How God Communicates With Us

Have you ever wondered if God truly communicates with His Children? Or do you wish that God will communicate with you but don't know how? If so, dive in.

There are various ways in which God communicates with His own. In this article, we will be discussing the three most important ways God talks to us.

And He teaches us by the inward witness, that is, through the voice of the human spirit.

Cloud of Witness – Hebrew 12: 1

In context, the cloud of witnesses must refer to the people in the previous chapter. Hebrews Eleven is known as the Hall of Faith because of all the references to men and women of faith who have gone on before and shown us the way of faith. I do not think anyone can honestly read the last verses of this chapter (Hebrews 11:34-40) and then go straight to Hebrews 12:1 and miss the connection.

I believe that although the day to day events of earth are not known to the saints in heaven, they may get occasional reports of spiritual blessings. Though this is speculation, I can imagine a heavenly saint rejoicing and glorifying God because an angel just reported to her that her great-grandson just got saved. Yet, I suppose that we will have to get there ourselves before we know for sure how much is known. But that does not keep us from understanding the presence of the cloud of witness.

Conscience – Romans 2:15, 9:1

Our conscience is a part of our God-given internal faculties, a critical inner awareness that bears witness to the norms and values we recognize when determining right or wrong. Conscience does not serve as a judge or a legislator; that is a modern take on the concept. Instead, in the Biblical sense, conscience serves as a witness to what we already know.

Conscience may induce an inner dialogue to tell us what we already know, but more often it merely makes its presence known through our emotions. When we conform to the values of our conscience we feel a sense of pleasure or relief. But when we violate the values of our conscience, it induces anguish or guilt. John MacArthur describes conscience as “a built-in warning system that signals us when something we have done is wrong. The conscience is to our souls what pain sensors are to our bodies: it inflicts distress, in the form of guilt, whenever we violate what our hearts tell us is right.”

Inward Witness – John 16:13-15, Proverb 20:27, Romans 8:16

Christ is saying here that the Holy Spirit will teach us all things. And He teaches us by the inward witness that is through the voice of the human spirit. He says he will bring to remembrance. He will bring to recall the things that I, Jesus, have taught you. The Holy Spirit will use so many methods to speak to you, but one of the fundamental ways that he gets through to you is when he speaks by the inward witness, when he whispers into your ear, when he whispers into your spirit, when he communicates spirit to spirit, when suddenly things you didn’t know you suddenly know.

3 characteristics of the Inward witness

- An impression of peace

- A strong conviction and repetitive

- It is beyond human reasoning

3 ways to strengthen communication through the inward witness

- Total submission and surrender to God’ knowledge and wisdom

- Studying the word of God

- Regular praying, especially speaking in tongues

This article was written by the Sunday School department of Family of Faith Chapel. familyoffaithchapel.org

The Renewal Of Heart

Romans 12: 1 – 2

“I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

What renewal of heart is not

The non-conformity to the world does not primarily mean the external avoidance of worldly behaviors. That’s included. But you can avoid all kinds of worldly behaviors and not be transformed. “His face shown like the sun, and his clothes became white as light!” (Matthew 17:2). Something like that happens to us spiritually and morally. Mentally, first on the inside, and then, later at the resurrection on the outside. So Jesus says of us, at the resurrection: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43), (Matthew 17: 1-6)

Transformation is not switching from the to-do list of the flesh to the to-do list of the law. When Paul replaces the list the works of the flesh, he does not replace it with the works of the law, but the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:19–22).

So what is renewal of heart?

It is the triumphant power and transformation of the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior and our Lord. “God has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6). So transformation is a profound, blood-bought, Spirit-wrought change from the inside out.

What is wrong with our mind (why does our mind need renewal)?

Ephesians 4: 17- 23;

“This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness

In conclusion, Paul, in the book Romans directed his statement to me and you, begging us to live as a holy sacrifice unto the Lord, and by that process renew our mind. It is, therefore, our job to engage in the process as Holy Spirit renews our mind.

This article was written by the Sunday School department of Family of Faith Chapel. familyoffaithchapel.org

The Secret to Breaking Free from Habitual Sin

When we are caught in habitual or besetting sin, our problem, at its core, may be simple. What’s holding us captive is a deceptive belief about what will make us happy.

I know the objections that might come. We do often “know” that a sin is destructive to us and others. We might loathe the sin in certain ways and feel shame over it. We may have a sincere longing to be free, and just feel like we can’t, like we’re enslaved to it — which, in a sense, we are (John 8:34). These are the complex consequences and illusions sin produces.

“Sin is not fundamentally defeated through the power of self-denial, but through the power of a greater desire.”

The truth is, however, that we are enslaved as we believe that to give up the sin is to embrace living with less happiness or more misery. Like my now-adult kids once believed: eating junk food might be “bad” for them, but life was more happy eating “bad” food than eating “good” food. This didn’t change until their belief about nutritional happiness changed. Once that changed, the power of junk food began to lose its hold on them.

Habitual sin is not fundamentally defeated through the power of self-denial, but through the power of a greater desire. Self-denial is of course necessary, but self-denial is only possible — certainly for the long term — when it is fueled by a desire for a greater joy than what we deny (Matthew 16:24–26).

How to Break Free

The secret to getting free from the entrapment of habitual sin begins with a prayerful, rigorous, honest examination of what satanic promises we have believed — and the better promises God has made. Which promises will really produce the longest and best happiness if true? And which source of promises has the most proven credibility?

Then we must renounce the lies we have believed, repent to God for having persistently believed them, and begin to exercise faith in God’s promises through obeying him — “[bearing] fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8).

As I said, this is just the beginning. I make no promise of it being easy from there. It is often very hard, because insight into our false beliefs does not itself unseat those beliefs. Often, entrenched false beliefs have shaped our perceptions and instinctive behaviors and therefore take significant time and intentional effort to change. It is not called the “fight of faith” for nothing (1 Timothy 6:12).

But I will say this: the more convinced you become that God is the source of all superior joys for you, the more resolved you will become to fight for those joys, and the easier the fight will become over time. But unless you become convinced, in some measure, that this is true, the power of your habitual sins will keep their hold on you.

Excerpt from desiringgod.org. Article by Jon Bloom (@Bloom_Jon)