WEBVTT 00:00:01.199 --> 00:00:04.219 Sharing good news of great joy to all people. 00:00:04.719 --> 00:00:11.119 Elation Church. Week number three in our series 00:00:11.119 --> 00:00:14.279 entitled, You Can Hear God. Everybody say that 00:00:14.279 --> 00:00:18.379 with me. You can hear God. You can hear God. 00:00:18.679 --> 00:00:21.800 I want us to say it like this. Say, I can. Let's 00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:25.239 personalize it. Say, I can hear God. Say it all 00:00:25.239 --> 00:00:29.059 together. One, two, three. I can hear God. Right? 00:00:29.719 --> 00:00:32.200 And don't let anybody tell you differently. You 00:00:32.200 --> 00:00:34.340 know, sometimes people want to be like, oh, you 00:00:34.340 --> 00:00:37.700 can. Or sometimes even your own head says, I 00:00:37.700 --> 00:00:43.420 can't hear God. I can't hear God. Don't let anybody 00:00:43.420 --> 00:00:46.340 steal that from you. And we hope we're establishing 00:00:46.340 --> 00:00:49.799 and we're building something in this series that 00:00:49.799 --> 00:00:53.359 you can. The Bible says you can. You can hear 00:00:53.359 --> 00:00:57.590 His voice. And so guess what? You can. And that's 00:00:57.590 --> 00:01:00.689 what we're looking at. So you can hear God. Let's 00:01:00.689 --> 00:01:04.230 turn to Romans 8, 14. All scripture that I'm 00:01:04.230 --> 00:01:06.870 reading today is in the New Living Translation, 00:01:06.989 --> 00:01:11.069 unless it's otherwise noticed on the screen. 00:01:11.609 --> 00:01:15.950 But let's read this. Verse 14. For all who are 00:01:15.950 --> 00:01:19.769 led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 00:01:20.390 --> 00:01:24.090 Everybody say all. All who are led by the Spirit 00:01:24.090 --> 00:01:26.689 of God are children of God. We could say it like 00:01:26.689 --> 00:01:32.250 this. Who you are, your identity, is evidenced 00:01:32.250 --> 00:01:36.370 by who or what you listen to or by who or what 00:01:36.370 --> 00:01:41.590 you follow. You could say it like this. A characteristic 00:01:41.590 --> 00:01:48.269 of being a Christian is that you are led. You're 00:01:48.269 --> 00:01:52.150 led by the Spirit. Someone say, I can hear God. 00:01:53.819 --> 00:01:55.280 Characteristic of being a Christian is being 00:01:55.280 --> 00:01:57.700 led. What does it mean to be led? It means to 00:01:57.700 --> 00:02:04.599 hear and to follow the Spirit of God. We've been 00:02:04.599 --> 00:02:08.400 reading this passage throughout and it's so strong. 00:02:08.419 --> 00:02:10.740 All of John chapter 10. I encourage you to go 00:02:10.740 --> 00:02:13.659 home and just read John chapter 10 today. Because 00:02:13.659 --> 00:02:16.080 it communicates this message over and over. But 00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:18.479 let's read it together. It tells you this. I 00:02:18.479 --> 00:02:21.599 tell you the truth. Anyone who sneaks over the 00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:25.379 wall of the sheepfold rather than going through 00:02:25.379 --> 00:02:29.240 the gate must surely be a thief and a robber. 00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:33.240 But the one who enters through the gate is the 00:02:33.240 --> 00:02:37.699 shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the 00:02:37.699 --> 00:02:41.460 gate for him, and the sheep recognize, everyone 00:02:41.460 --> 00:02:45.539 say recognize, the sheep recognize his voice 00:02:45.539 --> 00:02:51.379 and come to him, follow him. He calls his own 00:02:51.379 --> 00:02:55.780 sheep by name. Everybody say personal. Personal 00:02:55.780 --> 00:02:58.460 invitation, right? Calls his own sheep by name. 00:02:58.620 --> 00:03:03.879 He knows his sheep by name. Hallelujah. And he 00:03:03.879 --> 00:03:08.919 leads them out. After he has gathered his own 00:03:08.919 --> 00:03:12.400 flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:20.150 him. Why? Because they know his voice. They won't 00:03:20.150 --> 00:03:23.750 follow a stranger. They will run from him because 00:03:23.750 --> 00:03:27.810 they don't know his voice. This passage teaches 00:03:27.810 --> 00:03:29.430 us, and we've been looking at this, that the 00:03:29.430 --> 00:03:33.349 shepherd speaks. He's speaking to his sheep. 00:03:33.530 --> 00:03:38.689 And the sheep recognize and they know his voice. 00:03:39.509 --> 00:03:45.009 The shepherd leads and the sheep follow. So hearing 00:03:45.009 --> 00:03:49.000 is receiving communication. Right? They're not 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:53.120 only just hearing it, they're recognizing. And 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:58.800 recognizing is knowing who it came from. We saw 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:02.680 in week one, you know, in this time, many shepherds 00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:04.960 would store their sheep in the same sheepfold. 00:04:05.860 --> 00:04:08.199 And then when the shepherd would come, he would 00:04:08.199 --> 00:04:11.759 call his sheep out of the, and they would follow 00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:14.520 him. Not all the sheep would come, just his sheep 00:04:14.520 --> 00:04:17.319 that he knew by name. would lead and follow. 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:21.220 And that's the context of what Jesus is sharing 00:04:21.220 --> 00:04:25.040 here. He's like, my sheep will hear me. My sheep 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:28.800 recognize my voice. They know me and they follow 00:04:28.800 --> 00:04:35.740 me. So the issue isn't, is God speaking? The 00:04:35.740 --> 00:04:41.339 real issue, church, is do I recognize him when 00:04:41.339 --> 00:04:46.579 he does? Do I recognize his voice? Do I know 00:04:46.579 --> 00:04:52.399 His voice when He's speaking to me? God is speaking. 00:04:52.500 --> 00:04:54.839 The challenge, though, the thing that we have 00:04:54.839 --> 00:04:58.660 to develop is learning to recognize it's Him. 00:04:59.480 --> 00:05:03.560 We have to learn to recognize His voice. Now, 00:05:03.600 --> 00:05:09.220 if I say, you can hear God, what's your first 00:05:09.220 --> 00:05:13.540 sort of thought in your head? When I say that, 00:05:13.579 --> 00:05:16.209 you can hear God, what is that? It's like you're 00:05:16.209 --> 00:05:19.769 just driving in your car one day, and all of 00:05:19.769 --> 00:05:22.850 a sudden you just hear, Jeffrey! And you stop. 00:05:23.149 --> 00:05:29.829 You're like, what? God, is that you? Right? That's 00:05:29.829 --> 00:05:32.389 sort of our initial thought of like, you can 00:05:32.389 --> 00:05:34.970 hear God. We think of this big booming voice 00:05:34.970 --> 00:05:38.170 in the sky, just, you know, shaking the earth 00:05:38.170 --> 00:05:41.459 and reaching out, going, you know. You're Mike, 00:05:41.879 --> 00:05:45.360 right? Or, you know, Linda, right? Like, it's 00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:48.779 like, that's what we think about. It's our initial 00:05:48.779 --> 00:05:52.160 thought. Because the Bible is filled with stories 00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:55.860 of God audibly speaking to people, right? It's 00:05:55.860 --> 00:06:00.639 not outrageous to think this. And often, the 00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:03.899 stories and the people that we see, listen, heard 00:06:03.899 --> 00:06:07.279 a voice, heard a word from God. That's why they 00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:09.800 acted. And I would argue that that's why they're 00:06:09.800 --> 00:06:12.439 in the Bible. Because they heard the voice. They 00:06:12.439 --> 00:06:15.339 recognized it was Him, and then they followed 00:06:15.339 --> 00:06:19.160 Him. They knew that voice, and they followed 00:06:19.160 --> 00:06:21.540 Him. That's why they're recorded in Scripture, 00:06:21.740 --> 00:06:23.560 and that's why they did so many great things. 