Overcoming Obstacles – Getting Ourselves Aligned with God

Lyttelton Methodist Church Home Group and Bible Study Group Notes Based on the ‘Called’ Sermon Series Overcoming Obstacles – Getting Ourselves Aligned with God

1 Samuel 3:1 – 21

Introduction

We all suffer from the effects of being directionally challenged at various points along our faith journey. We anxiously step out into the unknown, praying to hear a voice. We arrive at the intersection of opportunities or big decisions and wonder which is the correct way. Should we follow the path on the left or the right? Where is God leading us? How do we live out our unique callings in this particular season of our lives? How do we use our gifts and passions as an expression of our faith and love for God? We desperately desire to have lives of meaning and purpose. We want to experience the joy and fulfilment that happens when we are connected to our passions. We want to know that our lives have made a difference. How do we discern the path God calls us toward, and how can we be sure we hear God’s voice clearly?

Anyone who has ever felt this pull and needed guidance can attest to the difficulties and barriers that often stand as one anxiously waits for the next set of directions. Listening to God’s voice is an essential part of our journey of discovery, yet at times it almost seems impossible. We go to great lengths to hear God’s voice. We fast. We pray. We ask the advice of others hoping that maybe God will speak. The Bible makes it seem so easy! And yet, so often, we are met with silence or delayed responses. Sometimes the directions are clear, but the reasons are questionable. Then there are times when the destinations are obvious, but the path from here to there is ambiguous or illogical. Where are the burning bushes, signs from heaven or even the still small voices? Where is the divine GPS?

So, we begin our journey acknowledging the barriers that will be present as we desperately seek to hear from God. What stands in our way? What prevents us from hearing and discerning God’s voice clearly, and how can we move past these obstacles? These are the most common barriers that are discovered when it comes to hearing or mishearing God: Lack of recognition, dead spots, difficulty of hearing heard things, and mistaken identity. The story of the prophet Samuel helps us identify these barriers and how we might begin to overcome them. We look at them not through the lens of someone who had it all figured out but through the story of someone who heard God’s voice and was utterly confused. While we admire those that clearly hear from God through burning bushes and mountaintop experiences, the majority of us have a story similar to that of Samuel.

Opening Prayer (Open with the following prayer or one of your own): Loving God, at times it can be hard to hear Your voice. We want to live with purpose and meaning. We want to follow You, but so often it is hard to find the way. Yet even in these times we trust that You do speak. Open our ears and our hearts. Remove the barriers that prevent us from hearing Your voice and fill us with Your Holy Spirit so that we might follow Your will and direction for our lives. In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen.

Icebreaker Questions (Choose a couple of the questions most suited to your group):

• • Have you ever gotten lost? What happened? What did it feel like?
• • How did you find your way back? Which options or voices did you listen to in order to get you back on the right path?
• • How are you with directions? Do you feel confident getting from one place to another, or do you find it difficult? Why or why not?

Scripture Focus: Read 1 Samuel 3:1 – 21 together as a group (Feel free to read the text in various translations).

Bible Study Questions: The idea behind the following questions is not necessarily that you and your group work through all of the questions, but that you identify and select the most relevant questions for your group, and then take the necessary time to discuss and unpack those questions:

1. Why do you think that the Lord called to Samuel repeatedly? Why didn’t Samuel recognize God’s voice at first? What did Eli do to help Samuel understand what was happening? How did Eli’s advice guide Samuel in responding to God?

2. Have you ever sensed that God might be speaking to you? How did you know? What voices are speaking to you today? Think about all the voices you hear on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Which of these might be voices through whom God can speak? How would you recognize if God were speaking to you through one of these voices?

