Life Conference 2019: Session 2 - Dr. Yan Venter (February 2, 2019) | Life Bible Church

I tell you what, I have so, and I'm not just

saying that, you know, I am genuinely, genuinely

so blessed and spiritually boosted by the ministry

of Brother Tony. And it was just wonderful. And

his wife, so humble and yet just absolutely solid

there, you know, make her feel welcome too, you

know, as you speak. I'm sure my wife is listening

in on the internet this morning, and so I, Bessie,

you know, just go ahead, just tap your hands

for Bessie if she's... I just want to bring under

your attention some of the material that's on

the table. A lot of people have asked me through

the years to put some of my stories in book form.

In fact, a lot of times people say, how come

you have so many stories to tell? Well, just

like with Brother Tony, you hear him as constant

stories that comes in. Because when you walk

with God, you have a lot of stories to tell.

Because God is supernatural and then that makes

you supernatural because he lives in you. People

don't realize that, but you are supernatural

when you are connected, when you're on because

of who lives in your heart. We'll get to that

in a minute. But these two books, the one is

called You Cannot Believe This, and the other

one is You Won't Believe This. Stories, some

of them funny, some of them, you know, not so

funny, but all of them true, and they're, all

of them connected with God in our lives. And

when these things, when I share these things,

every time, when I... Even when I tell the stories,

I never get tired because they were so phenomenal

when they happened. But now I wrote these books

in the form of bathroom reading material. And

so they're short stories, and it's a compilation

of short stories, and it'll be good for your

health, you know, you read this. This one here,

I'm sure many of you or most of you possibly

already have this book. If you don't, I want

to highly recommend you do that. And then the

second thing I want to recommend you do is that

you let me sign it. Then it becomes very valuable.

Once I've signed it, it becomes very valuable.

The people who made the movie God is Not Dead,

those same producers, Later on in the weekend,

I'm going to give you more information. But they

have just signed contact with me, and so they're

going to turn this into a movie, this book here.

And what I'd like to do is later on in the weekend,

maybe pass will give me a little bit of time

in the morning. I'd like to talk about that again.

And what I want to do is give you some email

information for you to email the producers and

let them know how excited you are about. Yeah,

I'm serious about the upcoming movie, because

what it happens is we have to obviously they

have to raise investors. That's going to invest

in the movie about 60 million. And they already

have some of the actors, and I'll show you that

on Sunday morning, they have some of the actors

signed up already, like Morgan, what is it? Morgan

Freeman. And the other one, Chris Pratt. Yeah,

Chris Pratt. And he's going to play me, and he's

going to have a hard time. Blame me. I've given

these to Pastor Tony, so a few. Thank you. Let's

pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for

this opportunity for us to just get together

and just like men of old who sat at the feet

of Gamaliel. That's how I felt last night while

I was sitting at the feet of Tony. And this morning,

I want to ask you, Lord, will you help us to

sit at the feet of the Holy Spirit? And then

while I speak, let them hear not only my voice,

but God, let them hear you. We ask it in the

name of Jesus, and we thank you. Amen. What happens,

you know, let me say this. We are, I was sharing

with... Pastor Tony and Pastor Brad, by the way,

what an incredible pastors you have in Brad.

They're just phenomenal. And I was saying to

them, you know, that I'm really concerned for,

you know, I've been in the ministry 49 years

and been around the block a few times. And I've

seen the church go through different. phases

and so always does we've seen organizations you

know decline and we've seen other startup and

increase and the thing that troubles me is that

in because I'm an evangelist and my observation

in that sense is of this kind that I'm concerned

that too many churches in our time have no desire

for the supernatural. They don't have it. It's

just like they have church. In fact, they try

and make it as short as they possibly can. One

pastor told me that he's got the entire thing

down to an art. He can take the entire service,

everything, including the offering, which really

that's what it's about, is the offering. The

entire service, he's got it down to 50 minutes.

