Hearing God's Voice

I heard about this dude who loved to play golf.

One of his favorite courses was Pebble Beach in California.

And on one particular hole at Pebble Beach, you have to hit across the ocean onto an island green.

And this hole just gave the man fits every time he would hit it in the water.

So much so that as he played that hole, he just learned to not use a good ball.

He would just take out an old beat up ball.

Any guys know what I'm talking about?

You just know what's going in the water.

So you just drop a bad ball.

So one day he's playing the course.

He comes to that hole and he's about to hit his bad ball probably into the water when a voice from heaven heaven says, use a new ball.

The man steps back.

He is like amazed.

He's like divine intervention.

God's about to let me make a great shot.

So I'm going to put a new ball down.

He puts a new ball down.

He's about to hit it.

And the voice from heaven says, again, take a practice swing.

So he says, steps back.

He takes a practice swing, gets ready to hit the ball again.

The voice from heaven says, take another practice swing.

So he steps back, he takes another practice swing, gets ready to hit the ball, and the voice from heaven says, on second thought, put the old ball back down.

I read a book over the course of the last month by Tyler Staten.

It's a book called The Familiar Stranger.

And in that book, he talks about hearing from the spirit of God, the word of God from heaven.

This is what he says.

To hear and live by God's voice, it would seem, is one of the most potent ways and dangerous aspects of Christian spirituality.

Nothing matters more than learning to discern the voice of God, and yet few things in life are more susceptible to bringing you pain, to being abused, to delusion, and deception.

In other words, hearing God is one of the most powerful things in your life, and it's also kind of tricky, isn't it?

How many of y'all believe that God actually speaks to you?

Anybody believe that God actually speaks to you?

Pew Research says that about 75% of Americans believe that they can talk to God in some way.

Now, they may not be talking to God we're talking to, but they try to pray in some way.

But only about 28% of people in America believe that God would actually speak back.

Now, you may not be hearing God's voice, but I believe the scripture teaches that God does still speak today.

And he wants you to learn how to hear his voice.

And I want you to see this truth today revealed in a Bible story that everybody should know.

Okay, so for the next few weeks, we're going to be learning some stories that everybody should know.

And today, what I want you to hear is that God wants to speak to you.

You were made for relationship with him, not to come to church.

You were made for relationship with him.

And you come to church out of that relationship.

And so would you open up your heart today, open up the word of God today to the book of 1 Samuel chapter 3, and I want you to learn.

1 Samuel 3 · chapter mention

to have confidence that God speaks to you and you know how to hear from God.

That good?

I'm going to try not to preach for an hour and a half today.

I'm going to try to keep it in the time frame, but y'all know how it is whenever I come back from break.

I got a lot to say.

I'm going to try to say it real quickly today.

You probably know this story in 1 Samuel, at least a little bit of it.

You remember a guy in the Bible named Samuel.

If you don't remember him, you remember about his mama.

His mama couldn't have babies and she couldn't conceive, so she went to the temple to pray one day and she prayed, God, please give me a baby.

She said, God, if you'll give me a baby, I promise I'll give him back to you.

And God heard that prayer and she conceived and had a little baby boy named Samuel and she raised him until he was weaned.

And then she did what she said she would do.

She gave him back to God.

When Samuel was a small boy, she took him back to that place of worship, and she left him there under the care of a priest who also was a judge of Israel, a man named Eli.

Now, please, nobody get any ideas.

Don't drop your kids off tomorrow and say, well, you know, he's yours until he's 14.

That's not what we're doing, okay?

But that's what Hannah did.

She and her husband Elkanah took this boy to the church and said, God gave him to us.

We're giving him back to God.

It's from this story that one of the most famous Bible verses for baby dedication comes, right?

1 Samuel 1.27 says, This is Hannah's prayer.

She says, for this boy I prayed, and the Lord has given me my petition, which I asked of him, so I also dedicated him to the Lord.

As long as he lives, he's dedicated to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord there.

Any of y'all use that verse for your baby's dedication?

Anybody willing to say that?

A lot of y'all do.

It's a great verse.

God answered our prayers.

We're giving this child back to God.

Now, 1 Samuel chapter 2 tells us that his parents would come to visit Samuel each year.

1 Samuel 2 · chapter mention

They would come and worship.

They would bring him some clothes.

And when you get to 1 Samuel chapter 3, do you tradition tells us that Samuel's probably about 12 years old.

