How God Communicates With Us | Pastor J.R. Polhemus | The Road Church

Hello everyone, I'm Dr.

Steve Holt.

I want to welcome you to the Road Church Podcast.

Each week we go into God's Word.

We teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse.

And we are here to build a Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world.

So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life.

I want to talk today about something that I feel is extremely important.

It's how God communicates with us.

And there's so many ways.

There's a myriad of ways, but I'm only going to focus on three this morning.

And before I do that, too, I want to introduce my wife to you because I probably wouldn't be here, wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for her.

Honey, would you stand up?

Give her a hand, would you?

But anyway, um, this reminds me too of a story where this lady walks in to the attorney's office and says, I want a divorce.

And the attorney says, Okay, well sit down.

He goes, Do you have grounds?

She says, Yes, we own five acres and have a nice home out in the country.

He goes, No, no, no, no.

Let me ask you this.

Are you struggling with this?

Do you have a grudge?

She goes, No, we don't need a grudge because we have uh a carport.

He's starting to get frustrated.

And so he says, Well, let me ask you this.

Does your husband do things that bother you?

I mean, does he beat you up?

She goes, No, I get up about an hour earlier than he does every morning.

By now he's really, really having a hard time.

So he says, he says to her, he goes, uh, listen, let's focus on you, because you have a part in this.

He goes, let me ask you something.

Do you ever have a bad attitude?

Do you ever wake up grumpy?

She goes, No, I don't wake him up.

He's usually in a bad mood, and I let him sleep in.

Finally, he says, okay, well, why do you want a divorce?

He goes, because he can't communicate with me.

Anyway, you get the point.

See, communication is so essential.

God is always wanting to communicate with us, and he does it in so many ways.

One of the most powerful ways is through his word.

You know, um, oh, in Psalm 119, which is very powerful, talks about his word over and over.

Psalm 119, 11 says, I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Uh, a little further in it says, his word is a lamp onto my feet and a light onto my path.

And then I'm gonna, I want you to look at this scripture.

Is that Psalm 119 verse 130 says this?

Psalms 119:130

It says, uh, first of all, it says, the entrance of thy words giveth light, it giveth understanding unto the simple.

Psalm 119, 130.

You see, the truth is that the word is our foundation.

I think Steve's one of the best teachers I've ever heard.

He's an incredible teacher and he brings the word with such power.

But I I gotta say that it's so, so important that we let the word become part of us.

Not just read it.

You know, it's great to read the word through in a year, but sometimes people are just trying to check it off the list.

Let God speak to you through his word by the power of the Holy Spirit.

That's what changes our life.

That's where revelation comes.

And uh I feel like the moral to the story is that God wants to really communicate with us, and sometimes we're pretty hard to communicate with.

Uh, you know, um, this is a scripture that actually, Isaiah 41, verse 13, is a scripture that the Lord actually gave me this week because I knew it would be for somebody, and I don't know who it is, but it says, For the Lord your God will hold your right hand, saying to you, fear not, I will help you.

Isaiah 41:13

You know, sometimes we feel like we're in it all alone, but we're not.

And he's there for us and he wants to help us.

Point number two is how does God communicate with us?

Through other believers.

You know, I can't tell you how important it is to have other people, connection with other people, and let them speak into your lives.

There's so many times when God has brought truth to me at a time when I desperately, desperately needed it.

A time where I was really hurting.

Um, I have a friend who's here today, who has been my friend for many, many years.

In fact, I have several, I have other friends here who've been deeply important to me in my life.

But that person for years actually was there for me at times when I struggled and brought wisdom to me.

I could trust, I could trust because I knew they would press into God, they would press into the Word.

And so I'm deeply, deeply grateful for those relationships.

And I want to encourage you, if you're not in a home group, you're not in some kind of relationship with folks, you know, there's no Lone Rangers in the Bible.

In fact, the Lone Ranger, for those of you who remember Lone Ranger, even the Lone Ranger had Tonno, you remember?

He didn't go out alone.

Jesus sent them out in twos.

We need each other.

And we need this.

That's why it's so important.

I want to tell you one of the most important things that happened in my life.

Um, by the way, I had hair about as long as John.

