Tag Archives: Willow Creek
God Still Speaks…Are You Listening?
A couple of weeks ago I was sitting in church and I had a prompting. I felt led to invite a specific guy and his family to dinner at our house. I hadn’t ever talked with him, never met his wife, and only knew that he had a son around my sons age. I either very rarely receive promptings from God, or (more likely) very rarely am listening and recognize them. Well, I had recently watched Bill Hybels teach on promptings from God in his small group study, The Power of a Whisper. I decided that whether or not it was from God, it was a good idea, so I invited him to dinner. There was nothing earth-shattering about our dinner, or what I did. He and his wife have 2 boys around the same ages as our two sons. They had recently moved to Michigan from New York and didn’t know many people. We connected and plan to get together more often.
But this experience definitely has moved me to be more attune to God’s “whispers”. I have wanted to not discard any feeling that I had, and I’ve wanted to be more intentional in my prayer to listen, not just talk.
In The Power of a Whisper, Bill Hybels shares his history with whispers from God as well as his filter for deciphering whether or not the whisper is actually “heaven-sent”. His five filters are:
- Is it from God? (consistent with God’s character)
- Is it Scriptural? (is there a specific passage that refers to your whisper)
- Is it wise?
- Is it in tune with how God made you?
- What do trusted friends advise?
Hybels talks about whispers that he received from God: leaving his family business to plant a church; starting the church in a movie theater; launching a training organization for leaders. To watch the first session of The Power of a Whisper, go to YouTube here. There are also over 80 other sessions from other small group studies on YouTube here.
What whispers or promptings have you received and responded to from God?
John Dickson webcast: “If I were God I would end all the pain”
I’m looking forward to a webcast Willow Creek Community Church is putting on with John Dickson. It’s a few weeks out right now but I want to mention it to all as soon as I heard about it. It’s called: “If I were God I Would End all the Pain.”
John Dickson recently released Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership
with Zondervan. He’s one of the most profound and impressive scholar/pastor/historian/evangelist writers I’ve ever read, and he’s just as good when he speaks live. Here’s the blurb about the webcast from Willow Creek’s site. You can sign up for the webcast (it’s free and it will be archived online) here.
If I Were God, I Would End All the Pain
with John Dickson
September 21, 2011
11:30 am – 12:30 pm CSTJoin John Dickson Wednesday, September 21st at 11:30 a.m. (CST) for a discussion on “If I were God, I Would End All the Pain.” Dickson will explore the contrasts between the views of pain and suffering between different world faiths and Christianity.
Read the rest of the post and sign up on Willow Creek’s page.
Here’s John’s video for Humilitas
MOVE: What 1,000 Churches Reveal about Spiritual Growth
We just finished this video for one our new books, MOVE, (you’ll hear more about MOVE in later posts). For now, I just wanted to point out the excellent film company we worked with to make this video happen, Creo Productions. I’m geeked about this video! Thank you Creo for your fantastic work!
