How You Can Hear God's Voice with Confidence and Clarity

I want to give you some very practical teaching on hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit. You've often heard it said that you need to hear God, but very rarely are we told how to hear God. >> And then when we're told how to hear God, even sometimes the instructions aren't broken down enough to where we know exactly what to do when we go home and pray. So my prayer here is that after this morning, you're going to be given very practical steps that you can actually take so that when you leave here and go to your prayer room that you will know exactly what to do. And I believe that you're going to begin to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit with confidence and clarity. 1st Samuel 3:1. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now, in those days, messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon. One night, Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed. And by the way, that physical blindness was a prophetic parallel of the spiritual blindness that he was experiencing. Verse three, the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the tabernacle near the ark of God. Suddenly the Lord called out Samuel. Yes, Samuel replied. What is it? He got up and ran to Eli. Here I am. Did you call me? I didn't call you, Eli replied. He got up and ran as he and he and he did as he did before. So go back to bed, he instructs him. So he did. Verse six. Then the Lord called out again, Samuel. Again Samuel got up and went to Eli. Here I am. Did you call me? I didn't call you my son, Eli said. Go back to bed. Samuel did not yet know the Lord because he had never had a message from the Lord before. Verse eight, the Lord called a third time, and once more Samuel got up and went to Eli, here I am. Did you call me? I found it interesting here. Eli probably should have caught on from the beginning that God was speaking to him. But it took him a while because again, there was that spiritual blindness. Then Eli realized it was the Lord who was calling the boy. Verse nine. So he said to Samuel, "Go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, 'Speak, Lord, your servant is listening." So Samuel went back to bed, and the Lord came and called as before, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel replied, "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening." I want you to notice from our text something very important. It is possible to hear the Holy Spirit speaking to you and not yet recognize that it's him. Many believers ask, "Can I hear the Holy Spirit? How do I hear his voice?" And I'm here to hopefully break some barriers down in your mind because Jesus said in John 10:27, "My sheep hear my voice." The question is not, "Can I hear the Holy Spirit?" The question is, "Do I belong to Jesus?" If you belong to Jesus, then you already are hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit. And it's not a matter of you hearing him or getting him to speak to you. How often we pray that Lord, please speak to me. God, please give me instruction. Holy Spirit, please tell me what to do. But the truth of the matter is the Holy Spirit is already speaking to you. Why? Because your spirit who is one with the Holy Spirit, your spirit that is in union with him already fellowships with him. What does Paul write about? deep calling unto deep is what the psalmist said. But Paul writes about how the spirit searches the deep things of God and then communicates that with your spirit. >> So in your spirit you're already hearing him. In your spirit there's already perfect clarity. This is why I say that revelation isn't you receiving new knowledge. Revelation is when what I already know in my spirit is understood in my natural mind. Come on. >> Now the Holy Spirit is speaking to you right now. The Holy Spirit is giving you an instruction. So the key is how do I recognize his voice? Now hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit is not necessarily a skill to be to be exercised or learned. It's a sense to be sharpened. How do you explain sight to someone who is born blind? How do you explain hearing to someone who is born deaf? These are senses that elude description. We can't put them into words because they have to be experienced to be understood. In the same way, many often ask, well, what does the voice of the Holy Spirit sound like? And some will say, oh, he speaks with a still small voice. And that's biblical and that's true. Some will say he speaks with a thunderous voice and when he talks it's like the voice of many waters. That's also true. Some will say when he speaks he speaks with authority. Yes, it's true. Some will say he speaks with love. Yes, it's true. The problem is is that if you go based off of other people's description of his voice, then you will always mistake your thoughts for his voice when your thoughts match those descriptions. That's why people can say foolish things and feel justified because oh but I feel peace in my heart or I believe it was the Lord because it was this this this very strong voice that came over me and told me that that girl is my wife. And the problem now is that Christians begin to struggle with what I call religious OCD. obsessing over every instruction as if it could be the Holy Spirit. >> Was it the red shirt or the blue shirt today? Driving down the street, you you think the Holy Spirit's telling you to stop and talk to every single person you pass. And if you don't do it, you feel condemned for the rest of the day. And you live in this tension of religious burden. You live in this tension of fear of missing the Holy Spirit. Let me tell you something that'll comfort you. The Holy Spirit did not rebuke Samuel for not responding the first time. I don't trust in my ability to hear God. You may be so spiritual that maybe you do. I'm filled with emotions. I'm filled with thoughts. I'm filled with motives and intentions. And if I were to go based on my ability to hear God, I'd be all over the place. I don't trust in my ability to hear him. I trust in his ability to speak. >> God knows how to get through to you. You may say, "Well, you know, I