Thank you for listening to this message from
Lifehouse Church. It's good to be back in the
pulpit. And again, thank you for praying. Dr.
Bell was here last week. We heard comment after
comment how he ministered to you on the word.
And so grateful. Called on him at last minute.
And he was just willing to come and share and
preach the gospel. And if you don't know Dr.
Bell, you need to stop and talk to him. He's
got extensive knowledge. and has been in many,
many circles in the church of God. He's been
a professor, a pastor. He's worked as a liaison
to the general overseer, the international general
overseer. Extensive writing that he's done. He's
a very bright man. So if you get a chance, just
chat with him. He slips in with us once in a
while. He's part of LifeHouse. He's retired now,
but he's busy all the time preaching and teaching
in different places. But if you get the chance,
stop and talk with him. Amen? Amen. Well, I read
an article just a few weeks back that talked
about hearing, right? Hearing, our sense of hearing
and how vastly underrated our sense of hearing
really is. If you'd ask most people, if you gave
them a choice, would you rather lose your vision
or your hearing? You'd probably say neither,
right? But if you had to pick between the two,
most people would say, I'd rather lose my hearing.
than losing my vision. And thank the Lord we
don't have to make that choice. We don't have
to decide between the two. But in this article,
it began to talk about and state that how we
undervalue our ears because actually your ears
are much quicker than your eyes to pick up on
the information around you. If you catch something
out of the corner of your eye, look at the person
beside you right now because they're in the corner
of your eye, right? If you pick that up, it takes
you about a second to turn, recognize who that
person is. It takes a little bit for your neurons
to calculate all that and then to process that
information. But your ears, when you hear something,
actually are quantitatively faster than your
sight. It's about 10 times faster. In 10th of
a second, your body will react to a sound. If
there's a sudden loud noise, how many of you
have ever gotten startled by a loud noise that
went off, right? And when that happens, it is
almost instantaneous that takes place. And there's
a chain of neurons that begin to go from your
ears and actually to the nerves in your spine.
And it converts into this defensive mode that
you go into. Intensive a second. Some of you,
if you get startled, you kind of hunch over,
right? Your shoulders tighten up, your muscles
tighten up, and you're wondering what in the
world's about ready to jump on you and eat you
in that moment, right? In seconds, in tenths
of a second. And it's the simplest form of hearing
that takes almost no brain power whatsoever.
It's reactive in nature. That type of hearing
is easy. It really is. But it is hard to intentionally.
listen to someone, right? If you've got a reactive
hearing is very different from intentional listening.
It is much more focused and concentrated when
you've got an intention to listen to someone.
We had the marriage seminar the other night,
and it talked all about that, how guys have selective,
raise your hand if you've got selective hearing,
and you're a man in the house. Amen, okay? I
had some women like amen before you even put
your hand up, right? But there's a difference
between that sense of hearing and reactive and
the sense of hearing and learning how to listen
well. And you can train yourself to listen well.
That's true in a marriage. That's true in a relationship.
And it is even true with the God of the universe.
So this morning, I'm going to answer a question
that I probably get asked more than any other
question or as much as any other question as
a pastor. How do I hear God? How do I hear God,
right? How do I hear him? How do I know it's
him? How do I know when he's speaking to me individually?
How am I sure that the Holy Spirit is communicating
into my spirit? What does that sound like? I
want to hear God, but I'm not sure what he sounds
like, right? I don't know if it's him sometimes.
I feel like it might be him. And we can struggle
with this kind of communication because God doesn't
communicate like you and I communicate together.
Hearing you is easy. We stand toe to toe. I recognize
your voice. You recognize my voice. I'm watching
your face. You're watching my face. I can read
your lips. You can read my lips. You see my body
language. I see your body language. We engage
in this audible conversation that goes back and
forth face to face. And there seems very easy
to do if we're standing face to face. But how
do we know we've got a lot of disadvantages when
it comes to God? We're not standing face to face
with God. You're not hearing, probably not hearing
an audible sound coming from God himself. We're
not seeing his body language. We're not reading
his lips in any kind of way. And it can cause
us to begin to doubt that there's even a God
out there. We begin to doubt in our spirit that
we can hear God and sometimes even discount that
he's even there. But God is there. He wants to
speak to you. He wants to engage in conversation
with him. You just gotta learn to listen his
way. And that's really what I wanna do this morning.
