“When you get out of your comfort zone, you hear God’s voice more clearly. It’s often a door that opens a door. Or maybe I should say it’s a prompting that leads to a prompting.”- Mark Batterson
Mark Batterson concludes Chapter 10 of Whisper as he makes an important observation. Pastor Batterson underscores that it takes practice to learn to discern God’s promptings. Because it’s like learning a new language, at first you fail to pick up the subtle nuances. But with time, your ability to hear God’s subtle whispers improves.
Also, Mark observes, there’s an advertising phenomenon known as effective frequency. The term refers to the number of times you need to hear a message before you respond to it. Similarly, it seems to the author, God uses effective frequency to prompt our awareness of His plans and purposes through the use of various languages.
Speaking personally, Pastor Batterson admits that it takes God a few time to get his full attention. He suspects that’s true of us as well. That’s why God whispers in more than one language. In other words, God uses eclectic methods to confirm His whispers.
In Scripture, the Holy Spirit, Mark notes, wears many hats. As Mark states, the Holy Spirit hovers, gifts, convicts, reveals, and reminds. However, when He wants to shake us out of our routines, He often stirs our spirits. Thus, the stirring of the Holy Spirit sometimes:
- produces a feeling of restlessness
- starts out as a God-ordained desire that becomes a fire in our bones
- forms an idea that hits critical mass
- rocks the boat – or capsizes it
Yet, we often exhibit a phenomenon known as status-quo bias. Pastor Batterson defines the term as “the tendency to keep doing what you’re doing without giving it much thought.” Therefore, status-quo bias creates a major impediment to spiritual growth. If we don’t watch out, that bias prevents us from discerning God’s promptings.
Our default setting dictate a lot of what we do. But a small change in our default setting potentially prompts a huge change in outcome.
Today’s question: What helps you to hear God’s voice more clearly? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Pain gets our full attention”
