HEARING GOD'S VOICE-DEREK PRINCE

it's good to be with you again at the beginning of a new week sharing with you keys to successful living which God has placed in my hand through many years of personal experience and Christian ministry my theme for this week is hearing God's voice I believe you'll find it exciting and inspiring the Bible reveals that God has dealt with the human race in different ways in different periods of human history God's different ways of dealing with the human race in different periods theologically the title for them is dispensations so what I'm saying is over the recorded history of the human race in the Bible we find various different dispensations that is different periods in which God dealt in a specific way with the human race then later in some respects he changed his way of dealing we would call that changing from one dispensation to another that's the technical theological word now I'm saying this because I want to point out certain facts about the dispensations ways in which they differ and then one important way in which they do not differ let's take three main dispensations that are generally recognized in the Bible the first is the dispensation of the patriarchs that means the fathers of families a people like Abraham Isaac Jacob even before them people like Enoch and Noah in that period in that dispensation God dealt primarily with individuals and with their families and they related directly to God then there came the dispensation which is often called the dispensation of the law when God began to deal with Israel specifically as a collective nation and he put them under a special law which was special for Israel and a law that did not apply entirely to other nations and during this period this dispensation for most of the time Israel had a temple and a priesthood so the outstanding features of that dispensation were the law the temple and the priesthood and then there came what we usually call the dispensation of the gospel which is really a proclamation to the whole human race irrespective of their race or their nationality and this proclamation of the gospel requires from each person an individual response so you see we can discern three major dispensations the patriarchs Israel under the law and then the dispensation of the gospel in which we are still living today and as I've already said God's requirements in these different dispensations were somewhat different however in the midst of all the differences there remained one unvarying requirement one thing that God always required I wonder if you know what that was I wonder if you can guess what I have in mind I believe it's very very important that we see this I believe the one unvarying requirement which never changed from dispensation to dispensation was the requirement to hear God's voice I believe that was what always marked out those who belong to God and made them different from all other people it was that they had learned to hear God's voice I'd like to give you now some examples from the Pentateuch from the first five books of Moses all of which show the unique importance of hearing God's voice the first is found in Exodus 15 verse 26 Israel had come to a stage in their journey through the wilderness where they were very thirsty there was a pool of water they're called Marah but they wanted to drink the water they couldn't because it was bitter and the Moses prayed to the Lord the Lord showed him a certain tree when he cast the tree into the water the waters were healed and the people could drink and in the context of this the Lord said this to Moses if thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God and will do that which is right in his sight and will give ear to His commandments and keep all his statutes I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I've brought upon the Egyptians for I am the Lord that healeth thee what is the primary requirement if thou will diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God the Hebrew says if you will listen listening I interpret that to mean that we have to listen to God's voice with both our ears the right and the left that is to listen listening God said to Israel if you'll do that you'll never be sick I'll keep you healthy I'll be your doctor I'll accept responsibility for your physical well-being now there was a time in my life when I was sick in hospital and doctors couldn't heal me and at that time I had to seek God for how I could receive healing from him and as I studied the scriptures in that context I discovered that almost every place where God speaks about being healed the emphasis is on what we listen to just as it is here if thou will diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God I will put none of these diseases upon thee I believe that's true today I believe that those of us who learn to listen to God with both ears to listen to God's voice and obey Him can lead a life that's free from sickness and many other plagues and problems and then a little further on in the book of Exodus in Exodus 19 when Israel came to the foot of Mount Sinai Moses went up and the Lord spoke to him and gave him a message to the children of Israel and this is what the Lord told Moses to tell Israel Exodus 19 three through six thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bear you on eagle's wings and brought you unto myself now therefore if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people for all the earth is mine and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation notice again the primary emphasis the first condition if ye will obey my voice then my will will be worked out for you you'll be a unique people different from all other people living on a higher level living in a area of provision and blessing unknown to other people but the primary requirement is if he will obey my voice I'd like to point out just three phases of God's dealings with Israel as revealed in that passage first of all God says that he brought Israel to himself that's the primary purpose of redemption always to come to God personally secondly God said I want you to obey my voice that's what leads us into the provisions of God thirdly he said if you keep my covenant God's covenant is the way he settles and finalizes his relationship with the people and fourthly he said you'll be a kingdom of priests you'll be a unique people blessed above all other peoples distinct from all other peoples that's the order brought to God obeying his voice keeping his covenant and so becoming a kingdom of priests now I want to move on to the fifth book of the Pentateuch the book of Deuteronomy and I want to read a few verses from the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy these words were spoken by Moses to Israel just before they entered their inheritance in the land of Canaan they were a kind of recapitulation of God's requirements and again one of the things that's most strongly emphasized is hearing God's voice this chapter sets forth two different things that could come upon Israel the first are the blessings for obedience the second are the curses for disobedience and in each case whether it's to be a bless Tsing or whether it's to be a curse it's determined by whether they do or do not hear God's voice listen to the first two verses and it shall come to pass if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day that the Lord thy God will set the on high above all nations of the earth and all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God notice it begins and ends with listening diligently to the voice of the Lord and the result of listening diligently to God's voice is all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee now let's look at the opposite side of the picture little further on in the same chapter chapter 28 verse 15 but it shall come to pass if thou will not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God to observe to do on his Commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee isn't that very clear how foolish if we neglect if we hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord all these blessings but if we do not hearken to the voice of the Lord all these curses see that is the continuing requirement of God from his people in all ages all dispensations basically it's very simple if you want to be my people if you want to enjoy my blessings hearken diligently to my voice listen with both your ears to my voice but if you fail to listen if you will not listen to me then it will not be blessings but it would be curses particularly in the matter of healing if thou will diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God I am the Lord that healeth thee but also beyond healing to all other provisions and blessings of God the key is if thou will diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God in my introductory talk yesterday I explained that God has dealt with mankind in different ways at different periods of history in theological language we call these different periods of God's dealings with mankind dispensations I gave some brief examples the dispensation of the patriarchs when Gaunt dealt with men and individuals in a personal relationship then the dispensation when God put Israel under the law and dealt with them through the law and they had a temple and the priesthood and thirdly the dispensation in which we are now living today the dispensation of the gospel a universal proclamation of God to all mankind which requires an individual response from each one who hears however I also pointed out that in the midst of all these differences there was one unvarying requirement and that was to hear God's voice in this connection I shared with you some very powerful scriptures from the Old Testament which I just want to quote again briefly because they have such a tremendous impact when they put together the first was in Exodus 15:26 the Lord said if thou will diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God and will do that which is right in his sight and will give ear to His commandments and keep on his statutes I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I've brought upon the Egyptians for I am the Lord that healeth thee if thou will diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God the guarantee is complete continuing health the Lord becomes your personal physician and then the words that the Lord spoke to Israel from Mount Sinai when he brought them there to make a covenant with them Exodus 19 five and six now therefore if he will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people for all the earth is mine and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation God wanted to make a covenant with Israel to bring them into a special relationship to make them a special kind of people a kingdom of priests a holy nation but the condition was if ye will obey my voice and then just before Israel entered the promised land in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 28 Moses reminded them of God's requirements and of the results that would follow if they kept God's requirements also of the results would follow if they did not Deuteronomy 28 1 & 2 and it shall come to pass if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day that the Lord thy God will set the unhide of all nations of the earth and all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake the if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God notice it begins and ends