How to hear the voice of God (2) -- Derek Prince

you it's good to be with you again at the beginning of a new week sharing with you keys to successful living which God has placed in my hand through many years of personal experience and Christian ministry this week I'm continuing with the theme that I commenced last week hearing God's voice in my talks last week I explained that the great unchanging basic requirement for an ongoing relationship with God is to hear God's voice in the Old Testament it was summed up in one brief phrase by the Prophet Jeremiah Jeremiah 723 God says obey my voice and I will be your God that's the great unvarying condition in all ages and dispensations God says the one thing that matters ultimately is obey my voice and I will be your God in the New Testament Jesus stated this as the one distinctive mark of all who would truly be his disciples in John 10:27 he says this my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me that's the mark of the true disciples and followers of Jesus in all ages it's not a denominational label it's not some doctrinal emphasis but it's those who hear his voice and follow him and without hearing his voice we cannot follow him so hearing his voice is essential to being a follower of Jesus then I explained last week that the result of hearing God's voice is true faith Romans 10:17 so faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of Christ then as we cultivate the practice of hearing God's personal word to us each day it becomes the fresh daily brain that nourishes our spiritually and through it we receive daily direction and strength for our ongoing walk with God now in my talks this week I'm going to deal with the practical outworking of my theme I'm going to ask and answer the question how can we hear God's voice I want to turn first of all to the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels many times Jesus spoke about having ears to hear and particularly so when he was teaching in parables for instance in mark 4 9 we read then Jesus said he who has ears to hear let him hear and in mark 4:23 a little further on in the same chapter if anyone has ears to hear let him hear what does that mean having ears to hear obviously Jesus was not referring to physical ears presumably all the people who were listening to him were in possession of two physical ears at least the great majority of them most of them were not physically deaf but Jesus still saying if anyone has ears to hear let him hear so what was he talking about I believe that he was talking not about outward physical hearing and physical ears but about an inner condition of the heart I believe the essence of what we're saying is that we have to hear God with our heart there's such a thing as having a heart to hear God a hearing heart I'll turn to an example from the life of Solomon early in Solomon's reign as king of Israel says the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and asked him a very vital question first Kings 3:5 at Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream and God said ask for whatever you want me to give you that's a situation that I'm not sure most of us are ready to face suppose God appeared to you and said ask for what you want and I'll give it to you what would you ask for well let's read Solomon's answer first games 3 7 through 10 this is what Solomon sent now Oh Lord my God you have made your servant King in place of my father David but I am a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties your servant is here among the people you have chosen a great people too numerous to count or number so and now here's Solomon's request he was confronted us with a situation that was too big for him he knew he couldn't handle it what was he to ask for this is what he says so give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong for who is able to govern this great people of yours and the comment is the Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this now where the translation says a discerning heart the Hebrew says literally a hearing heart that's what we're talking about a heart that can hear God and Solomon received it as a gift from God God gave it to him because he asked for it let me pause and ask you this have you ever asked God for a hearing heart do you realize that it's with your heart you hear God do you realize that this is going to make all the difference in your life whether you can hear God's voice with your heart you see it's with our heart that we hear the voice of God not with our physical ears in my talks last week I gave what seemed to me to be rather a vivid example of a bank that has a safe and the safe is programmed electronically to open only at the voice of the bank manager and his voice like every voice is unique there's no way to copy that voice so the only one who can open that safe is the bank manager when he says certain words in his voice well I believe that your heart and my heart are like that the heart is the safe it's where the place where we keep the things that really matter to us proverbs 4:23 the words of Solomon again keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the years of life what you have in your heart is going to settle the cause of your life so your heart is a safe that keeps things much more precious than those that are kept in a bank safe and I believe that every child of God should have a heart that's a safe that's programmed only to open at one voice the voice of the Lord you remember what Jesus said my sheep hear my voice they follow me he said they will not follow a stranger because they don't recognize his voice how important it is to have a heart that will open to the voice of the Lord and will not open to the voice of an alien or a stranger what kind of a heart is that it's a hearing heart we have ears to hear not physically but in our spirit in