He said, I got it all down to 50 minutes, and

we cut them loose. I said to him, kind of in

a joking way, sarcastic actually, I said, well,

you know, really, you should think about a drive

-thru charge. And I thought he's going to recognize

sarcasm. Instead, he went like this. He said,

man, that's a great idea. You know, now we're

talking about a big church. And so he was, he

said, he wanted to know from me, how would you

do this? You know, how do you think we can do

this? I said, well, you know, what you do is

you just record one or two choruses. And then,

you know, do your sermon on the tape. Make sure

that you emphasize the offering very well. And

then as they drive through, you give them a tape

after they give you an offering. He said, man,

I want to think about that. You know, there's

some people that don't have time to come to church.

It is so, so stupid. Honestly, it is so stupid.

You know, I mean. How much more dumb can you

get and then still keep on breathing? You know,

I mean, it's so wrong. The fact that your pastors

emphasize this kind of subject and title, pursuing

the supernatural, tells you about their heart.

Yeah, go ahead and give the Lord a praise. It's,

you know, and when we talked this morning about

the subject, the great subject for me, you know,

hearing the voice of God, because I believe that

that's so very important to be able to hear the

voice of God. You know, I asked God several years

ago, how come some people in the Bible, you know,

always stands out above others? There's always

some characters that's standing out above the

others. Why is that? Even in our time, you see

that there's some churches that really excel.

There's some preachers that really go up there.

How is it? You know, was Moses so much different

than some of the other players of his time? And

obviously, he wasn't. The thing that makes one

person stand out above the other is there are

a few people who makes it their business to hear

from God. Because you understand, when you hear

God, the moment you hear God, supernatural events

from that moment will start to take place. But

it starts with you hearing God. God speaks to

you. It's like that with your healing. You see,

you hear. We hear the word. And then what happens

is I love what he said last night. Supernatural,

how do you say? The supernatural is followed

by, how do you say that? Oh, oh, oh, oh. If it

is, oh, oh, revelation produces manifestation.

There you go. Revelation. produces manifestation.

So, how do you receive a revelation? You receive

a revelation by God speaking. Now, we'll hear

this this morning. God speaks in many ways. God

will speak sometimes without using words. When

God speaks to you, you know that's God that is

speaking to you. And talking about this, it's

so important that you must know that... The one

who lives in you. The one who's residing in you.

It's not Jesus. It's not the Father. It's very

important that we understand this. You know,

obviously they all are in there because of their

unity. The etchot of God that's so one you cannot

separate. You know, that's why God says that's

the way it will be with a man and his wife. The

two will become one. And so they're one, yes.

But the one who lives inside of us is the Holy

Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is God. Come on,

look at somebody say it. The Holy Spirit is God.

And so when you have God in you, God, you understand,

God is supernatural. God doesn't produce supernatural.

He is supernatural. Everything about God is supernatural.

Whenever you walk with God, it's supernatural.

When you have church and you make contact with

God, supernatural things happen. It's great to

have a sermon. It's great to be taught, you know,

by the word. But there's nothing that compares

with the moment of supernatural release. When

a supernatural release takes place in your body,

in your mind, or wherever it is, nothing can

change it. You know, it's because it's God. It's

like when God speaks about giving a commanded

blessing. You know, when he speaks to nature.

See, nature hears the voice of God. See, God

can speak to nature. And then that command of

his totally changes things for you. Because you've

got God involved with you in that situation.

It's so important to know that, you know, he's

in you. And so because God is in you, you are

now supernatural. I love to tell the story about,

you know, when I was flying from Africa one time

in the middle of the night. The plane is full,

jam -packed full. I'm sitting up straight like

that on the aisle, somewhere in the middle of

the plane. And here at two o 'clock in the morning,

the air hostess comes and wakes me up. Excuse

me, sir. You know, and you kind of wake up startled

a little bit. And she says, are you a Christian?

You know, that just, you know, I love to tell

this story, you know, because, you know, the

fact that she. obviously saw something that would

bring her to me in the middle of the night. And

I don't know what she saw. I obviously don't

come into a plane saying, Dr. Jan Gabriel Venter,

you know, and some of my degrees that makes me

tired to wear them. You know, it's got nothing

to do with that. You see, when God is in you,

people see it. They don't see, you know, degrees.

