Hearing From God | Shawn Bolz | Expression58

I just got back from San Diego at the Rock Church to hosting an event with Miles Macpherson's group and it was so much fun and then the day before I was in Laguna hosting an event and it's just so encouraged of what's happening over Southern California the david standing event was in full swing which michelle was out leading a team and they killed it i heard from lots I did wasn't I didn't hear from Michelle which was great I heard from everybody around Michelle they're like who was expression 50 music like who are you guys this is amazing so I love that I always love hearing those amazing reports from places like that when it a hundred worship teams going over the last three days a sylph one full day today and they were in the cold when I consider freezing temperatures last night all night long worshipping no thank you it wasn't the tent it was an open-air I was like I want a tent okay well I got to talk to you guys today and I was really praying into what to talk to you about I really want to kind of bring home some of our perception about how we hear from God and give you some tools because I feel like a lot of times we talk about hearing from God it's for transforming the world are getting prophetic words or prophetic evangelism but it's not the way we walk with God and I want to bring us back here you know we teach this in different ways throughout the year every year at expression Jennifer usually share something about hearing God's voice I do different team members do but I felt like to go after this and I had fun doing it this morning in the earlier service and I just feel like there's we're in a season that you know we have the whole world has millions of problems and we we have Jesus the answer living inside of us and the majority of us we don't realize how much we hear from God but if we would reverse engineer all the wins we've had in life we can start to look back and see where God was showing up because our wins as Christians are probably not just our wisdom or a good choices it's our partnership to our faith and so a lot of us don't think we hear from God powerfully and we get frustrated with when we go to God for a solution and we ask him for a direct problem and he doesn't give us a direct answer many times he gives us choices in life or circumstances and he uses them for good and it's it's frustrating when you're trying to learn how to hear God's voice but you're trying to figure out the rhythm of that and so I'm going to talk to you guys a little bit about that today and about what that can look like for us and I was thinking about a businessman who came up to me and he said Shawn my wife's the prophetic one in our family the one who hears from God our family I don't hear from God at all and this is like a really successful faith filled businessman who wouldn't have never been where he was at without God showing him something and so I said I hate that and he goes what do you mean I hate you hate that I said I hate that it's like an excuse I don't hear from God she dies I don't have to because now I'm disappointed with what I didn't hear so I'm gonna say I don't hear I'm like these gifts spiritual gifts work for all of us and they weren't just so we would have power-ups like video games they're actually for a connection and intimacy with God and I said I could pursue I could prove you you've heard from God give me about 15 minutes I was okay let's do it so I said what was the last big win you had in making a decision financially for one of your children they said I'll have a great one he had three adult children he said my son married a woman from developing nation and she'd never had a home in her family they've never been nesting as a matter of fact some of the family was broken so they shouldn't have a desire to have children very career-driven very gypsy minded love to travel was telling my my son she would probably live in 20 places in 20 years because of just how she loves to see the world and as parents we wanted them to live around us you know so we bought them or we gave them the money as a down payment for not just a home but their dream home because we knew that that would change some things and I said what was the fruit of it when you did it they said well their first five years of marriage not only did they buy the house but and they bought their dream home but she'd learned what nesting was and it changed her whole mind she ended up having two kids and this pregnant with a third in the last five years and she didn't wanna go back to her career because she's having so much fun in this new identity that it just changed everything for the minute live right down the street from us and I said well that's interesting how did you decide to make that decision about giving him money because you have two other adult children who get kind of weird with money so they would have been jealous but they were they jealous no they weren't jealous I said so how did you make that decision and tell me about it and he said well you know I'm just thinking what could we do that would really helped him in life and I made this decision and I said so how are you thinking it was my wife had this little prayer room and we were praying into how to bless them for their wedding and this idea came I said you are so brilliant like you made a decision generational curses and established like a new pattern her life and it was career identity healed her heart towards children you're amazing like you're really you're a great hero of this story and I started laughing I think he's like oh you know I kiss and he's singing I prayed I got a download or a connection and all of a sudden I understood and a lot of us in it with the only reverse-engineered like two or three other stories and he realized he does hear from God but he's not expecting God to be the voice with them now God it says in John 10 that my sheep hear my voice and they know me and no one enters into the Sheep gate unless they've heard my voice and if you've gotten saved let alone if you're here today you probably felt the nudging of God's voice one of the scriptures in the Bible says that the Holy Spirit will gently nudge you from with them and it's important to know that you know if you know God it's because he's revealed himself to you