Listening to Jesus

Learning to Listen to Jesus

If you are interested in seeing Jesus and/or hearing him speak to you, the biblical steps I encourage you to follow are:

0.   Find a place were you can relax and be safe. If possible, you can have one or two Christian friends you trust who pray with you during this time[1].

1.   Forgive (others and/or yourself),^[2] and ask God to forgive the sins you have committed.

2.   Consecrate your imagination to God^[3] and ask for the Holy Spirit to fill you with His presence and His peace.^[4]

3.   Close your eyes and imagine a place where you feel safe and peaceful. Once you see it, invite Jesus to come to meet you there, if you don’t see him already.^[5] When Jesus comes, you can ask Him questions, beginning for instance with: Do you love me? What good do you see in me? And listen to His answer(s).^[6]

4.   Write down the discussion you had and the images you saw for further prayerful meditation and discernment.[7]

Discernment: Revelation, Interpretation and Application.

One very tool useful, to discern if a message received comes from God, is called the ‘Wesleyan Quadrilateral.’ This tool is used to help discern truth, with four key elements: Bible, tradition, reason and experience. When you receive a word that you believe comes from God, you can ask these four questions:

1. Bible. Is it biblical, or compatible with the Bible? Is it in agreement with God’s character, as presented in the Bible? (Here, your biblical knowledge is important, and can be complemented by the advice of your pastor or a mature Christian with good Biblical foundations).

2. Tradition. Is it in agreement with the experience of faithful Christians before me and/or with me? (Again, your pastor or a Christian you esteem who has experience in listening and following God can help you discern).

3. Reason. Does it make sense? Is it coherent?

4. Experience. Did you experience the presence and peace of the Holy Spirit, the peace of Jesus in your heart during this time?

If the answer to these four questions is ‘yes,’ this is a good basis to believe that what you received comes from God.

As we learn to discern God’s will, it is of key importance to not let naive pride rule in our hearts, encouraging us to force our will on others with sentences like ‘Thus says the Lord.’ This means that we should pray and ask the Lord who are the mature Christians who can help us in this process, who will accompany us as we learn to discern the direction of God in our lives and how to communicate it humbly to others.

Once you discern that a revelation comes from God, you still need God’s direction on how to interpret it and how to apply it. Often we are tempted to start with God and to continue with our independent interpretation and application, which can lead to painful results, for us and for others. This is why I would like to encourage you to stay humble while you learn to listen to the Lord, and to search for His direction also on how to interpret and how to apply the visions and­­ messages you receive from Him.

Your brother in the Living Messiah,

Stéphane Tibi

---

[1] Jesus taught us: When two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. (Matthew 18:20). As meeting Him becomes a regular practice for, you will probably find it good to meet the Lord as you are alone, trusting in His promise that he will be always with us, until the end of the age (Mt 28:20).

^[2] Following the advice of Jesus in Mark 11:25, “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” This step is needed only if you sense that you need to forgive or to be forgiven for something, you don’t need to repeat it for the same sin (see 1 John 1:9). Also, to sin means to miss the mark, to fall short of God’s commandments as found in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) or the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). 

^[3] This consecration of the imagination needs to be done only once or when you discern the need. If we belong entirely to God, our imagination also belongs to Him and can be used by Him to meet us. As a Christian, I did not realize for a long time that if God was my Lord, my imagination also belongs to Him and that He wants to use it for His glory. See Romans 12:1-2.

^[4] See Luke 11:13. If you already experience the presence of the Holy Spirit in you, you can simply thank Him for this presence and continue.

^[5] A key text here is: Hebrews 12:2. You can start by imagining Jesus coming to you (fixing your eyes on Jesus), to see what he does then. If you prefer, you can ask Jesus to show you the place where He would like to speak to you. You can also ask Jesus to give you an image and then ask him – if necessary – to explain it to you. Another possibility is to imagine that Jesus is beside you, for instance sitting on a chair, and to then dialogue with Him. You can also ask Jesus to speak to you during your day, without necessarily using images; this will help you dialogue with Him during your days. Let us stay humble and flexible in the hand of our Lord, so that He can lead us and speak to us in the ways He wants to.

^[6] At this point, you may hear a calm “quiet whisper” in your inner mind and spirit. This is the way God spoke to Elijah in 1 Kings 19:12-13.

Many are tempted to analyze and thus stop the communication. As long as it is peaceful and fits with what you imagine Jesus could do, I encourage you to continue.

If a dark image comes, ask Jesus to help you, to clarify what you see or hear, and command in the name of Jesus to anything that you perceive as not coming from God to go away. To go further, it would be helpful to talk to a seasoned Christian, who has experience in listening to the voice of God and obeying Him.

[7] There are four possible sources, for the images and words we receive during these times: 1. God (the Father, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit), 2. Holy angels, 3. Self (our carnal nature), 4. Evil spirits. To learn to discern well requires that we learn in all we do to close the door to all that is not holy in our lives, in faith and with the help of the Holy Spirit. If you still practice some sins, or if you have not forgiven someone, this will impact negatively both the precision of the revelations you receive and your aptitude to discern. As you live a holy life, in constant communion with Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, you will learn step by step to discern spiritually with precision and peace, and you will become a blessing to many.