My beard was never that strong, John.

But uh, but but anyway, I lived on a commune in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

I was lost as a post, uh, strung out on drugs, broken relationships with women.

My life was a total disaster.

My life was just in a downward spiral.

And I remember on the commune, there was a guy, he was a cowboy, and he would come up and help us.

And he he he just, I wanted to be around him.

He just glowed.

His name was Ralph.

And I remember the last time he came, uh his wife had come once with him, and she didn't approve because the girls didn't wear enough clothing.

So anyway, I won't go into details there, but all I want to say is he came up and he just broken heart and he goes, I love you guys, and he did love us.

He said, I love you guys.

He never judged us.

I loved you guys so much.

And then he pointed to three people.

He said, and you and you, and then he pointed to me, he said, You're you're gonna come to know the Lord.

Now we were all just struggling out there, and uh, and and so I but he said then he stops with me and he goes, but by the way, you're gonna go through some darkness first.

Wow, that word followed me through the darkness because I did.

But then at 28 and a half years old, Jesus came into my life.

And you know, the the the girl he pointed to, she and her husband were the one that led me to the Lord.

And uh, I don't ever know, I we lost track of the third person, but I cannot wait to get to heaven to see Ralph because his word carried me through those really hard times and helped me to open my heart to Jesus.

And I just want to thank God for Jesus.

Because without him, where would we be?

I mean, I don't know.

I don't know how people make it without Jesus.

Because we all go through things, we all go through struggles, and but we got somebody that goes through it with us.

You know, one of the most powerful verses, and I don't have this up on the screen, but uh, it's right at the end of Hebrews, and it it says, you know, that we have a high priest, and it hasn't double negatives, but basically we have a high priest who's able to sympathize with us in all our struggles and weaknesses.

Now, and then it says, because he was tempted in every way like us, but without sin.

So he understands what we're going through.

Now, interestingly enough, uh recently I looked up the word sympathized.

Most of the new translations say sympathize, and I looked up the original language, and the word there is empathize.

Now, sympathize is if I sympathize with you, I feel sorry for you.

If I empathize with you, I feel your pain.

We have a savior who empathizes, he knows and feels the struggles we're going through.

So I gotta tell you, it's so, so, so important to know he's for you.

He's not against you, he's not trying to put you down.

Sometimes well-meaning Christians will do that unknowingly, or maybe knowingly, but anyway, the point is that God is there for us and he'll help us.

You know, there's a scripture, uh, Steve preached on this recently, but Ananias was used to bring God's word and power to Paul.

In fact, uh, actually in Acts chapter 19, 9, 17, and Ananias went his way and entered the house, and laying his hands on him, on Paul, or what he was actually Saul of Tarsus at that point, and he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

God used a person to really impact the guy that became Apostle Paul.

And he'd been a persecutor of Christians.

I mean, that was such a dramatic thing that happened.

And I gotta say that it's so amazing when God uses us.

I don't know about you, but I'm always shocked when God uses me, because I figure how can he, how can he use it, you know, uh, I was gonna say a dumbass, but you're not allowed to say that in church.

But but but that's the way I feel sometimes.

I mean, I'm just being totally honest with you.

That's the way I sometimes I feel, and I I'm thinking, you know, if God can use me, and he used a, you know, he used a mule, a donkey, he can use anybody, amen.

And so know that he wants to use you to help other people.

He wants you to feel their pain so you can really minister to them and help them.

And uh, you know, I I pastored the rock for 29 years, and a little over 10 years ago, uh I left that to to pursue counseling, which I do a lot of, and um, and also help other churches.

And I've been very excited to be here.

Well, I've been working, the church hired me to come here and work with them uh since June, January 1st.

And uh I love this church, I love the staff here, I love, I mean, I love everything about it, and I'm so grateful that at this point in my life, and I I was able to help two churches up in Denver, and that was very great, and uh, I'm really glad to be here, but but I want you to know I love you, even though I don't know all of you.

I had a great time at the men's at the men's uh advance.

I almost said retreat, but anyway, at the men's advance, I had a great time.

Uh I mean, it was just a very, very powerful time for me personally.

But uh anyway, I want to talk about the third area.

