The School Of The Spirit - Session 2

Ready for this?

Everybody get a sheet of paper.

Okay, some of you are not sheet of paper people, and that's fine.

I'm not going to hurt my feelings at all if you don't put anything down on that piece of paper.

Others of you like to put information down, fill in the blanks, so feel free to do that.

Others of you may just want to keep it as a reference so that when you're helping other people or blessing other people, that you'll have something to refer back to.

So let me ask this question how many of you have heard the voice of God in one way or another?

How many of you?

Okay, big percentage, but there's still some in the room and nobody needs to.

There's still some hands that didn't go up.

I want you to leave tonight.

My goal tonight is to leave with you having the faith, with God and the voice of Holy Spirit.

Yep, so everybody good with that, all right, so let's start.

So the point tonight is Holy Spirit speaks.

The first requirement of mankind was to hear the voice of God.

So that fill in the blank is here.

I'm going to need some Bible readers, so let me get to start with six or seven Bible readers.

Okay, stephen, gary, brooke, christine, okay, yeah, okay.

So if you could come down, we're recording this.

So if you could come down when you read and use the mic, I appreciate that.

So we're going to start with Genesis 1, 26 through 28.

So, whoever that first person was, come on down.

Yeah, gary, that's good.

Genesis, chapter 1, verses 26 through 28,.

Genesis 1:26–28

And see if you can see, in here there's a phrase that tells us that we were made by God to be able to hear him.

Okay, 2016.

Okay, chapter 1, verses 26 through 28.

I read I can read that.

That's a whole, nother problem.

Okay, it's a large screen.

Okay, read from a tindale.

Okay, then God said let us make human beings in our image to be like us.

They will rain over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on earth and the small animals that scurry along the ground.

So God created human beings in his own image.

In the image of God, he created them Male and female.

He created them Thing fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and govern it.

Rain over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky and all the animals that scurry along the ground.

Appreciate it.

Okay, so it was quick, you had to catch it quickly, but what was the little phrase that indicated to us that we're supposed to be able to hear God?

Well, that's good, that's excellent.

We're made in his image.

That's true, we are made in his image.

God, the Father, god the Son and God, the Holy Spirit communicate with each other.

They're little, just three words.

Four words, yeah.

And God said to them so, after he created male and female, created he them.

What was the first thing God did?

He spoke to them and they heard him.

And so the first obstacle that we face when we're trying to hear the voice of God is to believe that God is speaking to us, or that God wants to speak to us.

What would be some reasons that people would think God wouldn't want to speak to them?

Just shout them out.

So he's a God that's removed.

He's not interested in what's going on in everyday life.

That's great.

I'm not worthy.

That's one of the biggest ones.

I'm not worthy, and the truth is, we're not worthy.

That's what makes it so wonderful, the fact that he wants to have a relationship with us.

We do not deserve it.

That's what makes it so beautiful, right?

Anything else?

Yeah, religious tradition that teaches us that God speaks to particular people only and that fit to speak to us, that that is being prideful, or that it's just not the right that we have to hear God's voice for ourselves.

Proverbs 20, verse 12 is on the paper.

Proverbs 20:12

It says the hearing ear and the seeing eye.

The Lord has made them both, so he gave us everybody.

Grab your ear and wiggle it, or grab your neighbor's ear.

That would be even fun.

No, I'm just kidding.

He gave us these ears to be able to hear.

I mean, sometimes God is just very practical in what he says.

We don't have to create some kind of a spiritual moment with that.

The random people don't have the ability to hear, and that's.

We pray for them, and that's a difficult thing.

A lot of people overcome that with a lot of other gifts that God gives them.

But for the most part, he's given us our ears so that we can hear.

So what is the problem?

It's a three letter word.

It's always the problem.

It's always sin.

Yeah, sin brought separation.

That word is separation in the relationship between God and man.

Okay, one of our young people.

Why don't you give us a definition for sin?

Go ahead, bad stuff.

According to whom?

Who's the definer of the bad stuff?

The Lord?

Yes, he didn't.

Even I would have said Jesus, but he said the Lord.

That was really great.

Awesome, josh, you're amazing.

Colossians, chapter two.

So that's our next reader.

Who's ready?

Okay, steve.

Colossians two versus 13 through 15.

And if you remember, this was a sermon series we did very recently in the book of Colossians, but this passage right here speaks clearly why it is that sin.

