How Do You Know if God is Talking to You?

as the video said this morning we are starting a new series entitled since you asked you see several weeks ago we asked you to submit certain questions that you wanted answers for some of you did some of you didn't but we did receive numerous questions in fact we received so many questions I decided that I didn't want to have to speak two years in the series so what we did is we whittled it down and what we asked you to do is vote on which of the questions you thought I should answer and then we took the top four and the first question that people wanted answered was how do you know if God is speaking to you or if it's just your own thoughts and the answer is you can't know so let's move on to the next question now I'm just teasing you not at all of course you can know if God is speaking to you but first let me assure you that God does speak to us in the very beginning God conversed with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden now of course they hadn't sinned yet but I want you to know that man was created to have fellowship with God and even though sin broke that fellowship God still desires to have a relationship with us and that's why he sent His Son Jesus Christ now many times we think that Christ is a name it's not Jesus is his name Christ is his title cry simply means Anointed One so when we say in Greek so when we say Jesus Christ what we are saying is Jesus The Anointed One and that title is actually a messianic title it means that Jesus is the Messiah and that's why Jesus came through Jesus fellowship with God is reestablished so we can talk with him and he can talk with us in fact after the fall God spoke to Noah and not just in generalities but in great detail look at Genesis chapter 6 we're gonna read verses 13 through 22 and I'll show you what I'm talking about says so God said to Noah I have decided to destroy all living creatures for they had filled the earth with violence and if you were here when I was teaching through Genesis you know that the reason it was filled with violence is because you had the Nephilim if you want to know what the Nephilim is get my series on Genesis and listen that he said I will wipe them all out along with the earth build a large boat with Cypress wood and waterproof it with tar inside and out then construct decks installed throughout its throughout its interior make the boat 450 feet long one and a half football lengths if you want a football field make the boat 450 feet long 75 feet wide and 45 feet high leave an 18-inch opening below the roof all the way around the boat put the door on the side and build three decks inside the boat lower middle and upper look I'm about to cover the earth with the flood that will destroy every living thing that breathes everything on earth will die but I will confirm my covenant with you so enter the boat you and your wife and your sons and their wives bring a pair of every kind of animal a male and a female into the boat with you to keep them alive during the flood pairs of every kind of bird and every kind of animal and every kind of a small animal that scurries along the ground will come to you you don't have to go get him they will come to you to be kept alive and be sure to take it on board enough food for your family and for all the animals so Noah did exactly as God had commanded him so as you can see God spoke to know and he didn't just do it in generalities he was very specific this is how long the boat needs to be this is how wide it needs to be this is how tall it needs to be you need to make sure that those odors can get out of the boat so put 18 inches all the way around it tar it on the inside tarred on the outside animals are going to come to you make sure you have enough food for them make sure you have enough food for you he goes through all of this detail so it wasn't this generalities no didn't wake up one day and said well you I feel like God's gonna judge the world I feel like maybe I should build a boat I feel like I know God spoke directly to him God also spoke to Moses first an abort burning bush in order to get his attention but once he had his attention he spoke to Moses face to face turn to Exodus chapter 33 verses 8 through 11 and I'll prove it to you notice what it says whenever Moses was out to the 10th of meeting all the people would get up and stand in the entrance of their own tents they would all watch Moses until he disappeared inside now this is kind of interesting I guess because this is such a spectacular phenomenon every time Moses came and he walked towards the tabernacle everyone would come out of him Moses is going in Moses is going in and so what he would do is they would come out to that to the their tent the door opening and they would watch him do this because they wanted to see it happen and here's what would take place as he went into the tent the pillar of cloud would come down and over at its entrance while the Lord spoke with Moses when the people saw the cloud standing at the entrance of the tent they would stand and bow down in front of their own tents inside the tent of meeting the tabernacle the Lord would speak to Moses face to face as one speaks to a friend do you see this God spoke to Moses face to face as you would a friend you know if you have a good friend they're not just watching their telephone you know and scrolling through it while they're talking to you you know what you ought to do the next time your friend does just slap it down and say you know friends don't talk that way and then give them the scripture because you're supposed to talk face to face as friends do now let me show you something interesting turn with me if you would to the Book of Numbers chapter 12 we're gonna read verses 1 and 2 and they were gonna jump down to verse number 4 and read to verse number 9 so here's verses 1 and 2 we're still talking about Moses and God speaking to him notice what it says why they were at hazard off Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because he had married a coucher