If you got your Bibles, you can turn to John
chapter 10. And as you do, I'm gonna pray. Father,
we thank you for this day. Thank you for the
word. God, as we turn to your word, God, make
it quick and powerful in our life. And Lord,
I pray right on the recesses of our heart, God,
that we might know you and know you well. In
Jesus' name, and amen. Now, let me give you a
little context while you're getting to John chapter
10. In John chapter 9, Jesus heals a man who
was blind from birth. And as a result of that,
there are several conversations that begin to
take place with Pharisees and Jews who did not
believe. And it's heated. And there's this stirring
takes place. And they just don't believe that
Jesus did this particular healing. Even though
Jesus has explained from the beginning that he's
the son of God, even though he's proven time
and time again that the father's power rests
with him, even though he can heal with a word
or with a touch and that had never been seen
before, even though he has power over the demonic,
even though he had power right over the winds
and the waves and power over nature itself, Jesus
walked on the water. He commanded fish to jump
into a net, right? The disciples' net commanded
him. He opened blinded eyes. healed lame legs.
He speaks the word and stuns those who are listening.
And even when the crowd gets violent and does
not believe him, Jesus has the ability to slip
away in the middle of a crowd and nobody knows
where he went. And they still don't believe.
These Pharisees, these Jews don't believe that
he's son of God. And this same discussion continues
with this group of people in the chapter 10,
but Jesus ceases to spoon feed them spiritual
truth. to convince them that he is the son of
God. And he begins to speak in a parable. He
begins to speak in something that would cause
them to begin to think in his frustration with
this crowd of people who simply wouldn't believe.
And in John chapter 10 verse one says this, Moses,
surely I say to you, he who does not enter by
the sheepfold, the sheepfold by the door, but
climbs up some other way, the same as a thief
and a robber. But he who enters by the door is
the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the doorkeeper
opens and the sheep hear his voice and he calls
his own sheep by name and leads them out. And
when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before
them and the sheep follow him for they know his
voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger,
but will flee from him for they do not know the
stranger's voice. Jesus shifts the conversation.
He shifts the debate. He shifts everything. And
he starts to talk about shepherds. and sheep,
right? He starts to tell this little story about
shepherds and sheep and how they communicate
with one another. Because how many know there's
definitely a language barrier or communication
barrier when it comes to sheep and humans? Anybody
agree with me on that? How many of you have talked
to sheep lately and got a good, meaningful conversation
out of it, right? Does anybody in the house speak
sheep? Go ahead and raise your hand if you speak
sheep. We got one in the back, all right? It's
a bah language. That's my joke for the day, right?
Bah, right? But Jesus begins to talk about a
shepherd and the sheep. He starts to talk about
how they hear and they listen and they communicate,
how they would understand one another, how there's
familiarity between the shepherd and the sheep.
And it might be hard for us to relate to this
because a lot of us don't know too much about
sheep. We don't know much about shepherds. Anybody
in the house know professional shepherd? Raise
your hand. All right, nobody this time. If you're
online and listening, if you know a professional
shepherd, type it in the chat. We wanna talk
to you actually, all right? We're not familiar
with this. And Jesus starts off with this. Most
surely I say to you, he who does not enter the
sheepfold. by the door but climbs up some other
way, is a thief and a robber. But he who enters
the door is the shepherd of the sheep. And this
statement would make complete sense to the group
he was talking to, but not so much to us. And
you got to understand something. In ancient Israel,
shepherds would be out in the fields with the
sheep. And at night, there was this fenced -in
area. I want you to picture this in your mind.
There was this fenced -in area, and sometimes
they would corral the sheep. into a fenced -in
area. And I want you to picture in your mind
this fenced -in area. It could be round. It could
be square. It's your sheepfold fence. You can
make it anything you want. It could be white
picket. You can make it bar -bar, whatever you
want to. But there's this sheep that are inside
this area, and there was only one entrance into
that fenced -in area. And it was open. And the
shepherd would take his sheep. He would take
them in there for protection. because there were
wolves and there were thieves. And he would virtually
get them all inside of there and he would lay
in the gate and sleep. He was virtually the door
to the sheep gate. Now that was in the country.
If you went into the city and you brought a flock
of sheep in as a shepherd, you came in, there
was a common area that was similar. It was a
large common area that was fenced in. one gate
opening, and there was actually a doorkeeper.