the innermost depths of our being we have a heart that responds to the voice of the Lord now I want to talk for a moment out of scripture about the opposite condition spiritual deafness the Bible both the old and the new testament have much to say about people who are spiritually deaf jesus said of those who could not understand his parables in matthew 13 verses 13 through 15 that they were spiritually deaf this is how he expresses it he said this is why I speak to them in parables though seeing they do not see though hearing they do not hear or understand in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah you will be ever hearing but never understanding you will be ever seeing but never perceiving for this people's heart has become calloused they hardly hear with their ears and they have closed their eyes otherwise they might see with their eyes hear with their ears understand with their hearts and turn and I would heal them there is a picture of people who have no heart to hear the voice of the Lord they've become inwardly deaf and there's one word which I think is very significant it's a frightening word this people's heart has become calloused their heart doesn't respond it's not sensitive any longer compare what God said about Israel in the Old Testament in Psalm 95 verses 7 & 8 he said to a if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah and you did that day at masa in the desert and then he goes on about those people who did harden their hearts for 40 years I was angry with that generation I said they are a people whose hearts go astray and they have not known my ways so I declared on oath in my anger they shall never enter my rest see I believe there are many of God's people today who never really enter God's rest they're always wandering in the wilderness but they never entered the promised land the reason is they haven't learned to hear God's voice the only way to enter God's rest is to hear his voice if you put those two accounts from the New Testament and the Old Testament together of people who were deaf in their heart spiritually deaf there are two significant words that describe the condition of their hearts the two words are calloused and hardened that's the kind of heart that does not hear so what's the application what's the opposite of being calloused and hardened I would say the key word is sensitive we have to cultivate inward sensitivity toward the Lord and toward his voice let me give you a vivid picture have you ever seen a blind person reading Braille have you seen their fingers skimming over those little dots on the paper if I were to brush my fingers over those dots they would mean nothing to me I would just feel something a little above the surface but a blind person has so sensitized his fingers that those dots mean something to him they are words they have a message I believe that's what it means to cultivate a sensitive heart toward the voice of the law it's to have our heart so sensitive that when God speaks we hear his voice it means something to us I believe that's the real key to blessing to entering our inheritance it's so grieving to think of the people that wandered in the wilderness when they could have been in the promised land all because they had not cultivated a sensitive heart toward the voice of the Lord let me challenge you to do that to cultivate a sensitive heart let me begin my talk today with a brief personal comment in my own life I find that hearing God's voice correctly is usually the key factor in achieving true spiritual success I can't think of anything at this time that seems more important to me in my own personal walk with God than learning to hear God's voice and hearing it correctly in my talk yesterday I explained that we hear God's voice not with our physical ears but with our heart we were challenged yesterday by Solomon's prayer give me a hearing heart and we read that the Lord was pleased with that request I asked you yesterday I'll ask you again today have you ever asked God for a hearing heart conversely we saw that when God's people failed to hear God's voice the two words used to describe their heart condition were hard and calloused this means that in order to hear God's voice we must cultivate sensitivity in our hearts in the same way as a blind person reading Braille cultivates sensitivity in his fingers a blind person can get results out of Braille with his fingertips that an ordinary person could never achieve the reason is he's cultivated a special kind of sensitivity and I believe we have to cultivate a similar kind of sensitivity in our hearts if we really want to hear God's voice correctly you see one thing about God is he doesn't shout very rarely do you read about God Shanti some people's picture of God is just a big man shouting with a loud voice but that's not God at all matter of fact we look at some examples in the course of these talks where God spoke in a whisper well today I'm going to deal with four specific requirements for achieving this kind of sensitivity of heart the first two requirements go closely together and I would describe them as attention and humility let me just say those two words again at tension and humility these requirements are stated many times in the book of Proverbs and we need to bear in mind that proverbs was written by the man who had asked God for a hearing heart by Solomon let me give you just three passages from the book of Proverbs where these two requirements are joined together proverbs 4 verse 20 my son attend to my words incline thine ear unto my sayings the two requirements attend incline thine ear to incline your ear means to bow down your hand to bow down your head is a mark of reverent a respectful humility you're not arguing with God you're not dictating to God you're waiting to hear from God the inclined ear is an essential part of hearing from God