We don’t know what God has prepared for us through seeing, hearing, or imagination, but God has revealed them to us by His Spirit,” we shouldn’t assume or presume that this is an invitation to a candy store. Revelation opens the treasure chest of heaven, for sure, but not for trinkets and trifles but strategies of kingdom purpose!
In other words, do not read “what God has prepared for us” in terms of “the things of man” when Paul says they are “the things of God.”
2) You expect Holy Spirit to change to fit your communication style instead of surrendering to His transformation process that prepares you to respond to God as the person He created you to be and do what He has called you to do.
You are going to experience frustration hearing and seeing in the spirit, by the Spirit, if you insist upon God ordering His style by your estimate of things, comfort level with how things are done, or in a way of receiving that doesn’t disrupt your lifestyle.
Babies become insecure when the feeding schedule gets off ten or fifteen minutes, the formula isn’t just right, or too much moving around upsets their tummies. Yet, the Apostle John saw The Revelation on Patmos exiled from his lifestyle completely! In between those extremes, you will discover that God may disrupt your sleep, eating, schedule, and priorities because Holy Spirit reveals to you with God’s purposes in mind.
Some people seem to say, “God needs to learn to speak my language.” They should be saying, “God, what You have to reveal is so important to me that I will set my heart and life to the rhythms of your heart. I will sacrifice myself as an offering upon the altar. I will reject the molding of the world, my history and identity, to become the person You are speaking and revealing to.”
You must change to mature, not God! God isn’t changing. He is transforming you!
