Listening for the Whispers of God's Guidance

He will guide you. That's for you. You're not supposed to be left out alone like a boat just

bobbing along on the sea. You get to receive heavenly guidance from someone who knows the end from

the beginning. The maker of heaven and earth. Hallelujah. And he will speak. He will speak.

And he speaks today. Amen. Welcome to the City Light Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today

as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us.

If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com.

That's citylightnyc.com. Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit

is already working in our hearts and minds. As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you

are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace, and that He has a real hope and a future for you.

Well, are you ready for the Word of God this morning?

I'm going to continue with a part two to last week's message. I got some emails with some questions.

I saw that some things, which often tends to happen, were misheard or misconstrued some things

that I said. And it's about a very important topic hearing the voice of God being led by the Holy

Spirit. It's a very important topic because it seems to be the number one question Christians have

all across the country, I believe the world. When you do surveys and mass, the number one question

for every believer's, how can I be led by the Lord? How can I hear His voice?

And God is alive and well and He's still speaking today. In fact, the Bible says we're married to

Him. We have an intimate union with Him. Imagine we were married on December 1st, 2012. Imagine

if after I said I do, I gave my wife a series of letters, like a good stack of letters. And I say

darling, I've really poured out my heart in these letters. These letters contain all information about

me that you'll ever need. Here you go. And I'll see you later, like after we're both dead. I'll see

that would be very cruel, wouldn't it? Yet that's how many people believe God treats us. Here's

a book. And that's all you need to know. Yet the book is important. And nothing trumps the word of

God. And anything you hear from the Lord has to be in a complete alignment with the written word of

God. But he's still speaking today. And Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice. And what's going to

happen in this spirit in this in this service is the Holy Spirit is going to attune you so that you

you are a good receiver of his instruction, a good receiver of his guidance. Amen. So we sent out a

survey. I might do this more often because the response was fantastic. So many people responded.

And so I'm going to go through as many questions as I can that came in through the survey. You ready?

Number one, and please note, at city light, there's people at all different levels in their walk

with the Lord. That's healthy. In fact, the healthy church should have a good bunch of unbelievers.

It shouldn't be unbelievers for long. If they can sit under the anointing forever, then something's

wrong. That's not that's the annoying, not the anointing. But I mean, if you have a church of

only advanced Christians, that just tells me one thing. You haven't gotten anybody saved in the last

five to ten years. So different people at all different levels. Keep that in mind when someone

asks you out on a date. This would always have to tell the sisters in church. So-and-so, and he's

a Christian. He comes, he goes to city light. That's fine. You know, I go to McDonald's. It doesn't

make me a big Mac. They go to city light, but where are they in their maturity? So different people,

all different levels of maturity, and some of these questions are reflective of that, and that's okay.

We welcome that. Question number one, how can I ask the spirit of God to guide my daily path and

my family's daily path? My mom, dad, and sister, great question. And I will answer this question the

way I would answer any question that has to do with asking God for something. Whenever you want to ask

God for something, you got to make sure it's His will. How do you know it's His will? His word is His will.

So you have to go and find Scripture that covers what you're asking of God. In this instance,

guidance. The question is, how do I ask God for guidance? Well, you go to God with His word.

You go to God with His word concerning guidance. You first get it in your spirit. You memorize it.

You internalize it. You meditate on it. Now you'll have faith for guidance. Here's some

scriptures that you can use. Isaiah 58-11. So let's just say you're new to the Lord,

or you've been around the way for a while, but this truth hasn't been known to you. You didn't even

know that God can speak to you, that He can lead you into good success. These scriptures on my

prompter here are like two point font. So if you can just, I'm going to go cross-eyed if I try

to read them from the monitor. The Lord will guide you continually. Ah, my faith has already

increased. The Lord will guide you. So you make it in the first person. The Lord will guide me

continually. The Lord will guide me continually, and satisfy my soul in drought and strength in my

bones. I shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. So

when you're in a place of confusion, when you're in a place of spiritual loneliness, and you don't

know what to do, then you shout out. There's got to be a shout. It's not so much about decibel

as it is the conviction in your spirit. Satan's not afraid of Mickey Mouse Christians. There's some men,

they're strong in the natural. They can assert themselves, they're movers and shakers in the world,

but then they go to pray, and it's Mickey Mouse. Oh Lord, here I come, coming to you again. Can you

maybe give me some guidance? Maybe leave me? In Jesus name, amen. They quickly have to say amen to

bounce out because anything can happen in the presence of God. Get the Mickey Mouse out your spirit.

