Last week, we started speaking on The Posture of A Beginner.
What it really means when we say God is calling us into a new season and the position we must take.
We started with the first 2 postures:
1. The Posture of Obedient Departure
2. The Posture of Faithful Endurance
Now let's move to point 3.
3. The Posture of Humble and Patient Listening
After the first 2 postures of departure and endurance, what comes next is Listening.
I would need us to listen well to this point, actually.
This posture is more than just hearing God’s voice, way more than.
This posture combines submission with patience.
It is listening without a mind of our own, without a direction or path to tow.
If you are saying something I already know or I’m familiar with, the chances of me listening are lower.
Our outlook here is that we know nothing. The heart posture of humility and our ears opening up in response.
Now, what does it mean to have a posture of humble and patient listening?
- Humble listening: a heart that receives instruction without arguing, demanding, or trying to force understanding.
- Patient listening: a discipline of waiting for God to reveal the next layer, without rushing, pushing, or presuming.
This posture is literally positioning yourself to receive God’s next instructions, waiting for Him to speak, and resisting the urge to force the process.
The instruction is not complete? We wait.
Nothing like completing the sentence here.
One of the problems many believers have is that we are not listening patiently.
There are people running with half instructions; they got halfway and are stuck.
There are people running with misinterpreted instructions because they did not listen humbly.
Humility;
You must wait here as one who doesn’t know.
In fact, as one who hasn’t heard.
Humble and patient listening requires that you sit in uncertainty without anxiety, trusting that God’s timing is perfect.
Again, you MUST wait as one who doesn’t know. You wait as one who hasn’t heard the whole plan. You wait as one who is fully present in the moment, attentive to what God is saying right now, without rushing to the next step.
“But God told me abc yesterday.” We are inside of today, my dear brother.
An example of this is Elijah,
This man was used to hearing God.
In fact, he was a prophet of God.
He wasn’t just hearing, he was speaking on God’s behalf.
And while he was in the cave, scripture says the word of the Lord came to him
“And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” So he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”
I Kings 19:9-10 NKJV
“What are you doing here Elijah?”
He was explaining.
He gave God a report. He told God all the reasons he was afraid, why he was hiding, and why he felt alone.
But here’s the thing: in that moment, Elijah wasn’t listening.
He was running. He was fearful. He was afraid of what was next. His mind was racing ahead, trying to figure out the future, worrying about what he couldn’t control. Worrying about what he had never even controlled in the first place.
You see that question God asked him? It was a rhetorical question.
God was trying to stop him, to draw him into reflection, to shift his posture from fear to attentiveness.
When God saw that he was still not getting it? Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord.
That was the instruction:
Go to the mountain!
If we look at the Old Testament, mountains served as a place of meeting between God and men.
God spoke to men there; He gave instructions and laws right there.
Go to the mountain at this point for Elijah was, you are not listening, go to where you can hear me clearly.
3 things under this that you must note when God is calling you to the New. You must be:
- Still, so you can hear God’s voice over the noise.
- Humble, so you can receive instructions layer by layer.
- Attentive, so you are ready for the whisper, not just the dramatic displays and noise.
While listening is done with the ear, it erupts from a heart posture.
Again, please do not be in a haste.
This is why I started with 'Faithful Endurance', before this particular posture.
If you do not get faithful endurance right, you will miss humble and patient listening.
You will be doing fill-in-the-gap for God.
You must be okay with getting instruction 1, though it looks incomplete, staying in the place of prayer and trust that the Lord will speak again and complete it.
You will not rush to try when you’ve not been asked to.
A part I feel like God is speaking to us on is this:
Yesterday’s instruction is not today’s.
Except God says it is.
Just listen for the voice of the Lord and His instructions per time.
“Listen when I tell you what is right for you to do. Then you will be wise. Do not forget what I tell you. Anyone who listens to me is in a happy place. You can wait outside my home each day, and I will teach you.”
Proverbs 8:33-34 EASY
Before I move to point 4, I want to emphasize something on Humble Listening.
In Matthew 2, we will see that the word of the Lord came to Joseph:
“saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young Child’s life are dead.” Then he arose, took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel.”
Matthew 2:20-21 NKJV
The instruction was to go to Israel.
Where in Israel wasn’t specified, it was when they got in that they realized Herod’s son was on the throne.
Note that it is only Joseph who realized. God of course knew.
What happened next is that God spoke again, and he was led to Nazareth.
