Walking with God: How to Hear His Voice (Thomas Nelson- 2008, 2016)
John Eldredge, director of Ransomed Heart, a ministry devoted to restoring men and women in the love of God, originally wrote Walking with God in 2008. He completed a revision in 2016. In the Introduction, John defines our deepest need as human beings as learning to live intimately with God. Therefore, as we develop and strengthen our walk with God through the Holy Spirit, our walk brings us back to the source of life. However, our assumptions either help or hurt his walk every single day of our lives. Underscoring the purpose of this book, John assumes that “an intimate, conversational walk with God is available and is meant to be normal.” For God not only knows us intimately, but He also seeks intimacy with us. This takes time and practice on our part.
Furthermore, to hear God’s voice we must adopt a posture of quiet surrender. Also, walking with God and reading Scripture go hand in hand. And hearing from God flows out of our relationship. Since God’s after our transformation and our joy, we need to pursue joy as essential to life. In contrast, we must carefully avoid making any agreements with Satan’s cunning lies. Hence, we concentrate our focus on what God is giving rather than on what He isn’t. We refuse to demand that life come to us on our terms. Thus, insisting on understanding- as opposed to insisting on God- creates distance between us and God. On the other hand, the collision of our desire to live a “nice little life” and our need to remain in Jesus can produce sanctification.
So, it’s critical that you possess the objective, everlasting truth revealed in Scripture. Jesus knows the very words we need to hear, the words most precisely conveying His meaning to your heart. In addition, Jesus’ words speak to motive. Specifically, Jesus moves the whole question of motive from the Pharisees’ emphasis on the external to the internal. As a result, John emphasizes that the greatest disaster for the human heart centers on the belief that we’ve found life apart from God. When adversity strikes, we face two options: (1) let our disappointments define our life or (2) let them take us back to God.
In conclusion, John offers this advice when life threatens to overwhelm you. Resist throwing joy overboard while hanging on to the very things overwhelming you. Receive wisdom and revelation from the Holy Spirit to sustain your walking with God. Finally, John offers these words of encouragement:
” . . . when we can’t seem to find the healing or the breakthrough, when the thief does manage to pillage, I believe ours is a gospel of resurrection. Whatever loss may come, that is not the end of the story. Jesus came that we might have life.”