woman in other words in Ethiopian and of course if you study a little bit about the histories of people and nationalities you'll know that she was a black woman and they didn't like that they thought he should have married a Jew so they were criticizing him they said this has the Lord spoken only through Moses hasn't he spoken through us too but the Lord Lord heard them and it's true Miriam was a prophetess God had spoken through her Aaron was a prophet God had spoken through him in fact he was the spokesperson for Moses and so when he did this thing they were upset with him and they got to backbiting they got to murmuring about him but here's what's interesting the l'heure Lord heard it doesn't say that Moses heard the Lord heard this normally if someone's talking about you you're the last one to ever hear it it was kind of interesting there's rumors going around about cornerstone fellowship and it's been going around for years it's always amazing to hear what they're saying about us but you know what's interesting Craig Groeschel says if they're not accusing you of being a cult you're not doing it right it's about true you know it's really the way it is I heard the other day anyone else hear this rumor that I was going to retire won't hear that I know where that rumor went around no guys you are stuck with me I'm not going anywhere I'm only leaving when I get up here and I tell the same stories over and over again in the same sermon then maybe I'll leave now let's jump down to verse 4 let's read to verse number 9 so immediately the Lord now who is the Lord this is Yahweh how do we know what y'all way because it's in all caps this is the redeeming covenant keeping name of God so this is Yahweh speaking so immediately the Lord called to Moses Aaron to Miriam and said go out to the tabernacle the woodshed all three of you so the three of them went to the tabernacle then the Lord descended in the pillar of cloud and he stood at the entrance of the tabernacle Aaron and Miriam he called and they stepped forward said yes Lord and the Lord said to them now listen to what I say if there were prophets among you because they claim to be prophets and they were if there were prophets among you I the Lord were to reveal myself in visions I would speak to them in dreams but not with my servant Moses of all my house he's the one I trust I speak to him face-to-face clearly and not in riddles he sees the Lord Yahweh as he is so why were you not afraid to criticize criticize my servant Moses the Lord Yahweh was very angry with him and he departed now what does this tell us you know I could really go off on this and there's a lot of angles we could look at this from but you know what this is telling us is that God's not going to speak to us face-to-face like he did Moses now of course in Deuteronomy chapter 18 he talks about another prophet that's gonna come Moses actually said another prophets gonna come like me and what he means by that is another prophet that God will speak face-to-face and who is that prophet Jesus Christ Jesus the Messiah the son of God he comes and Moses was a type of him he fulfills that and he's that other person that God speaks face-to-face but he's clearly telling us here that with prophets are those he speaks to he doesn't do it face-to-face there's only two that he speaks face-to-face with that was Moses and Jesus so it tells us he's not going to speak to us face-to-face like he did Moses instead he's going to speak to us in a more indirect manner less direct that's what he was telling Aaron and Miriam I speak to Moses face to face but with everyone else I speak in a less direct way which makes the question if God doesn't speak to us face-to-face then how does he speak to us well I wish it was like the guy that I'm going to show you in this video let's read let's run this video [Music] [Applause] [Music] wouldn't it be great if God spoke to us like that wouldn't that make that so much easier if God did that you get an email you open it up it says God and then he goes in he gives you the message answers every little question that you have you're driving down the road and all of a sudden the Billboard changes right before your eyes supernaturally and said God tells you what to make a right at the next corner it'd be so great if God would do that but God doesn't do it that way so how does God speak to us well let's look at the different ways that God can speak to us now let's start with the most predominant way which is the Bible people this is God's Word this is his letter to you and what's great about it is it's written down you want to know what God is saying to the world today this is it you want to know what he's telling you to do in most cases what this is where you find it this is the Word of God it is God's message to us and he's given it to us so we can know what is true and what is false so we can know what we should or shouldn't do in order to have a great life turn with me if you would to the book of 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 and I'll prove it to you notice what it says all Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true now what's interesting about that word inspired it literally means God breathed and the best way to really describe what this is like it's like this prophet is like a flute and do you call someone who plays the flute of flautist but anyways if a flautist grabs the flute and he begins to blow through this and it produces this music well god did the same thing with the prophets he breathed into them and if you've been on a Wednesday night you know how God spoke to the Old Testament prophets they would go into an open-eyed trance and they would literally speak the words of God and that was written down and so we have God's Word and here he's telling us that all Scripture is inspired by God in other words it's God breathed it's his anointed it came upon the prophets and they spoke as God moved them and then he goes further he says and it's useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives no one wants