Showing posts with label Relationship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Relationship. Show all posts

Monday, November 18, 2019

From the Vineyard newsletter on 11/18: The Great Commission-Part 1.

Our church mission statement is taken from the Great Commandment and the Great Commission (the stuff every believer is supposed to do). The Great Commandment is to love God above all else, with all of our strength/personhood. Then the Great Commandment is to go unto every people and teach them what Jesus taught the Apostles, which has been taught to every successive generation of Christians (also known as evangelism and discipleship). So literally half of our life mission as God’s people is to share the good news of Jesus with those who don’t know him and teach them to likewise obey his commission. However, telling people that does not usually make them want to run out and tell their neighbors about Jesus. Most Christians seize up with fear, others balk at the idea, explaining that is why we pay tithes so the pastor can do it, and if the pastor keeps talking about it, they eventually move on to another church that will do all of that for them (religious consumerism). 


So rather than telling people what they are supposed to do and brow-beat them into submission (or leaving), let me invite you to begin with prayer. Prayer is powerful! Of all the people that I have led to Christ over the years, not one of them came without prayer. Either mine or a faithful person who prayed for them other than me. Many a person came to Christ because of the prayers of a faithful mother, father, or grandparent. Over the years I have developed a list that I keep in my journal of people that I am praying for their salvation. I often add to the list, but I also get to cross-off those who have already come to Jesus. Some people have been on that list for a long time, but most are on the list for only months before coming to Jesus. On a rare occasion, I have the painful job of crossing-off my list someone who has passed away whom I don’t think ever received Jesus. In those moments my prayers become more fervent, not wanting any more on my list to perish without the gospel.  


So this week, I want to invite you, this is the time of year we begin making our lists of what we want most. Would you consider making a list of people whose salvation you are praying for? Then do me a favor? Send me your list! If you like, let me know and I will share that list with our prayer team so we can pray for them too.  

Grace and peace,

Hal

Monday, December 17, 2018

From the VCC Newsletter on 12/17: The Faithfulness of God- Something to Celebrate

Have you ever considered that Christmas is more about the birth of world missions and less about the birth of a child?The God who gave us his Son did so because he loved the world and wanted that no one would perish but have everlasting life. The first coming of Jesus (Advent) was not just a sweet story about pregnant Mary and her fiancĂ© traveling to Bethlehem, to avoid judgement by the neighbors or even to pay taxes to Cesar. It is the fantastic account of God’s faithfulness to humanity, keeping his word from Genesis 3, and his multiple promises to the people of Israel, the Kings, and the Prophets. It is a story of redemption, not just for a lucky few nor a cover up, but an important chapter in the very long story of redemption, forgiveness, and love.  In one week from today we will be celebrating that God took this mission so personal that he sent no one less than his own Son.


At this time of year I am often asked if celebrating Christmas is something we should do in light of the many non-Christian winter festivities that have become part of Christmas tradition. Actually, I think that is one of the best reasons to celebrate Christmas. Jesus took the extraordinary step of becoming fully man while retaining all of what it meant to be fully God. His incarnation becomes the message itself. The very heart of missions is that we engage the world with the gospel by becoming all things to all men, so that we might save some. And our God takes sinful humanity and makes us Saints. He takes all of our failings and turns them into the message of reconciliation. So then he who redeems all things, redeems our winter festivities,  traditions, and our cold hearts and makes them new. If I can believe in the redemption of the humanity and creation (Revelation 21.1-5) then can anything be too hard for God to make new?


In the spirit of missions, redemption, and Christmas, I hope you will invite your friends, family, and neighbors to hear the Good News on Christmas Eve at one of our two services (4:00 or 6:00 pm).


Merry Christmas!



Tuesday, November 13, 2018

From the VCC newsletter on 11/12: Sibling Rivalry

Sibling rivalry is as old as Cain and Abel. I grew up the youngest of six, in a blended family— it was my kids, your kids, and I was the only ours. You can imagine there was a lot of sibling rivalry, and I was sure my situation was the problem. The family with six boys next door, all of  the same mother and father, was a very loving family, and yet the sibling rivalry was also intense. While I wanted to blame our sibling rivalry on a blended family, the truth was that even the tight-knit family had sibling rivalry. With that in mind, Dawn and I set out to build great camaraderie between our five children. Today they are ages 29 down to 19; I can tell you that my children today get along well and seem to love one-another but there was plenty of fighting, screaming, and crying over the years. By God’s grace they don’t hate one another, and we have lots of great memories. So let me share some of the best lessons we learned along the way.


