Welcome to the Power to Change today, and in today's program, I'm going to take you into a teaching that I did that will absolutely revolutionize your life. Listen, there's nothing more powerful than being able to hear the voice of God when you look at every man or any woman in the Bible, every man of God, every woman of God in the Bible, the thing that marked their life was the ability to hear the voice of God. But the one thing that prevents us from being able to hear the voice of God is a hard heart. When you have a soft heart, though, you are able to hear the simplest whispers from God. That's when you're going to experience supernatural victory in your life, fruitful relationships, fulfilling your destiny, healthy. You'll be healthy emotionally and physically when you're able to hear the voice of God that is cultivated through a soft heart, you'll never be the same. The world around you is going to change. And today I'm going to show you how to experience softness to be able to hear supernational the voice of God, change your life. You. Watch. Open your Bible with me to the book of Hebrews, Chapter three, Hebrews Chapter three. I want to bring your attention to verse seven, where he says, wherefore, as the Holy Ghost says today, if you will hear his voice. Verse seven today, if you will hear his voice harden, not your hearts, as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness. Now, it wasn't necessarily the day of God. It wasn't the day where God tempted man when he calls it the day of temptation. It's not the day that God tempted the children of Israel. It was actually the day that the children of Israel tempted God. That was where the sin was, was that they tempted God. Or obviously God cannot be tempted with evil, the Bible says. But they. But he tells us in First Corinthians, Chapter 10, that one of the sins that caused the children of Israel to fall in the wilderness was that they they tempted God. And I'll define for you what that means as time permits here tonight. But I want to I want to focus on what he says in verse seven, as the Holy Ghost says. Now, notice when he says, as the Holy Ghost says, or as the Holy Spirit says today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. So he is quoting scripture when he says the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear his voice or one of the ways that we know that the Holy Spirit is speaking is that it's confirmed by God's word. If it's found in God's word, if it's found in the Bible, you can know that it is the voice of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn't speak on his own initiative, but he speaks what is consistent with scripture, which either lines up with a verse of scripture or it lines up with a principle of scripture. So it lines up with a scripture from the word of God or a principle from the word of God. If it doesn't line up with a scripture or line up with a principle from God's word, it is not the Holy Spirit speaking. Are you with me still now? But the point that I want to bring out here is he says, when the Holy Spirit speaks, he says today, if you hear my voice, do not hard in your hearts. And if you go down to verse 15, he says, while it is said today, if you will hear his voice harden, not your hearts as in the provocation. So he says it a second time there in that verse. And if you go back to verse, if you go back to verse 12, take heed, brother, unless there be being any of you an evil heart of unbelief departing from the living God but exhort one another while is still called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. So if you look at if you were to study the whole Chapter three and Chapter four, you'll see this reference many times to heart and not your heart and this reference to he says. He says, take heed less there be in any one of us, an evil heart of unbelief. Notice what he calls an evil heart. It's an evil heart of unbelief, the evil that he's focusing on here is the evil of unbelief, because there's nothing more evil to God than to not believe. The theme here is hearing the voice of God and not hardening our hearts. But there are. But we are living in a generation of hardened hearts and there some good reason why people have hardened their heart. I believe God gives man the ability to harden his heart because we're supposed to harden our heart to the devil. We're supposed to harden our heart to abusers, we're supposed to harden our heart to the wrong crowd in a sense that we're not supposed to open our heart to the wrong things or the wrong people. Can you say, man? But we unfortunately use or we unfortunately allow our heart to harden when it comes to what God is wanting to do in our lives and what God is speaking to our lives. So what we need to learn how to do is keep a soft heart. If you believe you have a soft heart, then the message for you tonight is to keep a soft heart. And if you realize you have some hardness of heart, which I'll show you some reasons that some tests, some self tests you can take to determine if you have some hardness of heart. And then the message for you is to soften your heart or to learn to soften a hard heart. So to either keep your heart soft or to soften a hard heart. Now, before I get into how to soften your heart and how to keep your heart soft, we have to look at some scriptures in the word that tell us why it's so important to have a soft heart and what the consequences of a hard heart are. Because once you are aware of how severe of a problem this is in so many people's lives, and once you realize the consequences of this, you be running to God to soften your heart. You'll be running to him. You'll be doing whatever it takes to keep your heart soft, because I want to give you some reasons why it's so important. And then I want to give you the self-test evaluation that you can take in your own mind. And then I want to show you how to how to soften your heart, because I think in all of our lives, we can admit that there's some areas of hardness in our heart, whether that's because you've been