Colossians two, number 13 through 15.

It threw me up.

That's sin, tyler.

Okay, it was a simple one.

Sorry, let's get it Okay.

And you who were dead in your trespasses and the, we were dead.

So we weren't sinned.

Right, we weren't mostly Incapable right.

Yeah, okay.

Dead in your trespasses and the incircumcision of your flesh, god made alive, together with him.

Having forgiven him by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, this he set aside, nailing it to the cross, he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open.

Shame by triumphing over them in him.

In the future.

I'm going to write something for you to read to my children, because you say it with authority.

I appreciate that I just told one time I had a radio voice.

I said I have a radio face as well.

All right, stay in your lane, brother.

Stay in your lane.

Thank you, steve.

How long have I been wanting to say those words that have been said to me so many times?

All right.

So this verse talks about sin, the trespass, but it also talks about redemption that came.

Jesus has repaired our broken relationship with God so that those who believe in him hear his voice.

No-transcript, come on up.

I guess you can.

Just when one reader is finished, you could.

The next one can just come on up.

So we're gonna move through this pretty fairly quickly.

John 10 Truly, nope, truly, truly, I say to you he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.

The, he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

To him, the gatekeeper opens.

The sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them and the following, for they know his voice, a stranger.

They will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do.

This figure of speech Jesus used with and what he was saying to them.

So they didn't understand what he was saying to them.

We should be able to understand now, because we're on the other side of the cross and we understand that who's the good shepherd in this story?

Jesus is the good shepherd and who are the sheep in the story?

Yeah, I mean, it's a love the fact that it puts in the the passage.

This is a figure of speech.

So even the identity is important with God.

Okay, you're not actually sheep created in the image of God, but it is important for us to understand that his sheep, jesus's sheep, hear his voice and the voice of strangers we will not follow.

Are there any strange voices that people are hearing right now?

Anything, yeah, it's everywhere.

It's everywhere, everywhere that you turn, something is crying out for our attention and to cause us to act in a certain way.

So it's so important, guys.

Why is it?

Why are we doing the school of the spirit?

Because we live in a time where we have to be what God is doing in the earth, so that we don't get swept up In all of the stuff.

Right, amen?

So the next thing is Jesus sent Holy Spirit to speak truth to us.

Got my next reader.

Did we run out?

Oh, christine's coming.

Yeah, so you've got John 16, 12 through 14.

I.

Still have many things to say to you, but you can't bear them right now.

Yep, most of us can't.

When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Wow, that's awesome.

And the Lord uses Christine and Grant.

I could name a lot of other people here, but Miss Christine is, is Ruth person, and the spirit of truth Speaks to her, confirms to her with the word of God, right, and she shares that with others.

And what a gift that is to be able to do that.

Aren't you glad we don't have to wonder what the truth is.

That's really what's.

The greatest debate right now is what is truth?

And we don't have to guess at that.

We can literally say we have the truth, we know the truth.

The truth is not just some kind of subjective thing, it is objective, completely, because the truth is actually a person who is.

This is the way, the truth and the life, right.

Okay, so we're gonna do an acronym.

Believers can learn how to hear H, e a r, holy Spirit.

Clearly.

Now some of this is gonna sound a little familiar because Clem Ferriss shared During youth conference about some of these things, and so I'm borrowing some from him, with his permission, but I've changed it up to protect the innocent.

So, letter H what do you think that H would be?

Habit?

Yep, make it a habit to listen to holy.

Did we run out of readers.

Let's get a new set.

Let's get some.

Let's get some young readers up here.

Who's got there?

Yeah, aliyah, just I need about four or five.

So Come on down, aliyah.

You're gonna read Isaiah 50, verses four through five.

What is a habit?

Normally we think of habit, we think of something negative, right, but habit itself doesn't have a positive or negative connotation, it's just a thing.

So what is a habit?

Something you do, a normative thing for you, right?

Isaiah 54 through 5.

The sovereign Lord has given me a well instructed tongue to know the word that sustains the weary.

He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ears to listen, like one being instructed.

The sovereign Lord has opened my ears.

I haven't.

I have not been rebellious, I have not turned away.

So how often did Isaiah say that?

That he spent time?

with the sovereign Lord.

Morning.

He wakens me and opens my understanding.

Isn't that a beautiful relationship.

The father awakens him.

