You were created for relationship with God. Through daily prayer and listening to His voice, you can experience the love and guidance He has for you.
In Jesus name, amen. Amen and amen. So, maybe you watched our our our stream last week and we started a new series. The series is called God Still Speaks. And what we talked about last week was that God still speaks in the middle of the storm.
There's a crazy storm going on in America and around the world. This pandemic of the coronavirus. But even in the midst of that, some people are going through even larger storms than that in their lives. There's people that have cancer. There there's people that that maybe, you know, the the your marriage just split up.
I mean, all kinds of different storms that could be going on and what we talked about is god still speaks to you in the middle of the storm and just a little bit of a reminder is is if we are faithful and diligent to get along with him even when it's not storming in the in the midst of the mundane, in the midst of the, when it's still in our life, we're faithful to get along and seek god in the quietness And if we learn to hear him in the quietness, then we'll definitely be able to hear his voice no matter what storm's going on. Whether it's a a a big life crashing event or just stress happening to you in the middle of the day, you can hear his voice. And I promised, I gave you guys some homework and the homework was to read 1 Corinthians-2 because today, we're gonna go into god still speaks but not not only does he still speak but you can hear him. We can experience his voice. We can know how he speaks clearly.
Right? A a lot of people and maybe this is you. Maybe in your life, you've heard people talk about, man, god did this crazy miracle and and I saw people healed and I prayed for them and or maybe you you you heard other people talking about, man, you know, I got this word of prophecy and it was right on. This person said this or this or you hear other people say, god led me and he and he led me to do this or to start this business or to start this church or to pick up your family and move from 1 state to another and and you think about how amazing it is that god's speaking to those people in that way but maybe just maybe you've wondered, man, has god ever spoke to me like that? Like, can I actually I I don't think I've actually ever heard his voice in that way?
Well, if that's you, then you're listening to the right message because this, we're gonna talk about how to practically hear god's voice in the day in and day out. Don't forget, if that's you, give me a like, give me a heart or or comment below just because, hey, we're doing digital church and this is how we communicate back and forth. We're rolling with it, right? So let's let's dive in now. Let's dive into the word.
And when we're talking about god speaking and and hearing his voice and living by his voice, The Bible a lot of times put it like this, puts it like this. Maybe you've heard this before. Life by the *spirit* or living by the spirit. Maybe you've heard that a lot and didn't really understood, understand what that means. Well, let me let me communicate it clearly to you.
Life by the spirit is basically, if you've received Jesus, you've given your life to Jesus, then you have his spirit inside of you. You have eternal life. The Bible says eternal life is knowing god. See, there's a lot of people that talk to god. Over 95% of Americans pray.
We we learned that last week at least once a month but there's difference in talking to him and actually hearing his voice. Right? You don't get to know someone by talking to them. You get to know someone by listening to them and so we can have a personal daily relationship with him by listening to his voice and life by the spirit simply means that you're following the voice of the Holy Spirit who is God in your daily life. And every every even the mundane of your life, you are listening and tuned in and being led by his spirit day in and day out.
What would it be like to live a life like that? To live a life where you don't question, man, is this god or is this god? What would it be like to say, man, I I feel god's presence but and you but not to just feel his presence but to know his voice. There's so many people that feel his presence when he walks in the room but have no idea how to clearly hear him. Let's move past that.
Let's not just enjoy his presence but let's also enjoy his words. Enjoy the the the the nature and the character of who he is by what he says to us and how he leads us by his voice. So watch this. Let's go to first Corinthians and I know I told you to read chapter 2. We're gonna get to chapter 2 but I'm gonna start in 1 Corinthians-3.
It says this, brothers and sisters. So Paul is addressing Christians, brothers and sisters. They've received Jesus. If you've received Jesus, you're my brother and my sister in Christ. Says, I could not address you as people who live by the spirit, right?
