Hearing the Voice of God

When you ask Christian people for advice, often you will hear them say "Just ask God". The assumption being that one CAN hear His voice. But can we? John 10:27 says, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." With all the voices competing for our attention - people, media, TV, the devil, even our own voice - how can we tell which one is God's?

We have the complete bible, which is the inspired Word of God. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." 1 Timothy 3:16-17 God's voice never tells us to take a direction that is counter to what His Word says. If you have need of direction or have a decision to make, go see what His Word says about it first.

We also have the Holy Spirit residing in us. "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you." John 14:26 As you feed on the Word, the Holy Spirit will quicken it to your remembrance as you have need of it for specific situations in your life. This is why it is so important to keep making "daily deposits" of the Word into your heart. The Spirit will quicken the Word already deposited in your heart in a variety of ways. Often I have been stumped about a problem and all of a sudden a scripture will *pop* into my brain; it is the exact road sign I need to direct me to the answer I need. In other words, I am hearing God's voice.

The time you spend in the Word and communing with Him will help you get to know Him more and more. You will have a plumb line in which to compare all the other voices you hear - if they don't line up with what the Word and the Holy Spirit speak, you know they are not of Him.


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What is the Difference Between Praise and Worship?

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Thomas_Sinfield]Thomas Sinfield

For so long in churches praise and worship have been stereotyped as 'praise being the fast songs, and worship being the slow songs'. I don't know about you but this has never sat right with me - because sometimes I feel like I am praising even during slower songs at church and worshiping in parts of the faster songs. There has to be a better way of describing the difference between praise and worship.

Let's take a quick look at a couple of verses that mention praise and worship, then we will discuss them as well as a few dictionary definitions to try and find the difference between praise and worship - when we look at it from a music perspective in church.

Verses On Praise:

By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, this is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. - Hebrews 13:15

Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. - 1 Chronicles 16:8-10

Then David said to the whole assembly, "Praise the LORD your God." So they all praised the LORD, the God of their fathers; they bowed low and fell prostrate before the LORD and the king. 1 Chronicles 29:19-21

The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the LORD. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang: "He is good; his love endures forever." Then the temple of the LORD was filled with a cloud. 2 Chronicles: 5:12-14

You can see from these 4 verses how large the scope of what praise really is. We have:

* A sacrifice of praise

* Singing

* Telling of his wonderful acts

* Bowing - being prostrate

* Musical instruments

That is from4 verses on praise. However praise is mentioned 351times in the Bible and gives us a lot more ways to praise God. The reason for this is because of our English language. The english language has one word, praise, for 7 Hebrew words - each giving a different definition for praise. They are:

* Hallal: "to laud, boast, rave, to celebrate" - It is used approximately one hundred times in the Old Tes tament.

* Yadah: "to worship with extended hands, to throw out the hands" - It is used over ninety times in the Old Testament. (Yad means "hand.")

* Barak: "to bless, to declare God the origin of power for success, prosperity, and fertility" - It is used approximately seventy times in the Old Testament as praise to God.

* Tehillah: "to sing or laud" - It is derived from hallal and is generally accepted to mean "the singing of hallals." It is used over fifty times in the Old Testament.

* Zamar: "to pluck the strings of an instrument, to praise with song" - It is used almost exclusively in the Psalms and occurs approximately forty times in the Old Testament.

* Todah: "to extend the hands in thanksgiving, a thank-offering" - It is used only a few times when trans lated "praise" but occurs many other times in connection with thanksgiving.

* Shabach: "to commend, address in a loud tone, to shout" - This is the exclamatory form of praise in a special sense and is found only about seven times in the Old Testament.

You will notice 'Yadah' which actually means to worship with extended hands. Does this mean that worship as we know it is actually just a form of praise?

As we continue to discuss the difference between praise and worship lets take a look what the Bible has to say about worship.

Verses On Worship:

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice,acceptable to God, which is your spiritual act of worship. - Romans 12:1

Then the man bowed down and worshiped the LORD. - Genesis 24:25-27

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." - John 4:23-25

I guess when we are looking at the difference between praise and worship from a worship service perspective that praise seems to be more an outward showing with hands raising, clapping, dancing, bowing and singing. Whereas worship is something much deeper. It is where we are offering our bodies, and ourselves, giving them to God to have his way.

Learn more about worship at http://www.iheartworship.com

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Keeping Your Faith

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Alyssa_Avant]Alyssa Avant

Faith it is something that is both hard to define by human standards, and also hard to keep by earthly standards. So many of loose our faith in others because of their actions towards us, so we often feel we cannot trust anyone, not even God. However, that is not true. God, after all is the author and creator of our faith and is therefore the only one we truth can trust and thus place our faith in.

It is true, faith is being sure of what we hope for, hope that too comes from Christ. Specifically from our relationship with Him. Having a relationship with and a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ is what gives to us that hope that we speak of and that defines our faith by Biblical standards as we see in Hebrews. Without that saving knowledge of Christ we cannot have faith.

The Bible also says that without faith, it is impossible to please God. Therefore faith is certainly something that we should strive to keep. No matter what, we should be able to always lean on our faith. Because, after all, God truly doesn't let us down. We know that He is the one person who always keeps his promises and is always there.

I'm sure, if you've been a Christian for any length of time that you have stories of God's faithfulness to you, stories of the times in your life where your faith was proven, stories of times when your relationship with Christ is the only thing that gave you any hope. If not, I'm sure you can find someone in your life, who has a relationship with Christ that results in some of those faith stories that they can share with you.

Whether or not you have experienced it yet, or not. I sure hope you will seek to experience it in the future. It all begins with a saving relationship with Christ. Where you admit that your are a sinner and need His saving grace and mercy. Then, you believe in the fact that He is truly the only way to be saved and enter into eternity. That He truly died on the cross for your sins, rose again the third day and lived on the earth just like us. That He is our ticket to Heaven and spending eternity with God.

Then, it doesn't just end there. Jesus seeks a relationship with you so that He can come to know you better and you can become more like Him. This relationship can help you to grow in and keep your faith in Him as He shows you time after time that He is truly faithful.

Alyssa Avant is a Christian work at home mom, writer, speaker, and blogger whose desire is to turn the hearts of girls towards God. As the founder of Beauty By Design Ministries, http://beautybydesignonline.com Alyssa seeks to reach tween and teen girls and their moms through products and events that are both exciting and inspiring.

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