Lifehouse Hong Kong 香港生命堂

As Christians we believe that God is speaking good things to us all the time. We just have to learn to listen to His voice!

When you know what God wants for your life, you have a strength and a peace about you that defies the circumstances you may be going through. You could be facing a health issue, financial pressure, relationship difficulties or trouble at school or work, but you can overcome because you know that God is leading you to better things!

So how can we learn to hear Gods voice? It’s actually easy!

There are many ways that God can speak to us, but one of the main ways is through his word, the bible. Instead of speaking to our ears, He speaks to our hearts. When we open the bible (or open our bible app), we can think of it like a personal letter from God, to us. Full of unlimited wisdom and keys to a life of victory. But added to that is also a loving father who is longing to communicate with us. This makes the bible so exciting! Growing and knowing Jesus more!

At Lifehouse church we teach a very simple way to read the bible and hear from God. It’s called “Journaling”! Journaling is daily reading some scriptures (however many is up to you) and then writing down a few points about what you feel God is saying to you. It’s simple, powerful, and only takes 5 minutes (of course you can spend longer if you like).

Why is journaling so good? Well one of the challenges of hearing from God, is not so much in the hearing, but in the remembering!  If God says something amazing, but by next week we have forgotten it, it doesn’t help us much! Journaling solves this by recording what God has said. God often speaks in patterns and themes, and by writing it down you can see the theme God is speaking to you over the previous week/s. That’s really exciting! If you don’t write it down, you might miss the theme… 

When you go to journal, just say a quick prayer and ask God to speak to you through His word. Then make sure to write down how it applies to your own life. Make it personal. Be honest with God, and let His word bring healing and life into your situation!

So how do you journal?

Here’s a good way to start (but you might develop your own style as you go):

Date:

Theme: (leave this till you’ve finished journaling and fill it in at the end)

Scripture: (eg Matthew 28: 19-20)

Application: (few points here of how it applies to you)

Key Thought: (sum it up with a ‘one-liner’)

Prayer: (1 or 2 sentence prayer)

The above is not the only way, but it’s a great place to start!

If you miss a day of journaling, don’t feel guilty, just start again. It’s not a rule, it’s part of a life-giving relationship with Jesus!

Why don’t you try the ‘1 month challenge’? Try journaling for a month, and see how God speaks to you. I know it will bless your life like it has mine!

Richard