The people who are guided by his voice but as people who are still worldly, mere infants in Christ. In other words, you can be a Christian and still be worldly and not know how to follow his voice day in and day out. Why? Because you're still an infant. Now I'm not trying to downgrade you or or anything like that, but I just want to encourage you and this is a little tough before it gets encouraging.
Some of us have been following Jesus for 25 years, 30 years and still don't know how to hear his voice. We're still infants in the faith. We've never learned really what it looks like to live by the spirit. I wanna help you with that today. He goes on to say, I gave you milk and not solid food.
For you were not ready for it. Indeed, you still are not ready. Wow. That's challenging. Verse 3, you are still worldly.
For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not still worldly? Man, and so he Paul's talking about jealousy and quarreling meant a a lot of us maybe be we have jealousy and quarreling in our life and and sometimes that's a a normal. That shouldn't be a normal. It says, are you not acting like mere humans is the next sentence. Now, people might be thrown off by what it says.
They're mere humans. Wait, aren't we all humans? Yes and no. If you've received Jesus, you've been born again. Right?
You've received Christ into your life. You're a brand new creation. So, you're not a mere human. You're a human with the very life inside of you. No longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you.
So you're more than that. You're you're you're a supernatural being with Jesus in you, the Holy Spirit leading you in your daily life. And as we follow him, we'll notice that we quarrel less. Do we still mess up and take our eyes off of off of off of god and put it on ourself and and argue with our wife or yes, we do. But we can move past infancy and move forward into Christ.
How do we do that? Well, it's important because think about think about a baby. Think about an infant. An infant, right? They when when if I'm holding an infant, say I'm I'm I'm remembering my my daughter Eden or my my daughter Selah or my son Trip when they were babies, infants.
When I held them, they knew I was holding them. They felt my presence. When I spoke they knew my voice but they had no idea what I was saying. Right? They knew their daddy's voice, my their voice my voice comforted them.
When I walked into the room they sensed my presence but they still had no idea what I was saying. Why? Because they're a mere infant. They haven't matured yet. And once again that's like many of us as Christians.
We hear and we sense his presence but we haven't matured yet to be able to hear his voice. What does it take? Well, *Hebrews-5* and verse 13 shows us. It says, anyone who lives on milk being still infant is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. So, understanding righteousness is key to growing to maturity.
Now, I'm not going to teach on righteousness today because that's not what we're talking about but if you have not don't know the teaching of righteousness, go back to our podcast. Look on realchurch.us, click messages, and scroll all the way to the bottom. The first 2 messages, 1 is no love and then the 1 that k n o w no love and the 1 right after that. I teach very clearly on the first 2, 3 messages what righteousness is. It's your right standing with God, not based on what you do, not based on what you don't do, but based on what Jesus did for you.
You're 100% *forgiven if you've received Jesus. Your past, present, and future sin wiped away so that when you do quarrel and you get jealous or all these other things and you notice it instead of falling back and running in in fear and shame and guilt when you mess up, you can run forward and run to Jesus and fall forward in his arms and continue your path of growing. It's so important to understand righteousness* and that's the only way to mature. Now, then it says this in in Hebrews-5 verse 14, but solid food is for the mature who by constant use have trained themselves themselves to distinguish good from evil. By constant use distinguishing good from evil.
Now, the Bible says anything is that's good comes from god. For god is good. So, we're distinguishing by constant use as we hear the holy spirit's voice and we test it out. Wow. We're like, wow, that that was his voice.
This was good and then we test it out and and we we make a mistake or we fall flat on our face. We're like, well, that wasn't the Holy Spirit. So, by constant use, we're constantly learning how to hear his voice. Now, let's get into the nitty gritty as my my friend from from Columbia would say Sebastian. But let's get into the let's get into the nitty gritty.
How then? This is the the the meat of the message. Really, what you've been waiting for. How do we practically hear the voice of God in our daily life? Well, it's by the Holy Spirit, we know that.