with listening to the voice of the Lord and the result is all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake me but then the opposite side is presented in Deuteronomy 8:50 but it shall come to pass if thou will not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God to observe to do all his Commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee not listening to the voice of the Lord brings upon us all the curses see there's the dividing line the watershed between the blessings and the curses all the blessings offer those who hearken diligently to the Lord's voice but just the same all the curses offer those who do not hearken to the Lord's voice now later on through the prophets God reminded Israel of this primary requirement which he had first laid upon them through Moses and it's summed up very briefly succinctly and vividly in the Prophet Jeremiah chapter 7 verses 22 and 23 where God is reprimanding Israel for not understanding what he required them and not obeying him and he says this for I spake not unto your father's nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices God says you so busy with your burnt offerings and sacrifices but that wasn't the primary thing that I required of you there was something more primary than that and then he goes on but this thing commanded I them saying obey my voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my people I believe that sums it up as simply and as clearly as it ever can be stated obey my voice and I will be your God that's the unvarying requirement of God from age to age and dispensation to dispensation many things may change but this remains unchanged obey my voice and I will be your God but alas Israel did not do what God required and so Jeremiah goes on in Chapter 7 verse 24 the next verse but they hearkened not nor incline their ear but walked in the counsels and the imagination of the evil heart and went backward and not forward what was Israel's great problem we can put our finger on many outward manifestations of the problem but the inward essence of the problem is stated there they hearkened not nor incline their ear notice it's all to do with what they listen to they didn't listen they didn't bow down their ear they didn't hear the voice of the Lord they're gone they didn't receive what God had for God they missed the whole of God's purpose and plan remember God said in Exodus 19 if you will obey my voice then you'll be a peculiar treasure you'll be a kingdom of priests a holy nation the one essential requirement is that you hear and obey my voice obey my voice and I will be your God I want to send that but the greatest emphasis to you today if you really want to belong to the Lord to walk in his ways to enjoy his blessings that's what he's saying to you just as he did to Israel obey my voice and I will be your God now we'll move on to the teaching of Jesus in the New Testament and I want you to see that in this vital essential respect of hearing the voice of the Lord nothing has changed other things have changed but this essential requirement remains unchanged listen to some verses from the tenth chapter of John's Gospel where Jesus presents himself to his people as the Good Shepherd this is what he says about the relationship between the shepherd and his sheep that is between the Lord and those who are his people John 10 verse 3 through 5 to him that's the Shepherd the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them up what's the mark of the sheep of Jesus they hear the Shepherd's voice in the next verse when he puts forth all his own he goes before them and the Sheep follow him because they know his voice what's the great basis of our relationship with the Lord Jesus we follow him why because we know his voice the next verse a stranger they simply will not follow but will flee from him because they do not know the voice of strangers everything turns around hearing and knowing the voice of the Lord his sheep his people hear his voice recognize it and follow him they will not follow deceivers they will not follow false prophets and false teachers because it's not the voice of the Lord they know the voice of the Lord they're not deceived by false teachers and then in John 10 16 a little further on Jesus had been talking up till now about those that believed in him among the people of Israel but now he goes on to people from other nations and he says I have other sheep which are not of this fold not of the Jewish fund I must bring them also and they shall hear my voice and they shall become one flock with one Shepherd again what is it that's going to draw believers to Jesus from amongst all Gentile nations how is it they come to him it says they shall hear my voice that's the distinctive mark of those who come to Jesus and I think it's interesting in this context that it says they shall become one flock with one Shepherd what's the way to Christian unity I don't believe it's organization I don't believe it's doctrine or theological discussion primarily I believe it comes as we all learn to hear the voice of the law they shall hear my voice Jesus says and they shall become one flock with one Shepherd how through hearing the Lord's voice and then it's all summed up in John 10:27 Jesus is speaking again he says this my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me there are three things that mark out the true followers of the Lord his disciples his people first they hear his voice second he knows them he recognizes them he acknowledges them thirdly they follow him you see it's not a question of denominational labels Jesus isn't talking in terms of Catholics or Protestants or Baptists or Methodists or Presbyterians or Pentecostals he's not saying my people come from any particular denomination or group but he's saying the distinctive mark of my people that which singles them out from all other people that which that which makes them different and makes them mine is they hear my voice I know them they follow me and we realize of course that in Bible times and Bible lands a shepherd did not drive his sheep he led them and he led them by the sound of his voice they didn't follow him by watching him primarily they followed him by listening to him and they always went where they heard the Shepherd's voice so you see an actual fact if you apply that analogy and it's a totally scriptural analogy it is impossible to follow the Lord unless you hear his voice it must be through hearing his voice let me say this in love and I must close Jesus did not say my sheep read the Bible I believe it's essential to read the Bible but it's not sufficient because many people read the Bible but don't hear the voice of the Lord it's not reading the Bible that enables us to follow him it's hearing his voice my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me in my previous talks this week I've explained that the great unchanging basic requirement for an ongoing relationship with God is to hear God's voice in other respects God's way of relating to mankind changed with the change of dispensations but this one requirement of hearing God's voice continues unchanged throughout all dispensations I pointed out in my talk yesterday that this requirement is very succinctly summed up in the Prophet Jeremiah chapter 7 verse 23 where God says through Jeremiah to his people Israel obey my voice and I will be your God I believe that's that says it that States that's what God requires of his people in all ages all dispensations from different cultures different backgrounds many things may change but this one thing never changes God says you wanted me to be your God obey my voice obey my voice and I will be your God many Christians don't realize that the basic requirement of the New Testament is just the same it hasn't changed in John chapter 10 verse 27 Jesus says my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me what marks out the true followers of Jesus it's not a denominational label it's not a certain form of worship it's not adherence to some particular doctrine it's hearing his voice my sheep the ones that belong to me hear my voice and I know them and they follow me those three things go together begins with our hearing the voice of Jesus when we hear his voice he knows us he recognizes us he takes note of us we he acknowledges that we are his and then we follow him I pointed out yesterday that according to the pattern of a shepherd and his sheep in Bible lands sheep followed the shepherd the shepherd didn't drive them the sheep followed the shepherd and they followed because they heard voice and if they didn't hear his voice they couldn't follow and I believe that's just as true in the relationship between Jesus and us if we don't hear his voice we can't follow him we have to hear his voice before we can follow him that's what makes us his sheep his sheep hear his voice he knows them they follow him now today I'm going to point out three distinctive features of hearing God's voice three features which are significantly different from much of what is traditionally accepted as normal religious conduct or activity this message of mine in many ways is very revolutionary it sounds simple but when you really take it to your heart and begin to apply it you find that it will change a whole lot of things that you're doing in your life it will change your standards it will change your values it will very probably change the way you live the three features of hearing God's voice that I want to point out are these I'll state them then I'll comment briefly on each of them firstly hearing God's voice is personal secondly hearing God's voice is intangible and thirdly hearing God's voice is present in the sense of time it's not past it's not future it's always present just grasp those three features it's personal it's intangible and its present in time now let's think a little bit about what that indicates first of all hearing God's voice is very personal every voice is individual and unique no two voices are exactly like voices are one of the most individual features of human personality that's why Jesus said about his sheep they won't follow a stranger because the strangers voice is different you see our protection it's hearing the Lord's voice relating to him individually personally not just relating to a historical figure not just relating to some movement or some doctrine but relating to the Lord himself through his voice I heard a rather remarkable statement made I have never really checked on it but I hear that there is a way of designing a safe perhaps for use in a bank in which the thing that opens the safe that triggers the combination is a certain voice maybe the voice of the bank president or the bank manager and no other voice can cause that safe to open that just shows us how absolutely distinctive and individual a person's voice is there's a voice that can open that safe that will not open to any other voice and you know to me that's a parable because I think that's what the heart of the believer should be like I think our heart should be like a safe something that treasures the most valuable things we have and I think that there should be only one voice that opens up that safe the voice of the Lord Himself we come into terrible grief and problems if we open the safe door of our heart to the wrong person that's what causes most of the tragedies and problems in the world today is people open their hearts to the wrong person think of your heart from now on as