Hearing the Voice of God

Hearing the Voice of God You’ve got to fall in love!!

Hearing the Voice of God • “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; - John 10:27 • How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You. – Psalm 139:17 • Intimacy was God’s idea – in the garden the Lord walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. It was God’s idea that he and man would have a face to face relationship. Jesus and the indwelling Holy Spirit have reversed the curse of broken relationship between God and man. • Mark Virkler - www.cwgministries.org – Communion with God

Four Keys to Hearing God’s Voice from Habakkuk 2:1-2 • 1. I will stand at my guard post (Be still – Quiet yourself down) • 2. I will keep watch to see (Look for vision - Fix your eyes on Jesus) • 3. What he will speak to me (Hear – Tune to spontaneous flow) • 4. The Lord said “Record the Vision” (Journal - Write it down)

Key # 1 – Quiet Yourself Down • Be still and know that I am God – Psalm 46:10 • O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty; Nor do I involve myself in great matters, Or in things too difficult for me. Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me. O Israel, hope in the LORD From this time forth and forever. – Psalm 131 • The still small voice – 1 Kings 19:11

Key # 1 – Quiet Yourself Down… cont’d • In order to hear God’s voice we need to become quiet and still on the inside. • Habakkuk • Jesus – early morning, up the mountain at night.

Key # 1 – Quiet Yourself Down… cont’d • find a quiet comfortable place to sit where your body can be at rest • when thoughts of things that MUST BE done come to your mind have a notepad and write them down • Thoughts of sin – if it’s conviction of sins you’ve committed then confess them, and receive forgiveness. If it’s a dark cloud of condemnation – rebuke it! There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. • Doubts and unbelief – this is a waste of time, God isn’t going to speak to you, God doesn’t speak to you this way. Reject these thoughts and replace them with faith. • Mind wandering – focus on Jesus. Proactively use your imagination to create a picture of you being with Jesus • Get in touch with your heart – begin to speak or even sing in tongues, or release that spontaneous song that is bubbling up in your heart • Smile  • Other times to get in touch with your heart is when you are doing a mindless task like driving your car or exercising, or taking a shower. In these situations, your body is going through the motions and so your heart has an opportunity to speak / spirit communes with Spirit. Cultivating outer and inner peace

Key # 1 – Quiet Yourself Down… cont’d • Right and left brain functions • Left – analysis, reasoning, logic, numbers, reading, writing • Right- music, art awareness, creativity, imagination

Left Brain Right Brain Speech Music Appreciation Art Awareness Computation Creativity Writing Romance Logic and Analysis

Key # 1 – Quiet Yourself Down… cont’d • It is easier to commune with the Spirit and to receive the bubbling thoughts from the Spirit that light on our minds like intuitive, spontaneous thoughts, if we are operating on the right side of our brains. • Moving from the left to the right – speaking in tongues, music. Smiling • “But now bring me a minstrel.” And it came about, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him. He said, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Make this valley full of trenches. – 2 Kings 3:15 • David used music to calm himself and worship God - the psalms

The Four Keys • Quiet yourself down • Fix your eyes on Jesus • Tune to spontaneous flow • Write it down

Key #2 – Fix Your Eyes on Jesus • There are two aspects to fixing your eyes on Jesus. • First you are looking to connect with Jesus, you are not looking to empty you mind or enter into any new age state of emptiness. You are only after communion with one – Jesus. So we fix our imagination on the person of Jesus. • Second, is a fact that God speaks through visions, pictures, dreams or word pictures. Not only does he light spontaneous thoughts on our hearts but he loves to communicate through pictures, visions, dreams.

Key #2 – Fix Your Eyes on Jesus… cont’d • How did the prophets hear from God? • He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. Numbers 12:6 • God says that he will speak through the images of a dream and a vision. They actually SAW from the Lord. Same thing in Habakkuk: “I will watch and see what he will say to me.” • And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams; - Acts 2:17 • One of the key ways that God speaks to us is through visions and dreams.