not because you've decided not just because you made a wise decision but there's a revelation you're walking and of who he is that he's revealed himself to him that's part of hearing God and I think I might you know we have a cat and he just showed up one day at our house there's Tim weeks old and scratch the heck out of our friend Jeremy who tried to capture him and and he doesn't like anyone except for me really and so and I don't I never liked cats before so I was like okay great I have a cat yeah my daughters were thrilled but he stays away from them so he's he's a good cat to have around but he's very smug and so if I call him though out of everyone in the house if I call him all right the people who work with us and stuff I might call him Sparky Sparky he'll come in my general vicinity and sometimes they'll come all the way up to about once a day he'll come to me and let me pick him up like okay human you can pick me up and because he knows my voice and he knows for whatever reason I'm his human like I'm the one you know and and we are like that we've got there's something inside of us that instinctually knows when God's speaking or when God wants us to do something he actually when you're born again you're born of his spirit which means his spirit lives inside of you and is connected to you and you have a new operating system and spirit so you're starting to hear sense and see and feel things in the world around you God is inside of you and it's it's the same way that you know you go wow I was reading the Bible and a scripture totally solved my problem this week and it gave me direction in life how many of you have used the Bible for a life application how many of you thought it was your idea right and sometimes we do we're like oh I was read the Bible was so profound like I finally understand that what it's saying because I've grown in my wisdom probably not as a matter of fact in John 16 the disciples go up to Jesus after he's only told them parables for all these years and they go oh my gosh you're finally speaking him words that are clear that we totally understand who changed did Jesus start to speak differently no it was a parable he told another parable the same way but they now had insight they were having a receptive insight they were having an understanding because God had been colorized by his heart for so long that they could understand him and so many of us as were as we're learning how to hear from God we instead of looking at near this disruptive voice that says James Earl Jones this is the way to walk you know instead of having that disruptive voice we need to trust that God is with him they're God's inside of us that he wants to speak to us in a way that's over our real decisions or real life and a lot of times he won't speak directly because that's so transactional that what would you know we're succumbing to him saying what job should I take have all those opportunities and yes he wants to help you but he wants to build identity so you'll do things with him not for him so he's actually his voice is gonna build more of the identity scenario than the action plan scenario a lot of times you know when we first started teach people how to hear from God to the clearest ways you'll hear from God number one is conviction of sin so you treat somebody really bad they call of customer service worker dirtbag lead on another job and the Holy Spirit came I've never done that I've grown a lot and uh and the Holy Spirit's like uh uh it is not your own goodwill that gets convicted you don't just go I want you the treating them my way I feel guilty if you all of a sudden your spirit go I better go apologize to them you better know that God has just possessed you with his love and a lot of times Christians you know we get conviction of sin or how we treated people or how we treated ourselves or you know those kinds of things and we don't look at that as the voice of God we just look at it as guilt or shame or just you know whatever be he's calling you out he loves you enough to say this will not work for you or for the world around you long term so convictions a great way we learn how to hear from sin but we are hear from God but we don't want to only live in the land of conviction because he's actually here to tell us good news when you hear from God it should be like the gospel good news it's actually good news of his heart towards you and so even another way that we learned how to hear from God is through resources and finances and I think this one's hysterical because most Christians and and resources which me your time your energy your property if you live somewhere even if it's just if you don't own it but it's like just the use of it like the pastor's come up here and Jason comes up and says we need people to host homegroup see like I would never do that and the Holy Spirit is inside you're just like host and you're like no what am i didn't want where my hand come from you know like like when you're surrendering I love when we sing these powerful songs like a worship today basically we're saying I give you everything Jesus you can have it all and then all of a sudden there's a moment when he compels you and you're shocked my wife was sitting right here one time when Jen played a video from Africa from the children's home like six years ago from one of the kids who was graduating and and then he was going on to college and he needed money to go to the college program and my wife had never met him never seen him I'd been out there and met him I had never met him or seen a we're saving up for a house we're being diligent we went from giving like a large portion of our income to giving just a normal amount of well it's still largely normal but normal amount of our income for us and so we were trying to really accumulate and my wife looks at me goes we're supposed to help support us College I go no we're not I just goes pray about it and I'm like Jesus do you want us to help pay his college now okay and as I'm answering my own question tripping myself is called mind trippin you know I'm I per place than my own psyching myself out I hear from Holy Spirit like help him I like it but it's a great way to learn because a lot of times when you feel compelled to do something that's not according to your nature you know you're hearing from