Overcoming Obstacles

Few things are as important as the ability to hear God’s voice.
Hearing God clearly enables you to…

• Have CONFIDENCE that your faith is real and has substance!
• Experience CLARITY in what your life is all about!
• Enjoy CONNECTION with God that results in an unshakeable joy!

This Summer we’ve spent a great deal of time and energy examining four keys to moving into authentic two-way dialogue with God.

1. SPONTANEITY - God’s voice in our hearts sounds like the flow of spontaneous thoughts. Therefore, when I tune into God, I tune into spontaneity! (John 10:27)
2. STILLNESS – In order to sense God’s voice, I must learn to still my own thoughts and emotions. (Psalms 46:10)
3. VISION – As I pray, I fix the eyes of my heart upon Jesus, seeing in the Spirit the dreams and visions of God. (Habakkuk 2:1, Ephesians 1:17-18, Acts 2:17)
4. JOURNALING – The writing out of our prayers and God’s answers, provides a great new freedom in hearing God’s voice.

Yet, even though we desire to experience this new-found level of communication with God, we will – from time to time – experience OBSTACLES to hearing Him clearly.

Today I want to talk with you about how to remove – and to overcome – the obstacles that come in the way of your walk with Christ.

BEFORE we get into the details – I want to focus on one overriding truth: When I am faced with an obstacle, I have a choice to make: GIVE UP or GET THROUGH IT!

Today’s message is for those who desire to GET THROUGH to the other-side of obstacles.

Let’s read Hebrews 10:19ff:
“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10:19-22, NIV.

Let’s settle some issues right from the get go:
• Are you a believer in Christ?
• Do you believe that His death on the cross paid the price for your sin?
• Do you believe that He has forgiven you of your sin?

If the answer to those questions is YES – than you can have CONFIDENCE in your relationship with God!

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God…”

It’s time to stop all of this nonsense about God not accepting you, not loving you, not allowing you to be with Him! It’s time to put that away as a lie from the pit of hell and instead to begin TODAY TO EMBRACE THE TRUTH: You – by faith in Christ – have direct access to the HOLY PLACE of God! And this access is not based upon your personal goodness, perfection or how well you keep the rules – it is totally based upon the COMPLETED WORK OF Christ on the Cross!

It’s time to be CONFIDENT with God!

NOW – having settled that – let’s look at the rest of this text:

The author of Hebrews writes: “Let us draw near to God…”

This is the will of God! You and I – near to the heart of GOD! He invites us into the Holy – into the place of intimacy and joyful experience with Him!

Oh – church family – let us draw near to God! Let us draw near to Him! Cast off fear – rid yourself of regrets – move in close, sit with Him – He is here!

Now – the author of Hebrews gives us some clues about overcoming obstacles:

1. Draw near through FAITH.
“…let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith…”

I believe that the number one reason we don’t draw near and we don’t hear is because of lack of faith!

How can I hear God’s voice if – I don’t really believe He is speaking?
How can I hear God’s voice if – I don’t really believe He’s speaking to me?

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Hebrews 11:6, NIV.

I cannot please God without faith. But – if I come to Him in faith, I will be rewarded for it! Do you get that – everytime we move in faith, God rewards! God blesses! God reveals!

So, let me give you some quick faithbuilding exercises:

FAITHBUILDERS:
1. WORSHIP in the Spirit – Make a choice to worship the Lord no matter how you feel! Because you are worthy – oh Lord, - I will worship!
2. FOCUS on Bible Promises – Get into the Word – read it with an eye for promises! What does it do in your spirit when you hear…

I will never leave you nor forsake you… I will pour out my Spirit on all who believe… I have loved you with an everlasting love… I have removed your sins as far as the east is from the west… All who call on my name will be saved…

The Bible is filled with promises. Focus on them and your faith will be built!

3. REREAD your journal – As you reread your story with God, you’ll see how He has come through for you, over and over and over again!
4. TAKE STEPS of faith – Do what God has already told you to do. Move in the opposite spirit of what the devil, the flesh and world tell you to do! Take action steps of faith that require God to come through for you.
5. LIVE IN Christian Community – As you invest your life in others, and they in you, you’ll hear and see Him at work – The testimony of others will build your faith!

Do you want to draw near to God – in full assurance of faith – then do what it takes to build your faith!

2. Draw near with a CLEAN HEART.
Again the author of Hebrews writes…
“Let us draw near to God… having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience…”

Unconfession and a lack of repentance is a major obstacle to hearing God’s voice. When you are walking in sin and in disobedience to the Lord, your spirit will be feeling so guilty that you won’t be able to hear Him!

1 John 3:21 says:
“Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God” 1 John 3:21

And if your heart DOES condemn you the only way out is to CONFESS and REPENT of your sin! The great news is that when you CONFESS and REPENT – God cleanses! God purifies! God does do-overs!

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

If I am going through a period of not hearing the voice of God, I will frequently ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any unconfessed sin so that I may become clean. And it is amazing how quickly He’ll do that – and even more quickly He’ll restore me to wholeness!