00:06:24.439 --> 00:06:29.379 Because His sheep hear. Say, I can hear. I can 00:06:29.379 --> 00:06:36.540 know. I can recognize. But part of learning to 00:06:36.540 --> 00:06:40.949 recognize God, is understanding that He doesn't 00:06:40.949 --> 00:06:45.529 communicate in only one way. Just like you and 00:06:45.529 --> 00:06:47.730 I, we communicate in a lot of different ways. 00:06:48.110 --> 00:06:51.670 God's not limited to just one form of communication. 00:06:52.230 --> 00:06:54.490 And we're going to see that this morning. We're 00:06:54.490 --> 00:06:56.529 going to look at some of the different ways. 00:06:56.709 --> 00:07:00.230 In fact, in week one, we talked about several 00:07:00.230 --> 00:07:02.230 different ways. We're going to recap that a little 00:07:02.230 --> 00:07:07.470 bit. But God speaks. He speaks through nature. 00:07:08.040 --> 00:07:11.220 Everybody say nature. The Bible says in Romans 00:07:11.220 --> 00:07:14.980 1 .20, For ever since the world was created, 00:07:15.180 --> 00:07:18.600 people have seen the earth and sky, and through 00:07:18.600 --> 00:07:22.860 everything God made, they can clearly see His 00:07:22.860 --> 00:07:27.100 invisible qualities, His eternal power, and divine 00:07:27.100 --> 00:07:32.620 nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing 00:07:32.620 --> 00:07:41.139 God. Nature, God speaks through nature to every 00:07:41.139 --> 00:07:46.199 single person. Every single person. We should, 00:07:46.220 --> 00:07:49.240 the initial thought when we look out at the sky 00:07:49.240 --> 00:07:52.699 and the stars and we learn more about how the 00:07:52.699 --> 00:07:58.019 earth, you know, operates and functions. We should 00:07:58.019 --> 00:08:02.079 recognize a higher power is involved. We should 00:08:02.079 --> 00:08:05.879 recognize something greater is at work. Something 00:08:05.879 --> 00:08:10.019 greater created this place, right? That should 00:08:10.019 --> 00:08:15.540 be our conclusion. But the truth is, many people, 00:08:15.660 --> 00:08:21.220 they don't recognize nature as God. That God 00:08:21.220 --> 00:08:23.360 created it. They don't recognize that it's Him. 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:26.899 They don't recognize that it's His voice who 00:08:26.899 --> 00:08:30.420 spoke and created the universe. They just don't 00:08:30.420 --> 00:08:34.639 recognize it. So they have no excuse for not 00:08:34.639 --> 00:08:37.980 knowing God. In Psalms 19 .1, David writes, The 00:08:37.980 --> 00:08:42.720 heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies 00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:47.820 display his craftsmanship. So God communicates 00:08:47.820 --> 00:08:51.320 to us his invisible qualities, his eternal power 00:08:51.320 --> 00:08:56.419 and divine nature through his creation. God also 00:08:56.419 --> 00:08:59.580 speaks through conviction. Everybody say conviction. 00:09:00.500 --> 00:09:03.899 Conviction. We looked a little bit at this in 00:09:03.899 --> 00:09:08.620 week one. John 16, 8 through 9 says this, And 00:09:08.620 --> 00:09:11.360 when He, referring to the Holy Spirit, comes, 00:09:11.700 --> 00:09:15.840 He will convict the world of its sin and of God's 00:09:15.840 --> 00:09:19.440 righteousness and of the coming judgment. Get 00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:25.080 this. Notice this. The world's sin is that it 00:09:25.080 --> 00:09:30.539 refuses to believe in me. Notice that word here. 00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:37.820 It refuses to recognize. It's clearly seen we're 00:09:37.820 --> 00:09:43.179 without excuse. The world speaks of the magnitude 00:09:43.179 --> 00:09:49.120 of who God is. And the real transgression is 00:09:49.120 --> 00:09:57.639 refusing to believe. Refusing to see what's clearly 00:09:57.639 --> 00:10:04.919 visible. Now, we talked about this salvation 00:10:04.919 --> 00:10:10.620 being the point of contact for Christians and 00:10:10.620 --> 00:10:13.340 point of contact for God. A lot of times, you 00:10:13.340 --> 00:10:16.059 know, at salvation, you didn't hear an audible 00:10:16.059 --> 00:10:21.019 voice saying, you're a sinner, right? If you're 00:10:21.019 --> 00:10:23.860 a child of God, if you believed in Jesus, maybe 00:10:23.860 --> 00:10:28.120 you did. I'm not saying it couldn't happen. I 00:10:28.120 --> 00:10:30.320 would say the majority of our experience, right, 00:10:30.379 --> 00:10:32.840 we didn't at one point hear the audible voice 00:10:32.840 --> 00:10:38.500 that's like, you're a sinner. Yet, somehow, if 00:10:38.500 --> 00:10:43.159 you're a Christian, you became aware of your 00:10:43.159 --> 00:10:49.340 sin, right? You became aware of it. Now, at salvation, 00:10:49.600 --> 00:10:53.019 did you physically see Jesus hanging on the cross? 00:10:54.759 --> 00:10:58.399 Were you there? Are you transported back in time? 00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:06.860 Do you see him? No. Everybody say no. Yet, the 00:11:06.860 --> 00:11:12.059 cross became personal. All of a sudden it went, 00:11:12.139 --> 00:11:20.559 wait, Jesus did, he died for me. He took my place. 00:11:22.539 --> 00:11:27.120 He paid the price for my sin. That's what I deserve. 00:11:27.340 --> 00:11:32.899 But he stepped down and took my place, bore my 00:11:32.899 --> 00:11:41.039 shame, bore my guilt. And as we looked at already, 00:11:41.139 --> 00:11:45.320 salvation is not the end of hearing God. It's 00:11:45.320 --> 00:11:48.860 not the end. It's the beginning of a relationship 00:11:48.860 --> 00:11:55.169 that includes. Continuing to hear him. Why? Because 00:11:55.169 --> 00:11:58.409 conviction, and that's what the Holy Spirit does, 00:11:58.450 --> 00:12:01.149 he convicts the world of sin, right? Conviction 00:12:01.149 --> 00:12:06.750 then is communication. It's God speaking to the 00:12:06.750 --> 00:12:09.429 world and to his children through conviction. 00:12:10.049 --> 00:12:14.250 Now, I don't know about you, but one of the ways, 00:12:14.409 --> 00:12:17.309 like the early ways when I recognized God's voice 00:12:17.309 --> 00:12:21.190 was through... when he convicted me about something, 00:12:21.389 --> 00:12:25.830 right? All of a sudden, on the inside, I realized, 00:12:25.950 --> 00:12:28.190 I was like, maybe this thing that I was doing, 00:12:28.210 --> 00:12:32.649 now it's no longer okay. Now he kind of convicted 00:12:32.649 --> 00:12:35.309 me of it, or this thing that I was watching or 00:12:35.309 --> 00:12:39.529 doing, all of a sudden it becomes uneasy. I don't 00:12:39.529 --> 00:12:43.289 feel at peace about it anymore, right? And this 00:12:43.289 --> 00:12:46.970 is the... part. We kind of miss this. We see 00:12:46.970 --> 00:12:49.509 it at salvation. We get this kind of urge or 00:12:49.509 --> 00:12:51.529 this feeling, you could say, where it's just 00:12:51.529 --> 00:12:54.649 an uneasiness and we start to see things, but 00:12:54.649 --> 00:12:57.169 we don't recognize it as God. And it's real easy 00:12:57.169 --> 00:13:02.450 for us to kind of go, ah, that's just, you know, 00:13:02.450 --> 00:13:04.070 that's something else. I don't know what that 00:13:04.070 --> 00:13:08.419 is. And just kind of brush it off. But in those 00:13:08.419 --> 00:13:11.700 uneasy moments, I feel like that's God leading 00:13:11.700 --> 00:13:14.700 us. And often at the beginning, He's reaching 00:13:14.700 --> 00:13:18.120 out to us in that still small voice on the inside. 