You realize every day that we wake up is a gift, and our first thought should be, our first word should be good morning heavenly father, good morning Lord Jesus, good morning Holy Spirit.

If you're married, good morning wife, good morning husband, right?

So I'm gonna read just a quote to you.

I thought it was so powerful.

It says learning is a habit.

I'm gonna read just a quote to you.

I thought it was so powerful.

It says learning the unforced rhythms of grace requires practice.

We're prone to meeting the demands of the busy life.

We wake up each day and maximize Getting ready as fast as possible, eating a quick breakfast before running out the door to be a few minutes late to wherever we're going, packing every possible moment with meetings, work, chores, children, parents, exercise, driving, shopping, eating, emails, phone calls, texts, facebook, errands, ministry, what else?

What are all of the apps that you guys are using now Carefully?

You're using them very carefully, which I appreciate.

So we've got Twitter, we've got Instagram.

What is now what it's called?

Oh yeah, tick-tock snapchat, okay, anyway.

Basically, what we're saying is we create space for whatever it is that we feel is important.

We create the space of time For whatever it is that we feel is important.

Right, and so our relationship with our Heavenly Father should be prioritized.

It goes on to say, yes, our lives are stretched to the maximum.

Our days are full, from the time we awaken to the time we drop into bed, and though we're living, very often come to the realization that, in fact, we're quite unfulfilled, because there's no time to simply be.

We're judged, and we judge others by the do verb.

But what about be?

We have to be before we can do in the proper order.

Right, okay, somebody wanna come down and write on the chalkboard?

Or it's not a chalkboard, it's a magic marker board.

Judah, you're the first hand.

Come on up, gonna, put your homeschooling to the test.

Oh, no, you're not homeschooling.

Go to school.

He was yeah, so first one.

And you wanna write the words?

Or do you wanna do like your sister did and draw some kind of a picture?

Oh, judah, this is an overachieving young man I can tell that right now In whom the Lord is well pleased.

Okay, so write down.

Choose a time.

We'll just keep it at that.

Choose a time.

The continuation of that is choose a time to be still before God in devotion.

So I'm for be still and know that I am God.

So choose a time.

Dedicate that time to spending time with the Lord.

The second one did you do a clock or a watch or anything?

No, you're good, I'm sorry, I'm not gonna micromanage.

Second is create an atmosphere.

Create an atmosphere that helps you to focus in on hearing God.

So what might that atmosphere not include for you?

Anybody Distraction, levi, what'd you say?

Say a little louder Wow, yes, job, amy, that's my wife, amy.

So, yeah, create an atmosphere that helps you to focus in on hearing God.

For some people it might be worship music.

For others it may be Toby Mack, I mean, you couldn't right.

Josh, yeah, okay, I don't know, I could throw out some other names, but worship music of some kind.

Do to be able to shut everything down here that you're thinking about constantly and be able to focus in on talking to God and listening, most importantly listening to God.

Turn off your notifications on your phone.

Turn off your phone.

Even be better, right?

Sometimes.

Some people like to walk to hear God, other people.

I've heard many people say the Lord speaks to me in the shower.

It's because you're just.

He can get to you there.

For me, god speaks to me when I'm fishing.

God speaks to me when I in a place of solitude.

He speaks to me many different places in different ways.

So choose a time, create an atmosphere.

And then the next thing don't end the conversation at the end of your devotional time.

Now, conversation, so prayer.

When we think of prayer, what do we normally think of?

Who's doing the talking?

Typically, we're doing the talking.

Are we supposed to do that?

I mean, yes, I'm sorry, it's to speak to God, but if it's a conversation, then what do we need to do?

As well, need to take time to listen, to listen, to listen to the voice of God.

Okay, the next.

Thank you very much, judah.

Let's give him a big hand, yeah, yeah, so don't end the conversation at the end of your devotional time.

One of the ways that I like to describe it it's like keeping your chat room open, right?

Keep the conversation going.

This is something that we're gonna.

The Lord doesn't have just like an appointment time, a scheduled time where he gives you 30 seconds a day.

Through Holy Spirit, who lives on the inside of us, he wants to converse with us and relate with us every moment of every day, right, so we can always be listening, can always be speaking and communicating back and forth with God.

The next main point is to expect to hear Holy Spirit in whatever way that he chooses to speak.

You can actually expect for God to speak to you.

We've shown you in the scriptures that this is true, that he's speaking.

