Listen To The King

In this episode of the Manhood Tribes Show, host Don Ross explores the connection between being a man and listening to God. 

We dive into the idea of how spiritual growth, specifically through following Jesus, can be transformative when experienced within a 'tribe' of close male friends. 

We discuss what sets a tribe apart from traditional church men's groups and how it can significantly impact various aspects of our lives, including career, relationships, finances, and most importantly, our spiritual journey. 

We cover practical guidelines on listening to the voice of God, the importance of community, and a four-test method (Scripture, Community, Peace, and Fruit) to discern God's voice accurately. 

Ross also invites listeners to participate in developing a resource to help build their own tribes.

00:00 Introduction: God and Manhood
00:44 Resource Highlight: How Manly Are You?
01:17 Welcome to the Manhood Tribe Show
01:33 The Importance of Male Friendships
02:22 Spiritual Life and Male Tribes
03:15 Following Jesus as a Tribe
03:33 Tribes vs. Church Men's Groups
04:58 Transformational Spiritual Growth
07:12 Listening to the Voice of God
09:11 Practical Steps for Hearing God
17:05 Tests to Discern God's Voice
26:05 Conclusion and Call to Action

Want to know how you measure up as a man? Take our free quiz, called How Manly Are You? and learn how you can get better at being a man. Download for free at manhoodtribes.com/manly.

Transcript

0:00

How much does God have to do with how you think of yourself as a man? For many men, being a man is really kind of about our day to day living and how we think of God sometimes has very little to do with that. Today on the main, who tribes show, we need to talk about this idea of what God has to do with what it means for us to be a man. Let's dive into that today.

Don Ross: 0:45

Guys want to know how you measure up as a man? I've got a great resource for you. It's called how manly are you? And it's a free quiz that you can take to figure out how you stack up against what it means to be a man. And when you take the quiz, you'll also get some free resources to help you figure out how you can get better as a man in the areas where you would like to grow. So go to manhoodtribes.com/manly to download your free. How manly are you quiz today? That's manhoodtribes.com/manly.

