How I Learned to Hear God's Voice
Ras Robinson
I want begin my writings on prophecy with this story. In my second year of high school, I had an encounter with God that forever affected my life.
Our family lived out in the country about three miles from my school. After a night basketball game, I was walking home by myself in the dark. There was no moon and an overcast sky hid the stars. It was black dark. About a half-mile down the road was a large community cemetery behind a wire fence. As in the past, I was gripped with fear walking by that cemetery. But this time, something very different happened.
I heard a voice within me say “Jump the fence and I will show you how to defeat this fear.” Immediately, I put on hand on the wire fence and leaped over it. I felt led to find a large, flat tomb and lay down on it facing the heavens. From inside me came a strong voice as I pointed upward towards the sky and said, “Fear, you will never have power over me again.” From then on, I knew God speaks today.
Actually, I began hearing God when I got saved at age 12. Our family had no automobile and so I walked most everywhere I went. On those long, lonely walks, I felt the presence of Jesus. We talked and communed together within my spirit.
I later discovered this fabulous Scripture about the abilities of God to speak to different people in different ways:
Numbers 12:5-8 “Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent, and He called Aaron and Miriam. When they had both come forward, He said, "Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. "Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household. With him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings, and he beholds the form of the Lord.”
He speaks to some in dark sayings, dreams and visions. I have always been a vivid dreamer but without interpretation of the dreams. My wife interprets dreams and has helped me understand the language and symbols of dreams. I had my first open-eyed vision at age 20 when I looked into Heaven and saw God with my deceased wife and infant son. That vision became the grist of my calling to minister love to all who would receive it across the world. It is my primary calling today in whatever I do. And it all came from a Heavenly download born of a great tragedy in my life immediately followed by this open vision.
Also, this Scripture tells us in this passage that with a few, God speaks mouth to mouth. He plants His words in our mouth and we speak His words often in an involuntary way. Something like this happened to me when I was called in 2001 to begin caring for dumpsite and under the bridge children in the Philippines. I heard God speaking, my spirit and through my mouth that I would see to it that these children and those like them all over the world would be delivered by education and pastoral oversight and discipleship. I believe He said to me that we would see transformation of these children, their families , their communities and their nation, one child at a time.
When speaking to some, He speaks openly as a person would speak to another person. With others He allows them to behold His form. This has happened to me numerous times over my lifetime.
John Sandford’s book, The Elijah Task, was the first book that really touched my heart about being able to hear God. You should purchase a copy and read it carefully and prayerfully. Reading it and then meditating on passages dealing with prophets, prophecy and the prophetic ministry put me on tract to go further and deeper into the supernatural with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
In about 1980 a noted church leader, John Wimber, singled me out while in a church conference and said to me, “The Spirit of Prophecy is all over you.” I could not wait to look up and find out what the Spirit of Prophecy is all about. I found it:
Revelation 19:10 “Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said* to me, "Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."
Prophecy is the only spiritual gift that is mentioned in all four categories of spiritual gifts in the Bible. The Scriptures say that all should prophesy and that no one should despise the prophetic gifting. Very clear instructions are given for the functioning of this powerful gift. In subsequent essays I will deal specifically with these guidelines because they are most helpful to those walking in this gifting.
Years ago, I made the decision that in our church and in our ministry we would begin living by prophetic mandate. That is, we would first hear God on what He wanted to do and then we would seek to do just that. He says it and we do it. His blessings in our family and church began to freely flow once that decision was made. We still practice this.
For me personally, I found that being filled with the Holy Spirit opened my own spirit to begin receiving directly from God. Holy Spirit started revealing the testimony of Jesus to me. I discovered that I could see through and discern things going on around me as never before. The Spirit of Prophecy has been good to me.
In August, 2000, I heard the Lord that I was to begin writing a brief and daily prophetic word to those who would like to hear regularly from the Lord based upon the scriptures and everyday thing we all experience. January 6, 2001, we began publishing “What the Lord Is Saying Today” and published it daily since. We have written daily no matter what nation, state, city or home we might be in at the time.
One morning in 2007, the Lord clearly spoke to me in morning prayers to tell my wife Bev that He wanted her to start writing her prophetic word daily and that it was not to exceed 111 words. She has not missed a day. Thousands are blessed since we first published her first daily word on December 4, 2007.
“What the Lord Is Saying Today” now goes to over 30,000 people in over 50 nations. Glory be to God. The Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy!
END NOTE: 1 Samuel 10:6 “Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you mightily, and you shall prophesy with them and be changed into another man.”
Ras Robinson
Ras Robinson serves as President, Fullness in Christ Ministries and is a daily writer for "What the Lord Is Saying Today." You can reach him by e‐mail at: Contact Us.
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