Transcription
Last week Sunday, we took the first part of this teaching on how to hear and recognize the voice of God. So, we go into the second part.
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Our text is taken from John chapter 10, verse 27. John chapter 10, verse 27. Easy to Read Version, it says, "My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me."
How does God communicate? Two weeks ago, we shared on how to become God's favorite: true, unconditional obedience. Last week, the Spirit of the Lord also in creating a balance, knowing how different people will also take whatever God has said and begin to apply it. Also, emphasize on the need for us to refresh our minds with the principal ways that God communicates with us.
So, the Spirit of God is saying that everyone of us, we must learn to grow to a point where we are ready to do whatever God will tell us to do. And in my little walk with God, I can tell you that some of these very difficult decisions or instructions that could come from God, they don't come every day. Sometimes for five years, ten years, you may not even be exposed to a very, very difficult instruction from God. But if your heart is willing, then God will find you as one of those He can deal with on an intimate level. And those are the people that God can confidently give instructions to, knowing they will surely obey. He testified of David that, "I found a man after my own heart, who will do everything I tell him to do."
So, while we all walk towards operating on this level of unconditional obedience to God, the Spirit of God, in wisdom, is also teaching us to be very careful. That there have been too many instances where people said, "God led me. God told me. God instructed me." And the Spirit of God is saying, "It was never God." The Spirit of the Lord is correcting us that many times, including spiritual believers, in fact, sometimes it happens as a result of over-spirituality or excessive zeal. We are any feeling we have, we will conclude that that feeling is the voice of the Lord. And the Spirit of God is saying that there are many times where the voice of our flesh, the voice of our heart's desire, has been misconstrued as the voice of the Holy Spirit.
And the Lord doesn't want us to go into error, even when we have a good intention of obeying Him. He doesn't want us to go into error. He doesn't want us to begin to do very difficult things when He has not even instructed in the first place, because we thought it was God leading us. And that is why I pray that every new day of your life, God will give you better ability to hear Him correctly, recognize His voice, and distinguish between His voice and the voice of your flesh, and the voice of contrary spirits, in the name of Jesus.
So, we found out that there are 10 major ways that God communicates. 10 major ways. In our last teaching, we, I, we took a better, closer look at two of them. And the first one is through God's written word in the Bible. Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 16. And then, number two, through the inward witness of your spirit. Through the inward witness of your spirit. Romans chapter 8, verse 16. Romans 8, verse 16. So, I encourage you to please ensure you get the tape of last, of the last teaching.
So, number three: through God speaking to your heart. Through God speaking to your heart. Nehemiah chapter 2, verse 12. The third major channel through which God would speak to you, we reveal things to you, we lead you, we guide you, we direct you, is by speaking to your heart. God can speak to your heart through different ways. And take note of the different dimensions when it comes to God's speaking to your heart. He can speak often through a still, small voice. A still, small voice. A still, small voice. Sometimes He will speak to you, He will speak in this dimension through an inner voice. An inner voice. An inner voice. It would also speak to you through an impression on your heart. An impression on the heart. An impression on the heart. Sometimes He speaks through burdens on the heart. He will just put a burden in the heart of certain people concerning certain issues, sometimes concerning a particular person, and you just become, you know, you just become the, the particular person that is most troubled, most concerned, most anxious about whatever that person may be going through. God can put a burden in your heart over a particular thing that needs to be done. It could be in the church, it could be in the kingdom, it could be in the nation. He can put a burden in your heart. And so, sometimes you see some people, you know, are so concerned about addressing certain issues much more than others. Possibly, the Lord has put a burden in their heart concerning that thing. God can also speak through your intuition. And we will, we'll give some insight on that in the last teaching. Sometimes through a sudden impulse. A sudden impulse. This can just come suddenly at different times. A sudden impulse. And that is why you must be sensitive to the Spirit at all times. God can change everything you have planned to do at the last minute. Everything you are planning to do at the last minute. The only thing you always need to confirm from God is, "Lord, are You really the one speaking?" The "why" can come after. Sometimes, if you wait for God to explain why, it may be too late, and damage will be done. If you wait for God to explain why, you might miss the opportunity that God wants to give you. So, God, the Spirit of God, can minister to you through a sudden impulse.
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A sudden impulse. Something you never planned. It can just minister to you through a sudden impulse to do a particular thing. It can also speak to your heart by speaking through your conscience. And this move of divine communication that we just mentioned, these various moves of divine communication, primarily through God speaking to the heart, can happen at different times. It can happen when you are listening to a sermon, you are listening to someone, and God will give you, will just tell you something to do that is outside what is being preached. Can tell you, "When you get back home, do this now." You can give you an instruction concerning something at your workplace while you are listening to a sermon. It can come when God can speak to your heart when you are listening to teachings on your phone, listening to godly counsel. God can minister then.