Well, let's go to 1 Corinthians-2. It says in verse 9, in verse 9 it says, what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no human mind has conceived, the things God has prepared for those who love him. And so many preachers I've heard over and over and over and it's annoys the mess out of me honestly. But they preach that little sentence right there or that that little phrase and then they stop and make it as if god is this, you know, being that is beyond our comprehension and and there's no way that we could even get close to understanding you know, what he's prepared for us and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah lies because the the next part of the sentence says, these things are the things that god has revealed to us by his spirit. So the Holy Spirit can show us what no eye has ever seen.
The Holy Spirit can show us what no ear has ever heard. The Holy Spirit can show us what no mind has ever conceived. The Holy Spirit can show us what God has prepared for us who love him. He wants to communicate his plans clearly to you. How does he do that?
Well, the next verse shows us. It says, the spirit searches all things even the deep things of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way, no 1 knows the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. Let me explain.
No 1 knows your thoughts, really the deep down thoughts of your heart unless you them. Right? Except for your spirit, except for yourself. Well, in the same way, the Holy Spirit because we're created in the very image of God. The Holy Spirit just like our spirit knows our thoughts, the Holy Spirit knows the very thoughts of God.
And then it goes on to say, what we have received is not verse 12, 1 Corinthians-2:12, what we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from god so that we may understand what god has freely given us. So, we have in us, if you've received Jesus, the holy spirit who knows the very thoughts of god. Now that's amazing. So then how does he communicate the very thoughts of God to us? Because if we understand how he communicates the thoughts of God to us, then we can understand how to hear the very voice of God in the day in and day out.
What his plans are for us, not just in the big things but in the little things, in the minute things, in the small things. So, how do we do that? Well, if we skip down, oh and and verse 13, I'll just keep reading through just just because it says, this is what we speak not in words taught by human wisdom but in words taught by the spirit explaining spiritual realities taught realities with spirit taught words. Now that's what you're hearing right now. These are spiritual realities taught to me by the Holy Spirit from the very thoughts of God.
When you speak to other people God's word, when you speak to other people things that God has showed you or communicated to you or revealed to you, you're speaking spiritual realities taught by the very spirit of God. And that's why sometimes when you minister, if you've ever done that before, if you've seen people minister, and what they say, it just cuts people to the heart. They begin to weep or or it breaks off chains or or they're healed and and lives are transformed. It's not me. It's not that person.
It's the spirit of god speaking through that person, the things that he taught them through spirit taught realities from the very thoughts of God. Come on. That's good. That's powerful. Well then how does that happen?
Let's keep reading. It says the person without the spirit does not accept the the things that come from the spirit of god but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the spirit. This could be a tell right now whether or not you know Jesus. Maybe everything that I've been speaking to you doesn't make sense and you just thought, man, this is a bunch of hogwash. According to this last verse, maybe you need to receive Jesus so that you can experience knowing the voice of god because god loves you, god cares for you, and he has a plan for you and you can experience a relationship with him.
Stick with us. I'll show you how. But in verse 15, it says, the person with the spirit makes judgments about all things but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments. For, here it is. Ready?
Who has known the mind of the lord so as to instruct him? Once again, so many preachers just quote this little thing. Who has known the mind of the Lord so to instruct them? Right? They quote this little verse as if nobody can really know God's plan or nobody can really know God's thoughts towards them.
Nobody can really understand and that is a lie. Never say that again and don't listen to preachers that stop right there. They're wrong and they don't understand how to hear the voice of God. Because it says right afterwards, read it again. Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?
But we have the mind of *Christ* because we have the Holy Spirit in us who communicates the very mind of God, Jesus Christ, to us in our daily life. Now you might be thinking, well, that's not too practical. How does that work? Well, let me tell you. See, the Holy Spirit wants to use you to communicate the very love of God to others.
So he needs to train you. You need to understand how to hear his voice in the day in and day out, how he communicates. Well, there's 4 things, 4 ways that he communicates to you. Ready? He communicates through the Bible and everything that he communicates, every every way that he speaks to you will be in line with the Bible because this shows his nature, his principles.