God it's not your nature when you're driving down the street and you see a homeless person you're like I need to go buy them food right now most of us ignore most of all most people ninety percent of time we might say a prayer former whatever but it's if you get compelled the one time out of the hundred times you pass someone to do something you should probably do it there's probably something to it and that's that's how we start to learn is to get outside of our comfort zone Holy Spirit loves to put us in an environment that we wouldn't put ourself in so we can learn something about his love which I love in another way we learned how to hear from God and recognize when it's God is when you care about a social justice issue that you weren't born with or affected by it's if you're if you're if you've been treated by people who are racist against you you might care about that for a very significant reason because you've adopted it you have an adopted issue you were raised being affected by it but if you're something like white person and you start to care about civil rights in a big way and you've never been affected directly by racism probably Holy Spirit's in that telling you something by he's like hey I'm trying to teach you something about my nature I'm trying to teach you about his Spears the spirit of reconciliation and so you know it could be a social issue you know like we we have some social issues that I don't think we would have ever gone after as a church if it wasn't for the Holy Spirit revealing himself which has transformed our whole lives by going after them I think of these guys with Caleb and they would have never adopted Caleb if they hadn't gone to Uganda they but I've never gotten together if it wasn't that God mandate in their spirit they learned how to listen to God and now we have a huge thing going on because of these guys are part of our myths you're inheriting spiritual fruit by every time you're giving in to what's going on in Uganda just because you're present it's just huge the opportunities we get when we hear from God and then you know we have you know our influence in our favor you can hear from God with that a lot of times you'll have influence with somebody that you normally wouldn't even have influence with and it could be like a Starbucks worker but it could be an agent or it could be a contract from from a company or something if you need a contract or could whatever in a lot of times we will look at ourselves and go I must have looked good today the girls put another makeup go and I knew that makeup worked you know like no because when you're asking for you know I'm gonna walk with you god you're gonna get a god result and so learning how to hear God in these areas is gonna help you because you're gonna start to partner not just react a lot of us if you reverse engineer you're reacting to what God's already done but you weren't proactive the more proactive you could be and understanding oh this is a moment that I think you're speaking I think you're in this moment I'm gonna I'm gonna partner to more intentionally it doesn't mean you have to hear a greater voice because he loves to speak from within because the whole world's looking to see if your relationship with God is transactional or it's religious or if it means anything and when you're saying no it's actually relational yes I may have the same problems as you but he gives me different options that don't exist usually for other people you know I might have the same anger as you over a death or grief over a death but there's an option that comes up where he shows me not only the scripture Romans 8:28 in theory but he practices it into my life and directs my eyes to see it that's his voice that's the partnership of relationship with God I think you know ultimately we've used and looked at the gifts as very when you when they're taught in the church most of times it's do ministry so like when you're taught about prophecy it's typically to build the church you are a worship leader and you or this and you are this or your a home group lead or whatever or it's going to your workplace and evangelize with the prophecy get a word of knowledge for someone in your and the problem with that is that there's HR and if you bring religion up in most places they're gonna be your aren't you supposed to be doing your job and no don't do that start a Bible Club and lunchtime that's it you know the other problem with that is that people don't want to feel like they're in an Amway program and they're being sold to so people don't want to feel like you're agenda and being at work is to get everyone saved it's actually can be a disservice and it could be an anti love thing to just be there just for people to get saved instead of being there because you are a Christian and you love them like love has to be the goal not everyone's salvation salvation is up to God he's the only one who could bring someone salvation you just gotta be there sometimes the opportunity when it happens but love is going I think if if you look at the prophetic not just as a transactional gift or just as a thing we do to get fruit spiritually but to look at it from a relational viewpoint we can see it really clearly with Solomon back in you know in his regime solomon inherits his father's wealth and then also accumulates a bunch of wealth and all of a sudden God comes to him to a prophetic dream and says you can have anything you want what do you want and he asked for the mind or the process of God it says I want it to be like your mind in my mind or one and I'm processing with you that's the Hebrew word there it's not wisdom it's not discernment it's having the same process as God to be able to process real time with heaven that's pretty profound well no one had ever asked for that before so God gets so excited I mean God was giddy the Hebrew word for God's attitude was the equivalent of giddy and he's so excited says you can have that you're gonna be the greatest leader in Israel and you can also be the richest man in history so if we ask for God's process there's some immediate fruit if you ask what the right motives I mean he was like that dang I mean come on so it starts to get crazy in Israel because he's just building with God he's not like we were gonna do this so we can evangelize every