Do you desire to hear from God? Do you desire to walk in the Spirit? Do you desire to have eyes to see and ears to hear, to perceive what God is doing, saying, where he is moving, so you can do the work the Father is doing like Jesus did? Then good. That is very good. To have a desire for God is the launching off point. So where is the struggle?
We operate in the natural, physical world through our senses. What we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell informs our brains of our surroundings, of what is real and tangible. Yet, our inner desire is for a world that we do not interact with through our natural senses. We do not see, hear, or perceive God through natural means, except when God pleases to give someone a glimpse into this normally unseen world. So how in the world are we to have the spiritual sensitivity we so desire?
Could you be missing God? God does things in our lives and the lives of those around us that we can easily miss when our lives are distracted. When our minds are filled with static, we may not hear him.
If we are to walk in the Spirit, if we are to be sensitive enough to hear God speak, to see what he’s up to, we need to plug in to God’s frequency each day in personal devotions. We need to read the Scriptures and ask God to reveal his character to us.
“But I do this already!” you say. Ok, then the next thing you can do is cut excessive and unnecessary clutter from your life. Picture the lives of our ancestors before electricity. How were their days filled? What did they listen to? What did they watch? How did they entertain themselves?
We have modern conveniences and with these came modern forms of entertainment. We have easier access to travel and with these came vacations. These things aren’t bad in themselves, but they do make our lives busier. I’m sure you can think of a lot more we’ve added to our lives that fill our days to overflowing. We are running here and there and everywhere. We are listening to the news, podcasts, music. We are watching Youtube, Netflix, Prime. We are running a marathon taking our kids to sporting events. The list goes on.
Our minds is an especially important thing to declutter. To me, mind clutter is watching a media program to the point where I think about the fictitious characters when I’m not watching the program. What is this for you? If we look at our thoughts as real estate, only so much can occupy the space. What’s on our minds? Is there room for God to get our attention when he wants to? Or are we so preoccupied with life’s worries, the next obligation, or our own entertainment that God would have to shout to get our attention?
Slowing things down involves decisions that will affect our lives and those around us. If we really want to walk in the Spirit of God, to hear him speak throughout the day, to be attentive to his nudges and be quick to obey, then making these decisions will be a matter of obedience. But these decisions could lead to legalism. Do we cut all TV? Do we never again have a movie night? Do we pull our kids off their sports teams? Peter gives us some guidelines when he says,
“Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.” (1 Peter 2:11)
What are the things that are waging war against your soul? What is waging war against the souls of your loved ones? These are the things to look at.
What is creating havoc in your life? What is cluttering up your mental faculties? What can you scale back that isn’t necessary so you can hear God better? Let’s make God the priority in our lives and in our families so we can all see, hear, and perceive what he is doing. Let us walk in the Spirit and not the flesh.