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The Wake-Up Call
Hearing God's Voice, Part 3: Take Your Time
00:17:43
In this episode, Dan Wilt explores the theme of hearing God's voice, emphasizing the importance of spiritual rhythms and discernment. He shares personal stories and insights, encouraging listeners to recognize God's work in everyday moments. Dan highlights the significance of patience and spiritual growth, drawing from biblical passages and personal experiences to illustrate how discernment can develop over time. He invites listeners to reflect on their own spiritual journeys and the subtle ways God may be speaking to them. Dan also discusses the role of community and mentorship in spiritual growth, urging listeners to seek guidance from mature believers. He emphasizes the transformative power of God's love and the importance of being vessels of awakening for others. The episode concludes with a hymn and a call to action for listeners to sow seeds of the kingdom in their daily lives, embodying God's love and grace in their interactions with others. CHAPTERS: 00:00 Introduction to H...
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- [00:04]
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Good morning, Sower Nation. Today is Friday, June 26th, in the year of our Lord 2026. I'm Dan Wilt and this is your wake up call in our all the Things journey. We've been spending a few days together and we'll continue talking a bit about hearing God's voice. And I'm sharing stories and as I've said many times, the stories that I'm sharing to stir faith in you. Not for you to go, wow, that was amazing what God did through someone else, but for you to say, lord, are there some beautiful things you want to do through me? Maybe they're simple and less, you know, obviously amazing. Maybe they're just the steady flow of God's love moving through you, through your unique gifts in your unique place where you meet with people on a daily basis. The joy that I'm getting to see on my end is stories coming in. And again, we're collecting those@seedbed.com holyspiritstories these stories coming in that are talking about moments where God is meeting with someone with an Uber driver, or at a gas station, or in a band meeting, or a simple prayer exchange between friends or family members. These are great moments, if you ever remember that commercial or that language. Great moments in sports. I always like to say that's a great moment in sports because the great moments are not just about the main moment where everything comes together. Great moments in sports are the learning that's happening in the hidden place where no one sees, no one knows what's happening. And I'm going to be talking a bit about how much hearing God's voice depends on what's happening in the unseen places. That's where, as I've shared in the book Convergence, John Thompson and I've been sharing about this idea that we grow in our spiritual, spiritual rhythms, our learnings in prayer, these daily meetings with Jesus, our learning how to fast, our learning how to hear the word of God and get it in our hearts, get it in our spirit, our learning in band meetings. And Again, go to discipleshipbands.com and you can read more about that if you're not in a band. But in band meetings where there is confession, where there's ministry, these are all part of our growing and growing sensitivity as we're transforming over time to hearing God's voice. These all add up the little choices we're making to say yes to Jesus, yes to his transforming work in our lives. So wake up, sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Let's Pray our prayer of consecration together as we begin today's meeting with Jesus. Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you. And we're praying in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, today's entry is titled Hearing God's Voice, Part 3 Take youe Time. Hearing God's Voice, Take youe Time and our passage for today is from Acts 16:16 18 Hear the word of the Lord. Once, when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, these men are servants of the most High God who are telling you the way to be saved. She kept this up for many days. Finally, Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and he said to the Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her. And at that moment, the Spirit left her the Word of the Lord. Consider this. I don't like to be wrong. I also don't like to wait. Come to think of it, I don't like to be wrong and wait at the same time. My guess is that Paul didn't like that combination as much as I don't. In Acts 16:16 18, Paul and his companions are walking and a servant girl follows them, proclaiming their credibility to all who will listen. The message seems right, but the spirit of the girl seems wrong. Days pass, and there is the potential that Paul is discerning exactly what is happening here. After quote, she did this many days, Paul begins to be annoyed. Verse 18a. This is discernment in action. It's not immediate. It seems to be distilled to Paul, delivered over time. When he finally realizes what is happening, he turns and speaks to the evil spirit, the demon. In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her. Verse 18b I'm going to take a little risk here. In my experience, as I've watched and learned from many credible people who seem to have highly developed gifts in hearing God's voice. Discernment can take time. There are times we don't immediately know what to do or what's going on in a circumstance. Sometimes I've gone to pray for someone, and while the timing seemed good and they left with a deposit of God's love in their hearts. I simply didn't know how to pray. In one case, I prayed for a wonderful man in our congregation at least one or two times per month for many, many years. Healed of a blood disease. And each time I felt like I was seeing part of the story, but not the whole. Eventually, a few Sundays after I prayed for him once, this dear brother fell very ill and eventually passed away. I still to this day, I don't understand the timing or the result. I simply discerned the moments as best as I could and prayed with all the faith that I, I had. I look back on that moment, this is a parentheses. And I just think about how over those years he would say to me how loved by God he felt and how loved by our community and the people around him he felt. So the miracle that was taking place in his heart was this transformation from his journey to that time into a person who knew he was loved by God and then