BRUCE: No. It’s supposed to be you know they walked in the cool of the day. It’s that one-on-one just like you and I are talking right now. Just talking to your best friend! And focusing those thoughts on Him all the time! Practicing the presence of the Lord!
KYLE: Practicing the presence of the Lord.
BRUCE: Yeah.
KYLE: And that would be a constant thing?
BRUCE: Yeah.
KYLE: You would constantly be in, conversation? Jesus had some things to say about this, didn’t He?
BRUCE: He did! He said in John 10:27, “My sheep know My voice.” And He said in John 8:47, “He who belongs to God hears what God says.” If you are a Christian and you are not hearing God speak to you in different ways, and we know in the Bible there’s like seven different methods that He spoke to people, communicated with people in the Bible, and He’s still using those methods today.
KYLE: Can you give a couple of what those are?
BRUCE: Well it’s one of them is prayer. Through that dialogue of prayer.
KYLE: Right.
BRUCE: And one of them through the written Word. You know through dreams, through visions, through angels. It’s just different ways that He communicated with people and He’s still using those things today. And if He says in John 8:47, “That he who belongs to God hears what God says.” And if we call ourselves Christian and we’re not hearing God speak to us then there’s a problem! There’s some kind of disconnect and it’s not with God. Obviously, it’s our problem.
KYLE: We should be hearing from God?
BRUCE: Amen?
KYLE: On a regular basis?
BRUCE: Absolutely!
KYLE: And we should be talking back to God?
BRUCE: Yeah! Absolutely!
KYLE: All right, Bruce! I want you to hold it right there because when we come back Bruce Van Natta is going to share with us more keys about how you can hear and talk to God for yourself starting today! Starting right now! [Music] There’s nothing special, to it! You just have to start to talk to Him! Bruce is going to share more when we return! Stay with us!
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KYLE: Welcome back to Something More! I’m Kyle Winkler and I’m here with my guest Bruce Van Natta! And we are talking about ratcheting up your relationship with God! Ultimately intimacy with God! Prayer! Talking to God! He wants us to have constant communication with Him! Bruce, you say that prayer should not be a monologue but should be a dialogue. Explain that.
BRUCE: Well what we see a lot of times, it’s real easy, for the Christian to get into a rut, a habit where they’re just throwing these prayer requests up to God and never –
KYLE: God, help me.
BRUCE: Yeah!
KYLE: God does this. God bless me.
BRUCE: And never expect to get anything back in return like you’re praying to this far away from God who’s a million miles away and you’re just throwing these prayers, you know just throwing it up and throwing it up. And you know if we go back into the Old Testament with the story of Elijah. So he has this showdown on top of Mount Carmel.
KYLE: Uh-huh.
BRUCE: And then he runs for 40 days. Ends up on Mount Horeb. And he’s in a cave waiting to have an experience with God and it says that there is a wind so strong that it breaks the rocks! Now I’ve been, you know, in some serious winds and I’ve never seen a wind –
KYLE: [Laughs] One that breaks the rock that’s pretty strong.
BRUCE: That breaks the rocks. Yeah.
KYLE: Yeah.
BRUCE: And there’s an earthquake and God is not in the wind and He’s not in the earthquake and He’s not in the fire. And then it says, it’s interesting, it says there’s a still small whisper.
KYLE: Mmm!
BRUCE: And God was in the whisper speaking. So He comes out and he has this interaction. And the whole point of the story that I’m bringing up for is because what does it look like when God speaks to us? It’s usually not in the, you know, it’s not like the loudspeaker –
KYLE: I was going to say that!
BRUCE: Kyle! This is God! Are you listening?
KYLE: And a lot of people think that that’s what it is to hear God’s voice.
BRUCE: Right! Exactly!
KYLE: It’s you’ve got to hear this audible or this major sign.
BRUCE: Yeah. Right.
KYLE: But as you said it’s in the whisper often!