Active listening
Humble listening
I feel like some of us are hell-bent or fixated on things out of pride
It’s like we don’t want to be wrong
“But God told me yesterday.”
Ehn, and He is saying another thing today.
Why do we want to be more right than God?
Finally, humble listening is you not forcing your opinion on God.
Some of us say we are listening, but what we are really doing is trying to get God to listen to us instead 👀
Again, I don’t understand it, but I have seen it.
We must trust God throughout the process of entering our New.
One way to trust is by patiently listening
His voice is never late!
4. The Posture of Courageous Alignment
After humble listening, the next posture is Courageous Alignment.
You’ve left the old, you’ve endured the gap, you’ve listened humbly and patiently, you’ve heard God.
Now comes the moment to position yourself boldly in alignment with God’s plan, even when the next steps are unclear or the path seems uncertain.
It is exactly what happened in Joshua 1
“Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.”
Joshua 1:6 NKJV
There is a courageous way you must align yourself with the New you have seen.
You must align first in heart and then in words before it flows into reality.
Some of us have not gathered the courage to believe fully, and how I know is by what we are saying.
You see this particular posture is not one of waiting passively.
It is standing firmly inside the word God has given to you. The promises you’ve heard by the Spirit, the visions, the nudges, everything God has spoken.
Funny thing is, everything may not look like it in this season,
But you must align boldly with your heart.
It is the point where you believe only one truth.
Where you begin to close up every other possibility.
There is no option B
No option C
I’ve shared the story of the last Retreat with us before
How we didn’t have our venue approved, and in meetings, we kept saying that if they don’t respond, we will go back and use the former venue.
I woke up one morning, and it felt like God brought me to where He was.
Without telling anyone, I called the old accommodation people and canceled with them. I told them to rent the space out.
I had just one option, and it was what the Lord had shown me
Courageous Alignment
Courage because that was such a if you don’t win with this alignment, you’ve lost.
The way of the Lord must remain for you the only way at this point and junction.
The reason some of us are still stuck is because we are not fully aligned with what God has shown.
We just want to leave the trenches please, that’s the only reason we are doing all this stress. 😭
Your heart, your mind, your choices.
Your everything must be positioned fully in line with what God has shown you, even when it feels uncomfortable, uncertain, or risky.
In fact, the way of the Lord is always uncertain, uncomfortable, and risky.
Go and ask the Fathers of Faith.
There is never a time God has shown me a new different from what I know that I have not looked like a mad person to people.
“Move back to Nigeria until I tell you to move again.”
When every other person is moving out. Does it make sense to you?
Again, start playing in your mind as possible what the Lord has said to you.
Courageous alignment is not optional; it is essential.
It is what positions you to receive the New fully, without compromise.
It is where faith becomes visible in your positioning, and it prepares you for the steps God is about to unfold.
Close off every other possibility.
And align your heart with the one possibility of what God has shown.
And there are real dangers in not aligning.
Real dangers!
- If you don’t align, you are doing yourself o. Because now, you’ve left the old, and you cannot enter a new just because your heart is not on the same page. You are in a limbo. I feel like this is what happened with Abraham’s father by the way (story for another long day, you can read up on your own before then)
- What you are courting is compromise if you don’t align yourself.
- You delay or even miss the blessings/promises.
I am begging us, don’t leave space for anything but God’s word to rule your heart and your steps.
The moment you’ve heard clearly, align yourself
Stop using 10 years to struggle with one instruction, thereby delaying yourself.
You see this courageous alignment ehn, it is the battlefield of Faith.
Spiritual buying and selling happen here.
People trade off what is theirs simply because their minds can’t hold what is theirs.
I added courageous to it for a reason o. There is a reason it is not just alignment.
Saying I am truly on the same page with you Lord can be hard, especially if the page Dey carry you go where you no know.
All humans love safety,
Every single one of us.
And one thing I will leave with you is this:
You must stop looking for safety in the plan or promise. Safety is in God!
I pray for everyone,
The Lord quiets your heart,
He brings you to a place of stillness until you can hear Him.
For everyone who has been struggling to know what exactly is the next, the Lord quiets your heart and helps you to hear.
He takes away every preconceived notion that has affected your hearing.
Your ears are opened to God’s instructions layer by layer, with patience, without rushing, and without forcing your own understanding.
You will not misinterpret the word of the Lord to you!
And after you’ve heard, may the Lord align your heart and expectations to His will. Receive courage to stand firmly in the word that you’ve received.
In Jesus name
Amen.
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