00:13:18.759 --> 00:13:22.019 Just kind of going, look, you used to do this, 00:13:22.059 --> 00:13:26.179 but now you are no longer who you used to be. 00:13:27.440 --> 00:13:31.940 You are a new creation in Christ. The old things 00:13:31.940 --> 00:13:34.379 have passed away. Behold, all things have become 00:13:34.379 --> 00:13:42.299 new. I'm on the inside of you to lead you and 00:13:42.299 --> 00:13:51.860 to guide you, to transform you. And I want to 00:13:51.860 --> 00:13:55.559 say this. Many people, they seek God's direction, 00:13:55.799 --> 00:13:59.600 right? Or cry out to God when you're in trouble 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:01.580 and you're like, I'm seeking God. What do you 00:14:01.580 --> 00:14:05.389 want me to do? What do you want me to do? I heard 00:14:05.389 --> 00:14:07.610 a preacher one time say this. He's like, many 00:14:07.610 --> 00:14:12.169 people will live and die, but never act on the 00:14:12.169 --> 00:14:17.330 first thing that God told them to do. They'll 00:14:17.330 --> 00:14:20.529 never act on the first thing. And sometimes I 00:14:20.529 --> 00:14:24.230 feel like God's going, look, he gives you a word. 00:14:24.389 --> 00:14:27.169 He asks you to change. He asks you to do something, 00:14:27.269 --> 00:14:29.389 and you just kind of hold on. You're like, okay, 00:14:29.590 --> 00:14:33.570 maybe that was just the bad pizza I ate last 00:14:33.570 --> 00:14:36.480 night, right? some weird thought, some random 00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:40.360 thing. You don't recognize it as God, and then 00:14:40.360 --> 00:14:46.360 time passes. You get busy. Things come up. Life 00:14:46.360 --> 00:14:48.639 happens because you don't respond immediately. 00:14:51.679 --> 00:14:54.580 And all of a sudden, you find yourself in a situation 00:14:54.580 --> 00:14:57.039 going, God, where are you? Like, can you give 00:14:57.039 --> 00:15:00.320 me a word for this thing? And he's like, I've 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:05.460 given you a word. Respond. And He'll remind you. 00:15:06.399 --> 00:15:08.860 There's no time that passes where all of a sudden 00:15:08.860 --> 00:15:12.759 it won't just come up if you turn to Him. But 00:15:12.759 --> 00:15:14.519 if you want to hear God's direction, you must 00:15:14.519 --> 00:15:19.019 first obey His correction. And then, of course, 00:15:19.059 --> 00:15:21.460 God speaks through His Word. Everybody say Word. 00:15:21.960 --> 00:15:26.299 His written Word. 2 Timothy 3 .16 says this, 00:15:26.320 --> 00:15:29.700 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. 00:15:30.409 --> 00:15:32.669 And we've looked at this word inspiration means 00:15:32.669 --> 00:15:36.470 God breathed, meaning that it originates directly 00:15:36.470 --> 00:15:40.789 from God as his spoken word. So the text comes 00:15:40.789 --> 00:15:45.350 from God exhaling his truth, you could say, not 00:15:45.350 --> 00:15:51.190 just a creative human spark. John 14, 26 says 00:15:51.190 --> 00:15:53.649 this, but when the father sends the advocate 00:15:53.649 --> 00:15:57.009 as my representative, that is the Holy Spirit, 00:15:57.389 --> 00:16:00.720 he will teach, everybody say teach. He will teach 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:05.840 you everything. Is there something that the Holy 00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:09.259 Spirit can't teach you? Is there anything you 00:16:09.259 --> 00:16:10.759 go through that the Holy Spirit doesn't have 00:16:10.759 --> 00:16:15.659 information on? No. He knows exactly what to 00:16:15.659 --> 00:16:20.039 do. It's better than Google. Better than AI. 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:28.120 Come on. He will teach you everything. And he 00:16:28.120 --> 00:16:32.269 will remind you. of everything I have told you. 00:16:33.009 --> 00:16:37.309 And then later on in John 16, 14, he, the Holy 00:16:37.309 --> 00:16:41.250 Spirit, will glorify me. How does the Holy Spirit 00:16:41.250 --> 00:16:44.610 glorify Jesus? For he will take of what is mine 00:16:44.610 --> 00:16:49.929 and declare it to you. Notice that word here, 00:16:49.990 --> 00:16:56.850 declare, speaking, to you. So the Holy Spirit... 00:16:57.080 --> 00:17:01.340 takes what God has already said, what God has 00:17:01.340 --> 00:17:06.059 written in His Word, right? Because think about 00:17:06.059 --> 00:17:10.240 it. Last time I checked, you know, you can't 00:17:10.240 --> 00:17:13.299 turn to a passage and find your name. It's not 00:17:13.299 --> 00:17:18.759 like, oh, Jeffrey, this passage is for you. Right? 00:17:19.619 --> 00:17:22.740 Right? Last time I checked, Paul didn't write 00:17:22.740 --> 00:17:30.619 me a letter. Right? So how do we take this book, 00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:33.700 this collection of 66 different books written 00:17:33.700 --> 00:17:38.460 thousands of years ago, how do we take this and 00:17:38.460 --> 00:17:43.559 learn from it today? Do we just make up? Do we 00:17:43.559 --> 00:17:46.059 just read it and come up with our own explanations 00:17:46.059 --> 00:17:48.579 and our own conclusions and just kind of go, 00:17:48.660 --> 00:17:53.519 that's it? Is that inspired? Everybody say no. 00:17:54.460 --> 00:17:57.099 That's why there's so much division in the church. 00:17:58.700 --> 00:18:01.539 Dad talked about that. If we were all being Spirit 00:18:01.539 --> 00:18:08.200 -led, and when we read the Bible, and if we really 00:18:08.200 --> 00:18:10.759 yielded to Him, guess what? If we really were, 00:18:11.140 --> 00:18:19.039 we would be in perfect unity. We'd be in perfect 00:18:19.039 --> 00:18:23.299 unity. Get a hold of that. Think about that. 00:18:24.019 --> 00:18:26.480 There would be no division. That's what God wants. 00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:30.460 For in unity is the commanded presence of the 00:18:30.460 --> 00:18:39.759 Lord. So, we need God speaking to us. We can't 00:18:39.759 --> 00:18:42.660 continue on in our Christian life without being 00:18:42.660 --> 00:18:46.140 Spirit -led people of God. We've got to hear 00:18:46.140 --> 00:18:48.819 His voice. We've got to follow His voice. But 00:18:48.819 --> 00:18:51.079 the Holy Spirit is the one, listen, the Holy 00:18:51.079 --> 00:18:54.339 Spirit is the one who takes this, words on a 00:18:54.339 --> 00:18:58.619 page, information. Written in different languages 00:18:58.619 --> 00:19:07.240 and not even in our tongue. He takes this. He 00:19:07.240 --> 00:19:14.180 takes this and makes it alive. Makes it understandable 00:19:14.180 --> 00:19:19.279 to you. He's the one who declares it to you. 00:19:19.339 --> 00:19:23.039 Takes what has been and declares it to you today. 