a safe with a combination in the door and that combination will respond only to one voice the voice of the Lord you know when you open to the Lord you'll never be harmed you'll never be deceived you'll never be disappointed but many of you've learned from experience if you open the door to the wrong person if you respond to the wrong voice many harmful troubles and problems can result you see that's the Shepherd sheep relationship David said in Psalm 23 verse 1 the Lord is my shepherd I shall lack nothing out of that personal relationship every need of David was assured that it would be supplied but Jesus says my hear my voice how can the Lord be our shepherd only if we hear his voice but if we hears voice then he's our Shepherd and all our needs are supplied isn't that beautiful cultivate hearing the Lord's voice I'm going to speak more about that in later messages the second feature of hearing the Lord's voice that I mentioned is this it's intangible you know what I mean by intangible it can't be touched we can't apprehend it with our sight we can't apprehend it with our feeling there's only one sense that apprehends our voice and that is the sense of hearing you see most of our religious associations relate us to something tangible when we talk about religion we think about something in space and in time a building a church certain kinds of furniture pews pulpits maybe stained glass windows organs certain kinds of clothing in some churches they wear special vestments in most churches people dress up a little bit different to go to church certain kinds of books prayer books hem books books with stiff covers usually and in the days when I was a regular churchgoer they were usually black there was a certain kind of a field of associations which was tangible it was in space and time it was associated with a place and with things but hearing God's voice has got none of those features it's not restricted to any particular place it doesn't have any kind of uniform or clothing or furniture or building it's just out there it's ready in a way tricky it's it's almost dangerous you've got nothing to cling on to all the old associations all the crutches as Luther called them have been taken away and you're just in that intimate personal relationship with the Lord an intangible relationship the third feature that I wish to point out about hearing God's voice is that it is always present in the sense of time hearing God's voice is never in the past and never in the future it's always now only now can we hear voice a book we can pick up and read and put down and say it's over there or we can say I'll look at it again tomorrow but a voice is only now a voice has no past a voice has no future it shuts us up to the present you see what I've noticed about religious people is much of their thinking is always about the past or the future Christians talk about what happened in the days of Moses or what happened in the days of Jesus or in the days of Peter that's all in the past or they talk about what will happen when we go to heaven how beautiful that will be well I agree with that but we're not living in the past we're not living in the future we're living in the present and a lot of religious people really hardly live because everything for them is either past or future but when you realize that you've got to relate to God through hearing his voice then that forces you into a present relationship a present experience it was interesting when the Lord appeared to Moses in the desert and sent him back to deliver his people out of engine Moses had a very practical question this is recorded in Exodus chapter 3 verses 13 and 14 Moses said to God suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them the god of your father's has sent me to you and they asked me what is his name then what shall I tell them God said to Moses I am Who I am that is what you are to say to the Israelites I am has sent me to you you see I am is present it's not past it's not future God's name is present God's living now our relationship with God needs to be now and as we learn to hear God's voice we have that present personal relationship with the Lord in my toe we have explained that through all the different dispensations of God's dealings with men the one great unchanging basic requirement for an ongoing relationship with God is to hear God's voice yesterday I dealt with three distinctive features of hearing God's voice which make it significantly different from much of what is traditionally accepted as normal religious conduct or activity the three features that I mentioned with these first hearing God's voice is personal it involves a direct intimate person-to-person relationship with God second hearing God's voice is intangible we can't just locate it in a building we can't tie it down to some familiar situation it isn't something that we apprehend with our eyes it isn't something that we feel with our hands the only sense that apprehends it is the sense of hearing and that's not tied to any particular time or place thirdly hearing God's voice is present in time it's not past it's not future a voice has no past a voice has no future a voice is always now and so when we relate to God through hearing his voice we're relating to God in the eternal now God told Moses the name by which he was to be known to Israel was I am I am that I am that's always true God always is there's a certain sense in which he's in the past and in his he's in the future but essentially we know God always in the eternal present the great I am and that is part of what comes of hearing his voice it's always present in time today I'm going to speak about one particular result of hearing God's voice which is of inestimable value there's no way we can express the value and this result is faith hearing God's voice produces faith many people long for faith and struggle for faith and run to and fro seeking faith but they don't achieve it because they haven't discovered the secret of faith faith comes by hearing God's voice this is stated in Romans chapter 10 verse 17 so faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ or from the word of Christ so faith comes from hearing hearing from the word of Christ we need to understand that in the New Testament Greek there are two distinct words each of which in English is translated by the English word word these two distinct greek words are logos and OG OS and Rhema rh e ma now if we don't see the difference we won't grasp the meaning of what I'm saying today let's look at logos first logos is one of the great concepts of the Greek language let me say that I studied Greek since I was 10 years old and I'm qualified to teach it at university level I only say that just so that you may know I have some idea of what I'm talking about logos is a one of the great concepts of the Greek language it has all sorts of meanings it means mind council reason it's comprehensive really logos in the Bible is the mind of God it's the council of God it's God's total purpose for instance listen to what David says about it in psalm 119 verse 89 forever O Lord thy word is settled in heaven another translation says your word Oh Lord is eternal it stands firm in the heavens that's God's logos his total counsel it never changes it's eternal it's out of time it's in heaven it's settled from beginning to end it's there all the time always it's the mind and counsel and purpose of God this logos this counsel of God is summed up in a person John chapter 1 verses 1 & 2 says this in the beginning was the word logos and the Word was with God and the Word was God he was with God in the beginning so Jesus is also the personified logos he's the total counsel and purpose and mind of God you remember jesus said he that hath seen me hath seen the father I represent everything the father is everything the father does everything the father wills every plan every purpose I represent it that's logos and it's settled forever in heaven it can't be changed it's eternal now the word Rhema has a different meaning though at times of course they overlap the word Rhema means specifically a spoken word it is not a Rhema unless it's spoken God's Word God's council is settled in heaven forever whether it's spoken or not it's there it's eternal but a Rhema is only a word that is spoken now listen to what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 4 and verse 4 and he uses the word Rhema he answered and said it is it is written man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God every Rhema that proceeds out of the mouth of God it every preceding word so there's the counsel of God if you can picture it eternal unchanged complete in heaven but we don't know the whole counsel of God we can't apprehend with our finite minds the whole counsel of God but God measures it out to us in a Rhema in a word that's spoken to us and a word that becomes personal in a word that we receive personally so man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God the total counsel of God is imparted to us in portions as we're able to receive it Rhema by Rhema by Rhema the implication of what Jesus said is that God has a Rhema for each day man shall not live by bread alone but every day the Word of God the Word of God the Rhema that comes out of the mouth of God shall be his portion for that day so that's the difference between logos and Rhema logos eternal in the heaven unchanged Rhema coming down to us personal a word that we hear something that's spoken and so you see in Romans 10:17 it has to be Rhema faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Rhema the word of Christ if it weren't spoken we couldn't hear it we can't hear the logos that's eternal that's the counsel of God in heaven but we hear the Rhema that brings that little portion of God's counsel we need at any given moment to us personally and that's how faith comes listen I hope I will not offend you but the Bible doesn't say faith comes from reading the Bible lots of people think it knows why not well be honest many times you read the Bible and hear nothing all you have is black marks on white paper in front of your eyes and you can go through that process for an hour and get no faith but another time you can just pick up the Bible open it and one sentence leaps out of the page and he says that's it that's what God's saying to me right now I can't tell how many times that's happened in my life sometimes quite accidentally i just opened the Bible the Holy Spirit focuses my eyes on a verse God says that's it that's my Rhema and when you hear that Rhema that's a lot more than reading the Bible that's the personal Word of God that's God's voice speaking to you and faith comes by hearing the spoken word of God see it all centers around hearing God's voice obey my voice and I will be your God if thou shalt listen diligently to the voice of the Lord then none of the diseases will come upon you I want to go back again for a moment to Romans 10:17 faith comes from hearing hearing from the Rhema of Christ I want to explain something to you which I've learned an experience which is of inestimable importance and value if you can grasp its how faith comes you see I lay in a hospital bed for a year on end as a Christian the doctors were not healing me I knew that my only hope was in God I kept saying to myself if I had faith I know God would heal me but then I always said but I don't have faith and then one day Romans 10:17 came to me faith cometh by hearing and I