1. You have to believe that God actually speaks to his children
2. You have to believe that He will actually speak to you
3. You must expect the Lord to speak to you.
4. You need to prepare your own heart
5. You need to talk less and listen more.
6. Be prepared to hear a voice that comes from seemingly nowhere.
7. Stop listening to unbelievers and foolish counsel.
Too often we are way too distracted to hear the voice of the Lord. We clutter the airwaves with junk.
1. We clutter our hearing with godless network news flow.
2. We clutter our hearing with godless politics or divisive politics
3. We clutter our hearing with godless music & entertainment
4. We clutter our hearing with godless VIEW points given by godless talk show hosts. We allow their opinions to displace and replace Godliness in our minds.
5. We tune into the devils voices while tuning out the Lords voices.
There are too many voices speaking into our minds. This becomes deafening when the small still voice of God speaks. God said in the book of kings, He has a small still voice. Jesus said, My children know my voice and a stranger they will not follow. God has a voice, and he is speaking. Are you prepared to hear or have we cluttered our ears with so much white noise mixed with static that we couldn't hear God's voice if it thundered.
Nugget: You're no different than anybody else.
1.We all start somewhere.
2. Listening for God's voice has to be on purpose.
3. God is not going to cut you off. Speak your mind, close your mouth and open your ears
If you're not expecting him to speak to you, then you're not going to be listening for him to speak. God wants you to listen when he has something to say. If you ask him a question he will give you an answer. You may not like the answer he gives but he will give you a response or an understanding.
I hear a lot of people ask the question: How do you know when God is speaking to you? You learn to listen and discern.
How do you learn to discern if it is God speaking?
1. The first order of business; you have to be a student of the word of God.
2. You have to read the Bible.
3. You actually have to believe the Bible is the word of God. It is our checks and balance. It is the guidelines by which we discern the voice of God. If the voice you hear speaks anything that contradicts the Bible then it is a devil. The devil is a liar and anything that contradicts the Bible is a lie. The Bible is the first and final authority on everything that we believe.
How do you discern the voice of the Lord?
1. By open ended communications. Study the word of God on any subject matter relative to your questions and then ask God to open up his word to you in a new found revelation and then the aha moment will bring peace and that is one way that God speaks.
2. If you will listen you will hear from within your soul.
3. God will reveal his word through nature and his creation
The first way God trained me to recognize the leading of His voice came by picking up trash in the church parking lot. During the first three or four weeks that I started going to church; as I was walking through the parking lot, I began to notice spotty trash across the way. I would always have the thought that they need to pick that up. They need to clean the parking lot. These were thoughts that I was having. On one occasion, I noticed a piece of paper laying across the parking lot, several spots over. Again, I had the thought: They need to pick the trash up and the Lord stated a question very plainly: Why do you think I showed it to you.
That's when I realized that I could hear the voice of the Lord. It's not the only way I have heard the Lord, but it was a very profound and impacting moment for me. I learned that when I noticed a piece of trash, it was God's expectation that I pick it up. In the process of my obedience to pick up the trash, God trained me to walk in obedience. That's how he trained me and prepared me for the next step in my growth. As I would walk across the parking lot or wherever I was heading, I would stop and pick up the trash. I realized that there was always a ministry need or a personal blessing in the act of obedience. Either way, it was a blessing to me. Obedience is better than sacrifice.
I will not mislead you to believe that I experienced a great encounter every time I picked up a piece of trash in the parking lot. But I will tell you, is God is pleased with obedience. Sometimes, God just wants the trash picked up. Do it as unto the Lord. Don't do it for rhyme or reason. Do it because it's pleasing to the Lord and then look for opportunities to serve him in ministry to others. Do it because it's pleasing to the Lord. If it ain’t wrong it could be right.
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