YOU CAN HEAR GOD — Episode 6: Hearing God in Prayer

Sharing good news of great joy to all people.

Elation Church. Welcome to week number six in

our series entitled, You Can Hear God. Everybody

say, you can. Oh, you can be louder now. Say,

you can. You can hear God. You can hear God.

I want us to make a habit of taking doubt and

unbelief concerning this subject out of our mouth.

Right? Out of the things that we say. So many

times we get to a place, circumstance, things

happen where we just go, well, God, I can't hear

you. I don't know what God's saying. I've prayed.

I've tried. I've done all I can do. And it's

easy to kind of fall in that habit of being like,

God, I just can't. I can't hear. I can't experience

that. I've never heard Him before. But as we've

learned through this series that every child

of God, right, if you're a believer, Guess what?

You have heard God. You've responded to his call.

You've responded to his voice. You know his voice.

As we saw in John chapter 10, the shepherd, he

John 10 · chapter mention

leads us and his sheep know his voice. His sheep

recognize his voice and they follow the shepherd.

Amen? So we know him. Say, I know God. If you're

a Christian, I know him. Say, I know his voice.

Say, I follow his voice. I recognize his voice.

Amen. You can hear God. Let's begin. Romans 8,

14 says this. For all who are led by the Spirit

of God are children of God. Amen. All. It doesn't

say some. It says all who are led by the Spirit

of God are children of God. Amen. You have a

choice to be led and who you follow. Right? You

have a choice. So it's not everybody. It's all

who are led. It's all who yield to his voice.

It's all who follow his voice are children of

God. So what does this mean? That a characteristic

then of being a Christian is that you are led,

that you hear, that you follow. We could say

it like this, that you obey the Spirit of God,

that you obey the Spirit of God. See, that's

something that we have to learn. We have to learn

to obey. Something that I've seen with my child,

Elisha, you know, he wasn't born, he doesn't

know how to obey, right? He wasn't born just

like, okay, daddy, I'll do whatever you say.

It's not the way that works, right? We have to

learn. We have to yield. We have to trust before

we obey. And that's what it means when we're

a Christian. We trust God. We obey Him. We hear

Him. We follow His voice. And being led by the

Spirit, then, requires hearing the Spirit. Hearing

His voice. Now, as we've seen in this series,

when we talk about hearing God, your first instinct

might be like, well, can I hear Him audibly?

And yes, God does speak audibly, but... When

we think about salvation, when we think of, we

looked at the many ways that God speaks to us.

Last week, we looked at how God speaks to us,

the believer, through peace. Everybody say peace,

right? So he can lead us by his peace. into directing

us where to go, what to do, not to do, that kind

of thing. So His peace is a way, like we can

feel it on the inside as an inward witness of

the Holy Spirit. And that's a way that He leads

us and guides us. So God speaks in many ways,

not just audibly, right? Even though He's not

limited to those, you know, to just one way.

But being led by the Spirit requires hearing

the Spirit. And I would... dare to say that prayer

is one of the primary environments where that

happens. It's that attitude, it's that position

of prayer when we get to, when we focus our mind,

when we're still, when we carve time out of our

day, that's when we hear God, right? When we

seek Him, we find Him. Amen? When we seek Him,

when we turn, when we quit seeking everything

else, more, higher, when we seek Him first, right?

We will find Him. We will find Him. So, that's

what happens when we're praying, we're seeking

God, and that's where often we will hear from

Him. That is the environment where we hear from

Him. Because prayer isn't just where God hears

you. Newsflash. Prayer isn't just where God hears

you. I'm going to say it again. Prayer is not

just where God listens to you go on and on and

on and on. This might shake you a little bit

this morning, but prayer is not all about you.

Prayer is a time where you hear from God. It's

time where God wants to speak to you. Amen? Oh,

me? Because prayer is not begging. Too often

we get into this habit where we feel like prayer

is just begging. I come to God, I say, God, I

need, I want, I need, need, need. God, give me

this, change this, change this person's heart.

God, I need, God, God, I want, I want, I want.