00:19:26.440 --> 00:19:29.859 Makes it applicable to your situation. He'll 00:19:29.859 --> 00:19:32.619 remind you of something. Guess what? You can't 00:19:32.619 --> 00:19:36.779 be reminded of what you don't know. What you've 00:19:36.779 --> 00:19:40.440 not read. Come on, we've got to get in the Word. 00:19:40.579 --> 00:19:46.119 Don't say I'm not about the Word. We need to 00:19:46.119 --> 00:19:50.039 read the Word. We need to study the Word. We 00:19:50.039 --> 00:19:53.420 need to be students, disciples of Jesus and His, 00:19:53.500 --> 00:19:56.680 you know. and the Holy Spirit, and the Word of 00:19:56.680 --> 00:20:02.140 God. But in order for it to become personal to 00:20:02.140 --> 00:20:06.579 us, that can't be accomplished in your own peanut 00:20:06.579 --> 00:20:14.759 brain. It's going to take the author who spoke 00:20:14.759 --> 00:20:19.740 it into being, who inspired it in the first place, 00:20:19.819 --> 00:20:24.109 right? That's what we need. As people of God. 00:20:24.210 --> 00:20:27.549 That's how we're going to be spirit led. Not 00:20:27.549 --> 00:20:30.630 just information led. Not just our own understanding 00:20:30.630 --> 00:20:36.069 led. We got to be spirit led. Because those are 00:20:36.069 --> 00:20:39.730 the children of God. That's our identity. As 00:20:39.730 --> 00:20:45.109 a people. Amen. Amen. There's a little more teaching 00:20:45.109 --> 00:20:47.789 than like stories today. You know like it's a 00:20:47.789 --> 00:20:51.720 little different. It's a little different. God 00:20:51.720 --> 00:20:55.779 also speaks through messengers. Everybody say 00:20:55.779 --> 00:20:59.279 messengers. Now, I'm going to group these into 00:20:59.279 --> 00:21:03.519 people and angels, as we see in Acts 9, 10 through 00:21:03.519 --> 00:21:10.680 17. Now, Saul had already had a great experience 00:21:10.680 --> 00:21:14.779 on the road to Damascus. God reveals to him, 00:21:14.799 --> 00:21:18.220 speaks to him, shines out, calls out to him in 00:21:18.220 --> 00:21:23.150 this very dramatic way. Right? But we also see 00:21:23.150 --> 00:21:27.930 a messenger involved, a person involved. Now, 00:21:27.970 --> 00:21:30.589 couldn't God just come and speak to Saul again? 00:21:31.569 --> 00:21:35.009 Couldn't he have just appeared again and said, 00:21:35.029 --> 00:21:39.430 Saul, you know? No, but there was a messenger 00:21:39.430 --> 00:21:42.089 involved. This was God's will. Everybody say, 00:21:42.150 --> 00:21:46.210 God's will. God's will. This is God's way of 00:21:46.210 --> 00:21:50.079 communicating. Because he's not limited to just 00:21:50.079 --> 00:21:54.980 one form of communication. He sends Ananias. 00:21:56.920 --> 00:21:59.799 He gives Ananias a word and he says, go speak 00:21:59.799 --> 00:22:05.720 to Saul. You know? So God uses Ananias to deliver 00:22:05.720 --> 00:22:10.119 his word with a message. Now, I don't know about 00:22:10.119 --> 00:22:12.579 you, but sometimes, you know, you seek God. How 00:22:12.579 --> 00:22:15.440 many of you have ever sought God before? You 00:22:15.440 --> 00:22:18.319 know, God lays it on someone else's heart to 00:22:18.319 --> 00:22:20.920 talk to you about it. Has that ever happened 00:22:20.920 --> 00:22:24.319 to anybody with me? Has anyone ever just like, 00:22:24.579 --> 00:22:27.980 you just don't even know how, like how did they 00:22:27.980 --> 00:22:30.539 know what was happening, right? And all of a 00:22:30.539 --> 00:22:32.640 sudden they come to you and they say the exact 00:22:32.640 --> 00:22:39.859 thing that you needed to hear, right? They're 00:22:39.859 --> 00:22:42.240 coming with not just something from their head, 00:22:42.299 --> 00:22:43.700 they're coming with something from the Spirit. 00:22:44.559 --> 00:22:46.400 And they just, something's on their heart and 00:22:46.400 --> 00:22:48.839 they got to share it with you. And your spirit 00:22:48.839 --> 00:22:51.660 knows that it's from God. Because there's no 00:22:51.660 --> 00:22:53.440 way in the natural they could have known that 00:22:53.440 --> 00:22:59.680 information, right? Maybe even here, while you've 00:22:59.680 --> 00:23:02.380 came to this church or at another church, sitting, 00:23:02.660 --> 00:23:05.000 you know, with a pastor or something like that, 00:23:05.039 --> 00:23:08.099 how many times has the pastor just kind of said 00:23:08.099 --> 00:23:11.259 something, like, even off track from what he 00:23:11.259 --> 00:23:14.240 had prepared to say? And all of a sudden it just 00:23:14.240 --> 00:23:16.500 kind of hits you square between the eyes and 00:23:16.500 --> 00:23:20.259 you're just like, whoa, wait, wait, wait. Did 00:23:20.259 --> 00:23:22.920 God call that person up, you know, before the 00:23:22.920 --> 00:23:25.660 message and be like, hey, you need to say this, 00:23:25.680 --> 00:23:30.059 right? How did they know? Well, that's the spirit 00:23:30.059 --> 00:23:33.039 communicating through someone. It's God communicating 00:23:33.039 --> 00:23:37.059 through someone, through his people. Because 00:23:37.059 --> 00:23:40.420 this is normal. If I say normal, this is to be 00:23:40.420 --> 00:23:45.319 expected. If someone's living on the inside of 00:23:45.319 --> 00:23:50.140 you, wouldn't it be normal to have communication? 00:23:54.099 --> 00:23:56.779 Wouldn't it be normal experience to have fellowship 00:23:56.779 --> 00:24:01.579 with that person? Wouldn't the abnormal be distance 00:24:01.579 --> 00:24:04.660 from someone living, taking up residence on the 00:24:04.660 --> 00:24:07.500 inside? You know, even if you don't like the 00:24:07.500 --> 00:24:10.910 people in your own house. You're communicating 00:24:10.910 --> 00:24:14.369 with them, right? Even if you had a visitor from 00:24:14.369 --> 00:24:16.329 out of town and you're like, I don't know if 00:24:16.329 --> 00:24:18.890 this is going to work out. You're still in communication 00:24:18.890 --> 00:24:26.970 with them, right? How much more, how much closer 00:24:26.970 --> 00:24:31.109 is God than even the people around us? How much 00:24:31.109 --> 00:24:35.509 more real is God on the inside of us? How much 00:24:35.509 --> 00:24:39.990 more does He want to speak to us? How much is 00:24:39.990 --> 00:24:42.549 he speaking and how much are we not recognizing? 00:24:43.670 --> 00:24:50.230 How much are we refusing, refusing to acknowledge? 00:24:52.549 --> 00:24:55.730 God also speaks through angels. He uses angels 00:24:55.730 --> 00:24:58.990 as messengers. We see God sent Gabriel to Mary. 00:24:59.190 --> 00:25:05.589 Again, couldn't God just visit? Think about it. 00:25:06.289 --> 00:25:09.190 Couldn't God just visit? I mean, that was a pretty 00:25:09.190 --> 00:25:18.029 big word, pretty big task, right? I don't know 00:25:18.029 --> 00:25:22.049 the explanation of why he sent Gabriel. Don't 00:25:22.049 --> 00:25:27.049 have to know. He has his own reasons. I don't 00:25:27.049 --> 00:25:31.630 have to know. But I know in Scripture it's recorded 00:25:31.630 --> 00:25:35.549 that God didn't visit. Gabriel came with a word 00:25:35.549 --> 00:25:42.240 from God. Said, you are blessed and highly favored. 00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:53.660 Amen. How important of that, that word. And how 00:25:53.660 --> 00:25:58.160 transformative that word was to her and to the 00:25:58.160 --> 00:26:02.140 world. And I just want to throw this in here. 00:26:04.119 --> 00:26:09.559 Because I can and I have the microphone. When 00:26:09.559 --> 00:26:17.940 God speaks, it's always leading you. It's always 00:26:17.940 --> 00:26:22.279 correcting you. And it's meant to transform you. 00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:30.359 The world wants to teach Jesus was a man of acceptance. 00:26:32.319 --> 00:26:37.269 That he taught acceptance. That's a wrong view. 00:26:37.990 --> 00:26:44.410 Jesus taught repentance. He taught repentance. 