#377- John Eldredge // The Masculine Journey: Relying on the Voice of God

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Welcome to the Daily Blade.
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The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil.
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Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight.
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Let's sharpen up.
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Friends, welcome back.
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John Eldridge here, author of Wild at Heart, sitting in this week for Kyle and Joby.
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It's a real honor to be here with you.
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This is day four of my opportunity to look at some of the biblical stories of how God works in the lives of men.
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Yesterday we looked at the story in Genesis and how much God loves using human partners.
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And obviously, we saw that with Ananias, we saw it with Saul.
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And now we're going to look at an episode from the life of David, one of God's great partners.
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This story comes from 2 Samuel chapter 5.
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When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, they went up in full force to search for him.
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But David heard about it and went down to the stronghold.
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Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the valley of Rephaim.
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So David inquired of the Lord, Shall I go and attack the Philistines?
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Will you deliver them into my hands?
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And the Lord answered him, Go, for I will surely deliver the Philistines into your hands.
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So David went to Baal Perazim, and there he defeated them.
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He said, As waters break out, the Lord is broken out against my enemies before me.
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Now what's important is there's a part two of this story.
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The text literally goes right on to say, Once again the Philistines came up and spread out in the valley of Rephaim.
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And so David inquired of the Lord.
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And this time God answered, Do not go straight up, but circle around behind them and attack them in front of the poplar trees.
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As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the poplar trees, move quickly, because that will mean the Lord has gone out in front of you to strike the Philistine army.
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So David did as the Lord commanded him, and he struck down the Philistines, all the way from Gibeon to Gazer.
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Okay, another beautiful story of God's engagement with his friends, with his men, and some key lessons here.
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First off, notice that David also has a partnership mentality.
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He and God talk about things, they strategize things together.
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And I want to say, my brothers, if I could give you one gift, one wish for you, one prayer, is that you would develop your ability to hear the voice of God.
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Okay.
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So, because notice the big lesson here.
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There is a principle to the life of men.
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There's just something baked into us.
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And the old saying goes, give a boy a hammer, and the whole world looks like a nail.
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Men will lock on to a certain set of tools, a certain set of gifting.
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They'll lock on to their sense of humor or their brilliance.
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They'll lock on to a commanding style of leadership.
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They will lock onto what works.
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And then we just work it.
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We just work it and work it and work it.
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But that's not how, that's not how God works.
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You see, you know, the first time he says, Yeah, go, go now, you're going to get the Philistines.
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The next time he says to David, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
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No, that's not what we're doing this time.
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This time you're going to circle around behind, you're going to wait till you hear the angelic army marching in the trees above you, and then you're going to move quickly.
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Okay, don't delay, move quickly.
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So you see, God doesn't let David just rely on his experience and his toolkit.
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This is really important to what it's about to following Jesus.
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Because, guys, you can't master enough principles, you can't memorize enough scriptures to navigate the complexity of this world that we find ourselves in, right?
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Your daughter is unique, your marriage is unique, you've got childhood trauma you're trying to heal, you've got supervisors who are complete idiots.
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Like you can't just seize upon a few principles that work for you and just work them and work them and work them.
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Instead, God is inviting us to listen and to follow Him.
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Sometimes to wait.
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No, wait.
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Okay.
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It's all about following Jesus.
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And so I think as we close today, the question is where are you in developing your ability to hear God's voice?
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This is just like learning to ride a bike, drive a car, swing a golf club.
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Okay.
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It's like anything else you enjoy in your life.
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Play an instrument.
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It takes time.
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It's a little wobbly at first, but practice listening for the voice of God.
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Don't start in the big questions.
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Don't start in the dramatic.
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That's too hard.
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You start in the simple things.
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Lord, do you want us to invite my parents over?
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Lord, do you want me to say yes to the church's request for me to volunteer?
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Lord, what are you saying?
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In the simple things, learn to hear his voice.
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Practice listening.
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That's how we come into a true partnership with him.
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Thank you for listening to today's episode.
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Before you go, if you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five star rating and review.
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Stay sharp.