1 Samuel 3 · chapter mention

So for about eight, nine years, he sees his parents once a year, gets some clothes.

They all worship together.

But Samuel is at the temple.

What's he doing?

This is what the Bible says he's doing.

First Samuel three, verse one.

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord before Eli.

And word from the Lord was rare in in those days, and visions were infrequent.

The Bible says the Word of God was rare.

It's like a precious jewel that you'd be willing to pay good money for.

It was scarce.

It was hard to come by.

Visions were infrequent.

Communication from God was next to nil, almost nothing.

Now, why?

Why was the Word of God so rare?

Well, I'll tell you why I believe the word of God was rare.

I think some of it had to do with the culture in which they were living.

Eli is the next to last judge.

Before we start getting into kings, Samuel's going to be the last judge.

But if you don't remember, the book of Judges ends with this verse.

Judges chapter 21, verse 25 says,"'In those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.'" So in a culture where everybody's like, man, I'm just going to do what I think is right.

Judges 21:25

God says, if you're not going to listen to me, I'm not going to talk to you.

So some of it was the culture.

But part of that culture were preacher's kids.

Eli has two sons.

Their names are Hophni and Phinehas.

And they are, the Bible says, 1 Samuel 2, I'm not calling them names.

The Bible says they are wicked and worthless.

They don't know God at all.

They rob from people when they come to make offerings at the temple.

They're sleeping with girls who work at the church.

And God is not happy.

And it leads me to say, God doesn't speak with or share his heart with wicked people who are just doing their own thing.

Now, adding to that, Eli, the guy who's the priest, the guy who's supposed to be the voice for God in a way, he knows what his sons are doing.

He actually calls them out, but he doesn't do anything about it.

God's not happy.

2 Samuel 2.29, God sends a prophet to say to Eli, you're honoring your kids over me, and that ain't going to work.

You're choosing to honor your children more than me.

You won't deal with them for whatever reason, so I'm about to judge you and this whole family.

And guess what Eli does with that warning from God?

Nothing.

He does nothing.

No repentance, no prayers of confession to God, no discipline of his sons.

Now, here's what I want you to understand.

Here's why the Word of God is rare.

Eli and his sons are apparently living for themselves.

They're just serving themselves.

They're using God, but it's all about them.

Do people do that?

Of course they do.

Their lives are all about them, what they could get.

These boys are wicked, and even Eli, even though he knows it's wrong, he enjoys the fact that, man, they sure do eat good.

Eli becomes a real fat guy.

God seldom speaks to people who don't know him, who don't honor him, and who don't do anything with what God tells them.

The word of God is rare in those days and to those people.

Now, in this story, in the big picture, the metanarrative, Samuel is going to stand in stark contrast to the wickedness of his culture and to the wickedness of the priest and his kids.

At the temple, Samuel, this little boy, is ministering to the Lord.

He worked at the temple just helping out and serving God.

He's just this little kid that his mama dropped off at the church and comes to visit him once a year and bring him new clothes.

But his parents had instilled within him the idea that you honor God You worship God faithfully.

And Samuel watched and he heard his parents pray and worship.

Men, can I speak it over you?

Your example to your family is enormous.

Your sons and daughters need to see you worship and pray because that becomes normal for them.

Amen.

I speak that over all of us today, that the next generation needs to see a generation of moms and dads who honor God and who seek God and listen for God's voice and follow what he says.

And I want to speak to the next generation, to the younger generation.

You listen for God's voice, even if your parents don't, because God will speak to you if you want to hear him.

God starts speaking to Samuel while he's serving God.

And because, hear me, it's because he's serving God.

He's not seeking something from God.

He's actively just living his life to give something back to God.

He has the faith of a child.

Children don't know yet that you can give to get.

Then I'll scratch your back so that you'll come back around and scratch mine too.

Come on.

How many of y'all know we can be transactional with God?

You go to church on Sunday so that the appraiser will give you a good appraisal.

On Monday, you read the Bible so that God will give you a better job or a better boyfriend.

Don't act like you don't do it.

We've all done it.

Right?

But that is not Samuel's heart.

Right?

In a day when everybody was doing what was right in their own eyes, Samuel is doing what is right in God's eyes.

Listen to me.

He's serving God for God's sake because God is worthy, because God loves him, and because God made him, and God wanted to bless his life.

That was it.

He just wanted to honor God back.

He wasn't trying to use God.

He wanted God to use him back.

