And the Lord Said--#1 Prepare Your Self to Hear
You’ve probably heard the old Chinese proverb:
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
Now handing out fish is not a bad thing.
But catching fish is a lot more fun.
The Lord said—Mike you’ve handing out some great fish,
But now teach my people how to fish.
And the Lord Said—
Do you believe that God speaks to his son’s and daughters?
Have you experienced God speaking to you?
Dr. Mike Pratt works with an interesting group of people.
Mike—why is it that when people talk to God we call it prayer,
But when God talks to people we call it schizophrenia?
And the Lord said—
Everything rises and falls on relationships,
If trust is the foundation for righteous relationships,
Then communication is the fuel that keeps them intimate.
A right relationship with God must involve communication.
I think that if I help you learn how to hear God speak that I’ll be
teaching you to fish.
Hebrews 6:1-3 (NIV)
Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so.
“God is speaking…
He is by His nature continuously articulate.” (AW Tozer, Pursuit, Chp 6)
Today I would like to start training you to be able to discern His voice,
To hear God speaking to you.
And The Lord said---
First to hear God speaking to you, you need to know that it’s normal.
Exodus 33:11 (NLT)
Inside the Tent of Meeting, the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.
Don’t think just because you are not Moses,
Or have some high profile roll to play in God plans
That God won’t speak to you as one speaks to a friend.
The Bible is our instruction manual for everything we need to know to live our
lives to the full.
God speaks through what He has written.
“The Bible is the written word of God,
but because it is written it is confined and limited by the necessities of ink
and paper.
The Voice of God, however, is alive and free” (AW Tozer, Pursuit, Chp 6)
And God speaks directly to believers.
Isaiah 50:4-5 (NLT)
The Sovereign Lord has given me his words of wisdom, so that I know how to comfort the weary. Morning by morning he wakens me and opens my understanding to his will. The Sovereign Lord has spoken to me, and I have listened. I have not rebelled or turned away.
Just a quick side bar:
When you read proverbs you will read a lot about Lady Wisdom,
That metaphor represents the speaking voice of God.
As in any relationship there must be communication.
Our prayers are often one sided.
We do all the talking.
We monopolize the conversation.
Because we haven’t trained ourselves to listen.
In the book of the Revelation there is a particular verse that is taken out of context
and used to encourage seekers to open up there lives to Jesus.
Revelation 3:20 (NLT)
“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.
It’s a great word picture, but unfortunately in context these words are addressed to
believers, not seekers.
Jesus is saying this to Christians.
Jesus wants to pull up a chair, linger at your table and converse with you as
friends do over diner. (John Eldredge, Walking With God, p 16)
For Jesus to say, “If you hear my voice…”
Must mean that He is speaking.
Not only that, He’s speaking at your door.
God conversing with you is what is normal.
Not to hear God speaking with you is not normal.
In a right relationship with God,
He will speak to you, and you will hear.
Jesus said:
John 10:16 (NLT)
I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.
The “They” are believers,
For believers to listen to His voice,
Jesus must be speaking.
God speaks, it is normal to converse with your Savior.
A two way conversation.
2 Samuel 2:1 (NLT)
David asked the Lord, “Should I move back to one of the towns of Judah?” “Yes,” the Lord replied. Then David asked, “Which town should I go to?” “To Hebron,” the Lord answered.
To hear the speaking voice of God you first must know that God is speaking and
even more importantly, wants to converse with you.
And The Lord Said…
I want to hear from God.
I think I would be doing a much better job of helping people to live their
lives to the full
If I had conversations with God like I do with my close friends.
Now if God is speaking, and I want to listen,
How come I’m not hearing anything?
Secondly to hear the speaking voice of God you must eliminate distractions.
1 Kings 19:11-12 (NIV)
The LORD said,
"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, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle
whisper.
Have you ever tried to read a magazine article,
watch TV and talk with someone on your cell phone all at the same time.
Try it and I guarantee you are going to miss something.
We get so busy, we are so rushed, and so become tired that we don’t notice that
God is speaking to us.
Is your world filled with constant sound and noise?
The radio, the TV, the ipod, office noise, traffic noise, weed blowers,
Text messages, email, phone calls,
All the man made sounds of the day,
Drown out the gentle whisper of God’s voice.
There always seems to be something that shouts: URGENT, URGENT.
You have to pay attention to me right now.
Can you rush this order please.
Have you noticed how so much of that URGENT stuff is really
Unimportant? (Stephen Covey)
I’ve gone to letting every phone caller I don’t recognize
go to voice mail.
If it’s important they leave a message.
And it’s easier to delete a message,
Than to excuse yourself from a conversation.
Noise and Urgent yet unimportant things, make it really difficult to enter into a
meaningful conversation with anyone, especially God.
So what you need to do is to make schedule an appointment with God.
You schedule everything else,
Doctor, vacations, birthday parties, date night,
I suggest you eliminate distractions by scheduling an
appointment with God.
When the time comes, everything else goes to the back burner.
You give your undivided attention to God.
Dangerous to do while driving your car, I don’t recommend it.
Last time I had a conversation with God while driving,
I was coming up from San Diego.
When I finally took in the scenery I realized I
missed the 405 interchange.