3. Samuel’s initial barrier was his inability to recognize God’s voice. He heard God but was unsure of who was speaking. This almost seems out of place considering Samuel spent most of his time in the temple working for God. He was not unaware or ignorant of religious practices. However, when the opportunity presented itself, he could not differentiate God’s voice from the other voices in his life, especially the voice of his mentor, Eli. The lack of recognition is a familiar barrier. Recognition assumes a certain level of familiarity, which requires both learning and patience. When have you had to learn a new skill? How did you go about doing it? How long did it take to master (maybe you are still working on it)? What was the role of practice as you learned this skill? What was the role of failure? Of learning from other people? What opportunities have you had to “practice” listening to God? What experiences have given you an opportunity to learn what God’s voice sounds like?
4. If God spoke in only one way, this might have made it easier for Samuel. It might have expedited the learning. But God has been known to speak through clouds, fire, rain, floods, plagues, famines, men, women, music, miracles, and blinding light—just to name a few! That night, God spoke to Samuel through an audible voice that sounded at least somewhat like Eli. There are an infinite number of ways God gets our attention. It takes time to develop this skill of recognizing when and how God speaks to us. Listening requires learning. Learning requires patience. We train ourselves to listen to God’s voice and recognize when it speaks. It takes a willingness, just like Samuel, to keep laying down until we get the clarity we need or the competency is developed. We place so much pressure on ourselves to get it right the first time. We get frustrated when we have to lie down again and again. But remember, Samuel didn’t understand or comprehend the events the first time around. In which ways have you grown impatient, either with yourself or with God’s process of speaking to you, as it relates to hearing God’s voice? Why did you become impatient or frustrated? Have you identified your spiritual place, just as Samuel had, whereby God’s voice becomes more familiar to you? If so, what are those personal spaces and places that have assisted your familiarity with God’s voice? If not, why not? What are some ways right now that you can practice listening and learn what God’s voice sounds like in your life?

5. Our faith journeys will undoubtedly include seasons or situations when hearing from God becomes difficult. We check the lines of communication and realize that maybe the problem is not with the sender, but rather that we are not in a good place to hear from God. This is known as being in a spiritual dead zone. The first dead zone is distractions. We live in a culture that prides itself on productivity and the perception of busyness. From the moment our day begins, we are bombarded with to-do lists, social media notifications, and emails that need our responses. What things in your life would you describe as distractions? Whether these are to-do lists or notifications or worries, what occupies your attention and prevents you from hearing God’s voice? In which ways do these aspects of your life distract you from positioning yourself to hear God more clearly? And how, if at all, could you minimize these distractions?

6. In his call narrative, Samuel was invited to go back to sleep so that he could hear from God. God spoke when he was lying down. When he rose, thinking Eli called him, Eli told him three times to go back to sleep. God spoke to Samuel at night, in the quiet, in a space free from the things vying for his attention so that he could give God his full attention. While the ideal space looks different for many people, the outcome is the same. We can move out of a dead spot by intentionally removing or reprioritizing certain aspects of our lives so that we can we give God the attention that God deserves. God spoke to Samuel at night, when he was lying down, with all distractions silenced. Where is your quiet place? When or where are potential distractions diminished, leaving space in your mind and heart for you to recognize God’s voice? How can you intentionally devote more attention to God?

7. “It’s not that God is silent, it’s that our distractions are sometimes too loud. If the enemy can distract you from your time alone with God, then he can isolate you from the help that comes from God alone. This destruction by distraction is difficult to detect when it’s happening, because it doesn’t involve bad things but good things that take the place of the most important things. When the enemy sends distractions, they never look like distractions until they are finished distracting you.” Do you agree with this quote and statement? Why or why not?

8. Disobedience is another dead spot—times when we purposefully turn away from God and follow our own way. The beginning of 1 Samuel 3 reminds us that, “The Lord’s word was rare at that time.” There were not many recorded divine visitations or notable revelations. This was not an indication of God’s inability to speak but of the community’s inability to listen. This was one of many periods in the history of Israel when they failed to obey God’s commands and expectations. God spoke to Samuel near the end of the time of the judges when Israel wavered between obedience and disobedience. They set their own standards. Have you ever found it difficult to hear God’s voice because you were disobeying God? If so, what happened? The more we listen and obey, the easier it becomes to hear God’s voice. What can you do to obey God more faithfully? Where in your life right now do you feel tension between God’s way and your own way? What would it mean for you to follow God’s way?