And I submit to you that God will speak to a person who has a heart like that.

Nobody else may be hearing from God around you, but today God says to you, I'll talk to you.

You may have never heard God speak to you before, but that can change today.

1 Samuel 3 verse 2 says it happened at that time while Samuel's ministering to God.

1 Samuel 3:2

At that time, as Eli was lying down in his place, now his eyesight had begun to grow dim and he couldn't see well, so he's an older guy.

But the lamp of God hadn't yet gone out.

He's not dead yet.

And Samuel is lying down.

Check this out.

He's lying down in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was.

He's as close to the presence of God as he can get.

He ain't hanging out with them two hoodlums.

that are Eli's sons, he's as close to the presence of God as he can get.

And I got a feeling it's because his mama told him to.

He is right there near the ark of God.

And that's when the Lord called Samuel.

And Samuel said, here I am.

And he ran to Eli and said, here I am.

You called me.

But Eli said, I didn't call you.

Go back and lie down.

So he went back and laid down again.

So on the night while he's sleeping in the temple, as close to God's presence as he can get, God calls.

And that word is a verbal, a vocal, an out loud voice.

He hears it.

Goes to Eli, what's up?

Nothing, man, go back a bit.

Verse six says, the Lord called yet again.

Samuel, Samuel rose and went to Eli and said, here I am, you called me.

He said, I didn't call you, man, go back and lay down.

Verse seven gives a little bit of a clarifying word.

This is why Samuel doesn't know that it's God.

Verse seven says, now Samuel didn't yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him.

Now when it says he doesn't know the Lord yet, it means his understanding of God is minimal.

He worships God, he's ministering to God, but he hasn't learned God's voice yet, not personally.

He was religious, he's serving God, but God hadn't become personal to him, hadn't started speaking to him yet.

Wasn't on his radar that God would or could talk to him.

And I just want to say that may be somebody here right now.

That you love God, you really do, you want to serve God, but it's never occurred to you that God might, could, or would want to talk to you.

And so please, as much as God's spirit would allow you to hear today, would you hear God say to you, I want to start talking to you.

You don't have to have the preacher.

or a podcast, God wants to start talking to you.

It doesn't matter if you've never heard him before.

It doesn't matter if you're seven or 77.

Good news, God wants to start talking to you.

You ready to receive that?

It happens the third time.

Verse eight says, the Lord called Samuel again for the third time and he arose and he went to Eli and he said, here I am, you called me.

And then Eli discerned that the Lord was calling the boy.

So Eli said to Samuel, go lie down and it shall be if he calls you that you shall say, speak Lord for your servant is listening.

So Samuel went and laid down in his place and the Lord came and he stood and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel.

And Samuel said, speak for your servant's listening.

And the Lord said to Samuel, behold, I'm about to do a thing in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle.

In that day, I will carry out against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end.

For I have told him that I'm about to judge his house forever for the iniquity, which he knew because his sons brought a curse on themselves and he didn't rebuke them.

Therefore, I've sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.

Samuel laid down until morning and then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and he was afraid to tell the vision to Eli.

And Eli called Samuel and he said, Samuel, my son, he said, here I am.

He said, what's the word that he spoke to you?

Please don't hide it from me.

May God do so to you and more also if you had anything from me of all the words that he spoke to you.

So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him.

And Eli said, it is the Lord.

Let him do what seems good to him.

Thus Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fail.

And all Israel from Dan to Bershaba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord.

That's a story you should know.

It's a story you should know because it tells you that God wants to speak.

It's been his desire and his design since the Garden of Eden when he walked with Adam in the cool of the day and would have conversation.

That's God's desire.

It's his design for you that he would speak.

Can I give you some verses?

Psalm 85 verse 8 says, I will hear what God the Lord will say for he will speak peace to his people.

Psalms 85:8

Watch it.

To his godly ones.

But let them turn back.

but let them not turn back to folly.

In other words, you see what the verse is saying.

God will speak to his people, to godly ones, but he doesn't promise to speak to ungodly people and he doesn't promise to speak to people who just keep going back to their same stupid ways.

But he wants to speak.

He wants to speak peace into your life.

John 8, verse 47, Jesus said, he who is of God, look at this, hears the words of God.

John 8:47

For this reason, you don't hear them because you're not of God.

Now, this is a wake-up call, but I gotta say it.

It's in the scripture.

When you are a follower of Jesus, God promises you will hear his word.