Make it personal. This is for you, every scripture is for you. You say no, that's talking about

Israel. You're Israel. You're a child of Abraham. You're spiritual Israel. You're the nation of God.

You're his precious people, his precious possession. The called out ones. The Lord will guide me

continually. So the question is, how do I ask for guidance? You come to God with His word and

you say, Lord, you said in your word, you will guide me continually. In Jesus name, I thank you

for guidance. I thank you that I will hear you. I thank you that I'll be in the right place

at the right time. I will be in the perfect center of your will. I will do whatever you tell me to

do. You make it so, Lord, amen. John 16, 13. I'm going to give like three verses to answer this

question. That's not because I need any filler material. I do that for two reasons. One,

because I want to hammer the point home, you know. Sometimes I just want to stuff you like a

Thanksgiving turkey full of the word of God. Why don't you come in out? A word of God just coming out.

Two, I'm giving you scriptures that have been life to me that I believe you should not just

memorize but meditate on. Let the word become flesh. Let them be a part of you. Because a big

and common satanic attack is telling people what God doesn't talk to you. You're just a mess.

You're just a ball of confusion and you miss hear God and you receive that lie and partner with

that lie and then you wonder why you're not getting instructions from heaven. The way you

overcome a lies with the truth. There's no greater truth than the word of God. Jesus saying,

however, when he the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you. He will guide you. He will guide

you into all truth for he will not. What's that next word? A little bit lighter now. A little bit lighter

now. Hey. Speak. Speak. There's arguments about does the Lord still speak today? He will speak

or he says he will not speak on his own authority but whatever he hears, he will speak. Speak. Speak. Speak. Speak.

He will speak and he will tell you things to come. Hallelujah. So two things out of that. He will

guide you. That's for you. You're not supposed to be left out alone like a boat just bopping along

on the sea. You get to receive heavenly guidance from someone who knows the end from the beginning.

The maker of heaven and earth. Hallelujah. And he will speak. He will speak and he speaks today. Amen.

Isaiah 48, 17. Hallelujah. I didn't do that so well. If I had an organ behind me,

I would have done that much better. But without without the proper instrumentation, see, I'm all

off and comes across. Not good. I got to work on that. I got to watch Eddie Murphy some more. No.

Coming to America. When I got saved, I went to a church like that. That was a church I got saved

it. But just a few weeks before that, I'd seen coming to America. And I walked into that church

and the pastor, amazing man of God, anointed to the bone, but was preaching just like Eddie Murphy

when he was playing the preacher in coming to America. And the people that brought me, I was like,

this is just like coming to America. I didn't know that was a thing. I thought it was a thing from

sometimes I overshare from the pulpit. But what do you do? You know, eat the hay, spit out the sticks.

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer. This is one of my favorite verses concerning the guidance of

the Lord. The Holy One of Israel. I am the Lord, your God, who teaches you to profit.

God essentially told Joshua, if he will get into the Word of God, he would, he would make his

way prosperous. Not that God would make his way prosperous. But then by ingesting the Word of

God, Joshua would make his way prosperous because of the Word of God in him. And he would have good

success. Too many believers don't really, in their heart of hearts, even believe that God wants

them to have good success. They believe he wants them, you know, just exist, have mediocrity and

then, and then you go up and then you get to enjoy life. But he wants you to have success. Now,

when I say success, what do you think of? Yeah. Chris is going to deliver in steam. I want you to

meet with Chris Power after service. Now, he was, you were in the first service. Why don't you

dog you? He's in the first service. He shouted out Bentley because I said in the first service,

when I think of success, what do you think of? A guy in, you know, a $8,000 suit standing in front

of a Bentley with 100 stacks in his hand. Success. Here's the biblical definition for success. A

desired outcome. You partner with God. He puts a desire in your heart. You go at it with God

and you actually cross the finish line and actualize that thing. That success. And God wants you

to have good success. City light church may be a not-for-profit organization, but we're very profit

of bull. Not financial, well, yeah, financially too, but not only financially. We're really counts.

Souls. He says he would teach you to profit. He would lead. He would lead. He would lead you by

the way you should go. Amen. Hallelujah. So that is my very simple answer to how can I ask the spirit

of God to guide me daily? Amen. That's all I was waiting for. Now question two. Thank you.

Question two. When obeying the spirit of God, will there always be good fruit from that decision?