The shepherd would take the sheep to the doorkeeper.
They would corral them in there. And then the
sheep would intermingle with other shepherds
who came into the city. And this would be full
of sheep that were intermixed together with this
one entrance. And it was the doorkeeper's responsibility
to keep those sheep safe until the shepherd would
come back to retrieve them. And when the shepherd
would come back, all these sheep were in there
just milling around together. They're just inside
of this area. And what would take place is they
had to figure out whose sheep was who. And how
they did that is the doorkeeper would allow the
shepherd to walk up to the sheep and call them
by name. See, shepherds had such a close relationship
that a shepherd could come and call the sheep.
and the sheep would come out from among the other
sheep and follow the shepherd. Most of the time,
these shepherds had all of their sheep named.
They knew them personally. The sheep knew the
voice of the shepherd. The shepherd knew the
voice of the sheep. The bobs of the sheep, they
knew what they looked like, and they would literally
come out. I heard a story about this in World
War I. There was a shepherd who was out on the
hillsides near Jerusalem, and soldiers came by,
and they were actually going to steal the sheep.
from the shepherd. And this took place in the
evening. The shepherd woke up to these soldiers
stealing a whole flock of sheep. And of course,
he's just one shepherd. They're armed. They're
soldiers. He couldn't really do anything about
it. But he waited until they got a little bit
away, and he began to call out to the sheep.
And the sheep turned around and came back. And
they kept trying to take him. He just kept calling
to them. He didn't have to do a thing. He just
kept calling. The sheep kept returning. They
kept coming back, and the soldiers finally gave
up and just went on their way. So with that knowledge,
let's read this verse again, and then I'm going
to unfold four things that you need to know about
hearing God. John 10, 1 says, Moses, surely I
say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold
by the door, but climbs up some other way, right,
over the fence, the same is a thief and a robber.
But he who enters by the door is the shepherd
of the sheep. To him, the doorkeeper opens and
the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own
sheep by name and leads them out. And when he
brings out his own sheep, he goes before them
and the sheep follow him for they know his voice.
Yet they will by no means follow a stranger,
but will flee from him for they do not know the
voice of a stranger. Jesus used this illustration,
but they did not understand the things which
he spoke to them. And Jesus said to them again,
Moses, surely I say to you, I am the door of
the sheep. All whoever came in before me are
thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear
them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me,
he will be saved and he will go in and out and
find pasture. The thief does not come except
to steal, to kill and destroy. But I have come
that they might have life and they might have
it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The
good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. But
a hireling who is not the shepherd, one who does
not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves
the sheep and flees. And the wolf catches the
sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because
he's a hireling, right? And does not care for
the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my
sheep and they know me. and I am known by my
own. As the father knows me, even so the father,
I lay down my life for the sheep and other sheep
I have, whichever not of this fold, them also
I must bring and they will hear my voice and
we will be one flock and one shepherd. We simply
have to learn how the good shepherd speaks to
us. He wants to know you. He wants to know you
and call you by name. He wants you to hear, and
he wants you to know his voice, and you know
his. He wants it both ways. And Jesus speaks
to us in a couple different ways. Now, I want
you to write this down. If you don't write anything
down ever that I preach, put this in your phone.
Write this down, but he's going to speak to you
four ways. I'm going to give you four this morning.
Now, I know there could be more outside of this,
but this is the four main ways. One is word.
Say word. One is wisdom. Say wisdom. One is whisper,
say whisper. Number four is wonders, say wonders.
He will speak in word, wisdom, whisper, and wonders.
The primary way that God is going to speak to
you, and keep them in that order, by the way,
the primary way God is going to speak to you
is through the written word of God. The Bible
is the primary way that God is going to begin
to let you know who he is, what he has to say.
It is the standard. It is the measuring line.
It is the stick. It is the thing that the Holy
Spirit will inspire in your heart. We should
check every thought that comes into our heart,
every thought that we think is from God, every
idea we think is from God, every message we think
is from God. We measure it against the scripture.
God gave you this written word. If you get something
rolling around your head, how many of you ever
had something rolling around your head? How many
had that happen today? All right, could be while
I'm preaching. All right, there's something else
rolling around your head. And you wonder, is
this from God or is this me? Is this God speaking
to me or is this just my emotions talking to
me or my intellect talking to me or somebody
else's voice I heard in the past talking to me?