And if you can't hear from God, that's a problem.

That's not a matter of your ears.

It's a matter of your heart.

Do you hear what he's saying to you right now?

It's a sobering word.

God speaks to his children.

His children hear his voice.

He says and promises in Jeremiah 33, three, called me and I'll answer you.

I'll tell you great and mighty things which you don't even know.

God says, if you'll ask, I'll talk.

Revelation 3, 20, a famous verse where God was speaking to people already saved, to a church.

He says, behold, I'm standing at the door and I'm knocking.

If you hear my voice...

And you open up the door, I'll come into him and will dine with him and he with me.

God's trying to say to us, Pine Lake, that he's still speaking.

He still wants to talk to you about being a man, about being a dad, about being a wife, about being a friend, about being an employee.

He still wants to speak to you about what it looks like to live your life daily to honor him.

God wants to speak sometimes more than I want to listen.

Jesus taught us that his sheep hear his voice.

Y'all remember that?

John chapter 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

He says, truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep but climbs up some other way is a thief and a robber.

In other words, there's a lot of people trying to get your attention.

But he who enters by the door is a 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 puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.

A stranger they simply will not follow but they will actually flee from him because they don't know the voice of the stranger.

What is Jesus saying?

He says the shepherd speaks to his sheep.

He calls them by name.

Come on, any of y'all raised up in the country?

Anybody raised in the country at any campus?

Anybody raised in the country?

Whenever country folk, you gotta understand, men who raise cows, you look out at a field of cows, you go, man, that's much cows.

But a farmer looks out there and goes, yep, there's those speckles, there's speckle face.

Yep, there's, you know, this one and that one.

They know them by name.

Anybody know what I'm talking about?

The farmer knows all the cows by name.

I don't, because they ain't my cows.

But when they're your cows, you care about your cows.

Jesus speaks to his sheep, calls them by name and he speaks.

Listen, he wants to speak to you because he loves you and he cares for you and he has a great plan for your life, but you gotta be listening.

His sheep hear and know his voice.

The way we used to do whenever I was growing up before caller ID and somebody would call and you'd say hello and they would say, what's up?

And you would say, what's up?

And you know who it is.

Anybody know what I'm talking about?

Y'all do it at work already.

You know, somebody's talking out there, maybe in the living room, or maybe somebody's talking in another cubicle, and you go, no, I know who that is.

I ain't going over there.

Y'all know what I'm talking about?

You know a voice?

You recognize a voice?

Come on, mamas, y'all know what it is.

You can be in a crowded place, a baby starts crying, and you're like, no, that ain't mine.

But if it is yours, you know if they're hurt, you know if they're mad, you know what it is.

You just can train yourself.

You know the Bible says you can train yourself to hear God's voice?

Hebrews 5 verse 14 says, solid food is for the mature who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

Hebrews 5:14

You can train yourself to discern this is God.

This is God.

I've heard God enough.

That's God.

I know it.

Sounds crazy, but I know it.

His sheep know his voice and then they follow him.

They walk behind the shepherd.

They go where he's taking them and lead them.

John 10, 27 says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

See, I think God could speak to Samuel because he knew that Samuel would do something with what he heard.

And it scared the you know what out of him.

but he told Eli everything he heard.

And I think it prepared him in the future to speak to kings and to nations and to say, this is what God says.

Don't hate the messenger.

This is what God says.

God speaks in a variety of ways.

I don't know that he's gonna speak to you in an audible voice.

I'm not saying he's not, but in my experience, And as I read the balance of scripture, I think typically speaking, God speaks through many, many ways.

One of the ways God speaks to you, the primary way God speaks to you is through this book.

It is the revealed word of God.

Anything that you hear that contradicts that book, that ain't God.

Samuel heard God speak, but listen to me.

I think it was kind of a layup.

This was kind of an easy one to break him in.

It wasn't some crazy word that nobody had ever heard of.

God spoke to Samuel the exact same word that God had already spoken to another prophet who had given that word to Eli.

So Samuel's not dreaming up something.

He's speaking what God had already said to a prophet, and that prophet spoke to Eli what was in alignment with the word of God that says if you honor God, God honors you, and if you don't, God's going to smoke you.

You feel me?

God speaks through the word.

Sometimes he speaks through the Holy Spirit prompting you.

It's just a sense in your heart that something's right or it's wrong.

You should or you shouldn't.

Jesus said in John 16, 13, that when he, the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak.