to have someone else point out what's wrong in their life but you know sometimes that's necessary and God's Word does that and it says it corrects us when we are wrong it doesn't just point it out you know every once in a while I'll have people come to me and they want to tell me everything that's wrong with the church and then I listened to it I said okay now what would you do to fix that well I don't know that's your problem I understand what's wrong with the church well I always want to tell them or feel like telling them well you know what I know what's wrong with the church but God and show me how to fix it if you don't have the answer then just keep your mouth shut you know the truth of the matter is no one likes for someone else to point out the faults on their own but you know if they'll tell you how to fix it here he tells us he makes us realize what is wrong our lives it corrects us when we're wrong and it teaches us to do what is right let me tell you something what the world is telling you is not true and if you listen to the lies that's telling you it will screw you up but that's why God gave us his word to tell us what's right and what's wrong and to tell us when worse when we've screwed up and the right way that we should live so make no mistake about it the Bible is God speaking to us so let me just say this 99% of the questions you have can be answered by reading your Bible let me say that again 99% of the questions you have can be answered by reading the Bible should I marry this person oh I don't know let's say does the exhibit the fruit of the Spirit does he have the characteristics of love is he a born-again believer would he put your needs and desires your needs and desires above his own what he loved you as Christ loves the church well I'm not sure about that then the answer is no now if you want God to tell you directly okay no well you're not God no I'm not but I read the Bible and God spoke directly you say 99% of the questions we have can be answered by simply reading the Bible and it is by far the most predominant way that God speaks to us so people please read your Bible but but there's always a but to it you know what happens when someone says but that means everything else that they said before that he's going to just correct it right but you have to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit when you're reading the Bible and studying it if you want to hear God's speaking because it's the Holy Spirit's job to guide us as we're reading through the Bible and studying it look at John chapter 16 verses 12 and 13 I'll show you what I'm talking about it says there is so much more I want to tell you this is Jesus speaking but you can't bear it now in other words there's information overload I'd love to just sit down and I just love to tell you everything but right now you can't even grasp the fact that is the Messiah I'm gonna have to be crucified on a cross I'm going to descend into hell I'm going to pay for your sins and then when all of your sins are paid for according to Leviticus 18 5 God's gonna legally raise me from the dead now let me explain what this means to you and your life and how to apply it Jesus would have loved to have done that but they couldn't even grasp that yet it was like information overload so he goes further says when the spirit of truth comes and notice that this word spirit is capitalized it's not talking about your spirit is talking about the Holy Spirit but when the holy spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all truth now if you keep reading in this passage of Scripture you want to stay with the same pericope that means the the same context and you get to John 17:17 you find out that he says the word is truth the word is truth so the Holy Spirit's job is to guide you into all truth and the word is truth so his job is to guide you as you read the Bible the Holy Spirit's job is to guide you as you're reading and studying the Bible now what a guy does is he leads the way and for from time to time he'll stop and he'll point out the things that you need to see and then he usually elaborates on the things that he's pointing out well people that's exactly what the Holy Spirit does as you're reading through the Bible and listening to him as you're reading through the Bible he'll cause you to stop and he points out a particular phrase or verse and when he does that it's almost as if as you're reading the Bible this part of the verse or maybe this whole first or maybe two three verses just jumps out of you has anyone ever had that happen you read the Bible and you know you've been praying and all the sudden you're reading through this like oh my gosh that's God speaking to me this is the answer well people that is a Rhema everyone ever is everyone heard of what a Rhema is does everyone know what a Rainey is well if you don't let me give you definition of what the word Rhema is in fact before I even do that let me explain where we get to word Rhema the word Rhema is a greek word comes from the bible and it says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God and that that word word is translated from this Greek word Rhema it's different from the Greek word lagos all of the words written in this Bible or long us but Rhema is different faith comes from hearing Ramos and what are Ramos well if you're taking notes write this down a Rhema is a verse or a phrase in a verse that God quickens in your spirit in other words it's God speaking to you through a particular verse or a phrase in a verse think of it like this it's when you're reading the Bible all of a sudden a verse suddenly pops out at you and you know it's for you and that it applies to a specific situation or an issue that you're going through people that's a Rhema so the most predominant way that God speaks to us is through the word and if you're sensitive the Holy Spirit he will guide you and he'll point out the exact verse or verses you need at that specific moment in your life and he'll speak to you through those verses does that make sense that's