How to Stay Standing: 3 Practices for Building a Faith That LastsSample

Hear His Word

The second practice of a well-built life is to HEAR the words of Jesus on a regular basis. When you have first truly come to Him with your whole self (we talked about that yesterday), you can receive what the Bible calls “ears to hear” through the presence of the Holy Spirit. These spiritual ears help you discern what God is saying through His written and living Word.

Hearing through these ears takes a little training. First, you’ll want to fill yourself with Scripture, which is the language of the Spirit of God (I assume that’s why you’re here)! And on top of that, you definitely need practices of silence in your life.

Our world is so very loud—so many words come at you all the time! You’ve probably gotten a text from someone while you’re reading this or have music playing in the background. It’s difficult to hear God unless you practice quieting the noise around you.

Take a moment right now to notice the noise around you externally.

Now notice the noise in your own mind and heart internally.

You have so much coming at you: no wonder it’s hard to hear the voice of God!

Jesus needed to get away from the noise too. He wanted to give His Father His full attention so He could really hear Him and follow His lead. The night before Jesus appointed His twelve disciples, He went out to be alone with His Dad. Getting away in some quiet was undoubtedly connected to getting the counsel, wisdom, clarity, and direction from His Father. To get them, Jesus gave the Spirit the margin to speak. And not just this once: Jesus did it regularly.

Most of the times I’ve accused God of being silent, it’s more likely that I just wasn’t able to hear Him over all the noise. Silence won’t happen unless you create it on purpose, so this week choose a time and place to spend some time in silence.