They see God. And when people can recognize that,

that means you are on speaking terms with God

because his presence becomes visible in you.

Then she wanted to know, I said, she said, are

you a Christian? And I mean, I didn't have to

think about it, obviously. Yes, ma 'am, I'm born

again. I mean, you know, people sit up around

me, you know, because they hear my answer. I'm

born again. And she wants to know, can you come

with me? We need you in the back there. And so

I go to the back of the plane and here is the

captain standing there with some other people

around, a demon -possessed man. The man is demon

-possessed. And the captain wants to know, when

he comes up, when I come in there, you know,

with this aerostess, who are you? And I said,

I'm Jan. You know, he obviously wanted to know

some more about my qualifications. Do you know

what's going on with this man? Yes, sir, I do.

Well, do you mind sharing it with me? No, he's

demon possessed. He said, he's what? I said,

he's possessed of, I think, several demons. And

then he wants to know, can you handle it? Yes,

yes, I believe I can, sir. What are you going

to do? Well, I'm going to cast it out. Where

will they go? Yeah, why am I telling you this?

It's just such a great feeling to know that God

is in you and other people can recognize it.

And that's what is going on with the church today.

It's time for the world to recognize again, we

are the salt. We are the light. We are supernatural.

We are phenomenal. We are the ones that brings...

balance into our situation, in our families,

in every area, because you hear from God. God

communicates with you, gives you instructions.

And when you follow those instructions, phenomenal

things happen. Come on, give him a great praise

offering. He downloads that into your spirit.

Glory to God. Now, you know, When God lives in

you, obviously you live in victory. It doesn't

mean that you don't have problems. You have a

lot of things happen to you. When they were talking

about angels the other night, you know, I kind

of smiled and I thought mine works overtime all

the time. You know, I don't know how it works,

but they definitely work overtime. They are involved

with you and you have the ability to tune in

straight to God. Now, it's like TV channels,

you know, on the television. There's so many

channels. When I come into a hotel room, the

first channel I look for is Fox News. My grandson,

he's very intelligent. They asked him one time,

who made you so intelligent? He said, God and

Fox News. I watch Fox News. When I got here to

the hotel, there are so many channels, but I

had a hard time finding the right one. It's a

lesson to be learned in this. You got to choose

which voice you want to listen to. There's a

lot of voices going on around us. And God's voice

is forever communicating. But you must be tuned

in. You must make sure that you want to hear,

you know, what is God saying about it? I love

it when Pastor Brad calls me and he'll always

ask me, so what is God saying to you? in these

days. Very important that we find out, you know,

Lord, what is it that you're saying about it?

You know, when we hear the things that's going

on, you know, on the news with President Trump

and so on, it's so nice to just go and talk to

God. Lord, what's going on? You know, how should

we pray? Don't forget that you are a representative

of heaven. And Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice.

Come on, can I hear an amen? That's what he said.

Look at somebody who said that's what he said.

You must hear his voice. I mean, if you don't

hear his voice, then there's something seriously

wrong with you. In fact, you cannot be a successful

believer unless you hear the voice of God. You

cannot rely just on somebody's sermons. You must

hear God speak to you about situations. You must

hear God talk to you about your children. And

so I was preaching years ago for the state of

Tennessee. And they gave me a nice little evangelist

quarters. I had my daughter and my son there

at the time with me. But I also had my bus. And

so what I did is I gave them the bus. The apartment

had a nice little bedroom and a living room with

a nice couch to pull you out. And then we had

our bus, which we parked just outside of the

apartment. And like 2 o 'clock in the morning,

the Lord wakes me up just like that, just suddenly.

And immediately, he's talking to me. And, you

know, when he talks to you, and we'll get to

that in a moment, when he talks to you, you know

that's what God is saying. You don't have to

hear it audibly. You know, Pastor Tony said the

other night that I'm going to use that and eventually

make people believe that that comes from me.

What I've received from the Lord, you know. But

he said that when you hear the audible voice

from God, that means you're deaf, you know, because

you're not hearing all the other types when God

is speaking to you. And God spoke to me about

CJ, my son. So I got off from my bed onto my

knees and then recognized that my wife is already

on her knees. Now, I want you to see the timing.

