Just Jesus

So recently in my reading of a book called, “Hearing God”, by Nathan Finochio, I’ve been learning more and more about what it means to hear God, and how to hear Him. Something that I’ve noticed while reading, is that there is (so far) no direct “do this and you’ll hear God”, but instead he writes about all the other ways we can start to understand what He’s saying. Now, this book’s goal is not to give the reader an equation to find out how to hear God, but it helps give the reader an understanding on how God has communicated in the past, and to the author himself. One of the first things written in the book is something along the lines of, “stop focusing on hearing what you think God is going to tell you, or what He’s just about to tell you, and start to focus on what He’s already been trying to tell you”. In our culture, we crave the next big thing, we like to move on to bigger and better. Take Apple for example. What happens when the new iPhone releases? Everybody buys it. It draws people back to get the newest one, and excited about the next. We are just very pulled in when we hear “new”. Like the example, sometimes we get so focused on “what God’s gunna do” rather than “what He’s done so far and not yet finished with”. It is very important for us to keep in mind that His thoughts and ways are higher than ours (Is. 55:8,9). A lot of times, He will use what we never thought would come up again as a platform for our growth, and we must be prepared. Now, the past couple of days that I’ve been reading, Finochio has talked about some of the distractions that are taking our eyesight away from our Saviour. There are three main categories, also known as the three categories of temptation; the devil, the world, and the flesh. Now, all three are pretty self explanatory, however the thing that’s really grabbing my attention is just how much these things really do pull me away from Jesus. I don’t know about you all, but I hear God better when I’m in close relation to Him, and spending time with Him multiple times a day, everyday. However when I’m struggling, and not spending the time I need with Him, I struggle and always feel confused in what He’s trying to tell me. I think the main reason for this is the reason I’m in my low season in the first place; I’ve been putting other things above Him. Now, are these low moments the moments that I often hear Him the clearest? Yes. Fo sho. I have learned and experienced that when I come to the end of myself, that’s when I feel closest to my Saviour. Why? Well, because we are broken people. We are nothing without our Saviour, therefore when we humbly give all of us for all of Him, we are then able to experience full satisfaction in who He is and who we are in Him. So you may be thinking, “yo J, what’s the point, you just crossed yo-self”, and that’s where I come in and say... You see, we are all in different seasons of life. Some at the highest of high, some at the lowest of lows, and some stuck dead in the middle. In order to hear God communicating with us, we must put away all distractions and focus on Him. So, whether you’re way low, in the middle, or through the roof, put away all distractions and focus on Jesus, Himself. When we are doing well in our relationship with Him, we can put off distractions. When we’re in the middle, stuck and confused, we can ignore what the devil, the world, or our fleshly desires tell us to do and run to Jesus. When we’re at the lowest point in life, it seems, about to just give up on this thing called “Christianity”, we can turn to Jesus and He will be there. With all of these Christian leaders walking away from Christianity, disclaiming their faith, life gets difficult. It gets sad. They are just getting so sick of Christianity and the “strict” rules we have. Well, I bet you everything I own, they would follow Jesus if they would just see Him. He is love Himself, and I bet He would be enough to change their minds, someone to remind them that Christianity is about Jesus and not religion. This is the mindset we must hold to. Jesus is all we need, so let’s forget about what gets in the way and drops a cold whisper on your shoulder, and let’s just follow the Son of God. Let’s follow the Man of Love who thought of you while His lungs were filling up with His own blood on a tree. Let’s just follow Him, not religion.

-Jack Hilsher

“Jesus is the only living water that can satisfy my spiritual thirst.” #WOLQT