Listening to God Will Transform You

Iona Dixon is a gift to the body of Christ. Her journey of extraordinary faith, perseverance, and triumph will touch your heart deeply. You will especially grow in supernatural wisdom and gain insights on how to discern the voice of God. As her pastor, I have had a front-row seat to observe her vibrant walk with God. Read her anointed words and experience God’s best for your life!

—JOHN P. BLONDO

LEAD PASTOR, BETHLEHEM CHURCH,

NEW YORK CITY

LISTENING TO GOD WILL TRANSFORM YOU by Iona I. Dixon

Published by Creation House

A Charisma Media Company

600 Rinehart Road

Lake Mary, Florida 32746

www.charismamedia.com

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Design Director: Bill Johnson

Cover design by Terry Clifton

Copyright © 2012 by Iona I. Dixon

All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: 2012946650

International Standard Book Number: 978-1-62136-095-7

E-book International Standard Book Number:

978-1-62136-096-4

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication.

IN PRAISE OF GOD

When you can stop the rain from falling

and the day from dawning,

Tell me there is no God.

When you can heal my child

and calm my fears,

Tell me there is no God.

When you can prolong a life

and save my soul,

Tell me there is no God.

Till then, my friend, be still and let me believe.

© 1992

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THIS BOOK IS dedicated to my husband, Carlton.

It is also a salute to the professionalism and dedication of Dr. Bruce Goldner, director of cardiac electrophysiology at Long Island Jewish Hospital, New York; Dr. Raymond Jones, specialist in cardiology and internal medicine in Queens, New York; Dr. Stephen R. Karbowitz, pulmonologist of New York Hospital in Queens; and the dozens of men and women in the medical field who, for a decade, cared for my husband. I extend my love and gratitude to the members of Bethlehem Church in Richmond Hill, Queens, New York who over the years have prayed for, encouraged, and loved me and my family.

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

Part I: The Journey

Embracing Faith

Growing Up

Transitioning

Evidences of a Greater Problem

Seeking Clarity

The Omnipresence of God

Taking Stock

A Time of Refreshing

New Challenges

A New Frontier for Me

Carlton’s Perspective

Valley of Shadows

Encouragement From the Children

The Crucible

The Most High God

Suffering Is Part of the Covenant

Loving the Man I Married

God’s Sovereignty

Answered Prayers

Part II: Other Lessons Learned

The Holy Spirit as Teacher

God’s Character and Person

Respect for God’s Word

The Glory of God

A Place to Worship

Questions and Answers

Life and Death

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

An Invitation

Notes

About the Author

Contact the Author

PREFACE

DEAR FRIEND,

If it ever dawns on you that God, the Creator of the universe, loves you and that He did not put you on the earth to stumble around in the dark, be manipulated by others, or just make a mess of your life, it will spark in you the desire to get in touch with your God and start a relationship with Him. The result will be that you begin to live in the sunshine of His love, enjoying His presence, provisioning, protection, and power, leading to the fulfillment of your purpose on the earth. However this happens for you, I hope it is soon because you have not another minute to waste, whether you are eight or eighty.

INTRODUCTION

IBELIEVE THAT TO each of us is given in our lifetime at least one opportunity to undertake a task that will impact the lives of others in a positive way. The opportunity comes and is either acted upon or lost forever. I believe that opportunity will define the purpose for which one was born.

It is this conviction that leads me to write this book.

The notion that I would like to write a book first came to me in December 2001, about a year and a half after certain events began unfolding in my life. At that time, I did a nine-point outline and penciled in the title Stay Tuned to God. Since then, much of the text has been given to me by God the Holy Spirit in small doses over time in the form of messages that have impacted my daily life in very significant ways. The title it now bears has also been part of that inspiration, reflecting a more active engagement with a power greater than myself. I shudder to think how different my life might have been if I had not been listening to God. My hope is that this book will be read by at least one person. If you are that one person, then consider how much God loves you to see to it that this book is in your hands.