He will disclose to you what is to come.

He will glorify me, for he will take of mine, and he will disclose it to you.

When we just sang a moment ago, I'm listening for your voice.

Holy Spirit, fall like rain.

This is a way that God speaks to you by the spirit who lives inside of every believer.

The Spirit of God prompts and leads.

Now, how do you know it's God's Spirit speaking and not just me?

Here's the test.

Is what the Spirit's saying, is it glorifying Jesus or is it glorifying you?

If it's glorifying Jesus, this is the test.

John 16, 14, I just read it.

If it glorifies Jesus, probably God.

But if it's just all about you, it's probably just bad pizza.

But the Holy Spirit says, speaks and many times he uses the word.

God can speak to you through dreams and visions.

Think about all the times in the Bible where God spoke to someone through a dream or through a vision.

I think about Joseph in the Old Testament or Joseph in the New Testament.

Peter, Paul, Daniel, Potiphar's wife, Ezekiel saw some bizarre stuff as does John in the book of what we call Revelation.

But that is a promise from God in Joel repeated by Peter on the day of Pentecost.

Acts 2 verse 17 says, It shall be in the last days, God says, that I will pour forth of my spirit on all mankind, on your sons and daughters.

Acts 2:17

They shall both prophesy.

Your young men shall see visions and your old men will dream dreams.

Even on my bond slaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of my spirit and they shall prophesy.

God speaks to men and women, young and old, sometimes through dreams and visions.

God ever done that to you?

I feel like God warned me one time.

He warned me I'd been driving too fast.

And I'd been driving too fast.

And it's like God gave me a nightmare.

And I said, got it.

Was that from God?

I don't know.

But I felt like it was.

There's a guy on our staff who said that he and his wife separately had the same dream, that they got married and had a daughter, but they didn't tell each other.

Until after they got married and had a daughter, that's when they told each other that they had actually been given a dream.

He said, literally, I'm married to the girl of my dreams today.

Okay?

Now, can I be honest with you?

Not every dream you have is from God.

You may have just taken a little bit too much melatonin.

Okay, so let's just be real.

Come on, you take too much melatonin, you have really vivid, wild, crazy dreams.

But a lot of times in your subconscious, God is talking to you.

Sometimes God speaks through Christian counsel, the desires of your heart, open doors.

He even speaks through nature.

Romans 1 says God speaks to us through what's been created.

The Psalms say that God, the heavens declare the glory of the Lord.

Some of you like to hear from God in nature, especially during hunting season, where my brother's at.

That's why you don't come to church during hunting season.

No, I hear from God in a tree.

I know you do.

And I ain't hating on that, fellas.

Y'all know I ain't hating on that.

But here's what I do when I ask you honestly, what's he saying?

And even more importantly, what are we doing with it?

Whatever he says.

You feel me?

Man, go experience God.

But make sure you're listening.

And then you do something with that.

Whatever you think God is saying, through the Spirit, through dreams, visions, Christian counsel, desires, open doors, nature, whatever it is, it's got to align with this book.

If it doesn't align with the word of God already revealed, it wasn't God.

I had a guy one time tell me that it was God's will for him to have an affair.

He had dreamed about it.

He desired it.

He wanted to do it.

He had an opportunity to do it.

One of his friends even told him it was okay.

And that's awesome.

The only problem with that is this book says thou shalt not.

Y'all feel that?

This is our standard.

Eli, Samuel's word was in direct alignment with what God had said.

Now, I'm convinced that God can speak to you in a lot of ways, and there are some times that maybe he'll speak to you.

I think one of the times that he speaks to you is just daily while you're in the word, while you're reading the word of God, and while you're praying.

This requires discipline.

That's the key word here.

This requires discipline, but daily you're in the word, you're reading, and you're just putting yourself in the He doesn't always speak something profound every day, but he's speaking, and sometimes it is profound.

I know I'm talking to somebody here, and you're wanting God to write it on the wall.

Anybody know what I'm talking about?

Well, God's probably not going to write it on the wall, but he has already written it in the word.

His word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path, so if you want to hear from God, start reading the Bible.

That's a daily discipline.

I love Isaiah 50 verse four where it says, the Lord God has given me the tongue of disciples that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word.

He awakens me morning by morning.

He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple.

The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not disobedient, nor did I turn back.

Y'all see what that's saying?

That you can say, God, give me the ears of a disciple to hear you, to walk in that, and then to pass that word on to somebody else.

