Hearing God's Voice - Recognizing God's Voice (Message 4)

INTRODUCTION:
In the Harrison Ford movie AIR FORCE ONE, the president’s airplane is hijacked by terrorists. Somehow, Harrison Ford’s character – the President – is hiding in the luggage compartment and he finds a cell phone. He calls the White House and identifies himself to the operator as the President. You can imagine her response: “Yeah, right! And I’m the first lady!” – He has a terrible time convincing her of his true identity – because she doesn’t RECOGNIZE HIS VOICE on the telephone.

We are learning together that God still speaks to His people.
We are learning together that if we want to hear His voice, we need to be…
• Available
• Willing
• Humble

But here’s the big question: How do I know that I’m really hearing from God – and not from…
• My own thoughts
• My own emotions
• My own desires
• The pressure of other people
• Or worse yet – the Devil himself?

First of all – like nearly everything else in the life of the Spirit – there are no simple formulas, or ‘steps’ to recognizing His voice. He invites us into relationship, into friendship – and the recognition of His voice gets clearer and clearer as you move closer and closer to Him over time.

But – where do we begin to test what we are hearing?

1. God’s Voice ALWAYS AGREES with Scripture.

The Bible is God’s Word – and God will not and cannot contradict Himself. Because His word is eternal. Jesus said…
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” Matthew 24:35, NIV.

Therefore, all prophetic words, impressions, dreams, visions and supernatural experiences must be tested and evaluated in the light of Scripture.

However – while God will never contradict His own Words, He frequently will contradict YOUR INTEPRETATION of what His Word says.

None of us have perfect understanding of the Bible. All of us have misinterpreted portions of the Bible – and God is not held captive by our lack of understanding.

Look at Luke 14:1-6
“One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away. Then he asked them, “If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?” And they had nothing to say.” Luke 14:1-6, NIV.

The Pharisee’s obeyed their understanding of the Bible. They wouldn’t work – in any way on the Sabbath, because they understood the Bible to say that the Seventh Day is holy unto the Lord. And there was this sick man suffering with ‘dropsy’ which meant that he had severe accumulation of liquid in his abdomen.

Jesus healed him on the Sabbath Day – not because he was breaking the law of God, but because the Pharisees had an improper interpretation of the law! Jesus illustrates that by saying – if you had a child or an animal fall into the well on the Sabbath, wouldn’t you rescue them? Of course. Why? Because the greater commandment to love one another takes precedence over the command to rest on the Sabbath!

When God speaks a word to you – in whatever means He chooses – test what is said against what has already been spoken in the Bible. If it contradicts the Bible – it isn’t from God. But be certain that you evaluate carefully that it really is against Scripture and not just your interpretation of Scripture.

In life there a scores of choices you must make that are not discussed in detail in the Bible –

• Pepsi or Coke?
• Who will I marry?
• Will we have children?
• What will I do to earn a living?
• Where will I live?
• What kind of car will I drive?

How do we test the voice or impression that is leading us to a certain direction in these areas?

2. God’s Voice May CONTRADICT the Opinions of Friends

Proverbs 11:14 tells us that…
“Where there is no guidance, the people fall, but in abundance of counselors there is victory.” Proverbs 11:14, NASB.

We do need the counsel of godly friends and family. But even their counsel is limited and cannot always be followed blindly.

For instance… In Acts – Paul’s friends urge him not to go to Jerusalem, having heard of a plot to sieze him and throw him in jail. But we read in Acts 20:22…

“And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” Acts 20:22-24

• Notice Paul’s resolve: “I am going to Jerusalem.”
• Notice Paul’s reasoning: “Compelled by the Spirit” – apparently, the Holy Spirit had spoken so clearly that he was to go to Jerusalem, that Paul no longer was concerned with the results, he simply had to be obedient!

You see – in the life of the Spirit – we are seeking to discern the voice of the Lord, not the fleshly opinions of men!

That said – there is a balancing point: You are not the “Lone Christian” on your own to conquer the world! God put you in the Body of Christ, and you need to seek out brothers and sisters who are sincerely seeking the Lord as you are! Listen to them as you share your life with them.