proverbs 5 verse 1 my son attend unto my wisdom and bow thine ear to my understanding again the same two conditions attend and bow the ear and then gangue in proverbs 22 17 bow thine ear and hear the words of the wise and apply thine heart unto my knowledge the implication of the first part of that verse bow down thine ear and hear the words of the wise is that if we don't bow down our ear we won't hear if we don't have the right attitude the attitude of humility respectfulness reverence then we will not hear so it says bow down thine ear and hear the words of the wise and apply thine heart under my knowledge you see always it's the heart that hears the voice of God and we have to apply our heart we have to attend we have to focus our attention let me sum up those two requirements Bri first of all to hear God's voice we must give him our undivided attention attend at ply danhart now that's totally contrary to contemporary culture where most people are used to listening to at least two things at one time I remember when I had teenage children that were still in high school I remember seeing one of my daughter's sitting there at the kitchen counter doing her homework and watching a television program at the same time and my mind reeled I've been a student I've been a teacher I've been a professor at a university and I absolutely could never do that if I'm watching television I cannot focus on my homework if I'm focusing on my homework I could not intelligently watch television now I'm not saying she didn't achieve any results I'm sure she didn't achieve the maximum but that's typical of contemporary American culture culture in the Western world people are afraid of silence you know they always want some noise going on background music something somehow to distract them but if you want to hear God's voice you can't afford to be distracted you've got to focus both ears and all your mind on God you have to cultivate attention it's a gift or a quality that many people just don't possess today secondly as I've said we have to bow down our ear we have to be humble and teachable many people read the Bible or pray to God with their own preconceptions they believe they know what God should have seen they believe they know what God is going to say and if God actually has said something different or does say something different they're simply unable to hear they're made deaf by their own preconceptions most people who belong to any kind of denomination read the Bible with their own denominational slant they think well if it's not in my denominations teaching it isn't in the Bible believe me I don't think there's any denomination of which that is completely true there are things in the Bible that we don't hear many times in church and if we only expect to hear from God what we've heard maybe in church we're spiritually deaf we'll miss what God is saying to us so the first two requirements for hearing God we're attention and humility let's look at the next two now for a while I would say the next two requirements are time and quietness let me say that again time and quietness how remote those two words are from our contemporary culture to things that almost nobody hands today on time to be quiet and yet this is standard so many times in the book of psalms about hearing god for instance in psalm 46 verse 10 it says be still and know that I'm God out of stillness we hear God's voice an alternative translation of the same verse says this cease striving and know and the alternative version in the margin of that is let go relax and know that I'm God put those together be still and know see striving and no let go relax and now what does that speak to you about to me it speaks of quietness and relaxation and this requires time we hear from God very many times when we take time to wait for God God doesn't always speak the first instant that we would like to hear Psalm 62 verse 1 says this they're the words of David my soul waits in silence for God only tremendous words my soul waits in silence for God only you have to wait you have to be silent and your attention has to be focused on one person only God and then in Psalm 62 verse 5 just four verses further on David addresses his own soul and tell they sell how to weight my soul wait in silence for god only have you ever said that to yourself my soul wait in silence for god only the emphasis is on waiting in silence for God being in an attitude of attention of reverence of quietness of relaxation our hearts and minds focused on God I want to say that there is no better preparation through which we can achieve this attitude than the preparation of worship this is beautifully brought out in another Psalm Psalm 95 verses 6 through 8 come let us worship and bow down and again the emphasis is on humility let us kneel before the Lord our maker for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the Sheep of his hand today if you would hear his voice do not harden your hearts always that warning against hardening our hearts if we want to hear God's voice so how do we prepare our hearts well there is no better way of preparation than that which is outlined in those words have just read to you let us worship let us bow down let us kneel let us come to God with reverence let us open our hearts to him let us worship Him acknowledge his greatness his majesty his sovereignty his wisdom the Lord is a great God the scripture says we need to give him all the respect and all the reverence of which were capable we need to appreciate the tremendous privilege of hearing from God that the Almighty God the creator and sustainer of the universe will speak to us individually today there's little respect for authority in our contemporary culture but God still demands respect and if we come to him we must come to him with respect respect that's expressed in worship in humbling ourselves before