hurt, whether that's because you've been disappointed, whether that's because you've been betrayed. And those are the three there's three of the main sources of a heart heart. You've been hurt. You've been betrayed. You've been abused, mistreated, taken advantage of you. Have you have you have you have had people make promises to you that they haven't kept you've been disappointed. So if somebody has hurt you, then you harden your heart so that you won't be hurt again. Or if somebody is disappointed you you've hardened your heart to expectation. See, sometimes it's not that your heart is hard to Jesus in the sense that you believe in him, you love him, you appreciate what he's done for you. But sometimes our heart is hardened towards expectation because we've been we've been disappointed because we prayed in the past or we've been disappointed because we we we sowed seed and we didn't get a harvest. We prayed and we didn't see the answer. And so we we harden our heart to a spirit of expectation and we lower our level of expectation. And God wants us to soften our heart and become expectant again. He wants us to soften our heart and become lovers of others again. He wants us to soften our heart and be able to to open ourselves up to what God wants to reveal in our heart. God's plan for your life from entering into your heart is when your heart is hard, it is not receptive to what God wants to reveal in your heart and what it's not receptive to, what God wants to do in your heart. It's not receptive to what God wants to show you in your heart. And it's it's keeping hard, hard is keeping us from all that God wants to reveal to you and all the dreams that God has for your life. He wants to reveal them to your heart. And if your heart is hard, it's not receptive. So you miss out. That's a good enough reason right now to repent of a hard heart. If you're watching right now, don't wait to the end of the program. Repent right now. Oh, God, soften my heart. If you're here tonight, don't wait till the end. Say God. OK, this is for me. One of the ways that you know, that you have a hard heart and I'm skipping ahead, but I'll come back to what I want to say and in order in an orderly fashion. But one of the ways that, you know, you have a hard heart is when the pastor starts teaching on hardness of heart and you say, that's not me. That doesn't apply to me. That's the that's one of the number one evidences of a hard heart. A soft heart is constantly warning, God, speak to me, God, show me God, you have something to say to me about this. There's something that you want to reveal to me about this. Help me now. OK, so why is it so important to have a soft heart and to soften a hard one? Well, verse eight of Hebrews, chapter three, verse seven, as the Holy Spirit says today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your heart. One of the most important reasons why we need to keep a soft heart is because when our heart is soft, we can hear the voice of God. When our heart is soft, we can hear the voice of God, when our heart is hard, we cannot hear his voice. Well, when your heart is hard in any relationship, you can't hear what the other person is saying. You can only hear what you're feeling. You're not hearing what they're saying. You're not hearing the message they're trying to send. You're only hearing your pain. You're only hearing what you want to hear. So when you when you soften your heart or when you when you have a soft heart, it's so much easier to hear God's voice. He said today, when you hear God's voice, don't harden your heart. Or today, when the voice of God is speaking to you don't have a hard heart because you'll be like the children of Israel, you say, well, we're not like them. We're in the New Testament. We have a new covenant. Yes, you do have a new covenant, but so did the people of Hebrews that he's writing to. So did the Hebrew readers of this book of Hebrews. But he is warning them, don't go down the path of the children of Israel that hardened their heart and therefore they became embittered. He says the day of provocation and that word provocation means the day of embitterment, the day that they became bitter at God, the day they became bitter at God's plan, bitter at God's will and frankly, simply bitter at God. And though we won't, though, we don't want to admit it. Many of us have at times been bitter at God, and you may very well be bitter at God right now. And we'll talk about how how you can know that and really do we have to. Talk about how you can know that, I think you know. When you're bitter. And resentful. And cold, the word hard. When he uses the word hard hearted, it means cold, insensitive, unfeeling and unyielding, cold, insensitive, unfeeling and unyielding. So you might have a cold heart. You might have a it's not warm towards God, it's not warm towards people. You you could be very well saved, but not not warm in your heart, towards God and towards people. You could be insensitive, boy, isn't it true that. Here's how here's one of the ways, another way you can know that your heart and in your heart and you have a hard heart that you need God to soften and you need to let you need to soften it as well. It's God and you working together. It's it's a partnership. But when we are so. Sensitive. To how people treat us. But yet insensitive to how we treat others. Anybody know what I'm talking about here? What we have to do is reverse that and become. Sensitive to how we treat others and insensitive to how others treat us, you know what that's called? It's called thick skin. Soft heart. Hmm. So you can't hear the voice of God when or it's harder to hear the voice of God when your heart is hard. Secondly. You don't want to listen to the voice of God when your heart is hard, you don't want to obey God when your heart is hard. I want to read a scripture to you from Exodus Chapter five, and you'll know what where we're going with this one Exodus. Chapter five is when pharaoh in Egypt was enslaving Israel and enslaved the Jewish people and oppressing Israel. And