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| Lake Erie shoreline |
Our primary goal in life is not to hear God speak to us, but to be in a loving relationship with him and our brothers and sisters in the kingdom of God. Only if we are maturing people in a loving relationship with God and others will we hear him correctly. How weird it would be to want to hear God speak to me while not wanting to be in relationship with him, or in community with God's people. That would be using God for our own selves, which would be futility, since God will not be used by anyone.
Dallas Willard writes:
"Only our communion with God provides the appropriate context for communications between us and him. And within those communications, guidance will be given in a manner suitable to our particular lives and circumstances. It will fit into our life together with God in his earthly and heavenly family. Again, this is our first preliminary insight to help us in our learning to discern God’s voice." (Willard, Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God, p. 42)