We come to him with like a grocery list of like,

these are the things that I want. And then, okay,

I'm going to, I pray, I pray, I pray, I pray.

And then go, amen. And Jesus, amen. All right.

Let me just continue about my day. Prayer is

not begging. Nowhere in Scripture is prayer begging.

Now, we ask some things of God. His Word tells

us to ask, right? But asking is different. Asking

in faith is different than begging in lack, begging

in fear. Stay with me. Because prayer is meant

to be fellowship. It's meant to be communication

out of a relationship. It's a dialogue. It's

not a monologue. 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through

18 says this, always be joyful. Wow. Wow. Should

there ever be a point in time where we're not

joyful? Does it mean that there's a point in

time where we might not always be the happiest

we could possibly be? This joy, and we've talked

about this a lot, this joy is the joy of God.

It's not our joy. It's not our manufactured joy.

It's the joy that he imparts to us. And we have

that available to us as the Christian. We have

His joy, the joy of the Lord, available to each

and every one of you 24 -7. If the Spirit of

God lives on the inside of you, you have His

joy living on the inside of you. You have access

to it. And that goes way beyond your circumstance.

That goes way beyond anything else that's happening

on the outside. Because there can be joy on the

inside. Verse 17, never, everybody say never,

never stop praying. Is that what the scripture

says or not? Am I making this up? No. Always

be joyful. Never stop praying. And then be thankful

just when everything's going good. Just when

everything's going as I planned. Be thankful

in all circumstances. Be thankful. We're not

thankful for what's going on in the circumstance.

We're thankful for a God who will deliver us

out of our circumstance and our situation, right?

Who we've seen his faithfulness over and over

again all throughout Scripture. We're thankful

for the faithfulness of God. And therefore, in

all circumstances, we can give thanks. We can

give thanks. For this is God's will. This is

God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

Amen. This is His will. How many of you want

to please God? How many of you want to be in

the will of God? Amen. Right? Always be joyful.

Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances.

Now, what does never stop praying mean? Does

that mean we just talk nonstop? Continuously

talk to God? Everybody say no. No. Is it just

non -stop praying? God, I want, I need, I want,

I need, I want, I need. God, God, God, God. Is

that what it is? And you're just rambling on

and on and on and on? No. What it means is this.

It means it's maintaining an open line of communication

between you and God. If God is living on the

inside of you, and as Christians we believe that,

the reality of someone on the inside of you should

be enough. To say, I should probably talk to

him. If someone's on the inside of me who knows

everything about everything, who created the

world, who spoke it into existence, hello. He

has some information that I don't. He knows what's

going on in my life right now. And I can turn

to him. I can talk to him. Just as I'm talking

to the person in front of me, I should know him

more. I should know him more. Open line of communication

throughout the day, right? There's nothing too

big, nothing too small. We can turn to God and

say, God, what do you think about this? How do

you want me to process this? You're talking to

someone and they're telling you something and

you go, hey God, how do you want me to answer

this person? That's what the reality of talking,

never stop praying. Because praying, listen,

is not just coming to God and just... Vain, repetitious

things that we say in church that make us sound

real spiritual and religious. Praying is communicating

with a real God, with a real person. Amen? This

verse, Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, I just can't get

away from it. I just keep coming back to it.

How many of you, if you read Scripture and all

of a sudden there's just a passage or a set of

passages that you just kind of like... God just

keeps showing you things and keep dealing with

you about. If not, read your Bible more. I'm

sorry. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 says this. Trust.

There's trust again. Trust. Trust in the Lord

with all your heart. What does that look like?

Not depending on your own understanding. Trust

in the Lord with all your heart. Do not. It's

a command. Do not. Depend on your own understanding.

Do not depend on your own understanding. Seek.

What is prayer? Prayer is seeking, right? It's

seeking God. It's coming to Him. It's talking

with Him. Seek His will in all you do. In just

the matters that belong to church, in just the

matters of spirituality. No, in all. Everybody

say all. All you do. And what does He say? What

does Scripture say? He will show you. He will

show you which path to take. Amen. Scripture's

so good. So yes, as when the disciples came to

Jesus and they said, teach us how to pray, God,

because they saw he prayed a little different.