him in kneeling before him if need be in acknowledging his greatness in opening our hearts to him so when you want to hear from God approach him with worship in my two previous talks this week on hearing God's voice I've established the following main points first of all we hear God's voice with our heart not with our physical ears therefore we must cultivate sensitivity of heart the two words describing the hearts of those who were spiritually deaf were hard and calloused secondly there are four specific requirements for achieving this kind of sensitivity of heart and they are as follows first attention second humility third time fourth quietness we looked at the words of David when he said my soul waits in silence for God only then we said also yesterday that the best preparation is worship come let us worship and bow down and kneel before the Lord our maker and then the song goes on today if you hear his voice harden not your heart so preparation for hearing God's voice is best achieved by worship the truth that I'm going to deal with today follows on naturally from the points I've just established the truth is God sets the time and the place we have to give absolute priority to God before all our own interests and activities we may have our own program we may have our own interests we may have the things we're excited about the things were eager to get done but if we want to hear God's voice we have to be prepared to let those things go to let go and relax as the psalmist and we have to let God set the time and the place and it may not be the time or the place of our choosing I want to give you three examples of men who met with God and heard his voice the three men I'm going to speak about are Moses Elijah and Jeremiah first we look at Moses as its described in numbers chapter 7 verse 89 this describes how Moses went into the tabernacle that had been erected in the wilderness and there he spoke with God and God spoke with him as I read this this always a kind of stillness comes over my soul I think of that Tabernacle there out in the blazing sunshine of the desert surrounded by things that were barren dusty and then inside the coolness the shade the quietness and that always challenges me to get away from the the heat and the dust and the busyness and the activity to come into a quiet place where I can speak with God and gone with me this is what it says about Moses when Moses entered the tent of meeting the tabernacle to speak with the Lord he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim over the atonement cover on the Ark of the testimony and he that's the Lord spoke with him Moses see there was a place where God spoke with Moses it was behind the second veil of the tabernacle from the Holy of Holies from the most sacred place and that shows me how sacred it is to hear the voice of the Lord it was from between the two cherubim the cherubim speak again of worship and also a fellowship and it was from over the atonement cover on the Ark of the testimony the place where the blood had been sprinkled that spoke of covered and forgiven sin so how significant all those points are it was a place of worship was a place of fellowship it was a place where there was the eternal evidence of sin forgiven and covered bear in mind uncovered an Unforgiven sin will always keep us from hearing the voice of the law and so that's where Moses heard the voice of the Lord I think of something that Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew 6 verse 6 but you when you pray go into your inner room why into an inner room surely to get away from all distractions to shout out all the sounds and the sights of the world to be still before God I believe every Christian should have some kind of N room I remember a man was a friend of mine who used to go into the closet under the stairs with the brooms and all those things but that's where he heard from God it became a sacred place for him the second example of a man who heard God's voice is Elijah Elijah had a tremendous personal triumph he'd called down fire on the sacrifice on Mount Carmel he'd humbled and humiliated and even had executed all the false prophets but then he'd run away from a woman Jezebel gone out into the wilderness and asked God to take his life God had sent an angel to strengthen him and in the strength that he received in the angel he'd made his way to Mount Horeb the very place where God first made his covenant with Israel and this is what happened to Elijah when he got there to Mount Horeb first Kings 19 verses 11 through 13 the Lord said to Elisha go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord for the Lord is about to pass by then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord but the Lord was not in the wind after the wind there was an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake after the earthquake came a fire the Lord was not in the fire three tremendous demonstrations of God's power a wind that shattered the mountains an earthquake a fire but how significant God wasn't in any of those tremendous demonstrations of his power and then it goes on like this and after the fire came a gentle whisper you remember what I said that God doesn't shout some people picture God as a man shouting I think that was Hitler's picture of God a man shouting a lot of dictators and people like that have seen God as just a big man shouting but God is very different after all the demonstrations of his power there came a gentle whisper and the impact on Elijah was tremendous when Elijah heard it not the wind not the earthquake not the fire but the gentle whisper he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the came what did that mean pulling his cloak over his face it meant worship it meant bowing it meant humbling himself it meant opening up his spirit to gone now when he was ready to listen then a voice said