First, avoid comparison. Statements about beauty, intelligence, athleticism, or any kind of ability regarding one child always leaves the other child wondering where they stand. So imagine what it means to child to hear that one sibling is smarter, more athletic, more musical, or the most beautiful? You probably did not mean to demean anyone, but there is nothing more hurtful than comparison, and no one’s voice is more authoritative on the subject (in the mind of your child) than you. Comparison is the root of every jealousy and the beginning of every sense of inferiority.  
Obviously every child is different and has their strengths and weaknesses. Celebrate your child’s strengths, achievements, and milestones— but never more or less than your other children. Each child in the family needs to know that Mom and Dad thinks they are beautiful, smart, and good at something— just not in comparison. When your child does better than they did last time, recognize that— but avoid talking about doing it better than a sibling.


Second, establish clear rules about who gets to ride where and when, and for when friends visit. Don’t ask them to work those things out, you be the parent and establish what is just. With our kids we established seating in the car and minivan. If one parent wasn’t present the oldest present got to ride up front. If the younger child tried to circumvent this when we picked up older children from events, I reminded them they had to move before it became something to fight about.  When a child had a friend over, the others left them alone unless the sibling who invited the guest included another child. (That means you didn’t mess with their legos or board games either.) This also meant that younger or smaller children did not get away with things just because they’re smaller, weaker, or don’t understand. You are the parent, so don’t make the children enforce the rules or live with obvious injustice.


Third, follow through with warnings about unacceptable behavior. Siblings often view one another as one who is stealing away Mom or Dad. It is a competition for your attention that ultimately fires up sibling rivalry. If you are paying attention to another child, or to a project, they will try and hook you. That may mean interrupting your interaction with the other child, or it may mean attacking another child to get you to focus on him/her.  IF they will not stop you must follow through on any warnings. Making them clean their room, stay in their room without access to electronic devices, clean the garage, wash dishes, fold laundry, whatever it is— you must follow through, so that attacking a sibling or interrupting you and another child is clearly not acceptable for any sibling to do.  


Finally, reward them when they are playing well together or showing great love for one another. Because you are playing so well together I am going to  . . . make cookies, let you stay up ten more minutes, take a picture and tell them how happy it makes you when they play nice together. Make sure they know that nothing will get them greater praise from Mom and Dad than being good to each other.  

 

Sunday, April 16, 2017

PRAY WITHOUT CEASING

A few weeks ago (in March) I had a dream about the urgency of prayer in our church, followed by several confirming words, dreams and visions from others in the body. It was a real wake-up call to make sure that prayer had its proper place in the church, drawing us not to religious practice, but deeply into intimacy with Jesus.

The problem was busyness! We all get busy, we all have too much to do, but the truth is that we don't stop and pray because we have time, we pray because we need the power of the Hoy Sprit for living. We pray because we need direction from our heavenly Father. We pray because we need the mercy of Jesus. We do not pray because we must (as in law) we pray because we must (as in our deepest need to be whole).

Here we are now, about one month out form that first urgent call to pray. Since that time I have certainly changed my prayer routine, made more room in my schedule throughout lent and I have committed to keep that space for the Lord. I have heard from several people that they needed that call to action as well, and who have reoriented their lives to be more intentional in relationship with God. We have also seen a renewed interest in our prayer meeting, which we moved to Tuesdays at noon.

At the same time, I also see that the dire warning has passed and there is a tendency to let the urgent fade into the background of normalcy. It is easy to let complacency creep back in and for us to begin doing everything in our own strength. It is all too easy to let our stomach decide that we need to eat now before we pray. To let urgency demand we skip prayer meeting to spend time catching up on work. To let TV take the place of intimacy not only with God but also with those whom we live.