They said, teach us how to pray. Jesus told them

to pray that God's will be done on earth as it

is in heaven, right? Meaning that his will is

not always done. On earth as it is in heaven.

If we're commanded by Jesus to pray for his will

to be done. In our lives, in our homes, in this

country. Amen. So we should pray that God's will

be done. But also, we should seek his will. And

then according to the word, with expectation

that he will show it to us. That he will lead

us. That he will guide us. Amen. So the promise

isn't just that God has a path. It's not just

that He has, you know, good and perfect plans,

right? Because He does. His will for you is awesome.

He has great and precious promises all throughout

Scripture. They're for you. They're for your

life. Amen? He has a great path for you. But,

listen, the promise isn't just that God has a

path. It is that He will show you. Which path

to take. Because the problem is there's multiple

paths set before you. There's life. There's death.

Therefore, choose life, Scripture says. Right?

But in order to choose life, guess what? You

can't depend on your own understanding. You can't

just make up your own way. You can't just make

up your own way. Because there's a way that seems

right. Remember last week, what did we talk about?

There's a way that seems right. But its end is

death and destruction, right? There's a way that

seems right. And we need the help from the Holy

Spirit to know which path to take. And this is

accomplished when we pray. When you pray, don't

ask God to bless your direction. Pray to recognize

his direction. Pray to recognize his direction.

Because he's wanting to lead you. He has a path

for you. And we need to pray. Sometimes we come

to God with our direction and our plan. How many

of you do this? I do this. I'm talking to you

about this, but I'm like, I'm guilty of this

too, right? We come to God and we say, okay,

God, I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do

this, and my life's going to be like this, my

job, my house, my job, you know, all these things,

my business, whatever. You know, God, it's going

to be all this. I'm going to do this. God, and

bless me today. Make it be, you know. Give me

favor today over this plan that I've created.

Because I've got it all figured out. And I know

how that looks, how your favor and your plan

and your provision and all these things. I got

it all figured out. This is how I want you to

do it. And so I want you to bless it. Now, when

you say it like that, but that's true, right?

It's true. Couldn't we say, okay, God, I'm going

here. I'm doing this. Protect me. Bless me. Give

me favor. Right? Sometimes we need to stop. And

actually, in all things, we need to stop and

say, God, what do you have for me? What am I

supposed to do today? Because if we're Christians,

we don't just go out on our own understanding,

right? We are led in all things. All things.

We're dependent. See, the world wants you to

be independent. They want to drive that into

you. To be independent. In the kingdom of God

is so much different because in the kingdom of

God, you need to be dependent on God. You have

to be dependent on God. Amen? Uriah got happy

about it. I wish somebody else would get happy

about it. We need to be dependent on God. He

is the only way to life. He is the only way to

walk into His will. You have to be dependent

on Him in all things. Amen? We need to pray to

recognize His direction. Romans 8, 26 -27 says

this, And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.

Hallelujah. He's our helper. He's our advocate.

Amen? For example, Paul says, We don't know what

God wants. us to pray for. We don't know. Everybody

say, I don't know. How many times you go to God

with, I have a full understanding of what I need

to pray for in this situation. Come on now. Is

that the attitude that Paul's writing here? He's

like, for example, we don't know. We are so inadequate.

Our knowledge is so lacking. We don't know what's

going to happen when we leave this building.

We don't know what's going to happen. We don't

even know what we're going to eat for dinner

tonight. Right? I can make a plan. I can try

my best. I can prepare. I can buy as many diapers

as I can. Come on now. I can stock up on some

diapers. But nothing prepares you for them handing

this. What? He's doing jujitsu and I'm trying

to wrap this thing around him. silly nurse just

sitting there watching me struggle. Just watching

me going, you got it, daddy. You got it, daddy.

Oh, and it's sweet. Oh, my gosh. We don't know.