let that it faith comes if I don't have it I can get it and then I looked at the rest of the verse and I pondered and I prayed and I sought God and gradually God opened it up to me and when he'd opened it up to me how faith comes I received the faith for my healing I thank God for the Ministry of doctors and nurses but they weren't able to heal me Healing had to come to me that time direct from God and it came when I heard the Rhema the spoken word of God it brought faith so you see there's a process by which faith comes lay hold of this there's three stages in the process first of all God's Word God's Rhema God speaks secondly your response hearing you're open to the Word of God later in these talks I'll explain more about hearing thirdly out of hearing faith comes now usually there's an element of time in hearing hearing isn't usually something instantaneous we have to get into a certain attitude we have to come to a certain frame of mind we can sit reading the Bible or maybe listening to a sermon and it's just words flowing past us but then we settle down into a kind of inner stillness our mind is at rest our busy mental processes are suspended from them we're hearing and out of that hearing faith comes let me advise you cultivate this ability to hear be open to what God says to you personally it'll be in line with Scripture it'll never be out of line with Scripture but it'll be scripture quickened made alive made personal on the Holy Spirit that's how faith comes that way by hearing the voice of God in my talk yesterday I explained one specific result of hearing God's voice which is of inestimable value one result which if nothing else ever followed would make it well worth while to hear God's voice and that result is faith hearing God's voice produces faith the scripture that I sent it on was Romans 10:17 so faith comes from hearing and hearing from or by the word of Christ faith comes from hearing first of all I pointed out that faith comes so if you don't have it you can get it you don't need to go on without it secondly it comes from hearing thirdly it comes from hearing the Rhema the spoken word the Living Word the life quickened word the word that's quickened by the Holy Spirit I explained that there are two Greek words for word in the New Testament logos which is the divine eternal unchanging counsel of God settled forever in heaven which no human mind can fully apprehend and Rhema the word that's spoken by God to us individually and personally quickened by the Holy Spirit that brings that part of the logos the total counsel of God that we need at any given moment down to us and makes it personal makes it vivid faith comes by hearing this personal Word of God this word spoken may be by human voice but anyhow by the Holy Spirit it's as we hear this spoken word that faith comes now today I'm going to speak about the distinctive lifestyle that results from hearing God's voice people who learn to hear God's voice lead a life that's different from other people they just can't be the same I want to return to a scripture that I quoted in my talk yesterday Matthew chapter 4 verse 4 Jesus is answering Satan's temptation to turn the stones into bread in the desert and this is what is written but he answered and said it is written man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God the word there is Rhema every Rhema that proceeds out of the mouth of God the verb proceeds is in the continuing present tense every preceding word every word as it proceeds out of the mouth of God you remember I said that hearing God's voice indicates a direct personal relationship with God we're in tune with God right there right then it's not past it's not future it's here and now in the present that's the continuing preceding Word of God for that given moment for that given time for that given situation that's what we live on Jesus was speaking and comparing that Rhema with bread he said man doesn't live by bread alone but he lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God and in a certain sense he was comparing that with natural bread and as natural bread feeds the natural body of man so that proceeding personal Word of God feeds man's inner being his spirit it nourishes his spirit and we need the one just as much as we need the other to keep our bodies alive we need natural brain but to keep our spirits alive and healthy we need the spiritual brain the preceding word the personal word the voice of the Lord coming to us now this comes only through the Holy Spirit you see if you hold a Bible in front of you all you have actually is white sheets of paper with black marks on you can't hear that no one can hear black marks on white paper it's impossible how can that ever become a voice a spoken word that you can hear there's only one power in the universe that can turn those black marks on white paper into the voice of God that power is the Holy Spirit so you see we're totally dependent on the Holy Spirit it's the Holy Spirit who brings to us in any given situation the Raima the word of God that we need that quickens it that imparts life to it that makes it a living voice and so through hearing that word of God we are related to God the Holy Spirit it's God the Holy Spirit who's guiding us and directing us all the way every day by the Rhema that he gives us see what Paul says in Romans 8:14 for all who are being led by the Spirit of God these are sons of God so what makes us sons of God being led by the Spirit of God see there are many different ways in which the Holy Spirit works in our lives but I want to distinguish - first of all we are born of the Holy Spirit and that makes each of us a new born child a baby Peter said in his first epistle as newborn babies desire the pure milk of the word but that doesn't make us mature grown-up sons of God how can we become mature grown-up sons only by being led by the Holy Spirit and all who are being led by the Spirit of God they are sons of God not children not babies but mature sons and notice that's a continuing ongoing present all who are being continually lent by the Spirit of God it's not something that just happens once or even once a week not just in church on Sunday or whatever day you may go to church but it's something that's going on all the time in our daily life it's our daily brain it's hearing the voice of the Lord through the Holy Spirit and as we hear the voice of the Lord were directed my wife and I have a prayer that we regularly pray whenever we go about any kind of business our prayer is that we may always be in the right place at the right time we've discovered it makes a lot of difference we spend a good deal of our time in Jerusalem and in Jerusalem many means of communication were used to here in the States are not so accessible a lot of people don't have phones a lot of people don't have comms the mail system is X ordinary I remember we once posted a letter from one address in Jerusalem to another it took 17 days to arrive so how can you communicate with people well one of our solutions is we pray to be always in the right place at the right time it's amazing how often without planning it we meet the very person we need to meet at the very moment we need to speak to them because we're in the right place at the right time who organizes that the Holy Spirit he prompts us he says today's the day to go to the bank you go to the bank and there's the very person standing in front of you in the line waiting to cash his check or don't catch that bus catch another bus that's the Rhema that's the spoken word it's the ongoing direction of the Holy Spirit that's what makes us but your son's have gone we're born again by the Spirit of God to be little babies but to grow up we have to hear the voice of the Lord we have to be led continually by the Holy Spirit to close my talk today I want to show you that this lifestyle that I'm talking about of hearing God's Word as daily brain of having the Holy Spirit speak to us daily and personally was the lifestyle of Jesus himself he didn't merely preach it he practiced it in the prophet Isaiah chapter 50 verses 4 through 7 there's a beautiful prophetic picture of the earthly life of our Lord Jesus of his ministry and in particular of his ongoing daily relationship with God the Father and this is what it says Isaiah 50 verses 4 through 7 the sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue this is Jesus speaking to know the word that sustains the weary you know Jesus was able to speak that word that sustained the whinny now how did it come listen he wakens me morning by morning wakens my ear to listen like one being taught that was the secret of Jesus that God woke his ear every morning that every morning he heard his father's voice speaking guiding him giving direction instructions strength for the day he goes on the sovereign Lord has opened my ears and I have not been rebellious I have not drawn back and here's a very clear prophetic picture of Jesus I offered my back to those who beat me my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard I hid not my face from mocking and spitting why was Jesus willing to go through with all that he went through how was he able how did he receive the strength the answer was by hearing the father's voice every morning he heard from his father before he communicated with human beings then he goes on because the sovereign Lord helps me I will not be disgraced therefore have I set my face like flint and I know I will not be put to shame so you see Jesus began each day listening to the father and here are some of the results that followed from his listening to the father like that each day first of all he had words of encouragement for others secondly he received personal direction for each day himself thirdly he received obedience you know hearing God's voice produces obedience fourthly he received strength to go through all that he had to go through he needed more than human strength he needed supernatural strength and he received that through hearing the father's voice fifthly he received determination he said I've set my face like a flint I'm not turning back all that came to Jesus through hearing the father's voice and hearing God's voice will do the same for us as it did for Jesus we need to cultivate that habit of letting the Lord waken our ear each more it's good to be with you again at the beginning of a new week sharing with you keys to successful living which God has placed in my hand through many years of personal experience and Christian ministry this week I'm continuing with the theme that I commenced last week hearing God's voice in my talks last week I explained that the great unchanging basic requirement for an ongoing relationship with God is to hear God's voice in the Old Testament it was summed up in one brief phrase by the Prophet Jeremiah Jeremiah 723 God says obey my voice and I will be your God that's the great unvarying condition in all ages and dispensations God says the one thing that matters ultimately is obey my voice and I will be your God in the New Testament Jesus stated this as the one distinctive mark of all who would truly be his disciples in John 10:27 he says this my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me that's the mark of the true disciples and followers of Jesus in all anxious it's not a denominational label it's not some doctrinal emphasis but it's those who hear his voice and follow him and without hearing his voice we cannot follow him so hearing