So we've talked about the word, we've talked about other believers and how important that is, and how God speaks through them or uses them to minister to us.

And then the third area is the impartation of the Holy Spirit.

Now, this is a little tricky because sometimes there are some people that believe God doesn't, he doesn't communicate with us that way.

He only communicates through the word and through other believers.

But but I want to tell you, that's not true.

The truth is that God communicated, and and I know this firsthand.

I remember when I first, well, right after I got out of cemetery, I mean seminary, when I got out, I I I pastored a church up in Grand Lake, and I didn't really know what I was doing.

You know, seminary doesn't teach you how to be a pastor.

I mean, I could go to the Greek, I could go to Hebrew, you know, it would, I would bounce off my theology.

And it was good, it wasn't bad, but they didn't teach you how to be a pastor.

So you have to learn the hard way.

That's why I don't have any hair.

Now, actually, that's not true.

I was actually somewhat bald when I started pastoring.

But anyway, the point was, uh, I remember I would go down by a stream, this beautiful stream that I would go to in the summer, in the winter, uh, you know, and I would just, I would just meditate by the stream and I'd take the word, and God began to speak to me.

I mean, and and again, when I say speak, that's a bad term.

God began to communicate with me.

Now, God does not communicate through these little flappers on the side of our head.

And people that are trying to hear God audibly, I've never heard God audibly.

Now, he can speak audibly, but it's seldom that he does.

And so don't try to hear him audibly.

I want to show you here, and this is so important.

God began to teach me this, and it I remember he began to say, you know, I speak by the Holy Spirit through your human spirit.

In other words, what it is is God and Jesus communicate through the Holy Spirit.

See, where's God right now?

He's in heaven.

Where's Jesus?

He's at the right hand, right?

Where's the Holy Spirit?

See, the Holy Spirit is the part of the Godhead that connects us.

But that's why the enemy hates the Holy Spirit, and that's why some Christians are afraid of the Holy Spirit.

But the Holy Spirit is the one, it's it's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

It's all one.

It's all one, but that's the part of us that contacts us.

So it's important that we we understand the Holy Spirit should not be treated as the uncle who came to Thanksgiving dinner and wasn't very welcome.

Amen.

We need to welcome him, we need to allow him because he's there for us.

And uh I think one of the most powerful things is, well, uh, I don't have the this I didn't have the scripture on this, but turn in your Bibles, if you can, to 1 Kings 19, verse, actually 19, verse 12.

And uh this way by opening your Bibles, we make this meeting uh authentic.

Okay, you got it?

1 Kings 19.

Now remember this is the story of Elijah.

You remember Elijah?

Uh he anyway, he he won this incredible battle.

Uh I can't wait to see the video in heaven, but uh this great battle over the Baal worshippers.

Remember, there were 500 of them, they were cutting themselves up and calling out to Baal, and and uh and then nothing happened.

And so then Elijah just calls down the power of God and on the sacrifice, it licks up the water and the sacrifice, and then they get to to kill, they get to kill 500 Baal worshippers.

I mean, that's a great moment in sports.

Let's let's face it.

So here's the thing.

Here's the deal.

After that, he goes into depression.

He's hiding from you know from Ahab's wife, Jezebel, and he he he's where now God, first of all, there's a huge wind that comes.

Now, oftentimes God was in the wind, but he wasn't in the wind.

Then there was an earthquake.

God's sometimes in the earthquake.

He wasn't in the earthquake.

Then there was a fire.

Well, he must be in the fire because that's how he led the Israelites through the through the wilderness.

He wasn't in the fire.

However, here's what he was in.

And uh basically, let's see, I still haven't found 1 Kings 19.

Okay, here's what it says.

Here's what I want you to see.

It says there that God came to him in a still small voice.

Now, some of your translations will say a whisper, a quiet whisper, or silent, you know, a gentle whisper.

The translators had a lot of trouble with this.

If you look at the original Hebrew, it's actually the word still is never translated still in any of the other passages.

It's always translated silent.

But think about it, if you're a Western translator and you're trying to translate this, to say a silent, small voice, that doesn't make any sense.

But yes, it does make sense.

Because the way he communicates is through the Holy Spirit to our human spirit.