I believe it's in verse, maybe in verse one. Afterward, Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, thus says the Lord God of Israel, let my people go, that they may hold a feast under me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord? That I should obey his voice to let Israel go. I know, not the Lord. Neither will I let Israel go. Now notice, obviously, we know that Pharaoh represented a heartiness is a hardening or a hardness of heart. And when he says Who is the Lord? That I should obey his voice. So I think that one of the consequences of having a hard heart is you're not. Your relationship with God is is not intact. You relate, you're saved, you're born again. But your relationship with God. He says, who is the Lord? We don't really know him. We don't really recognize him. Sometimes God is speaking to us. Sometimes God's trying to do something in our lives. Sometimes God's wanting us to to receive something or do something. But we're not the closeness and that intimacy is not there and that sensitivity to God is not there. And we don't recognize God in those times where we need to recognize God. Well, two men on the road to a mess. We're walking with Jesus himself. And Jesus was talking to them, asking them questions, answering their questions, referring to scriptures. And they did not recognize that he was that that it was Jesus. He they did not recognize him. And why is that? Because their hearts were hardened, they were disappointed, Jesus told us that he would rise on the third day. That's what they were. They were mad, they were disappointed. They felt betrayed. He told us, gosh, target. He told us he was going to rise on the third day. What day is it? Well, it's the third day. And here he is standing next to them. And they cannot see right before their very eyes, the very one that said he was going to rise on the third day and it just so happened to be the third day and he just so happened to be walking with them. And they're mad and disappointed because God didn't keep his promise. That's how we are sometimes, man. God is. It's like that guy that prayed, God help me. When the flood was coming in his backyard and the river was his house was on the river and the flood had come up and and it was and it was about to drown him and and he said, oh, God, send help. Oh, God, deliver me. Oh, God rescue me. And sure enough, after he prayed that a boat comes along and says, come on, get in the boat. And he said, no, God's going to rescue me. And then sure enough, the boat leaves and he's still there and water's coming up higher. And then the helicopter comes and says, come on, get on here. They drop the ladder. Come on, jump on this ladder and you can be rescued. No, no. The Lord is going to deliver me, he said, and sure enough, he drowns. He was saved, though, thank God stupid, but saved. He goes to heaven and he gets to the Lord and he says, Lord, I don't understand it. I prayed that you would deliver me in my time of need and you didn't deliver me. And the Lord looked at him and he said, Son, think about it for a minute. I sent you a boat. I sent you a helicopter. What more do I have to do to get your attention and that so often? How we are as Christians, God has given us answer after answer, we've hardened our hearts. So that when God is speaking and when God does send somebody and when God does send something and when God does answer. We can't even recognize. The answer right in front of us, and in Farrell's case, not only did he not could he not know the law, not only could he not recognize the Lord, but it says who verse two, who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice. Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice because his heart was hard. He was unwilling to obey God and sometimes were unwilling to obey God. Some of us have hardened our heart when it comes to God telling us to forgive somebody. Some of us have hardened our heart when it comes to tithing giving. Oh, I just I can't do that some of his heart in our heart when it comes to apologizing to our spouse. You can see the consequence of not obeying God, right, I mean, you miss out on so many things when you disobey God, not because we have to obey God to be saved or we have to keep the law in order to say to be saved or to be pleasing to God. No, we're saved by grace. We're pleasing to God, by faith. But obeying God has built in benefits to it because God's not telling us to do something to test us. He's telling us to do something because he's smarter than us. Hello. Look at Mark, Chapter four quickly. Well, you know, the parable of the sower and the seed, the solar cells, the word verse 14 and these, are they by the wayside when where the word is sown. And he says when they have heard Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sewn in their hearts and these are they which are sewn on stony ground. So one is one is the side of the road, which is hard, stony ground versus 16, which is hard, they hear the word immediately received with gladness but have no root in themselves. So they endure for a time afterwards when affliction or persecution arises for the words sake, immediately they are offended. Verse 18, and these are they which are sown among thorns, such as hear the word and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the loss of other things, choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. So there's another hardness of heart. So you have the heart, the guy whose heart is hard because he's just he he represents being by the side of the road. He's kind of on the side. The word of God is not front and center to him. It's sort of on the side at that person's got a hard heart in his and he's unfruitful. And then the person who represents the stony ground represents another person who they hear the word, but they have no root. They have a hard, stony ground. That person's not fruitful. And then the person who's who represents is represented by the thorns, the cares, the thorns of this world, such as the cares and the deceitfulness of riches