his voice is essential to being a follower of Jesus then I explained last week that the result of hearing God's voice is true faith Romans 10:17 so faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of Christ then as we cultivate the practice of hearing God's personal word to us each day it becomes the fresh daily brain that nourishes our spiritually and through it we receive daily direction and strengths for our ongoing walk with God now in my talks this week I'm going to deal with the practical outworking of my theme I'm going to ask and answer the question how can we hear God's voice I want to turn first of all to the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels many times Jesus spoke about having ears to hear and particularly so when he was teaching in parables for instance in mark 4 9 we read then Jesus said he who has ears to hear let him hear and in mark 4:23 a little further on in the same chapter if anyone has ears to hear let him hear what does that mean having ears to hear obviously Jesus was not referring to physical ears presumably all the people who were listening to him were in possession of two physical ears at least the great majority of them most of them were not physically deaf but Jesus still saying if anyone has ears to hear let him hear so what was he talking about I believe that he was talking not about outward physical hearing and physical ears but about an inner condition of the heart I believe the essence of what we're saying is that we have to hear God with our heart there's such a thing as having a heart to hear God a hearing heart I'll turn to an example from the life of Solomon early in Solomon's reign as king of Israel says the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and asked him a very vital question first Kings 3:5 at Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream and God said ask for whatever you want me to give you that's a situation that I'm not sure most of us are ready to face suppose God appeared to you and said ask for what you want and I'll give it you what would you ask for well let's read Solomon's answer first games 3 7 through 10 this is one Solomon sent now Oh Lord my God you have made your servant King in place of my father David but I am a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties your servant is here among the people you have chosen a great people too numerous to count on number so and now here's Solomon's request he was confronted us with a situation that was too big for him he knew he couldn't handle it what was he to ask for this is what he says so give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong for who is able to govern this great people of yours and the comment is the Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this now where the translation says a discerning heart the Hebrew says literally a hearing heart that's what we're talking about a heart that can hear God and Solomon received it as a gift from God God gave it to him because he asked for it let me pause and ask you this have you ever asked God for a hearing heart do you realize that it's with your heart you hear God do you realize that this is going to make all the difference in your life whether you can hear God's voice with your heart you see it's with our heart that we hear the voice of God not with our physical ears in my talks last week I gave what seemed to me to be rather a vivid example of a bank that has a safe and the safe is programmed electronically to open only at the voice of the bank manager and his voice like every voice is unique there's no way to copy that voice so the only one who can open that safe is the bank manager when he says certain words in his voice well I believe that your heart and my heart are like that the heart is the safe it's where the place where we keep the things that really matter to us proverbs 4:23 the words of Solomon again keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life what you have in your heart is going to settle the cause of your life so your heart is a safe that keeps things much more precious than those that are kept in a bank safe and I believe that every child of God should have a heart that's a safe that's programmed only to open at one voice the voice of the Lord you remember what Jesus said my sheep hear my voice they follow me he said they will not follow a stranger because they don't recognize his voice how important it is to have a heart that will open to the voice of the Lord and will not open to the voice of an alien or a stranger what kind of a heart is that it's a hearing heart we have ears to hear not physically but in our spirit in the innermost depths of our being we have a heart that responds to the voice of the Lord now I want to talk for a moment out of scripture about the opposite condition spiritual deafness the Bible both the old and the New Testament have much to say about people who are spiritually deaf jesus said of those who could not understand his parables in Matthew 13 verses 13 through 15 that they were spiritually deaf this is how he expresses it he said this is why I speak to them in parables though seeing they do not see though hearing they do not hear or understand in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah you will be ever hearing but never understanding you will be ever seeing but never perceiving for this people's heart has become calloused they hardly hear with their ears and they have closed their eyes otherwise they might see with their eyes hear with their ears understand with their hearts and turn and I would heal them there is a picture of people who have no heart to hear the voice of the Lord they've become inwardly deaf and there's one word which I think is very significant it's a frightening word this people's heart has become calloused their heart doesn't respond it's not sensitive any longer compared what God said about Israel in the Old Testament in Psalm 95 verses 7 & 8 he said today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah and you did that day at masa in the desert and then he goes on about those people who did harden their hearts for 30 years I was angry with that generation I said they are a people whose hearts go astray and they have not known my ways so I declared on oath in my anger they shall never enter my rest see I believe there are many of God's people today who never really enter God's rest they're always wandering in the wilderness but they never entered the promised land the reason is they haven't learned to hear God's voice the only way to enter God's rest is to hear his voice if you put those two accounts from the New Testament and the Old Testament together of people who were deaf in their hearts spiritually deaf there are two significant words that describe the condition of their hearts the two words are calloused and hardened that's the kind of heart that does not hear so what's the application what's the opposite of being calloused and hardened I would say the key word is sensitive we have to cultivate inward sensitivity toward the Lord and toward his voice let me give you a vivid picture have you ever seen a blind person reading Braille have you seen their fingers skimming over those little dots on the paper if I were to brush my fingers over those dots they would mean nothing to me I would just feel something a little above the surface but a blind person has so sensitized his fingers that those dots mean something to him they are words they have a message I believe that's what it means to cultivate a sensitive heart toward the voice of the Lord it's to have our heart so sensitive that when God speaks we hear his voice it means something to us I believe that's the real key to blessing to entering our inheritance it's so grieving to think of the people that wandered in the wilderness when they could have been in the promised land all because they had not cultivated a sensitive heart toward the voice of the Lord let me challenge you to do that to cultivate a sensitive heart let me begin my talk today with a brief personal comment in my own life I find that hearing God's voice correctly is usually the key factor in achieving true spiritual success I can't think of anything at this time that seems more important to me in my own personal walk with God than learning to hear God's voice and hearing it correctly in my talk yesterday I explained that we hear God's voice not with our physical ears but with our heart we were challenged yesterday by Solomon's prayer give me a hearing heart and we read that the Lord was pleased with that request I asked you yesterday I'll ask you again today have you ever asked God for a hearing heart conversely we saw that when God's people failed to hear God's voice the two words used to describe their heart condition were hard and calloused this means that in order to hear God's voice we must cultivate sensitivity in our hearts in the same way as a blind person reading Braille cultivates sensitivity in his fingers a blind person can get results out of Braille with his fingertips that an ordinary person could never achieve the reason is he's cultivated a special kind of sensitivity and I believe we have to cultivate a similar kind of sensitivity in our hearts if we really want to hear God's voice correctly you see one thing about God is he doesn't shout very rarely do you read about God Shanti some people's picture of God is just a big man shouting with a loud voice but that's not God at all matter of fact we look at some examples in the course of these talks where God spoke in a whisper well today I'm going to deal with four specific requirements for achieving this kind of sensitivity of heart the first two requirements go closely together and I would describe them as attention and humility let me just say those two words again attention and humility these requirements are stated many times in the book of Proverbs and we need to bear in mind that proverbs was written by the man who had asked God for a hearing heart by Solomon let me give you just three passages from the book of Proverbs where these two requirements are joined together proverbs 4 verse 20 my son attend to my words incline thine ear unto my sayings the two requirements attend incline thine ear to incline your ear means to bow down your hand to bow down your head is a mark of reverent respectful humility you're not arguing with God you're not dictating to God you're waiting to hear from God the inclined ear is an essential part of hearing from God proverbs 5 verse 1 my son attend unto my wisdom and bow thine ear to my understanding again the same two conditions attend and bow the ear and then gangue in proverbs 22 17 bow thine ear and hear the words of the wise and apply thine heart unto my knowledge the implication of the first part of that verse bow down thine ear and hear the words of the wise is that if we don't bow down our ear we won't hear if we don't have the right attitude the attitude of humility respectfulness reverence then we will not hear so it says bow down thine ear and hear the words of the wise and apply thine heart under my knowledge you see always it's the heart that hears the voice of God and we have to apply our heart we have to attend we have to focus our attention let me sum up those two requirements briefly first of all to hear God's voice we must give him our undivided attention attend at ply thine heart now that's totally contrary to contemporary culture where most people are used to listening