Mark Cowper-Smith's Blog, page 13

Opening Your Mind to Open Your Ears

[image error]In my last blog post I mentioned that we have a cultural communication bias against hearing God’s “voice”.

Our culture shouts at us and God whispers.

It is not simply that the subtlety of God’s communication occurs because He speaks softly, it is also the ways that He speaks softly.

He does not always speak in perfect sentences when He drops a through into our minds.

Sometimes He speaks through riddles. He may begin a message with a strange question. He may not even use a thought at all. He...

What is “hearing God’s voice” anyway?”

[image error]One of the biggest problems we religious folk have is our jargon.

Sometimes I wonder if we have any idea what we are talking about. Has it ever occurred to you that our speech might be incomprehensible to our average non-religious neighbor or co-worker?

Probably not. I say “probably not” because much of the time our highly specialized religious jargon is not even comprehensible to other Christians outside of our particular [and sometimes peculiar] Christian sub-subculture.

Take the phrase “Go...

Answers about Suffering

[image error]

In our last blog we looked at the dilemma we face when we suffer. Suffering demands that we choose between two apparently opposing truths about the nature of God. Logic tells us that God cannot be both all-powerful and all loving if he doesn’t intervene to stop our suffering. We turned to the story of Job for the answer to this conundrum.

The only answer Job had was to find the presence of God. He knows that if he can just come into God’s presence his questions will be answered and he will b...

Surviving Suffering

[image error]

Satan is most effective in drawing us away from God when we are either being extremely blessed or experiencing real suffering. Each condition is vulnerable to a particular lie. Satan is the “father of lies”. Lying is not just in His nature, it is how he goes about separating us from our Father. Today we will look at the lies we are tempted to believe when we suffer.

Suffering always brings difficult questions and a terrible temptation. The question it brings is; “where was God when this happ...

What if I can’t hear God’s Voice like I used to?

There are a few reasons for the condition of not hearing God’s voice like you used to. The first is very easy to fix.

It may be that you have stopped listening in order to obey. Many of us, at times, only listen  to hear what we want Him to say. It we do this habitually He will attempt to correct our self centered attitude for a while and then, if we don’t listen to His correction, He will stop bothering us with His thoughts. He does not stop loving us but He will wait until we truly want to...

Hearing God’s Voice through Scripture

It is normal for people to turn to the Bible for guidance because the Bible is full of wise principles for successful living. But sometimes, God wants to use the Bible to speak directly to our hearts and minds to guide us supernaturally in the moment. Find out Bob finds direction for his ministry. God spoke supernaturally to Bob in a way that empowered the faith and perseverance he needed to walk into get God’s direction in his life. God can do the same for you. Enjoy this story.

God taught Mark about hearing His Voice

Can one three letter word from God, the word “red”, be unmistakable supernatural divine guidance? Is God willing to provide a one-word answer to silence our doubts? Does God care enough to answer our practical questions about what to do with our money? Mark has a story that will astound you and lift your faith to hear and trust God’s supernatural guidance. God doesn’t always speak to me in this way, you’ll probably laugh out loud…

Truths about Truth – follow up post

Our post modern western culture has abandoned any concept of absolute truth. What this means is that the “rules” of evangelism are changing. To use a sports analogy, we are playing full contact football and our culture is playing soccer. We are simply not playing the same game. We are trying to sell truth to a culture that no longer values it, because it does not believe truth exists. What our friends, neighbors and co-workers value is practical, e.g. whatever helps them through the difficult...

Serving Truth After It’s Expiration Date

[image error]The beatitudes end with this thought:

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you”. Matthew 5:11-12

As Christians we are to be a truth telling people. We believe in capital T truth. We believe that just as there are God designed laws that govern the physical world there are God designed laws th...

God prophetically spoke to Bob through a significant vision

Does God speak through visions to guide us? Listen to Bob describe his experience with divine visions to guide him in God’s best for his life. As a young Christian, Bob had a difficult decision to make and this video will be very helpful to believers of of all ages. How do we recognize a vision is from God and not our own imagination. This video and our book, Reluctantly Supernatural; In an Age of Reason, will give you lots of tips. Enjoy now as Bob shares how he received a significant vision...