He's looking for those who will listen, so he wants to speak to you.

All right, so who is our next reader?

Come on, josh.

Do you have a Bible?

Okay, you can read my iPad.

Come on down.

Obviously, sitting on the front row is a blessing and a curse, isn't it?

I've experienced that my whole entire life.

I'm a front row Christian.

I'm not saying that in an arrogant way, I'm just saying literally, literally.

I've said on the front row, I might need some therapy.

Same bro, Just at the top.

Right here first king.

First kings, 19,.

Nine through 13.

But the Lord said to him what are you doing here?

Elijah replied I have zealously served the Lord, god Almighty.

Zealously, zealously.

Serve the Lord, god Almighty.

But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars and killed everyone in your prophet.

I'm the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.

Go out and stand before me on the mountain, the Lord told him.

And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain.

It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind.

After, the the Lord was not in the wind.

Interesting Cause.

A lot of times when we want Holy Spirit to move, or we want Holy Spirit bam, like the lightning and thunder, we Right, come on man.

Yeah, think about that.

He walked with them in the cool of the day and they spoke with each other.

Okay, so he's not always Now.

Sometimes he does show up like the wind, right, and that can be good or it can be bad.

It depends on whose sides you're on, right?

After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

And a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire there was a sound of gentle whisper.

When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in the cloak in his cloak, not someone else's and went out.

Thank you, Thank you for clarifying that.

It was his cloak.

Let's give him my hand.

Yeah, that's great, joshi.

All right, so here's the thing A lot of us in the past have experienced Holy Spirit in the fire, in the wind, in the earthquake, and so we can be judgmental or critical when God isn't moving like that or we don't visibly see him moving like that in a person's life.

Right, but the signs and wonders that God performs by Holy Spirit are supposed to do what?

What's the purpose of them?

To glorify God, and what does a sign do?

The points it gives direction.

Signs and wonders are given by God in order to point to who.

Jesus is right.

But when we're having a personal relationship with God and we're having devotion with him, sometimes the only way we can really hear him is to get really, really still and listen for his whisper.

I love that, okay.

Next point Holy Spirit can speak through anyone or anything, at any time and in any way.

You believe that he can speak.

Give us some examples from the Bible.

What all, who, all and what all did he speak through in the Bible?

Donky, that's the famous one, right.

What else he's spoken through?

All kinds of different kinds of people right Throughout time, even.

Yeah, there you go.

He spoke to Moses through a flaming bush right that would not be consumed.

All right, so expect the unexpected.

God is going to speak.

Next one is the A is what Anticipate.

Everybody got the E.

The E was expect growing in your ability to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Alright, one more reader, and I think we're Benjamin.

Come on down.

This front row is on fire.

Un Fuego they are the storm in the which one.

You gotta read it like it's serious.

This is not a joke, okay.

This one Okay.

Do I need Stephen to come tell you?

Alright?

First, samuel, 3.1.3.11.

Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli.

Now, in those days we're very rare and visions were quite uncommon.

One night Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed.

The lamp of God had not yet gone out and Samuel was sleeping in the tabernacle near the Ark of God.

Suddenly the Lord called out Samuel.

Yes, samuel replied what is it?

He got up and ran to Eli here I am, did you call me?

I didn't call you.

Eli replied Go back to bed.

So he did.

Then the Lord called out again Samuel.

Again to Eli here I am, did you call me?

I didn't call you.

My son, eli said go back to bed.

Samuel did not yet know the Lord because he had never heard a message from the Lord before.

So the Lord called a third time and once more Samuel got up and went to Eli here I am, did you call me?

Then Eli realized it was the Lord who was calling the boy.

So he said to Samuel go and lie down again and if someone calls again say speak, lord, your servant is listening.

So Samuel went back to bed and the Lord Samuel, samuel and Samuel replied speak, your servant is listening.

Then the Lord said to Samuel I'm about to do a shocking thing in Israel.

Yeah, and it was not good news.

So it's important for us to believe that once we've heard the voice of the Lord one time and we've been able to discern it, we can continue to hear it and we can improve in our ability to discern or understand the voice of God.

So let me give you a few things that you can check marks as you're trying to discern whether something that you're hearing, or you feel like you're hearing, is the voice of God, or whether it's the voice of your flesh, or the voice of Satan, or the voice of pizza, or the voice of ice cream, whatever it is.

Yeah, the voice of what?