Most of us have expressed some level of concern for our nation in recent months both during the election and afterwards. Some have taken to political posting, arguing, and letting fear control their view of life. Others have buried their heads in the sand or on pinterest posts to avoid the ugliness of political debate. Yet the truth is that what we are talking about when we speak of the civility of a society, its manners, it social decorum, its moral underpinnings, and the issues of justice in a society is that the real need is for revival. For people to be transformed. We cannot transform a society except one heart at a time being transformed by the love of God in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. The need in our land is less about making America great again, and making America good again, as in good like God is good, as in intentionally becoming more and more like Jesus Christ.

So one month later my real reason for writing is wondering, what will it take to bring us to our knees in prayer? What will convince us that our deepest need is for God? Politics do not change the world, they only reflect the condition of the hearts of those who vote and those who lead. Laws do not change people, God proved that on day one when Adam and Eve chose rebellion over relationship with God and broke his laws bring about sin and death. The Law of the Old Testament did not save us, that was Jesus who died on the cross because we were guilty of violating the Law. More laws will not make our society better or more free, or more moral. Putting the ten commandments on court house lawns will not change our society unless we first write them on our hearts.

Our deepest need is not for social transformation but personal transformation. Pray without ceasing is not a rule, but a way of life that takes me into the presence of God to know his heart, to know his will, and to empower me to do his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Friday, April 14, 2017

RESURRECTION SUNDAY

As we head into Easter I regularly deal with people worried about Easter Bunnies, about colored eggs and even the word Easter. The word actually appears in the King James version of the Bible and literally means beginning, as in the beginning of the Christian Calendar. The Resurrection is the beginning for the Christian Church. While Good Friday does lay the ground work for the resurrection, it is the resurrection where death is defeated and new life begins. It is the resurrection that gave the church hope. On Good Friday hope seemed dashed, but Sunday came and revealed through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead that the cross was not defeat but triumph. So Easter was canonized in the early church as the beginning of the Christian calendar.

This year as I prepared for Easter during the season of Lent (the 40 days of preparation) I decided to cut off social media and other media to clear my head, and to clear my schedule. It was one of the best lenten decisions I could have made. Lent isn't about giving up something, but about preparing, and sometimes that leads me to give up something to make room for that which is truly valuable. So we fast, not to deny ourselves but to make room. Sometimes people fast meals so they can spend that time in prayer instead of eating. Sometimes we fast from other activities. I my case, I fasted from media and spent those hours normally eaten up by Facebook, television, and radio to renew my relationship with God and my family. Now as I head into Easter I am experiencing new resurrection power in my personal life.

Have you experienced resurrection power? The power of the Holy Spirit to bring back to life things in your life that seem to be lost, dead, or dying? As we head into Easter to celebrate the resurrection let me invite you to tap into the resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead, and will can raise you to new life as well, regardless of how dead things may seem. There is hope in the power of the Resurrection.


Friday, July 17, 2015

I Felt Like an Angel From Heaven in Their Midst

 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. -Hebrews 13.2

Did you know that the average person makes up there mind about a church between their car door and their seat? Before a song is sung, before the pastor speaks, most people have already made up their mind about a church. Those first impressions mean more than we imagine.
Over the years as a church planter I have visited more churches than most people, doing research. As a pastor I know the drill of finding my way around a church and I am usually looking to be “off-the-radar” as I try to learn from that church without getting any special attention because of being a pastor. A few churches I have visited were down-right unfriendly, but most were reasonably polite. Still even the friendliest of them were a little awkward at first, simply because I didn't know where things were, or what the expectations were.  That is why a hospitality team is honestly the most important ministry in the body. Those greeters, ushers, and security people make the church seem not only more welcoming but they determine if a person will stick around.
Recently I visited a church that broke the mold on hospitality. I have never been so impressed by any church’s first impression in all my life. To top it off, I was only at a satellite campus, not even the main campus of this fast growing church. What was so radical? Well, they had a huge team of hospitality people. Out of the 300 people at least 50 of them were involved in hospitality, but I was never mobbed. Instead every guest was greeted individually. A host walked every guest around so they could find everything they needed, including their seat, and they gave us s small packet of information, including a CD. Once we were settled they invited us to come back to the welcome center for a gift. A real gift! When I returned to the Welcome Center they answered all of my questions, and helped me fill out a connect card, had I lived in the area they would have also helped me sign-up for anything I wanted to get involved in. Then the host did one more thing after I left, while my name was still fresh on her mind, Sarah wrote me a brief postcard thanking me for my visit, and invited me back. That postcard went out the same day, and got to my house 800 miles away in two days. If I am ever back there I already know Sarah by name, because she greeted me and escorted me around the church so I didn’t feel lost, and her note reminded me of her name too. Moreover, Sarah answered all of my questions because she had been to a briefing that morning to give her all the info she needed and to remind her of that church's core values.
I was stunned by what I experienced. I thought I knew what good hospitality was all about, but then I got taken to school. I quickly figures out I have a lot to learn.  My teenage children talked about their experience for nearly two hours after church. (It takes a lot to impress a couple of PK’s.) After I visited the church I posted about my experience and several people asked to explain what was so powerful about my experience. To be honest, reading this post does not even begin to do it justice. I must also add that I sensed the presence of God, and I heard a Southern Baptist talk about healing and the power of the Spirit in a very meaningful way. Yet, I also have to say that the church wasn’t perfect. The music was so loud one of my kids said she wished she had taken the earplugs. Even my son who loves it loud said, it would be hard to do that every week. The music and the preaching were good but not awesome. Yet this church has grown from handful of people in 2006 to over 20,000 people in 2015. So they have done a great job in making people want to stay. All I know, is that I am planning on going back to visit that church and learn more.