That can be a relief to you, right? Just being

like, I don't have to know. Or it can kind of

hurt you a little bit, right? Because you like

to know. How many of you are in that category

of like, I like to know? Right? I really like

to know. I really kind of want that control,

you know? And I kind of want to come to God and

I'm like, okay, I got it all figured out for

you and you just bless this. But we don't know

what God wants us to pray. Let's continue reading.

But the Holy Spirit, get this, prays for us.

with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.

And the Father who knows all hearts knows what

the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for

us believers in harmony with God's will. Everybody

say God's will. God's will is different than

your plan. But thank God the Spirit helps us.

This word praise here, I'm not even going to

try to pronounce it. But it's the same word for

prayer. And listen, so the word for prayer, the

Greek word for prayer here, is so much different

than our normal understanding of what prayer

means. Listen to what it means. So the Holy Spirit

prays, and that word prayer means to exchange

wishes, to pray literally, to interact with the

Lord by switching human wishes, ideas, for His

wishes as He imparts faith. Also known as divine

persuasion. That's a little different, right?

It's a little different from our understanding

of what prayer really is. We've all faced situations

where we knew we needed to pray, but we just

didn't know what to pray to, right? But thank

God, the Holy Spirit prays and comes alongside

of us and prays. Listen, he prays to bring us

into the will of God. But you know, that requires

something on our part that we don't like. And

that requires yielding to the Spirit, yielding

to His way, to not relying on our own understanding.

It requires, then, obedience on our part, which

requires trust on our part. So the progression

here, we can see it as it's laid out, is there's

a progression in prayer often where it's like,

I don't know. But instead of just rehearsing

in doubt and wavering, I don't know, I don't

know, I don't know, I don't know, to God, you

need to exchange, right? You need a mindset shift,

a reframing, you could say, to say, guess what?

I can hear God. God says, look, He says that

I know His voice. I know Him. He's not some mean

ogre in the sky way far away who doesn't hear

me. I hear Him. I know Him. And guess what? He

knows everything. He lives in me. And the Word

says, He helps me pray. He helps me pray. Amen.

So therefore, prayer... involves an exchange.

It involves an exchange. You enter prayer with

your thoughts, your wishes, your assumptions,

your emotions and understanding, but the exchange

happens when we stop, when we yield to the Spirit,

and you continue prayer, and you must continue

prayer with His, His desire, His will, His direction,

His voice. You have to hear from God. You have

to hear from God. There must be a change. Through

fellowship with the Holy Spirit, your thinking

can change, right? You have the mind of Christ,

but it's renewal of the Word, right? You're renewing

your mind to this change, to His reality, to

His way. Your desires can change. Your perspective

can change about the situation that you're facing.

Because often when we hit something, it just

looks impossible, right? When we come up to things,

it just seems impossible. How many times was

David writing, you know, and pray, like they're

recording his prayers and he's just like, man,

it's impossible. Everything is the worst. Everyone's

trying to kill me. Everyone's coming after me.

This is the worst situation I could possibly

be in. God, where are you? And then all of a

sudden he says, God, you are here. You're protecting

me. You are my shelter. You promised me, right?

You will be with me. Your rod and your staff

comfort me. Amen? Come on. Your perspective can

change, but you have to seek him. Ephesians 6

.18 tells us this, to pray in the Spirit. Pray

in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion.

Stay alert. Be persistent in your prayers for

all believers everywhere. It's Paul encouraging

the Ephesian church. And what's interesting,

sometimes we try to like write out this part,

but if you think about what, you know, immediately

was before this was put on the armor of God.

Put on the armor of God. That was just right

before this passage. Put on the armor of God.

And then he immediately says, pray in the Spirit

at all times. Because when we put on his truth,

when we put on those things, guess what? That's

when we start to pray. But we need to put on,

right? We need to put on the armor of God. And

then we pray in the Spirit. But you, Jude 20

says this, but you, dear friends, must build

each other up in the most holy faith. Pray in

the power of the Holy Spirit. It's not pray in

your own power. You're not left alone in prayer.

You're supposed to pray in the power of the Holy

Spirit. So what does this tell us? That our prayer

should be led by the Holy Spirit rather than

being led by what we can figure out naturally.