to at least two things at one time I remember when I had teenage children that were still in high school I remember seeing one of my daughter's sitting there at the kitchen counter doing her homework and watching a television program at the same time and my mind reeled I've been a student I've been a teacher I've been a professor at a university and I absolutely could never do that if I'm watching television I cannot focus on my homework if I'm focusing on my homework I could not intelligently watch television no I'm not saying she didn't achieve any results I'm sure she didn't achieve the maximum but that's typical of contemporary American culture culture in the Western world people are afraid of silence you know they always want some noise going on background music something somehow to distract them but if you want to hear God's voice you can't afford to be distracted you've got to focus both ears and all your mind on God you have to cultivate attention it's a gift or a quality that many people just don't possess today secondly as I'm saying we have to bow down our ear we have to be humble and teachable many people read the Bible or pray to God with their own preconceptions they believe they know what God should have seen they believe they know what God is going to say and if God actually has said something different or does say something different they're simply unable to hear they're made deaf by their own preconceptions most people who belong to any kind of denomination read the Bible with their own denominational slant they think well if it's not in my denominations teaching it isn't in the Bible believe me I don't think there's any denomination of which that is completely true there are things in the Bible that we don't hear many times in church and if we only expect to hear from God what we've heard maybe in church we're spiritually deaf will miss what God is saying to us so the first two requirements for hearing God where attention and humility let's look at the next two now for a while I would say the next two requirements are time and quietness let me say that again time and quietness how remote those two words are from our contemporary culture to things that almost nobody hands today our time to be quiet and yet this is stated so many times in the Book of Psalms about hearing God for instance in psalm 46 verse 10 it says be still and know that I'm God out of stillness we hear God's voice an alternative translation of the same verse says this cease striving and no and the alternative version in the margin of that is let go relax and know that I'm gone put those together be still and know see striving and no let go relax and now what does that speak to you about to me it speaks of quietness and relaxation and this requires time we hear from God very many times when we take time to wait for God God doesn't always speak the first instant that we would like to hear Psalm 62 verse 1 says this there are the words of David my soul waits in silence for God only tremendous words my soul waits in silence for God only you have to wait you have to be silent and your attention has to be focused on one person only God and then in Psalm 62 verse five just four verses further on David addresses his own soul and they sell how to weight my soul wait in silence for god only have you ever said that to yourself my soul wait in silence for god only the emphasis is on waiting in silence for God being in an attitude of attention of reverence of quietness of relaxation our hearts and minds focused on God I want to say that there is no better preparation through which we can achieve this attitude than the preparation of worship this is beautifully brought out in another Psalm Psalm 95 verses 6 through 8 come let us worship and bow down and again the emphasis is on humility let us kneel before the Lord our maker for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the Sheep of his hand today if you would hear his voice do not harden your hearts always that warning against hardening our hearts if we want to hear God's voice so how do we prepare our hearts well there is no better way of preparation than that which is outlined in those words I've just read to you let us worship let us bow down let us kneel let us come to God with reverence let us open our hearts to him let us worship Him acknowledge his greatness his majesty his sovereignty his wisdom the Lord is a great God the scripture says we need to give him all the respect and all the reverence of which were capable we need to appreciate the tremendous privilege of hearing from God that the Almighty God the creator and sustainer of the universe will speak to us individually today there's little respect for authority in our contemporary culture but God still demands respect and if we come to him we must come to him with respect respect that's expressed in worship in humbling ourselves before him in kneeling before him if need be in acknowledging his greatness in opening our hearts to him so when you want to hear from God approach him with worship in my two previous talks this week on hearing God's voice I've established the following main points first of all we hear God's voice with our heart not with our physical ears therefore we must cultivate sensitivity of heart the two words describing the hearts of those who were spiritually deaf were hard and calloused secondly there are four specific requirements for achieving this kind of sensitivity of heart and they are as follows first attention second humility third time fourth quietness we looked at the words of David when he said my soul waits in silence for God only then we said also yesterday that the best preparation is worship come let us worship and bow down and kneel before the Lord our maker and then the son goes on today if you hear his voice harden not your heart so preparation for hearing God's voice is best achieved by worship the truth that I'm going to deal with today follows on naturally from the points I've just established the truth is God sets the time and the place we have to give absolute priority to God before all our own interests and activities we may have our own program we may have our own interests we may have the things we're excited about the things were eager to get done but if we want to hear God's voice we have to be prepared to let those things go to let go and relax as the psalmist and we have to let God set the time and the place and it may not be the time or the place of our choosing I want to give you three examples of men who met with God and heard his voice the three men I'm going to speak about are Moses Elijah and Jeremiah first we look at Moses as its described in numbers chapter 7 verse 89 this describes how Moses went into the tabernacle that had been erected in the wilderness and there he spoke with God and God spoke with him as I read this this always a kind of stillness comes over my soul I think of that Tabernacle there out in the blazing sunshine of the desert surrounded by things that were barren dusty and then inside the coolness the shaved the quietness and that always challenges me to get away from the the heat and the dust and the busyness and the activity to come into a quiet place where I can speak with God and God with me this is what it says about Moses when Moses entered the tent of meeting the tabernacle to speak with the Lord he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim over the atonement cover on the Ark of the testimony and he that's the Lord spoke with him Moses see there was a place where God spoke with Moses it was behind the second veil of the tablet from the Holy of Holies from the most sacred place and that shows me how sacred it is to hear the voice of the Lord it was from between the two cherubim the cherubim speak again of worship and also a fellowship and it was from over the atonement cover on the Ark of the testimony the place where the blood had been sprinkled that spoke of covered and forgiven sin so how significant all those points are it was a place of worship was a place of fellowship it was a place where there was the eternal evidence of sin forgiven and covered bear in mind uncovered an Unforgiven sin will always keep us from hearing the voice of the law and so that's where Moses heard the voice of the Lord I think of something that Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew 6 verse 6 but you when you pray go into your inner room why into an inner room surely to get away from all distractions to shout out all the sounds and the sights of the world to be still before God I believe every Christians have some kind of inner room I remember a man was a friend of mine who used to go into the closet under the stairs with the brooms and all those things but that's where he heard from God it became a sacred place for him the second example of a man who heard God's voice is Elijah Elijah had a tremendous personal triumph he'd called on fire on the sacrifice on Mount Carmel he'd humbled and humiliated and even had executed all the false prophets but then he'd run away from a woman Jezebel gone out into the wilderness and asked God to take his life God had sent an angel to strengthen him and in the strength that he received in the angel he'd made his way to Mount Horeb the very place where God first made his covenant with Israel and this is what happened to Elijah when he got there to Mount Horeb first Kings 19 verses 11 through 13 the Lord said to Elisha go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord for the Lord is about to pass by then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord but the Lord was not in the wind after the wind there was an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake after the earthquake came a fire the Lord was not in the fire three tremendous demonstrations of God's power a wind that shattered the mountains an earthquake a fire four how significant God wasn't in any of those tremendous demonstrations of his power and then it goes on like this and after the fire came a gentle whisper you remember what I said that God doesn't shout some people picture God as a man shouting I think that was Hitler's picture of God a man shouting a lot of dictators and people like that have seen God as just a big man shouting but God is very different after all the demonstrations of his power there came a gentle whisper and the impact on Elijah was tremendous when Elijah heard it not the wind not the earthquake not the fire but the gentle whisper he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the came what did that mean pulling his cloak over his face it meant worship it meant bowing it meant humbling himself it meant opening up his spirit to gone now when he was ready to listen then a voice said to him what are you doing here Elijah think of the careful preparation that God made for Elijah to hear his voice God is concerned that we hear his voice but remember God may not be in the wind the earthquake or the fire but if you have ears to hear after that there'll be a gentle whisper and when you hear that you want to put your cloak over your face you'll want to worship your heart will bow down it's important to see the results that came in Elijah's life from hearing that gentle whisper they were strength and new direction for his ministry when he went to Horeb he was ready a beaten man he was ready to give up to quit to throw in the towel but after he'd heard God's voice he was a conqueror and he had new direction up to