00:26:45.130 --> 00:26:49.369 And he taught transformation. Because when his 00:26:49.369 --> 00:26:53.890 word, if it's really God and his word, and you 00:26:53.890 --> 00:26:56.890 receive it, guess what? It accomplishes something. 00:26:58.029 --> 00:27:02.089 When Jesus speaks, his word is sent to accomplish 00:27:02.089 --> 00:27:06.329 something in you. There's never a null, idle 00:27:06.329 --> 00:27:11.029 word. Our mouths are filled with so many idle 00:27:11.029 --> 00:27:15.569 things, so many vain things, so many worldly 00:27:15.569 --> 00:27:18.789 things. Jesus' mouth was not filled with those 00:27:18.789 --> 00:27:26.470 things. His words were filled with purpose. His 00:27:26.470 --> 00:27:30.869 words are filled with direction, correction, 00:27:31.089 --> 00:27:36.140 and a call. an invitation to be transformed. 00:27:36.740 --> 00:27:41.539 Amen? But it's important to remember that God 00:27:41.539 --> 00:27:44.299 is the source even when someone else is the messenger. 00:27:44.980 --> 00:27:48.119 Talking about God speaking through people, God 00:27:48.119 --> 00:27:54.599 speaking through angels. God is the source even 00:27:54.599 --> 00:27:56.359 when someone else is the messenger. I'm going 00:27:56.359 --> 00:27:58.539 to keep rolling. God speaks through desires, 00:27:58.900 --> 00:28:03.309 the Bible says. Everybody say desires. God speaks 00:28:03.309 --> 00:28:06.349 through desires. Philippians 2 .13 says this, 00:28:06.410 --> 00:28:09.609 For God is working in you. Everybody say, in 00:28:09.609 --> 00:28:15.269 me. He's working in me. Not just around me. God 00:28:15.269 --> 00:28:19.750 is working in me. Doing what? Giving you the 00:28:19.750 --> 00:28:24.269 desire and the power to do what pleases Him. 00:28:26.349 --> 00:28:31.529 Pop quiz, what pleases God? What does scripture 00:28:31.529 --> 00:28:34.049 say pleases God? Three, two, one. Somebody say 00:28:34.049 --> 00:28:41.569 it. Man. Thought you had it. Faith. Hey. Ding, 00:28:41.589 --> 00:28:49.029 ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Well. Well. 00:28:49.950 --> 00:28:56.009 Well. What pleases God? It's faith. You know, 00:28:56.029 --> 00:29:00.140 it's impossible to please God. It's what Scripture 00:29:00.140 --> 00:29:04.720 says. It's impossible. Impossible. There's not 00:29:04.720 --> 00:29:07.460 many impossibles in Scripture, right? But it's 00:29:07.460 --> 00:29:11.039 impossible to please God without faith. Everybody 00:29:11.039 --> 00:29:15.779 say faith. It's impossible. Can't do it. Gotta 00:29:15.779 --> 00:29:21.279 have faith. Faith's important, church. But thank 00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:25.579 God. God is working in me, giving me the desire. 00:29:29.390 --> 00:29:36.230 And the power to do what? Have faith. To have 00:29:36.230 --> 00:29:40.589 great faith. To please Him. Faith is not you 00:29:40.589 --> 00:29:44.470 working up in the flesh. Doing your very best. 00:29:48.589 --> 00:29:56.390 Faith comes how? By hearing. Hearing. But it's 00:29:56.390 --> 00:30:01.670 and hearing, right? And hearing the anointed 00:30:01.670 --> 00:30:08.390 word. The anointed utterance. The rhema Christos. 00:30:08.829 --> 00:30:12.609 Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word 00:30:12.609 --> 00:30:15.670 of God. It's not just hearing. Listen, it's not 00:30:15.670 --> 00:30:19.710 just passive listening. You can sit in a service. 00:30:19.750 --> 00:30:22.069 It's not about that. Faith doesn't come by you 00:30:22.069 --> 00:30:24.970 just hearing information being spoken. Faith 00:30:24.970 --> 00:30:29.890 comes by the anointed utterance. By the anointed 00:30:29.890 --> 00:30:33.089 utterance. It's not just reading Scripture. It 00:30:33.089 --> 00:30:38.910 comes when the Holy Spirit declares the truth 00:30:38.910 --> 00:30:45.250 and the power to you. But thank God He gives 00:30:45.250 --> 00:30:50.509 us this. This is His grace gift. Amen? This is 00:30:50.509 --> 00:30:53.269 a gift. Faith is a gift. And He gives you the 00:30:53.269 --> 00:30:58.660 desire. Ooh. Think about that. So God speaks 00:30:58.660 --> 00:31:01.920 to us through our desire, and he gives us the 00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:06.960 power, the ability to do what pleases him. So 00:31:06.960 --> 00:31:11.079 when God speaks to you, like we've talked about, 00:31:11.140 --> 00:31:16.440 he gives you direction, gives you instruction 00:31:16.440 --> 00:31:20.299 on what to do, right? Sometimes it's easy for 00:31:20.299 --> 00:31:23.119 us to look at our natural and say, well, I can't 00:31:23.119 --> 00:31:26.819 do that. I'm not equipped to do that. I don't 00:31:26.819 --> 00:31:33.440 have that ability. God, you must pick the wrong 00:31:33.440 --> 00:31:39.359 person. Right? That's our natural instinct is 00:31:39.359 --> 00:31:45.220 to look at ourself and our own ability. But God's 00:31:45.220 --> 00:31:49.400 the one working in you. He doesn't leave you 00:31:49.400 --> 00:31:51.359 alone. He doesn't give you direction and then 00:31:51.359 --> 00:31:54.859 leave you on your own. He calls you and leads 00:31:54.859 --> 00:32:01.640 you. Psalms 23 says He leads us. The Good Shepherd 00:32:01.640 --> 00:32:07.140 leads us into green pastures, still waters. Now 00:32:07.140 --> 00:32:09.400 I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. 00:32:09.480 --> 00:32:13.259 It can look really bad. It can look hopeless. 00:32:15.460 --> 00:32:20.000 It can look really bad. He's not promising everything's 00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:21.700 going to be okay, but He's promising provision. 00:32:22.019 --> 00:32:24.920 He's promising supply. He's promising protection. 00:32:25.789 --> 00:32:31.829 In the trouble. Amen? He gives you the desire 00:32:31.829 --> 00:32:35.049 and the power. So sometimes God speaks through 00:32:35.049 --> 00:32:37.650 your desires. You suddenly, you could describe 00:32:37.650 --> 00:32:39.849 it like this, you suddenly get the urge to give, 00:32:40.089 --> 00:32:45.269 to serve, to call someone, to help someone, go 00:32:45.269 --> 00:32:49.450 somewhere, to start doing something, stop doing 00:32:49.450 --> 00:32:51.890 something, kind of get a check in your spirit, 00:32:52.009 --> 00:32:56.700 or pray. Like all of a sudden, someone's on my 00:32:56.700 --> 00:32:59.519 heart and I need to pray for them. How many of 00:32:59.519 --> 00:33:04.220 you have ever had that happen? Right? Where does 00:33:04.220 --> 00:33:08.799 that come from? You can't sit there and say God 00:33:08.799 --> 00:33:10.680 doesn't speak to you when all of a sudden you 00:33:10.680 --> 00:33:12.859 get an urge saying, I feel like I should pray 00:33:12.859 --> 00:33:19.779 for this person. Who is that? Is that not God? 00:33:22.279 --> 00:33:26.180 Is that not him speaking to you? You might not 00:33:26.180 --> 00:33:28.779 have heard it with your ear, but your spirit, 00:33:28.799 --> 00:33:39.200 you heard it. Amen? Huh? That's a long one. I'll 00:33:39.200 --> 00:33:46.779 be real short. So one night I was laying in bed 00:33:46.779 --> 00:33:51.880 and it was recently, like in the past. I don't 00:33:51.880 --> 00:33:57.579 know, at the beginning of the year. And I just 00:33:57.579 --> 00:34:01.460 saw this lady, one of my co -workers from Disney. 