Now, I want to explain something that this is the physical center of your human spirit.

Some of you have a little more of the spirit than others, but here's the point.

The point is, the point is that God communicates to our human spirit.

It's not through our ears.

Now, what'll happen is he will communicate to us via the Holy Spirit, and then we pick it up.

Sometimes we'll pick it up audibly in our spirit, not not but but audibly in our spirit.

Sometimes he'll show us a picture.

Sometimes it'll be we'll feel it.

There's different ways that we receive it, but initially it comes through here.

Now, I was a Zen Buddhist for five years.

I was in a religion that didn't believe in God, and I was trying to find God through that.

You say that wasn't very smart.

Well, if you'd done as many drugs as I had, you wouldn't have been that smart either.

But but I was trying to find God through a religion that didn't believe in God.

But one thing Buddhists have right is they know that this is the center.

They call it the Hara, and they center down into the Hara when they when they're meditating.

And I would meditate 40 minutes in the morning, 40 minutes in the evening.

Whether I was drunk, stoned, or whatever, I would do that religiously.

And I'd learn to achieve a peace, but not but here's the thing, I don't recommend Buddhism because it teaches you how to live as peacefully as possible and then go to hell.

I don't think that's a good alternative.

However, every religion has some truth, or nobody'd follow it.

There's some truth.

So they understood this.

You know, I've ministered a lot of Ywan bases, and uh sometimes I'll have Koreans or Asians there, and they seem to get this more so than the Western mind.

We kind of center everything here, and they understand.

And so it's very important to teach yourself how to receive.

You know, I don't know if you've ever been praying, and sometimes, well, there's a scripture that talks about it in Romans 8 where it says, where you pray with groanings which are too deep for words.

That's that's out of here.

Go like this, go, uh okay, where did that come from?

It came from here.

And so deep intercession occurs when here, that's where the deep intercession comes.

And and so I want to encourage you that uh this is really important.

Now, you know, I I think I think one thing that is really important.

The devil can communicate through our mind, through our emotions, through physically, he can attack us, he can do it, but he has no access to your human spirit.

In 1 Thessalonians 5.23, it talks about that we're it says we are sanctified fully, spirit, soul, and body.

So we are made in the image of God.

He's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We're spirit, soul, and body.

Now, the spirit part of me is the part of me that came, was born again when I received Jesus.

I was born again, and I received the Holy Spirit at that time.

And so I had a new relationship with the Father, or I could call him Abba, a close, intimate way of saying it.

Abba Father.

And then I had a relationship with Jesus now.

He was gonna walk with me through this, and then the Holy Spirit came to live on the inside of me.

So the part of me that came alive was my human spirit.

Now, I was going bald then and I didn't get a full head of hair.

It would have been nice if he'd given me that, but I didn't get that.

So, you know, but here's the point I want to make.

He wants to communicate with us through our human spirit.

Now, when the Lord showed me this by the stream, I said, Lord, I gotta have some scripture for this.

Because I'm firstly not, I I want to I want scripture.

So, first of all, he gave me Proverbs 20, verse, let's see, what was it?

20, verse 27.

Thank you.

And I want you to hear what this says.

Now, if you have a King James Bible, my King James Bible, actually, my New King James Bible, New King James, and there's a lot of good translations.

Somebody said, What's the best translation?

I said, It's the one you read.

That's the one that's your best translation.

So let's not get into the fight over which is the best translation, you know.

But uh some people say, Well, I I got the best translation, I just never read it.

Well, that's not gonna help you very much, amen.

So here's what I want you to see.

Um, first of all, it says here in Proverbs 20, verse 27, the spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of the heart.

Proverbs 20:27

Now that's the New King James, others say innermost being, but in mind it has a little L-I-T in the Hebrew, and it says rooms of the belly.

So that word there is really not hard, it's not really innermost being, it's rooms of the belly, it's the abdomen.

Now I said, okay, Lord, that's great.

I appreciate Old Testament, but I want New Testament.

He goes, Well, how about the words of Jesus?

Would that be good enough?

I said, Yeah, that would be good enough.

Okay, so you can turn your Bibles or I'll have it up on the screen either way.

John 7, 38 and 39.