the most predominant way that God does it now the reason I bring this up is because the majority of you are trying to read your Bible through in a year or at least you're trying to read a portion of the Bible everyday the problem is most of you do that so you can just check it oh you've put it down as one of the tasks in your day planners and so as you're reading through the Bible you finish you a check but you really weren't listening you really weren't reading this and saying god what is this saying are you trying to speak to me what can I learn from this because if you will approach the Bible that way you're being sensitive the Holy Spirit and as he as your guide that's what he is he's a guy he guides you into all truth and the Word is truth so as he's guiding you just like a guy does if you go on a tour he's walking alone he says oho stop I want you to see that and he points it out and then he elaborates on that you go ooh let me take a picture back right I see that Holy Spirit does the same thing as you're reading and studying the Bible he stops and all the sudden he points this out and it's like it just pops out at you that's a Rhema and he says as he elaborates on it you know the issue you're struggling with this applies and you go oh my god Lord you spoke to me so that's the most predominant way that God speaks to us the second most common way that God speaks to us is through sermons yeah if you want God to speak to you then you need to go to church that is what you tell your children you know it's kind of interesting as their children grow up and and they move out of the house you know the one thing that we want is for them to live out the values that we try to instill within them and one of the values that we tried to instill within our children is you need to go to church and hopefully even you've instilled that value within your children but one of the reasons we want them to go to church is because God speaks through sermons and I promise you if you go to church then God is going to hit you right between the eyes from time to time with the sermon hopefully though the majority the sermons are like mm-hmm ain't mm-hmm-hmm got that mm-hmm doing that that's right on but every once in a while the sermon will hit you right between the eyes and it hurts why because God's speaking to you but that's what church is for it's to be taught the Word of God and how to apply it to our life and that's what he feeds in chapter 4 verses 11 12 is talking about notice what it says now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church the Apostles the prophets the evangelists and the pastors and teachers now most people refer to this as the fivefold ministry it is not the fivefold ministry that last one that says pastors and teachers there's a little rule in Greek I won't go into it but basically what it tells you is that's the same person pastor is the title teacher is his function you want to what no why most Christians have never grown in their Christian walk it's because the pastors are preaching and not teaching pastor is the title teacher is the function let's keep reading their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and to build up the church the body of Christ now let me read the first part again because I'm gonna elaborate on this now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church the Apostles the prophets the evangelists and the pastors and teachers so according to this passage of Scripture I'm God's gift to you now I know some of you probably feel gypped oh my gosh you know god I thought you gave better gifts than this but I do want you to understand I am God's gift to you and I say that in all humbleness and my job is to equip you to do what God has called you to do and to build you up and to make you strong as a Christian now let me explain how you can know if I'm doing my job or not if when I'm teaching and there are moments when it feels like I'm talking directly to you that I'm doing my job because that means that God is speaking through me to you and I've had people come up to me and say this a pastor I felt a little offended because I saw you looking right at me when you said that it's like you were speaking right to me well first of all let me just say this you see these theatrical lights up here all I see is shadows out here I actually had to learn to preach to an empty house and the reason I had to do that is because if you had these bright lights shining towards you you wouldn't be able to see anything either so when it looks like I'm looking directly at you that's probably God all right now if I'm doing my job then there should be moments when I'm explaining a scripture that all of a sudden the light bulb goes off and you get it it's like boom revelation and God has spoken to you now if you're not paying attention you're thinking about what you're gonna do when you get out of church then it really doesn't matter what I do or what I say because God's not gonna speak to you in the sermon if you're sitting there and you're making a grocery list or you know you put your your phone on silence but you're texting back and forth or you're looking at different things on your phone and you're trying to make everyone else think that you're following me in the Bible on your phone that's not speaking to you and he's not gonna fix you because you're not paying attention however if you are paying attention and you can't hear God speaking through me then you probably should go somewhere else to church and I'm not being flippant I'm being honest you know there are different churches because it ministered people need different ways of being ministered to there's different personalities and there's different styles of ministry and if you come to my church and you're not learning anything if it doesn't feel like God is speaking to you and you came here and you wow that just really opened the Word of God and you tilt that quickening inside if that doesn't happen to you then you probably ought to go somewhere else I'm not saying it's gonna happen every