DAY 599 - How Do You Know That You Are Able to Listen to Jesus Voice? (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)

Want to know why I have been writing and recording my blogs and podcast daily since August 10, 2009? Click these three links:

Confirmation from John Stott in 2009: 
http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html
My MicroMacro Discipleship, A missing DNA in Discipleship Development: http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/07/introduction-micromacro-discipleship.html
Subject Shifting Devotion Method(Inspired by John Stott in 1991: http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html

                               Today's Reading: 2 Corinthians 13:5-10

** If you would like to learn a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please read my “Count Down 5” from my Devotion on Fire blog:

http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html

To use this simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please click this link:

 .Subject Shifting Devotion.pdf

Please click this link to read 2 Corinthians 13:5-10

English(ESV): http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2 Corinthians 13&version=ESV

Chinese: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=歌 林 多 後 書 13&version=CUV

Bible Study

     Paul is talking about the need to examine and test yourself in today's passage. I got flu and a severe diarrhea yesterday, I was being examined by my family doctor this morning and went through some tests to see how can I be completely healthy again. The answer for my condition is the flu pills and antibiotic. But, for the Corinthians, it is not that easy. 

Bishop N.T. Wright says ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :

      The Corinthians had been asking Paul for proof that the Messiah really was living and speaking in and through him (13.3).  Paul has assured them that plenty of proof will be forthcoming if they are so bold as to challenge him in person.  But now he turns the tables on them and suggests that they, too, should submit to a self-test.  Before he arrives, they would be well advised to run through a checklist of the signs that indicate whether the Messiah's life, his crucified and risen life, is present.  For Paul, that is the very centre of what it means to be a Christian (see Romans 8:9-10 and Galatians 2.20).  When you look at yourself in the mirror, do you see someone in whom King Jesus is living and active, or someone who once knew him but now seems not to?  When you listen to the sort of things you yourself say, does it sound like words that might have come from King Jesus himself, or are you simply talking the same way everyone else does?  When you find yourself with your brother and sister Christians, do you respond to them as brothers and sisters, as people in whom you see King Jesus also living, or are they just 'other people'?  And when you settle down and quieten your mind and heart, to pray and wait for God, do you know and sense the presence, the life and the love of King Jesus close to you, within you, warming and sustaining, guarding and guiding, checking and directing you?
     These are searching test, but they are the kind of things Paul has in mind.  And he longs to find that they have passed the test. 

N.T. Wright. Paul for Everyone:2 Corinthians. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p.142-143.

     
     Why don't you use those items Bishop Wright says and test yourself now? 

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage of scripture we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe":  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmax47l2hLU

Spiritual Journal

    What I heard from Jesus today is: How do you know that you are able to listen to Jesus voice?

    What I got from Jesus today is the reason why I have been writing and recording my blogs/podcasts for the past 4 1/2 years. The call that I got from Jesus to write this confirmed by my spiritual father Rev. Dr. John Stott in July 2009 is to lead Christians to be able to listen to Jesus voice through reading the Bible each day.

    I have been challenged many time whether I really can listen to the voice of Jesus. Just like Paul, he has been challenged by the Corinthians whether he can listen to Jesus voice in today's passage. If our relationship with Jesus is not a present tense but just learning from the past, then everything we have been doing is in vain. From Paul's track records, from the fruits Paul brings to so many people, it is so clear that he can be able to listen to Jesus each day. It should be the same to each one of us, if you can be able to listen to Jesus and have a daily intimate personal relationship with Him, then you should have your track records and plenty of fruits.

     I am so joyful to receive a friend's message just an hour ago. She has been listening to my podcast each day for sometimes. This is what she wrote to me:
    
     Yup, I listen to your blog daily once I step out my door to bus…And done the devotion before am in office…It's a very amazing tool, and always wanna come say thanks for creating this and benefit all the God people from the world…It's something REAL great!!!  Thanks, and thanks God for sending his wonderful inspiration to you.

     After I received her message, I got a call from our Lord Jesus Christ to invite each one of you to write not more than 30 words if you feel my blog/podcast help you to be able to listen to Jesus voice daily. I have now people from 107 countries using or used my blogs/podcasts. Those blogs have reached almost a million visits now. Your 30 words will surely encourage me and many people. I have been giving up lots of time, energy and everything in writing those blogs/podcasts, can you email your 30 words to me in two days time please. Why two days, because after two days you won't have the urge to write it. My email address is: bishopsilasng@gmail.com

     I am now going to publish my first two books in a few months time. And I may put in some of the encouragements in either of my books so that my readers knows that I am not teaching theories but a real present intimate personal relationship with Jesus. Please help me to give your witness to the effectiveness of my blogs/podcasts!

     This is the respond from my friend in Hong Kong when I invited her to write the 30 words:

     Sure…I feel happy about I could write the comments on you book! 

     Why don't you examine yourself and test yourself whether you are able to listen to Jesus voice?

Dear Lord Jesus, 

Lead us to be able to listen to your voice daily and that we can show forth the fruits having that daily intimate personal relationship with you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Please click this link to worship with us -

從心合一

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd2cO2sHbZY

10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) Matt Redman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E

You may choose to follow my other daily blog: 

Daily Devotion on Fire 2(2 years plan -One year New Testament, one year Old Testament): 

http://bishopsilas2.blogspot.ca/

Daily Devotion on Fire (3 years and 3 months plan, one chapter a day to finish reading the whole Bible): 

http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/

Break.Build (40 days daily devotion- For Renewal or First Step for new Christians): http://www.breakbuild.blogspot.ca/

Emmanuel330 (40 weeks First Step Bible Study): 

http://emmanuel330.blogspot.ca/

This blog:

Discipler 123 (Daily devotion using N.T. Wright's NT for Everyone as source)

http://discipler123.blogspot.ca/