to him what are you doing here Elijah think of the careful preparation that God made for Elijah to hear his voice God is concerned that we hear his voice but remember God may not be in the wind the earthquake or the fire but if you have ears to hear after that there'll be a gentle whisper and when you hear that you want to put your cloak of your face you'll want to wish your heart will bow down it's important to see the results that came in Elijah's life from hearing that gentle whisper they were strength and new direction for his ministry when he went to Horeb he was ready a beaten man he was ready to give up to quit to throw in the towel but after he'd heard God's voice he was a conqueror and he had new direction up to that time he didn't know what to do next but hearing God's voice gave him direction for his ministry it'll do the same for you and me strength a new direction come from hearing God's voice the third man that I want to speak about who heard the voice of God is Jeremiah this is what Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 18 verses 1 through 6 this is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord go down to the potter's house and there I will give you my message see God said if you want to hear my voice you've got to be in a certain place I'm going to speak to you but you've got to be in the right place at the right time so Jeremiah obeyed he said I went down to the potter's house and I saw him the Potter working at the wheel but the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hand so the Potter formed it into another pot shaping it as it seemed best to him then the word of the Lord came to me our house of Israel can I not do with you as this Potter dance declares the Lord like clay in the hand of the Potter so are you in my hand our house of Israel you see there was a time and a place God wanted Jeremiah in the Potters house because he wanted him to see what the Potter was doing with the pot on the wheels because that was going to be a picture of how gone was going to deal with Israel how God is dealing with Israel remember today Israel are the pot in in God's hands and he's shaping them on the wheels of circumstance in history right now that message is true for today but Jeremiah couldn't get the message until he was in the right place he had to obey he had to be there God made a kind of appointment with Jeremiah said if you go to the potter's house I'll speak to you and you see before Jeremiah had a message for others he had to hear from God it's always impressed me that in Bible schools and seminaries they spend so much time training people how to speak but seldom do they train people how to hear and if you've never heard from God you have nothing to say and believe me a man is heard from God is worth listening to even if he doesn't have all the fine points of homiletics what people are waiting for today is a man who's heard from God I just want to close with a little example from our own experience some years back I was in Europe I was in Denmark the native country of my first wife Lydia and the Lord very clearly directed me to go to a certain clifftop overlooking what the Danes called the West and see what the British called the North Sea and it was a fine winter afternoon the Sun was going down in the western sky the rays were falling across the water and shining into my face and when I got there to the clifftop and quieted my heart before God and looked at the sea the Lord spoke to me for about one hour he showed me that the conduct of the sea the way the seas waves behaved was like the history of the church the church started with high tide but gradually the waters went out and there was low tide the Dark Age then the tide turned and the waters began to come in again but they came in wave by wave one great move of the Spirit after another and God showed me things that I'm not free to share with you right now about what's going to happen as the church age comes to its climax but all that happened because I had an appointment with God on a clifftop overlooking the North Sea as I said earlier in this week I found in my own life that hearing God's voice correctly is usually the key factor in achieving true spiritual success today I'm going to deal with an extremely important practical question directly related to our theme the question is this how can we be sure that it really was God's voice we heard I'm going to explain to you three important ways in which we should look for confirmation that we have heard God's voice arrived three kinds of confirmation the first is agreement with Scripture does what we believe God has spoken to us agree with the spirit and the tenor of Scripture this is of tremendous importance of supreme importance let me present to you two interrelated facts the first fact it's the Holy Spirit who brings God's voice to us the second fact the Holy Spirit is the author of all scripture this is stated in many passages of the Bible I'll just quote one 2nd Timothy 3:16 all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching for reproof for correction for training in righteousness inspired by God carries with it the implication that it was the Holy Spirit that in breathed the scriptures that motivated and directed the writers of Scripture so the Holy Spirit is the ultimate author of all scripture behind all the human writers there is one divine person responsible for the accuracy and authority scripture that divine person is the Holy Spirit now let's put those two facts together again it's the Holy Spirit who brings God's voice to us and it's the Holy Spirit who is the author of all scripture and one thing we know the Holy Spirit never contradicts himself so the Holy Spirit will never bring to us the voice of God saying something that not agree with scripture so the first way to be sure that you've heard the voice of the Lord