Sunday that put a lot of pressure on me man I've got to just no no but from time to time you ought to feel like wow that's like a lightbulb moment all of a sudden boom I received this revelation and God spoke to me that's what you ought to feel now let me give you a scripture that actually describes my responsibility as a pastor look at first Corinthians chapter 2 verse 13 notice what it says when we tell you this things now who's we well of course Paul is writing this and he's talking about the Apostles but not just the Apostles the people that they have ordained and sent out to preach the Word of God so notice what he says when we tell you these things we don't use words come from human wisdom instead we speak words given to us by the spirit notice that word spirit is capitalized the first Lantern that means to the Holy Spirit so we speak words given to us by the Holy Spirit using the spirit's words to explain spiritual truths people do you see that I should be speaking words that the Holy Spirit gives me to explain spiritual truths to you and when I do that there should be those moments when it's like a light bulb going off and you go on oh my gosh I've never seen that before that's good oh god and you're writing these notes down that's what should be taking place so that's the second most common way that God speaks to people he speaks through sermons using pastors the third way that God speaks to us is through godly friends and godly family members turn to proverbs chapter 12 verse 26 I'll show you what I'm talking about and that's what it says the godly give good advice to their friends the wicked lead them astray now people do you see that godly people give godly advice which is good advice worldly people give worldly advice which is bad advice and it leads people astray so people don't discount God speaking through the advice of godly people you see what we don't realize is that God will put people around us who have godly wisdom and who give godly counsel based on God's Word so in essence God is speaking through them so if you're going through something tough or you need to make a tough decision and you need God to speak to you don't go to your worldly friends for advice people they're going to give you her horrible advice they're gonna lead you astray you know I'm having a tough time in my marriage and you go to your friend and you're telling them about the tough time you're having and they look at you and they say well God wants you to be happy you should be happy you just need to file for divorce and go on people let me just tell you something that's not God's advice that's worldly advice that's horrible advice that leads you astray you want to know if you should marry them you don't want to go talk with your parents you've been in church all their life you don't want to go talk to the pastor you better go talk to your friend because you love Billy but you know he everyone else thinks he's a bad guy but I think yes a good hardly really loves me and you seek advice from your friends you're an idiot that's the best thing I can say about you because they are worldly they're going to give you worldly advice it's horrible advice and it will lead you astray you go to a godly person you need to realize that and if your family is not godly you need to realize the difference between if you have spiritual if you have certain questions that need to be answered that have spiritual consequences to them we're really important consequences you don't go to your family if they're not saved if they don't know the Word of God I know that's probably against everything you've ever heard but that's the Bible if you want to decide whether you should buy a Ford or Chevy go to your dad who's never gone to church because it doesn't really matter if you buy a Ford or a Chevy but if you want to know if you can afford it and you'll be following God's scriptures concerning finances don't go to your daddy's not a Christian he'll probably tell you well if you really want it just go ahead and do it I don't know maybe I can but if I do that it won't be able to tithe I won't be able to give offering what are you talking about ty that's you know you just need to do what you need to I want you understand that's horrible advice and we have to be honest with ourselves sometimes we have family members that are on in positions of authority that we're supposed to honor but we need to realize they're lost as a goose and sometimes you don't go to them for advice and I had to learn that early on that's a good teaching pastor Alan the fourth way that God speaks to us is by whispering into your spiritual ear and this is what you really wanted to know when you ask this question isn't it yeah yeah you wanted to know does God speak to us directly and how do you know it's God is that what you really want to you ask this question if you don't mind me asking who asked does God speak to us and if he does how do we know that it's really God and not s no one's gonna take it I thought it was a great question it shows you're a very spiritual person now who asked that question yeah this is what we really want to know well let me show you a very interesting passage of Scripture I want you to understand I could spend probably six weeks on this and we could go really in depth and maybe I'll do that sometime but I'll do it on a Wednesday night but I'm going to show you one interesting passage of Scripture turn with me if you would to the book of Job chapter 33 we're gonna read verses 14 through 16 notice what this is for God speaks again and again though people do not recognize it I want you to understand something God is speaking to you all the time the problem is you just don't recognize it yeah yeah you're like a teenager and if you have a teenager on time you're talking to them all the time and they're not even listening God is speaking to you read that for God speaks not once not twice again and again though people do not recognize it then he's gonna tell us how he speaks I love this because he's telling us he speaks to us but now