I just want you to see the incredible timing

of all of this. I asked her, I said, who are

you praying for? She said, CJ. And I said, what's

going on? She said, I don't know. So I just reached

up and I opened the blinds by my window, looking

towards the apartment, and I'm just in time.

to see a figure, a shadowed figure, just disappear

around the corner. I mean, that's how accurate

the timing was. You know, had I missed that moment,

I would not have known what's going on there.

So important for you, when God speaks to you,

respond right away. Come on, can I hear an amen?

Look at somebody and tell them. See, you've got

to respond immediately, you turkey. So I told

my wife and I said, something is going on. So

I got, you know, dressed and I went over there

to the apartment, went upstairs and opened the

door without knocking. I'm the dad. So I go in

and my daughter is sitting there and I said,

where's CJ? She goes. So I go to the. And I opened

the door, not knocking. He's like 20 years old.

Doesn't matter. I'm the dad. And I'm the man

of God. And I'm the evangelist. And I'm responsible

for my family. I don't believe this junk with

all these liberals, you know, that. Talks this

nonsense. So when I walked in there, she's sitting

with her feet and shoes kicked off and dress

pulled up really high, sitting on the side of

the bed. And I go in there and I said, what's

going on here? And CJ responds by speaking in

my language. And he said, dad, you're just incredible.

I said. Why? He said, the moment she walked in

here, I said to myself, three minutes, three

minutes, my dad will be here. And so I asked

this lady, what is your business here? You know,

two o 'clock in the morning, what's your business

here? Now, she just came to visit. I said, in

my son's bedroom. You know, 2 o 'clock in the

morning with the door closed. I don't think so.

You know, how did you get here? Well, my aunt

brought me here. You know, she doesn't have a

mother, so her aunt takes care of her. And the

aunt brought her there. And I said, well, you

need to put your shoes on. This uncle is taking

you home. So I took her home and found out, and

this is just kind of long story short, found

out that she had become pregnant by somebody

else. And discussed it with her aunt, and they

liked CJ. And so the aunt said, you need to go

and sleep with him. And we'll pin it on him.

Because the other guy was a no -gooder. did not

know is that I'm on speaking terms with Almighty

God. Go ahead and praise Him with your glory

to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You know, so

what you want to do is you want to make sure,

you know, on a daily basis. That's daily. That's

the verse he quoted last night in 1 Corinthians

12. Be not conformed. To this world. But be.

That's continuous sense. Be ye transformed. By

the renewing of your mind. So that you may know.

You know. Nobody knows how you know. You know

that you know. You know what is the good. And

acceptable. And perfect will of God. God talks

to you. He's got your business at his heart.

God wants to direct you in your business with

your family, with every situation in your life.

He wants to be in charge. But what is happening

is most people... Do not, they're not at that

level. They do their own thing. Jesus said, you

must pray like this. Let thy will be done. God,

let your will come to pass in my life. Let it

not be my decisions, your decisions. Whatever

you say, Lord, let that be my instruction. Come

on, give him another praise offering. Glory to

God. And you know, we have a lot of voices. There

is, you know, just a lot of voices around us.

Speaking to you and me. Voices from your past.

Voices that comes from family. Voices that can

speak out of an environment. Voice can speak

to you out of that environment. Friends, family,

sometimes, you know, something that happened

in the past and you now see a car pass by here

that resembles something that happened in the

past and there's a connection and immediately

voices start speaking to you about that. One

of the very strong voices of our time that speaks

to so many Christians is guilt. Constant guilt.

overrides almost every other voice. You know,

voices of bitterness. People allow those voices

to speak and dominate them with everything you

do. So you have to make decisions. But there's

voices of bitterness that speaks to you. You're

unable, you are incapable of making good decisions

because you allow those voices. It is so, listen,

I have a book, I don't have it here with us,

but there's a book that I wrote on the seedlings.

