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One area where every Christian has struggles is hearing God’s voice. Here are some pointers that may help…
Confusion only comes after God has spoken — then we start to hear the devil responding.
Satan is not an inventor/creator. He can only pervert/spoil what is. He is classed as a thief and destroyer. So, if you hear, “Go to Africa.” and then get confused, the true voice is the first one you heard.
God never explains – We always try to. We only find out ‘why’ after we have obeyed.
You will have heard preachers give testimony like: “The Lord said turn left here and knock on that door…” Scary stuff. Our natural inclination is to ask why, but God never answers that, He just repeats the command. If we obey, ie. Turn left and knock on that door, then we discover His purpose. In the example I’ve given, the person who answered the door was just about to hang himself…(this is not my testimony.)
God doesn’t give a reason why He wants us to do something – We always find reasons not to do it.
Similar to above, God expects us to obey without question. Sounds very wrong to our modern ears, but everyone who has obeyed God, regardless of personal feelings/doubts, has been blessed through that obedience. God wants our obedience, not our reasoning. “All day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.” And, “Having done all, we will still be unprofitable servants.”
Finding out why He wanted us to obey, by obeying, is a reward in itself, but knowing we heard Him is the icing on the cake.
The story below illustrates this very nicely.
THE FANATIC IN THE ATTIC AND THE FELLA IN THE CELLAR.
When we were involved in a powerful move of the spirit years ago in London , God provided us with some “Fathers” in the faith ( thank God for the fathers and mothers in the church)
One of them, Arthur Burt, who lives now in Wales , taught us a lot about learning to hear from God. He taught us about the fanatic in the attic. The fanatic in the attic represents your spirit, and the fella in the cellar represents your mind. The fanatic in the attic can see a long way off and he can see around corners, there’s no distance or time in the spirit realm. The fella in the cellar, your mind, can only see what’s right in front of him because he doesn’t operate in the realm of faith.
One very rainy Sunday afternoon in England, years ago, Arthur was riding on a bus in the English countryside. He was going between two towns. If you know anything at all about those Sunday afternoon buses in the English countryside, you will know that if you are very fortunate they might run about every two hours.
Arthur was glad to be on the bus, out of the rain. In case you don’t know, rain in England is cold, not the same as Florida rain. Suddenly the fanatic in the attic spoke to Arthur, “Arthur, get off the bus at the next stop.” Arthur looked out of the bus. Rain, cold rain and there was NOTHING. The fella in the cellar said, ” Are you crazy, there’s nothing there and it’s pouring with rain.” The fanatic in the attic spoke again, “Arthur get off the bus at the next stop.” Again the fella in the cellar spoke up “No, you will just be stuck in the rain.” But you know the next stop is coming up and Arthur had to make a decision about who to listen to.
We have a choice all the time because your spirit man, (the fanatic in the attic) and your mind realm, (the fella in the cellar) both talk to you all the time. The Holy Spirit is always telling you to step out in faith, a lot of the time giving instructions that make no sense to the mind. You and I have to choose, just like Arthur on the bus.
Arthur jumped up and rang the little bell that tells the bus to stop. Shortly after that the bus came to a halt and Arthur got off. The bus pulled away and Arthur was left standing by himself in the rain. Nothing in sight, not even a house. He stood there, alone, in the rain, getting cold. The fella in the cellar spoke up, “Well what now, I told you you will be stuck.” There was nowhere to go so he stood there, getting wetter and colder of course.
After about 10 mins a car drove by — and then suddenly screeched to a halt and started to reverse, back towards Arthur. The windows rolled down and several heads popped out of the windows. “Arthur Burt, oh it’s Arthur Burt. Get in Arthur, get in Arthur.”
Arthur was happy to get out of the rain but didn’t really know what was happening. “Oh praise God Arthur,” the people in the car said excitedly, “We are having a healing meeting in our village and the man who was coming to preach called from London and said he couldn’t make it.”
Arthur still wasn’t sure about it all.
“Arthur we were just praying and asking God to send someone to preach at our meeting, everyone is coming, and Arthur suddenly there you were — just standing there in the middle of nowhere, isn’t God so great! He sent us a preacher, you”
So there you are — if you listen to the fanatic in the attic you can be the answer to someone else’s problem.
order The Fanatic in the Attic
Colin's musings 
It’s a good day to be writing about someone standing in the rain getting cold! I liked reading about Arthur.
I can tell two stories if you’re interested – one where I sadly listened to the ‘Fella in the cellar’, and the other where I got it right and obeyed God. In the first, I had just got into a car and David (one of my neighbours) was complimenting me to the person I was with. I thought I didn’t want to listen to all those compliments because it was God who deserved the glory, and I got this gentle prompt: “Why don’t you tell him?”
But the ‘Fella in the cellar’ spoke up. “You’ve just shut the car-door. If you open it again, you’ll look stupid”, and stupidly, I listened. Not long afterwards, another neighbour told me about someone being killed after coming off his motorbike. Yes, it was David. I was given an opportunity to tell him about God, and I had missed it.
The other story is about someone Mum knew from the betting shop. After she introduced me to him, he would usually speak to me if he saw me. Well, I was standing in the queue in the supermarket one day when I felt God say: “I want you to give him the gospel”. The words didn’t come just then, but after what happened with David, I knew how important it was not to miss a prompt like that, so I prayed for another opportunity. He would often talk about his arthritis etc. I had told him he was in my prayers, but I knew that wasn’t enough.
To cut a long story short, I did see him again and he started a conversation. When he’d finished talking, I just said: “Well, Jesus loves you”. Nothing else. He held my hand for a moment, and that was that. (We may have got some funny looks – me and this little man on two sticks, holding hands in the middle of the pavement, but I felt completely safe.)
Not long after, I was on the phone to Mum when she said: “You know little John from the betting shop? He’s dead. It was very sudden. He put his newspapers down, said ‘See you in the mornin” and he died in the night”.
So those are my stories. Hope you don’t mind the essay, but it’s a reminder not to miss a God-given opportunity.
Great comment ‘Tumato’ thanks…
I am one of those slightly wierd born agains. If I need a spiritual lift, I have to travel to Malvern (13 miles) or Worcester (15 miles). There is nowhere for me to worship where I live. Our local C of E/Anglican Church is full of folk who are scared to move forward. Occasionally, the Lord tells me to go there. I protest – but know I have to be obedient. He told me to go there last Sunday. I arrived with a heavy heart, not knowing that it was a communion service (and had been thinking how much I missed communion) and that the first hymn was Praise My Soul The King of Heaven (my favourite hymn!). He does know stuff!! He IS amazing. Hearing His voice and being obedient is SO worth it!