But ultimately, you are responsible to recognize the voice of God and to discern whether the counsel you are receiving is of human origin or divine origin!

Jesus says…
“…his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognise a stranger’s voice.”” John 10:4, 5, NIV.

We are to know the voice of God – and to also recognize the voice of the stranger!

3. God’s Voice has CONSISENT Character.

Read the Bible, listen to how God spoke – whether in the form of the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit – and you’ll discover a consistency in the character of how He speaks.

• God doesn’t – nag.
• God doesn’t – whine.
• God doesn’t – argue or condemn

When God speaks He is always… Calm, confident and quiet!

Fascinating that the Bible describes Satan as being the ‘accuser of the brothers’. When you hear an accusing voice – that’s not God! That’s Satan!

When you begin to hear accusations, and when the message causes you to want to run away from God and not move into intimacy with Him – that isn’t a message from God – it’s from the enemy!

God’s Word always comes with ‘hope’ attached – look at 2 Chron. 7:14 for an example of this…

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14, NIV.

Notice the ‘hope’ attachment to this word: God is calling His people to humility, to seeking and to repentance – but the ‘hope’ is this: “I will hear from heaven! I will forgive their sin! I will heal their land!” Now that’s a message of hope!

A word from God will always have a hope attached to it! He is consistent!

4. God’s Voice Bears GOOD FRUIT.

If the voice is from God, the results of following that voice will be good!

God’s character – spoken into our lives – produces God’s results: Good Fruit!

What is ‘good fruit’? It is what is produced by the Presence of the Holy Spirit!

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22, 23, NIV.

These are the evidences – the fruits – of the Spirit’s Presence in our lives! And when God speaks, the results will be good fruit!

Ask yourself: “If I do what God says – will it produce these fruit in my life?” If yes – than it is probably the voice of God you are hearing!

5. God’s Voice is DIFFERENT Than Our Voice.

Isaiah 55:8-9 says…
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8, 9, NIV.

• The fleshly way of thinking has a singular focus: Protecting itself.
• God’s way of thinking encompasses far more than simply protecting you.
• God’s way of thinking is all about bringing all of us to complete maturity in Him!

Gideon was the General of God’s Army leading 33,000 men up against an army much larger – and then God spoke – “Gideon, whittle down your forces, in fact, I only want 300 men to go up against my enemies!”

Now that thought had never occurred to Gideon – nor any other General before or since. In God’s economy – “less is more!”

When I look out at this church family – it occurs to me that – for God to do what He wants here – “less is more!” That’s why He pruned us last year – in preparation for the greater fruit that He is producing! I can promised you this: You’ll never go to a church growth conference and hear the speaker say – “less is more!” – But in our case that is exactly what God has said!

And as we move forward in our walk with Christ, we become more familiar with the thought processes of God.

The prophet Hosea said:
“Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.” Hosea 14:9

And Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:16 that…
“For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:16

This comes from living in humility before God – we don’t tell Him how things are to be, we tell Him that we want to know HIM and His ways!

God’s voice is different – and far better than ours!

6. God’s Voice is Easy to REJECT.

• He comes as a baby born in obscurity to an unwed mother – when the religious people are looking for a conquering hero on a white stallion!
• He says “love your enemies” when we are walking in hatred.
• He says “Forgive those who have sinned against you” when we are looking for justification for our bitterness.
• He speaks through fishermen and fools, prostitutes, politicians and preachers – children and even a Donkey!

That’s why it is easy to reject the voice of the Lord – but – that is because we focus on the MESSENGER instead of the MESSAGE!

“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” 1 Corinthians 1:27

Be very careful not to miss the message because of the messenger!

CONCLUSION:
I realize that I’ve raised more questions today than provided answers. But our relationship with God is not a ‘how-to’ manual, it is a mystery! That’s why we need the Holy Spirit – Jesus said:

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” John 16:13

Recognizing the voice of the Lord is entirely dependant upon the quality of our relationship with Him! We must walk in the filling of the Holy Spirit!

PRAYER: Be filled with the Holy Spirit!