What is that? The first place you start to check
if this is something from God is the word of
God. And you can find this in Hebrews 4, 12,
because it says the word of God is living and
it is powerful and sharper than any two -edged
sword. Even division or piercing the division
of soul and spirit of joints in the marrow is
the discerner of the thoughts and the intents
of the heart. Notice what the word says here.
First, it says that it is living and powerful.
The difference between the Bible and any other
document you will read on the face of the planet
is that it is a living word. You will read no
other document in no other religion that talks
about the history of that religion that will
be living kind of word. The Holy Spirit is alive
and active in believers. When you come to Christ,
the Holy Spirit comes within you and it becomes
a living word. None of you have the author breathing
in your ear with any other book. No other religion.
It'll just be a teaching or wisdom from another
religion that will be speaking to you, but it
will not be alive. The word of God is alive first.
It is living. It is powerful. The Holy Spirit
lives within us to speak into our spirit. He
bypasses your intellect, your mind, your soul,
and speaks definitely into your spirit. But you
see another part of this in scripture where it
talks about that it divides the soul, right?
Soul from spirit. Keep that scripture up there,
Hebrews 4 .20, 4 .12. It says it's the division
between soul and spirit. And you have to understand
something here. There's a difference between
your soul and your spirit. There's a soulish
part of you that is your mind. It is your will.
It is your emotions, right? It is your preferences.
All those things, that's a soulish part of you.
When you get all emotional, you can just tell
somebody, you're being all soulish on me, okay?
It's your soul stirring. It's that soul part
of you. Your spirit is the eternal part of you,
and it is different from your soul. It is the
part that God connects with. It is the part of
you that is going to be eternal in one place
or another. It's the part that the Holy Spirit
begins to communicate with. And the difference
is that you have to understand when you're getting
souls being fed and when your soul is being spoken
to and when it's the Spirit of God speaking into
your spirit. And it's not that there isn't emotion
involved when God speaks to us, because most
of the time, if God speaks to you, it's going
to be an emotional deal, right? I know people,
man, are like, God spoke to me, and they're crying,
and they just can't get over themselves, and
they're excited about what God said, and they're
just like, they're just talking 100 mile an hour.
It's an emotional thing. But you got to understand,
the emotion follows God's word. The emotion doesn't,
it doesn't form God's word. There's a huge difference
between that. Your emotion doesn't form God's
Word. Your emotion is a result of God's Word
speaking into your spirit. So you've got to divide
out whether this is a soul thing in my life.
You know, is this just going along with my preferences?
Anybody ever try to make Scripture fit your preference?
I have. Come on. It's true, right? We want to
make it work for us. I was going to do some examples,
but we could go too far with all that, right?
Understand if it's your soul or if it's the spirit.
We always start with Scripture, but then we begin
to work out, you know, is this the Word of God
speaking into my spirit? Does it line up with
the Word of God? Then it's the Spirit of God
speaking to me. It even says joint and marrow.
If you look at joints and marrow, that's the
exterior of the bone, the joint. The interior
of the bone is the marrow, right? It gets into
the core of who it is. This is one reason we
talk about Bible recaps so much. You need to
be in God's Word. You need to know God's Word
so that when that thing comes into your spirit
or into your soul and you're trying to figure
out, is this God or is this me? If you know the
Word of God, if you're reading the Word of God,
you're going to be able to determine it. You're
going to be able to say, oh, wait a minute. I
saw something there. I remember reading this
back somewhere. I remember this taking place
in God's word somewhere. And you'll begin to
know that it's God speaking into you. It's a
foundational filter that you need to use. Number
two is wisdom. Say wisdom. Wisdom. My brethren,
James 1, 2, my brethren, count it all joy when
you fall into various trials, knowing that the
testing of your faith produces patience. But
let patience have its perfect work, that you
may be perfect, complete, lacking nothing. If
any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God.
All right? Many times we're calling, we're asking
God for something, right? I need some kind of
wisdom, God. I got this situation. I got this
circumstance. I got this job in front of me.
