Review
     1.   Human nature
               a.   You are predominantly a spiritual being with a psyche, happen to be living
          temporarily in a physical body.
               b.   Sin has perverted you so that you ignore your spirit (if you are even aware of it)
          and give your attention to the desires of your psyche and body.
               c.   It is essential to prepare your psyche for spiritual activity.

Problems that make it hard to hear God’s voice
     1.   Previous sessions
               a.   Focusing on psyche, ignoring spirit or not being aware of it
               b.   Skepticism, causes you to reject what you hear from spirit
               c.   Occult practices
               d.   Nurturing a favorite sin
               e.   Depending on others to hear God for you

     2.   Another problem: your psyche is always busy.
               a.   Functions of your psyche: conscious awareness, thought, intellect, feelings,
          emotions, decisiveness
               b.   Your spirit and body give inputs to your psyche, which has function of
          decisiveness
                         i.   evaluates inputs and chooses how to respond
                         ii.  sin has warped this function, causes it to be dominant
                         iii. psyche is accustomed to being in control (mind, emotions)
                         iv.  very natural/easy to reject inputs from your spirit
               c.   Lots to think about, lots going on. People & things around you demanding your
          attention.
               d.   You even occupy your mind with TV, radio, music, etc; call it entertainment or
          relaxing, in reality is distracting & preoccupying.
               e.   God speaks gently, not by overpowering you.
                         i.   1 Kings 19:12-13, God spoke to Elijah; Elijah recognized God speaking
               in whisper, not in severe wind, earthquake or fire
                         ii.  If the one you love wants to speak to you, you turn down anything that
               would interfere; don't expect them to yell to get your attention or make
               themselves heard.
               f.   Appropriate to give God opportunities to speak and develop an attitude that
          makes it easy to speak to you anytime.

                 Preparing Your Mind to Hear God

Importance of transforming your psyche (soul: mind, feelings)
     1.   Several functions of psyche that influence the condition of your spirit and from whom
     you receive spiritual input:
               a.   What you normally think about; what preoccupies your thinking
               b.   How you handle extraneous and inappropriate thoughts/feelings
               c.   How quickly/naturally you turn to God
               d.   How frequently you think about God and communicate with him.

     2.   When you focus on evil attitudes and situations, thoughts predominantly evil
     (destructive, fearful, accusative, negative)
               a.   By entertaining your sinful nature with evil, giving permission for Satan to
          influence/persuade you
               b.   Result: more spontaneous flow from Satan

     3.   When you focus on self or events and facts around you:
               a.   union of HS with your spirit allows intermittent injections of HS ideas
               b.   but your mind & your spirit produce most of spontaneous flow/thoughts
               c.   Why? preoccupied with self, what’s happening to you

     4.   When you focus on God, flow becomes increasingly divine; flow from Satan and own
     spirit decrease.
               a.   If you center down and focus on Jesus, your spirit begins speaking what the HS
          speaks; in sync with HS, flowing in HS power and intuition/creativity.
               b.   Your intuition progresses beyond your subconscious knowledge (from your
          spirit) to things God reveals.

     5.   Repentance is changing your mind, the way you think
               a.   Involves deliberately changing your attitudes, perspective, standards, thoughts,
          feelings (yes, you can change your feelings)
               b.   Repentance is vital part of your salvation; current phase
               c.   Makes you more godly, also key to your ability to recognize God’s voice

Calming Your Environment
     1.   Your mind receives inputs through senses about your environment; need to control
     your environment
     2.   Mk 1:35  "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the
     house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed."
               a.   Jesus frequently withdrew to a secluded place to pray.
               b.   It's important to eliminate distractions. God can & does speak to you over
          distractions, but it would benefit you to eliminate as many as possible.
               c.   This is absolutely essential when first learning this new skill.
               d.   Another point: praying is two-way dialog, not monolog; Jesus spent lot of time
          praying

Calming Your Body
     1.   If you are physically uncomfortable, your body makes demands of your mind; distracts
     your mind from your spirit.