My take-away? Well, People ask me all the time, "How can I serve? What can I do to make a difference?" My first response has always been hospitality because I can't think of any more impacting role than to be part of the hospitality team. Too often people look at that role as beneath them, they take that role for granted, but the truth is, that's why most churches don't make much of an impact. I would love for everyone to feel what I felt when I visited that church. They made me feel like I was an angel from heaven that had landed in their midst.  So I am going to spend the next several weeks with my team learning and growing in the ministry of hospitality.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Who Can Hear the Voice of God (Part 3 of 4)

One of my favorite phrases about avoiding weirdness and excess in the ministry of the church is the term coined by John Wimber, Naturally Supernatural. It means to fully embrace God’s supernatural activity in the world but to avoid all the hype & weirdness that tends to accompany much of some Pentecostal & Charismatic church cultures, especially on TV. So whether we are talking about seeing God’s hand in a series of events, or telling of dreams/visions, the prophetic, words of knowledge, or simply answered prayer, or even vague impressions, we believe that everyone who has accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior hears from God and just needs to learn to listen to his voice. We know that not everyone prophesies, not everyone hears audible voices, not everyone has dreams or visions, but we also know that God speaks to every Christian and he has already been talking to you.  The goal is simply to help you discern his voice. 

OVERCOMING HURDLES TO HEARING
When it comes to listening to the voice of God it is important to remove things that can build-up in our spiritual ears like wax. The obvious things are sin (especially pride) or unbelief, but just as deafening are things like motive, and/or preconceived ideas/prejudices, or even experience (or the lack thereof). Remember, God searches the hearts while man looks at the outward. Two examples of how motive can make us spiritually deaf are in the book of Acts. The first example of motive is in Acts 5.1-11, a couple named Ananias and Sapphira sold their property with the stated intent to give the money to the church, but somewhere in the course of events they decided to keep part of the money  (which they had every right to do) but rather than tell people that they kept part of the money they lied about the amount they sold the land for, and pretended that they gave the church all the money.  By withholding the change in plans they lied to the church (and the Holy Spirit). We can only guess what their motive was but we know the end result was that Ananias and Sapphira were both struck-down by the Holy Spirit. Whatever the motive was it is clear that it was not pure.  In another incident in Acts 8.9-25 a man named Simon, who had been a sorcerer, had recently come to Christ. When he saw the Apostles laying hands on someone to impart some spiritual gifts for ministry, Simon wanted the ability to give spiritual gifts to others, and then offered the Apostles money to give him that gift. Peter rebuked Simon sternly, and told him that he would never have a part in that ministry, and that Simon and his money will perish together because his motives were wrong. Then Peter urged Simon to repent before his condition became permanent; which Simon did. The point in each of these events was that motive is a big deal to God, and it can be a big barrier to hearing God’s voice. You can fool some of the people, some of the time, and you can fool some of the people all of the time, and some can even fool themselves, but you can’t ever fool God. God knows what is in our hearts, and if we are out to test him or to gain notoriety, or selfish riches, God will not play along. 