That is a great question. It is a great question because the knee jerk answer would be

to say, of course, God is speaking. If God is speaking, it's going to bear fruit. And I mean, pastor just

got finished saying God wants you to have good success and prosper. And so if you listen to the

voice of God, you immediately enter into that, right? Wrong. The answer is in the long term,

and along enough time horizon, it will always result in great fruit and great success. But in the

short term, you might appear like a complete failure. In fact, sometimes it tends to go that way

because you're being tested. I'll give you a scriptural example. In Mark chapter six, Jesus Christ

himself, God in the flesh, had a dud of a church service, a very, very bad evangelistic crusade,

read it for yourselves. In Mark chapter six, Jesus goes back to Nazareth. Now, was Jesus always

led by the Father? Absolutely. He said, I don't even do anything unless I see the Father do it first.

So Jesus, much more so than any preacher on earth or any Christian on earth, was 100% led by the

Holy Ghost. Yet, the Holy Ghost led him into Nazareth where they didn't respect him. They didn't

honor him. They said, oh, we know him. We know his brothers, his sisters. Isn't this

decarpenters kid? They didn't honor him. And it says, Jesus could not do their any mighty works.

He doesn't say he would not do there. Like, he got stuffy and said, well, forget you guys now.

No, he could not because there was no faith. He could not do any mighty works, except that he

healed a few sick folk. That's a dud. That's a failure of a meeting. Yet, God led him to that.

So on the surface, it looks like, oh, a failure. And even his very crucifixion, I mean,

someone just took a photo of that and said, look at that. What a failure. I mean, he was really

riding a good wave there for a while and then they put him up out and across and killed him,

but then came the resurrection and then came great fruit so much so that we're here praising the

name of Jesus Christ because of all the fruit. Hallelujah. So short term, it could look like a failure,

but long term obeying the voice of God will always result in great fruit. That's why that's

what we want is the leading and guiding of the Lord in our lives. Hallelujah.

Question three. Questions three through seven. They didn't come in this way, but I grouped them

this way because they're all essentially the same question. And this is the most common question

that you'll get. One version of this or another when it comes to hearing the voice of God being

led of the Holy Spirit. Anything under that banner. I mean, isn't that a good question? How do I really

know it's from God? How do I really know it's from God? Number four.

Is it the spirit leading or is it my own idea? How to know the difference? Great question. You see

the similarity between this question and the previous question. Number five, also in the same vein.

Great question. How to differentiate my emotions from the voice of God. Question six.

How not to confuse God's quiet voice inside of you with your own. And then finally,

question seven, which is my favorite question of all. I don't know which one of you wrote this.

If you're here right now, God bless you. I love this question. Very similar to all the other

questions, but it's just very raw. For real, for real. Just, I mean, this is how you want to add.

This is how God wants you to ask him questions just like this, the way this is written. How do you

really, really like for real? No, it's God. And that you're so. Your soul is your mind,

your will, your emotions. I know that if it aligns to his word, that's one way this person is on

the right track. They understand what a soul is and they understand that whatever you claim to hear

from the spirit realm, what you claim to hear from God, it has to align with the word of God.

It has to. When somebody gets, gets in rebellion or gets traumatized or gets hurt, they'll hear

all sorts of things and say, it's God. There's whack-a-do men that'll go out there and invite all

sorts of spirits into their heart and then go, the Lord told me to divorce my wife. No, he did not.

He's not going to contradict his word. Amen. A mightier amen next time to crazy example like that.

Please. This is a crazy example, but it's a real life example.

I know that if it aligns to his word, that's one way, but some stuff is not found in his word.

Like, should I leave New York? LOL. This is awesome. A question 80% of us have had.

And the other 20% your time is coming. You're not a true New Yorker until you've been tempted to

leave at least 10 times. You're just playing games. You're new. You're still in the romance phase.

You got to go through the hard times. That's when you know your marriage to New York.

It's solid. All right. First, Thessalonians 523. This is how I'm going to answer this question.

Understanding this verse. First Thessalonians 523. This verse got opened up to me in 1996,

I was 20 years old, saved at 16 for four years. I was struggling and wondering, how does God speak?

You know, because you do have Christians who run around, God told me, God told me, God told me.

And you wonder, you're afraid to ask, how did he tell you? What does his voice sound like?

Can you record him next time? I want to hear myself.

This verse is a key if you want to hear from the Lord and he wants to talk to you. He loves you.

He made you. He died on the cross for you. You can have an intimate relationship with him.

You have to understand this verse and that's understanding that we as humans are tripartite beings.

You know in the world, people intertwine the word soul and spirit all the time.

I love you with all my heart and all my soul and my spirit and you know just what they're saying is

these are just mystical things, intangible things and they're all just put in the same category.