You are where you come from. You are your father's

son. You understand, if you're an apple, you

come not from a banana tree, you come from an

apple tree. And so you have all the characteristics

of an apple. You look like an apple. You have

the same taste as apples of that kind. You're

an apple. Come on, look at somebody and say,

you are whatever. You are who you are. Now, when

it comes to the spiritual side of things, you

understand, you are Jesus. In that sense. Amen?

You are Jesus. You come from the Word. See, the

Word is where we originated from. And so, what

you need to understand, you cannot... you know,

kind of responses, reactions, personalities and

all those things that's different from his. Let

this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.

I mean, be like him. You've got to be like him.

You cannot tell me that you are a child of God

who hears from God and you have a selfish nature.

You cannot tell me that you are a child of God

and you carry with you bitterness from, there's

people that carries long lists of things that

has happened to them and they never let go of

it. You have to sit here today and say to yourself,

it's going to change. I must connect to that

one channel. That's the God channel. That God

channel that has all that I need for my day,

for my life, for my family, for my future. Come

on, give him a praise offering. Glory to God.

You know. One of the things that amazes me, I

love to watch Animal Channel and you know that

penguins, for example, you know, they say that

some of these penguin colonies are huge. One

of the penguin colonies, they say, has like over

one and a half million penguins. It can actually

be seen out of space. And when the... Egg is

laying, you know, I'm sure you know the story,

but the father takes care of the egg, and then

the mother goes out far to go and get food, and

sometimes months stays away, and then when she

comes back, or at least weeks, I don't want to

exaggerate, but when she comes back, she comes

back to a colony where everybody looks the same.

They all look the same. And in fact, what they'll

do is the penguins, the males will line up in

lines and then she'll come from the front and

walk by. You know, it's just incredible to see.

And then what the husband will do, he'll sing

the song that he sang to her before she left.

And she recognizes him by his song. See, it's

so important that you understand there's voice

recognition going on in the spirit realm. Just

think about that. Say it again. Can I get some

water? Richard, just hand me a bottle there.

Thank you so much. Pastor Tony, thank you. Thank

you so much. They say that a baby can get to

know the mother's voice from about 30 weeks on,

some earlier, can start recognizing the mother's

voice so that when the baby is born, it already

knows the mother's voice. So when the baby comes

into this world, it already feels comfortable.

For us, Jesus said that my sheep know my voice.

When I speak, they hear me. That's why it's so

important you must be born again. That's one

of the problems of our time. I see so many people

just given, you know, a couple of words to say

and a couple of lines to say and then a handshake

and say, you're now part of the family of God.

I wish that was the way it could be, but it's

not. You have to be born again. Come on, look

at somebody and say, you must be born again.

I mean, Jesus made that an emphasis. You must

be born again. Now, what happens when you become

born again? Listen to this. The moment you become

born again, you recognize his voice immediately.

Why? It's because there was communication going

on between you and God before you were even formed

in your mother's womb. Isn't that what he said

to Jeremiah? Before I formed you in your mother's

womb, I called you. So there's obviously, it

seems like there's been some communication going

on. And I would not be surprised, but there's

communication going on in the spiritual womb

before you're birthed. And the moment you are

birthed, immediately there's recognition. Oh,

I know that voice. That's the voice of my creator.

Oh, come on, give him a praise offering. That's

what it's all about. You know him. I know him.

You know him by his voice. God always talks.

Say it, God always talks. Is that the time, 9,

10, 12? Boy, I'm past my time, am I not? Okay.

You know, someone just said, if God will just

talk to me. I don't know why, but God doesn't

talk to me. You know, you are so far off. God

talks all the time. All you have to do is tune

in. You must tune in to hear his voice. You cannot

just hear his voice. In fact, you will not know

he's even talking. He's talking right now. God's

voice is speaking right now. And all you have

to do is just tune in. What does God say? Right

in this moment, all you have to do, tune in.

And then you're going to find out that God is

there. He's got something to say to you. You

know, sometimes people call God something. Something

said to me. Something talked to me. God is not

a something. You have to learn when it's God.

That's God speaking to you. It's not something.

