Today I would like to talk to you concerning how to hear God's voice.
I believe there's four types of voices every single person hears regularly. The first voice
is your own voice. The second voice is God's voice. The third voice is the devil's voice and
the fourth voice is the voice of other people. Let me review that again: God's, other peoples,
your own, and the devil's voice. If you remember the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden,
you'll remember that Adam obeyed the voice of his wife, Eve obeyed the voice of the devil, and none
of them obeyed the voice of God. And many people today live in spiritual paradise, in spiritual
blessing, but the reason they cannot continually live in that blessing is not because they're not
able to hear God's voice, for many of us, it's because we are not heeding God's voice. What makes
you spiritual is not your ability to hear God's voice, what makes you spiritual is your ability
to heed God's voice. Come on somebody, drop that in the chat. It's more important to heed than to
hear God's voice. See Adam, he heard the voice of the Lord, but he heeded the voice of a serpent or
in fact he heeded the voice of a snake. Jesus, He heard the voice of a serpent in the wilderness,
but He still heeded the voice of the Lord, and therefore your spirituality is not summed up in
your ability merely to hear God's voice. I know that's what this message is going to be about.
Your spirituality is really anchored in your ability to heed, to heed meaning to hear and
follow through, to obey the voice of God. Your next level in God is really connected
to your ability to hear and to heed the voice of God. You must understand, as a Christian,
it's one thing to hear the voice of God, it's another thing to be able to follow through.
"Hear the word of the Lord" occurs 32 times in NIV and 28 times in NASB translation. Seven times
God speaks to the churches in the Revelation, "Let him who has an ear hear." Seven times, He
says that to every church and I believe the same word is happening to our church. The same word
is released to the church today. Him who has an ear, let them hear. The God we serve speaks today.
Our God is not distant God who created this earth and then left this earth. He set it in motion and
forgot us. Our God wants relationship, and for Him to have a relationship He has to communicate,
and to communicate we have to be able to hear His voice. Adam, God's created human being,
our first ancestor and the first human being did not have a physical book, but he still had
the ability to hear the voice of God and he heard commandments of God. Of course he disobeyed them
but the point being is that God created a man and God communicated His instructions to that man,
and God made His will known by communicating it to a human being.
Jesus says we are not just His creation, we are His children. And Jesus says in John 10:27,
He says the following, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them and they follow Me."
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. So we're not just God's creation,
we are God's children and Jesus compares us to sheep. Now at first, for those of you who
don't know anything about sheep, like myself, we look at that statement and we're like, "Oh,
this is so cute. Jesus calls me a sheep." It's actually not a compliment. It's kind of an insult,
okay, because sheep are actually the dumbest animals out there. Sheep, they do not,
they cannot defend themselves, they cannot find their own way,
they are content with whatever they find. So they can drink muddy water.
Sheep have a tendency of going astray. Sheep are actually pretty stupid, because they have been
known to walk into an open fire and sheep have been known to walk off the cliff. Sheep actually
tend to follow other sheep. So if one sheep goes into the fire, the rest of them follow.
So they have a tendency to do what other sheep do. Sheep cannot fight back. They don't have a tail,
or claws, or teeth, or some venom that they can defend themselves. They're totally defenseless.
Without a shepherd, sheep are not only lost. They'll never get anywhere. And what I love
about Jesus is that Jesus pretty much says that your spiritual life is contingent, is founded,
your ability to move forward cannot happen without you knowing the voice of your Shepherd.
As a Christian, no matter how many degrees you have, no matter how long you've been a Christian,
no matter how experienced you are as a Christian, no matter how much you've read the Word,
you still need to know the voice of your Shepherd. As a sheep you're not supposed to carry burdens.
You cannot handle burdens on your own, you cannot defend yourself. You really need a Shepherd,
and not only you need a Shepherd, you need to know the voice of the Shepherd.
Now I have a dog. He's kind of like a sheep, he looks like a sheep and he knows my voice.
I call him by his name, he responds. He knows things like walky-walky, which simply means we're
going to go for a walk. He knows snack. The word "snack," he wags his tail very quickly because he
understands he's gonna get some treats. Up, that means he needs to jump up. Down means sit down.
Lay, that means he needs to lay. Roll, it means he needs to roll. Stop, means stop whatever he's
doing, and so Jocko, but Jacoko can actually survive on his own. My dog can survive on his
own because he can kind of defend himself. He's pretty violent and he can also probably
find his own food. He eats whatever. But sheep cannot do that. I want you to know,
as a Christian, without the guidance of your Shepherd, without the leading of your Shepherd,
you cannot live in green pastures and you cannot fulfill God's will for your life.
And so having the ability to hear God is not something that you have to strive
for, it's something that you can't live without and it comes naturally and it comes because of
who you are and it comes because of who He is. He is a Father, we are children. He is our Shepherd,
we are the Sheep. He is the Creator, we are the creation. So I want to lay this kind of a
foundation. Hearing God's voice is the foundation to knowing God's will and operating in God's ways.