1:18

Men welcome to the manhood tribe show. My name is Don Ross. I'm your host here at manhood tribes. And today is going to be a pretty unique episode as we continue this series about how to build close France. Now, as men, I have been saying all along that we need close male friends in our lives. We need a tribe. We, in order to become the. Extraordinary men that we are meant to be. We need to have a group of men around us who are going to help us grow, who are going to challenge us, who are going to help us transform into the kind of men that we really want to be. And that's going to affect us in a ton of ways in all aspects of our lives. In the way that we relate to other people in the way that we think about and talk about ourselves in the way that we handle our finances in the way that we think about our longterm career goals, all of these things are going to be impacted by a transformational group of men around us. But one of the things that is also going to be impacted that we as men probably don't often talk about enough. Is our spiritual life. The way that we think about and relate to God. Now here on the manhood tribes show, I've not made any secret of the fact that I am a Christian. I even have a whole episode about following the king where I really advocate for the fact that I believe that Jesus of Nazareth is our best ultimate allegiance as men, and that we should follow him as not only the best man who ever was, but also truly as God that he is meant to be our north star and to help us really understand everything about our lives. Not just how to be a man, but also, especially that. So I don't want to rehash all of those things that I've already talked about, but if you miss that episode, go back and watch that episode about following the king. Today. I want to kind of pick up from that and talk a little bit about how a tribe might follow the king together. And what does that really kind of look like as a group of men, try to follow Jesus. And how that's going to impact you as you do that together as a tribe. Now I want to be clear that as I talk about this idea of tribe and I've kind of mingled it together with some ideas about Christianity, that it might be easy for some of you guys who are watching, who are maybe more familiar with the church or with Christian men men's groups in particular, that you might just be thinking that a tribe is just some other version of a church men's group that you've already been a part of. Is this really just like. You know yet another men's Bible study to go to. And I want to say to you explicitly that no, it is not what a tribe does together is really different than what you're probably standard church men's group is going to normally do together. Now that's not to knock men's groups and a church. Some of those can be really good, but judging by the fact that most men's groups are not well attended, most churches have far fewer men in groups than they have women. And in general, men just don't seem to be interested in those kinds of groups. Uh, there's probably some room for growth and improvement when it comes to what it looks like for a church. To do men's groups together and really what it looks like for us as men to do groups together and the way that we pursue God. And so that's, what I want to talk about today is what are we talking about when we say that a tribe is going to help you transform spiritually? That is going to help you follow the king. I believe that by being part of a tribe, you are going to have the best spiritual life that you've ever had. It is going to create new and fresh ways for you to be able to encounter God, not only on your own, but especially in the context of community. And because of that, you are going to grow by leaps and bounds and what it means to relate to God. But also in terms of how that affects you as a man in every aspect of your life. It really will be a remarkable process. And I bet you're going to experience things spiritually that you never have before, and maybe never even knew that you could, but that's not going to come by just doing the same old, same old thing that you might've done in a church men's group before, or might have never done, because that really kind of never seemed like your thing. So, what does that look like to do that kind of spiritual life together as a tribe? How does a group of men follow the king together? Well, as I mentioned, it's not by doing the same old things. So let me give some specifics. It's not by just having a Bible study together with a group of men. Okay. A tribe is not a Bible study. Now that doesn't mean that I think Bible study is bad. In fact, I studied the Bible regularly. I think that's a really good thing to do. And it's a good thing to do in the context of community. That's just not what we do at a tribe. I tribe is also not a group that's devoted to service, whether that's serving at your church with your kid's ministry or parking cars, or, you know, whatever else you might do on a Saturday or Sunday at your church. Like those are not the things that you're going to be doing as a part of a tribe. You might do those things as a man, but that's not primarily what your tribe is about. It's also not about community service, like at a soup kitchen or a food pantry or habitat for humanity or some other kind of community. Community service oriented organization. Again, those things are good. Those are good things for men to do and to get involved with in your community. But that's not primarily how you're going to grow spiritually in the context of a tribe. And a tribe. Your spiritual growth is going to mostly revolve around one discipline in particular. And that's going to be the discipline of listening to the voice of God. Learning to listen to God speaking to you directly. Now for some of you, even as I say that that might sound a little weird, a little wooey a little like off the map, maybe even a little off limits. And let me just reassure you that listening to the voice of God has been a discipline that Christians throughout church history have practiced. In many times. And in many places, it has really only been in the last few centuries in the west. Where we have very much focused on rational thought and have been influenced by science and the enlightenment era that we have gotten away from anything that feels kind of remotely supernatural. So anything that's kind of subjective or experience oriented, we've had a much