nation and we will go into every nation and convert them to Christianity he's not thinking that way he's just saying I'm building this in my love for God and I know that this will affect everything because inherently relationship was transformative with God so he's building you know these incredible architectural structures that no one's ever seen before using the best resources known to man and bring him together and building like the wonder of the world no one's ever seen this kind of temple the palace the city streets the city infrastructure it's never been built like this before how many of you have ever built physically built a building or you've you've contracted you've helped or you need a contractor for a building so if you can get two good contractors out of the hundred you needed you were hashtag blessed I mean it's so hard to get good contractors he had the best contractors the best artisans the best craftsmen all in one generation from every country surrounding them and they built the most amazing thing then on top of that his judicial system and his political ability was so strong that people came from every known country either the king themselves or the leader themselves where he'd send someone because he wanted to see just two they'd listen it was like their reality television hundreds if not thousands of people would sit in the courts why Solomon would deliberate so people would bring their case from Israel in front of Solomon and he would bring options up that were so brilliant that people would gasp so the Queen of Sheba I mention this earlier for the our pastors but the Queen of Sheba shows up and first Kings 10 verse 6 she says after she sees it she's walks the streets sees the city infrastructure Caesar disaster relief plans sees their army Caesar judicial system sees the you know all this stuff and she walks through and she says the report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true but I did not believe these things until I came in solving with my own eyes and deed not even half was told to me in the wisdom and wealth you far exceed the report I heard how happier people must be how happier officials who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom praise be the Lord your God who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel because the Lord's eternal love for Israel he has made you King to maintain justice and righteousness now let's turn it in English right like modern English what what is she saying she's saying she's their pagan Queen it was a pagan root system of gods and worship and everything else one of the richest people in the world she brings the equivalent of billions of dollars after this message gives him billions he already has billions but she cannot come without honoring him because it's the most awesome thing she's ever seen you know this is but she says praise be or she gets saved through seeing how God is with with Solomon his relationship with God so impacts her surely God is real surely God raised you up because he loves them there's a God who loves that proves he loves the world by speaking to you and positioning you there's a God who loves the world that so much that he sent His only Son and we get a display his son and we can't do it if we don't understand how to hear and cooperate with him God wants to empower you in your assignment and teach you how you hear from them some of you are like Shana just I I do get some scripture application and I do I do hear them with conviction but I don't hear them over the bigger things well keep trying keep recognizing when it's God you know there's some times where you've had great breaks or in some situation or circumstance and and you need to stop at that moment recognize it write it down in your notepad on your phone all the times that you've recognized that God is coming because the moments that you feel empty and you're like discouraged and go ahead he never talks to me you'll look and see oh wait four days ago he did six weeks ago I had the best experience of my life three months ago as an encounter night a novice and my heart got so fiery and I felt him within me and I felt a passion and then the next day I got that opportunity at work like you'll start to recognize that as you spend time in his presence that he purposely loves to lead us in ways that we don't fully understand in our humanity but so we can have his result and also so when we get there people will say how are you doing this and we don't have answers other than relationship because he's not trying to give everybody the whole world formula is he's trying to connect the whole world to his heart so there's a friend of mine whom she lived in town like 9 or 10 years ago and she's been a good friend for years and and we do a lot of stuff and entertainment is free together but she moved into town at the time was a schoolteacher with a master's degree with a desire to lead in the education realm and so she was 36 or 37 at the time moves here and and her friends at the time we're like one was becoming like the vice principal was a major really cool school one was becoming part of the state educational process in her state there's a lot of promotional and friends and God speaks to her and says you're called to act go to LA first time she's ever heard anything directional from God she's never heard a voice like this her you know her family challenged her but her leaders are like you are so solid like you would never just presume something like this like we actually believe you we think you need to go so she shows up out here and she's super conservative so she comes to our I think we had a night service at the time sometimes she would come the night service and so we became friends through this and she was just really funny she's a funny person so after six months her savings runs out and she realizes she has to get a job so she's gonna substitute teach no problem super easy for her to get that kind of job and she hears the still small voice of God again don't teach sick if I'm not supposed to teach what am I supposed to do she sees a Starbucks in her spirit oh you gotta be kidding me she's so frustrated at this point she's only taking acting classes she's not really trying to be an actress yet because she didn't have a foundation she'd never acted before in her