No, no, no, this is very, very important, very different. You're spirit. That's the real you.

You have a human spirit. Even even in pagan cultures, even even in Asian pagan cultures,

you understand that to source your strength, your chi, whatever you want to call whatever energy,

it's in your belly. It's in the center of man. Jesus said out of your belly will flow forth

rivers of living water out of your spirit. Not the Holy Spirit, your human spirit. That is the

real you. You are a spirit. The Holy Spirit will come when you give your life to Jesus and live

inside of your human spirit. But you are a spirit that has a soul. What is the soul from the Greek

suitcase where we get psyche from? Soul is your mind, your will and your emotions. Your spirit,

it doesn't need any further cleansing. It's thoroughly cleansed by the blood of Jesus. There's

not one speckle or spot of sin in your spirit. Your spirit is completely accepted by God.

You're soul because it's picked up all the nonsense of the world. That needs help. Your soul

will tend to side with the flesh and with Satan. If somebody doesn't have a renewed mind,

and the only way to renew your mind is with the word of God, they won't be good at hearing the voice

of God. They'll hear the voice of their own soul. That's why there's people who,

if they've been beat up by religion, whenever they go to hear from God, they actually hear God

condemning them. They go, God is so angry with me. God is so mad at me. I know one fellow,

he'd say, God, you stupid jerk, you need to get your access together. He said that.

Intelligent guy. Successful guy. And convinced that that's what God was saying.

Meanwhile, it probably sounded just like the voice of both of his parents or one of his parents.

And that got in his soul. And now his soul is filtering. The Lord is saying, I love you.

I love you, your mind. And when it passes through his unrenewed mind, he hears, you jerk,

you need to really get your act together. You see how this works. So your soul needs to be

renewed with the word of God. What about your flesh, your body? Well, you just consider it dead

is what the Bible says. Your flesh, that unregenerate part of you was nailed to the cross of Christ.

And you need to just believe that it's crucified there with him. Your spirit man is great. Your soul

needs to be renewed by the word of God. And you can see all that in the Scripture. Now, may the

God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit so and body be preserved

blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So you are a spirit, you have a soul,

you live in a body. Amen. Note that he's the holy spirit who lives inside your human spirit.

He's not the holy brain who lives inside your cranium. And I've heard Christians who say,

I heard God, I heard God. No, really, I heard this voice in my head. Stop right there. Stop

listening to voices in your head. There's hospitals all over New York City with padded rooms filled

with people who hear voices in their head. God is not a voice in your head. He's in your spirit.

Amen. If you're hearing voices in your head, we have a prayer team after service. We would love

to lay hands on you and pray for you and with you. I mean it. Hallelujah. No, I mean it. I'm not

making light of it. I mean it with all my heart. Hebrews 5, 14. We're answering the question of

how do you know it's God versus your own emotions, right? Your own soul. Well, one thing is I

I like to whenever I'm asking God for something, make sure that I'm in neutral.

I'm not to be worked up myself about it. Like when it was time for this house move, I made sure I

was in neutral. I made sure I held everything loosely because if I really, really wanted so bad,

I'm going to put words inside God's mouth. So I want to make sure I'm in neutral. I'm like, Lord,

whatever. And you got to be sincere. If you think you're tricking God, you're only tricking yourself.

Lord, I'm really whatever you want. I'm in neutral. Now speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.

Is your will that I fill in the blank?

But solid food belongs to those who are full age. I'm still answering the same question.

That is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

You can exercise your spiritual senses. See, I was never taught this. It seemed like you either had

the gift of hearing from God. And let me tell you something, a lot of Christians, they really are,

they really need healing in their souls because they so want affirmation, they so want validation,

they so want to be counted as one of the spiritual that they will they will they will quote God,

God told me in quotes and they'll write out a paragraph. I'm like, wow. You got all you could

write a whole paragraph of what God told you? That is some specificity right there. Because God

has communicated whole paragraphs to me never in paragraph format. God, when he speaks, it can be a

whole paragraph of information. You just know it. And I can't quote him. And you look at their quote.

And if you're from the south, it has a southern twang in it. No, it's true. If they're from the hood,

God is speaking in another dialect. If they're in everything, what does that tell you? It's going,

it's their soul. Oh, man. How did I get on that? Somebody needed to hear that. And I'm just trying

to take the spook out of this and expose the nonsense that goes on out there. And then other people

get intimidated and go, wow, I can never do that. You can have your spiritual senses exercise.