Right? So 1, through the Bible. Number 2, you might wanna write this down but he communicates through the Bible. Number 2, he communicates through people. He uses people to communicate his word to others.
Right? We talked about that. He also communicates number 3 through prayer. Right? So as you're praying to god and listening, god speaks to you and and it's amazing.
We'll talk about how that happens. And then before, a lot of times he speaks through circumstances, things that happen and he's trying to get your attention and show you that he loves you, he cares for you, and he has things. But all 4 of those things are filtered through your mind. Think about that. Right?
When he speaks through prayer, how's it filtered? Through your thoughts. When he speaks through circumstance, you take it in and you filter it through your thoughts. When he speaks through other people, the words come into your brain and you filter it through your thoughts. So ultimately, through all of that, god's communicating to you through your brain, through your thoughts.
Right? So the spirit of god communicates the thoughts of god through multiple mediums to your thoughts. Interesting. So then how do you know if it's got a thought God's thoughts or your thoughts or the enemy putting thoughts in the brain trying to trying to pose as something else? Well, as we said, by constant use, you you learn how to train yourself to distinguish good, what's from God, and evil, what's from yourself or what's from the enemy.
Because if it's not from God, it's evil, even if it's from you. Interesting. So what does that look like in your daily life? Well, just real practical, real simple. Maybe you're laying in the bed in the morning and you have this thought to get up and go read your bible.
Your flesh, yourself, you're probably that's not normal. So maybe that's a god thought. What if you just test it? You get up and and you go and even though you don't feel like it, you're obedient to the leading of the holy spirit and turn on some worship music or if that's your thing and just pray god. I don't know how to read the word but I want you to speak to me because I know you're leading me to do it.
Begin to read. Maybe, just maybe that time the words will jump off the page and he'll speak to you and you'll be like, wow. Or maybe not. Maybe he'll just, you know, test you a little bit and see if you're willing to do that for 2 or 3 weeks straight. And then all of sudden the words jump off the page.
Be consistent. Excuse me. Let me get some water if you don't mind. But be consistent. Right?
Another example, maybe, you know, before you go to bed, you know, you have this thought to roll over and lay your hand on your wife and pray for her. Woah. That's not me. It's not normal. I don't do that.
Well, it's not about you being you and being normal. It's about you following the voice of the Holy Spirit and learning to be like Jesus instead of being like your same old self because you're a new creation in Christ. So he's gonna challenge you out of your comfort zone. That's the only way that you walk by the spirit because he's changing who you are to look more like Jesus. You in Christ Jesus.
And you're like, woah, that that'd be crazy. Well, so what? It is a little crazy to follow Jesus because we're out of our mind and we're into the mind of Christ. We have the mind of Christ in our daily life. So you roll over, you lay hand on your wife, you say, Jesus, thank you that you gave me this beautiful, amazing woman.
Thank you that you blessed me with her. You begin to speak the word of god over her instead of condemning her like we're used to do. We we lift her up. I'll give you another example. This might be a little out of your comfort zone but the holy spirit by his voice challenges us out of our comfort zone so that we grow because the only way to grow is stepping out of your comfort zone.
Right? So that we grow and we get we become more and more like Christ. So our new normal is walking like Jesus instead of the timid and fearful person we used to be because that's not us. Now we have Christ in us. So if you're once fearful and timid, don't make that your excuse anymore.
Right? Now you have Jesus in you. If you're once bold and rash and talked all the time, the Holy Spirit might lead you in the exact opposite way and challenge you to be silent and quiet and listen because he's trying to conform you into the image of *Christ* so that it's no longer you who live but Christ who lives in you, following his spirit, life by the spirit, developing his character in you. It's amazing and it's wonderful and it's a journey learning to distinguish good from evil. God from us.
