Pastor Brad used a brief passage from Acts 13 yesterday in worship to demonstrate three important truths about how the "new" enters our lives as Jesus' followers.  Here's the passage:  ²One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Dedicate Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.”  ³ So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way. Acts 13:2-3 NLT  The first truth we read in the Scripture is:  God speaks NEW words in worship.  As the men worshiped the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit SAID...  The context was worship, and in that context God often speaks to us.

I appreciated Pastor Brad's point that God speaks to us in every worship service, but we don't always here Him because we're distracted.  God may speak in the words of the worship songs we offer Him.  He may speak as His word is read, or through prayers offered, or even in times of "transition" between one aspect in the service to another.  The key is: we must LISTEN.  How many times in our daily lives do we miss what someone says to us because we don't listen?  Whether it's a parent, a spouse, a child, a friend, a boss, or whomever, so many times we have our own conversation going on in our minds as someone else speaks.  We may have good reasons for being distracted by our own agendas, or we may just be being rude at the time.  Whatever the reason, when we're distracted and fail to listen, we miss out on the opportunity to communicate with someone--even God!

Have you ever been reading the Bible and as you read you're not really absorbing the words, the meaning, or the message God may have for you?  That's one of the chief ways we fail to listen to God and potentially miss out on hearing God speak newness into our lives.  Henry Blackaby tells us in his signature work, Experiencing God, that God speaks to us through His word (the Bible), through prayer, through our circumstances and through other believers.  God's primary means of speaking to us, though, is His word.  If we want to hear God's new message for us, then, a key is to read the Bible regularly, and to come to it with "open" ears.

When I read His word, I often pray first and ask Him to open my mind and heart to His message.  I ask Him to show me what I need to learn and do from it.  As I read, (or listen, since my preferred method of getting God's word into me these days is by listening to it) I seek to focus on the words and the message.  Since I've read the Bible many times, now, I ask God to show me new things, to put His words in my heart, so I may be changed, and to apply it in my life, so I may help others see Him.  All this happens or fails to happen because I actually attend to the message and let the Holy Spirit apply it in my life.  The same is true for you.  While it would be great if God always spoke audibly to us every time He wanted to speak something new in our lives, it's also great that He already has spoken audibly to us in His word, and we can receive His message and purpose for our lives by opening His word and reading it with intentionality, and by listening diligently!

Let's pray:  Heavenly Father, thank You for Your written word.  Fill us with Your Holy Spirit that we may read it and hear Your new messages for us today and every day!  This we pray in Jesus' name.  Amen.