Hearing God’s Voice

our feet that would lead us towards the will of God the most reliable way to hear from God is to listen to what he says through his word and God will never ever contradict anything he says in his word he will speak to you through his word can speak to you through the wisdom of a friend can speak to you through a sermon or a song can speak to you through circumstances when you are going down a path and all of a sudden God closes the door or you don't believe you can go down this path and God opens a door God can speak to you through his holy spirit every time you turn away from your sins and call on the name of Jesus your spirit is born a new God is Spirit he speaks his Spirit to your spirit and internally you can discern the

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of God through his holy spirit speaking to your spirit God will prompt you sometimes like oh man I feel moved to give this to someone and you can say oh was it God it was God prompted me to give or was it the devil and you say oh the devil probably didn't tempt me to be generous that was probably God and he is asked in different ways o God can speak to you through dreams God can speak to you through Visions God can give you supernatural peace o God can direct you through the absence of peace.

I can't understand anything about this, so it must not be God. God can give you confirmation through his word through a message or through a friend God is always speaking the question is are you listening ask him to speak listen to what he says and then you are going to say like when he is going to speak to me and the answer is that he goes to talk to you whenever you need to hear what he wants to say and he will talk to you in a holy and calm moment and he will talk to you in a normal time when you need to hear his

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, this happens more or less In my case for example , I once did a little TV interview where this interviewer was in another state and then they had the interviewer on the TV screen and I could see what he was saying and hear his voice and then they gave me I bought this communication device and I I put it in my ear and it was really cool because the producer gave me a little bit of comfort like you're not alone and before the interview went live I could hear the little voice in my ear saying, "it's okay, Craig, you." You look great like oh thank you, can you tell me that again you look great?

We'll be live here on 154 sit up straight to smile and then and now we're live and then the conversation would start and then They say you know they asked me a question and then I heard in my ear that we got about 15 cents before the commercial so I finished and suddenly I finished and the whole time I was having a conversation there was another voice in my ear directing my steps and comforting me when I felt uncomfortable and many times this is how God will speak to you you will be in a strange place and you need to know his voice you will be speaking with someone you are like what I am He was supposed to tell them and suddenly he tells you, in fact, I love what Isaiah 30:21 describes it, whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you that says this is the way. walk in it, if you listen to God's voice, you will hear Him guiding you, giving you the word to say, comforting you, giving you peace, prompting you to do something, maybe even giving you a Bible verse to share with someone you are listening to. voice of God he is always speaking the question is are you listening?

Wouldn't it be amazing if we could hear God's voice clearly and Jesus promises that you can? Jesus is the Good Shepherd and you are the sheep and the sheep recognized the voice of the shepherd, so as you listen to God, well, let's ask him. God speaks, your servant is listening. God speaks. I want to hear your voice. I want to know your way. So you are going to listen. What God has to say and number three, are you ready? You're going to do what he tells you to do, it's pretty simple, but it's a game. Cher, you are going to do what he tells you to do and let me warn you that what he tells you to do will often take.

Faith, faith is often needed. I like what Jesus said when he answered a question. Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and do what else and obey it. Blessed are those who not only listen, we are not only listeners. of the word but we are actually doers of the word now some of you may say okay I get it I'm a Christian and I believe God speaks but I haven't heard from God for a long time why doesn't God speak? For me and I don't know for sure but for some of you maybe it's because you didn't do the last thing he told you to do, maybe he gave you a task before and said this is what I want you to do and you have done it. .

I haven't done it yet and I can tell you very honestly that in many years as a pastor I have seen many Christians who have a lot of biblical knowledge but not a lot of obedience and can quote the Bible all day long. but they are not listening to it but they are not necessarily doing it we could say that there are many Christians who are educated beyond their level of obedience why I haven't heard from God in a long time maybe because you didn't do the last thing he told them to do It's that someone here told them to give something to someone and they didn't do it or maybe they were encouraged to confess a sin and they didn't confess it or maybe they said ask you to serve somewhere in the church or community and you know he did but you haven't done it yet or maybe he pushed you to invite someone to go to church with you and you haven't obeyed what he told you to do.

Maybe it prompted you to forgive the person who hurt you and asked for forgiveness but you still continue to hold The Grudge. If you haven't heard from God in a long time, maybe it's because you didn't obey the last thing He told you. You have very, very good news for you. because I know that life is complicated and we have many decisions to make when you need direction. The good news is Jesus, he is the Good Shepherd and we are the sheep and the sheep know the voice. of the shepherd so how do we hear the voice?

What I promise you is that you have to turn down the volume on this word world because everything is crying out for your attention, stop scrolling and stop clicking and stop giving in to what everyone else is saying and listen. the voice of God there is an exercise that I have done for maybe three years that I really like and I will do it um on vacation or on a day off I will sit outside and what I will do is I do this to focus my mind to practice just mindfulness. and the presence and what it does is help me focus to listen to the voice of God and what I will do is just stay very, very quiet and I will begin to listen. a variety of noises and I will start counting the noises as I hear them and my goal is to wait until I hear 20 different noises and my rule is if a dog barks and then another dog barks it only counts once if a car drives by another car it's just one you can only tell everything once so at first it's pretty easy at first you hear a dog barking and a car goes by and a plane flies overhead and the air conditioning turns on and the house calms down and your stomach growls, you know, and then it gets a little quiet and then you hear, you hear, you hear, you hear a Cricut chirping off in the distance and then you can hear the wind blowing and some Le Russell and you listen and you listen. listening to 10 sounds is quite easy 11 12 it takes longer and longer and longer and you have to lean in and you have to listen very carefully and concentrate to hear the noise, concentrate to hear the sound.