Yes, okay, yeah, that is a note.

I don't know what you're.

Yeah, okay, I lost it.

It's beyond me.

Oh, because they melt.

He said.

Ice cream is always concerned about the weather.

Number one that's a definitely a dad joke.

Did you hear that from Mr Andy or from Mr?

Yeah, anyway.

Number one look at scripture.

If you're trying to determine whether what you feel like you're hearing is from God or not, you don't have to go any further than scripture.

Scripture is our guide.

Aren't you glad that God wrote down his thoughts and his words in a book?

It didn't happen on your iPad first, right, he wrote it in a book so that we could have it and know the basic.

Have it God thinks and how he speaks.

Okay, so look at scripture.

If it doesn't line up with the Bible, it's not God.

I remember it.

I've said this before many times where people have felt like they heard God saying to them you know, you're going to divorce your wife and you're going to marry this other woman, and here's the thing.

You ask the wife she's never heard that from God.

He's never heard that from God.

Now, circumstances and situations, I'm not trying to get into the weeds with that, but what I'm saying is God's not going to ask you to do something that's outside Right.

Okay, number two seek Godly counsel.

So sometimes, especially if you're asking for discernment, you want to hear God about something really important.

All of it's important.

Whatever God speaks to us is important.

But maybe you have a big decision to make, right, and you're trying to discern the will of God for your life.

One of the things that you can do is seek Godly counsel.

That's really key, because you can just ask all your buddies and I used to know a person that would call me and ask me my advice on something I really don't.

It doesn't bother me, I appreciate the privilege of being able to speak it to them, but they would literally call through a list of people until they got one person at least to seek Godly counsel, one person at least to say what they wanted to hear.

And then they would say well, the Lord spoke to me and he confirmed it.

Well, if you take the percentages of the people who declined on that compared to that one person who agreed with you, you know that you took out for pizza and ice cream, right.

So we have to be careful.

Let's seek Godly counsel.

The Bible says there's safety in a multitude of counsel.

Number three peace.

If God is speaking to us, it may be a fearful thing because we're experiencing the presence of God.

So we may feel fear in the positive side of fear, which is respect, honor, you know all of those things.

But should we experience actual fear, actual torment, if God is speaking to us?

No, we shouldn't.

We shouldn't.

Maybe you've had a dream that was just very, a very traumatic dream.

You know, if you feel that terror or feel that fear coming out of that, it's probably not the Lord speaking to you, because even if you get, you can come out of that without being terrified by it, and that's that's how you can sometimes discern the difference.

The fourth thing is impact on others.

So why does it matter whether, if I'm hearing the voice of God, how it would impact somebody else?

Why would that matter?

Okay, if you, if you, hear the voice of God.

Why should you consider the impact on other people as part of judging or discerning whether you're hearing the voice of God, whether impacts in positive or negative ways?

That's good.

It speaks to the character and nature of God.

Right, because God's, he may speak to you something.

But how many times do we take something that God speaks to us and we create the pathway ourselves?

So we say, oh, okay, I heard God, I'm going to do that.

Boom, I sold the house.

Tell your wife I sold the house today.

And she's like what, where are we going?

Oh, it doesn't matter if the Lord's going to provide.

He spoke to me, so told me.

Well, did you think that maybe he would have wanted you to speak to me and make sure we were in agreement together as a couple, as a team?

Oh, no, no, it's fine.

It's fine, we're good.

We sold the house today.

Can you please go pack, yeah, and she goes.

I think you need to be the one that packs, buddy, because you're not staying here tonight.

So, considering the impact of hearing the voice of God on others, god would not ask us to do something that would be harmful or hurtful to somebody else.

Now he may ask us to say that hurts.

You see that there's a difference between having the intent to hurt.

So the last one there, or the fifth one, is God's characteristics.

So, like Chad said, the fruit of the spirit.

Why are we focusing so much, instead of just jumping right to the power, gifts and focusing on them?

Because the number one responsibility of Holy Spirit is to build the character and nature of Christ in us.

Because if he does that, then he can cause the power of God to flow through us and God will be glorified at work.

And the power of Holy Spirit moves through us and we act according to our flesh, our desires, then we can actually bring dishonor to God.

So it's very important for us to understand the characteristics of God spoken of in the Bible and the things that we're supposed to be.

He already is.

He is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control.