     2.   If you are physically active, your mind may be too preoccupied with the activity.
               a.   Doing something that doesn't require much thought or attention will not
          interfere.
               b.   Easy driving, showering, cleaning should not to be a problem.
               c.   Any skilled or intense activity will be a distraction:  sports, hard work, intense
          concentration, etc.

     3.   Recommendation:
               a.   Until you become experienced at hearing God, sit comfortably and do nothing
          physically.
               b.   As you become experienced dialoging with God, will discover that you can do it
          easily during light activity.
               c.   With skill, can dialog under any conditions

Calming Your Mind (this is the hard one)
     1.   Mind is vulnerable to many distractions:
               a.   desires, emotions, things to do, favorite topics, etc.
               b.   it's accustomed to being in charge, making decisions, doing what it wants.

     2.   Most frequent solution to learning or problem solving is to concentrate!  Make the
     mind work harder!
               a.   Increases mind’s control; opposite of calming your mind.
               b.   For most of us, the only time we let our brains relax is when we're too tired to
          concentrate anymore; then we use "entertainment" to relax, which is mental
          busy-work.
               c.   Ps 46:10  "Be still, and know that I am God."
               d.   Cannot be forced or done under pressure.
               e.   Allow your mind to relax & focus gently on God.

     3.   (if time permits, 3-4 minutes) Try experiment:
               a.   Think about the chair you're sitting in; form a mental image of it and hold that
          mental picture [pause a few seconds].
               b.   How many other topics came to mind while you concentrated on the chair?
                         i.   person next to you, how long you need to do this silly exercise, what
               you will do later, how uncomfortable the chair is, etc.
               c.   Mind is accustomed to being very active, dealing with a lot of different things
          continuously.
               d.   To maintain the mental image, you may have concentrated more intensely (made
          your brain work harder).
               e.   Normally, you control your mind by making it work harder.
               f.   Your goal, however, is to quieten your mind, not concentrate harder.
               g.   Try experiment again: try to relax physically, calm your mind, think about your
          chair and hold a mental image of it a few seconds.

     4.   Dealing with mental distractions when trying to hear God
               a.   Random thoughts:  form a mental image of Jesus; won't stop random thoughts
          but will reduce them.
               b.   Things to do:  write down important random thoughts so you don't have to try
          to remember them
               c.   Remembering is a mental activity, focuses your mind, distracts from hearing
          God
               d.   Becoming more aware of your sinful condition:
                         i.   as you sensitize yourself to God and become aware of his presence,
               frequently become aware of your sinfulness.
                         ii.  That’s okay. Like wearing a dirty shirt then standing in bright light.
               Light didn’t make shirt dirty; made you aware of its condition.
                         iii. confess your sin & accept God's forgiveness.
               e.   Point:  take positive steps to deal with mental distractions, so you can relax
          your mind & focus on Jesus.

Practice (5 minutes)
     1.   Our environment is favorable.
     2.   Sit comfortably in your chair; be prepared to write.
               a.   Writing what God says is important:
                         i.   trying to remember is mental activity; want to relax your mind.
                         ii.  writing gives you a record you can review or discuss later.
               b.   On your paper write: “Inner stillness”
     3.   Gently focus on a mental image of Jesus, who he is, his desire to have relationship with
     you.
     4.   Sit quietly, maintain your mental image [pause briefly]
     5.   Ask the Lord to speak to you about inner stillness; write down anything that comes to
     your mind — words, feelings, mental images
     6.   [Wait 1-2 minutes]
               a.   Everyone: write down what you sensed. If nothing, write “I didn’t sense
          anything.” Benefit of “I didn’t sense anything”:
                         i.   measure progress.
                         ii.  shows you’re not making stuff up.
               b.   What did God seem to say?
               c.   Class:
                         i.   Is this something God might say? Satan? Come from own spirit?
                         ii.  Was it compatible with scripture?
     7.   Next week: Activating your spirit