Hearing God's Voice | Prayer Meeting | Pastor John Lindell

[Music] well tonight what i want to do is i want to pick up where we left off with havola a couple weeks ago havela cunnington came two weeks ago and brought a great word she talked about hearing god speak to you and one of the things that i thought was so good about it is just simply the reminder that god is speaking and a lot of people say well i don't think god is speaking to me and then she said well no maybe you're misunderstanding what god is doing in you he's speaking you just don't realize that he is so she said there are four ways that we hear from god one there are there's intuition there's the knowers you just know that you know that you know how do you know you don't know but you know you can know how to do you can know when you have a sense that comes from the lord a divine intuition then there are seers or seers samuel in the old testament says he was a seer it it's the ideas of he's a prophet but he has the ability to see and every now and then you'll meet people or you may be one of these uh who sees and and you'll have things you'll say i had a dream i had a vision or i i see this picture of something and that's the way the lord speaks to you or maybe you're a hearer and you hear the voice of the lord i would suggest that you can very possibly function in all of them probably you're strongest in one and maybe you have have a a primary and a secondary way of hearing from the lord so i would i would be a knower for example i mean just through the through the years uh most of it's just been intuitional just a sense that you know and and then to hear i i would hear the lord uh speak to my heart so maybe you're a hearer and and then you have feeling you can sense something you feel something i think debbie very often she feels something she can feel a situation and say you know what i don't have a good feeling or or you know i feel this is what is happening and so god speaks in all kinds of ways it's important for you and i to settle that in our heart that the lord speaks over 300 times in niv it says and the lord said god speaks to people in the old testament he spoke to all kinds of people abraham and jacob and and he spoke to joseph and he he spoke to moses and he spoke to david and he spoke to samuel i mean you just it's a who's who as you read through he spoke to job spoke to jeremiah god spoke in the new testament obviously spoke to paul and spoke to peter but then there's some people we don't know a lot about ananias in acts chapter 9 god speaks to him go and and find saul and lay your hands on him i've called him to a great work and in all those situations those people are doing life and god is speaking to them now in acts chapter 21 there's an interesting account of the apostle paul and in that account you find god speaking to paul and speaking to people but they're concluding different things and i want to i want to talk about that a little bit because while god speaks and we may know some things we may see some things we may hear some things we may feel some things the conclusion we would draw from those things is where we have to be very very careful i don't doubt god speaks in fact i would suggest to you if you don't feel god speaking to you with regularity something's wrong this this should be a part of all of our lives with regularity that we sense the voice of the lord but when god speaks we have to be very very careful what we do with it and we have to be careful how we process it lest we find ourselves concluding something from god stirring in our heart god speaking to us that is not in alignment with god's will let me just set the stage for you this way paul is on his third missionary tour so he takes off from antioch he goes over into greece he's coming back as he comes back he uh bypasses uh ephesus uh right here and he goes down to my leaders and he calls for the ephesian elders to come down and to meet with him at militis and while he's there this is what he says in acts chapter 20 and verse 22. and now compelled by the spirit i'm going to jerusalem now this is very interesting that word compelled is a very strong word bound could be bound by the spirit i'm tied up by the spirit the idea is it's almost as if paul has no choice do we have a choice in serving the lord absolutely you can say no but if you're following the lord then then there's a sense where you have an obligation paul is compelled he says i'm going to jerusalem not knowing what will happen to me there i only know that in every city the holy spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me paul is being warned repeatedly in every place that he goes that he's going to be imprisoned that there are going to be hardships and he has god speaking to him you say wasn't god's will for him to go well compelled by the spirit so the spirit is pushing him the spirit is driving it's a little bit like what you read in in the temptation of jesus in the in the gospels in matthew's gospel it says jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness in mark's gospel it says he was driven by the spirit does the spirit lead us or does he drive us both he the idea of being filled with the spirit is the idea of of the spirit of god pushing you along like a ship with a sail the the wind of the spirit filling the sail and the spirit of god is driving you he's directing you so this is somewhat what paul is experiencing compelled by the spirit i'm going to jerusalem and he continued as he continued we read this in acts chapter 21 verse 3. we landed the tire where our ship was to unload its cargo and finding the disciples there we stayed with them seven days through the spirit they urged paul not to go to jerusalem now this is interesting paul says he's compelled he's