that time he didn't know what to do next but hearing God's voice gave him direction for his ministry it'll do the same for you and me strength a new direction come from hearing God's voice the third man that I want to speak about who heard the voice of God is Jeremiah this is what Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 18 verses 1 through 6 this is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord go down to the potter's house and there I will give you my message see God said if you want to hear my voice you've got to be in a certain place I'm going to speak to you but you've got to be in the right place at the right time so Jeremiah obeyed he said I went down to the potter's house and I saw him the Potter working at the wheel but the party was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands so the Potter formed it into another pot shaping it as it seemed best to him then the word of the Lord came to me our house of Israel can I not do with you as this Potter dance declares the Lord like clay in the hand of the Potter so are you in my hand o house of Israel you see there was a time and a place God wanted Jeremiah in the Potters house because he wanted him to see what the Potter was doing with the pot on the wheels because that was going to be a picture of how God was going to deal with Israel how God is dealing with Israel remember today Israel are the pot in in God's hands and he's shaping them on the wheels of circumstance in history right now that message is true for today but Jeremiah couldn't get the message until he was in the right place he had to obey he had to be there God made a kind of appointment with Jeremiah said if you'll go to the potter's house I'll speak to you and you see before Jeremiah had a message for others he had to hear from God it's always impressed me that in Bible schools and seminaries they spend so much time training people how to speak but seldom they train people how to hear and if you've never heard from God you have nothing to say and believe me a man is heard from God is worth listening to even if he doesn't have all the fine points of homiletics what people are waiting for today is a man who's heard from God I just want to close with a little example from our own experience some years back I was in Europe I was in Denmark the native country of my first wife Lydia and the Lord very clearly directed me to go to a certain clifftop overlooking what the Danes called the West and see what the British called the North Sea and it was a fine winter afternoon the Sun was going down in the western sky the rays were falling across the water and shining into my face and when I got there to the clifftop and quieted my heart before God and looked at the sea the Lord spoke to me for about one hour he showed me that the conduct of the sea the way the seas waves behaved was like the history of the church the church started with high tide but gradually the waters went out and there was low tide the Dark Age then the tide turned and the waters began to come in again but they came in waved by wave one great move of the Spirit after another and God showed me things that I'm not free to share with you right now about what's going to happen as the church age comes to its climax but all that happened because I had an appointment with God on a clifftop overlooking the North Sea as I said earlier in this week I found in my own life that hearing God's voice correctly is usually the key factor in achieving true spiritual success today I'm going to deal with an extremely important practical question directly related to our theme the question is this how can we be sure that it really was God's voice we heard I'm going to explain to you three important ways in which we should look for confirmation that we have heard God's voice arrived three kinds of confirmation the first is agreement with Scripture does what we believe God has spoken to us agree with the spirit and the tenor of Scripture this is of tremendous importance of supreme importance let me present to you two interrelated facts the first fact it's the Holy Spirit who brings God's voice to us the second fact the Holy Spirit is the author of all scripture this is stated in many passages of the Bible I'll just quote one 2nd Timothy 3:16 all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching for reproof for correction for training in righteousness inspired by God carries with it the implication that it was the Holy Spirit that in breathed the scriptures that motivated and directed the writers of Scripture so the Holy Spirit is the ultimate author of all scripture behind all the human writers there is one divine person responsible for the accuracy and authority scripture that divine person is the Holy Spirit now let's put those two facts together again it's the Holy Spirit who brings God's voice to us and it's the Holy Spirit who is the author of all Scripture and one thing we know the Holy Spirit never contradicts himself so the Holy Spirit will never bring to us the voice of God saying something the does not agree with scripture so the first way to be sure that you've heard the voice of the Lord is to check what you believe you've heard with Scripture does it agree with the words with the spirit and with the principles of Scripture if not be sure it was not God's voice that you heard we must be very careful to reject all Satan's counterfeits Satan has many counterfeits for the voice of the Lord there's a passage in Isaiah chapter 8 verses 19 through 22 which really says it so clearly and a way that's so appropriate for our culture in our situation today this is what Isaiah says when men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists who whisper and mutter should not a people inquire of their God why consult the dead on behalf of the living to the law and to the testimony if they do not speak according to this word the law and the testimony the old and the new testament the scripture they have no light of dawn they're in the dark and then this is the judgment on those that bring messages or listen to messages that are not from God distressed and hungry they will roam through the land when they are famished they will become enraged and looking upward will curse their king and they're gone then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom and they will be thrust into utter darkness what a terrible list at the end of that verse distress darkness fearful gloom utter darkness that's the result of being deceived of listening to Satan's counterfeit and oh the world is so full of those counterfeits today it would take a long time to list them all let me just mention some of them first of all mediums spiritists as mentioned there in Isaiah chapter 8 then fortune tellers horoscopes Ouija bones tarot cards teacup reading various forms of mental science so-called believe me I'm talking from experience before I came to know the Lord Jesus I was deeply involved in yoga and I know the darkness that I was in I know the struggle that I had to turn from that darkness to the light and truth of Scripture and of the Lord Jesus Christ what is the end of all these counterfeits well we've looked at the words let me read them once more they will see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom and utter darkness but if we walk according to the scripture we will have light for psalm 119 verse 105 says this your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path when we walk according to Scripture we never walk in the dark we may not see far ahead but we always have enough light for our path and for the next step to take so bear in mind the first and the most vital requirement of all is that what we believe to be God's voice shall be in total agreement with Scripture then as the confirmation of circumstances I'm going to turn to an example of Jeremiah Jeremiah was in prison this time the city of Jerusalem was being besieged Jeremiah himself had prophesied the city would be taken and that the land would be ravaged by the Babylonian army and that there would be destruction and distress everywhere and yet while he was there in the prison having actually prophesied these things in some he heard a most amazing word from the Lord Jeremiah 32 verses 6 through 9 Jeremiah said the word of the Lord came to me Hahnemann son of Shalom your uncle is going to come to you and say my my field at Anathoth because as nearest relative it is your right and duty to buy it now that field was worth nothing as real estate values went in Israel at that moment there was no reason to buy a field that was going to be overrun and ravaged by the Babylonians was amazing thing then jeremiah goes on then just as the Lord had said my cousin Hanna mal came to me in the courtyard of the guard and said by my field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin since it is your right to redeem it and possess it buy it for yourself now listen to what Jeremiah says I knew that this was the word of the Lord so I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanna I knew that this was the word of the Lord the Lord had spoken to him something amazing improbable he wasn't quite sure but he kept it as I would say in his pending fun and then very shortly afterwards something happened that made him know that this was the word of the Lord his uncle did an amazing thing came to him in the prison and asked him to buy the very field that the Lord had spoken to him about so that's what I call the confirmation of circumstance let me give you a couple of possible examples that are really based on experiences of people you may be prompted to buy a house in your area the house isn't even up for sale but you go and you knock on the door and you say to the lady who comes you know if you ever should put this house up for sale I'd be interested to buy it and the lady's responses isn't that amazing my husband and I've just decided to sell the house we haven't had time to put it on the market this is the word of the Lord you see you've got the confirmation of circumstance or you're on a business executive in a certain city with a good home and a good position and yet the Lord speaks to you about moving to a different city and you can't understand it and you say Lord I don't understand this but if it's so make it clear to me next day your boss calls you in an office you are transferred to the very city that you felt God wanted you move to plus a raise in salary what are you going to say about that you're going to say like Jeremiah then I knew this was the word of the Lord the third important kind of confirmation that we should look for when we believe we've heard God's voice in our heart is God's peace in our heart God's voice will always produce God's peace let me read from Colossians chapter 3 verses 15 and 16 and let the Peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God the key phrase there is at the beginning let the Peace of Christ rule in your hearts that word that's translated rule means to as an arbiter or an empire to decide on certain things whether they're right or whether they're wrong the Amplified Bible has a very good rendering of that it says this let the peace soul harmony which comes from Christ rule act as umpire continually in your hands deciding with finality all questions that arise in your minds you see what it's saying we have an inward umpah an arbiter one who decides questions that we cannot decide what's that umpire that arbiter it's the peace of God