Hearing God's Voice - The Kind of People Who Hear God - Message 3

INTRODUCTION:
• There is no higher priority in life than the pursuit of God.
• God Himself designed us to have relationship with Him – which explains why every culture and every people group on the planet seeks to experience God.
• But, just as every road doesn’t to your destination, every road does not lead to God.
• The lesser being – man – cannot tell the greater being – God – how He is to be found.
• God determines the way.

Jesus said in John 14:6…
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is through me.” John 14:6 New Century Version

As we seek to pursue God – we desire to hear His voice. Oh, the sweetness of the voice of the Lord. His voice is always beneficial to the hearer. He may correct you, He may discipline you, He may even warn you – but His voice and His message is always for your benefit.

We’ve discovered in scripture that only certain kind of people hear the voice of God:
• The AVAILABLE – those who are interested and desirous of hearing His voice
• The WILLING – those who, when spoken to, will do what He tells them to do

And today, we are going to focus on the third characteristic of the kind of people who hear the voice of God…
• The HUMBLE – those who see Him for Who He really is and see themselves for who they really are.

WHAT IS HUMILITY?

The Prophet Samuel describes King Saul as being… “small in your own eyes…” (1 Samuel 15:17)

To be humble – to put on humility is to…
• Distrust your own personal abilities or goodness, but to…
• Be extremely confident in the ability and goodness of God

Humility is about having accurate vision – of yourself and of God.

When you think about various people in the Bible who heard the voice of God, clearly Moses stands out as one of the top three or four.

Moses…
• Went up against the greatest world power of his time
• Lead 2 million Jews out of slavery and into freedom
• Wrote the “Law” – the first five books of the Old Testament – Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy!
• He met God face to face in the burning bush, on the mountain top and in the Tabernacle

In Numbers 12 we read of what happened to Moses’ sister Miriam went she thought she was simply dealing with her ‘brother’ ---

“(God) said, “Listen to my words: “When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”” Numbers 12:6-8, NIV.

And in this same chapter where God tells Miriam that Moses is the greatest of all men, He also says of Moses…

“(Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)” Numbers 12:3, NIV.

Humility and hearing the voice of God go hand-in-hand.

Daniel was another man who heard the voice of God as he walked in humility. Daniel 10:12 says…
“Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.” Daniel 10:12, NIV.

Humility opens the channels of our ears to hear the voice of God.

I’m going to share one of the most frightening scriptures in the all the Bible with you. It is in Psalms 138:6. Look it up.

“Though the LORD is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar.” Psalms 138:6, NIV.

The God’s Word Translation puts that verse this way:

“Even though the LORD is high above, he sees humble people [close up], and he recognizes arrogant people from a distance.” Psalms 138:6 GWT

God is intimate with the humble, distant from the arrogant.

Of all the sins that are the most ‘acceptable’ in the church today, religious pride tops the list. We value worldly success over humble faithfulness.

Prideful people, self-sufficient and soulish can’t hear the Lord. In fact, they cannot hear from God because somewhere deep inside they really don’t think that they need to hear from Him. They’ve got life figured out. They don’t need revelation – they have reason. Is it any wonder that there is so little revelation in the American church today? Somehow we’ve come to believe that we do not need to hear God’s voice in revelation, we’ve have things worked out. We have principles. We have a plan. We have a steps …

I started thinking about all the books that talk about ‘steps to’ this or that and I did an Amazon search for all the books with the word ‘steps’ in the title. Are you ready for this: 25,411 book titles! And then I did another search on a Christian book site – here are some sample titles….

One Step to be Closer to Jesus
Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Backward
Four Steps to Evangelism
Five Steps to Complete Salvation
Six Steps to Spiritual Revival
Seven Steps to Receive the Holy Spirit
Eight Steps to Intimacy with God
Nine Steps to Deliverance

And the number game goes all the way up to…
Fifty-two Steps to Success From the Bible

My favorite book title was: “The Eleven Steps to Take in Case of Nuclear Holocaust”

Did you know that there are ‘step’ books about success that number from one all the way to 25!

One step to success
Two steps to success
Three Steps to success and on and on and on

So – I’m announcing the title to my new book: “The One Step to Success Book That Explains Why all the other steps to success books don’t work and what you can do about it”

Here’s the point: While some of these books might have spiritual value, you simply cannot develop a personal intimate love relationship that results in hearing the voice of the Lord based upon following a man-made set of steps!