harder time with in the west because we've just been skeptical of those kinds of things. And maybe rightly so. There's definitely evidence of experiences that are just far-fetched and, you know, It seemed to be completely made up and are done in the name of Jesus. I'm not advocating for those kinds of things. What I am saying is that it is a long standing discipline and tradition throughout church history, where people have listened to and heard the voice of the Lord speaking to them and use that as a way to help guide them, to nourish them, to grow them and to direct them and what it means to be someone who follows Jesus as king. And so we, as men want to learn to do the same. And honestly, a tribe is the best place to be able to do that. It's a really good place to do that because you're doing it in community. And so you have some natural accountability built into what you're doing and how you're practicing this discipline. So you're much less likely to go off the rails than you would be. If you were maybe just practicing this on your own. So. Before I get into kind of those specifics, let's just say, what are we talking about? What does it mean to listen to the voice of God? Like, what does that practice actually look like? How do you do that? What does hearing God sound like? How do you know what. What those things are. Let's talk about all of those things. Okay. I'm not going to go too terribly in detail in this video, but I want to give you a little bit of a rough sketch of what it looks like to listen to the voice of God as a tribe and how you might. Find with a little bit of certainty, if it really is the voice of God that you're hearing from. Now I want to say. I'm advocating for this practice of listening to the voice of God, for anyone who is trying to follow Jesus as king. If you are not following Jesus as king, then I don't advocate this practice. And again, without going into too much detail, what I will say is that there are other spiritual forces at work in the world besides just Jesus. And because of that, they have the ability to speak and to influence as well. And if you're going to get in touch with the spiritual world, but not do it through the lens of following Jesus. You're putting yourself at risk at following spiritual powers. Who aren't interested in your best. They are interested in their best and they might use you to accomplish their best again. If you're unfamiliar with the spiritual world, some of this might sound really unusual and really different. That's okay. We might have opportunity further on down the road here on this podcast, to be able to talk about that some more, but for today, let me just say that I'm really only advocating this practice for those who are choosing to follow Jesus as their king and can trust that they're hearing his voice and that his voice is really the only one that is trustworthy. Okay. So what does that look like? I've talked about before, when I did our episode on the chiseling process, you remember, we talked about the idea that as a tribe, Uh, gathers together. One of the things they're going to do is chisel each other, and that acronym chisel stands for choose, identify, share, explore, and listen. That last part of listening is really all about listening to the voice of God. So you want to spend a little time at the end of your chiseling sessions, being able to just tune in to, what does Jesus want to say to this man who we have just chiseled. And this is going to be. Often the most rich time of your time together as a tribe. But to do it, you want to follow a few certain guidelines to kind of help you be able to tune into God's voice, to pay attention to what he's saying and just to learn how to be able to do this well. The first thing that you're going to want to do is just get quiet. Sometimes it is really hard to hear God's voice, but it is always hard to hear God's voice when we've got lots of noise and distraction going on around us. So if for any reason you've had the TV on, in the background or music on or anything like that, while you've been meeting as a tribe, which I don't recommend. But if you have turn all of that off, turn off the distractions. Put away your phones have everybody just put their phones on silence. Maybe even move the phones away. So you're not tempted to in the middle of some quiet prayer time to be distracted by it, to pick it up and to look at what's going on with that ESPN game that I was following, or, you know, what's happening with the stock market at the moment. Like whatever things might distract you, whatever Dean goes off on your phone that might tempt you to pick it up. You just want to remove that so that you can be quiet and still and pay attention to what God is saying and not be bothered or distracted by anything else. You also just want to invite Jesus to speak. Now Jesus is going to be willing to speak whether you invite him to or not, but it helps your heart to really tune into his voice by just saying. Jesus. We would love to hear from you. Whatever you have to say to this man. We want to hear from you so that we might speak your words to him. It just helps your heart to be engaged with God's voice. And to know that he's the one who's speaking to you and you can trust his words as you listen for him. Now. As you're actually listening. You just want to tune in with, I call it the ears of your heart. Everything is going to come in the form of some kind of inner voice. It may sound a little bit like the voice in your head, if you're used to talking to yourself, which most of us are, it may initially sound a little bit like that, but you're going to over time, begin to distinguish God's voice from your own inner voice. And I'll talk a little bit more about that in just a minute. But it might not come in the form of words at all. It might actually come in the form of images or some kind of scene playing out in your mind. God is able to speak and all kinds of different ways. It might come in the form of a memory of your own. And God is prompting you to share that memory with the man who you are chiseling that night. And maybe he has something in his story that relates to your memory that you didn't even know about. But what's important. There is that you are saying what God is asking you to say, So just follow where your thoughts are going. And then the third thing that you really want to do and pay attention to is that you need to speak out loud. What