life so she didn't want to go start the casting process when she'd never even done anything yet so she's but she's starting to feel more confident in her ability and she said why am i I mean like I'm in my thirties totally irrelevant to like the current market what is going on and so she sees Starbucks and she's like I can't do this but there was a Starbucks down the street from her house in Studio City and she decided she would apply she found out that 250 applicants that month everyone had experience she had zero experience nor did she have a desire to do it so when the person was interviewing her she was very smug it was like like why would you want to work here she's like I have a master's degree I'm good at helping people like she was really smug and they hired her so a few months into it about a month and a half into it she's miserable as heck she's watching her friends succeed all over who aren't Christians but good people and you know as far as her educational friends back home and stayed and her family so she comes racer you got to help me with this this is so stupid like I have a master's degree in education I am NOT an actor but I'm being an actor trying to become an actor working at Starbucks now Starbucks could be someone else's dream so if that's your dream god bless you it's not anyone's dream in LA I don't think because everything when I talk to is an actor musician whatever you know but it could be someone's dream somewhere so if you're watching on streaming god bless the Starbucks you work at but it wasn't her dream so she's like what in the heck is going on I said you know it seems to me that your friends are leaders and they're doing all they can do with the god grace and strength that they have on their life but you're trying to actually partner directly with God and you feel like you're supposed to transform culture and see a God result in your life so it's gonna take a God process and there's something that's happening for you at Starbucks that needs to happen inside of you because God put you there and it doesn't feel like you're willing to quit but you're just whining the whole time so I think if you want a god result you're gonna have to have a God process and you're gonna have to reconcile this in your heart and I said I think you need to bloom where you're planted and she was mad she was just she knew is true she was like she was mad at me for like two weeks but in a funny way and so so she decided she bloomed where she's planted so she started pouring into all the other employees which were mostly young women and they were all like you know hair stylists and musicians and actors most of our actors and so one of them happened to after another few months she ended up getting a lead on a it was back when Netflix was first starting to do their their own movies and projects and she got a lead on a comedy drama a comedy and drama movie and as any coffee shop does when one of their people makes it they all feel like they've made it they're like yes and she's like this is so good I've been praying for you when other girls she's talking to her Christians at the place and she's doing like a homegroup with them but they're not Christians but she's like speaking their lives and counselling them and doesn't realize that she's doing this that she's learning how to minister to people group she's never met before and learning how to thrive with him and speak into their process and help them and love on them and and help them in their disappointed seasons and celebrating their good seasons so she she didn't realize at the time she was changing so much I mean now it's part of what she articulates like go where God plants you because you need that process she was like I had a master's degree with no emotional intelligence to work out I was taking me you know that kind of thing so so she could hurt this girl goes off to the set and she gets a call a couple date like two days later and their girls like can you come in tomorrow I'm so excited I talked to the director the casting director the girl who's gonna play a certain role she got sick and and she's gonna have surgery and I told them I mean that whole role when I read it it was you you got to come breed for this they're gonna let you read for it tomorrow and she's like oh this is interesting did not have any emotions about it I was like that's cool and goes in and gets the role never went back to the coffee shop now she's 12 projects in you know over the last nine years 12 movies and lots of different TV shows and lots of different commercials and it's just that's who she is now she's that she is an actress but you know it started out where she was almost self sabotaging spiritually because she wanted to understand her process more and the problem is if you don't believe you hear from God then you will spiritually self-sabotage herself and she almost did it and yet she decided to stay in the boats you sort of speaking on faith and said okay god I'll go with your process I believe in you and I'm gonna stand with you and this is one of those things that's really it's a really hard process because each one of us that's why it's good that most of you here go to this church or involved in a church somewhere or hopefully online you're involved in the church because you need that community around you to help you when you've heard something and you're like okay this is what I feel like I've heard and and someone looks at you goes you're not foolish I think you need some adjustments I love your courage and and it's somebody who's not like you're crazy but there's actually people are like no I I can believe with you with that and I've I love some of the friends we've had here that have when sri and i believed for greater things even even a property that we bought here and it was just really ridiculous and stupid to buy the property or as god some of us have how many of you been in that decision before you're either gonna do the thing and risk being foolish and it's either absolute god 100% or it's absolutely not gone one percent has anybody ever had to make the decision so there's a lot of you so so when we were doing it we're telling our friends here and they're like that sounds awesome but we're telling some more business friends in our community of like people who are more like like our