God's Voice
The City Blessing Church theme for 2025 is TRANSFORMATION. True transformation begins with hearing the voice of God. Hearing God’s voice is not always easy or difficult—it requires understanding how God speaks. More often than not, God speaks through His God-breathed Word, the Bible. Before it was ever printed on a page, Scripture was a living voice—God speaking through the lives, stories, and testimonies of His people.
In the month of February, our focus will be “God’s Voice.” Hearing God’s voice means learning to recognize His guidance through Scripture, prayer, and the leading of the Holy Spirit. As believers listen with faith, humility, and obedience, God’s voice brings clarity in confusion, peace in uncertainty, and lasting transformation in our lives.
WEEK 1 — DISCERNING GOD’S VOICE
• Read 1 Samuel chapters 1, 2, and 3.
• It's important to discern God’s voice [like Hannah], because we are now living in a highly: compromised culture, divided culture, offended culture, and pagan culture. Read Romans 12:1-2 MSG.
• The scripture is a living document, not just a subject to be dissected, but a sacred act to engage with.
• Divine revelation is a divine encounter, where God discloses Himself by the Holy Spirit and the Word.
• Had God not taken the initiative, we would have never known Him. 1 Samuel 3:9 (AMP), “Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening.”
• Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing, hearing the Word of Christ.” Other translation says, “Faith comes by obeying what you hear.”
PRAYER POINTS
• Pray honestly to God, trust Him completely, worship Him faithfully, and listen with humility and obedience like Hannah.
• Pray with a heart that seeks discernment, not conformity. Like Hannah, come before God honestly and humbly, asking Him to help you recognize His voice amid the noise of a compromised, divided, and distracted culture. Offer yourself fully to God, choosing transformation over imitation of the world, and invite Him to renew your mind so you can live according to His will.
• Pray with a heart that seeks God’s presence and understanding. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes and ears to God’s Word, so you can truly encounter Him and know His will. Be attentive, expectant, and ready to receive His guidance.
• Pray with humility and gratitude, acknowledging that God speaks first and invites us into relationship. Instead of leading with many words, begin with surrender and attentiveness, recognizing that knowing God is possible only because He reaches out to us.
• Learn how to quiet our hearts, be attentive, and submit ourselves to God, trusting that He will guide us if we are willing to listen.
• Pray with a heart that listens to God’s Word and acts on it. Ask Him to strengthen your faith as you read, hear, and obey His teachings. Recognize that faith grows not just by knowing about God, but by trusting Him and living according to His Word.
WEEK 2 — UNDERSTANDING THE VOICE OF THE LORD
• The importance of discerning the voice of the Lord, which is not always easy or difficult. Read 1 Samuel chapters 1, 2, and 3.
• Understand the need to pray with the book open, often people pray with the book closed, use Psalms as a prayer book.
• The story of Samuel is used to illustrate the encounter with the self-revealing God, who reveals Himself through His Son and the Scriptures.
• John 14:26 NKJV, “But the Helper [Comforter, Advocate, Counselor], the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
• The challenge of transformation is resistance to being trained, taught, and formed.
• All the crises you see are a reflection of the internal crisis going on in people's lives. We've been able to conquer: nations, space travel, technology; but man has always struggled to conquer his personal and interpersonal issues. David could conquer giant and not deal with his own lust.
PRAYER POINTS
• Pray with Scripture in hand, letting God’s Word guide your words, thoughts, and heart. Use the Psalms or other passages as a model, speaking honestly, praising God, confessing, and asking for guidance. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you connect what you read with how you pray.
• Pray with a heart ready to meet God personally. Ask Him to reveal Himself through Jesus and His Word, just as He revealed Himself to Samuel. Be humble, attentive, and willing to listen and obey.
• Pray with expectation and dependence on the Holy Spirit. Ask the Spirit to teach you, guide your understanding of God’s Word, and remind you of Jesus’ teachings so you can live faithfully. Invite the Spirit to be your counselor, comforter, and helper in every area of life.
• Pray with humility and openness, asking God to help you overcome stubbornness or resistance. Invite Him to teach, guide, and shape your character, even when it’s uncomfortable, trusting that His training produces growth.
WEEK 3 — TRANSFORMATION FROM THE INSIDE OUT
• Looking at the culture around us might stumble you, and drag you down. We can identify ourself with Asaph. Read Psalm 73:1-28, and zero-in from v.17-28.
• Isaiah 59:14 NKJV, “Justice is turned back, And righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.”
• Hosea 4:6 NKJV, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”
• When ignorance prevails, it robs people of their gifts, their potentials, and their destinies.
• Be honest with God about your pain and struggles, this is necessary for discerning His voice.
• Pray with the Bible open, allowing God's Word to speak to you.
PRAYER POINTS
• Pray with honesty about struggles and confusion. Like Asaph, admit when the world around you seems unfair or discouraging, and ask God to open your eyes to His perspective. Focus on His presence, guidance, and eternal purpose rather than temporary setbacks.
• Pray with honesty and intercession for a world where justice, truth, and righteousness seem distant. Ask God to bring His justice, truth, and righteousness into the places of injustice and corruption, and to help you live faithfully in a fallen world.
• Pray with humility and a desire for understanding. Ask God to give you knowledge of Him, His Word, and His ways, so you don’t fall into ignorance. Seek wisdom to live faithfully and to pass His truth to others.
• Pray to remove ignorance from our hearts and guide us to fulfill the potential He placed within each of us.
• Pray with honesty and openness, sharing your pain and struggles with God. At the same time, use Scripture as your guide—let His Word speak into your situation, bring comfort, and show direction. Be ready to listen as He responds through His Word and Spirit.
WEEK 4 — THE CALL TO PRAYER AND INTERCESSION
• 1 Samuel 3:7-11, describing Samuel's initial ignorance of the Lord and Eli's failure to discern the Lord's call.
• The importance of listening to the Spirit and not being swayed by cultural influences.
• The role of Hannah's prayer in overthrowing systemic darkness and wickedness. Read 1 Samuel 1:12-16.
• Jeremiah 33:3 NKJV, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”
• Jesus taught His followers to recognize His voice amidst the clutter of voices in their lives.
PRAYER POINTS
• Ask the Holy Spirit to open our eyes and ears to hear God clearly. Teach us to discern His guidance and give us a heart ready to obey.
• Pray with boldness and faith, knowing that God can use your honest, heartfelt prayers to impact situations of darkness and injustice. Like Hannah, bring your burdens before God openly, trusting that He hears, intervenes, and works through your prayers to bring change.
• Pray with full confidence in God’s presence and power, knowing He delights in hearing your voice. Invite Him to reveal the mysteries of His will, deepen your understanding, and guide your steps beyond what you can see. Trust His timing, wisdom, and perfect ways, and wait expectantly for His revelation.
• Pray with focus and attentiveness, asking Jesus to help you hear His voice clearly above all the distractions in your life. Every day, invite Him to guide your thoughts, decisions, and actions, and give you the discernment to follow Him faithfully.