Back in February, I was at a gathering of preachers and just doing my L3.

My L3 at the time was in Acts, and I was reading Acts chapter 8.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

And in Acts chapter 8, Peter and James and John had gone to a particular place, and some people trusted Jesus, and they put their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit, and it's on like forever.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

Fire.

And there's a magician there who sees it and he says to Peter, hey bro, could I pay you and you show me how to do that thing?

And Peter lights him up.

He said, man, may you go to hell with your money too, blah, blah, blah, blah, down the road.

And God just spoke to me.

I wasn't really looking for it, but God just spoke to me.

You know what?

There are people who would want to use God to enrich themselves.

And if they don't have an anointing, they'll steal your anointing.

They'll borrow your anointing.

So God was just saying to me, put your head down and just run your lane.

That wasn't necessarily profound, but it was just for me a good word to say, let me just run my lane.

Later on that evening at dinner, we were sitting at a table with people I did not know.

And there's this dude sitting beside me.

This big guy played football and wrestled at the University of Oklahoma.

He's a pastor now.

And we're just talking it up.

And it's like God spoke to me and said, tell him what I told you this morning.

Now, when I say God told me, please hear me, I sensed that word that God had implanted in my heart was just something I was supposed to share to this brother.

And so I looked at this guy.

Look, he could squash me, y'all.

He could absolutely squash me.

This guy's huge.

I said, bro, this is going to sound crazy because you don't know me and I don't know you.

But I sense in my spirit I'm supposed to tell you something.

Right out of Acts chapter 8, God says, told me this morning, this is a word for you right now, that there may be some people who are trying to steal your or borrow your anointing and monetize your anointing, and you're supposed to just keep your head down and walk what God has for you.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

As I'm saying that, his face lights up, his wife beside him starts flooding with tears.

And he says to me, bro, you are reading my mail.

I have no idea what that means.

don't.

I don't know what it meant.

I just knew that God had spoken an ordinary mundane word in my heart and the spirit quickened it to say, share it with this brother.

And somehow it was transformative for him as he was making a life decision.

You hear me?

Get in God's word every day and do it.

Sometimes God speaks to you along the way, somewhat like I'm explaining to you, not in the moment, but along the way, that very word comes back.

Sometimes God speaks to you along the way with spiritual promptings, and that requires from you awareness and discernment.

To be in the word every day requires discipline.

To hear God's voice along the way requires you to have some awareness and some discernment about whether or not this is God or not.

The spirit will whisper to you, don't say that.

Or tell them you love them.

Tell them you're sorry.

Come on, y'all ever heard that?

And it don't go very well, does it?

But if you'll follow that Spirit prompting, things go better.

God may prompt you through the Spirit to put your phone down, to send a text, to change the channel.

The Bible says in Isaiah 30, verse 20, to some people who hadn't been following God so much, although the Lord has given you bread of provision, privation and water of oppression.

Isaiah 30:20

He, your teacher, will no longer hide himself, but your eyes will behold your teacher.

Your ears will hear a word behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it.

Whenever you turn to the right or to the left, do you hear what he's saying?

He's saying to you, you might not be used to following God, but if you would start doing it, he'd start telling you, go left, go right, this is the way.

I was at the gym yesterday and a young guy who raised up in our church came up to me and I already talked to him one time, just, you know, what's up?

And he said to me, hey, man, you said a minute ago, how you doing?

And I lied.

I told you I was good.

I ain't good.

I'm anxious.

And he began to tell me how he's taking a new job.

He feels like it's God's call on his life.

He's in a new city, away from what's familiar.

And he said, man, I've never battled anxiety in my life, and I'm battling anxiety, and I don't know what to do.

And he said, I saw you walk in the gym, and the Spirit of God told me, go talk to him.

And I didn't want to do it.

But I'm so thankful that he did because it was a good, I think, helpful conversation for both of us to be able to talk about, you know what?

When you follow God, it doesn't mean you always have peace.

Sometimes you have anxious moments, but yet God's word says, give those to him too and trust him in what you don't know.

You follow what the Spirit speaks.

That takes awareness and some discernment.

But sometimes God speaks to you as you need direction on a particular specific thing.

It's a big thing, God.

I need you to talk to me.

And that requires patience.

That's going to require some patience.

According to Exodus 24, Moses went up on Mount Sinai and waited six days before God ever said a word.