I got this person I think I might want to marry
someday. I got this. I got that. And God, I need
wisdom. I need spiritual arrows pointing to where
I need to go. Wouldn't it be cool if God could
just drop a big old arrow in your front yard
like, go this way. God, written at the bottom,
right? Jesus, sign Jesus. Wouldn't it be neat
if he had a red light, green light, or yellow
light just in your house? Like, okay. You go
and pray, Lord, tell me. Bing! The green light
would click on, go, right? Or yellow light, just
wait for a little bit. Or just stop, right? Don't
go. Or some Jesus GPS would even be better yet.
That'd be at bomb .com, right? So we, you know,
all those things. We need to know. We need to
know what to do. We need to know how to do it.
We need to know when to do it. We need to know.
We need to know. Why should I do it? You know,
who should I do it with? We have all these questions.
Anybody ever hit that kind of crossroad in your
life? How many are there right now, right? You
got this thing going on. You got this situation
going on, and you're not sure what the next step
is. It's a crossroad. Who should I be? Should
I marry this person? How many of you asked that
question for all you singles out there? If you
ask that question, you can go to God's word.
First of all, you can start off there because
the word of God says, don't be unequally yoked
with unbelievers. So you know that you can start
there. You can talk about the word of God. I'll
talk about the wisdom, you know, don't be unequally
yoked. Don't marry a fool. Don't marry a scoffer.
Don't marry a sinner, right? You can start eliminating
people pretty quickly, you know, off of that
list. But then you got this mess standing in
front of you that you're thinking about marrying.
And how many know? We're all a mess, right? Yeah.
You got this mess standing in front of you that
you're going to marry. And like you're checking
all the boxes. Like, yeah, they're a believer.
You know, they're not a scoffer. They're, you
know, they kind of, the word of God lines up.
But how many know when you go to the word of
God, you're not going to find, you know, thou
shalt go marry Pete. You're not going to find
that anywhere. Thou shalt go marry Betty, right?
Or a business partner relationship. Thou shalt
get in business with John or Sally or whoever.
Right? You know, you're not going to find that.
Because it's unique to you. And you need the
wisdom of God. You need to get humble and go
seek him and ask him. God can give us direction
daily. He can do this. He wants to do this. He
can speak into your spirit at times. And you
start with the word of God. And then you look
for the wisdom of God. And the wisdom of God
sometimes comes from a biblical. Context, sometimes
you need to go talk to somebody. You need to
go talk to somebody that's godly. You need to
go talk to somebody that's been where you've
been or where you are right now. And they got
through on the other side successfully. You need
to go get some good spiritual advice from somebody.
Excuse me. And find somebody who's competent.
Can you do that, please? Amen. How many know,
you know, sometimes we go find people, we go
ask for advice, good godly sound advice in the
most incompetent people. And I don't mean that
rudely. You may have a wonderful friend who is
this amazing person, but they have no competence
in the area that you're talking about. Maybe
it's a business decision that you need to make,
and this person's never been in business. Don't,
you know, sure, get them to pray with you, but
go find a godly business person who's gone that
road. Go find a person who's got married, right?
They're 10, 15 years in. They're going to give
you the real deal. Amen? You want to find it.
God gives us people. He puts people in our paths.
One of the wonderful perks of being in a church
is that you have people around you to go get
godly advice from. You would not believe the
people in this church that have experience in
not only being godly, but experience in particular
areas. I call people all the time and say, hey,
I'm not completely versed in this area of life.
Can you give me some godly wisdom on this? Can
you tell me, right? I need somebody who's competent.
I need somebody who's godly. I need somebody
of character. And you talk to them about it.
Happens all the time. Proverbs 15 .22 says, without
counsel, plans go awry. But in the multitude
of counselors, it will be established. Proverbs
19 .20 says, listen to the counsel and receive
instruction that you may be wise in the latter
days. Proverbs 11 .14, where there is no counsel,
the people fall. But in the multitude, say the
multitude, get you a whole group, right, of counselors.
There's a safety. Proverbs 12, 15, the way of
a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds
counsel is wise. Find those people. There are
thousands of hours of wisdom sitting right here
this morning. Thousands and thousands of hours
of wisdom. Draw on that. Seek the Spirit of God.
When you talk to somebody, the Spirit will begin
to bear witness within you. with that person,
right? And I love what James 3, 17 says, but
the wisdom that is from above is first pure,
then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full
of mercy and good fruits, without partiality,
without hypocrisy. I've learned that if I keep
my spiritual advisor group big, I'll have big
wisdom. If I keep it small, I have little wisdom.