Even our prayers should be led. Thankfully, prayer

does not require you to know everything. But

prayer connects you to the one who does. Amen?

The plan of God must be spoken. Must be spoken.

And for you to walk into his plan and to his

will, his plan must first be in your mouth. Life

and death are in the power of the tongue. Amen?

When he says, your will be done on earth as in

heaven, right? You're saying, your will be done

in my life today. I'm surrendering to you. I'm

yielding to you. And the plan of God must be

spoken by you. Because if you want your life

to go according to God's will, you must continually

pray out God's plan. You can't continually rehearse

the problem that you're in and expect to arrive

at a different result. You can't rehearse the

situation, the circumstance. over and over and

over again and expect to arrive at a new tomorrow.

Because if all you're saying is the problems

of today, your tomorrow will look just like today.

And this is not a feel -good presentation. This

is what the Word of God says, that life and death

is in the power of a tongue. He's given you.

He's inside you. He prays through you to bring

you into God's will. So guess what? There's some

cooperation involved on your part. He's speaking.

You can hear him, but you have to recognize his

voice. You have to turn to him. You have to seek

him. And guess what? Then he lets you know what

to do. He lets you know the path you should take.

And then you start praying into that, into his

will. And then your life, listen, your life moves

in the direction of your most dominant thought.

And your most dominant thought is what you talk

about the most. And what you talk about the most,

your life moves in that direction. This requires

the help of the Holy Spirit. Amen? Kind of like

blueprints. If you know about, if you've ever

like built a house or you're kind of familiar

with that, like blueprints. You know, the blueprints

exist way before the building. There's a plant.

There's a plant. It's a great plan, where like

the bathroom goes here, the kitchen, the island,

the thing, or the building, you know, we want

this many seats and we want this many things.

Like there's a plan, right? There's a plan. The

job of the builders isn't to invent the structure.

They don't all get out the job site and go, okay,

what do you think we should do here? Imagine

you get like 100 people out, you know, on the

side trying to build one of these duplexes. And

they're just like, now, how do you think we need

to do this? It'd probably take a while. And if

they didn't have a plan, you know. Now, I think

they build some of the houses around here like

that. I'm not going to lie. Sometimes they're

like a little wonky, like it's not square and

anything. Anyways, but a blueprint exists before

the building. And listen, church, God already

has the blueprint. He knows. everything about

your life. He knows the hair on your head. His

thoughts toward you outnumber the sand and the

stars in the sky. You are his priceless possession.

You are his treasure, his masterpiece, the Bible

says. He loves you. It's so hard for us to understand

how much he loves us, right? But he loves you

so much and he has great and precious plans for

your life to give you a future. As Jeremiah 29,

11 says, to future and to hope, right? But prayer

then is where we stop trying to design the building.

We got to stop trying to design the building

that God's already erected, that God already

has the blue plants for. We got to listen to

the architect, the one who knows it all, the

one who has a great thing for us. Because guess

what? On your own understanding, you're not going

to arrive in his will. We're incapable. We must

yield to Him. Prayer is not presenting your plans

to God. Saying, God, this is my plan. We've talked

about this. But prayer is where God reveals His

plans to you. So the question is, and I'm almost

done, so how do we hear God in prayer? How does

this accomplish? We've talked about how God communicates

to us. And I just want to recap that real quick.

Romans 8 .16 tells us that the Spirit Himself

bears witness. With our spirit. So every time

God speaks. Listen. Every time God speaks. There

will be an inward witness of the spirit. Bearing

witness. Of what God says. That this is from

God. His peace. His guidance. Those things. We

know that on the inside. Instinctively we'll

know that. God is a spirit. According to John

4 .24. We are made in his image. Therefore we

are spirit beings. And so he communicates to

us his spirit, to our spirit. And the Bible says

in 1 Corinthians 2 .12, and we have received

God's spirit, not the world's spirit. What? So

we can know the wonderful things God has freely

given us. Someone say, I can know. I can know

what God has given me. I can know what God has

provided for me. I can know his plan. I can know

his will. You can hear God. And we should expect

to hear him when we pray. I know you often don't

read out of Habakkuk in church, but Habakkuk's

a very interesting passage and story and book

of the Bible because Habakkuk, he's a prophet,

and he's coming to God with all these concerns

and with all these questions, complaints, even

scriptures that one of the translations say.

