Transcription
Today I want to speak to you, a message that will be titled, "Speak Lord, Your Servant is Listening”. I would say that, after getting saved, one of the greatest treasures of a Christian’s life is the ability to hear and discern the voice of the Holy Spirit.
I was thinking this weekend, when was the first time I felt that I heard a voice that was different from mine or the demonic voice, the voice of the LORD? And I remember an experience in my parents' van. I just received the baptism of the Holy Spirit; I started to speak in tongues. I was a young teenager, and we were all going to the pool during the summer with my cousins. And I had cousins from Portland who would come for the summer to live with us. And I'm reading the Bible, and I get this thought. Now, I look back at it; It wasn't just a thought. It was the Holy Spirit to get all my cousins to a prayer meeting and to get them to be prayed for to get tongues. Now, I knew this was not my idea because that's just, I'm not that creative. And I knew my cousins like speaking in tongues, like basketball and other soccer, but like tongue stuff, like it's just not our thing.
And so I get super excited; I get nervous. My heart is beating three times faster. I gather my cousins, and they all have towels. We're all about to go to the pool. All of us, including myself. And so, I was like "Guys I just want to and I'm like losing breath because I'm nervous, my heart is skipping like three beats at the same time." And I said "You need tongues." They're like "Is that like a some kind of a lesson in the pool or something?" Like we need to all pray in tongues. And they're like "Vlad, like yeah, yeah, yeah, of course! Could we do it after the pool?" And you know, part of me wanted to be like go, the John the Baptist style on them. You brutal vipers, how dare you not want to prioritize spiritual things over these things? But, then I was like, you know that's actually a great idea; It could give me an opportunity to get prepared. What do I tell them about tongues? So, I said, "Yeah, let's do it after the pool."
So, I remember, I called the pastor and I said "Pastor how do you tell other people how to get tongues?" And so he gave me all the verses; I started to read through the verses. So, my cousins all came back and I was like "I'm ready; I'm gonna, we're gonna all pray". There are no adults there, so this is going to be crazy. And they all came back and I was like "You guys ready?" They said, "No, we're hungry." And I was like "Well, good, I have just 30 more minutes to be more nervous." And then finally they all ate and we came into the room. I still remember this; It's a picture imprinted in my mind, upstairs in my parents' house: duplex. We all got together on our knees, and you know we were taught to pray like Pentecostals. So, everybody on our knees, no pacing around and no music, nothing. And for 40 minutes, we prayed, and half of the room started to speak in tongues. The next day, we did it again. The rest of the people started speaking in tongues. We did it for about two weeks, every day. This was the rhythm: Pool, dinner, tongues. And that is how I first started to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit as a teenager. Looking back, I didn't think it was the Holy Spirit. I just thought, I just had a thought. But it wasn't a thought planted by me.
And then, when I was 16, it happened in the parking lot of a WinCo store. I was 6 months being into a youth ministry. Wanted to quit. I was getting ready to call our pastor from a house phone because I didn't have a cell phone. And in the parking lot of a WinCo, that was very clear where the voice of the lord came to me, and this is what that voice said is that if you don't give up one day, you will pastor a church where thousands will come from everywhere. Now, mind you, we had seven people and they will come without an invitation. And you know, I didn't call the pastor that night to quit the youth ministry, and today we see the fruits of that.
Then I would remember, when I was in the meeting, and a prophet would come and jerk my hand and tell me her vision of what she saw, how God's going to use me. Now, I'm going to give you a little context, like in America, prophets are different than those in Russia or Ukraine. American prophets are similar like you know a flower in the field, there's a destiny inside of you. And if you go like the African prophets, it's like prosperity, money, and blessings are coming. Russian prophets have a unique characteristic; It's like you're gonna get sick, humble yourself like you repent. Like it's pretty much 99.9% you; you're doing something wrong, and you better repent because God's going to find you out. So I grew up like you would be afraid of prophets. If a prophet is your way, like you quickly repent of anything, just in case, so they don't put you in the sick bed. And so this lady, you know: no smile, no introduction, just jerks my hand after the service in Tacoma. And she just says, "During prayer, I saw a vision and I saw a trumpet in your mouth and a fire was coming out, Don't be afraid." And so and I'm studying her like and I'm waiting when she's going to say like "You're going to get like sick or something." And there was none of that. And she walked off. That marked my life.