I have walked in that foolish lane. more than
one time and paid the price for it. Number three,
say number three. Whisper, say whisper. Turn
somebody beside you and whisper unless it's weird.
Go ahead, whisper to them, whisper to them, all
right? I want you to practice a little bit, whisper
to them. Listen for the whisper of the Holy Spirit.
This may be a nudge or the shove of the Holy
Spirit. Might be the nudge or the shove. There
might be a prompting from God. It might be a
nudge or it might be a shove. It might be a whisper.
It might be a shout. And John says this, these
things I have spoken to you while being present
with you, but the helper of the Holy Spirit,
he's your helper. Say helper. Whom the Father
will send in my name. He will teach all things
and bring to you and remembers all things. Listen
to this next part. Peace I leave with you. My
peace I give to you. Not as the world gives,
do I give to you. Let your heart not be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. The Holy Spirit will
whisper into your spirit. He will teach you all
things. He will bring all things back to your
memory, especially if you're in the word of God.
He'll bring it back to your memory. And what
will take place as you seek him, as you listen
for the whisper, is there's a peace that will
come. A godly peace that will deposit into your
spirit. Philippians 4 says, be anxious. For nothing.
But in all things by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving, let your request be known
to God, right? And the peace of God, which surpasses
all understanding, will guard your heart and
your mind through Christ Jesus. When the Holy
Spirit whispers into our spirit, whether that
is a nudge or whether that is a shove that he's
doing in your life, he'll do both, by the way.
Sometimes he'll nudge you along, and sometimes
you've been stubborn, he'll shove. He'll shove
you along in something. He will teach, he will
instruct, but there will be the peace of God
that will rest inside of you. He will deposit
a peace. I can't tell you the number of times
that Dixie and I have prayed over something easy
or difficult. Could be something simple, something
hard and difficult. And we've got the nudge and
the shove. And then all of a sudden the peace
of God shows up and it settles into your spirit.
And you know it is the peace of God. You get
nudged, you get shoved, but there's this deep
abiding peace. It could be in something extremely
difficult, something that's not gonna be pleasant
at all to step into, right? Well, we're always
looking for the pleasant path. God, show me the
way. As long as it's pleasant, we go. We think
that's it. Sometimes God's going to take you.
He's going to shove you into the hard thing because
that's what you need to wade through to get to
the next thing that he has for you. And you're
going to need the peace of God in you. You're
going to need to know that when you call on him
and the Holy Spirit goes in and you're going
to be like, this makes no sense. That looks really
hard. I don't know if I really want to do that.
All of that. But then all of a sudden the peace
of God deposits in your spirit. You're like,
I know, I know, I know I got to go that way.
I know this is it. I know this is what I have
to do. The Word of God declares the peace of
God. It will not be a worldly peace. Worldly
peace is circumstantial. All right? Get this
and understand this. Too many times Christians
are looking at things and they're like, well,
the circumstances all line up. Sometimes God
does that, but not always. Sometimes if the circumstances
are good, well, then I have peace, right? That's
normal and natural for us. If everything's going
good, we're like, oh, this is peaceful. This
is amazing. That is very different from the peace
of God. That's the worldly peace. Peace of God
is like, man, there's chaos happening around
me, and I got this weird peace inside of me that
I know what to do. I know where to go. I know
where to step. It is the peace of God. It is
a word, right? There's wisdom, and then there's
a whisper in your spirit. in his order, and it
starts to get entrenched inside of you. It's
a peace that passes all understanding. It doesn't
have to make sense. You have to make sure it's
him, right? As the worship team comes, I'm going
to give you the last one, number four, wonders.
Say wonders. I want you to get this in your spirit.
Visions, dreams, prophetic words, other uses
of the gifts of the spirit. All through scripture,
God speaks through visions, through dreams, through
gifts of the spirit, right? In Acts 2 .17, it
says, and shall come to pass in the last days,
says God, I will pour my spirit out on all flesh.
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.
That word prophesy means that there'll be spokesmen
for God. Your young men will see visions and
your old men shall dream dreams. Now I need to
take a little survey. How many of you have ever
had a God dream? Raise your hand. Congratulations,
you're old. All right? You're older than dream
dreams. How many of you have ever had a vision
from God? God showed you something. Some of you
are young, all right? You have a vision. God
gives dreams. He gives visions. He does this
sometimes. When the shepherd is speaking to us,
there's these wonders that take place. And God's
dream is very different from a pizza dream. I
have pizza dreams all the time. If I eat pizza
late, I have a bunch of weird dreams, right?