Number four, and this is one major channel: through dreams. Through dreams. Yes, through dreams. In Matthew chapter 1, verse 20. Matthew chapter 1, verse 20. Easy to Read Version, it says, "But after Joseph thought about this, an angel from the Lord came to him in a dream." In a dream, the angel said, "Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to accept Mary to be your wife. The baby inside her is from the Holy Spirit." Now, throughout the scriptures, dreams and visions are spoken of in a positive way as a means by which God gives you direction, warnings, warnings, warnings. God can also give you a promise exclusively to you through a dream. God can give you instructions through a dream. God can give you, can encourage you with a word through a dream, or with something you will see through a dream. God can give you insight. Insight in your dream. And the insight is not just only on spiritual matters, even insight as to the way forward at your workplace, in your business. It can come in a dream. It can come in a dream. So, dreams are very, very essential and helpful. Dreams are powerful channels of spiritual communication, very powerful. However, however, this channel of dreams is one of the major areas, channels of error, that many believers have in hearing from God. Demonic spirits can give you fake revelation. When Satan wants to waste your, waste your time, he can give you a fake revelation that when you hold on to that revelation, you will see yourself taking certain steps for so long, some for some people, so many years, only to discover later that it was never really God that spoke. I pray that God will increase your grace in the realm of discernment and interpretation of divine revelation. So, dreams are very key, but they are also very critical. They are also very critical. Sometimes God may speak to you, and then He will use dreams that He gives to other people to confirm what He has correctly spoken or revealed to you. And however, even when God gives a revelation through a dream or any other channel to any other person about you or concerning you, and that thing demands a critical action or decision from you, please, you have a responsibility to also pray before you take action on it. And I will also advise you that if that decision, whatever that step is, is something, is a very critical decision, hold on until God clears with you. Don't be in a haste. Don't be in a hurry. And let me give you an insight: one of the ways the devil operates is through hasty instruction. Hasty instruction. God does not, most of the time, does not operate that way. And you know why the devil does that? It is when you are in a hurry that you can be easily deceived. When you have been, when they have been offered a fake package, if you act on it immediately, then you can be easily entrapped. But the longer it takes you to reflect, to consider, and then even pray about that particular thing before you take action, then the greater the possibility that if it is not really from God, it will be exposed to you. So, be careful when something just comes to you and tells you, "Go and do this now. Do it now." And it's like, "Now, now!" And that thing is, is a major thing. Be careful. Be very careful. Most of the time, that could be the voice of the devil. God is not the author of confusion. God can go, He can prepare you 20 years ahead of time, 30 years ahead of time. He will give you visions. And the bigger the thing is, the earlier the time that God will reveal it to you. The earlier God will reveal it, so you can begin to prepare, so you can begin to adjust your life because you know that your destiny is not, is not like any other. There is something big ahead of you. Praise. Hear the Lord.
And then, number five: through visions. Through visions. So, God speaks by spiritual visions. Acts chapter 16, verse 9. Yeah, God told Paul, He said, "No, let me let you know what is going to happen. Don't be afraid about the mission I've given you. Don't be discouraged. Don't feel threatened by anyone, even making a trade. I am with you. Nothing will happen to you. Nobody can kill you." He said, "And no one will be able to hurt you." And then God said something. He said, "Many of my people are in this, in this city." I pray that when God is boasting about His people, in Lagos, you'll be one of those He has in mind. Can the Lord hear your amen? He said, "Many of my people." It isn't many believers, say "many of my people." Those that God Himself knows in their heart, they are really with God. He said, "I have many of them in the city." And God has many people in Nigeria. He has many people in Nigeria. Many people in Nigeria. And there are many Nigerians that are sold out in their hearts to God, many of them scattered all over the world. Their hearts are for God. Whatever bad name has been given to this nation, a new season is coming when the good name will manifest for the nation of Nigeria. Can somebody say amen?
And then, still under spiritual visions, God can speak through a trance. Acts 10, verse 10. Acts 10, verse 10. Through spiritual visions.
And then, number six: through revelational gifts of the Holy Spirit. First Corinthians chapter 12, verse 8 to 10. Three major revelational gifts: one, words of prophecy; two, words of knowledge; three, words of wisdom. At times, God can give you a clear word of knowledge concerning different things, concerning sometimes people. God can also, another revelation gives in the realm of words of wisdom. God can speak through words of prophecy, words of knowledge, or words of wisdom. So, we do need to be sensitive. Like this one, it can operate through a different person, but you will be the recipient of what God is saying. So, we need to be very sensitive at all times.
And then, number seven: through an audible voice of the Spirit of God. Through an audible voice of the Spirit of God. Exodus chapter 3, verse 2 to 4. This doesn't happen all the time. And you can sometimes run 10 years, five years, and you may not have this kind of experience. But this is one of the challenges through which God speaks through an audible voice. And all the voice of the Spirit of God, sometimes someone around you will even hear, if the Lord wills, He will make someone around you or people around you hear that same voice at that same time. Another instance was in Acts chapter 9, verse 4 to 9. Acts 9, 4-9.