business friends here are typically an entrepreneur so they're like yeah take the risk but we're telling some of our friends who are like more long-term and the and not first five years of entrepreneurial journey and they were like going oh my gosh you're gonna lose everything it's going to ruin your family if this isn't god you better really hear about it clearly like they were they weren't as encouraging but ultimately everything that sri and I we look back at in life and are proud of us because they're the things the moments that we partnered to God for and with and ultimately it wasn't just so we can do things for us give us stuff give us our dreams and roles in whatever it was ultimately because he wanted it to be known and we got to walk with Him not just so we could do things for him but so we can know him and I just feel like you know so many of us here we it's hard if you're isolated to recognize God's voice you know it's if you're Mary then you're here you understand doing life with someone and so it means like you're careful about what you because when you put it on the credit card unless you have cash if it's on the credit card it's gonna show up on the statement and your spouse is gonna be like Krispy Kreme for $12 what was going on that day well hey we all know this right it's like well the kids wanted it ha ha ha you know I mean and that's my wife by the way not me which is good I'm telling on her she's not you know that's all about me I used her as a good person all the time but Krispy Kreme is her calm but when you're in an accountable relationship you're actually talking and stewarding things about and about your life and if you if you've never stewarded finances with somebody then it's hard to know how to let someone speak into that when you get married it's the same way with God if you've never stewarded your god life with someone it's hard to let someone speak into it over hopes and dreams but we're formed spiritually by our interaction with others and just like the brain is the only it's the only organ of the body that's only developed socially like it has to you have to have social interaction to get smarter you have to have social interaction have more neural pathways form in your brain that are the strong kind that you want long-term well spiritually you're only formed spiritually by your tested measure of fruitful love which happens in community doesn't just happen by pursuing a purpose and actually when you look at the fruits of the spirit Galatians they only happen by your quality of interactions and relationships that are the prove tax that you have through the spirit your life and so it's important to understand that because it's some of us you know we would love to just go after the prophetic and get the one to like you do this do this do this great now I have a plan I have a map I'm going to go but how many of you have used your GPS so much in LA that you don't even know where to go anymore like you only use your GPS if your GPS died and you had to go somewhere you'd be in trouble anybody I'm gonna tell my wife again my wife has lived here for 10 years she lives she lived on Adams Street like before we're even in the church and when I when I told her where the church was I had to explain to her then I had a walker from there to here cuz she didn't know street names and she lived there for 3 or 4 years I'm like no no you know justjust Chevy Chase car those two streets down she said I don't know where those are like it's one block away from you so many of us use the gifts like that we use it to direct us and it's very transaction was just where we go but we don't stop to look at what we're navigating that God's giving us territory he's he's wanting us to know what we're navigating through he wants us to be able to tell others this is where to go so many people participate with church that way they come and they they filled up on a Sunday and then they have a hard week and they get filled up on a Sunday and they never worship on their own so if these guys don't worship for them then they're not gonna have a really good time throughout you know any other time in their week because this is the only time you know it's their only time that they're connecting to God and it's your GPS you're just riding along your ride alone you're not even really going anywhere anymore at that point you're just doing what you need to do and that's not the prophetic for the spiritual gifts are so you can navigate knowing times and seasons and how to do life if you've ever heard people say you know prophecy is about times and seasons or Christians are saying I'm in a season of this some of you're like what a season mean well we have four seasons in the natural well in the spirit we have different seasons of life and when you hear God it helps you to understand the season you're in and how to plan for future seasons but how to thrive in the now did you know that most prophecy was in the Bible that's about potential and promise was about the immediate or the near future it wasn't for like 20 years from now some of you have prophecies that you're hoping will happen 20 years from now and you don't even like your today you're like I was told I would've won an Academy Award one day and it's like you today doesn't matter to you because you hate where you're at and maybe like that you're doing background work and you want to be Meryl Streep you know and we've had a teacher prophetic team don't tell people like in your first 25 times a prophesying when you see acting don't say Meryl Streep you know like say I feel like they might be acting your life because people kind of go to the highest level and their imagination and they and they think when God's gonna do something it's gonna be this and to get there there's only like one in the generation that gets there and so you're setting yourself up for hope-filled failure failure versus like almost all that God speaks to you should help you to thrive in today even if it's a long-distance word it should actually make your date today better and so when we hear God it shouldn't be this thing that we just know things about the future or we just have these you know I had a vision I see things that are the newspaper before they come that's all great awesome whatever but how can you run to the bank of God