and the lesser other things. Those things make a heart hard and it becomes unfruitful. And then in verse twenty, he says, and these are they which are sown on good ground. Good ground. Well, what is the good ground? The good ground is a soft heart because the heart is the manufacturing center of all the promises of God. Did you hear me? The heart is the manufacturing center of all the promises of God. When a promise from God gets into a soft heart, a soft heart knows how to manufacture or produce or cultivate that seed that is sown in it. So when we keep our heart soft, when we hear the word, it gets it gets in good ground and therefore it bears fruit. They hear the word, they receive it and they bring forth thirty old sixty fold and a hundred fold. Well, you can hear the voice of God, the Holy Spirit wants to speak to you day after day, moment after moment in every situation, but the key to hearing the voice of God is a soft heart. If your heart is soft, it's fertile ground where God can. So his seed and his plan for your life. God is a debtor to a soft heart in Psalm 50 one. David tells God, he says you do you do not delight in sacrifice or I would bring it or burnt offerings. My sacrifice, Lord, is a broken spirit and a contrite heart. You see, God is going to give you a harvest. When you plant the seed of a soft heart, God will change everything around you. That's when you're going to start seeing amazing things in your life. He wants you to feel his love. He wants you to experience the abundant life that he promised. And having a soft heart is the way to see his promises take root and grow and produce a harvest in your life. When you have a soft heart, you can hear the voice of God and some of the benefits of hearing the voice of God. Real quick, listen, you're going to find rest. The Bible says you're going to experience peace. You're going to experience forward progress when you can hear the voice of God. Well, there's so much more I want to put in your hands. And in today's in today's offer for your gift of twenty dollars or more, I want to I want to put some some supernatural equipment or tools in your hands as you help me get the message of God's love out to this world. I want to put a brand new series into your hand, The Heart, the manufacturing center of God's Promises. This will help you understand the power of a soft heart, reveal the enemies to a soft heart and the amazing benefits that come when you experience or when you have a soft heart. You probably, probably already have one, but it'll be even softer and it will be even more pliable and more able to to have the good seed planted in it and have a supernatural harvest. Also, I want to include my book, How to Hear the Voice of God. Well, there are many voices vying for our attention, but God wants you to hear his comforting voice, his powerful voice of deliverance. By recognizing the voice of God. You're going to discover the peace, the confidence, the comfort, the security, the purpose that God has for you. And my announcer is going to tell you more about how to get these exciting tools and equipment for your life, for your victory. I'll be right back with a promise from God's word. Watch this. God has a purpose for your life. A man chooses his path, but it is God that orders his steps. Hearing the voice of God is impossible when our heart has been hardened. Disappointments, letdowns or failures in his life? God wants to fill you with his promise for your future. He wants you whole again. Are you kidding me? If I'm having a hard heart prevents me from having understanding, then whatever I got to do, I'm going to soften this heart. For your gift today of twenty dollars or more, you will experience this incredible two part teaching series, The Heart, The Manufacturing Center of God's Promises. And in Pastor Decor's exclusive instructional booklet, How to Hear the Voice of God, you will discover more about how to reach that secret place where hearing God every day is possible with every step you take in life to reach that purpose he has in store for you. Remember that your gift today helps this ministry reach the world with a message of change. Please call now. Renew your heart and hear the voice of God today. Well, I want to leave you with today's promise from God's word, Mark. Chapter four, verse 20. It says that these are the ones sown on good ground. Those who hear the word of God accept it and bear fruit, thirty fold, sixty fold and Psalm a hundred fold. Guang don't harden your heart because when you have a soft heart, that's when you're going to have a supernatural harvest. Thirtyfold fold is coming to you. Sixty fold is coming to you or a hundred fold is coming to you in Jesus name. Now don't miss our next broadcast. I can't wait to see you then. God bless. If you are ever in the Chicagoland area, we want to invite you to join us for a powerful church service at one of our campuses. Our beautiful northwest suburb campus is conveniently located on the northwest corner of Ninety and Beverly Road in Hoffman Estates, or join us at our downtown Chicago campus located at Whitney Young High School on the corner of Jackson and Lumis. For service times or more information, visit lifechangerschurch.com. It is Gregory Dickow passion to bring the life changing message of God's love, God's grace and God's power to this generation and the generations to come. If you would like to invite Gregory Dickow to minister at your church or upcoming conference or seminar, please call eight eight eight eight four nine five four three three or visit our website. Are you ready to experience a change in your life, then visit www.GregoryDickow.org. Today with easy navigation, you can watch previous episodes of The Power to Change Today show sign up to receive Gregory Dickow podcast. Be encouraged by powerful articles. The testimonies keep informed how you are helping to change other people's lives and so much more. Visit GregoryDickow.org and experience a change in your life today. 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