In the book of Jeremiah, some people came to Jeremiah and said, we don't know what to do.

What do you think God wants us to do?

And the Bible says in Jeremiah 42, 7, at the end of 10 days, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.

I wrote in the margin of my Bible.

He waited 10 days for God to speak.

I won't wait 10 minutes.

Come on, can I get an amen out of anybody?

I mean, we are such a fast-paced speak now, God.

If God doesn't speak, well, I just have to be forced to take matters into my own hands.

How's that going for you?

It don't go too good for me.

If you really want to hear God speak on something, it's going to take some patience.

If you want to hear God speak to you about your job, about your career, about your money, about a relationship, these are decisions way too big for you to just kind of wing it.

You need to hear from God.

How do you hear from God on a big decision like this?

Here's how I'm learning, and this comes from years of reading various people, listening, and just practicing.

Here are kind of the steps I follow when I'm trying to discern, God, what are you saying?

Step one is you gotta remove distractions.

Jesus, the Bible says in Mark 1.35, would get up and go to a secluded place to pray.

He would get along and he would remove all other voices and all other distractions.

To me, it's really hard to hear God when I got a million things going on.

You need to get into a place where there are no distractions or as few as possible and remove anything that can take your mind away.

Put your phone, turn it off, put it away, turn off the TV.

Maybe find yourself a place in...

a bedroom or the bathtub or the shower or in the car by yourself.

Any of those places could be enough.

But find yourself a place free from distraction.

You're trying to help your brain and your senses be as minimally distracted as possible.

This year at camp, we didn't allow our students to take their cell phones.

That was somewhat controversial.

But the purpose of that was twofold.

One is we didn't want them to do anything stupid with a video camera.

But more importantly, we didn't want any distractions that would keep them from hearing what God had to say.

And man, that phone can be a big distraction, can't it?

So if you're gonna hear from God, minimize the distractions, okay?

God spoke to Samuel, not while he was working, but while he was laying down.

Still.

undistracted.

Secondly, quiet your soul.

Sometimes it helps me to just breathe for a minute and just say, God, I wanna come present before you.

I wanna be mindful of you.

And so this is what you do.

You say, God, I wanna be in your presence.

I claim that you're here with me.

And if your mind starts to turn to, man, groceries or work or that person, just say, God, I give you that person.

I give you work.

I give you groceries.

God, I give you all that.

I just wanna be present before you.

To you.

And if you have all these voices that are going on in your head, right?

Sometimes you have to say, in Jesus' name, I command every other voice in my head, the voice of my flesh, the voice of this world, the voice of the enemy, the voice of my mama, the voice of expectation, in Jesus' name, be quiet.

Holy Spirit, you alone can speak to me now.

This is part of you standing in your authority as a child of God.

But there's a verse for it.

James chapter four, verse seven says, submit therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Draw near to God, he'll draw near to you.

So remove the distractions, quiet your soul and then cleanse your heart.

Make sure there's nothing between you and God that would keep you from hearing his spirit.

That's why the word of God was so rare in Samuel's day because everybody was just doing whatever the heck they wanted to.

And it took the faith of a child to hear.

So God cleansed my heart If you know there's a sin that you need to confess and repent of, say, God, I give you that right now.

Change my heart.

I'm done with it.

And if you can't think of anything else, say, God, I pray, Holy Spirit, would you search me and try me?

Psalm 139.

Search me, oh God, know my heart.

Try me, know my anxious thought.

If there's any hurtful way in me, lead me in the way everlasting.

God, show me.

So cleanse your heart.

Fourthly, surrender your will.

Tell God that you know that you have desires around this thing.

You have emotional attachment to whatever it is you're praying about or seeking direction about, but you're laying down your will and your desires at his feet, trusting him.

Jesus modeled that for us in the garden.

God, you know what I want, but I'm laying down my will, not my will, but your will.

So I surrender to his will.

And then fifthly, you invite the Holy Spirit to speak.

It's what Samuel does.

Speak Lord, your servant is listening.

And then you just ask the Lord to speak to you about that one thing.

Don't ask him about seven things, ask him about one thing.

And then you wait.

Samuel listened and waited and God spoke.

I personally do not wait on an audible voice.

God doesn't speak to me, hasn't spoken to me that way.

But I do wait on the spirit of the Lord to speak.

and I'll let the word of God speak.

Ephesians 1.17 says that Paul prayed that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him.