And then, number eight: God also speaks through certain circumstances, events, or happenings. He reveals things, He speaks, He gives guidance, He gives direction through certain circumstances, certain events, or happenings. Genesis 24, 12 to 21. Can I tell you something? Everything that will happen today, God has already seen it ahead. Even the prayer you will pray today, God has already known that prayer ahead. Because from what happened here, God already knew. He already knew everything that would happen that day. He knew He was going to pray this prayer. And then God went ahead of him. So, you would not read that after a while, a lady showed up. No, the moment he finished praying, a young woman appeared. So, God, whoever was the woman that God had chosen, God directed her steps. So, before the servant finished praying, a young woman named Rebekah came to the well. She was the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, Nahor, Abraham's brother. Say, Rebekah came to the well with her water on her shoulder. She was very pretty. I don't know why the Bible included this information, but she was very pretty. She was a virgin. No man had ever had sexual relations with her. She went down to the well and filled her jar. Then the servant ran to her and said, "Please give me a little water to drink from your jar." It's done. It's done. This was his prayer, and the prayer was answered same day. So, in Jeremiah 32, verse 6 to 8, Jeremiah 32, 6-8, you see another very good instance.
Then we're closing off. There are 10 of them. Nine: through God directing someone to specifically give you His message. Through God directing someone to specifically give you His message. Acts chapter 21, verse 10 to 14. Acts 21, 10 to 14. This is how people beg us not to obey God when the instruction will expose us to danger, expose us to certain things. Even when it's clear that is God speaking, they beg us not to obey God. We looked at that last week and last, especially last two weeks when talking about obedience, unconditional obedience. He said, "But he said," and that is the heart of the kind of people God is looking for. Paul said, "Why are you crying and making me feel so sad? I am willing to be put in jail in Jerusalem. I'm even ready to die for the name of the Lord." We could not persuade him to stay away from Jerusalem. So, we stopped begging him and said, "We pray that what the Lord wants will be done." Now, remember that from day one of his salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ made it clear to him that he had been attacking the church. And then the Lord revealed to him, "All right, I told Ananias two days after that, he will reveal to Saul these things he's going to suffer as a result of his new faith." So, Paul already knew that there were going to be a lot of trials, attacks coming in the process of his life, his new life in Christ and ministry. So, he said, "I pray." It was insisting that he'd be allowed to face what the Holy Spirit was saying is going to happen. So, God can speak to us, give a message to another person to deliver to us. This is, however, another major channel where there is a lot of error and there is a lot of damage going on. And sometimes we have observed that some people operating in some measure of prophetic grace, people put them under undue pressure to bring out a word from God, even when God is not speaking. So, please, this is one channel through which God speaks, but it's also in one of the channels that is being currently abused and is causing a lot of error. People are giving people words, claiming that is a word from God, and it's not the Holy Spirit speaking. So, like I said earlier, any word you receive, verify it from God, and the Lord will confirm in Jesus' name.
And so, the very last one, number 10: through God sending an angel to convey His message. This one is extremely powerful, extremely powerful. However, you may not even experience it once in your lifetime. There are ministers of God called to full-time ministry, used by God in so many ways, from day one of salvation till they died, an angel never appeared to them. It is one of the very rare channels through which God communicates. And when I did a study on the book, "The Irreversible Will of God," and one of the great insights I got from that, a very extensive research, is that one of the most guaranteed ways you will know that this is God speaking is when an angel appears to give you the message. But whenever an angel appears to you, take note of this: to give you a message, to give you a message, whatever is that message is irreversible. That message is sure, and it must be fulfilled. Now, this is the reason why Angel Gabriel afflicted Zacharias with dumbness. Because Zacharias was a priest ministering to God in the temple regularly. And as a priest of that level, he ought to have known that angelic visitation, not for other things, not for other purposes, but just for the purpose of giving you a message from God, once that happens, that message is sure. That message is certain. So, as a spiritual man, you cannot now tell an angel, "How can this thing happen? How will this thing happen?" So, the moment he said that, then Gabriel was displeased. So, "Okay, well, for your unbelief, you will go down until this thing is fulfilled." And sometimes you may hear some people telling you, "I saw an angel." They have not seen it. It's not, you need to ask them better. Sometimes they have not seen an angel in this proper sense, in a physical manifestation. There are times where even in your dream, it's like an angel coming up. That is quite different from what we are saying here, where an angel will manifest physically, not for any other thing, but to convey a message. Because if you still have any doubt, you are not sure, if God chooses to send an angel, that's the end of the end, end of end of the story. It is sure. It is certain. It is sure. It is certain. Whatever is the content of that message.
And we have found out that in this our work here on earth and our relationship with God, one of those things that is so crucial is that we must have the ability to recognize the voice of God, to differentiate between the voice of the Spirit of God and our own voice, to differentiate between the voice of the Spirit of God and any other voice, including lying spirits and the deceptions of demonic spirits masquerading as the voice of God. You will fulfill your divine purpose.
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