is to check what you believe you've heard with Scripture does it agree with the words with the spirit and with the principles of Scripture if not be sure it was not God's voice that you heard we must be very careful to reject all Satan's counterfeit s-- Satan has many counterfeits for the voice of the Lord there's a passage in Isaiah chapter 8 verses 19 through 22 which really says it so clearly and a way that's so appropriate for our culture in our situation today this is what Isaiah says when men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists who whisper and mutter should not a people inquire of their God why consult the dead on behalf of the living to the law and to the testimony if they do not speak according to this word the law and the testimony the old and the new testament the scripture they have no light of dawn there in the dark and then this is the judgment on those that bring messages or listen to messages that are not from God distressed and hungry they will roam through the land when they are famished they will become enraged and looking upward will curse their king and they're gone then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom and they will be thrust into utter darkness what a terrible list at the end of that verse distress darkness fearful gloom utter darkness that's the result of being deceived of listening to Satan's counterfeit and all the world is so full of those counterfeits today it would take a long time to list them all let me just mention some of them first of all mediums spiritists as mentioned there in Isaiah chapter 8 then fortune tellers horoscopes Ouija bones tarot cards teacup reading various forms of mental science so-called believe me I'm talking from experience before I came to know the Lord Jesus I was deeply involved in yoga and I know the darkness that I was in I know the struggle that I had to turn from that darkness to the light and truth of Scripture and of the Lord Jesus Christ what is the end of all these counterfeits well we've looked at the words let me read them once more they will see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom an utter darkness but if we walk according to the scripture we will have light for psalm 119 verse 105 says this your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path when we walk according to Scripture we never walk in the dark we may not see far ahead but we always have enough light for our path and for the next step to take so bear in mind the first and the most vital requirement of all is that what we believe to be God's voice shall be in total agreement with Scripture then as the confirmation of circumstances I'm going to turn to an example of Jeremiah Jeremiah was in prison this time the city of Jerusalem was being besieged Jeremiah himself had prophesied the city would be taken and that the land would be ravaged by the Babylonian army and that there would be destruction and distress everywhere and yet while he was there in the prison having actually prophesied these things himself he heard a most amazing word from the Lord Jeremiah 32 verses 6 through 9 Jeremiah said the word of the Lord came to me Hanneman son of Shalom your uncle is going to come to you and say by my field at Anathoth because as nearest relative it is your right and duty to buy it now that field was with nothing as real-estate values went in Israel at that moment there was no reason to buy a field that was going to be overrun and ravaged by the Babylonians was an amazing thing then jeremiah goes on then just as the Lord had said my cousin Hanna mal came to me in the courtyard of the guard and said by my field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin since it is your right to redeem it and possess it buy it for yourself now listen to what Jeremiah says I knew that this was the word of the Lord so I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanuman I knew that this was the word of the Lord the Lord had spoken to him something amazing improbable he wasn't quite sure but he kept it as I would say in his pending fire and then very shortly afterwards something happened that made him know that this was the word of the Lord his uncle did an amazing thing came to him in the prison and asked him to buy the very field that the Lord had spoken to him about so that's what I call the confirmation of circumstance let me give you a couple of possible examples that are really based on experiences of people you may be prompted to buy a house in your area the house isn't even up for sale but you go and you knock on the door and you say to the lady who comes you know if you ever should put this house up for sale I'd be interested to buy it and the latest response it isn't that amazing my husband and I have just decided to sell the house we haven't had time to put it on the market this is the word of the Lord you see you've got the confirmation of circumstance or you're on a business executive in a certain city with a good home and a good position and yet the Lord speaks to you about moving to a different city and you can't understand it and you say Lord I don't understand this but if it's so make it clear to me next day your boss calls you in and offers you are transferred to the very city that you felt God wanted you move to plus a raise in salary what are you going to say about that you're going to say like Jeremiah then I knew this was the word of the Lord the third important kind of confirmation that we should look for when we believe we've heard God's voice in our heart is God's peace in our heart God's voice will always produce God's peace let me read from Colossians chapter 3 verses 15 and 16 and let the Peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God the key phrase there is at the beginning let the Peace of Christ rule in your hearts that word that's translated rule means to act as an