Now, Jesus said, these are Jesus' words.

He who believes in me, as the Spirit has said, out of his heart, we'll say blank, out of his blank will flow rivers of living water.

But this he spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Now, what is that word translated, heart here?

Other translations, innermost being, you know, just depending on what translations you have.

What is the actual Greek word?

Well, I'm going to put it up on the screen for you so you'll see this.

But the Greek word is, and again, it's translated heart, but the Greek word actually is Koilia.

Say Koilea.

Now, Koilea is, well, well, let me ask you this.

What English word is similar to Koilea?

What word do we get do we get an English word from?

Colon.

Right.

Very good.

Colon, the colon is, so the actual translation says, He who believes in me, as the scripture said, out of out of his Koilia will flow rivers of living water.

So this is where it happens, right here.

I mean, it's weird.

That's why prayer and fasting is very empowerful.

Because what part of you rests when you fast?

Your colon.

Now, here's the thing.

Religious people will try to fast in order to get God to move.

Well, if I fast enough, you know, God's going to be really impressed with this little bold guy who's fasting.

And no, God's not impressed with your fasting.

But let me tell you why fasting is powerful.

Fasting changes you.

It doesn't make God move.

Religious people don't like to hear.

And by religious, I don't mean people that are in love with Jesus.

I'm talking about people that are in love with all the rules.

People that are hard to be around.

Because when you're around them, you feel like you don't pray enough, you don't read the word enough, you're just not good enough.

You know, that's the kind of that's the way the Pharisees were.

But there's a lot of Pharisees, unfortunately, in Christianity.

It's sad.

But those are the people who try to fast to get God to move.

I love what I try I traveled to Pakistan several times with Leif Hetlin.

And Leif Hetlin always says, God gave you an A plus on your report card before you even took the test.

I mean, think about that.

God gave you an A plus even before you took the test.

Religious people are always trying to perform to get God to accept them.

God's accepted you already.

Listen, in the miserable state that I was in when Jesus came into my life, I knew what grace was.

I knew that I didn't deserve.

I didn't deserve his love.

I didn't deserve him coming into my life at all.

In fact, if anything, I should have been rejected.

But you know what?

He doesn't reject any of us if we'll open our heart to him.

That's how much he loves us.

You know, as I said, prayer and fasting is very powerful.

Another thing is speaking in tongues.

I'm not going to get into that today.

And some of you say, well, that's weird.

It is weird.

But someday maybe I'll get a chance to explain it clearly from a biblical standpoint.

But tongues also is, well, I'll just mention one scripture, and that is 1 Corinthians 14, 14.

It says, When I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.

Anyway, what that's saying is the Holy Spirit prays to our human spirit, and we're speaking mysteries to God.

We don't know what we're saying.

But it's basically it's building us up in our spirit again so we can receive from Him.

And uh another thing is being still.

In our society today, we have so many distractions.

I mean, you know, cell phones have only been in the last 20 years or so, but in the internet, I mean, there's so many distractions that it's it's so important.

Psalm 46, 10 says, be still and know that I'm God.

Now that word know is the word yada in the Hebrew.

Yada in the fourth chapter of Genesis is what it says, Adam, Yada, Eve.

And they produced a child.

Now, it's talking about be still and yada, relationally know that I'm God.

It's talking about coming into that relationship with Him.

That's what it's all about.

And so I gotta tell you that when you can be still, it's hard to be still.

There's always people calling, there's people, you know.

I mean, it's chaos.

We were just in France, in Paris, where our daughter and her family live, and uh that's why my brain is probably somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.

It's coming, it's getting there.

But but anyway, uh we were there and talk about distractions.

I mean, the traffic and the I mean it was uh it was just great to get back to Colorado.

But anyway, what I'm saying is, and we had a great time with our family.

I'm not saying that, that's why we went.

But but I gotta tell you, it's so important to be still.

Take time if you can do it in the morning.

Take time in the day, take time whenever you can.

But don't feel bad if you got so busy you didn't have time.

Then take some time then.

Even if it's just a few couple minutes to pause and just connect with them and say, Lord, man, man, I've been going too fast.

Slow down.

Lord, have your way with me.