00:34:01.559 --> 00:34:04.200 I saw her. I hadn't seen her in a bit because 00:34:04.200 --> 00:34:06.500 she works mornings, and I typically work late. 00:34:07.099 --> 00:34:09.880 But I saw her, and she was in the hospital, and 00:34:09.880 --> 00:34:11.820 she was in really bad shape, hooked up to all 00:34:11.820 --> 00:34:14.360 kinds of stuff. And I just thought, that's a 00:34:14.360 --> 00:34:16.519 weird dream, you know? Must have been something 00:34:16.519 --> 00:34:20.050 that I've eaten. Strange. But I had this urge 00:34:20.050 --> 00:34:21.789 to just pray for her. And I was like, well, she's 00:34:21.789 --> 00:34:24.309 on my mind. I'll just pray for her, right? So 00:34:24.309 --> 00:34:28.030 I go and, you know, I pray for her. And then 00:34:28.030 --> 00:34:30.070 that morning, I just can't shake it. You know, 00:34:30.090 --> 00:34:32.789 usually when you have a dream, you kind of forget 00:34:32.789 --> 00:34:34.969 it by the time you wake up, or at least that's 00:34:34.969 --> 00:34:38.789 my experience. This time, though, I didn't. I 00:34:38.789 --> 00:34:40.449 couldn't shake it. I couldn't get away. I was 00:34:40.449 --> 00:34:45.210 just like, I keep thinking about this lady. It's 00:34:45.210 --> 00:34:47.250 not even somebody that I really know. You know, 00:34:47.269 --> 00:34:48.769 it's kind of weird. I just keep thinking about 00:34:48.769 --> 00:34:51.750 her. And I was like, I wonder. And I'm just like, 00:34:51.849 --> 00:34:54.010 no, no, no. I just keep pushing it off, pushing 00:34:54.010 --> 00:34:59.849 it off. And as I'm sitting there, I was drinking 00:34:59.849 --> 00:35:02.869 coffee like every good Christian should do. I 00:35:02.869 --> 00:35:06.369 was drinking coffee in my chair in like the two 00:35:06.369 --> 00:35:08.869 hours of comatose, just trying to like start 00:35:08.869 --> 00:35:12.969 my day. And like. everyone shouldn't do. I was 00:35:12.969 --> 00:35:17.369 doom scrolling on Facebook and all of a sudden 00:35:17.369 --> 00:35:21.170 I come across, I come across this, a picture 00:35:21.170 --> 00:35:26.670 of this lady in the hospital and she's got cancer. 00:35:26.809 --> 00:35:29.329 Her body's eating up with cancer. They're not 00:35:29.329 --> 00:35:33.130 giving her long to live. It's really bad. And 00:35:33.130 --> 00:35:35.369 I just kind of sit there like with my mouth open 00:35:35.369 --> 00:35:40.449 and I'm like, oh, whoa. Okay. Now you would think 00:35:40.449 --> 00:35:44.130 a normal sense reaction would be like, man, that 00:35:44.130 --> 00:35:46.670 was God. Like that was God showing me something. 00:35:46.730 --> 00:35:50.230 Like I should, you know, I should go to her. 00:35:50.429 --> 00:35:53.329 I should like pray for her. But immediately when 00:35:53.329 --> 00:35:55.150 I saw it, I knew that's what I was supposed to 00:35:55.150 --> 00:36:00.710 do. But I just, I did everything I could to not 00:36:00.710 --> 00:36:02.949 say, you know, to just be like, this is not God. 00:36:04.630 --> 00:36:07.630 What is this lady going to think if I show up? 00:36:08.030 --> 00:36:10.449 I don't even know what hospital she's in. How 00:36:10.449 --> 00:36:11.550 am I going to find her? So I'm going to have 00:36:11.550 --> 00:36:15.030 to reach out. How awkward would that be? I've 00:36:15.030 --> 00:36:17.550 got to reach out, find what hospital she is. 00:36:17.670 --> 00:36:19.909 I've got to go stroll in there like, I'm going 00:36:19.909 --> 00:36:21.809 to go, you know, look at me, I'm the pastor. 00:36:21.949 --> 00:36:23.889 I'm going to, you know, come up here and pray 00:36:23.889 --> 00:36:28.190 for some lady. She was in such bad shape, she 00:36:28.190 --> 00:36:30.969 didn't even know, like she was already, you know, 00:36:30.969 --> 00:36:35.360 hooked up and out. They were rushing her for 00:36:35.360 --> 00:36:37.739 surgery and stuff like that just to try to save 00:36:37.739 --> 00:36:40.460 her, but it wasn't looking good. But anyways, 00:36:40.619 --> 00:36:44.300 to make a long story short, I told Caitlin about 00:36:44.300 --> 00:36:46.599 it because we saw it at the same time. And I 00:36:46.599 --> 00:36:48.099 was like, do you think we should go? And she's 00:36:48.099 --> 00:36:49.679 like, well, that'd be kind of weird. And I just 00:36:49.679 --> 00:36:53.820 went, that's a good sign. I ain't going. I was 00:36:53.820 --> 00:36:59.099 like, I ain't going. I ain't doing it. A month 00:36:59.099 --> 00:37:02.000 later, fast forward, a month after that point. 00:37:03.509 --> 00:37:09.670 I see that she is, you know, well. She's at home. 00:37:10.050 --> 00:37:12.210 Like, she's in remission. Like, things are doing 00:37:12.210 --> 00:37:16.230 very well. And God kind of lays it on my heart 00:37:16.230 --> 00:37:17.909 again. It's like, you need to go speak to her. 00:37:17.969 --> 00:37:24.010 And I'm like, but God, she's good. Like, I was 00:37:24.010 --> 00:37:26.309 just kind of cutting, you know, mental gymnastics 00:37:26.309 --> 00:37:30.409 trying to not recognize this is God. I'm arguing. 00:37:31.130 --> 00:37:33.210 And at the same time going like, I don't want 00:37:33.210 --> 00:37:39.530 to do that. That's not convenient for me. Just 00:37:39.530 --> 00:37:46.349 being real. But this time I spoke to Kayla and 00:37:46.349 --> 00:37:48.369 I just said, look, I was like, I don't even know 00:37:48.369 --> 00:37:52.869 why, but I just got to go. And so I reached out 00:37:52.869 --> 00:37:55.710 to her, I messaged her, and I went. And it was 00:37:55.710 --> 00:38:00.610 such a great time. And, you know, honestly. I 00:38:00.610 --> 00:38:03.829 don't even know if it, you know what I'm saying? 00:38:03.889 --> 00:38:05.730 Like, I mean, I'm sure it was encouraging to 00:38:05.730 --> 00:38:08.650 her. She was very shocked that I showed up at 00:38:08.650 --> 00:38:12.329 her front door and we prayed and all this kind 00:38:12.329 --> 00:38:17.010 of stuff. But I don't know what happened and 00:38:17.010 --> 00:38:22.150 why God wanted me to go. But that's okay. That's 00:38:22.150 --> 00:38:26.230 okay. The good thing is that when I went, all 00:38:26.230 --> 00:38:28.789 of a sudden, there was just peace. There was 00:38:28.789 --> 00:38:31.780 peace in my heart. It was like God saying, thanks. 00:38:32.159 --> 00:38:35.960 Thanks for listening. You know? And it was good. 00:38:36.219 --> 00:38:38.659 Everything that happened was good. I'm just saying, 00:38:38.679 --> 00:38:43.199 I don't know what the long -term reach of small 00:38:43.199 --> 00:38:47.880 acts of obedience accomplishes. I don't know 00:38:47.880 --> 00:38:50.460 why God wanted me to go, but guess what? He wanted 00:38:50.460 --> 00:38:55.019 me to. He called me to. And I dragged my feet. 00:38:57.389 --> 00:39:00.010 And I avoided doing what I knew I should do, 00:39:00.070 --> 00:39:04.769 right? And it really took me to an interesting 00:39:04.769 --> 00:39:09.010 place. Like, I just, I didn't feel as sensitive 00:39:09.010 --> 00:39:11.289 to the Holy Spirit. I didn't feel, there was 00:39:11.289 --> 00:39:14.389 like almost a detaching thing that like God was 00:39:14.389 --> 00:39:17.130 saying, you need to do this. I couldn't shake 00:39:17.130 --> 00:39:23.530 it. But every desire isn't from God, but he can 00:39:23.530 --> 00:39:26.739 place these things within us and move us. with 00:39:26.739 --> 00:39:30.119 purpose, with his purposes and his plans. That's 00:39:30.119 --> 00:39:33.820 how we accomplish his work in the earth. God 00:39:33.820 --> 00:39:36.840 speaks through dreams and visions. I won't stay 00:39:36.840 --> 00:39:41.300 on this long, but in Acts 2 .17, it says this, 00:39:41.320 --> 00:39:45.260 in the last days, this is a prophecy, God says, 00:39:45.360 --> 00:39:49.599 I will pour out my spirit upon all people. Your 00:39:49.599 --> 00:39:52.900 sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young 