Then, I remember on the aisle seat of Alaska Airline on my flight to Sacramento; And this was about already maybe 12 years ago or 11 years ago where I heard in my heart. I thought first it was the devil and then was pretty sure it was not the devil and it was not me; To take our savings and to give our savings to the missionary field and God will do something in our life. And that caused an outburst of personal breakthrough in my life and my wife's life and in our youth ministry. And I can talk to you today, different times in my life where I felt, I heard the voice of God and it marked my life. It is a treasure to hear God. But there are reasons why some people don't hear God. The first one is Theological Cessationism. It's when you have an earplug called a false teaching that plugs your ear and says, you can't hear God because God doesn't speak anymore. The second reason, why some people don't hear God is practical disappointment. They prayed, fasted, said, "Lord speak to me": Nothing came! The third reason is because people have seen spiritual leaders who have used "God told me", as an excuse to manipulate, dominate and control. The fourth reason, why many people don't hear God is they have a fear of getting it wrong. And that fear is greater than their desire to actually hear from the Lord. And the last reason is and this is a struggle; What I believe with a lot of people who are not in leadership positions in the church is they think they're not worthy enough. And hearing God is premium Christianity. Like basic Christianity is to get out of hell: Premium Christianity is to actually hear the guy upstairs, to hear, connect with Heavenly Father. And today I hope to remove earplugs of theological heresy and also ear infections that some Christians have that blocks the voice of God in their life. Amen!
We will take the story reading from 1st Samuel chapter 3 and verse 1. Now, the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli and the word of the Lord was rare in those days. And there was no widespread revelation. I'm going to skip through that. It describes Samuel hearing the voice of God for the first time mistaking it for the voice of Eli and then coming to Eli. Eli says, "I didn't call you." Then comes again Eli says "I didn't call you." And then Eli recognizes Samuel is hearing God. He instructs him and this is what I'm going to read. What he instructs him; But before he instructs him, I do want to highlight verse 7. It says, "Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord nor was the word of the Lord yet revealed to him." And then verse 9 "Therefore Eli said to Samuel "Go lie down and it shall be if he calls you then you must say, speak Lord for your servant hears." And that's the title of my message. "Speak Lord your servant is listening".
The first thing that I wanted to highlight is this; To know God is to know his voice. I want you to notice in verse 7 we've read. It says this, Samuel did not know the Lord, because the word of the Lord wasn't revealed to him. What if "I were to submit to you" is part of knowing who God is, is knowing his voice. Jesus said, "My sheep know my voice." He didn't say, "The apostles only know my voice." He didn't say, "Only the elites know my voice." Part of belonging to Jesus is knowing his voice. I want you to know that to know God requires, involves knowing his voice. You cannot know God and not know how he sounds like. And people who propagate the heresies and that is a heresy that God stopped speaking when the New Testament was written. Well, the Bible says in Hebrews. The spirit says, it doesn't say the spirit said. Past tense meaning the Holy Spirit is still actively speaking. Now, the Bible is completed but God still speaks. Jesus said in Matthew 4:4. He said, "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds: not proceeded but proceeds from the mouth of God." Meaning you are spiritually alive not only by reading the word God said but constantly hearing what God is saying. Are you with me? Your spiritual life is contingent on hearing the voice of the Lord. And if you have this theological plug that was plugged into you by cessationism where you know looked at these weird charismaniacs and they do all of this and they do all of that. So we will correct this, we will correct this abuse by going into the other heresy which is God doesn't speak anymore. Well A. W. Tozer said, "It is in the nature of God to speak." Imagine a marriage relationship where there is silence. Imagine a father and son relationship where there is silence. Our God speaks. Jesus says, "My sheep hear my voice." He didn't say, "Only Christians read my word; They hear my voice." God created Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve didn't have a Bible. They did not have a local church. They didn't have Bible classes but they heard the voice of God. They lived in the presence of God. Then they were kicked out of the garden because of disobedience. And after that you see God selectively speaking to people. Sometimes, showing up in Pharaoh's dreams, sometimes speaking to Abraham, speaking to Jacob, speaking to Isaac. Showing up to Moses, showing up to Joshua and Elijah. But everyday followers of Yahweh did not have the privilege of knowing God as their father and having a direct connection to him through hearing his voice. They could pray to him. They could fast to him. They had to live by his word. But they didn't have the luxury, the privilege, the treasure of knowing his voice. The way if they wanted to hear from God is they would have to go to a local prophet or a seer who would sleep and get a vision or would visibly see a vision and speak to them. But you didn't have a luxury of hearing God's voice personally and directly. But there came prophet Joel and he said, "In the last days, says the Lord, I will pour out of my spirit on all flesh, your sons and your daughters not only the prophets, not only the apostles, not only the great men but everyone even the servants, even the maid servants, the males, the females, the young and the old." And God says, "I'll visit them with dreams, I'll visit them in dreams and visions. I will speak to my people." And Jesus comes and He introduces a relationship with God that involves knowing God personally. You don't rely on your pastor. You don't rely on your priest. You rely on the Holy Spirit who indwells inside of you. I like what Dallas Willard said, "If God doesn't speak today, then the greatest disservice we could ever do to people is to tell them they can have a personal relationship with God". How would we most of us Protestant Christians, how do we present Christianity to people who are not Protestant faith? Usually, we say you can have a personal relationship with God. How can you have a personal relationship with God if God doesn't speak? God speaks. He's not mute. A lot of times, a problem is on our side.