he's going to tell us how he speaks to us directly he speaks in dreams I've had two spiritual dreams in my life now you might be asking have I ever had a spiritual dream if you have to ask that then no you have it I've had two spiritual dreams in my life no more than two I'll share one with you I was praying for a member of my family to be safe lost as a goose and I mean it really burdened me so I was praying and praying and praying and one night I went to sleep and I don't sleep that well and I usually dream but I it's kind of crazy and I wake up and I can't remember what I dream but this particular night I went to sleep and and all of a sudden I had this dream and I was at Lake Tenkiller and it was the winter time there's not a leaf on the tree if you could tell it was cold outside and I was walking out to this dock and if you've ever been to a doc you know that there's usually this ramp and you're walking out and there's usually rails on it and the person that I was praying for was walking behind me and so we walked out to this dock and there were four docks in a row and then there was this this this path or whatever you would call it the ramp that went aside it but it didn't have railings on it so as I was leading the way this person it sounded like fell into the water and it was about 15 to 20 feet deep and I turned around and it was cold water middle of winter freezing and I looked down and it's very clear and his eyes were wide but he doesn't put his hand up but it scares me immediately I reached down and I grabbed him by the shoulders and I'm able to pull him up and I put him up on the ramp and I look at him and I'm just about ready to say why did you do that or did you fall what happened when all of a sudden he just steps over and he jumps right back in and this time he sinks deeper and I reached my hand into the water and I'm telling him to reach up and he doesn't do it and immediately God speaks to me and he speaks about this person's name and I'm not going to share it but he says no one can save him only he can save himself except his name was there and I'm telling you I woke up came out of that and that was just right in my spirit no one can save this person only he can save himself now what you to understand something none of us can save ourselves we all need Jesus that wasn't what the Holy Spirit was speaking what the Holy Spirit was speaking is that he has a free will and until he wants to receive Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior he's not going to be saved and it doesn't matter what you do and it doesn't matter what you pray I'm not going to violate his free will I will honor your prayers I'll send people to witness to him I'll do all that I can to speak to him I'll convict him I'll do all of those different things but you need to understand something it's up to him man I woke up and I'm telling you I've never forgotten dream I've had another dream it's a little more personal I won't share it let me tell you if you have a spiritual dream you know it and you don't even have to be saved to have them if you read the Bible you'll find out that Pharaoh had a dream Pharaoh was lost as a goose he had this dream and he knew it was of course he's not a believer in Yahweh it's the God speaking to him this is a divine dream and so he brings all his wise men in no one can answer and of course the Baker if you remember I'm sorry the cup bear he remembers I was in prison with this person and he can interpret dreams and so they bring Joseph in he doesn't joseph rises up in the ranks then you you remember the story of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar is having a dream and he has this dream that really frightens him and he knows that it's a spiritual dream so it caused all his wise men in but he also understands that his wise men are charlatans and if he tells them what the dream is to just make up an interpretation but he knows since this is a divine dream it has a divine meaning to it and so what he does is I had this dream and you need to interpret it I said well Great King just tell us what it is and we'll tell you what it means he's oh no I'm not playing that game if you're really as wise as you claim to be then you tell me what I dreamed and then you tell me the interpretation as a king you're crazy no man can do that angels can't even do that and so he says well then I'm gonna kill all of you I'm gonna kill your families and I'm gonna bulldoze your houses in scepter wouldn't bulldoze but I'm gonna turn it into rebel well of course David's one of the wise men but he's not in that inner circle yet well when the guard tells him what's going to happen severe you go tell Nebuchadnezzar that I'll tell him what it means and then he goes into prayer and he goes to Nebuchadnezzar and he says this is what you dreamed and he told him the dream and interpreted so once you to understand something God speaks through dreams that's one way he does it let's keep reading for God speaks again and again though people do not recognize it he speaks in dreams that's one way in visions of the night when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds let me tell you something some of the best revelation I get from God is when I lay down to go to sleep my wife will tell you this she knows God speaking to me because we go to bed she hears me get up five minutes later I come back I get in bed and it's like five minutes later I'm getting up and I might do that three or four times in about the fourth time I'll either sleep on the couch now that the kids are gone and go sleep the bed is I don't want to disturb her but God starts speaking to me I'm to the point now where I have a notebook and a pen at night and what I want to do is I want to write down what God is telling me let me tell you some of the greatest things God will ever speak to use when you lie down to go to sleep but now we get to the point where it where he talks about speaking to us and the way you want to hear it because he does speak this way and that's what it says he whispers in their