00:39:52.900 --> 00:39:56.300 men will see visions, and your old men will dream 00:39:56.300 --> 00:40:03.099 dreams. So, and we see this throughout Scripture, 00:40:03.400 --> 00:40:06.619 and we'll see it more and more in the last days. 00:40:06.719 --> 00:40:09.760 I believe we should live like we're in the last 00:40:09.760 --> 00:40:13.340 days. We should live with the urgency. If the 00:40:13.340 --> 00:40:16.260 disciples lived with the urgency, how much more 00:40:16.260 --> 00:40:19.500 now should we live with that same urgency, with 00:40:19.500 --> 00:40:22.300 that same like life is a vapor, it's a wind, 00:40:22.460 --> 00:40:24.980 it's here today, it's gone tomorrow. We're not 00:40:24.980 --> 00:40:29.320 promised this afternoon, right? This could be 00:40:29.320 --> 00:40:37.599 it. Hallelujah. Joseph. He was given dreams of 00:40:37.599 --> 00:40:40.260 his family and his future and what would be. 00:40:40.900 --> 00:40:42.559 Because that's what the Holy Spirit does. He 00:40:42.559 --> 00:40:46.860 shows you things to come. And I'm telling you 00:40:46.860 --> 00:40:48.780 these things so that they're normal. So that 00:40:48.780 --> 00:40:51.059 when you see it, you don't do what I did and 00:40:51.059 --> 00:40:54.500 kind of brush it off. When these things happen, 00:40:54.699 --> 00:40:56.679 because these should happen in the people of 00:40:56.679 --> 00:41:00.139 God. If Jesus is in you, if God is in you and 00:41:00.139 --> 00:41:03.019 dwelling you by the Holy Spirit, these things 00:41:03.019 --> 00:41:05.420 should be normal. To our Christian experience. 00:41:06.199 --> 00:41:09.019 Joseph had a dream. It showed him his future 00:41:09.019 --> 00:41:10.659 and where he was going to be. Did he fully understand 00:41:10.659 --> 00:41:17.599 it? No. No. But I'm sure on the other side he 00:41:17.599 --> 00:41:20.800 did. And it led him. He saw something and it 00:41:20.800 --> 00:41:24.619 moved him towards that direction. Paul received 00:41:24.619 --> 00:41:29.619 a vision. He received visions. John received 00:41:29.619 --> 00:41:35.400 revelation. Remember? told John, said, record 00:41:35.400 --> 00:41:38.219 what you see. And that's how we got the book 00:41:38.219 --> 00:41:42.639 of Revelation. Record what you see. And this 00:41:42.639 --> 00:41:47.739 is God communicating to John and now what we 00:41:47.739 --> 00:41:53.099 read about. Think about that. Through dreams 00:41:53.099 --> 00:41:56.059 and visions, he leads us. We don't automatically 00:41:56.059 --> 00:41:58.980 accept every supernatural experience as God. 00:41:59.260 --> 00:42:03.429 This is kind of the trap. That sometimes we fall 00:42:03.429 --> 00:42:06.769 into. But neither should we automatically reject 00:42:06.769 --> 00:42:11.510 something simply because it's supernatural. Because 00:42:11.510 --> 00:42:13.949 it doesn't fit our mold of how we think God should 00:42:13.949 --> 00:42:19.090 work. We must discern things spiritually. And 00:42:19.090 --> 00:42:21.829 then finally, God speaks from within. Everybody 00:42:21.829 --> 00:42:25.889 say within. He speaks from within. Romans 8 .16 00:42:25.889 --> 00:42:29.449 says this, The Spirit Himself bears witness with 00:42:29.449 --> 00:42:33.489 our spirit. This word here means testify unto, 00:42:33.829 --> 00:42:39.510 corroborate by evidence. Spirit himself bears 00:42:39.510 --> 00:42:42.690 witness with our spirit. God is spirit, according 00:42:42.690 --> 00:42:47.789 to John 4, 24. And who you are is spirit because 00:42:47.789 --> 00:42:51.849 you're created in his image, right? We are spirits. 00:42:52.010 --> 00:42:55.349 Who we are is spirits. We live in a body and 00:42:55.349 --> 00:42:58.750 we have a soul. We've talked about this a lot. 00:42:58.829 --> 00:43:04.539 So God is speaking. And He speaks to us from 00:43:04.539 --> 00:43:09.980 the Holy Spirit to our spirit. And He illuminates 00:43:09.980 --> 00:43:14.039 things to us. This is how He communicates. So 00:43:14.039 --> 00:43:17.460 stop struggling to hear God through your body 00:43:17.460 --> 00:43:21.440 and through your natural ear. Because how do 00:43:21.440 --> 00:43:24.000 you think you would even recognize God speaking 00:43:24.000 --> 00:43:28.260 if it wasn't for the Holy Spirit? to bear witness 00:43:28.260 --> 00:43:30.619 with your spirit and hear it. Even if it was 00:43:30.619 --> 00:43:34.760 an audible voice, I think we would just kind 00:43:34.760 --> 00:43:38.780 of brush it off. We wouldn't want to hear it. 00:43:41.519 --> 00:43:44.219 So stop struggling to hear God through your ear, 00:43:44.320 --> 00:43:47.480 through your natural body. 1 Corinthians 2 .12 00:43:47.480 --> 00:43:51.280 says this, and we have received God's spirit, 00:43:51.460 --> 00:43:55.309 not the world's spirit, so we can know. the wonderful 00:43:55.309 --> 00:44:00.030 things God has freely given us. Did you know 00:44:00.030 --> 00:44:02.289 we can know the things that God has given us? 00:44:02.750 --> 00:44:07.130 We can know them. How? We've received it by the 00:44:07.130 --> 00:44:11.769 Spirit. Amen? So God knows, His Spirit knows, 00:44:11.929 --> 00:44:16.110 now His Spirit indwells us. And then His Spirit 00:44:16.110 --> 00:44:19.389 is the one who reveals it to us, and then all 00:44:19.389 --> 00:44:28.320 of a sudden, we know. See the progression. Don't 00:44:28.320 --> 00:44:33.000 miss this. You can just know something that you 00:44:33.000 --> 00:44:36.559 didn't learn, that you didn't read, that you 00:44:36.559 --> 00:44:42.019 can just know something. You can know. Spirit 00:44:42.019 --> 00:44:44.420 reveals those things. The Holy Spirit knows what 00:44:44.420 --> 00:44:47.780 God knows, and he lives within us to reveal what 00:44:47.780 --> 00:44:52.019 God wants us to know. Proverbs 20, 27 says this, 00:44:52.039 --> 00:44:57.119 the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord. Every 00:44:57.119 --> 00:45:00.639 morning, if I wake up too early, it's dark in 00:45:00.639 --> 00:45:02.800 the house, it's dark outside, and I have a little 00:45:02.800 --> 00:45:05.420 lamp. And recently, we've been getting so many 00:45:05.420 --> 00:45:09.400 baby items and things that if I walk in there 00:45:09.400 --> 00:45:11.519 too quickly, I'm going to trip over something. 00:45:13.159 --> 00:45:15.460 I feel like this is just normal experience from 00:45:15.460 --> 00:45:17.800 here on out. But like I walk in, I'm tripping 00:45:17.800 --> 00:45:20.679 over something, trying to get to my lamp, because 00:45:20.679 --> 00:45:23.400 as soon as that lamp comes on, I'm able to see. 00:45:25.360 --> 00:45:29.980 I'm able to avoid and navigate, right? So the 00:45:29.980 --> 00:45:35.119 spirit of man, listen, the spirit of man is a 00:45:35.119 --> 00:45:43.800 lamp, is a light of the Lord. Spirit of man is 00:45:43.800 --> 00:45:48.280 a lamp of the Lord. It's saying this is how God 00:45:48.280 --> 00:45:52.099 wants to communicate to you, to illuminate things 00:45:52.099 --> 00:45:55.119 to you. It's through your spirit. Romans 9 .1, 00:45:55.260 --> 00:45:58.679 I tell you the truth, I am not lying. This is 00:45:58.679 --> 00:46:02.360 Paul saying, my conscience also bearing me witness 00:46:02.360 --> 00:46:07.300 in the Holy Spirit. So God speaks through our 00:46:07.300 --> 00:46:10.110 thoughts. He speaks through just... Things that 00:46:10.110 --> 00:46:12.190 we know, He calls those things to our attention. 