You're a child of God. You're a child of the

most high God. You belong to the one who made

the heavens and the earth. And he's recognizing

you as his own. And he talks to you. And when

he talks, you're supposed to hear his voice.

And now in the past, you know, God would speak

and people would hear a sound, but they don't

know what is going on. You must say to yourself,

Lord, you've got to help me recognize. It's just

something about that. I was in Rhodesia pastoring

a church and there was a family that I was trying

to reach for the Lord across the street. And

their son died in a horrible car accident. They

were Catholics. Then they asked me if I would

pray for their son after he had died. And I thought,

well, you know, that's a chance for me to get

them into church. Sure. And I told them, come

to church. I'll pray for your son. I thought

I'd just, you know, say a prayer for his life.

And they were broken. And I was so interested

to reach them for the Lord. Then we had a song

special arranged. You know, I had no plan, no

part in that. And the lady who sang the song,

I don't even know what she sang, but at one place

she paused, the music kept on playing, and then

she recited words that caught my attention because

it said more or less something like this. She

was talking about a motorcycle cyclist that got

killed and went to hell. And, you know, all these

horrible things. And I almost fell off my chair.

You know, couldn't believe what was going on.

And my eyes on them. And I thought they were

going to get up and walk out. But they didn't.

After church, I went to go see them at their

house, Missy and I. And I said to the lady, you

know, I'm here to just come and sit things right.

I just want you to know, I had nothing to do

with that song that was sung. She said, What

language did she sing in? I said, no, it was

all English. Her husband was, at that moment,

was in the bathroom. And so when he came out

of the bathroom, she said, Roger, that lady that

sang tonight, what did we just talk about here

when we came home? And he said, we wanted to

call and ask you, what kind of language did she

talk in? They didn't understand it. I said, God.

can confound or God can amplify. It's up to the

listener. Are you tuned in or is it something

God doesn't want you to do and so on? It's like

when Saul of Tarsus got kicked off his horse,

donkey, and they heard a voice that spoke in

the Hebrew language. And the people heard sounds.

But only Saul recognized what was being said.

You know what I'm saying? Because the voice recognition

is channeled to the one that's tuned in. You

cannot be halfway tuned in. You may hear a sound.

But you've got to be properly tuned in and say,

Lord, here am I. Speak to me. Oh, come on, give

him another praise offering. Will you? Glory

to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to God.

You know, let me bring it to this point and say,

how do you tune in? I don't know how other people

tune in. I'll just tell you how it happened for

me. Once you get to a place, it's got to be overwhelming.

You've got to sit here today and say to yourself,

I want to hear God more than anything else in

my life. I am. Everybody say, I am a child of

God. Put your hand up real high. Say, I am a

child of God. But another thing that I liked

what he said last night, man, you cannot receive

while you keep on talking. You've got to learn

to. Listen. You have to listen. Let me just read

you a verse first. It's not going to be in Corinthians,

so just don't go there yet. But I'll just read

it to you in Isaiah 6. You remember when Isaiah

prophesied and God said, go and say to this people,

keep on listening, but you won't comprehend.

Keep on looking, but you will not understand.

Make the heart of this people insensitive and

make its ears unresponsive. Shut its eyes so

that it may not look with its eyes and listen

with its ears and comprehend with its mind. You

can hear these sounds, but you won't understand

them. Somebody will teach a lesson here, you

know, up front and you'll sit there and all you'll

hear is theology. All you hear is perhaps maybe

hermeneutics or whatever, you know, they're dwelling

on or eschatology or any of these theological,

you know, excuse me, nonsense. I say nonsense

because oftentimes that's all it can amount to

when we have to make a decision between that

and the supernatural. We have to have all of

that stuff. But most of all, I want to see the

supernatural. I want to see God, you know, and

I got to tune in. Jesus once, when they asked

him in Matthew 13, why do you speak in parables?

He said, because it is given only to some to

understand. Others don't. They don't understand.

People sitting here, I see that all the time

when you preach. And only some can get the revelation.