3. Draw near with PURE BODIES.
“Let us draw near to God… having our bodies washed with pure water.”
While our bodies are temporary, they are still important! And they need to become beautiful and pure in the sight of the Lord – We are the temple of the Holy Spirit – and they need to be pure! Fortunately, God will speak to you about this…

In Paul’s conversation with the Ephesian church about marriages – He spoke about the church and said:
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” Ephesians 5:25-27

Christ cleanses us with His living water flowing into our lives! Christ is preparing us to meet Him as a bride meets her groom!

When God speaks to us – through the written word and through the spoken word – we must allow that word to impact our lives! We must do what He says.

If you are struggling with hearing the voice of God, one possible reason is that you’ve yet to obey the last thing He told you to do. Why would He continue to make revelation to us when we’ve refused to do what He has already spoken?

The Bible tells us in 1 Samuel 15:22 that ‘to obey is better than sacrifice’ – and God is serious about helping us obey Him and be cleansed by so doing!

Perhaps you need to take serious stock of your life – have you done the last thing God told you to do? If not, today is the day for action.

4. Draw near with a SINCERE HEART.
Going back to the part of the verse that says…
“…let us draw near to God with a sincere heart…”

ONE of the major obstacles that we can face is trying to live with one foot in Christ and one foot in the world. A divided heart: Part of me loves and desires to serve Christ and the other part of me wants to do what I want.

The Greek word for ‘sincere’ is better translated ‘true or genuine’. When I think of my heart – I earnestly, hungrily desire for it to be totally for Christ and for Christ alone!

David cried out to the Lord:
“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalms 51:10, KJV.

Is that your cry? Your desire? Your hunger?

Thank God that He hears our cry – and that He gives us our very heart’s desire:
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” Ezekiel 36:26, 27
And that is exactly what He has done through Christ!

You aren’t who you used to be – because of what Christ has done!

Praise His name!

There are no obstacles too big for God.
Whatever your particular obstacle, bring it to Him and He will overcome it!
Draw near.
Move in close.
Hear the voice of God.

God is doing a new thing in the world today. The old ways, the old rules, the old barriers – all erected by men – are being torn down by God! And we get to join Him in it!

The Value of Writing What God Speaks

Babies are wonderful. They are cute. They are funny. Everyday is a new day of exploration and discovery. But babies are also a great deal of work. They need constant attention. They need to be fed – six, seven times a day. They need to be changed – 10 or 12 times a day. They need to be held. No parent of a baby is ever rested. No parent of a baby has unstained clothes. Babies are high maintenance, and quite seriously, cannot survive without intensive care from loving parents. Let’s face it – as wonderful as babies are, they are also a great deal of responsibility and work. And we wouldn’t have it any other way!

Have you ever watched someone feed a 6 month old baby? It’s quite comical.
• Little bit of apple sauce on the spoon.
• “Open your mouth, little snookems”
• Mouth opens – until the spoon approaches and then it closes – leaving the food all over the babies face and new clothes – ‘oops, forget the bib – again!’
• Wipe cloth, clean up.
• Try again
• Mouth opens, zoom in for the close up: Will the spoon make it in the mouth in time – or will we have a repeat spill?
• Mouth stays open – yeah! We did it! Food is in the mouth!! Success!! – No, wait, there’s a late breaking development, what? Oh no – baby is spitting the food out of his mouth!
• Wipe cloth, clean up.
• Try again
• And on and on it goes… it’s amazing babies survive! But somehow they do!

And that is an illustration of what parenting is all about: Caring, feeding, cleaning up and trying again. Ultimately, the goal of parenting is to help the baby grow until such time they are able to fully care for themselves. And that takes somewhere around 20 years.

The same thing is true in the realm of the Spirit of God. When you become a Christian, you begin as a baby – makes sense, after all, you were spiritually dead prior to receiving Christ, and then He gives you new Life in Him, but you are NEW AT IT – you are a baby. But, just as human babies are designed to grow up, so, you and I are designed to grow up and become mature.

God created a process by which this spiritual maturity takes place – look at Ephesians 4:11

“It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.” Ephesians 4:11-15

Do you see the process?
- PREPARATION for ministry: Five-fold ministry of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers – who all have the same objective: Prepare God’s people for ministry! – Greek: “Complete equipping for service” – which then is followed by:
- MATURITY in Christ: We will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ. – It is God’s will that you be absolutely mature in Him, that you become just like Him, that you become Christ to this world!

Why is this important? Because it is time for you to become self-feeding! You do not need me – or – any other pastor/teacher – to spoon-feed you! You need to become mature – you need to become like Christ – you need to allow His Spirit to utterly and forever transform you – so that you indeed will ‘grow up into Him’!

I don’t say this critically – I say this to exhort you to become the person you were created to be! In fact, many of you are becoming exactly what I’m talking about! I see you – ministering to one another, praying believing, fighting for others. Rising up! I see guys like Brad – who is rarely without his Bible in hand! Praise God!

And, I say this to explain again why I am teaching you so carefully how to have dialogue with God – how to hear His voice, how to be filled with His Holy Spirit living within – because as this becomes the priority of your life – you will become what God made you to be!