What's interesting to me is that Everyday those sounds are always there but I rarely hear them because I haven't calmed down or focused enough to hear them. What I want to tell you is that God is speaking, he speaks every day to anyone who will listen. He is a relational God who loves you and wants to reveal His love for you and His purposes for you and His will for your life. God is always speaking, the problem is that we are not always listening, so what do we do? listen to Psalm 4610 it says be still, be still and know that he is God, you can hear his voice.

I will close with a story from the Old Testament. um Elijah the prophet was a great man of God with great faith and he destroyed all these false prophets. and then this evil queen named jei came after him jei is short for Jezebel and Jezebel was scary. Jezebel said, "I'm going to kill you," and he had already taken care of all these men, but this angry woman comes along and she's done and says, "oh, you know," and then. he runs and hides he's in a cave and he he's he's where some of you are right now he was totally and completely exhausted he was at the end he didn't know if he could hold on any longer he needed a word from God I wonder if there's anyone here today who He needs a word from God, we serve a God who loves you, a God who speaks, if you are listening you can listen, because God can give you a word that you need, he needed to hear from God and the wind blew through the mountains The scriptures say but the Lord was not in the wind then a great earthquake came and shook the ground but the Bible says the Lord was not in the earthquake and then a fire broke out but the scriptures tell us that the Lord was not in the fire for those of you who are older like me we see Earth Wind and Fire # dad joke just play with my older audience stay with me you have been faithful for years I have not forgotten you and he was waiting for God in the extraordinary But First Kings 19: 12 says and after the fire came a soft whisper came a soft whisper this is what is so special to me where God was not in the extraordinary but in the ordinary and if you get to know God personally he will whisper to you in the most common, whether you turn right or left, there is a voice in your ear that tells you: go this way when you are washing the dishes.

God gives you wisdom when you drive to work. God gives you a word for someone when you are awake at 2:00 a.m. in the morning God whispers I am with you I am for you I will never leave you I will never abandon you I am working on all things for good you can trust me God whispers, whispers Why do you think he whispers? Maybe one of the reasons he whispers is to bring you closer because our God is a relational God, wouldn't it be wonderful if you could ask God a question and you could know his will and hear his voice?

The news is that you can because Jesus is the Good Shepherd and we are the sheep and the sheep know the voice of the shepherd so ask him to listen to what he says and do what he says because he is speaking and you will listen to him if you do. Listening, could you pray with me? Speak Lord, speak Lord, your servant is listening once again Speak Lord, speak Lord, your servant is listening now, father, we ask that you speak directly to the hearts of those who need to hear from you today at all times. our churches I know there are some of you who are hurting and need a word of comfort some of you have lost hope when you need a word of hope some of you are trying to make a decision and need wisdom some of you you are carrying a burden and you need to place that care in God and know that he cares for you today in all of our churches.

Those of you who would say yes, Craig, I really want, I want to hear God's voice better. raise your hands right now just raise them everywhere online you can just write in the comments section God, help me help me hear your voice help me hear your voice and father, I pray like I just prayed all week long for our family of the church that we be a people who humbly seek you in your word every day God that we open your word and open our hearts and let you speak to us and to God I ask you especially for those who need confirmation or direction or comfort or guidance or conviction and correction that you would speak very, very clearly speak through this message speak through a song speak through someone in your life group speak when you are serving God help us to hear your voice and may God give us the faith to do what be you tell us to do Speak Lord your servant is listening as you continue to pray today um some of you may say, well, I have never really heard the voice of God before and I would tell you if I have never felt condemned, comforted or directed by God.

I would suggest that maybe you don't know him, you might even have been a church person for years and years and years, kind of like Samuel, he was doing the ritual but he didn't have it. a relationship and there are some of you, if you were really honest, you would say we could sit down and talk and I would ask questions, you would say yeah, Craig, I don't really have a relationship with God, let me. tell you what Jesus said this is in um the last book of the Bible Revelation 3:20 Jesus said here I am and I stand at the door and I knock in other words he loves you and wants to come into your life and so here is what Jesus says He says if anyone hears my voice listen to that if you hear my voice and open the door I will come in and eat with them and they will eat with me Jesus is touching someone's heart right now and maybe you can hear his voice, he loves you, he wants you.

Give up, he wants you to meet the father he's calling and when you hear his voice, if you let him in, he'll come in and you'll say, well, yes, I want him. come in but I'm not ready yet I have to clean my house but you don't clean your house you're never going to leave itclean enough you just let them in you let them in what if I? I keep sinning and screwing up, just let him in, let him in, confess your need for him and when you do, he forgives your sins and makes you new Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who died on the cross for our sins, sins and God .

He raised him from the dead so that anyone in this, including you, who calls on his name, may be saved and forgiven today in all our churches, those of you who know that you don't know him and are ready to let him in. Let's turn away from our sin and let's call on the name that is over every name if that's you today I need a relationship with him I want his forgiveness I want his grace I need his peace I want to get away from my old life I want to give my whole life to Jesus today that is your prayer today raise your hands high right now all over the place raise them and say yes, that's my prayer back there God bless the others of you here and here too praise God for you others today who say yes Jesus, me I surrender, raise your hands and say Yes I want to know you and serve you and follow you online if you can write in the comments section today I am following the Good Shepherd and let us all pray together we pray heavenly father father I give myself to you I give myself to you I hear your voice I hear your voice and let you in save me forgive me fill me with your spirit speak to me daily speak to me so that I may do your will and show your love in all that I do my life is not mine I give everything to you in the name of Jesus I pray could I Anyone celebrate big and worship God?

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