Created to Hear GodNäide

The Bible says we are to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt. 3:8). The kind of fruit God wants to help us grow (Gal. 5:22–23) aren’t things you can just pick up at your spiritual farmer’s market. Don’t you wish you could pray self-control into your life? Wouldn’t that be great? But we can’t. We have to grow it in our lives. We have to cultivate the habits that result in good fruit. And we do this through actively working on what matures our Prophetic Personality and our ability to listen to God’s leading.

When I was developing my knowledge, God was very gracious to me at every step. Listening to God was straightforward, and believe me, I asked Him everything. “Should I go here or there? Can I do this or that?” I mean, I asked Him everything because I was young, and I was learning. This is good. Peter wrote, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:2–3).

Eventually, you will mature in God to the point where you’re eating solid food (Heb. 5:14). Over time my sons grew from needing milk every three hours to eating meat. We cut it up into bite-size pieces. Pretty soon they could cut up a big chunk and feed themselves. Now, having matured in my Prophetic Personality, I tend to sense what God is saying even before I ask Him anything. But remember what I said about spending time with God? If we don’t nurture the relationship, we’ll go hungry and our fruit will shrivel up.

I check in regularly, asking, “God, what are You saying to me?” I’m in the Bible consistently. We all need to be in the Bible. I don’t care who you are—a pastor, a theologian, or a regular Joe Christian. The Bible is God’s Word in physical form, and He is in its pages, and He speaks to us there. So we go into the Word, and we nurture our relationship with God. We feed the soil that produces good fruit.

Staying with the food metaphor, I like to say the Bible is like a pantry. When the Spirit of God wants to give you something or show you something to do, He’ll pull something nourishing out of the pantry to give you fuel for the effort. If we don’t stay in the Word, we can become malnourished. The cupboards are bare, and we go to God desperate: “Do You have any food? Do You have any spaghetti sauce? Do You have anything?” When you’re in the Word regularly, your spiritual pantry will always have plenty on hand to feed you.

Prayer:
Father, I am so humbled that You have given me Your Word so that I can grow closer to You. Thank You for promising to always be with me. Amen.