In recent weeks we’ve discovered three vital tools to having honest dialogue with God:

1. SPONTANEITY - God’s voice in our hearts sounds like the flow of spontaneous thoughts. Therefore, when I tune into God, I tune into spontaneity! (John 10:27)
2. STILLNESS – In order to sense God’s voice, I must learn to still my own thoughts and emotions. (Psalms 46:10)
3. VISION – As I pray, I fix the eyes of my heart upon Jesus, seeing in the Spirit the dreams and visions of God. (Habakkuk 2:1, Ephesians 1:17-18, Acts 2:17)

Today, we focus on one last tool of revelation as it relates to having authentic dialogue with God.

4. JOURNALING – The writing out of our prayers and God’s answers, provides a great new freedom in hearing God’s voice.

Journaling is simply writing out my prayers to God and what I believe His response is to me. It is a record of my two-way dialogue with God.

BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS:

TURN TO PSALMS 32:6
The entire books of Psalms is really a journal of David’s experience with God. David writes – then God speaks. Notice sometime as you are reading Psalms, the word “selah” – it means musical rest or interlude – and frequently, after the ‘selah’ the depth of the message has increased – why? Because God spoke during the interlude!

“Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found; surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him. You are my hiding-place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you. Many are the woes of the wicked, but the LORD’s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him. Rejoice in the LORD and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart!” Psalms 32:6-11
Prior to the ‘selah’ – it is David talking – he is speaking faith! He is praying believing! He is walking in the power of the Holy Spirit – and then the ‘selah’ comes – And now, it is GOD speaking – “I will instruct, I will counsel and watch...” And the result: We can rejoice in the Lord!


The apostle John is worshipping – and he records – he journals what God reveals and speaks:
“On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”” Revelation 1:10, 11

BENEFITS OF JOURNALING

1. Doubts can be set aside, without throwing away my common sense.
When I first began to journal, I was worried that the stuff I was writing came from me, or from the enemy. I am a skeptic. I need to know for sure that something is truly from the Lord. Journaling has helped that – because as I write whatever comes to me, I am then free to go back and review it later to evaluate it in the light of what I already know from Scripture!

Let me read you a sample from a recent journaling – you tell me if it sounds like something God would say. ILLUSTRATION #1

A second benefit of journaling is…

2. Journaling gives my brain something to do while receiving revelation.
My brain is used to being in control, and frankly, it needs something to do. So, by journaling what you are receiving, your brain is involved in the physical processes of writing. So, as I move in the Spirit, I tell my brain to do what its told and to write. And my brain is happy and my ability to receive from the Lord continues!

Thirdly,
3. Journaling stands as testimony to the faithfulness of God.
In the Old Testament we see that when God did something really special for the people of Israel, they build a pile of rocks – an Ebenezer – to serve as a reminder of the faithfulness of God. When you journal, you are building an Ebenezer of paper and ink that serve you as a reminder of what God has done. Is that important? You bet it is - because we so easily forget!

Fourth,
4. Journaling keeps the message pure.
Sometimes, in our excitement and passion, we can easily get off track from His purposes. And as we do, we will inevitably hit the wall of failure or frustration – why? Because God doesn’t bless what He isn’t building! So, by journaling, we can go back to what He has revealed and He reminds us of what His true intentions were.

Fifth -
5. Journaling helps me wait.
The journey into Christ is long and filled with potholes, diversions, distractions and pain. Many times the Lord will speak something into our lives that are going to come to fullness – but not now – but in the fullness of God’s time! His promises always come true. By journaling, we can review what He has revealed and be assured that ‘he who began the good work, is faithful to complete it!’

Sixth:
6. Journaling helps me see God more accurately.
Most of us have a sneaking suspicion that to encounter God is to encounter judgment, criticism and condemnation. Even though we know that the Bible tells us things like “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” and “God is love” – we doubt that that applies to us.
But when you begin to receive revelation through journaling – you’ll be surprised to hear Him say things that are more gentle than you’d imagine – let me illustrate… ILLUSTRATION #2

Dear family - He is calling us into Himself. He desires that we become fully mature in Him! It is possible! One of the most important things you can do is learn to feed yourself.

BABIES are wonderful – but as any parent will tell you – they don’t stay babies long. Unfortunately, in the modern church many, many Christians stay babies for 20, 30 or 50 years! That cannot happen in this church. You are expected to grow up into Christ! And I’ll help you.

No pastor on earth is able to keep you well fed – you come to Sunday mornings and you expect to be fed – and I promise that I will continually strive to prepare you for works of service. But you must do your part. You cannot expect to grow in the Lord if your only feeding happens on Sunday mornings. Can you imagine if you only ate one meal per week? You’d starve!

And that is what some of you are doing now – you are beginning to look like a holocaust victim spiritually and Satan is thrilled! It’s time to eat! It’s time to feed! It’s time to feast!

And how? By entering into true dialogue with God.

• Open yourself to SPONTANEITY.
• Seek to be STILL before the Lord.
• Expect to see VISIONS AND DREAMS.
• JOURNAL what He is speaking.