He is all of those things, and so Holy Spirit helps us to learn how to do that Knowing God, knowing His word, knowing the fruit of the spirit, a good picture of what God does and does not want us to do.

And number six there is discerning timing.

We mentioned that a little bit.

Cerning timing how about Joseph?

Remember when Joseph, god spoke to him?

How did he speak to him?

Remember In Genesis?

What did he do?

He gave him dreams, and so what did Joseph do about those dreams?

He revealed them to people who did not want to hear that, and so they helped him along of getting to the fulfillment of those dreams on a pathway that he would not have chosen for himself.

Now, I'm not saying that God wasn't involved in all of that.

I don't know how all of the behind the scenes stuff works.

I don't think we're intended to know that.

But the end result of it all is the fact that God's word to Joseph was fulfilled, but the timing of it was 17 years removed from the speaking of that word.

So just because maybe you've received a word of prophecy in the past, or God's spoken something to your heart, you haven't seen it fulfilled as of yet.

Sometimes on an oration.

How about Solomon?

David had this great passion and desire to build a house for God.

God allowed him to put together all of the materials, the plans and all of that, but Solomon, his son, was the one who put it all together.

So if God is generational and he speaks in generational ways, sometimes even the words that we receive or the things that we hear from God are not necessarily just about us, can you say it's not all about me?

Yeah, if we can get to that point, we can really do well.

So last one, respond in humble obedience to what Holy Spirit is truly saying.

Ok, I need one more reader Quick, judah Rainey.

Come on, baby Judah, right here.

Romans 8.

Very cool.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do, For if you live by its dictates, you will die, but if you, through the power of the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of your own sinful nature, you will live.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

Awesome, thank you.

Another solid voice, man, we're surrounded.

Love to get, put together, acquire.

So respond in humble obedience to what Holy Spirit is truly saying.

Once we have discerned the will of God and we've discerned the timing of God, the next step always is to pull the trigger.

Let's do this and God's not going to ask you to do thing, bulldoin.

I hate to blow your thoughts on who God is, who Holy Spirit is, but he will challenge us beyond our own abilities.

He will ask us to do things that don't make sense, but they make complete sense in his kingdom and in his mind and in his way of doing things.

So any questions about this tonight?

Any thoughts, any questions?

Before we move on to practice, brooke, you can come on.

Please feel free.

If you have thought of something along this talk that would be beneficial to others, say it.

Yeah, gary, correct.

Yes, that's good.

Yeah, you're exactly right, gary.

I think that is the natural tendency for us especially.

I can be honest for myself.

If something's going to cost me a lot to obey and just energy, time, potential failure, potential people looking at me weird, you can count that cost, sometimes too long, and it's like the moment passes and God moves on and speaks to somebody else to do what he had spoken to you to do so.

Really important what he said to act quickly.

Anybody else, aimee, oh, this is going to be good, ok, yeah, run it by somebody, run it by your.

If your parents are believers, run it past them.

It may be have an older sibling, that's a you know a little further along, or it doesn't have to be age doesn't matter necessarily, but somebody who's further along on the Lord.

That's in your family.

You can ask one of your, your husband or wife you can ask.

If you're kid, you can ask your parent.

If you're parent, you can ask your kid.

I've had the, the Holy Spirit, speak to me so clearly and it sounded like the voice of my wife and my children through them to me, and mostly those were were I mean loving, obviously, but some form of a little bit of a correction that I wasn't wanting to hear for myself.

But God allowed those that love me to speak truth to me in a way that helped me realize wait a minute, I need to pay attention to this.

Judy, that's so good.

You're right.

That relationship gets is building, building, building and in in God's speaking, the fact that he's speaking and your ability that he's granting you by his grace to hear him grows, and it's I mean, I've had the Lord say some things to me through the years that I've had that unless I had a good relationship with him, would have sounded strange.

Like he told me one time you don't really know me, and this is I.

Had been a pastor for seven years teaching other people about Jesus and grew up in church pastor's kid, you know the whole thing.

And I said wait, what a minute.

Wait a minute, what do you mean?

I only know me through the eyes of your teachers.

You've never taken the time to know me for yourself, and that hit me hard.

Because we can we can learn a lot of things from other people, and it's good.

God puts church in our lives, he puts leaders in our lives to help us.

But man, wouldn't it be better if you could just hear the voice of God for yourself and then others could confirm that that's the way God wants it to be?