That's what I was saying. Nobody taught me that. It seemed like you either had the gift of

instantly hearing or not at all. But you can exercise your spiritual senses. Now, may I give you

some wise counsel and encourage you to start off small as you begin exercising. You know, when you

take off from the gym for a few years, ever do that. I know I have. And you go back. You don't

immediately slide on all the 45-pound plates and start deadlifting 500 pounds. You start off small,

maybe just the bar. This did work on that form again. But people will hear a message like this

and get excited that God still speaks and go out, e kaladadabashah alone in their room and come

back. The next Sunday said, God, it told me to move to Timbuktu. I'm not supposed to be a missionary

there. Whoa, hold your horses. Maybe you don't want to go on such a pivotal life changing directional

word so quickly. I mean, you're not even employed. Why don't you tell me what the Lord is telling you

about your job situation? Let's see how that works out. Really? And get a history. Get a track record.

Get good at hearing the voice of God by exercising your spiritual senses.

You know why most people don't do that? Because they're afraid of missing it. They're afraid of

mishearing God's voice. But those are victories, too. You're going to miss your God's voice. I know

I have. You have two choices when you do. You can pretend it never happened, which is what most

Christians do. Why do we do that? So many Christians, I know if you've been around any church for a

while, you know that one Christian who they're always like cross-eyed. God told me, and it's

and you go, but the last 10 times God told you your life got mishearing messier. There's nothing

about your life that I want to emulate. Yet nobody I know hears from God more than you, right?

This is how I lose babe. More good members. This is how I lose and this is

me. Sarah, don't send me any emails that come in this week. I'm taking a week off.

I've missed it. So when you miss it, you got to go and ask yourself, why did I miss it?

Which was emotional. Why did I think that was God? Oh, maybe I didn't check in with a few people.

The Bible says in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. You get good at hearing the voice

of God. You get better and better. Did I offend you, son? I know I'm so much nicer at home,

and then the crazy comes out at the altar. Funny how that works.

You want to train your human spirit. One of the best ways to train your human spirit to hear

accurately from heaven. Number one is to get the written word of God in you.

Every time you get the written word of God in you, you're making a deposit into your well,

and you're giving God something to withdraw from.

I'm still answering the question, how do I know it's me versus God? Or how can I decipher

between my own voice and God's voice? When I first started hearing the voice of God,

one of my biggest shocks was it comes from within. It's very similar to the voice of your conscience.

This voice, this voice is not a different voice. The Lord is using your spirit. That's the relay

station. So even the world will call it, my gut is telling me, the voice of my conscience.

The voice of your conscience is the voice of your spirit, your human spirit, and that's what you

will hear it in. So quit looking for an echoey voice with a Hebrew accent.

To train your human spirit, get in the word. Two, you know what I find when I do this for like

20 minutes and instantly it's prophetically completely different. Soak. What is soaking?

Soaking, there's a lot of synonyms for the term soaking. There is a meditative prayer. Soaking

prayer. Be still and know that I'm God prayer. The old time, world-timers, I don't mean like

1950s, old-timers, I mean like 13th century old-timers. Used to call it contemplative prayer.

That's when you're praying but not speaking. You're just being silent. I'll go into my office

lay down for 20 minutes and just be silent. I resist the urge to say anything. It's very uncomfortable

actually. Resist urge to do anything. Your mind will drift. It's okay. Just bring it back to

Jesus when you see it drifting and just be with him and you will feel absolutely unproductive.

That's what you're going to feel. I feel like that was nothing. We like to do. Do, do, do.

But just do that and you will feel unproductive but something would have happened on the inside.

Your spirit's like a tuning fork and tuning in to the vibration of heaven. You may not hear

anything during your soaking time. You may not hear anything immediately after your soaking time.

But as you're turning on the faucet and your kitchen sink six hours later, all of a sudden God

speaks, or the next day when you're walking your dog, or a week later, but these are ways to

train the human spirit. Another way to train the human spirit is to instantly obey the voice of

your spirit. If you're, if you're constantly negating the voice of your spirit, you will quiet that

voice. There's some people they don't even hear the voice of their own conscience. The Bible

talks about that. This is having a conscience seared. When you keep pushing down and ignoring

the voice of your conscience, you won't hear it anymore. That's where there are some quote-unquote

Christians. They'll be doing lines of coke and going, God, isn't God so awesome? God, and you'll go,

you know, there's a little, how do you say, in congruity between your love for God and what you're

doing right now, before me, right now? How do you explain that? No, God is fine with it.