00:46:12.630 --> 00:46:17.150 We could call that our conscience. We have a 00:46:17.150 --> 00:46:20.190 conscience leading. So my conscience also bearing 00:46:20.190 --> 00:46:24.210 me witness, not just in every, but just it bears 00:46:24.210 --> 00:46:27.429 witness in the Holy Spirit. There's a check here. 00:46:27.550 --> 00:46:29.590 It's not just everything your conscience you 00:46:29.590 --> 00:46:32.889 feel you're led by because we're not led by feelings. 00:46:33.289 --> 00:46:36.590 We're not led by what we see. We're led by the 00:46:36.590 --> 00:46:41.150 Spirit of God. So it's bearing witness, conscious 00:46:41.150 --> 00:46:44.329 bearing witness in the Holy Spirit. So God's 00:46:44.329 --> 00:46:47.429 leading becomes recognizable through inward witness, 00:46:47.530 --> 00:46:51.409 we can call it, conscience, illumination, understanding, 00:46:51.610 --> 00:46:57.829 or even spirit -directed thoughts. So, here's 00:46:57.829 --> 00:46:59.869 what we need. I'm usually not alliterative, but 00:46:59.869 --> 00:47:02.750 we're going to do it anyways. So, here's what 00:47:02.750 --> 00:47:05.349 we need. We got to receive. Everybody say, receive 00:47:05.349 --> 00:47:09.179 the word. We have to recognize that it is God. 00:47:09.480 --> 00:47:12.659 Everybody say recognize. We have to respond. 00:47:12.880 --> 00:47:17.099 Everybody say respond to what He is saying. This 00:47:17.099 --> 00:47:20.119 is how we're led by the Spirit. We have to receive 00:47:20.119 --> 00:47:23.260 the Word. We have to position ourselves as we 00:47:23.260 --> 00:47:25.420 talked about last week. We have to position ourselves 00:47:25.420 --> 00:47:29.199 at His feet to hear His voice. Sometimes we have 00:47:29.199 --> 00:47:32.420 to turn down our own thoughts, our own worry, 00:47:32.500 --> 00:47:35.230 our distractions, the things that... Get in the 00:47:35.230 --> 00:47:37.170 way. Sometimes we've got to silence everything 00:47:37.170 --> 00:47:40.650 else that's holding our attention to place our 00:47:40.650 --> 00:47:44.030 attention in the one who's speaking. Kind of 00:47:44.030 --> 00:47:47.610 like Mary and Martha, you know, she said this, 00:47:47.730 --> 00:47:51.130 you know, she was doing the necessary thing, 00:47:51.349 --> 00:47:54.409 the necessary thing, sitting at his feet, hearing 00:47:54.409 --> 00:47:56.710 his word. It wasn't just about hearing his voice. 00:47:56.730 --> 00:48:00.889 It was about receiving the word, right? And then 00:48:00.889 --> 00:48:04.440 when God speaks, we need to recognize it. That's 00:48:04.440 --> 00:48:07.880 why we looked at all these ways that God speaks 00:48:07.880 --> 00:48:10.559 so that we can recognize it when He is speaking 00:48:10.559 --> 00:48:13.960 and realize that you have heard God. Not only 00:48:13.960 --> 00:48:16.980 you can hear God, but if you're a believer, you 00:48:16.980 --> 00:48:19.719 have heard God. That was the point of contact 00:48:19.719 --> 00:48:22.639 at salvation. And that's how He continues to 00:48:22.639 --> 00:48:27.119 speak to you today. We have to recognize it's 00:48:27.119 --> 00:48:30.659 God. We have to respond then to what He's saying. 00:48:31.579 --> 00:48:36.679 If we really believed, listen, if we really believed 00:48:36.679 --> 00:48:40.619 this was God speaking to me and God told me to 00:48:40.619 --> 00:48:47.179 do this, we could not do it. You know what I'm 00:48:47.179 --> 00:48:50.079 saying? Like, we would be like, oh my God, God 00:48:50.079 --> 00:48:55.780 told me that. I've got to do this, right? So 00:48:55.780 --> 00:48:59.570 our disobedience to it is... in some part or 00:48:59.570 --> 00:49:02.590 in some way saying, I don't fully believe this 00:49:02.590 --> 00:49:11.829 is God. I don't fully recognize this is God speaking 00:49:11.829 --> 00:49:16.170 to me. I don't know. And that's the danger, church, 00:49:16.289 --> 00:49:18.769 that we get in and we find ourselves in. We say, 00:49:18.829 --> 00:49:22.550 I don't know. I can't. I can't hear. I can't 00:49:22.550 --> 00:49:26.679 understand. I'm praying, I'm praying, I'm reading, 00:49:26.699 --> 00:49:30.079 I can't, I'm doing everything I can, but, and 00:49:30.079 --> 00:49:37.179 I'm asking, but I'm not hearing. I'm doing everything 00:49:37.179 --> 00:49:40.820 I can, but I just can't hear. Is it that you 00:49:40.820 --> 00:49:43.219 can't hear or you're not recognizing Him speaking? 00:49:46.579 --> 00:49:48.820 Are you not positioning yourself? Do you not 00:49:48.820 --> 00:49:52.400 recognize? Have you not responded to something 00:49:52.400 --> 00:49:56.820 that He's already told you? We need to receive. 00:49:56.860 --> 00:50:00.039 We need to recognize. We need to respond. There's 00:50:00.039 --> 00:50:06.500 no excuse. No excuse. Don't become so determined 00:50:06.500 --> 00:50:11.960 to explain everything away that you explain God 00:50:11.960 --> 00:50:16.519 right out of the conversation. Know Him well 00:50:16.519 --> 00:50:21.920 enough to recognize Him. Trust Him enough to 00:50:21.920 --> 00:50:28.429 respond when He speaks. Amen? Amen. The goal 00:50:28.429 --> 00:50:33.789 of this series, the goal here, is to become so 00:50:33.789 --> 00:50:36.650 familiar with the shepherd that when he speaks, 00:50:37.010 --> 00:50:40.110 that's our goal at the end of this. The reason 00:50:40.110 --> 00:50:44.130 why we've built this, the goal is that when the 00:50:44.130 --> 00:50:49.190 shepherd speaks, something in you says, hey, 00:50:49.409 --> 00:50:54.590 I know that voice. That's not just a shepherd, 00:50:54.730 --> 00:51:01.309 that's... My shepherd. That's my provider. That's 00:51:01.309 --> 00:51:06.150 my deliverer. Amen? That's my help in my time 00:51:06.150 --> 00:51:13.650 of trouble. That's my God. I know him. He's in 00:51:13.650 --> 00:51:18.690 me. And I know it's his voice because I know 00:51:18.690 --> 00:51:24.550 him personally. I know him. He knows me. He calls 00:51:24.550 --> 00:51:28.110 me by name. He leads me. He guides me. I don't 00:51:28.110 --> 00:51:30.389 got to worry about it today because guess what? 00:51:30.429 --> 00:51:34.130 He's already got it figured out. That's how I 00:51:34.130 --> 00:51:40.050 can be in peace. Because I'm being led. You know? 00:51:41.230 --> 00:51:45.769 If you're led, who's the responsibility fall 00:51:45.769 --> 00:51:53.000 on? Don't leave things up to you. and your own 00:51:53.000 --> 00:51:57.960 understanding. Amen? Know the voice of God. Know 00:51:57.960 --> 00:52:04.320 it. Be receptive of it. Be receptive of it. Recognize 00:52:04.320 --> 00:52:09.920 that it's Him. And respond. Quickly respond. 00:52:10.900 --> 00:52:13.679 This online worship experience was brought to 00:52:13.679 --> 00:52:16.460 you by the Friends and Partners of Eulation Church. 00:52:18.440 --> 00:52:21.219 Over the years, Jeffrey and I have learned that 00:52:21.219 --> 00:52:23.840 the greatest battles we face are usually fought 00:52:23.840 --> 00:52:27.320 in our minds, but won with our mouths. When we've 00:52:27.320 --> 00:52:30.300 chosen to speak God's promises in the face of 00:52:30.300 --> 00:52:32.780 our fears, failures, and problems, we've seen 00:52:32.780 --> 00:52:36.579 God do what only He can do. This truth has changed 00:52:36.579 --> 00:52:40.099 our lives, and it's why we wrote Talk to Your 00:52:40.099 --> 00:52:42.820 Giants, to show you how to fight the good fight 00:52:42.820 --> 00:52:45.039 of faith, speak in agreement with God's Word, 00:52:45.159 --> 00:52:47.460 and discover the victory that comes when you 00:52:47.460 --> 00:52:51.440 stop talking And start talking to them. Order 00:52:51.440 --> 00:52:54.320 your copy of Talk to Your Giants today on Amazon.