Knowing His Heart
“Be still, and know that I am God”
We need to develop the relationship we have between Jesus and ourselves. Maybe you are lying in a hospital bed, maybe you are sitting in a prison or maybe you are driving a tractor in a field.
Maybe you are sitting on an aeroplane and you say, “Lord, when can I speak to you?” Anytime is a good time to develop your relationship with Jesus! And instead of always giving Him a shopping list of all our problems and our pains, our needs and our desires, why don’t we rather change and say, “Lord, what can I do to assist you in the plans that you want to implement in this world?”
You and I need to work on our relationship, our friendship with Jesus and to do that, we must be transparent. There must be no secrets. We must be real when we talk to the Lord. We must not try and make out that we are better than we think we are. The Lord knows our every thought and there must be no interruptions - Silence every other thought or voice when you are speaking to God. Keep out all wondering thoughts and concentrate on God.
Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”.
You can when you focus on the Lord and not on the circumstances.
You know, before I step onto a platform, I sit quietly in the front row or wherever they put me when I am about to preach, and maybe some people think I am bad-mannered, but I don’t want to speak to anybody because I want to listen to what God is saying to me.
It has happened on occasion, fortunately not too often, just before I am going to step on that platform, there are thousands of people standing there, and the Lord says to me, “I don’t want you to preach that message that you prepared. I want you to speak about something different.”
I tell you, you have got to be sure that you are hearing from God, but every time I have done that, the message has been well received because God does not make mistakes!
When you have a relationship with the Lord, it is absolutely amazing.
You know the great evangelists and the great preachers of old - I am talking about men of the calibre of Charles Finney, I am talking about John Wesley, I am talking about men like George Whitefield - these men used to preach what we call: 'extempore' preaching.
That means they use one verse like Romans 1:17, which says: “The just shall live by faith.” And they will preach three hours on that one verse. And then I have seen some young guys try to imitate them and they fall down. You know why? Because they don’t spend time with God. You have got to know the Heart of God before you can preach like that.
I remember distinctly, like it was yesterday, preaching in a massive church in Durban. It was a wonderful meeting, The Holy Spirit was present. The place was packed out, the balconies were full. And right at the end of the service, after I had made the altar call and prayed the sinner's prayer, I saw a middle-aged lady slip out towards the back. And I called her but that was only because the Holy Spirit told me - I said, “Where are you going, madam?” She turned around, I said, “Please come up here.” I called her to the front and I put her on the platform.
I said, “Why are you in such a rush?”
She said, “I didn’t want to get into the traffic.”
I saw she didn’t have a ring on her finger. I said, “Are you married?”
She said, “No.”
I said, “Would you like a husband?”
She said, “No.”
I said, “Please sit down.”
And you know, I carried on, finished the service, prayed with her and let her go home.
I got an email two days later. She said that morning she had woken up, and she said, “God, I haven’t heard from You. I feel distant from You, I am going to a strange church today and if You do not call out my name, I am never going to serve You again.” Look what the Lord did? Amid thousands of people that single woman was brought up onto the platform. Why? Because God spoke into my heart.
Have a blessed Saturday.
God bless you and goodbye.