He's coming to God with all these complaints.

And I want you to see what he did. He says, I

will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my

guard post. There, I will wait to see what the

Lord says and how he will answer my complaint.

Then the Lord said to me, hallelujah. Then the

Lord said to me, listen, symbolically, this is

a form of prayer. We must leave the things of

this world. We must come up. We must turn to

the Spirit. We must climb up the watchtower with

expectation. We must stand, listen, we must stand

and wait for God to speak. We must come up. We

must come up, church. We must turn to Him and

we must wait to hear from Him. Because when we

seek Him, we find Him. When we seek Him, we will

find Him. We need to expect to find him. We need

to expect that God will meet you there. Then

the Lord said to me, then the Lord said to me,

he is speaking, he is waiting for your attention.

He's not just going to go, go, go, go, go, and

you're just not listening. He's waiting for you

to just turn to him. Like the story of the prodigal

son, it was when he came back, when he turned,

when he came to his senses and when he turned,

right? That's when the father, now the father

had been waiting, yes. But when he turned, that's

when the father came out and said, kill the fatted

calf. Get the robe, get the ring, right? He was

waiting. God is waiting on you to turn to him.

He's the perfect gentleman. And we need to expect

that he's going to speak. And he will speak to

us. Because expectation changes prayer from just

a speech into a conversation. The change for

Habakkuk, and that can be the change for us too,

because he expected. And if you never expect

an answer, you're not really listening for one.

If you just come to him and rattle off your thing

and you never expect to hear from God, you won't

hear from him. So before you say amen, by the

way, amen is not hang up. It's not goodbye. It

means so be it to what was said. So think about

what you're saying when you say it before you

say amen to say, so be it. My life's terrible.

Everything's falling apart. So be it. Let it

be. Okay? Before you say amen, you need to do

two things. You need to ask. Everybody say ask.

And you need to listen. You need to say something

like this. These are just examples. They're not

definites. But is there anything you want to

show me? You know. Come to God, present your

requests, do all those things. Pray that his

will be done in your life. Pray that you recognize

his will when he shows it to you. And say, God,

is there anything you want to show me? Now, this

is not just when you see you want to compartmentalize

prayer. Some of you just kind of want to compartmentalize

it like, OK, well, I pray in the mornings because

that's the only time I really get by myself.

But we're supposed to pray and talk to God continuously.

So an open line of communication. Now that doesn't

mean that we do not pull away. Jesus often pulled

away from the disciples and went off and prayed.

And there's all kind of evidence for that. But

there needs to be an open communication between

you and God living on the inside of you. And

you need to come to a point where in all things

you say, God, what do you want to show me about

this? God, I don't even know what to pray about

this situation. concerning my family, concerning

my job, concerning my future. God, I don't even

know what to pray, but I know you do. And what

do you want me to pray in this situation? Because

God, it's on you. It's your will. And guess what?

It's not up to me to fall into your will. Right?

It's not up to me. It's up to him. And it's up

to me turning to him and obeying him and following

him. Amen? So I can just turn and there you go.

What do you want me to pray about? Is there anything

I need to change? That's a good thing to ask.

It's a good thing to ask God. Because yes, he

does encourage you, but he also corrects those

that he loves. He calls us higher, calls us to

grow, calls us to mature, because his message

is not acceptance, it's transformation. He wants

to transform you. So what does that mean? It

means that you no longer look like the person

you were before. That after a word from God,

something changes you from the inside out. And

that new season, that word that's in you produces

a harvest of transformation. So where you look

more and more like him, not more and more like

yourself in your own understanding. Is there

anything I need to change? And lastly, amen is

not hanging up the God's communication line.

Please remember that. It's not hanging up God's

communication line. Stay on the line today. Stay

connected because the God you've been talking

to has something to say to you. This online worship

experience was brought to you by the friends

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