I I I'm afraid I might miss the voice of God here. I I'm afraid I might miss my calling or what if I don't do this thing or what if I do do that thing?" And and it derails my entire Christian walk. I'm here to tell you that God knows how to speak to you. and he'll make it clear. >> Now, there are things that we can do to quiet the rest of the noise. Let's say, for example, there's a crowd of 300 people in front of me and they're all talking at once and I asked you to describe to me the voice of your mother or your father or your best friend or your spouse and you describe their voice to me. You might say, "Oh, it's deep and raspy, or it's high-pitched." Or you might say, "It's soft," or, "It's firm." You might say, "It it has a certain cadence to it." You might describe the rhythm. But even if you described that voice to me, I couldn't pick their voice out in a crowd >> because I've never heard them. So, this is why believers get frustrated with other Christians when they say, "What does God sound like? Tell me." And they say, "Well, I can't really put it into words." or if they do, it's just this struggle still. So remember this, there is the secular, there is the satanic, there is self, and then there's the spirit. These are the four categories of voices that speak. The secular contradicts the nature of God. Little more subtle, harder to spot. The satanic contradicts the word of God. Self is all over the map. Sometimes it aligns with God. Sometimes it contradicts God. The fourth is the spirit. So the key is not in trying to get God to speak to you. One of the most spiritual things I can tell you doesn't sound so spiritual. You ready? It's a one-word instruction. First thing you're going to do, you want to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, you need to relax. calm down. Some of you are so tense and wrapped up in yourself that you've become entangled in your own emotions and your own thoughts and it's now impossible for you to be responsive to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Relax. There needs to be this stillness that comes over you. So for example, the first key is relax. Second, silence and stillness. Silence and stillness. Silence is easy. It's the putting away of outer distraction. It's Matthew 66. Locking yourself away. Silence is when I put away the phone. I stop scrolling on social media or I I tell people I can't be disturbed for the next few minutes because I need to go to this place to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. That's silence. Easy. But how do you quiet what's in you? How do you quiet that inner chaos? You ever notice that all day your mind can be perfectly clear, but the moment that you go to pray, suddenly there's all the chatter that begins to arise. Now you're worried about work and finances and relationship. What that is, it's your flesh fighting you and it's trying to get out of the place of prayer. It's trying to get out of the place of stillness because in that stillness is where the flesh dies. So, it's fighting and you say things like, "Wow, none of this distraction was here until I went to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit." My friend, it's not that the distraction suddenly appeared when you tried to hear him. It's that you didn't realize it was there until you were quiet enough to hear it. And so that stillness that comes over you can only be found through the word, through worship, through focusing your attention on Jesus. If you have an hour to pray, worship for 45 minutes of that hour. Because there's something about the power of worship that takes the focus off of self and puts it on Jesus. And in that place now all of the the background noise begins to fade as you begin to worship as you begin to focus your mind on the word. Now suddenly there's this calm that comes over the soul. Silence is the putting away of outer distraction but stillness is the quieting of the soul. And stillness comes through worship and the word. That inner chaos disappears through that act of meditation. Number two, you want or excuse me, number three, you want to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. You need to get in the word. Don't tell me you're serious about hearing the Holy Spirit if you're not serious about dedication to the scripture. John 14:26 says, "But when the Father sends the advocate as my representative, that is the Holy Spirit, he will teach you everything and remind you of everything I have told you." The word familiarizes you with his voice. The more you get in the word, the more you more familiar you become with the way he talks, his truth. Now, I'm going to say something that some of you are going to find offensive, but that's okay. This is good for you. Going to stretch you a little. Many of you think you're hearing God when you're not. It got quiet. So, I you got even I'm going to I'm going to focus right in on this because I get to leave after this the second service. Pastor Vlad, you can deal with them later. God told me. God told me. God told me. I'm thinking he didn't even speak to the prophets that much. Every 10 minutes, God tells you. No. What's actually happening is you're having thoughts and whims and then convincing yourself it's God. >> My friend, God is not schizophrenic. He does not constantly contradict himself. He does not constantly change directions. >> Now, this is where it's important you understand these four foundations I want to give you. >> Number one is the word. 99% of the time when God talks to you, it's through the word. >> The word is your foundation for hearing the Holy Spirit. And this is coming from someone who believes greatly in what I call friendship with the Holy Spirit, communing with him, walking with him daily. Now, words of knowledge, the Lord will give often. Prophecy, that's a gift. But when it comes to instructions for my own life, it's primarily coming from the word. >> The word covers most of your bases. >> And so when you have a foundation of the word, watch this. Now what begins to happen in you is wisdom starts to become formed. Wisdom is divine reasoning. Now many of you are confusing the Holy Spirit speaking specifically with divine wisdom that God gives. As you read the word, you begin to think like God thinks. >> As you read the word, you begin to speak like God speaks. Somebody ask me, "What is faith?" I say that faith is simply thinking like God. And this is what begins to happen in your heart now where where the the word begins to as it's deposited begins to overflow out from your life. And now you're walking in wisdom. You know, I was given a download as a 14-year-old boy and I saw the media ministry. I saw the evangelistic meetings. I saw the itineraries for how we would run these evangelistic meetings. 