You're on a motorcycle. You're riding through
Russia, right? And you're headed to some kind
of, I don't know, you know, creative palooza.
You know, you're on your way. That's a pizza
dream, by the way, all right? God's in it. And
when God's in it, it just sticks in your heart.
And you remember, you know God's in it, right?
And he'll give you a dream and it has meaning
or he'll give you a vision. He'll show you a
picture in your mind at a particular time. God
gives me pictures. Sometimes maybe I don't pay
attention to writing, so he gives me pictures
sometimes. He'll give you a picture of something
and he'll begin to unfold and explain what that
means. That's a wonderful thing. Sometimes God
uses the gifts of the spirit in somebody else
and they come give you a word of wisdom, word
of knowledge. It's all through Corinth. Read
Corinthians. You know, God works in these amazing
ways in all this. And make sure when you hear
that word, you write it down. You put it down
on a piece of paper. You know, and God uses wonders.
Go to the word first, right? Make sure you got
wisdom on this. Make sure you're hearing the
whisper of the Holy Spirit. And if somebody comes
and gives you a word and you've already been,
right? A prophetic word over you. You've already
been in the word of God. You've already got the
wisdom of God through counsel. You've already
had the Holy Spirit whisper into your spirit.
Do you know what will happen when somebody comes
and they got a legit word? It will line up. It
will move in your spirit. You'll feel that kinship
and that relationship. I tell people all the
time, do not grab everything somebody throws
your way. Amen? Find out if it's God. Test it.
Run it through those filters I just talked about.
Run it through. Make sure that it lines up with
the Word of God. Make sure there's godly wisdom
in it. Make sure that the whisper of the Holy
Spirit is confirming in your spirit. And if all
those things are in place and somebody speaks
a prophetic word over you, write that puppy down
and run with it. But if it doesn't line up with
all that, somebody comes speak a word. I've had
people do this. They come speak a word over me,
and I'm like, that makes no sense whatsoever.
And sometimes I'll write it down, but I don't
just grab ahold of that and say, oh, that's for
me. Because they might be off, right? Maybe they
had a pizza dream, and they interpreted it as
a dream. I run through the filter word of God,
right? Then I want to get some godly wisdom on
that thing, and then I want the confirmation
of the Holy Spirit. And if that all doesn't line
up, I just throw it out the window, say, Lord,
help me do it right the next time. But God will
use, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater
either. Sometimes God will use a word. I have
had a right word in the right season at the right
moment, and it changed everything. I was seeking
God on something, and somebody walks up to me,
some person who has no idea what I'm going through,
what I'm walking in the middle of, and they come
up and give me this word, and it aligns perfectly
with what's going on, and it is incredible. They'll
come up, and sometimes it's like, well, Pastor,
I need to give you this word. I don't know where
it came from. I don't even know what it means,
but I'm just going to tell you this right now.
And they spew out this thing that's like, Boom,
right? Mic drop. They don't even know. And you
stand stunned at what the Holy Spirit spoke.
Sometimes you need that. Amen? I'm gonna ask
you to stand. Put this in your phone, write it
down, make it a screensaver, whatever you gotta
do. Word, wisdom, whisper, and wonders in that
order. The good shepherd wants to speak to you.
He wants to speak to you today. He wants to speak
to you tomorrow. He wants to speak to you the
day after that and the month after that and the
year after that. He is not a God who is standing
up in the heavens and he is silent and he's just
waiting. It's either going to be judgment or
well done, good, faithful servant. He's not waiting
up there to swing the sword and chop one group
in two and the other group just say, come on
in. And we just stand here waiting and wondering
what's going to happen. That is not what he is
all about. Jesus paid an enormous price on the
cross so that the Holy Spirit could be deposited
in those who call him Lord and are saved so that
he could speak with you. You just got to know
how he talks. And the more you walk in that,
the more it's going to look like the shepherd
and the sheep. He'll walk up and there'll be
a sea of people and he'll call your name and
you'll know, you'll know. And that's because
I got a weird name, right? Because most people
don't have my name. But he'll call John. How
many know it's a common name? He's like, well,
there's a million Johns. But you'll know his
voice. You'll know it's you. Maybe it's Mary
or Sue. He wants to talk to you. He wants to
talk to you. He wants you to hear. Young, old,
teenagers, learn how to do this young. Learn
how to do it. Hear God. Look into his word. Look
for the wisdom. Most amazing thing ever when
the Holy Spirit whispers into your spirit. Understand
the wonder of God and what he can do. It's amazing.