So sometimes the spirit, when you're saying, okay, God, speak to me.

Speak to me, I'm waiting.

Maybe he'll give you a Bible verse.

Maybe he'll give you a picture.

Maybe he'll give you a thought.

Sometimes he'll remind you of a Bible story.

But whatever that is, say, God, if that's you, I want to pray that.

I want to speak that.

I want to do that.

Then I write it down.

It's the last thing I do.

Write down whatever it is you think God is saying and then weigh it against the word.

You weigh it against the word and say, God, is this you?

Samuel heard God speak through a vision, through an audible voice, and that word he received was in alignment with what God had already said through the prophet in 1 Samuel 2.27.

And so you write it down and you say, God, is this you?

Now here's the question for you.

What do you do then if you hear God speak?

The answer is obey it.

Do whatever it is.

Thank God for it, but then do what he says do.

That's why he's speaking to you, not so you have more information, but that your life could be different.

Do you hear that?

Would you waste your time talking to somebody who ain't listening or not going to do what you say?

Neither would God.

Jesus says in Luke 11, 28, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.

And can I just say to you, the more you hear God's word and do it, the more God will speak to you.

I'm convinced God didn't talk to Eli because Eli wasn't doing anything with what God had already told him.

So until you're doing something with what God's already told him, you're maybe wasting your time to ask him to do something different or something new.

Y'all with that?

So if God speaks, obey.

Here's the real question for some of us.

What are you doing with the word God has already spoken?

You don't need God to speak something new.

God's already spoken to you, just like he spoke to Eli.

What are you doing with that word that you've already received?

Come on, I'm talking to somebody right now.

God's been warning you.

God's been trying to get your attention.

God's been saying to you, wake up, wake up.

Would you do what my mama used to say?

She would say, you better straighten up and fly right.

Anybody's mom ever say that?

You better straighten up and fly right.

Hey, you came to church on this day and this is the word and God is saying to you, you've heard his voice and he's been saying to you, that's enough.

That's enough.

That's enough.

Because the window of opportunity for you to do right closes.

And so if there's something for you to stop doing, if there's something for you to start doing, if there's a way of life that God's calling you to or a way of life God's calling you out of, today is the day.

Hebrews 3.15 says, today if you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts as when they provoked me.

And so the question on the table for you today is, do you believe God still speaks?

It can be powerful and it can be tricky Is God speaking to you now?

And if he is, what's he saying?

And what will you do with it?

There's one way I believe that God is speaking to all of us even now, and that comes from Hebrews chapter one, verse one, where the scripture says this, God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in his son.

whom he appointed as heir of all things, through whom also he made the world.

I believe God is speaking to you right now through Jesus, and this is what he's trying to say.

I love you like crazy, and I want a relationship with you, and I want you to learn to trust me, but you've got to stop living according to this world in your own way.

Stop doing what's right in your own eyes.

Give your heart to me, and I'll make your path straight.

forever come on across the room right now wherever you are would you just quiet your heart for just a moment what is God saying to you what's he speaking this is not church this is life it's not religion it's a relationship that God's calling you into this is what he wants your regular life to be like from now on that you would hear God as a little boy And you would say, God, I'll do whatever you tell me.

That for the rest of your life, this is the way you live life.

God, you're in control.

I'm not.

I trust you.

And what I don't understand, God, I'll still trust you.

Holy Spirit, speak to me.

Fall like rain.

Speak now.

Would you make room for God to lead you, to break down all the ways that you've kind of fashioned your own life and to shake up all the comfortable places in your life?

Would you just say to God right now, God, I'm making room for you today to lead me.

Teach me to hear your voice and follow.

For some of you, today is a day where you need to say to Jesus, I surrender my life.

I confess my sin.

God, change me.

Sometimes it helps for you to have a brother or sister just lay a hand on you and affirm what maybe you're sensing today or to pray for you.

And when we stand up and sing this last song, there are going to be people around the front of the room.

They'd love to pray with you.

Maybe you just lean over to your son or daughter or your friend beside you and say, hey, would you pray for me for just a second?

That'd be cool too.

But would you make room for God and respond to what you hear him saying?

Jesus, I love you and I thank you and I bless you that your sheep know your voice, that you speak.

Speak now.

Holy Spirit, silence every other voice of the enemy, of our flesh, of this world, of our parents, of expectations, of everything else.

And God, I pray, would you speak to us?

And God, call us to yourself for your glory.

Change us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.