you think you're hearing. Now. This is really hard to do, especially if it's something that you've never done before. It takes a lot of courage. It takes a lot of risk, honestly, because you're going to say something into the world that you're not sure. Did I just make that up? Like, where's that coming from? And initially it's going to be really vulnerable for you. And I'll be honest. You might make some mistakes. You might share some things that actually did just kind of come from your head. They didn't come from. Uh, God's voice and that's okay. That's okay. To just say, as you're praying and as you're sharing to just say, I think what I'm hearing is, or I think I'm seeing an image of this. Just say what you think you're experiencing as a way of being able to kind of qualify. I'm not sure if this is really from God or not, but I'm going to take a chance at sharing what I think I'm hearing or experiencing. Now. All of that can be really risky. And some of you might be hearing this and thinking. How on earth is this going to point us to Jesus? When we have no idea, if what is being seen or heard or shared, or any of that is actually coming from him, how can we trust that that's from him and not just a group of guys making up a bunch of malarkey and sharing it with each other and calling it spiritual wisdom. That's a great question. And we need to honor the fact that that is a real possibility when you do this discipline, it is really possible that you get so subjective that you actually do miss the voice. Of God. I will say from personal experience. That's more rare. Than it is regular that sometimes that can happen. But honestly, what I find is that. Jesus wants us to hear from him. He is the shepherd and we are his sheep who know his voice and he wants to communicate with us. And so he, through his spirit is there to help us. He wants to help us hear what he has to say, and we need to lean on him and trust him, knowing that occasionally we'll make some mistakes, but that's okay. The goal isn't to be perfect. The goal is to grow closer to him. And so we need some ways to help us be able to make sure that what we are hearing or what we think we're hearing, what we think that we're seeing are things that are coming from him, or at least are very likely to point us towards him. As we try to practice them or follow what it is that we're hearing or see. So let me give you a few guardrails that will help you in determining is what you're hearing, actually, the voice of God or not. Okay for tests that will help you discern if what you're hearing is from Jesus. The first is the scripture test. This is just really basic that anything that you hear or see needs to be consistent with what God has already spoken through his scriptures. God is never going to contradict what is in the scriptures. And so, because of that, anything that we think are here, if it comes into conflict with what we know to be true in the Bible, then we need to just toss it out and say, ah, that probably is not at all what God is saying. We need to make sure that we are following the truth of scripture first and the, any of these kinds of more subjective words that we might hear from God are lining up with that. As long as it passes that test, then at the very least, even if it's not directly a word from God, it probably is a word that is consistent with what God has already said. And in that regard, it can be trusted. We can follow it and we can practice it. Even if it isn't necessarily a direct answer to the thing that we might be praying about in that moment. It's at least consistent with things that God has already said to us. And that's really good now to that point, though. In order to know if what you're hearing passes, the scripture test. You need to know the scriptures. And this is a big hangup for some guys who have long avoided reading or studying the Bible, because it just seems boring. It seems like a waste of time. It's something that only like nerdy Bible people. Do, you know? I don't really want to be one of those holy rollers. Why is this worth my time? Why am I going to do this? You know, all the objections. I know all of them, I've heard all of them I've even practiced a bunch of them, myself. But the point is now you have a reason. Now you have a reason, the scriptures are your training manual for being able to know how is God speaking to you and is what you think you're hearing consistent with what you have already learned in the scriptures. You've got to know the scriptures well enough to be able to know if what you're hearing is consistent with them or not now. It will take you some time, obviously to get to know the scriptures a little bit, but a couple of resources that I would recommend to you. If you're unfamiliar with Bible reading and learning and understanding the Christian scriptures. One is called the Bible project. And one is called the YouVersion Bible app. You can look up both of those things online. They're not hard to find both of them have websites and apps and all kinds of other resources that will help you with getting to know the Bible through videos, through Bible reading plans, through all kinds of ways of engaging with the scriptures so that you can learn them well enough. And in not too long of an amount of time in order to be able to understand if what you're hearing passes, the scripture test. Okay, enough of that one. That's the first one, the scripture test. The second test is the community test. And this is why I said earlier that it's so important that we learn to listen in the context of community, because if I'm listening to God's voice along with other men who I trust, hear God's voice as well. Then it's more likely that I can be confident that even if I do say something that's a little off target, there will be some other men there who might help call that into question and say, ah, Let's make sure that that is actually from Jesus. Or if a better example might be, if in my own individual time of listening and praying with God, I feel like I hear him tell me to do something, but I'm not so sure about that. Or it seems a little extreme or seems different than what I have heard before. I can bring that to my community now and say, Hey guys, here's what I think I heard from the Lord the other day. And my time of prayer. Will you guys pray with me over the course of the next week or so, and just ask God to give you some confirmation about whether or not