14. That was not a thus sayaeth the Lord. It was the plan of wisdom that was deposited in my heart. And wisdom helps you to navigate certain circumstances. So the word is the foundation of the home. Wisdom is the framework. And then you're going to get number three, the whisperer. Now these are the specific instructions that the Holy Spirit will speak to you. The word every day wisdom all the time. The whisper. These are rare moments when the Holy Spirit will speak with clarity and specificity directly to your heart. Again, I'm not talking about prophecy or word of knowledge. I'm talking about instructions for your daily life. Powerful man of God told me, "The voice of God is not cheap. It's expensive. He speaks at certain intervals of your life, and when he does, it changes everything." There's there there are turns and there are there are intervals. So the word is the foundation. Wisdom is the framework. And now you got the whisper. Now you're beginning to put the drywall and the paint and the flooring. It's building the house. The problem is that many Christians are looking for that whisper and they're not even in the word. And because they're not in the word, there's no wisdom. And because there's no wisdom, they can't navigate between their own emotions and the voice of the Holy Spirit. >> Number four, wonders. This is where God will speak to you through prophets and signs and wonders. And these things happen. But if you're not in the word and you don't have the foundation of wisdom and you don't know the voice of the Holy Spirit for yourself, anyone who claims to be a prophet can torment you with the word that's not from God. Come on. >> And we go from conference to conference, church to church, meeting to meeting, wanting someone else to tell us what God is saying when we haven't laid the foundations in our lives. And then and then they speak a word and when it doesn't come to pass, many Christians get stuck there for years, confused as to why it didn't happen. When a prophet speaks, more often than not, they're confirming in your heart what God already spoke to you. Now, here's the problem. The word foundation, wisdom, the framework, the whisper, that's the drywall, the wood, wood floors. You're starting to see the form. And then the signs and wonders, that's the decorations. Some Christians flip this upside down >> and they live their life chasing signs and wonders, thinking they're hearing his voice. without the wisdom to guide them or the word is their foundation and they're swept up by every doctrine and because they're caught up in here I'm going to expose this right now listen here listen here the reason they cannot escape this type of cycle is not because of pride necessarily most often based in fear fear that that religious thinking has caused cause them to come under. Fear that if I give up this obsessive pursuit, I'm going to miss God. Fear that if I stop straining over what I want to hear, God's going to be angry with me. I rebuke that religious lie in the name of Jesus. God did not design you to live under that burden. God did not create you to live under torment. God did not call you to constantly secondguess yourself. His voice is not tormenting. >> And if you wonder if you missed him, I'll tell you, you stay in the word, you live in wisdom, you're not going to miss the voice of the Holy Spirit. >> You neglect the word, you neglect wisdom, and you're going to be hearing voices of all kinds. >> Discernment comes by the word. Guidance comes by the word and together this creates perfect clarity. The final key I want to give you and then I want to pray for you. Simple. It's obedience. The Lord directs the steps of the godly. Think about that. He directs the steps of the obedient. Many of you are begging God to speak to you because deep down you know what he's already said and you don't like it. >> Some of you avoid Some of you can't even pray. You can't even pray because you don't want to hear what you know God is telling you to do. And every time you go to pray, you finally get back to the root of it. You leave and say, "Okay, I'm not willing to go there." You're like the rich young ruler who goes away sorrowfully because the instruction was too much. Why is God going to give us step 10 when we haven't even obeyed step one? God, use my life. Send me across the oceans to preach the gospel when you haven't even went across the street to preach to your neighbor. The voice of God is progressive and he speaks. And when you obey, you live a lifestyle of obedience, there's perfect clarity. You stay in the word. You walk in wisdom. And you obey his voice. And in those moments where you go away quietly, you're going to hear him with confidence and clarity as all the other voices fade into the background. But you have to obey. Stop trying to debate with the Holy Spirit. Stop trying to reason with him or bargain and negotiate. And Lord, if you come a little this way, I'll come a little that way. If you if you just adjust this right here, I'll sign right now. And he's saying, "You are not the Lord I am." Don't try to debate with God. You will lose every time and you'll just waste a bunch of time in the meantime. Obey him. And as you obey, your mind, here's here's such an important key. As you obey him, your mind becomes free of the clutter of guilt from your disobedience. Some of you struggle to hear God because of guilt and shame as a result of what you are not doing that he's telling you to do or something you're doing that he's telling you to stop. You see, it's so simple. It's so simple we complicate it. Trust and obey.