The other issue is preconceived ideas or prejudices. In the Bible, it is pretty rare that God takes a Saul of Tarsus and slams his face in the dirt and says, I am God, and you're off track.  Most often, God will allow us our prejudices and preconceived ideas about people, the world, and even religion because of our will. The Bible says that all of creation testifies to God, and for those who want to see, God’s hand can be seen in everything, but if you look at all of creation, and conclude that this is all just an accident of nature, God won’t force you out of your preconceived ideas. You can chose naturalism over all the wonder and splendor of God’s world, and see the world as random chance, but the problem is that as a Christian if you let naturalism dominate your worldview, you probably will never hear God’s voice, because you have already shut out the supernatural. I see this happen to believers who have an anti-supernatural bias when they try to read the Bible. They conclude that when Jesus delivered someone from a demonic-attack that it was just seizures or epileptic fits, but ignore the fact that Jesus healed them supernaturally.  By insisting on a natural explanation (prejudice) they close themselves off from supernatural input. You don’t have to see a demon behind every bush to be a Christian. In a biblical world-view sometimes seizures are demons and other times they are physiological problems. 

What other prejudices can block you from hearing? You could have theological presuppositions that are not grounded in the Bible but in rationalism or denominational teachings. If you have been told in church that God does not speak today, or if your church background has limited the ways in which God is allowed to speak, you may miss the voice of God. One such example was the Pharisees. They thought God only spoke through their traditions in Jesus’ day because it had been so long since they had a prophet. So when Jesus spoke to them outside of their traditional interpretations they rejected what he said even though it was according to the Scripture. Jesus addressed the issue when he said to them in John 5.39-40, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” Even though they knew that there was a Messiah coming and that God had spoken in the past through the prophets about him, they rejected the voice of God because their hearts were hard to God speaking outside of their traditions.  Probably the biggest prejudice is “experience.” 

Often experiences (or the lack thereof) dictate what people are willing to believe. If they had a bad experience with someone telling them that God said, and then they made bad choices, they may rightly conclude that it wasn’t God, but they may also decide that God doesn’t actually speak today. Or if you have never heard God’s voice (felt led by God, or had any kind of supernatural experience) you might conclude that God does not speak today.  

Another prejudice that we need to be aware of is one that isn’t usually thought of as a prejudice, but it is one; it’s the fear of making a mistake. If you live in fear of making a mistake you will never hear God’s voice. If you do not listen to the voice of God you will certainly make big mistakes because of failed judgments and lack of information. Making mistakes is part of life, if we are too prideful to risk a mistake, then we will never enjoy the fruit of having God lead you further than your own intellect and information can carry you. I have often heard fear spiritualized as not wanting to mislead someone else or create expectations that God then does not fulfill. It is God who invites us to listen to his voice and follow his lead. It is God who invites us to pray and ask. Worrying about what God will or will not do may be an indication that we think we know better than God how to handle people, and may actually be revealing the real issues that fear is masking. 

PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR HEARING WELL.
Once you clear the spiritual earwax out you need some practical instructions for hearing God’s voice. First, “dial down.”  You can hear better when you turn down the emotional noise. It is hard to hear anyone when you are amped up emotionally. In everyday life a discussion that gets emotional usually leads to people not hearing each other. Sometimes it means we need to calm down, sometimes it means we need to turn off the religious hype. Working yourself into an emotional frenzy does not help you hear God. As you develop in your hearing you may well need to discern God’s leading under extreme circumstances but those are rescue situations; they are not normal.  The sooner you learn to dial down and listen, the easier it will be to recognize the leading of the Holy Spirit and then to later identify his voice under duress. The reason that many people reject the notion of hearing the voice of God is that they associate it with fleshly emotional and religious hype. All kinds of weird things get said, and God gets blamed for the weirdness. Keep in mind the words of the Psalmist, Be still, and know that I am God… (Psalm 46.10).  Consider this, there isn’t even one verse where God’s people get all worked-up into frenzy in order to hear his voice, but in 1 Kings 18.25-29, the prophets of Baal get all worked up into a frenzy and no one answers. In contrast, Elijah then steps up to the plate in this battle of the gods and in verse 36 Elijah prayed a simple (no hype) prayer that God would answer. Then fire poured out from heaven and the frenzied false prophets were defeated. God is not a religion, he is our Father in heaven and he is relating to us. When God speaks it is not an event, it is a normal occurrence that flows out of love and a desire to lead us. 

