Leonard Sweet - Jesus Speaks: Learning to Recognize and Respond to the Lords Voice

2016 Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by W Publishing, an imprint of Thomas Nelson.

Published in association with the literary agency of Daniel Literary Group, Nashville, TN 37027.

Thomas Nelson titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

Any Internet addresses, phone numbers, or company or product information printed in this book are offered as a resource and are not intended in any way to be or to imply an endorsement by Thomas Nelson, nor does Thomas Nelson vouch for the existence, content, or services of these sites, phone numbers, companies, or products beyond the life of this book.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc. Scripture quotations marked DARBY are from the Darby Translation. Public domain. Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version). Copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked GNT are from the Good News Translation in Todays English VersionSecond Edition. Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked HCSB are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible. Copyright 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. HCSB is a federally registered trademark of Holman Bible Publishers. Scripture quotations marked KJ are taken from the 21st Century King James Version, copyright 1994. Used by permission of Deuel Enterprises, Inc., Gary, SD 57237. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version. Public domain. Scripture quotations marked THE MESSAGE are from The Message. Copyright by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Scripture quotations marked NASB are from New American Standard Bible. Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org). Scripture quotations marked NKJV are from the New King James Version. 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NRSV are from New Revised Standard Version Bible. Copyright 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked PHILLIPS are from The New Testament in Modern English by J. B. Phillips. Copyright 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Administered by the Archbishops Council of the Church of England. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked WUEST are from The New Testament: An Expanded Translation by Kenneth S. Wuest (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1961). Scripture quotations marked YLT are from Youngs Literal Translation. Public domain.

Italics in Scripture quotations reflect the authors added emphasis.

ISBN 978-0-7180-3220-3 (HC)

ISBN 978-0-7180-3828-1 (eBook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016933597

16 17 18 19 20 RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

C ONTENTS

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

J OHN 10 : NASB

T his book is a combination of storytelling and practical instruction. Within these pages, well be taking you on an exciting journey with the risen Christ found in Scripture while giving you practical handles on how to hear His voice today.

Our aim is threefold. First, we want to give you a firm foundation in the Scriptures concerning how Jesus spoke to His disciples. We want to introduce you to the scriptures that highlight Jesus resurrection voice. Each encounter that Jesus had with His disciples in His postresurrection appearances is told in a story with multiple layers of meaning. We will unpack those for you.

Second, we want to dispel the myths and misinformation surrounding what it means to hear the voice of Jesus today. If youre like we are, when someone says, The Lord told me..., it can be a bit unsettling, even mystifying. But the truth is that Jesus speaks to all of His followers todayeven you. And He speaks in many different ways. We want to demystify those ways for you. We also want to explain how you can cultivate a rich experience and a growing relationship with Jesus simply by hearing His voice.

Lastly, we tell stories because Jesus told storiesstories filled with narratives and metaphors (Len calls them narraphors) that speak directly to the heart. The stories surrounding the resurrected Christ, the people He encountered, and what He said and did for them before ascending to heaven are informative, purposeful, lyrical, and sacred. The way Jesus continues to speak today from heaven is no less inspired.

Two Volumes Under One Cover

With those goals in mind, weve divided Jesus Speaks into two volumes.

In volume 1, written by Leonard, well hear the stories of how Jesus Christ spoke to His followers after His resurrection. Because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8), the various ways He spoke in the New Testament are the same ways in which He speaks today. This section is full of transforming insights and reflections based on the gospel material and the book of Acts.

In volume 2, written by Frank, we bring the discussion closer to home with a nuts-and-bolts analysis of how to hear Jesus today. With so many people claiming to hear the voice of God, and countless others who feel frustrated in trying to hear Him, we believe a clear, scripturally based application that dispels the fog on this issue is in order. So volume 2 is highly practical. And our instruction goes way beyond the not-so-helpful canned answer, Just pray and read your Bible.

In short, volume 1 gives you the big picture of how the resurrected Jesus spoke in the New Testament and why this knowledge is critical today. The chapters are robust, poetic in style, and filled with metaphorical language.

Volume 2 gets down to brass tacks. The chapters are deliberately short, actionable, and filled with scriptural quotes and references, so that readers can see that were rooting our conclusions in timeless truth rather than imagination or armchair philosophy, as some authors have done in the past.