arbiter or an empire to decide on certain things whether they're right or whether they're wrong the Amplified Bible has a very good rendering of that it says this let the peace soul harmony which comes from Christ rule act as umpire continually in your hands deciding with finality all questions that arise in your minds you see what it's saying we have an inward oompa an arbiter one who decides questions that we cannot decide what's that umpire that arbiter it's the peace of God when the peace of God says yes it's right but when the peace of God is not there we need to be cautious we need to say well God if this is from you let there be peace in my heart but if there's unrest and struggling and particularly if you feel pressured to act hastily then be on your guard because it would seem that God's peace has been withdrawn and God means by that you didn't hear me right or you're not applying what I said right you see there are three factors combined in that passage that I mean there's God's peace there's thankfulness and there's God's word in your heart you want to keep those three together God's peace will be there if it's the voice of God and you'll be filled with thankfulness if it becomes an awful effort to thank God if your praise dries up then it's probably not the Holy Spirit that's moving in you and then it says let the word of Christ or the word of god richly dwell within you you checking it with the scripture all the time all right let me just recapitulate those three ways we should look for confirmation if we really think we've heard the voice of God first of all the voice of God always agrees with Scripture the Holy Spirit is the author of Scripture secondly there'll be the confirmation of circumstance in one way or another things will work out so that we know that God is in this and thirdly we need God's peace in our heart God's peace empowering our Bertrand saying yes this is right no that is wrong yesterday I was dealing with the question how can we be sure that it really was God's voice we heard a very important question and I shared with you three important ways in which we should look for confirmation first agreement with Scripture the Holy Spirit is the author of Scripture the Holy Spirit is the one who brings God's voice to us the Holy Spirit will never contradict himself he'll never say something to us individually that disagrees with what he's already said in Scripture second the confirmation of circumstance sometimes God asks us to do something strange or unexpected we're wondering whether it really is God and then the situation works out in such a way that we knew we know that God foresaw it and hand it all prepared and third God's peace arbitrating in our hearts that means that God's peace is the umpire the arbiter within when we've heard God's voice correct and are acting in accordance with God's will we have God's peace but if God withdraws his piece and we're restless and pressured and prone to be hasty then we need to pause and be very sure before we go further today I want to share with you one further way in which we may expect to receive confirmation that we've heard God's voice and that is through our fellow believers I want to take an example first of all from the New Testament the sending out of Barnabas and Saul for apostolic ministry from the church at Antioch this is described in Acts chapter 13 verses one through three and this is what it says in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers Barnabas Simeon Cole Niger Lucius of cerini man en and Sol five men are named Barnabas Simeon Lucius Mannion and Sol who of course later became Paul while these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting and remember what I said earlier about worship being the best preparation to hear the Lord's voice and they were fasting they were really seeking God with all their heart while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting the Holy Spirit sent set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I've called them the Holy Spirit said notice that I've pointed out already it's the Holy Spirit who brings to us the voice of God so after they had fasted and prayed they placed their hands on them and sent them off now I want you to notice the words that the Holy Spirit used because it's important the Holy Spirit's and set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them the Holy Spirit had already called Barnabas and Saul this was not the first time that they heard about this but this was public confirmation through their brothers in the assembly that their call was from God and that was very very important they needed that public confirmation we need to go back into the history of God's dealings with Paul a little and see that right from the time that Jesus first appeared to Paul he knew that he was to be an apostle and this is what he says and he emphasizes this in various places in his writing that his Apostleship was not of men he says for instance in Galatians chapter 1 verse 1 paul an apostle sent not from men nor by man but by jesus christ and god the father who raised him from the dead notice he was sent not from man nor by man but by Jesus Christ and God the Father so Paul's apostolic calling came direct from God not from men nevertheless God confirmed it through men and this happened in the church at Antioch where the Holy Spirit said set apart Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them they had already received their individual call but this was public confirmation this shows us what importance God himself attaches to confirmation that we've rightly heard his voice I believe this public confirmation in the church at Antioch of Paul's calling served at least three purposes first of all it's strengthened Paul's own faith I believe many of us know that there are times when we need confirmation from others we're