warned but now he meets believers and they are through the spirit urging paul not to go in the original it's they kept urging him they kept saying paul don't go don't go i've got a word from the lord don't go this is very very interesting because god had spoken to paul to go back to jerusalem but now people through the spirit are urging him not to go to jerusalem how do we process that i mean it begs the question does god contradict himself does he tell one person one thing and another person another thing how can paul be or how can god be telling paul listen go to jerusalem and god be telling people tell paul don't don't go and i think what it does is these verses present for us some very practical understanding on how we process the voice of the spirit in our life and our situation the situations of others one of the dangers when it when it comes to to hearing the voice of the spirit is when we run it what we hear through the grid of our emotions if we're not careful our human emotions can skew our interpretation of the spirit's prompting the spirit of god had spoken to these believers this is my understanding of what we're reading here has spoken to these believers about what would happen to paul because they love paul because many of them came to know christ because of paul because they admired paul their emotional attachment to paul and their love for paul led them to conclude that it wasn't god's will for paul to go to jerusalem we could understand it this way they had a word of knowledge one of the gifts of the spirit mentioned in first corinthians 12 they just didn't have a word of wisdom look at it in first corinthians 12 8 to one there is given through the spirit the message of wisdom that's a word of wisdom so the spirit of god can give us wisdom to another the message of knowledge by means of the same spirit you say what's the difference a word of knowledge is where you instantly know something about a situation a circumstance or a person you wouldn't have any human way of knowing god has revealed it to you by the spirit a word of wisdom is applying that knowledge to that situation and and knowing what god's plan is in light of that knowledge in acts chapter 21 and verse eight leaving the next day we reached caesarea stayed at the house of philip the evangelist one of the seven he had four unmarried daughters who prophesied and after we had been there a number of days a prophet named agabus came down from judea coming over to us he took paul's belt tied his own hands and feet with it and said the holy spirit says in this way the jews of jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and we'll hand them over to the gentiles when we heard this we and the people there pleaded with paul not to go up to jerusalem then paul answered why are you weeping and breaking my heart i'm ready not only to be bound but also to die in jerusalem for the name of the lord jesus and when he would not be dissuaded we gave up and said the lord's will be done and after this we got ready and went up to jerusalem you say well how do we know paul was right and that their encouragement for him not to go was wrong how do how would we know that well i think let me give you just five four reasons first of all paul lived very sensitive to the spirit i mean we see that throughout the book of acts it doesn't make him infallible but we have great confidence in his life because i mean in acts chapter 16 he's he he and his friends are walking across modern-day turkey and it says the uh they tried to enter bithynia and the uh this holy spirit wouldn't allow them to and they tried to preach in mission but the holy spirit said no so they just keep on walking so he's sensitive to the spirit second the holy spirit never told paul not to go to jerusalem he only warned him repeatedly that's what paul says number three he viewed heading to jerusalem as a task given to him by the lord and if you look in in verse 24 he talks about that of chapter 20. and finally the bible never suggests that paul missed god's will by going to jerusalem in fact when you read in acts chapter 23 after he's in prison the lord jesus shows up in the place where he's imprisoned and stood near paul and said take courage as you've testified about me in jerusalem so you must also testify in rome i believe this i believe that that all of those warnings along the way were simply confirmation to what god had already spoken to paul about what was going to happen and that when it happened it would be very disconcerting to be in paul's situation to be headed to rome where he could be executed and to have that weight and all of that and wonder did i make a mistake should i have done what i did should i have gone up to the temple that day should i have listened to james and the other church elders and and gone up and paid for the vows and that's because that's what got him in trouble we won't you can read about it in acts chapter 21. but paul has this backdrop of words from the lord that let him know listen god is in all of this and that must have been very very encouraging to him now let me just give you as we as we wrap this up and tie it together i want to give you some tips on hearing the spirit's voice in our life the first thing is if you are going to hear the voice of the spirit we have to believe what god has already spoken in other words if we're not going to pay attention to the word of god and the revealed will of god why is god going to tell us things that aren't revealed in in his word if we don't care about the things that are revealed in his word you know god's not going to tell us something new if we haven't believed what he's already said and i would suggest that one of the ways that we learn the heart of god and the mind of god and the and the the thoughts of