that word really was from him. That I didn't just make that up, or I'm not hearing it from some other spiritual voice, but that, that really did come from God. The community test is a fantastic way to involve others who are listening for Jesus's voice. To help us know if the voice we're hearing is Jesus. We can do that as a group, or we can bring what we're hearing individually into the group as a great way to help us know and confirm that God is speaking to us. Okay. So those are the first two tests to help us know and discern if what we're hearing is actually the voice of God, the scripture test and the community test. The third test is what I call the peace test. The peace test. Scripture tells us that when we submit our prayers to God, that we will have the peace of God in our hearts, which transcends all understanding. Meaning that it's a piece that we can't really explain, but even in the midst of difficulty and trial and trouble that we can feel at peace. So whenever we hear the voice of God, we should feel kind of a weighty peace that settles upon us along with those words. And this is one of the ways that I talked about. You'll learn over time. What the voice of God sounds like as opposed to kind of your own inner narrative, that they might initially sound something similar. But over time you will start to notice the weightiness of God's voice. And part of that weightiness is that it comes with peace. So sometimes even when, what you think you're hearing might be really difficult that God might be asking you to do something that feels really challenging or to say something that feels really risky. Or that what you're seeing or experiencing that you're supposed to share with your group can feel really maybe abnormal. If there is a piece that comes along with it that says, yeah, but, but this is of God. I feel peace about this. Then that might be a confirmation that you really are hearing God's voice. Now to be sure. Peace and ease are not the same thing. And sometimes we mistake those in our current culture where we think that peace comes by. Living a life of ease. If I don't ever have any trouble, then I can have peace. And those are not necessarily the same thing, especially not in the story of God and in the Bible. We see that piece very often and most prominently comes in the midst of challenge and turmoil. And so we should expect that in the midst of those kinds of things, that if we're being asked to do something difficult or challenging, or to say something difficult or challenging, that if we experience a piece along with it, that very often is confirmation that God is leading you into that thing. Okay. And the last test test number four is what I will call the fruit test. Jesus to helps us understand that we can know a tree by its fruits and what he means by that is any message or messenger. Anyone who is trying to share the things of God. Can be known by their fruits. What would be the fruit of following out the course of action that you feel like you're hearing? What would be the fruit of saying the thing that you think you've heard? What would be the fruit of sharing the vision that you're experiencing in your time of prayer? Does it seem like something that would lead to conflict or despair or anger and hatred or unkindness? Um, that might be a reason to kind of check am I really hearing this from the Lord? The fruit that comes from God is what we call the fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. Goodness, gentleness, faithfulness. Self-control. If the words that you're hearing or the images that you're seeing, or the experiences that you're having in your time of listening prayer. Are going to produce those kinds of things. When you share them, then that's a pretty good indication that what you're hearing or experiencing is from the Lord. Again, even if it isn't a direct word from God, if it would likely produce one of those things or multiple of those things, then it's at least consistent with God's word. And it's probably fine for you to share it. Okay. When you take all four of those things together, scripture, community peace and fruit. That gives you a really good grid to be able to look at and to say, am I hearing something that actually is from God or not? And even if I'm still unsure, if it at least passes, most of those tests, it's probably at least worth me sharing and worth me acting on in a way that might help bring healing transformation and all kinds of benefit to the men and our tribe. But it is going to give you a great set of guard rails to operate within. To make sure that this rather subjective process of listening to God still remains something that guides you closer and closer to Jesus and not off the rails and to just following our own whims and fancies. Okay. So I hope that this is super helpful to you. I hope that this brings some light into what it looks like to follow God as a tribe and how listening to the voice of your king. Is going to bring the utmost kind of transformation in your life. As you hear those words and experience those things together. I promise you that in my experience, as a tribe, Listening to the voice of God has been the thing. That has proven transformational. And incredible and our growth together as we follow Jesus. I hope it's going to be the same for you. Now as you listen to this, you. might be thinking, I really would love to do something like that. With a group of men, I could use a tribe like that in my life who are helping me to grow closer to Jesus in exactly that kind of way. And if that's you, then I want to encourage you by saying, I am working on developing a resource that will help men build and launch their own tribe. But to do that, I would love to get some help from you guys who might be interested in giving me some feedback so that I can know how to best develop this resource. So. So. if you're interested in both being a part of a tribe and giving me some feedback on how I could do that well for you, I would love for you to go to manhood tribes.com/launch, and put your name on the list there to help me know that you would like to participate in the building of this resource. So again, that's manhood tribes.com/launch, and I'll be in touch with you with what kind of feedback you can offer in the future. Thanks so much, guys. I hope that this was really helpful for you. And I look forward to talking to you again, next time on the manhood tribe show. I'll see you then.