So here's what I'm going to ask you to do, right?
It's snowy out there and the roads are okay yet.
I'm saying that by faith. But I want you to just,
if you're comfortable, I want you to move forward.
And I want us just to pray. If you would, just
slip out of your seat. Come stand in the front.
I'm not going to labor long. I'm just going to
pray with you. That's all. Sometimes we need
to come together as a family. We need to pray
together. Sometimes that's proximity. Get you
out of that seat. Get you moving. Get you out
of that normal place you like to stand and sit
and then leave. If you're comfortable, just move
up. Move up as close as you can to those of you
who know me well. Move up close so there's room
in the back. I'm gonna even ask the prayer team
to come up in behind everybody. Just keep moving
up if you would. I want you to hear God. God
wants you to hear him. Just slide up, make room
for people to come up. The key to all of this
is willingness and asking. The word of God is
very clear. If you don't ask, If you don't seek,
you're not going to find. If you're just standing
there waiting for God to hit you with it, and
you don't dive into anything, you don't engage
in a conversation with him, you might be standing
a long time. I can't say, I can't speak for God
in that he might hit you, but you might just
stand there for a long, long time. You got to
begin to pray. Lord, I want to hear your voice.
I want to hear it on the regular. I'm going to
get in your word. I'm going to do Bible recap.
I'm going to start today, right? I'm going to
get, I'm going to start reading God's word on
the regular. I want, I want the wisdom of God.
I'm going to connect with people in the body
of Christ that I trust. When I need somebody
standing beside me and when I'm walking through
something difficult, I want to hear the whisper
of the Holy Spirit. I want the peace of God when
I make a decision. I need the peace of God. And
he might even send somebody by and there'll be
a wonder, a miracle that's attached with it.
in the message. If you'd bow your heads. Lord,
we come with humble hearts. God, knowing, Lord,
that we have no power over the enemy. We have
no power within our own. But God, that you hold
all the power and we need your voice. We need
to hear you. God, I know one day we will stand
face to face. And God, I will see your body language.
You will see mine. One day I will read your lips.
I will hear you audibly. I'll know the tone of
your voice. One day that'll take place. But God,
while I'm here, God, you gave me all these amazing
things to tie into. You gave me these powerful
ways to hear you. And I pray, God, that by faith,
Lord, each one listening to me in the house today
and out of the house today, God will engage.
In hearing you. I can't wait to hear the stories.
More stories of how you've spoken to somebody's
spirit. The things that you have accomplished.
Because all things that you do are good. That's
why you are the good shepherd. God, those Pharisees,
those Jews, they missed it. They missed it. You
were right there. Lord, we don't want to miss
it. God, we just give you praise. We give you
glory. We give you honor. In Jesus' name, amen.
I'm going to read one more scripture because
it's important. And I know I went a little over
today. Amen. You all okay? You all good? This
is important stuff. James 4, 7 says this. This
is used all the time. Therefore, submit to God,
resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
This gets quoted all the time. And I used to
grab ahold of this, and I used to think, well,
I just need to resist the devil, right? Here's
the deal. The devil is more powerful than me.
He is more powerful than you. No, it's true.
Read the word of God. It says, therefore, submit
to God. Then resist the devil. Do you know why
that says that? It's not your power that overcomes
the enemy. And God can't work in your life if
you're not submitting to him. He wants to. If
you're not listening to what he's saying, and
you're not submitting to him, you can resist.
You can call it out. You can stand flat -footed
all you want and resist the enemy. I'm going
to call it out on you, enemy, and he'll laugh.
You can talk to the—I don't got time to go into
you. Look up the seven sons of Sceva in Scripture.
You submit to God and the power of God's working
in your life, then you resist the devil. It's
all of heaven backing you up then, and the enemy
has to flee. He has to go the other way. You
got to hear him. You got to hear him. Amen. If
you have been personally affected by our ministry
and you would like to partner with us as we love
God, love people every day, visit our website
at www .lifehousecog .com.