You know, there's another time God said to me he asks, he sometimes he'll ask me questions and we have said it is aggravating to me, but I also know that it's what I need.

So God's not surprised.

By the way, read the book of Psalms.

He's not surprised.

You can be in the lowest of conditions and hating everything that's happening, and yet you can tell God what's really in your, what's really on your mind, your heart.

He's not.

He's a faithful friend.

If you ever had a friend that wasn't faithful and you didn't realize it until you told him that one thing that you didn't want anybody else to know, and then all of a sudden everybody knew it right, forgive that person, please.

Only Father is a faithful friend, right?

So another time he asked me a question.

He said do you love the people that you're serving in your church?

That was here?

Yeah, I was actually here, chad.

Yeah, I didn't know you real well at the time, but I was.

It was easy, it was.

So you guys make it so easy, I asked.

I said absolutely I love the people that were serving here.

Why would I be here and be doing it?

No, I'm so bored because I was very you know, self-righteous about it.

This is my job.

I'm a pastor.

Everybody knows I'm a pastor.

They tell me I'm a pastor, you know.

And he said to me do you love him enough to tell him the truth?

And I said well, mostly.

And he said no, like the hard truth.

And what I realized is that a lot of times in counseling, in different situations like that, I would listen, well, and I would say a few things that could be helpful, but I wouldn't like spit.

You shouldn't.

By the grace of God, you should not be doing that anymore.

That is wrong, you know.

I just I guess there was some fear of man or whatever it was in there.

And so what I said to the and this was before I ever became the lead pastor here at Trinity, I think it was a challenge the Lord was giving me stepping into this new role Are you going to be willing to speak for me, even when it doesn't sound like you?

Your personality?

You know and you know the Lord.

He's still working on me, still working on me.

But I'm thankful that there have been several situations where I've been able to in love the truth.

Right, chad, that last time was the best, wasn't it?

You almost didn't cry.

No, I'm just kidding, oh, that's a joke.

Okay, you can speak the truth in love to me and say please be serious about these things, okay.

So what we're going to do now is we're going to just take the.

You've got about 12 minutes, 15 minutes, and we're just going to be still and Brooke's going to play us.

You can, you don't have to sit.

You can stand up, you can walk around, you can kneel, you can raise your hands and worship, whatever you want to do, but I just feel like that we're going to.

I want us to ask the Lord to speak to us something about himself right now.

Okay, so we could get quiet and listen for God to say anything, but I want to say something to us about who he is tonight, and it may be something you've heard before, maybe you've studied it, maybe you've heard it preached, but the Lord, when he speaks a word to us, there's a reason for it.

It may be that in the season of life that you're in right now, you need to hear him saying to you I am faithful.

Maybe you're in a place where there's not a lot of faithfulness around, but the Lord is faithful.

So let's just get quiet, let's practice what we talked about tonight and, by the way, this is an invitation for you to practice this every day, not just on Sundays and Wednesdays, but on every day.

Practice this and my hope is, in a couple of weeks, when we get back together.

We'll be on his spoken to us over the last couple of weeks and we'll start talking in the future about how God used speaks to us to bless other people.

That's important.

That's the next thing, but right now let's focus in on the relational aspect of it.

Lord, would you speak to me for who you and show me who you are?

Can we pray that prayer together tonight?

Father, we ask you to speak to us Whatever you desire, lord, show us who you are tonight.

We listen for your voice under or the wind.

Sometimes it's just a still small voice.

It's not going to probably sound like you would think God would sound.

It's probably going to sound like you're thinking a thought, but it's a thought that's beyond your own way of thinking that God is speaking to you in a way that you can hear it.

You may feel something like in your heart, just like a knowing.

There's only way to know how to describe it.

It's just like you know that.

You know that God is saying something to you.

Bitch, maybe a song song will come to your mind Great is your faithfulness, you know.

Maybe it's a memory of a time in your life where God showed himself to be faithful, or showed himself to be.

Whatever it is that he wants to show you, remind you of today, lord, we just get still.

We get quiet your presence.

Thank you, Lord, that you're not a respecter of persons and you've shown us in your word that you through Holy Spirit.

So we ask that you tune our ears in so that we can hear clearly.

Lord, it's like the radio station sometimes gets just a notch or two off and it's staticky.

Lord, we ask that you clear the static from our lines.

Help us to hear.

Tuned in to your voice.

Jesus, now just listen.