the lord to whatever degree we as humans can understand it is by reading the word of god because we see how god thinks we see how god works we see what god says we learn to understand his heart for people in his heart for us and the way he directs by reading the word of god we also learn the things that would be in keeping with his will and the things that would not be in keeping with his will which helps keep us on the right path second we have to understand that not every voice is god's voice there are three voices i mean essentially a person can hear one is our own voice we have our conscience which the conscience isn't necessarily god's voice can god energize our conscience yes but the conscience is not infallible our conscience has to be trained according to the word of god and you can have people who have a hyperactive conscience and they're constantly feeling condemned that's not god you can have people who have a seared conscience and they're not convicted by anything and that's not god either so we have to be careful and then there's the whole issue of our own human desires and there are things that we want so bad we desire so bad that if we're not careful we can we can superimpose over the top of of whatever's happening and say that must be the voice of god when in fact it's just simply we're telling ourselves what we want to hear i think another voice that we can hear is the voice of the enemy very clearly jesus was tempted by the devil if jesus is tempted by the devil and the devil's talking to jesus you can be sure the devil or his demons are talking to you that they are tempting you and so we have to learn to discern and and satan himself appears as an angel of life so many times what what happens is satan can try his demons can try to imitate the voice of god you say wow this is getting very confusing i don't know how would i know this is the art of maturity in walking with the lord this is the value of spending time in the presence of the lord even in a service like this you sense the spirit of god moving you you do the longer you are you might be new tonight and you're sensing the lord is in this place but as you come more and you're around it more you're watching the service being led you're watching things happen and through that you're learning to understand how god moves in a place and and it helps in interpreting god's moving in your own life [Music] and then there's the voice of the lord where it really is the voice and and we are hearing his voice in that sense i mean one of the things that i think is very helpful when you when you feel that you've gotten a very definite word from the lord write it down see what happens if it doesn't come true and it's time sensitive then you have to conclude either i didn't hear god or i misinterpreted and and you over time you watch how that plays out in your life and you look at different things and over time you learn to understand and interpret god's voice you say well how do i know if it's the voice of the spirit speaking to me well i think first of all obviously he's going to be consistent with his word that you'll you'll you'll be able to identify it in his word that if it does something in you that's not consistent with his word then probably it's not the voice of god because the the kingdom of god is a matter of righteousness peace and joy in the holy spirit and if it does something in you that doesn't foster those things then it's probably not god number two if what you're hearing involves a major decision i think it's very very important no matter how sure you are you've heard from god you should seek counsel godly counsel wise counsel i think it's i think it's important for you to seek the counsel of those who are over you and the lord so you say how how does that work well it plays out if you're living at home you're with your parents i think it's i think it's very important that you seek your parents counsel i'm surprised how many people especially young people they they make decisions they're hearing i'm not doubting that the lord is speaking to them but a bit of counsel and godly counsel go a long ways and you know i don't think you're ever at a place where you can just do what you want because you've heard from the lord i think that's a dangerous place to be you know listen if if if i'm getting ready to do something pastorally in the leadership of james river that's a big decision we're going to start a campus we're going to do this we're going to do that i go to the people that are over me in the lord i go to the district superintendent i say listen i'm thinking about doing this can you think about this pray about it and then let me know what you think and if we need to if i need to come over make an appointment sit down and talk with you i'm happy to do that the last time i did that this is what he said you know you don't have to do this i said i know i don't have to do it but i believe in being under authority and just because i pastor a big church doesn't make me the expert and i think god can speak to people i i'm a believer god speaks to people over us and that helps us refine and define the direction of what we're filling in our heart if in fact we are feeling something in our heart but a lot of times people just run off and you're you're like wow a little bit of godly counsel would have helped them a whole lot you say well where do i get that it could be somebody it could you might have a life group leader who is very seasoned it could be one of the pastors on set listen it doesn't have to be one particular the people we have on staff i've got great confidence in them but i i would always the bigger the decision debbie and i i would have to say this i just don't make you we don't make decisions unilaterally we just don't do it