It's really a horrible feeling, you know, when

you receive something from God and you go home

and you want to share it with your family or

your friends or your church and they sit there

and they just stare at you. I'll tell you, you

know, just in passing why that is, though, is

because you're trying to share just seed with

him. People don't eat seed. If you've picked

up something, you know, or have been given something,

it's normally in the form of seed. And so what

you have to do is put it in the oven of your

soul and let it develop and become bread. Then

all of a sudden you find out, wow, people now

are going to, they're going to receive from you.

So I ask God, Lord, I want to hear your voice.

What must I do? What can I do to hear your voice?

And, you know, like we oftentimes do, I asked

the question and then provided my answer. What

should I do to hear your voice? And then I said,

I'm sure I have to pray more. And I really didn't

like that idea to start off with. It was just

at the time. Many years ago when they started

with this early morning prayer thing where you

have to pray for an hour. And my prayer time,

you know, is at a different time. My prayer time

is 3 o 'clock in the morning. That's my prayer

time. Now, 5 o 'clock I wake up and I got to

go and pray now. And you got to pray for an hour.

And so what you do is when you go around your

daily tasks and so on, you collect, because you

look at your watch and you say, ooh, I have 20

more minutes. I've got to really stretch this

prayer request a little bit, you know, and collect

more prayer requests. You know, somebody tells

you that they have a problem. Oh, wow, wait,

I'm going to just put it on my notebook. That's

going to give me 10 extra minutes in my prayer

time, you know. I'm not putting prayer time down.

I'm just telling you, this is a yawn thing. This

is just my experience at that time. And you end

up not enjoying it. The first time, man, you

could pray on that thing and use six minutes.

And I mean, after three mornings praying on the

same thing. I mean, you can go through. A lot

of detail. I mean, you add a lot of imaginary

words in there and so on. And you get it done

in three minutes. You wonder, whoa, what am I

going to do? So you end up speaking in tongues

and oftentimes that feels hollow. You have no

encounter with God. Say encounter with God. It's

got to be a daily thing. You've got to have encounters

with God. So, Lord, what must I do? What can

I do to hear your voice? Should I pray more?

I'm sure I must pray more. And I was really hoping

God wouldn't agree with me. You know, I'm talking

about my, you know, early morning prayer time.

You know, I was so afraid that God would say,

yeah, you got to actually not only pray, but

spread some glass out there also and crawl on

it so you can bleed at the same time and suffer.

And, you know, that's not how we hear from God.

Should I pray more? And then God didn't answer

me. And I don't know if I've ever shared this

story with you, but I remember, I mean, I was

really serious. God, I want to hear your voice.

And then later that morning, I had to go and

do some shopping in a stationary store. And when

I went through the store, I saw a little counter,

you know, those that you click and the number

goes up. And clearly, I felt the Lord laying

on my heart to pick that up. And he said, pick

that up. And my wife already calls me Mr. Gadget.

And I knew that she's going to accuse me of that

when I get home. Because what are you going to

do with that gadget? But I bought it. And when

I got in the car, it has a little ring that you

can clearly fit around your finger. And when

I got in the car, God spoke to me and said, now,

I want you to take that thing. And I want you

to. Click every time you say Jesus or God or

hallelujah, praise God. Anything to do with heaven,

click. And I want you to do it 500 times until

I change that. And I'll tell you what, I'll never

forget that first day, you know, glory to God.

You know, you drive your car, glory, hallelujah,

thank you, Jesus, glory. And then here at 3 o

'clock in the afternoon, I looked at the camera.

It's only 200 times. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. You

know, just... And I mean, you know, just... Then

the thing that followed up there several weeks

later, God said, now you go up to 1 ,000. You

know, when I got to 2 ,000, when God told me

to keep it at 2 ,000 a day, my entire life...

my perception of things, of the spirit world,

of people. I would talk to people and I would

literally see their lives. It was just incredible.