Key #2 – Fix Your Eyes on Jesus… cont’d • What is vision/eyes of your heart/imagination? • Close your eyes and picture your bed in your house. How many can see that inside your head? The way that you see your bed is the same way that most people see most visions from God. The picture is light and gentle and is seen within. It may be hazy or sharp, precise or unclear. • Spontaneous Vision – we may receive a spontaneous inner picture in the same way as we receive spontaneous thoughts. As we are driving along we get a picture of a friend, pastor, missionary flash into our mind from left field. That is mostly for us to pray for them at that moment.

Key #2 – Fix Your Eyes on Jesus… cont’d • Types of Visions • spontaneous vision on the screen of your mind • spontaneous vision while in prayer • seeing a vision outside yourself – 2 Kings 6:17 Elisha’s servant saw the armies of the Lord encamped around him • Vision while in a trance – Acts 10:10-23 Peter sees a vision of the sheets coming down from heaven with animals in them • All types of visions are valid. Seeing visions in your mind – the first kind – is just as valid as a Technicolor trance vision. • Jesus used vision –John 5:19 The Son can do nothing of himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing.

Key #2 – Fix Your Eyes on Jesus… cont’d • Blocks to seeing in the spirit • Disdaining the visual/imagination, idolising the rational. Repent for not honouring the visual, repent for idolising the rational, commit you imagination to the Lord ask him to cleanse and restore, start practising • Fear of opening yourself to the “new age” or demonic activity. Renounce this fear and put your faith in God’s ability protect you than the devil’s ability to deceive you. After all, God has designed us with these capacities so that he can speak to us. • Cutting off visual capacity / imagination in order to avoid imagining the wrong thing. But there are better ways of dealing with this – it’s called repentance. You don’t have to pluck out your eye, wash it in the blood of Jesus.

Key # 3– Tune to Spontaneous Flow • What does God voice sound like? • The booming voice and angelic choir versus the whisper • The voice of silk (the story of Elijah and the gentle whisper - 1 Kings 19:11) • Why don’t you speak a little more loudly!! • The three sources of thoughts (2 Cor 10:3-5) • My own mind • The Enemy • God

Key # 3– Tune to Spontaneous Flow… cont’d • How to determine the source of thought • Nature of the thought (Rom 8:6) • Is it kind, loving, positive, wise, inspiring, energising? • Is it vicious, destructive, negative, condemning? • Is it natural, analytical, logical, plain? • 80 / 20 rule • Nature of the thought lines up with the nature of the source • Satan: accuser, adversary, liar, condemner, thief, murderer • Holy Spirit; Edifier, Comforter, Teacher, Creator, Lover, Healer, Giver of Life

Key # 4 – Write it down (dot com)!! • Two way journaling • Quiet yourself down, fix your eyes on Jesus, be open to spontaneous thoughts that alight on your mind • Not New Age automatic writing • Ask Jesus a question (but not an emotionally charged one) • God’s voice often sounds like your own • Light and gentle • First person • More kind, loving and wise than you normally are • Your personality and generally your vocabulary • Don’t worry about spelling/grammatical mistakes • Don’t analyse until after you’re done

Cautions and Reminders • Praying through an idol (Ex 14:4) • Story of Balaam (Num 22:4-22) • (2 Pet 2:15-16) forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.

Jesus YOU Thing

Cautions and Reminders • Does your journaling line up with the timber of the Bible? If not, disregard • It’s OK to make mistakes • Submit your journaling to 2 or 3 other mature hearers from God that you trust • Focus on what is your sphere of responsibility / authority • Don’t make life altering decisions based ONLY on your journaling • Practice, Practice, Practice • Be in the Bible • Be part of a fellowship of believers • FAITH, LOVE, HOPE … INTIMACY AND FRUITFULNESS

Hearing the Voice of God