because i've seen it go bad for way too many people and i've seen the value of it over time in my life of asking people who know more about it or people who i have respect for their walk with the lord or people are over with over me in the lord and i want to i want to find out what they think on some things i just think that's that's a wonderful caution for people because honestly and you've heard me say this many times the first rule in hearing from god is you may be wrong and better to have somebody who can help give you perspective but you don't see here's what happens a lot of times people hear a little bit they hear and maybe especially if it's what they want to hear then they don't want anybody telling them any different and i think you're better off to say listen this is what i think i'm hearing do you do you feel like this is from the lord and and when you ask for counsel i would encourage you i'm just trying to talk very practically to you if somebody comes in to me and they say listen i just want to let you know god's told me this this and this i don't know what they want me to say i'm not who how am i going to argue with god i'm a whole lot more comfortable if they come in and say you know what we feel the lord has been speaking to our heart and and we feel like this might be what god is saying what do you think then i feel i feel open to sharing with them counsel but once somebody says well god said it's kind of the end of the discussion for me i think we have to be really careful when we want to if we really want to discern the voice of the lord we have to i think when you're going to people over you in the lord it's really good to to be a little less [Music] dogmatic or or or you know black and white i i think you said you know i really feel like god may be saying this to me but i think that will be confirmed if you agree [Music] but very few people want to go there because a lot of people want to do what they want to do and and that will get you in trouble every time so i realize i'm saying it's just as a pastor i i just watch it and i i think so many times it goes less than it could have for people because any one of us humanly can become very self-willed and i i would say this number three god generally speaks for comfort and encouragement not to condemn you i think it's really important because i think a lot of people hear very condemning things that they think are from the lord and i don't think they're from god at all [Music] you know if god if god comes to you and he convicts you it's for the purpose of repentance to bring you to a place of repentance that you might walk in the joy of the lord you know that's what god wants to do god wants you to be able to be in good relationship and so god is god is going to encourage us to seek him and to walk close to him and and obviously if there's if there's sin in your life that is that is dominating you then then the lord may warn you there's no question about that but the lord loves you and i just think people have to to realize god speaks for comfort and encouragement and i mean you think how many times in the old testament when god calls people or confronts people there's always a promise there's always life attached to it if you serve me there's life and god says choose life and number four he speaks softly this is why you and i have to we have to learn to be able to quiet our heart and and to remove the things that distract us from really sensing him and being okay with being quiet before him i certainly we talked to him but there's also that place where we where we develop over time this ability to quiet our spirit so we can hear him where we're okay being alone and being in his presence or we're we're okay not having a thousand things going on we're okay with setting the phone to the side or turning the tv off and we're just we're just okay because we understand god can speak at any time and you you develop that you practice as one uh one man said the presence of the lord and then then you feel his presence and you you become uh attuned to what's what that's like to a greater degree but i just i'm i just feel like god wants to speak to his people as we talk about being led by fire god wants to speak to you he is speaking to you he's calling you he's encouraging you he's directing you he's preparing you [Music] he's he's interested in the big things in your life and guess what he's interested in the little things in your life don't ever think well god would never say anything about that because he doesn't no no no no no god cares the steps of a righteous person i close with this are ordered of the lord directed by the lord and it says this and he delights in every detail of their lives god delights in the details of your life if he delights in the details of your life he's going to speak about those details right hey everybody thank you so much for joining james river church on our youtube channel our prayer is that you were encouraged and your faith was strengthened today and we want to let you know that we want to connect with all our online family you can just click the link next to me to connect to us we'd love to meet you and connect with you as well we'd love if you subscribe to the channel and press the bell for notifications i'll tell you what it's a great thing to do because we're always putting out great sermons new worship content and that helps you stay up to date with everything that's happening we hope you have a great day today and we'd love for you to join us live for our services every sunday and wednesday thank you again for watching and god bless

Channel: James River Church

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Id: TzfSLXlk-9w

Length: 27min 44sec (1664 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 01 2020