Listening to God in Revelation
Materials: Bible, Pen and Paper
At the beginning of the book of Revelation Jesus addresses three churches. It goes without saying, although I’m going to say it here, that we have to listen to a message before it does any good in our lives. There is a pattern to Jesus’ messages to these churches. There are generally three things he wants the churches to hear. He wants them to hear his affirmation, his correction, and his promise.
This spiritual practice can be done alone or in a group. In order for it to be effective in a group setting there needs to be a firm commitment to bear with each other and not abandon one another. The commitment to faithfully be there for each other, to meet regularly is necessary for trust and brotherly love to grow. In addition, there needs to be an uncompromising commitment to guard each other’s lives and to make whatever is shared truly confidential.
This exercise has three periods of listening.
1) Listen for God’s affirmation
What are your strengths? What has God been doing in your life? To recognize God’s work in your life is not an act of pride but of truth telling. It is also an act of worship. We recognize the growth in our life as a direct work of God for which we cannot take full ownership. It is also a faith- building exercise. We need to recognize the love and provision we have experienced in order to have the courage for the next stage of listening.
2) Listen for God’s correction
Knowing that God loves us, has our best interests in mind, and has the power to transform our lives changes the nature of this question. It is not merely an act of finding fault and weakness. It is an active listening to God’s particular word of creation, so that we can respond to his personal direction knowing that he has the desire and the power to bring liberation to our lives.
It is God’s intension to eliminate everything in our lives that separates us from his blessings. Sin, inaction, and indifference are some of those things that block God’s grace from being fully experienced. While we can easily find fault with ourselves, what we are listening for is God’s instruction. He knows our hearts. He knows the long road of discipleship. He is not concerned that we somehow jump to the end of the road. He is interested in lovingly guiding us to the next step in our love and obedience.
We hear God’s correction in anticipation of God’s healing. He brings to mind correction so that we will answer his call and, in his grace and power, find freedom.
3) Listen for God’s promise
Jesus doesn’t stop with correction. He makes promises based on his correction. He gives us hope in two forms. One is his promise to respond to the particular correction he brings. The other is his promise to remember and reward the faithful. There are consequences that go with our obedience. Jesus wants us to remember that they are not natural consequences, not merely principles built into the fabric of the universe or folk wisdom. The consequences of our obedience are gifts given directly from God’s hand. They are based on his personal promises, his grace, and the rewards he has promised to the faithful.
Before God corrected these churches he affirmed them and helped them to remember that he had been at work in their lives. After he corrects them, he makes promises based only on his faithfulness to spur them on in hope.
Individually
You will most likely need some resource to help you listen for God’s promise. I am assuming that you have a Bible handy, but beyond that you may need a topical Bible dictionary, a collection of the promises of God, or possibly a concordance (although this would be the hardest to use effectively in this exercise) to help you find or discover God’s promises concerning your area of correction.
Group
This exercise would be broken up into three parts. There would be three periods of silence followed sharing. During the silence, you would each listen to God individually. Then you would come together after each time of listening to share with each other.
During the third period of silence each person would listen for God’s promise as it would be directed to each other member. The sharing time would be going around the group a person at a time and sharing with them any relevant promises that have been brought to mind from Scripture or any words of encouragement that they feel the Spirit is trying to communicate at the moment.
Each member should write down the promises and encouragement that they are given. God has given these to inspire, so take his word to heart and keep them with you as you respond to God’s correction.
After the promises have been share, this time can be close by interceding for each other.