The precursor to all of this is a decision I made early in life to follow Christ. My experiences have helped me to discover that God cares deeply about me and anyone who will make that decision and that we can fulfill our life’s purpose as overcomers of our circumstances in a way that gives glory to God and works for our good.

My hope is to highlight how intimately God can be involved in our daily lives by working through the Holy Spirit to teach, inspire, comfort, and direct our thought lives so we begin to know God and live transformed lives, rather than running shipwrecked by doing our own thing.

The personal details included in this book are meant only to provide context and to outline the circumstances God has used as soil to grow my faith and teach me about Himself.

Romans 10:17 says, Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. I believe hearing only takes place when one is actively listening. So the Word of God can only be effective if one listens carefully and acts on what is heard. In Romans 12:2, we are instructed not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, so that we may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I contend that the way to knowing the will of God is either by listening to His voice as you read it in Scripture, by listening to the Holy Spirit speaking to you directly, or through God’s anointing on someone teaching or preaching the Word to you. I have benefited from all three of these methods over the years, but I have been most astounded by the direct intervention of the Holy Spirit in my life. I have learned so much on different subjects that I wanted to share some of those insights with you in the hope that you, too, can be convinced to start fresh with God and be transformed in your thinking.

In my earliest experiences as a believer, the Holy Spirit would impress upon my mind what He wanted me to know, and at that time, even if I made a note, I was not keeping track of the dates those impressions happened. After an experience I had in 1999, often referred to as the infilling of the Holy Spirit, I found the ability to speak in tongues stayed with me. My hunger for Scripture grew, and I decided for the first time that I would read the Bible from beginning to end.

I found it useful to speak a short prayer for understanding before I began reading each time, and I continued reading for as long as my schedule would permit. This approach has been extremely rewarding, since it is at such times that the Holy Spirit would often intervene in an unfamiliar language. The language came with such fluency at times that it was almost as though I was being forced to spit it out.

I soon understood that the Holy Spirit was communicating with me. The messages, or teaching, in tongues would immediately be followed by interpretation. In short, I was made to understand what I had just said, though it was never a word-for-word translation. Later on, when I realized the content and importance of the teachings I had received, I started to write them down in much the same way one would take dictation. Much of that dictated material is included in this book as indented paragraphs within quotations marks.

Many of the teachings I share in Part I of this book are discussed within the context of my marriage, and those that have a more universal application are outlined in Part II. It has been my experience that the Holy Spirit will take you to passages in the Bible where you can find situations parallel to something you are experiencing in your own life and that He will open your understanding and show you the way to go forward. It is my hope and prayer that you will experience the same understanding and guidance when reading what I’ve shared with you in this book.

The Scripture verses quoted in this book are taken from the King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise stated. I am comfortable using that version simply because it is the text I grew up with, and I suspect, too, that because they made me read the works of William Shakespeare in high school, words like Thee, Thou, woul-dest, and believeth do not bother me in the least. Feel free to use the Living Bible or any other modern translation for your own reading of the Scriptures. In fact, at times I find satisfaction in comparing as many as three different translations for some portions of Scripture.

Part I

THE JOURNEY

IWAS FORTUNATE THAT from birth to age twelve, I grew up in an atmosphere where life was first about God. We were His creatures, living to please Him, learning to depend on Him, and preparing to eventually reunite with Him. It seemed that straightforward to my childlike mind. In my village, people lived ordered lives, most of them farmers; but there was also the minister, the headmaster of the local school, the postmistress, the district nurse, the shopkeepers, the owners of the bus lines, and the drivers of the Royal Mail and bread delivery vans that came through the village a couple of times per week.

The rhythm of life then was pretty consistent. Five days a week, just before daybreak, fathers went to the field to farm, and mothers fed, readied, and dispatched the children to school and later joined the fathers or stayed home to wash clothes by hand, iron them with sad irons