with that like the reality is we need to see what God's is doing now and thrive in our season and then tell other people what season and time they're in have you ever had somebody like they come up to you and they're like I'm going to or no sorry you go up to them and you say I'm going through a really hard time and you're expecting empathy and compassion instead they go oh I went through that once remember I was talking to a guy in the back one time here and he said you know how are you doing I said I just can't sleep my kids like it's better I had babies you know like it's been rough and they weren't like two or two-and-a-half and you know just born and I was dying like one daughter had pneumonia and I'm you know from weeks and I'm like I haven't slept and I want to pull out my hair and I hate my life right now and his and I was really more vulnerable I should have been it goes oh I've been there before he's like 22 he has no family he got I played Call of Duty all night last night and I'm like if I had a knife right now I'd stab you [Laughter] so Christians haven't answered places of people's hurt or pain or distress with empathy compassion or the Lord we've answered trying to disciple them with wisdom it doesn't work for them that's a beautiful thing about the prophetic is that when you're operating with somebody and you actually tap into his heart for them and somebody and you've all had this time happen where somebody share something with you and you have an upgraded form or counsel come through your mouth you're like I'm amazing dr. Phil needs to get off the show I'm gonna get on the show how do you ever experience that like well then someone tells you a problem you're like this is what you should do you're like $500 an hour and starting my website tomorrow you know that's what the world needs it's God's upgraded times and seasons understanding empathy compassion and when you when you can look back and recognize those times I would encourage you to have like a little a little meditation time on this - what's God and just look back at times maybe it's you know one of the gifts you have is counseling people in helping people in the spirit and your mom right now and you're at home a lot we'll sit down and just go okay God how would it last five times that you showed up and I felt like you came in the counseling appointment and you're the the prayer time or whatever and the the options changed and how do I recognize what I was feeling and what you were doing so I could actually be proactive the next time the next time someone starts to open their heart and go deeply more vulnerably than I deserve maybe beyond where we're at relationally how do I immediately recognize that and go okay god what do you want to do in the circumstance now when people are being weird or yucky or violating boundaries but I'm just saying like what it's a friend and they're saying can I tell you what's really going on our marriage right now and then you pop into you know you don't put your hat on I'm just listening like I'm sorry that's hard I'll pray for you one day but you actually put that picture spiritual thinking cap on there you go okay God give me your spirit of wisdom and counsel revelation because you did it here here here and here and we have to start recognizing those because God wants to use you as his mouthpiece of his a relational heart to the world around us and some of you are like I don't I don't feel strong in the strength in yourself in the Lord I'm teaching you how strengthen your perspective in the Lord if you have a reach for tomorrow's dream more than you have a contentment today's vision change yourself so you can live in today like give up those prophecies let them go on the back partner let the front burner be this is what God's doing right now I'm gonna spend time on this just as I close here let me grab this real fast this statement I just thought this I know this is it's gonna be kind of abstract but I want to share it in this context and I shared it one other time in a different way a different statistic that was almost the same thing but Barna put this this out 2012 I breed barn like every day it's it's a church statistic analysis group but they said if America ties for one year 10% then just in America as Christians the Christians are here we would have 165 billion dollars that means a great transfer of wealth has already happened only 2.5 percent of people give money in America and only out of that only 2% tithe 10% so it's a very small amount that we're giving right now so out of that 165 billion that would happen in one year just from 12 months 25 billion could relieve global hunger forever there for five years so for five years 12 billion can eliminate literate illiteracy and five years forever that's the one that's forever illiteracy would be gone all over the world in just in 12 billion dollars 15 billion could solve the world's water and sanitation issues specifically at places in the world where 1 billion people live on less than one dollar per day 1 billion could fully fund all overseas mission work to fulfill the Great Commission the Great Commission would only take 1 billion dollars to reach every people group who've never been reached before that's all they quantified this and this is very researched 100 to 110 billion would be left for additional ministry expansion that are beyond our dreams that we have now now I say this because we're sitting on Christians who are the most unbelieving believers of any generation because we're empowered were resourced here in America were resourced more than any other Christian group has ever been in history by like so many times I forget I think they said by 800 times but we don't have this strategy and it's because we don't have faith and our connection to hear God because what happens when you believe that God's inside of you and leading you as you look for unusual strategy it's just part of a byproduct of your life and you dream things that even sometimes and the initial stages might be foolish but they're helping you to get into the on-ramp of God's greater dream in your life like I've known people who are like I'm gonna you know own Capitol Records and it didn't really need to be about that but they needed to have a vision that Capital Records as a prototype for one of the