9. This is what made Samuel unique. In a period where the word of God was rare, Samuel heard God calling his name. It wasn’t his experience that made him stand out. It wasn’t the influence that he amassed over the years. He was different simply because he was willing to obey when God was directing his purpose. “We have all the access when need to the word of God, but it’s our attitude towards the word of God that needs to be challenged and confronted. It’s not about access, but rather about attitude. When the word of God becomes common to us, we might have access to it, but it won’t have impact on our lives. The culture in Samuel’s time was a culture of neglect, whereby the value of who God was and what God said was negotiable; therefore there was an absence of the special presence and power of God. The word of the Lord was rare, because the Lord of the word had become common to the people.” Do you agree with this quote and statement? Why or why not?

10. A third and final dead zone is our difficulty of hearing hard things. Sometimes we pursue our own way because God says something we don’t want to hear. In these cases, we act as if we don’t hear God because God’s voice is telling us a hard truth or calling us to a hard course of action. That often times when God tells us something that’s hard to hear, it will require a conversation with something difficult to say. What message did God give to Samuel (1 Samuel 3:11 – 21)? How do you think Samuel felt when he heard this message? Why was Samuel afraid to relay God’s message to Eli?

11. We need to be warned about the temptation to be “always already listening,” that is, listening to God with a pre-determined understanding of what God will say. We want something pleasant or affirming, so we listen for those things and ignore other messages God might be trying to communicate to us. It’s a way to describe the act of listening that is already preset to certain messages. We listen for the outcome that always confirms what we already believe to be true. We listen for certain hoped-for messages or tune out or downplay answers that might cause us to rethink things. Another way to say this is, we hear only what we want to hear. How can you open yourself to God’s voice, including the things you may not want to hear? What is something God might be calling you to say or do that might be difficult? Is there a calling or nudging in your life that seems challenging or risky?

12. “What is God calling me to do?” It’s a question that many people of faith continuously ask on their journey of discovery. This is known as a sense of mistaken identity. Underneath our search for what is a subtle assumption that our purpose is attached to a particular sets of tasks: a career, a position, a role. As a result, our identities are mistakenly tied to job titles and responsibilities that can be too easily taken away. We can’t hear God’s voice in our passions because we are starting with the wrong questions. We are looking to find the answers in positions that are temporal and many times unsustainable. However, when God gets the attention of Samuel, God does not bombard Samuel with a list of responsibilities or have an in-depth conversation about Samuel’s calling. Instead, three times, God simply calls Samuel’s name. With every call of Samuel’s name, God affirms that Samuel is a child of God. Samuel’s task and calling will shift and change between being a prophet, priest and judge; but his identity remains the same. Why do you think we place more emphasis on the tasks we are given versus the people we are called to become? What things or responsibilities have you attached to your identity and purpose?

13. Which barriers do you often find are the most difficult to overcome as your listen for God’s voice? What are the unique ways that God speaks to you? Are there spaces that you revisit to help amplify God’s voice?

Conclusion:

• CLARITY FROM CHRIST in the midst of refusing to recognize God’s voice in the midst of our passions, plans and purposes.
• COMMITMENT TO CHRIST when encountering spiritual dead zones such as distractions, disobedience and difficulty hearing hard messages from God.
• Being CENTERED IN CHRIST when we mistake our own identity as anything less than being God’s children.


Close your time together with the following prayer or offer one of your own:

Eternal God, thank You for speaking to us. Thank You for creating us as Your children and for calling us by name. We trust that it is in You and You alone that we find purpose, and we open ourselves to Your word. By Your Holy Spirit, remove every barrier that would prevent us from hearing Your voice. Speak, Lord, for Your servants are listening. Amen.