One thing I do to help me give God my undivided attention is to
journal.
I schedule an appointment and start my conversation out
by writing.
I want my receptivity to grow to the point were I can
listen without the use of a journal.
Most believers don’t hear God speaking to them because of all the distractions.
Get rid of the distractions.
I’m sure you’ve heard of someone speak of their quiet time.
Get rid of distractions so you can give your whole attention to
your conversation with God.
And The Lord Said…
To hear the speaking voice of God,
First you must expect that God speaking to you is normal.
Second you must eliminate distractions to give God your full
attention.
Thirdly you are going to have to take care of Spiritual obstacles
Remove spiritual hindrances.
Psalms 24:3-5 (NCV)
Who may go up on the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy Temple? Only those with clean hands and pure hearts, who have not worshiped idols, who have not made promises in the name of a false god. They will receive a blessing from the Lord; the God who saves them will declare them right.
You close your own ears if you are harboring some sin in your life.
You know that sin is anything that deters, damages or destroys relationships.
With God its not a matter of when He finds out,
He already knows.
If you are indulging in what the Word of God clearly spells out is wrong,
The only thing you are going to hear from God is repent.
So take care of spiritual business.
It’s not that hard to spot the willful sins in your life.
You know what’s wrong and what’s right,
You have the Holy Spirit convicting you.
1 John 1:9 (MSG)
“…if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.”
Clean those hands through confession and repentance and restitution.
Get rid of the idols, the things you are trusting in,
That keep you from trusting in God alone.
Renounce them. Cleanse your life of them.
Give The Holy Spirit opportunity to purify your heart,
Your heart represents your attitude, your motives, your will.
Let’s dig a little deeper what about a problem with someone else?
Matthew 5:23-24 (MSG)
If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God.
God seems to be dead serious about our relationship with others.
If you have not done everything you can to clear your accounts with others,
You may have a problem hearing from God anything other than
“you go and try to make amends, do your part.”
And just a little deeper, what about a problem with your spouse?
1 Peter 3:7 (NCV)
In the same way, you husbands should live with your wives in an understanding way, since they are weaker than you. But show them respect, because God gives them the same blessing he gives you—the grace that gives true life. Do this so that nothing will stop your prayers.
If there is a problem in your martial relationship,
You had better be doing everything you can to fix the problem.
If you’re not working on making things right with your spouse,
Your most intimate of relationships,
If you can’t hear their heart,
How are you ever going to hear from God?
Egoism, with its pride, its entitlement, and often with fear, and bitterness can be a
major obstacle to conversing with God.
You got to deal with the sin nature, the self-centered on the self,
You’ve got to keep in step with the Spirit.
Egoism often disguises itself as the voice of God.
I’ve seen people sabotage their lives because
They confused their own voice with the
voice of God.
And THE LORD Said—
First you must expect that God speaking to you is normal.
Second you must eliminate distractions to give God your full attention.
Third Remove spiritual hindrances.
And then fourthly, to prepare yourself hear the Lord speaking you need submit to
his instruction.
Submitting means even if you don’t like what God instructs,
You’re going to do it.
You won’t hear God if all you are interested in is options.
You must follow his lead.
John 10:3-4 (MSG)
The gatekeeper opens the gate to him and the sheep recognize his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he gets them all out, he leads them and they follow because they are familiar with his voice.
We are to follow his familiar voice.
If God’s purpose is not to take you somewhere he would not call you out.
Psalms 32:8-10 (MSG)
Let me give you some good advice; I'm looking you in the eye and giving it to you straight: "Don't be ornery like a horse or mule that needs bit and bridle to stay on track." God-defiers are always in trouble; God-affirmers find themselves loved every time they turn around.
“God talks to people who decide in advance that they are going to do
whatever He tells them to do when He tells them. …
If you want God to speak to you, you need to say,
"OK God, I'm going to do what You tell me to do
whether I understand it or not,
whether it makes sense or not,
whether I'd think I'd like to do it or not,
because I know it's the right thing and
I know You know what would make me
happy more than I do.”
(Rick Warren, Sermon How To Hear God Speak Learning To Hear God's Voice - Part 1 Of 4)
And THE LORD Said—
“Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a person to fish and you feed her for a lifetime.”
I delight in giving you good fish.
But I want you to learn to fish for yourself.
I want you to learn how to hear God voice.
He tell you how and when and where to fish.
Expect that God speaking to you is normal.
Eliminate distractions to give God your full attention.
Remove spiritual hindrances.
Do whatever He tells you.
There’s something I want you to try in preparation for next week.
I want you to prepare yourself to converse with God.
Schedule your appointment,
Remove those spiritual hindrances,
Make the commitment to do what ever he tells you,
And then I just want you to ask God some small questions,
Small questions like:
Do you want me to go to the grocery now or later?
Where in the Bible would you like me to read?
Which lane do you want me to drive in?
Do you want me to do homework first or play a video game?
Do you want me to turn on the TV or talk with my spouse?
Just ask small questions,
Listen for the impression of a specific direction.
Then do it.
Next week we will explore the ways in which God speaks to us.
Plan to be here and learn how to hear so you can say
And THE LORD SAID to me……