ears and they know it's from him for it carries its seal or his seal now that's not the way the original NLT translates but that's what it means you see this word seal is translated from the Hebrew word coffin which means to attach or fix your seal on something to authenticate it's yours now let me tell you what this means this word sealed in the ancient times if you wanted to send a message to someone and it's directly to go to go to them and no one else was to read it you would write it down you would roll it up in the scroll and you would drop wax on it to seal it but then you had what we would call a seal and you would put it in there while that wax is still hot and it would imprint your seal on it now let me explain why you did that number one it's because no one else was supposed to read it except the person that was sent to and number two it was to show that no one had opened it and it was from you it was authentic it was yours so what this is saying is God whispers in our ears and he's not talking about physical leaders he's talking about spiritual leaders and they know it's from him for it carries its seal in other words that was God now some people refer to these wispy whisperings from God as impressions like well the Lord impressed me to do that or I felt impressed to call you and to tell you that I'm praying for you but people this not or that is not what this is talking about this isn't talking about you feeling like gods telling you to do something now this is talking about the small still voice of God speaking to your inner man and you know it's God you think there's a big difference between you feeling like God's telling you to do something and God actually telling you to do something big difference now I do believe that from time to time we feel impressed to do something and it is God that makes us feel that way but he normally does that when he's guiding us but not when he's trying to speak to us that's important so let me say that again he normally does that in other words makes you feel a certain layer and presses something upon you when he's guiding you and not when he's trying to speak to you in fact I don't think that's the way that God speaks to us when it comes to making big decisions think about it how many of you would sell all of your possessions give it away get a one-way ticket to China to go be a missionary because you felt like God was telling you to do that no well let me tell you something I wouldn't do that you see that's the problem with impressions or feelings it's hard to tell whether that feelings those feelings are coming from you or from God you know it's like I feel like God wants me to speak to them and share the gospel with him well I can already tell you God wants you to do that that's a right impression but you know sometimes it's like well I feel like I should do this or I feel like I should do that but you know I don't know if it's God or it's me now I'll be honest with you it doesn't really matter whether it's God are you if it's a small matter or it's trivial if it's something little it doesn't really matter if I could if God made me impresses upon me to write you a card to encourage you and I feel like boy that's strange I'm supposed to write them the card and encourage them so I sit down and let me tell you you and know it's God because I don't write cards I open it up and I write an encouragement to you and I send it to you you know maybe you receive it you open it go oh my gosh is exactly what I needed but it might be you open and I'm you really gonna last nice pastor I want to set me to it doesn't really matter to you I see you Church the next day and you know I I'm kind of looking see that matter you can say oh that's really nice thanks well it really didn't matter whether I did it or not I felt led to do it but it doesn't really matter because that's a small or trivial matter right but when it comes to making a big decision that will really affect my life I don't want to base that decision on my feelings or on a feeling right now I want to hear the voice of God and people that is what job 33 verses 14 through 16 is talking about it's talking about God speaking to your inner man in a small still voice and people when it's God it's sealed you know it now this is different than receiving a Rhema as you're reading the Bible it is actually a voice that you hear it's not audible but it's spiritual in fact I'll be honest with you God has spoken to me some times that I thought it was audible but it wasn't it was spiritual but I got a swore I heard God speak in fact I'm gonna give you four examples if you don't mind I was preaching one time down on Water Street we were small about back then maybe 70 or 80 adults and I was as I was preaching all of a sudden I felt that I needed to say something but I blew it off had nothing to do with my sermon I just kept on preaching it got stronger I blew it off and finally I heard God speak to me I can't tell you this audible or if it was spiritually that said I want you to say if you don't tell your wife you love her someone else will so I stopped my preaching and I said I don't know why but I'm supposed to say this if you don't tell your wife you love her someone else will now of course after I finished preaching I had a couple that came to me made a beeline asked if they could speak to me privately and they came into my office and the wife said I want you to understand something I have not had fair but if you can get as close to having an affair without having an affair I've done that I've had an emotional affair and my husband went to confront the man and the man was right there and he said I went to confront him and when the man looked at me he said should I wait with my husband because I was afraid he'd be violent the man told him well if you don't tell your wife you love or someone else will and so when you said that this morning well needless to say we've got him in counseling their marriage was saved and it became what God wanted him to be first example second example the lady came to see me