Well, he, you think he's fine with it because you shove down the voice of your conscience for so

long. Now you don't even hear it anymore. And you cannot be led by the Holy Spirit who lives inside

of your spirit if you've eliminated the voice of your conscience. A little eerily quiet.

Nevertheless, we press on.

This is not for the new believer. This is for the one who's given their life to Jesus fully,

fully your surrendered. Your heart's cries, Lord, your Lord of everything, and all I want is what

you want from me. Now, when that person comes to me and goes, how do I know it's not me? I mean,

I keep thinking this. How do I know it's not just me? I would say, well, what's wrong with just you?

Listen now, God said, Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said, God will cause you to will,

to want to and to do after his good pleasure. When your life is surrendered to the Lord,

genuinely, your surrender to the Lord, God will make it so that what you're wanting is what he's

really wanting. So someone says, how do you know this is God? Because I keep thinking it over,

no weeks go by, months go by, I'm bringing it before the Lord and I still keep thinking that I

push it away and I'm like, Lord, I'm not even going to, and then I wake up and I'm thinking it's

and it's like the Lord and when you're in an intimate place with the Lord, you're like, Lord,

you are flooding me with your desire. I keep thinking this thing. I believe you want me to go ahead

and do this thing because he's willing you when you're in a place to surrender and abandon to the

Lord. This is how you'll start talking to you. He's willing you to desire and to do his good

pleasure. This is why the early apostles, you know how they made decisions, lots of different

ways, but one of the ways was they said it seemed good to the holy ghost and to us.

What a beautiful way of discerning the will of God. They didn't say God appeared in bodily form

before us. We heard his audible voice. There was thunder in the sky, the top of the mountain

smoked. No, they just said, we made this major directional decision. It seemed good to the holy

ghost and to us. We were walking in such relationship and intimacy with the Lord and we said, we're

going to go this way and the Holy Spirit never said no. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.

When you're in a place of intimacy with the Lord, you can tell, listen to this now. You can tell

the will of the Lord just as much by what he doesn't say is what he does say.

This is important. Some people, some people, they really love the Lord and they really want his will,

but because they never hear the Lord say, do this, they get crippled and never move.

I'm talking to some singles here right now. They get crippled and the Lord may not tell you

ask so and so out on a date or move to such and such town, but you are surrendered to him.

And why don't you start thinking about it? Why don't you start just making some small decisions

and see if the Lord corrects you or reigns you in, pulls you back. And if you get no red light,

what he's saying is, well, you just go ahead and do this thing. I'm with you wherever you go.

It seems good to you and the Holy Ghost to do this thing. Hallelujah.

Is this helping any people this morning? Hallelujah. God is good.

But it's important to get that track record, exercise your spiritual senses,

get better at hearing it. Question eight.

Why don't I feel connected? Two reasons why, quote unquote, you don't feel connected.

Because you're condemned, number one, and number two, because you're relying on your feelings.

Next question. No, just kidding. No, go back to eight. Whoever that is,

I had this question for years, because I'm from the Balkans. I'm a feeler. I like to feel.

I feel good. I felt bad. Good is better. I choose good every time. I don't want to feel bad or

feel nothing. I want to feel God. He feels great. And sometimes I don't feel connected. What to do then?

Well, there's two reasons. I've studied this out. Trust me. This was a quick answer.

I've deep dove into this. Number one, when you don't feel connected, you're feeling condemned.

Not by God. Do you know if you're in Jesus, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who

are in Christ Jesus. It is utterly impossible for God to condemn you because you and all your sin

has already been condemned in Jesus. That's good news. So you said, what is that condemning feeling?

That's the voice of your own spirit, recoiling. Perhaps it's something you did. It's not God

condemning you, but you go out and do something sinful. Your own spirit is going to be saying,

and people go, I know God is disgusted with me. No, you're disgusted with you. The real you.

The real you goes, but God doesn't turn his nose up at you. God loves you. Doesn't mean he's

excusing the sin. Doesn't mean he loves the sin, but you, he loves. But you're condemned.

Not by God. By either your own spirit or Satan, his literal name means

Hasa time, the accuser, the condemner of the people of God, of the brethren.

And he works over time. Condemnation kills. He works over time. He comes and whispers to you.

You're just not enough. It's always you're not enough. When I was in my early years seeking after God,

pursuing him to get into the pastorate, I would, I was a legalist.