You know, I hope this brings clarity to you because God really wants to walk with you.

He wants to impart things to you.

And as he does, as he imparts things, he's able to help you to help other people.

My whole heart is just to be able to help other people, whether it's through counseling, whether it's through whatever it might be, whether it's through praying for people, whatever it is.

And I'm no better than any of you.

You all you have the same God, the same anointing that I do.

And so I just want to encourage you not to be afraid to step out.

You know how you spell faith?

R-I-S-K.

Sometimes it's hard to risk, sometimes it's hard to step out, sometimes it's hard to be obedient to what the Lord's prompting us to do.

Um, there's several ways in my life that God has come through.

He's spoken to me so many times, not even, I don't like to use the word spoken, but he's imparted to me so many times things that have rescued my life.

He told me to go to the left when if I'd gone to the right, I would have died.

I'll just finish with this one last incident that happened, I think it was about three years ago, when we had a big snowstorm and we were headed to Arizona, and I was convinced we were gonna get there.

We were we were driving, but and we have a fairly long driveway, it's somewhat steep, and so I was out there shuffling, shuffling the driveway.

I knew it was gonna take me a while, but I was convinced we were not gonna let the storm stop us.

So a friend of mine, uh he he he has a ranch near us and he comes by.

This huge, he's got this huge friend on loader, and he's coming back, and he comes up and he says, Could I help you?

And I said, Oh, that'd be great.

So he started to plow the driveway.

And the the snow we had, I don't know if you remember that storm, but the snow was it was really high.

And uh, and so I'm I'm back here.

And so he's going up the drive, the steep part of the driveway, and all of a sudden he starts to slip.

And I and he's coming right at me.

And that's I see that big wheel coming.

I said, wow, I never thought I was gonna, my life was gonna end this way.

I thought I'm gonna be crushed to death.

Well, Lord, I'll see you in a minute.

I hope it's not too painful.

I think it will be, but but anyway, the Lord said, and I couldn't get out.

I was stuck.

There was a hill here, and I I couldn't move.

It was like I was in quicksand or quick snow or whatever it was, but I couldn't get out.

And so this is coming, it's coming, coming, coming, coming.

And I go, well, Lord, there's nothing I can do.

I I couldn't do anything.

And it's coming toward me, and it literally stopped three inches before my nose.

And the Lord had said to me, He said, Don't worry, I got it.

I got you.

It's easy for him to say, Don't worry, you know, when that when that thing's coming.

Anyway, that's the kind of God we serve.

He rescues us, he cares about us, he loves us, he's there for us.

Doesn't mean everything's gonna be easy.

It's not.

It's gonna be tough.

I would say to my congregation many, many times, God didn't put you on this earth to be comfortable.

He put you on this earth to make a difference.

So make a difference.

I want to close with the words of Francis Chan from his book, Forgotten God.

He writes about the Holy Spirit and how he was a very, for those of you who don't know, he was a very successful megachurch pastor.

He left the ministry, he left the church, not ministry at all, and uh because he felt like the Holy Spirit was totally ignored.

And he says in his book, God wants us to listen to his Holy Spirit on a daily basis.

Even throughout the day, different and stretching moments arise, and in the midst of the mundane, my hope is that instead of searching for God's will for my life, each of us would learn to seek hard after the Spirit's leading in my life today.

That's what he wants.

Don't try to figure out what the 20-year plan is for your life.

Let him lead you each step of the way.

Each step of the way.

It's so, so important.

And he wants to do that, and he will.

Let him take your hand.

Let him lead you.

He's a great God.

And if you're here today and you say, Man, Pastor, I just I've been struggling.

Maybe you've kind of moved away from God.

Maybe God brought you here today just so you could come back to him.

Or maybe you've never given your life to him.

I want to tell you, you got a choice.

You can go, you can go smoking or non-smoking.

It's up to you.

Somebody said, Well, smoking send me to hell.

I go, no, it'll just make you smell like you've been there.

But anyway.

Here's the deal, folks.

Jesus just wants to come into your life because he loves you.

Thank you for listening to the Road Church Podcast.

We pray today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.

For more information about the Road Church and to find more content like this, go to theroad.org.

That's theroad.org.