when the peace of God says yes it's right but when the peace of God is not there we need to be cautious we need to say well God if this is from you let there be peace in my heart but if there's unrest and struggling and particularly if you feel pressured to act hastily then be on your guard because it would seem that God's peace has been withdrawn and God means by that you didn't hear me right or you're not applying what I said right you see there are three factors combined in that passage that I mean there's God's peace there's thankfulness and there's God's word in your heart you want to keep those three together God's peace will be there if it's the voice of God and you'll be filled with thankfulness if it becomes an awful effort to thank God if your praise dries up then it's probably not the Holy Spirit that's moving in you and then it says let the word of Christ or the word of god richly dwell within you you checking it with the scripture all the time all right let me just recapitulate those three ways we should look for confirmation if we really think we've heard the voice of God first of all the voice of God always agrees with Scripture the Holy Spirit is the author of Scripture secondly there'll be the confirmation of circumstance in one way or another thing we'll work out so that we'll know that God is in this and thirdly we need God's peace in our heart God's peace empowering our Bertrand saying yes this is right no that is wrong yesterday I was dealing with the question how can we be sure that it really was God's voice we heard a very important question and I shared with you three important ways in which we should look for confirmation first agreement with Scripture the Holy Spirit is the author of Scripture the Holy Spirit is the one who brings God's voice to us the Holy Spirit will never contradict himself he'll never say something to us individually that disagrees with what he's already said in Scripture second the confirmation of circumstance sometimes God asks us to do something strange or unexpected we're wondering whether it really is God and then the situation works out in such a way that we knew we know that God foresaw it and had it all prepared and third God's peace arbitrating in our hearts that means that God's peace is the umpire the arbiter within when we've heard God's voice correct and are acting in accordance with God's will we have God's peace but if God withdraws his piece and we're restless and pressured and prone to be hasty then we need to pause and be very sure before we go further today I want to share with you one further way in which we may expect to receive confirmation that we've heard God's voice and that is through our fellow believers I want to take an example first of all from the New Testament the sending out of Barnabas and Saul for apostolic ministry from the church at Antioch this is described in Acts chapter 13 verses one through three and this is what it says in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers Barnabas Simeon Kol Niger Lucius of cerini man en and Saul five men are named Barnabas Simeon Lucius man Ian and soul who of course later became Paul while these men were worship the Lord and fasting and remember what I said earlier about worship being the best preparation to hear the Lord's voice and they were fasting they were really seeking God with all their heart while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting the Holy Spirit sent set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I've called them the Holy Spirit said notice that I've pointed out already it's the Holy Spirit who brings to us the voice of God so after they had fasted and prayed they placed their hands on them and sent them off now I want you to notice the words that the Holy Spirit used because it's important the Holy Spirit's and set apart from me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them the Holy Spirit had already called Barnabas and Saul this was not the first time that they heard about this but this was public confirmation through their brothers in the assembly that their call was from God and that was very very important they needed that public confirmation we need to go back into the history of God's dealings with Paul a little and see that right from the time that Jesus first appeared to Paul he knew that he was to be an apostle and this is what he says and he emphasizes this in various places in his writing that his Apostleship was not of men he says for instance in Galatians chapter 1 verse 1 paul an apostle sent not from men nor by man but by jesus christ and god the father who raised him from the dead notice he was sent not from man nor by man but by Jesus Christ and God the Father so Paul's apostolic calling came direct from God not from men nevertheless God confirmed it through men and this happened in the church at Antioch where the Holy Spirit said set apart Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them they had already received their individual call but this was public confirmation this shows us what importance God himself attaches to confirm a that we've rightly heard his voice I believe this public confirmation in the church at Antioch of Paul's calling served at least three purposes first of all it's strengthened Paul's own faith I believe many of us know that there are times when we need confirmation from others we're walking a rather lonely road we're wondering if if we really have heard god aright things seem so impossible what God has spoken about seems so far away and then God in His grace gives us confirmation through our fellow believers secondly this incident at Antioch validated Paul's call to his fellow believers it wasn't enough that he knew he was cold they had to know he was called to send him out and to support him thirdly this incident emphasized the interdependence of the members of Christ's body and that's something to which God attaches tremendous importance that we don't act unilaterally just on our own that we realize we're members of a body and we depend on the other members none of us can just act on his owners say it doesn't matter what the others do I know I'm right that's an attitude which is almost invariably wrong I want you to notice two points about this incident they're both important first of all the confirmation to Paul and Barnabas came through fellow believers of proven integrity and maturity that's important it matters through whom God speaks to us if it's a believer whose faithfulness whose maturity whose integrity we know that's much more significant than somebody who may be very unstable perhaps just a new believer perhaps not leading a very godly kind of life confirmation through that kind of person is worth relatively little but when it comes through fellow believers of proven integrity and maturity it means a lot secondly truly spiritual men do not go ahead unilaterally regardless of their fellow believers I respect that in Paul's character he knew God had called him but he didn't just go ahead and say well I'm going goodbye he waited on God with his fellow believers until the call was validated and confirmed then he went with their support and their prayers believe me all of us need to do that it's important to see that our ability to hear God through others depends to a large extent on the nature of our relationship with them in other words the better our relationship is with others the better we can either hear God's voice through them or receive confirmation through them right relationships are very very important in being able to hear God's voice and there are three special relationships through which we should expect to hear God three relationships to which the New Testament attaches special importance and even I would say sanctity the three relationships are between pastors and their people between husbands and wives and between parents and children let's look at what the scripture says about each of these relationships briefly Hebrews 13:7 remember your leaders who spoke the Word of God to you consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith the word remember there indicates respectful consideration have respect for your leaders they spoke to you the Word of God consequently if God speaks to you independently in another way directly and personally it should be very important to you that your leaders who've already spoken to you the Word of God should confirm what God is saying now I'm not saying this will happen 100% but if I were in a situation where I were a member of a congregation that had godly leadership that spoke the Word of God the people and I thought I'd heard from God and when I went to my pastor or the elders or whoever the leaders were and they waited and gone God and prayed and they come up with the answer we don't feel this is God I believe me I would be tremendously cautious about going ahead with that because it's it's normal and it's right for God's people to hear through their leaders then there's the relationship of husbands and wives Ephesians 5:22 through 24 wives submit to your husband's as to the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church his body of which he is the Saviour now as the church submits to Christ so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything there's another sacred relationship God in His infinite wisdom has made the husband the head of the wife responsible for caring for the wife responsible for her spiritual condition now I understand that many husbands are not really accepting this responsibility but nevertheless the scriptural order is for the wife to submit to a husband it's very dangerous for a married woman to claim that she's heard the voice of God and then to go ahead even when her husband doesn't agree and doesn't give his approval and blessing I've known a good many cases in which women did that and almost always the result has been some kind of spiritual disaster because it's contrary to divine order and the kind of spirit in a woman that says well no matter what my husband says I'm going to do it that's not the kind of attitude that really hears from God that's a rather hard rebellious type of attitude and rebellious people don't accurately hear the voice of God the third relationship is similar and also a sacred one the relationship between parents and children Ephesians 6:1 children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right notice the safeguard in the Lord if parents demand their children do something morally wrong or totally unscriptural they're not obligated but otherwise children obligated to obey their parents and if God speaks to a child God can also speak to the child's parents and cause them to accept what he's said to the child so there's a two-fold application to these relationships first of all the positive we should expect to hear through these relationships secondly the negative we should be doubly cautious if we ever think God has spoken to us in a way that ignores or sets aside these a credit relationships

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Views: 924,284

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Keywords: THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE BIBLE, HEARING GOD'S VOICE, TRUE CHRISTIANITY, REPENTANCE, FAITH, SALVATION, JUSTIFICATION, SANCTIFICATION, CONSECRATION, THE KINGDOM OF GOD, DEEPER LIFE, PRAYER, THE SECOND BLESSING

Id: cjlYiX2Dez8

Length: 111min 4sec (6664 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 22 2013