God didn’t create you to be a machine. He made you a person. And He calls you to humble yourself before Him and to be available to Him and willing to do what he says! Relationship!

So long as we cling to our reasoning and our skill sets – standing arrogantly in the face of God and saying “No, thanks” to relationship – we will never hear the voice of the Lord!

• Humility doesn’t deny your worth, your abilities or your strengths. God has given each of us amazing gifts that are to be used for His glory! But humility freely recognizes the infinite superiority of the character of God.

• Humble people do not rely on their best efforts, they give their best effort as an offering to the Lord, utterly dependant upon Him to determine the outcome!

• Humble people recognize that everything of value comes from their relationship with Christ.

“If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5, NIV.

• Humble people are confident people. But their confidence is placed properly. Humble people are confident in the mercy of God rather than in the intentions and efforts of man.

“It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” Romans 9:16, NIV.

• Do you trust God to work things out in your best interests?
• Is He on your side?
• Are His plans for your life superior to your plans for your life?

He is a God of mercy. Be confident in His mercy, not your abilities!

• Humble people put their confidence in the ability of the Holy Spirit to speak, not in their ability to hear.

Jesus said: “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” John 16:13

• Humble people put their confidence in the ability of Christ to lead, not in their ability to follow.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” John 10:11

The Bible tells us that your best efforts are like filthy rags. When it comes to self-sufficiency and soulish perfection, we really are dressed in the Emperor’s New Clothes! We are naked.

But the good news is that Christ’s best will clothe you in glory and beauty! Trust Him to lead.

• Humble people are willing to associate with people of lower position.

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” Philippians 2:3

“But I don’t want to hang out with people like that! I want to be with people like me…” – Listen to me: Do you want to become like Christ? Because if you do, hear what God said in Isaiah 57…

“For this is what the high and lofty One says--he who lives for ever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” Isaiah 57:15

Not only does God hang out with the humble – but He finds the humble to be His favorites…
“This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.” Isaiah 66:2
Do you desire to hear the voice of God? GET LOW TO THE GROUND AND LISTEN!

So – where do we begin?

Matthew 23:12 gives us a starting point and hope:

“For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Matthew 23:12

Humble yourself and God will exalt you!

The word “exalts” refers in part to the idea of welcome and invitation. Humble yourself and you’ll be invited in to the Presence of God! You are welcome in His presence! You are invited in! You are just the kind of guest He wants in His house.

How can I overcome the pride and arrogance that I’ve built my life upon?

You cannot. But God will if you’ll let Him.

“Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” James 4:5-10

God put His spirit within you, and that Spirit will not be satisfied with prideful, self-sufficiency. The Spirit ‘envies intensely’ that you would be in fellowship with your Father in Heaven! And so, God pours out His grace!

His Grace enables you to overcome self-sufficient, soulish, autonomous arrogant living and to become humble before the Lord!

You desire to be humble?
You desire to hear the voice of God?

Then don’t depend upon yourself to become this – depend upon God’s grace to empower you!

CONCLUSION:

Are you hungry for the presence of the Lord to become REAL in your life?
Do you desire to hear the sweet, sweet voice of the Lord!?

Make yourself – by God’s grace – fully available to Him: “I am yours Lord – 24/7 – I will seek You with all that is within me!”

Be willing – by God’s grace – to do whatever He asks of You. Stop questioning and start obeying. Have you done the last thing God asked you to do? As a very beginning point: Does 10% of your paycheck get tithed back to the Lord? Until you settle that basic issue – your hearing will be blocked.

Three Reasons Why Tithing is a Vital Part of Our Christian Development:

1. Tithing causes you to trust God in a very practical way.
2. Tithing causes you to restructure your priorities into Kingdom Priorities.
3. Tithing demonstrates God’s care for you.

Do you live in humility before Your God and man? Ask for His grace to empower you to be humble like Jesus!

What kind of person does God speak to?

We know now don’t we.

Last question: What kind of person do you desire to be?

And as we move towards this – take heart:

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20, NIV.