most powerful music groups in the world and God wants to bring them into a power and their musical gift to be a power player there and he really did have that dream for him it's not about the capital record saying it's about this and I've heard Christians who sometimes they over identified what the dream is known Disney whatever you know but we we don't want to go there necessarily but we want to come in and say God what is the inherent blessing of what's going on in that system that I'm looking at that you want to do and how do I partner my faith and then now for that but we have so many Christians that don't want to dream that it's actually more dangerous to not have dreaming believers for how transformation could look than to have people who are actually a little delusional because God to balance out the delusional faith fascinating create faith right I mean I'd rather my kids go I want to be an astronaut or I'm gonna be a musician and go 20 years from now I don't know what I'm gonna do I don't like anything that's like the hardest thing to rage is somebody who has no self motivation or life ambition or faith or confidence in themselves if you have somebody who's like I want to do 25 things that's hard too but it's a different kind of hard and it's better and God would rather you believe in him and your spirit so much so that he has to balance your dream out that I have to create a foundation of dreaming in you and I want to give that to you because I feel like somebody were afraid of pride or arrogance God can balance out pride which comes from doing something we get celebrated faster than he can give you something to do to be celebrated does it make sense he'd rather put you somewhere that he has to teach you character that holds you back and you develop character in this weird bubble that doesn't actually apply to what you're gonna go into so it's really important that we hear from God and we trust where he's leading us and we dream with him I want you all to stand we have a community of people here that are doing some of the most amazing things like I get to hear stories all that was so funny because I have my my podcast and the whole podcast is I ask people the question of like you plus god equals what like if God God speaking to you and then you started this industry you've done this or you've done this and they're most amazing stories and when I sit down in church and I have the time to like actually sit down with groups of people even just our staff and I hear what they're doing it's so amazing so we have a company of people that are so ambitious and big dreamers it's my favorite it's like so much my favorite because some church did you go over the password yeah I just can't get people to want anything and I'm like oh my gosh I don't know what that is you know like okay everybody here wants something beautiful and big and wonderful and I love that and I just feel like God's proud of you and I just feel like you know we're proud of you and we're excited for you but I want to pray that you can hear God even more and that you lay down the the device of the spiritual gifts to be your GPS in the sense of just showing you where to go but you pick it up to look at the big picture we've gone and then you get to know his heart and that these gifts aren't just lead you but they're also to know him and I feel like some of you might have some disappointed men and whereas you didn't hear from God they were expecting to and I feel like he just wants to reset your heart and help you right now he just wants to show you he's with you so how much you just put your hand your heart and Holy Spirit we impart right now just a more awareness Holy Spirit you love to bring awareness from when you're doing things when you're speaking you'd love to bring awareness for when it's the father's heart I pray that we would see you as we're reading the Bible that we'd recognize the moment says we're having wins in life that we would reverse engineer these times or even partner differently because we recognize your spirit God I pray Jesus that ultimately we just want to see you get your full reward through our life and we just pray that we would be able to know you in such a way that the way you did things because you saw the father doing him we want to do things because we see the father doing them so reveal your win your your agenda and your will and your desire to us god I pray that if we're hearing any other voices or if we have any other kind of stuff going on there's any oppression if there's any if there's any ways that maybe there's mental illness or there's demonization anybody here I pray Lord that you would just heal us that you'd break it off of our our minds or our souls or our lives that you'd put us into a healing process that would help us to be on the winning side of this victory thank you that you never withdraw when we go through hard seasons like that that you're actually walking right in the middle of those seasons with us god I thank you for when I went to the mental hospital the last time and I sat down with schizophrenic who in the middle of hearing so many voices they could tell me when you spoke three in a row they knew when you spoke and I just knew how good you were to speak to them and and how they were in this terrible journey this nightmare journey of navigating schizophrenia in the mental hospital and Lord but you were with them still I thank you that you're that good I thank you God that you're with all of us that you want to speak to all of us and you want to help us I just pray that you give us great faith to hear a voice right now great faith to believe that your sheep hear voice we wouldn't even be saved if we didn't hear your voice you drew us first you called us so make it more obvious god I bless you with just more spiritual hunger more spiritual hunger Lord let's be hungry cuz blessed were the hungry because they'll be filled in Jesus name Amen [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Expression 58

Views: 41,190

Rating: 4.8539824 out of 5

Keywords: shawn bolz, bolz, cherie bolz, expression 58, expression58, e58, church, los angeles church, revival, jen toledo, jennifer toledo, jona toledo, bolz ministries

Id: amoGPVfwNmk

Length: 44min 39sec (2679 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 24 2019