Secondly, it may take time for you to learn to listen. Some people can get on the bike and ride from day one. Others take a little more time to get their balance, but once you learn you will never forget.  Don’t be hard on yourself just because you don’t get it right the first time; condemnation is from the enemy. If you fall down God says get back up. God is not expecting you to be perfect; that’s why he gave us Jesus. It is a forgone conclusion that you will not do it perfectly. 

Lastly, remember that each time God speaks it is unique to the individual.  There is only one burning bush, only one altar consumed by fire in battle with false prophets, one talking donkey, etcetera. Don’t look for God to repeat events in history, but let God speak to you without your determining how it must happen. Those past events were uniquely designed by God to speak to them. God will speak to you in the way that best speaks to you in each event or circumstance.

LEARNING TO LISTEN MEANS LEARNING TO LISTEN.
One of the most common complaints in relationships is communication, but chances are the problem isn’t speaking, they do that fine, it’s that neither one is really listening. That’s why we offer a class called, Listening for Heaven’s Sake, it's not called talking for heaven’s sake. In communications most people are busy building their response to the other person before the other person gets done speaking. They are only technically listening but they are interpreting incorrectly. They filter everything through their own motives, experiences, prejudices, and such then interpret what they think is being said rather than what was meant. The real issue of listening is one of relationship. When someone approaches another person with a desire to get their own way, or to win an argument, or any motive other than listening, their desire is not to relate. For you to really hear what the other person is saying, you have to listen to God, not just what you want to hear.

First, one of the most common complaints about hearing God is that God never answers my prayers. That is an emotional roadblock to hearing God before you ever get started. In the Gospel of John 8.47 it reads, he who belongs to God hears what God says. That is a promise you need to hold on to. Often a few questions reveal that like most of us, they made no connection between what they prayed for, and what happened. They chalked-it-up to coincidence or the actions of others.  We are like the atheist that gets lost in the Alaskan wilderness. He got so lost and he runs out of food, so in desperation he prays, “Oh God if you are really there please get me out of this mess.” Moments later a dog sled team comes along and rescues him. But, later when someone asks him about his experience, when they say, “Wow, God was really with you.” The atheist replies, “No, I tried praying but God didn’t rescue me, it was that dog sled team.” Listening involves trusting God to answer. 

Second, good listening involves knowing God through Christ and learning about God. If you don’t have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and you don’t know anything about the character of God, then you are open to all kinds of other spiritual voices. Demonic voices are spiritual too but they won't lead you to life and godliness. Often times people get involved in other forms of religion or spiritualism and then attribute these other spirits' leadings to the true and living God. Or they have recently come to faith in Christ but they have some really awful images in their head about God, from non-Christian teachings or unorthodox teachings and then filter events through unbiblical ideas, or false teachings. So if you want to grow in hearing the voice of God you need to know him through Jesus Christ, and you need to learn about him.  Otherwise you may be in danger of misinterpreting what God said or did, and be led astray from what God intended.

Third, don’t go beyond what God revealed. If God shows you that there is sin involved, don’t jump to conclusions about who sinned. If God leads you to give, don’t judge the situation or their worthiness. If God leads you to pray for someone or share the gospel with them, just do that, don’t go beyond or do less than how God is leading. One of the biggest roadblocks to hearing from God in the future is a lack of follow through when you do hear. If you have already done that, the need is to repent, and on the next opportunity you get to follow through on God’s leading. Likewise, if God tells you to stop doing something or to start doing something don’t assume that God’s direction is for anyone other than you. On the other hand, if you are praying for someone else, do not interpret what you get. Just relay the impression, dream/vision, verse or whatever without your interpretation or thoughts on the matter. If you get a word, let the other person determine what that word means. Keep you out of God’s Word to them. More about this in part four of this article series.

God’s voice is available to every Christian, but learning to listen is also an art. Some people pick-up on it quickly; others take more time. Give yourself permission to learn, and forgive yourself when you fail. The goal is not to be a superstar or the center of attention. Only God is a superstar, and only God deserves the credit and attention. So use the practical steps to start you on the journey to discerning God’s voice in your life, and be on the look-out for more about follow through in part four of this series.