walking a rather lonely road we're wondering if if we really have heard god aright things seem so impossible what God has spoken about seems so far away and then God in His grace gives us confirmation through our fellow believers secondly this incident at Antioch validated Paul's call to his fellow believers it wasn't enough that he knew he was cold they had to know he was called to send him out and to support him thirdly this incident emphasized the interdependence of the members of Christ's body and that's something to which God attaches tremendous importance that we don't act unilaterally just on our own that we realize we're members of a body and we depend on the other members none of us can just act on his own as say it doesn't matter what the others do I know I'm right that's an attitude which is almost invariably wrong I want you to notice two points about this incident they're both important first of all the confirmation to Paul and Barnabas came through fellow believers of proven integrity and maturity that's important it matters through whom God speaks to us if it's a believer whose faithfulness whose maturity whose integrity we know that's much more significant than somebody who may be very unstable perhaps just a new believer perhaps not leading a very godly kind of life confirmation through that kind of person is worth relatively little but when it comes through fellow believers of proven integrity and maturity it means a lot secondly truly spiritual men do not go ahead unilaterally regardless of their fellow believers I respect that in Paul's character he knew God had called him but he didn't just go ahead and say well I'm going goodbye he waited on God with his fellow believers until the call was validated and confirmed then he went with their support and their prayers believe all of us need to do that it's important to see that our ability to hear God through others depends to a large extent on the nature of our relationship with them in other words the better our relationship is with others the better we can either hear God's voice through them or receive confirmation through them right relationships are very very important in being able to hear God's voice and there are three special relationships through which we should expect to hear God three relationships to which the New Testament attaches special importance and even I would say sanctity the three relationships are between pastors and their people between husbands and wives and between parents and children let's look at what the scripture says about each of these relationships briefly Hebrews 13:7 remember your leaders who spoke the Word of God to you consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith the word remember there indicates respectful consideration have respect for your leaders they spoke to you the Word of God consequently if God speaks to you independently in another way directly and personally it should be very important to you that your leaders who've already spoken to you the Word of God should confirm what God has st. now I'm not saying this will happen 100% but if I were in a situation where I were a member of a congregation that had godly leadership that spoke the Word of God the people and I thought I'd heard from God and when I went to my pastor or the elders or whoever the leaders were and they waited and gone God and prayed and they come up with the answer we don't feel this is God I believe me I would be tremendously cautious about going ahead with that thing because it's it's normal and it's right for God's people to hear through their leaders then there's the relationship of husbands and wives Ephesians 5:22 through 24 why I'm submitting your husband's as to the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church his body of which he is the Saviour now as the church submits to Christ so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything there's another sacred relationship God in His infinite wisdom has made the husband the head of the wife responsible for caring for the wife responsible for her spiritual condition now I understand that many husbands are not really accepting this responsibility but nevertheless the scriptural order is for the wife to submit to a husband it's very dangerous for a married woman to claim that she's heard the voice of God and then to go ahead even when her husband doesn't agree and doesn't give his approval and blessing I've known a good many cases in which women did that and almost always the result has been some kind of spiritual disaster because it's contrary to divine order and the kind of spirit in a woman that says well no matter what my husband says I'm going to do it that's not the kind of attitude that really hears from God that's a rather hard rebellious type of attitude and rebellious people don't accurately hear the voice of God the third relationship is similar and also a sacred one the relationship between parents and children Ephesians 6:1 children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right notice the safeguard in the Lord if parents demand their children do something morally wrong or totally unscriptural they're not obligated but otherwise children obligated to obey their parents and if God speaks to a child God can also speak to the child's parents and cause them to accept what he's said to the child so there's a two-fold application to these relationships first of all the positive we should expect to hear through these relationships secondly the negative we should be doubly cautious if we ever think God has spoken to us in a way that ignores or sets aside these sacred relationships

Channel: Derek Prince With Subtitles

Views: 348,267

Keywords: How to hear the voice of God, Gods stem leren verstaan, Derek Prince

Id: Hz3Rszpdi0I

Length: 56min 40sec (3400 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 26 2013