The 5-Question Filter

As I have been thinking through the 5-Question Filter, I have also been thinking about specific areas where I need to listen for God's voice. Unfortunately, I have not been looking for it. Instead I have been validating decisions I made totally on my own because of this, that or the other thing.

I would like to move to Wisconsin next year to be closer to my brother. He and his wife are expecting their first baby in a little over 2 weeks. My brother and I grew up away from any extended family and I missed that experience. When I or my brother had kids, I didn't want them to miss out on the experience of being close to family. Since it is just me, I would have an easier time moving to another state.

But there is another reason why I want to be there. My brother's life today does not model his upbringing. It breaks my heart of see him living his life so far away from the Lord. His wife was not raised in a Christian home and they will be bringing their sweet baby girl into a home where Jesus is not served. That is a scary reality to me.

Yesterday, Proverbs 31 Ministries posted this prayer on their Facebook page.

Dear Lord, today we pray on behalf of our loved ones and stand strong in You and in Your mighty power against the powers of darkness.

Please block the tricky lies of the enemy and fill them with Your truth. Where they have turned their backs on You, we ask for them to return with repentant hearts, knowing they are accepted. In Jesus' name, amen.

This is not a prayer I pray everyday for my brother and his family, but it needs to be.

I know I have strayed a little off topic. All of this is to say that I want to make sure I know I am hearing God's voice in the big decisions and the little ones. Moving several hundred miles is a big decision. But is that where God wants me to be, even though I want to be a light in my brother's every day life? I need to first be following God with all of my heart. I can't allow myself or things around me to be louder than God. If He isn't first, then I won't be able to hear Him.

...And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.

I Kings 19: 11-12 (ESV)

Sometimes I need God to yell, but I can't always expect that.

Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the national, I will be exalted in the earth!

Psalm 46:10 (ESV)

God is not a God of coincidences. He is a God of purpose. He has a plan. He has a plan for me. The 5-Question Filter - 

• Does what I'm hearing line up with Scripture?
• Is it consistent with God's character?
• Is it being confirmed through messages I'm hearing at church or studying in my quiet times?
• Is it beyond me?
• Would it please God?

- will allow me to better discern what God is saying to me. But I can't forget to listen.