God would show me things that I never thought

could be possible. My wife said to me, she said,

Jan, you don't sleep. You're praying all the

time. I said, yeah, I'm making up 2 ,000, you

know. But that's not what it was. I became totally

heavenly minded. And so it's not about praying,

church. Long, repetitive words. It's all about

learning to hear the voice of God. And let me

bring this to a close. When God speaks, you're

going to recognize him and somebody next to you

won't even know God just spoke to you. It'll

be a sound like, you know, John heard the sound

as of a trumpet. I mean, how can you get syllables

out of a trumpet sound? But he heard God speak

long revelations out of a trumpet sound. Later

on, it was the sound of many waters. You see,

you can sit by the ocean and hear waters, and

then all of a sudden, God can start speaking

to you. See, God speaks to you in many, many

ways. You see, nature hears God. Listen, God

spoke and waters heard him. Come on, help me.

God spoke and trees heard him. God spoke and

bread heard him. God would speak in many different

ways. You understand? You remember it was the

fig tree. Wasn't it also a rock that heard the

voice of God? You understand? When God speaks,

the deaf ears could hear God. When nobody else

could hear, they could hear. You see, the dead

heard the voice of God. See, God's voice is right

around. I mean, fish heard God. Now, quickly

put 1 Corinthians 14 up there. You remember the

teaching on 1 Corinthians 14 as I close with

this in verse 14. He says, Paul is teaching so

far, if I pray in a tongue, what? My what? Read

it. My what? Spirit prays. So if I pray in a

tongue, my spirit prays. Much different from

when your earthly person prays. See, your spirit

is a phenomenal thing. Your spirit is much more

phenomenal than what you can imagine. You may

not with your earthly ears hear God because you

haven't trained yourself. You've got to train

yourself to hear God. But your spirit knows him.

You remember a good example is, you know, the

prophet Elijah when he was sent to the widow

where God says, I have instructed her. She didn't

know it. You know, her idea was to make one last

meal for her and her son, eat it and die. But

her spirit had already received instruction from

God. See, you're a spirit man. So I pray in,

when I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but

my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do? I

will pray with my spirit. I also pray with my

understanding. I will sing with my spirit, but

I will also sing, give me the next verse, with

my understanding. So in verse 15, that's the

one after 14. 16, sorry, yes, thank you, thank

you. So, well, let's just pause there. Look,

what he's saying is, I must make my spirit person

active. You must decide to do that. Let your

spirit man become active. It's not like, you

know, you've changed in many ways. No, no, it's

just the spirit man that's already alive in you,

you are now teaching that spirit man to now successfully

communicate with your earth man. Let your earth

man now become subject to your spirit man because

your earth man cannot hear God. No, cannot hear

God. It'll hear sounds. It'll hear trumpets.

It'll hear oceans. It'll hear the wind. It'll

hear a donkey. But you cannot hear and understand

God. Your spirit man can. And so what you want

to do right here this morning is ask God, Lord,

help my spirit man to come alive. Amen. And so

I look at verse 2 quickly. Give me verse 2. In

verse 2, Paul is saying this. For anyone who

speaks in a tongue does not speak to people,

but he speaks to God. Indeed, no one understands

them. They utter mysteries by. The spirit, your

spirit man communicates with God in a language

that no man can understand. Demons cannot understand.

You have the incredible ability. Now, I close

here. You have to say to yourself, Lord, will

you allow my spiritual ears to be opened? See,

because... Here's the key. If you want to hear

God, you have to learn that with the speaking

of his voice must follow obedience. Isn't that

right, Tony? You have to speak. I mean, you have

to let God speak, then obey. So here's the sequence.

He speaks, you obey, and the supernatural follows

every time. So he speaks, you obey. Supernatural.

I can show you that in every occasion in the

Bible when this happened. Supernatural happens,

but you must learn to obey. Somebody asked me

a few months ago, they said, how can I learn

to hear the voice of God? And I'm telling you,

I didn't think about it. It just came out like

that. Obviously, it was for him. He said, how

can I hear the voice of God? I said, start during

the time of the offering. Boy, it's quiet here

now. So you have to learn that when you hear

the voice of God, there will always be sacrifice

involved. So when God speaks, you must obey,

be willing to sacrifice, then the supernatural

follows. Give the Lord a handclap of praise.

Pastor? If you are interested in hearing other

podcasts or contacting Life Bible Church, go

to www .lifebiblechurch .org or call us at 541

-995 -8282.