Because I was serious about my calling. So I took great pride in how much I prayed, how much I

studied, how much I evangelized, and there were times I still didn't feel God. And I would go,

you know, last week I felt you, but why not this week? What sins have I done? I'd go, okay,

there's no sins that I did. So no sins of commission. But what about sins of omission? Maybe I didn't

read enough. Maybe I didn't pray enough. Maybe I didn't evangelize enough. I'm not enough. I'm

never enough. And that's why you have nutty people in the church. Because secretly they're always

feeling not enough. And they're always feeling condemned. And this is why people leave the church.

They'll give you all sorts of reasons why they left, starting with me and something offensive,

I said. But really, what the real reason is is they hate to feel condemned. That's why

when Christians backslide, nobody backslides like a Christian backsliding, they go crazy.

And it's like the more on fire you were than when you backslide, like sinners look at you and go,

take it easy. You're really like knocking yourself out now. Can you just keep the sinning at like,

you know, a healthy level six, seven, you're ten and beyond. They go wild. They're trying to escape

that voice of condemnation. That's not from God that's from Satan. And then trying to escape

that voice of condemnation, they go, you know what? Forget it all anyway. Might as well just

do the deep dive into that lake ascend. It's interesting, isn't it?

So why don't you feel God? Two reasons. One, you're living in condemnation. You need to stop

living in condemnation. The blood of Jesus is the answer to condemnation. You need to realize that

it is legally, scripturally impossible. If you are trusting in Christ for your righteousness,

you're saved. You're a Christian. You are not condemned by God. Therefore now no condemnation

in the Greek means there is now no condemnation, not now, nor can there ever be condemnation

to those who are in Christ Jesus. Two, why don't I feel connected? It's because you're too

feely and you got to ignore it when you don't feel connected. Because here's what the word says

that you are in him and he is in you. How much more connected can you get than you and him and him

and you? I love it when I feel that connection. And yeah, there's some things I can do. If I,

if I'm having a rough day and I go, you know what? I'm having a 15 minute worship session. Just me

and Jesus, I start worshipping him and then I start singing out loud and I start singing in tongues.

I'm going to feel more connected. Nine out of 10 times. I will say there's sometimes still. I'll do

that and it's like, man, but you just ignore that. Sometimes you're feeling. Sometimes you don't.

I love feeling. Yeah, that was it.

Hallelujah.

You know, that other question came up, I didn't actually add to my list, but similar to this one of

the questions was, what do I do when I haven't heard from the Lord in so long? The first thing you do

is go back and see what the last thing he told you to do was. Why is God not offering up fresh

information because you didn't do anything with the last information? So he's not going to offer

up new information when you've done nothing with the previous information. Hallelujah.

Nine has nothing to do with hearing the voice of God, but I like the question.

I don't know how what tone this is, but I read it as, is he ever angry?

Like you preach so much on the love of God, is he ever angry?

Because if you've been around the church for a while, then the immediate answer should be not

this church, but the church. Yeah, he's angry. You kidding me? Like 98% of his job is being angry.

Did you read the Bible? Cities were burnt down. Grounds opened up and swallowed rebellious people.

He's in the angry business and don't you anger him? I answer this question two ways, is he ever angry?

To the born again believer, washed in the blood of Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit,

the answer is never to the person who's outside of Christ who hasn't received Jesus as their

Lord and Savior. The answer is always, both of those things at the same time are true,

and I'll show it to you from the scriptures. John, I believe, 336, you know it's good because

it's just 20 verses after John 316, and Jesus was on fire when he was preaching this sermon.

You know it's good. John 336, is he ever angry?

He who believes in the Son has the wrath of God. No, has everlasting life,

and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God.

Because God's wrath is exercised against all sin.

Now, to those who are outside of Jesus, this is by the way why city light church exists.

This is why we ask you to invite your friends. This is why I'm here preaching the gospel

to give humanity the solution to their predicament, which is the wrath of God is on you.

It's like an umbrella over your head that you take with you everywhere you go. It's the wrath of

God is on you, and when you die, you will see the full culmination of their wrath if you die outside

of Christ. But to the one who's in Jesus, it is, call it legally, mathematically,

theologically impossible for there to be God's wrath on you. Why? Because his full wrath

was exhausted on the body of Jesus at the cross.

He said, what about the Christian who really rebels and does wrong? God's not happy about that

behavior, but the wrath of God is not on them. And you can know, no, but bad stuff happened to

them after that. That's not the wrath of God. That bad stuff is just the natural consequences to

their own sin. You don't know what the wrath of God is. The wrath of God comes, your dust,

your vapor, your always smell is just a little bit of smoke in your gun.

Yeah. But it's interesting that people have this question, is he ever angry?

I've had marvelous falls in my serving the Lord for the record books, horrible stuff.

