Women of Faith on TBN brings you the best of TBN’s women’s Christian teaching. Here you’ll find content from your favorite women’s Bible teachers, speakers, pastors, and authors, featuring teachings from Priscilla Shirer, CeCe Winans, Christine Caine, Joyce Meyer, Jackie Hill Perry, Lisa Harper, Lisa Bevere, Sarah Jakes Roberts, and more!
he says I would have despaired I would
have been hopeless I would have been
down my countenance would have been
downcast man accept that I expect that
I’m gonna see God I expect that I’m
gonna hear God so I can wait patiently
on him because I have an anticipation an
expectation that God is going to come
through on my behalf
I want to tell you this before I share
with you some principles that actually
have transformed the way I spend time in
the word of God
the enemy wants to convince you
he wants to convince me that God has
some sort of hotline connection between
he and certain people that it’s just our
spiritual leaders our pastors our Bible
study teachers the folks that are on
staff the people that are in full-time
Ministry the folks that have you know a
microphone on their jacket the people
that are in the spotlight the folks who
we go past their Instagram feed and we
are admonished or encouraged because
they are teaching and preaching to
masses the enemy wants you to think that
it’s a seminary degree that is required
before you can actually have a fervent
ongoing relationship with God where you
yourself can open up the word of God and
know that the Holy Spirit can illumine
the scriptures and give you guidance and
Direction and insight and Clarity and
encouragement and comfort he wants you
to think that that kind of fervent
friendship with God is only for certain
people because he knows that as long as
you and I are not convinced that we can
hear a fresh word from God for our
ourselves then at best we’ll be
handicapped in our faith because we’ll
always be waiting on somebody else to
spoon feed us the word of God instead of
knowing that we can have confidence in
our friendship in our relationship with
God himself and I want to share them
with you position yourself to hear from
God
I’m going to say it again
position yourself
to hear from God
there is power
in your positioning in your posture
okay I mean this in a spiritual sense
but I also mean it in a physical sense I
want to tell you about both when you
come to God through his word that you’re
going to meet with him through the pages
of scripture so this is your own
personal quiet time you know you maybe
have just sat up in bed and you’re going
to have 10 or 15 minutes that you’re
spending with the Lord or you’re going
to come out of your room into the
kitchen table maybe in the quietness of
the morning or in the quietness of the
evening when all the activity in your
house has died down just a little bit
you’re going to position yourself over a
portion of scripture and I’ll tell you
in just a few moments how you can choose
a portion of scripture to dive into but
when you make that commitment to posture
yourself to position yourself I mean
that in a spiritual way meaning the
position of your heart has to be in a
perspective and a frame of reference
that is eager to hear and expects to
hear the voice of God speaking to you
it’s A.W tozier a great Theologian that
put it this way the person that does not
expect to hear God won’t
because every single time God speaks
they’ll just discount it as their own
idea they’ll think that it was just a
coincidence they will attribute it to
anything and anybody else except what it
is God’s breathed word coming to life
through the power of the Holy Spirit to
speak to you to give you guidance and
direction in your own personal life and
so you have to have a heart I have to
have a heart that is filled with
expectation that I am one of the sheep
of God’s fold and I can hear the voice
of God
John chapter 10 Jesus said
my sheep hear my voice listen to that
again he basically says the default
position for anybody who’s a part of the
fold the flock the family of God what my
sheep do
is hear my voice
it’s one of the schemes of the enemy to
get you to think that you need to be
something more be something else have a
different perspective or a different
personality or be someone other than you
are to have excelled in some way to not
have made the mistakes that you’ve made
it’s the scheme of the enemy to get us
to think that we have to be anything
other than a son or daughter to have
this right this privilege to hear God
speaking to us through the word so we
have to pray and say Lord would you
carve away anything in my heart that is
a roadblock that’s keeping me from
having an expectation that in my own
regular quiet time while I’m in my
pajamas or in my jogging suit while I’m
in my house shoes whatever I’m doing and
no matter what I look like I have the
privilege to keep company with you that
you want to cultivate Lord Jesus thank
you a friendship with me that you want
to speak with me that you gave me a love
letter so that I can hear your voice and
know you and know who you are thank you
Lord for that privilege and if my heart
doesn’t expect it would you begin to
mold in me a holy expectation that
desires and anticipates that I have the
privilege to hear the voice of God
posture your heart with expectation
the psalmist put it this way in Psalm 27
. it’s one of my favorite verses verse
13 and 14. he says I would have
despaired
unless I believed that I would see the
hand of the Lord in the land of the
living did you see that expectation
there he says I would have despaired I
would have been hopeless I would have
been down my countenance would have been
downcast man accept that
I expect that I’m gonna see God I expect
that I’m going to hear God so I can wait
patiently on him because I have an
anticipation an expectation that God is
going to come through on my behalf
the prophet habakkuk spoke to this as
well if you look at his little book that
is named after him in the Old Testament
you’ll see that the entire first chapter
of habakkuk is habakkuk calling out to
God mostly him calling out to God and
saying Lord how long are you going to
let this go on he’s looking around him
at the destruction that he is seeing
happening in his culture in his Nation
man if that don’t speak to us right now
I don’t know what is you and I can’t
flip past all that’s happening on our
Twitter feeds our Instagram feeds the
news channels that we’re watching and
not see the vortex of chaos that is
swirling all around us habakkuk knows
exactly how you feel and he calls out to
God and says how long Lord it seems like
you’re just sitting back idly letting
all this go on and so Lord I’m going to
vocalize my concerns to you my cares to
you I’m going to be authentic I’m not
going to hold back and that’s the
privilege we have in relationship with
God he lets us ask our questions voice
our con concern he knows that in our
Humanity we have some worries and some
issues and some fears and he lets us
come to hear him and bear it all
but after habakkuk Bears it all chapter
2
he says now I’m going to climb up on the
Watchtower and I’m going to wait to see
what it is that my king is going to say
to me how God is going to respond to me
do you see that he positions himself to
hear from God
he says I’m going to climb up on a
watchtower back in biblical days there
was a stronghold or a citadel that would
sit at the front of a of a city and it
was designed so that a soldier or a
Watchman could climb up to the top of
this Watchtower position himself above
ground level circumstances in other
words he was saying there’s too much
chaos swirling around down here I’m
going to be distracted if I keep myself
positioned here so I’m going to climb up
on the Watchtower where I’m up above
ground level distractions and I’m going
to position myself here because from
this vantage point I’ll have a clear
view to the Horizon and I expect that
God is coming I have expectation that
there is someone coming who’s going to
deliver an answer for me and so because
of that expectation I’m gonna position
myself in a place and in a posture where
I can hear God where I can see his hand
where I have clear view and there’s
nothing to distract me
position yourself
spiritual expectation and anticipation
but not just spiritually like habakkuk
position yourself physically
do you see that he climbed up somewhere
he went to a place where there was some
silence and some solitude