God from the enemy speaking to us. So, here's an example. We had my kids in the car. We were driving. I was gonna pick them up some quick food because I didn't wanna cook.
I know. I know. I was better to cook but I was in the, drive thru line and this girl was taking my money and she had a cast on her arm and I had a thought which I've learned to distinguish. It was the Holy Spirit because I probably wouldn't think this but I had a thought to pray for the girl with the cast on her arm. Well, most people would say, oh, that's weird.
Absolutely. I'm out of my mind. I'm into the mind of Christ. I've learned by constant use to grow and learn that this was the voice of the Holy Spirit. So, I said, hey, man.
What happened to your arm? And she says, oh, I sprained it really bad. My wrist is I said, is it pain right now? She said, yeah. I said, do you mind if I pray for it?
She looked at me funny. I said, really? I believe God just loves you a whole lot. She said, okay. I said, can I hold can I hold your hand?
This was before the corona thing. Okay. But and she said, yeah, she stuck her hand out. I grabbed her hand. She's and can you imagine this picture?
She's at this fast food restaurant taking my money but holding her hand out from the window into my car. Come on, that's kinda silly, right? Holy Spirit will lead us to be a little silly, right? Walking by faith, walking by the spirit is a 4 letter word, "r I s k", risk. Anyway, so I grab her hand and I just say, thank you Jesus for loving us.
Thank you that you are a healer. In the name of Jesus, wrist be healed. And I said, you know what? Would you mind testing it out just to see if it's any better? And she said, what?
I said, said, really? I mean, sometimes god heals people right there and then and sometimes it just gets better and sometimes we just trust him. So she tests your wrist out and she looks up. She says, the pain's gone. I said, well, really test it out.
Take off the little brace you have. She said, she took it off and she said, the pain's gone. And I said, who healed you? And I was driving my car. Was right there, which is my 6 year old daughter.
And, which when I told her I was gonna share this, she said, remember that. Anyway, I said, who healed you? She said, Jesus. I said, why did he heal you? And she said, I don't know.
I said, he healed you because he loves you. God loves you so much. And I drove to the next window. Just let just sow the seed of God's love. Didn't require anything in return.
Another example, I was running last night. Last night, I was running and I was going around and I saw this family there and the holy spirit said, run back around and and go and pray for them and I say, the holy spirit told me, really, I had a thought to go back around, run again, and pray for them next time I went around the loop. I've just learned by constant use to distinguish good from evil, to distinguish what's from God and what's from me, and you'll get better at it as you learn to follow his voice. So I ran back around and walked up to them and they were fishing and I asked them about if they caught any fish and that kind of thing. And I noticed the dad had a shirt on that said Jesus.
And I said, you know guys, the real reason I I came around because I felt led to come and pray for you, But I noticed it's gonna be easy because you you have a Jesus shirt on and they laughed. And I asked them if I could pray for them and they told me about their daughter who who, her name was Taylor and and she, some some wedding stuff, was going on because the coronavirus and everything. So I was able to pray and I prayed for their family, prayed for them, and just blessed them because God's good. And wouldn't you know the the boys came out and said, what church do you go to? If I had told them I I go to real church and and then I was a pastor there and and maybe they're watching right now just because of that.
And that wouldn't have happened if I wouldn't have followed the holy spirit. See, life by the spirit, the holy spirit is trying to love people around in the world, but the way that he wants to do that is through you. And the only way that you're gonna minister to others the love of Jesus is by following his voice and learning to hear his voice. So I encourage you and I challenge you to learn to hear his voice. And the only way to do that is to follow his voice when he says to get up and read the word.
Make a habit. Make a commitment. Read the word. Get in prayer. Talk with your spouse about this.
Alright? Let's let's let's close this message portion out in prayer. Father, I thank you for who you are. Lord, I thank you that you're good. I thank you that you love us.
And father, I just ask you, I ask you right now to teach us to hear your voice. Teach us to to experience your presence.
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