I don't say that. I say that half-joke, but no, it's true. Who hasn't, right? Who here?

Who can you go? My walk with the Lord has been flawless. But do you know, I never,

ever, when I would go to the Lord, I'd be self-condemning. I'd be, I never once,

ever once received anger from him, never once. Now that will you see that in the scriptures,

if you want to dig in the old covenant, before the blood of Jesus will shed, you'll see plenty of

it. But we're not under the old covenant. You know not what spirit you are of if you're digging

into the old covenant. Under the new covenant, you get the solution for your sin, the thing that'll

empower you to come out of sin, and that's grace. Hallelujah. Ephesians 5, 6. This is really good.

Why did I include this in a message on how to hear from heaven? Because if you think that God

is angry with you, you're not going to hear from heaven. Or you'll, you'll miss here from heaven.

You won't hear accurately. Let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things

the wrath of God. So is God ever angry? Yes. With unbeliever always, with the believer, never,

the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Do I got any sons of disobedience in the

house today? No, you're Christians. You're saved. You're bloodwashed. And if you came in here

and you go, I don't know if I am. Awesome. Come up to the altar after service. I want to talk to you.

Yeah. Anybody here, the ministry team, we'll talk, we will lead you into the things of God.

Yeah. Or you can keep hanging out and join a life group, maybe come, don't get baptized,

but check it out. That's all cool too. Kick the tires on this vehicle, call Christianity, see what

it's all about. Just don't wait too long. The devil loves to say tomorrow. Hallelujah. This verse

is obviously not talking about believers. It's talking about unbelievers. How much do I believe

that's what this tattoo is? You know what cups are a symbol of in the Bible? The wrath of God

over and over again, cups are the wrath of God. And this is an upside down cup. The wrath of God

has been poured out completely, not on you though, because God loved you so much. He came in the

person of man in humanity as Jesus Christ and took that wrath in your place. What a love story.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Number 10, I'm thinking worship team should come up.

We have a few more, but yeah. I want to give an opportunity for the Lord to massage you spirit.

Talk to you, bring comfort to you, bring you guidance. It may not happen in the service by the way,

but if you will, if you will reach out to him, it'll happen after the service. Maybe not today,

maybe not tomorrow, but after. You know what the most important thing when it comes to hearing the

voice of God is? The most important thing is wanting only what he wants, a surrendered heart.

That's the most important thing. When someone has that heart attitude, I don't worry about them.

When someone is scheming and wanting to do their own thing, but wanting to bring God into it,

I'm very concerned about that person. You know what? I only have one more question left.

That's not the question I'm going to choose. It's a good question.

I want to do 15 and 16 and end with that, because those are important also.

Can you ever hear God's voice in an audible way?

And then do question 16 kind of long, but Pastor Bo slightly answered this in Sunday's preaching,

but I still wanted to ask, do people really hear his actual voice coming from like the sky or the air?

I came from a very, this is important. I came from a very scarring place where everything told to me,

God told me God says and thus says the Lord. I always felt inadequate because I never heard an

external voice telling me things and then when I didn't believe it was happening to other people,

I felt like maybe I was the one who was wrong. They're both the same question.

Can God speak in an audible voice? Obviously he's God in numbers. He spoke through

Balam's donkey and there's like over 25 different ways you'll find throughout the Bible that he speaks.

But I have sat at the feet of great men of God with 50 plus years of ministry experience. That's

a lot of exercising your spiritual senses. And you know what they'll say? They'll say I heard the

audible voice of God maybe once, maximum twice in my ministry. It's not frequent.

I've never heard the audible voice of God. I've heard the voice of the Holy Spirit. That's

different than the voice of your own spirit. The voice of the Holy Spirit is stronger and more

authoritative and it's like a lightning bolt of life and joy and direction hitting you all at

the same time. It's so wonderfully jarring that you'll think it was audible but like if I had a

tape recorder out I wouldn't have caught anything. I don't not sure I even want to hear the audible

voice of God. The audible voice of God, you know the Bible says it splits the cedars of Lebanon.

But also if I hear the audible voice of God that means I was so rebellious for so long

God couldn't get through to me with all the other ways he speaks internally he had to come with

his audible voice. May I not be that stubborn and stiff-necked? Hallelujah. Say this with me.

I'm a child of God. I'm his sheep. I hear his voice. God's direction. It leads me into a place

of plenty, into a place of prosperity, into a place of good success. I believe the Holy Spirit guides

me into all truth and he speaks. He speaks. He speaks to me. In Jesus name, amen.

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reminded how much God loves you and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening.

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