one time when we were on 4th Street she was going on and on and on going nowhere I'm trying to look like I'm paying attention I'm thinking I have the task to do because I'm very task-oriented and I felt like I just should stand up and just backhand her across the mouth and I mean it it's like oh my gosh God forgive me and what she's talking to him doing this with love in my eyes I'm going god I don't know why I would feel that way forgive me so I'm trying to listen again and then that urge comes on again I'm really going God what is wrong with me I'm such a sinner and then God speaks to me a small still voice you know it's God you can't really tell if it's audible but you know sometimes you confuse it for being audible because it's so clear and he says every time she says something but her husband doesn't like he backhand sir so I said can I just stop you a second she God told me that when you say things your husband doesn't like he just backhands you across the mouth she is broke down I mean it sure that's what she really came for and she had told me that when I got here I decided I shouldn't do that and I wasn't gonna say anything about my husband and I thought well you think I'm crazy if I don't say so I just rambling and then we were able to get her help example number three I'll go through these quickly now under this fourth one we're getting ready to build this building we had all the plans we put it out to bid everyone told us you can't build it for less than $115 a square foot bids came in at five and six million dollars cheapest one was five point four million dollars highest one was closer to seven million six point eight million there's no way we could do that so I'm praying about this I said God what do i do do I do this do I bring it closer that didn't they said nope God spoke to me and he said you call Oak Ridge and you set up an appointment and you asked them to build this building and he gave me a specific him for forty dollars a square foot it's a god to laugh at me said you do it so I called him up and I said I'm thinking about building a building it's 50,000 square feet I don't want to put it out for bid if you build it for the price that I want you to build it for I'll go with you and won't even bid it out well that got my foot in the door and they set up an appointment I went in I got to talk to the head guy so I pulled this out and we're looking at all these plants and I said and I want even bid this out if you build this for $40 a square foot he looked at me and start laughing you said well I'll tell you what mr. Nolan let me keep your plans and I'll get back with you I wrote those plans up give it to him I said well God I'm walking out thanks for embarrassing me $40 a square foot everyone's told me you can't build it for less than 115 two days later he calls me said mr. Nolan I cannot build it for $40 a square foot but I can't build it for $42 a square foot you can he said yes if you would have came to me the day before or the day after I would have probably told you no but he said the day you came to me I realized we're three months in between jobs and I'm going to have to lay some people off for a while and I just told my a person underneath one of the things I don't want to lay anyone off if we can just get a building where we can break even and not lose too much money I'll do it so I don't have to lay people off God told me to do that told me what to say he went on to tell me if you'd have said 60 I would have jumped on it if you just said 70 I would have jumped on it when you said 40 I about fell out of my seat but I went back and looked at and realized we can break-even at $42 and we built it for that now listen to me if you're taking notes I want you to write this down you have to hone your ability to hear the voice of God everyone knows what the word hone means right the word home means to sharpen or to refine and perfect over a period of time so what I'm telling you is this if you want to be able to hear when God speaks to you whispers to you then you have to hone your ability to hear his voice and how do you do that will you do it by reading God's Word and meditating on it waiting to listen to him by having a consistent quality prayer time you see if you'll do those two things then you will develop your spiritual hearing your spiritual ears and they will become sharper because what you're doing is is honing your ability to hear God you're sharpening your ability to tune God in and tune the world out that's why it's called your quiet time you get alone with God and what you're trying to do is tune the world out and tune got in and as you read the word and you're asking God to speak to you and you're praying and you're practicing the presence of God let me tell you you start honing your ability to hear God's voice you know I think for me be honest with you to be sad to get to heaven say god I really never heard your voice I had impressions but I never heard your voice and God's gonna quote job 33 to you and he says God speaks to men often again and again but men don't recognize it now if you're here this morning and you haven't received Jesus Christ I can guarantee you the Holy Spirit is speaking to you and it's telling you that you're lost and if you were to die in that condition you would go to hell and you know that's God you might not hear does that inner voice I'm talking about but you're feeling it that is God

Channel: Cornerstone Fellowship

Views: 6,768

Rating: 4.834197 out of 5

Keywords: how do i know if god is talking, how do i know if god is speaking, how do i know if god is hearing, how to know if god is speaking, how to know if god is talking to, how do you know if god is talkin, cornerstone fellowship, tahlequah ok, how does god speak, how does god speak through our circumstances, how god speaks, how does god talk to you, how does god talk to us, is god talking to me, is it god or my thoughts, hearing god, faith, hearing god's voice

Id: 3wexeu0WuqY

Length: 52min 3sec (3123 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 22 2020