he was a very loving person to his w and children to those around him. And I just felt at times like, wow, this didn't happen. But again, our kingdom now, and not yet. Theology comes in here and we learn along the way that Jesus is doing things we simply cannot see. So my point is this. Hearing God's voice and encouraging others, ministering to others, praying for others is not an exact science. Paul slowly, it seems here discerned it was time to cast out a demon. I prayed over a long period of time, feeling like I only saw glimpses of what God was doing. I believe that somehow along the way, God was moving. He was definitely moving in me. In learning to discern, we start to trust the impressions that we're getting. Words, thoughts, feelings, inner guidance all come along and we choose what to do with them. Then we act. We trust. It might be casting out a demon, as Paul did. We might pray over years for someone going simply with the small impressions we're giving in a heart that believes that God heals. God is patient, and one of the fruits of the Spirit is patience. What is God inviting you to be patient about as you learn to hear his voice? And here's our prayer for today. Lord Jesus, I would prefer to hear your immediately. In situations it seems it would save everyone a lot of heartache. But I know that in those moments you are teaching me how to hear your voice more clearly and helping me grow in discernment. Cause your patience to flourish in me. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. Now, let me say as we move into the journal prompt, that this is a bit in the deep end of the pool. We are learning what it means to hear God's voice in the little in the moments in our lives. And there may be some things that God wants to do that really are dramatic and profound at the same time. Let's know that it really has to do with us learning along the way that there will be times we're not exactly sure there will be times when we lean into something for the long haul and we don't see the results we hope for. It's why I'm so grateful for books like Follow the Healer, Steve Siemens, because he talks about all the different ways that God heals, even when we want him just to do the one way of an instantaneous momentary healing. It's a wonderful book. I encourage you to get it and drink deep out of it. I have friends and mentors, many of them in my life. One of them is my friend Bud Simon, who talks much about praying for others. And there are just many voices that I've learned from over the decades of my life. And I know that learning the fruit of the Spirit, that is patience, is part of God using us in spiritual gifts of doing all the things, ministry every day in the power of the Spirit. So your journal prompt for today is. Is there a circumstance in your life where you felt like your discernment about what to do next came over a long period of time? What was the result? And can you see in hindsight why the waiting may have been valuable activation for today? Today I'd like you to think about a situation you're feeling that feels like it's taking a long time to discern, to tease apart. Find someone mature in the faith. It might be someone near you. It might be a pastor or spiritual leader in your community. Find someone mature who can hear God's voice, who's practiced it over time, and whose discernment you trust. And talk about the waiting and the questions that you're having. There might be some insights for you in the conversation. Take those to heart and continue the long discernment process. All right, so that's today's thought. Let's let that simmer in our hearts. And I'm going to trust the Holy Spirit to speak to you and to begin to show you about some of the areas of your life where you're having to just live in patience, where you're not really sure if you're hearing God's voice. And I'm going to ask him to send you those helpers and voices, whether they're near you or they're through books or other places that can help you learn to discern along the way. So for our hymn of worship today, I'd like you to turn with me in our Great Redeemer's Praise to hymn number 102, my hope is Built. And I'm just thinking about, as we go to our hymn, JD's way of describing Awakening, that Awakening is the transformational journey, the transformational journey of love from Jesus to a person through a person to a person through a person, and so on. And as you and I, we move into this Friday and we move into this weekend, just ask the Lord, you know, Jesus, let me be a vessel of awakening. Let my own heart awaken to youo great love. And then let me be someone who is is in your long chain of people loving others into your kingdom, helping them experience the awakening transformational love that you have for them. All right, so let's sing together. 102
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My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness I dare, dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand all other ground is sinking sand when darkness veils his lovely face I rest on his unchanging grace in every high and stormy gale my anchor holds within the veil On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand all other ground is sinking sand his oath is covenant and his blood support me in the whelming flood when all around my soul gives way he then is all my hope and stay On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand all other ground is sinking sand when he shall come with trumpets sound O may I then in him be found Dressed in His righteousness alone faultless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand all other ground is sinking sand. Amen.
- [16:30]
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Well, you and I are seeds. We are seeds going out into the world and we are sowing the seed of the kingdom of God everywhere we go. So be the love of God to everyone you meet. Keep your kingdom traveling prayer with you. Your kingdom come, your will be done here on earth as it's being done in heaven. Pray. Come, Holy Spirit, keep ever before you and in your pocket that question. May I pray for you? May I just lean in and believe God with you in this moment to see him touch your life. And we have many good seeds in all the gifts that are represented here, gifts God has given liberally to you, to me, that are for the common good that are unique to us and are very special. He wants to move through you and love others today for who you uniquely are. All right, you get those seeds. I'll see you on the field. For the awakening. I'm Dan.