The second thing that I would like to highlight and let's get closer to actually learning how to discern the voice of God. And that is this: If you want to hear God's voice, don't tolerate what does not please Him. The story of Eli is a very good example. The Bible opens up about Eli and it says that the word of the Lord was rare. Does that describe your spiritual walk with God? Rare! Every once in a while, it's not that you've never heard God. It's not that you don't hear God. It is very rare. And it says, the revelation. This is not necessarily just the insight from the scripture, but this is God revealing his plan to you was not very common. But if you read carefully down, you will see why lack of revelation is not a coincidence: it's a consequence. I'm going to say that again, "Lack of hearing God is not a coincidence". It is not a personality trait. It is not something: Well, I'm just not one of those people. No, no, no, no, no! There's always a reason. In Eli's case, it was not a personal sin. The Bible doesn't say Eli personally sinned. Eli had a passive tolerance toward God clearly was displeased by. And sometimes it's a personal sin. And sometimes it's personal passiveness toward things we know they don't please the Lord, and we tolerate them. The longer you tolerate it, you develop an ear infection. Sin is an ear infection that blocks the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit. That's why the Bible says, "My hand is not shortened to save and my ear is not heavy to hear but he says your sins have separated." In Matthew, Jesus says that their hearts have grown dull and their ears are hard of hearing. When your heart is hardened, your ears can't hear. My friend, if there is a lack of revelation, if there is a lack of hearing from the Lord, that means that sensitivity to the Holy Spirit is dull. It's not always a sign that you have a sin in your life, but it could be a sign there's something within your proximity you are tolerating. Perhaps, celebrating that the Lord looks at it and is grieved by it.
Let's look practically. Do you know people in your life that hurt your feelings a lot? Do you talk with them regularly? No. You usually what do you do with them? If you don't block them, then you withdraw. Now, some of you go hard like you just go block online, everywhere and a restraining order. You're like you hurt my feelings, you will never do that again. I will never see you until the judgment seat of Christ. Most of us are not like that radical. The way we most of us are if you keep hurting my feelings, we keep withdrawing and you limit access they have to you, and they stop hearing from you. You don't hate them, but you definitely don't speak to them. When the Holy Spirit is grieved, He withdraws quietly. When He comes, He comes powerfully. When He withdraws, He always does so silently. When He is hurt because of what we tolerate, He withdraws. This is a personal thing for me. Every time that I go for more than two weeks, okay, 3 weeks is like maximum. And the presence of God is not real anymore: I still pray, I still read the scriptures, and I still would get some insights. But like that you know that, like that your heart just like melts and the presence of God; I know, it doesn't happen every day. I don't expect that every day, but if it goes more than two weeks, then I do a very clear examination of what is happening in this heart. And if I notice that I am completely clogged up, my ears are filled with something else that's not right, I usually just go through and I just declare a day of fast or two days. This happened just not even long ago, where I just felt like that connection; Everything is great, Nothing is bad. Felt like I'm doing so good on everything else in my life. But see, I don't live by just what God is doing, I live when He speaks. And if He doesn't speak, it's not because He has nothing to say. God wants to speak. Something is in my heart needs to be open. Lord, I need to hear from you, I want to be so close to you where you're my friend, You're my father, You need to speak to me. And then I would declare a few-day fast. And sometimes on the first day, nothing happens. Just a lot of repentance and recognizing how wretched I am. Second day, a lot of moodiness and crankiness, and a headache. And by the third day, I was like Lord, I'm just here to do whatever you need to. And sometimes right at the end, something just breaks. And many times after the fast, after that one day and a few days later, like a dam that just and, the precious love and that revelation and that insight and that Holy Spirit closeness. I don't seek that as a pastor. I seek that as a believer because, first, before I am a pastor, I am a son of God. I am a sheep of Jesus. I'm in communion with the Holy Spirit. What sustains me in my Christian life is not a salary I get at the church or a position I get in my denomination. What sustains me in my Christian faith is the fact, I am saved by the grace. The Holy Spirit lives inside of me. I can have a personal relationship with the God of the universe. He talks to me. He wants to talk to you. But sometimes there are theological earplugs that somebody in a seminary gave us and said, God doesn't speak anymore. This theological bent that is not scripturally rooted. But other times, on the other side of the ear, there is an ear infection where you allow things that displease the Lord for so long, He no longer speaks, and you're okay with that, and you call that normal Christianity. I desire to offend you today and to tell you that is not normal. If my son doesn't hear my voice, that is not normal. If my wife doesn't hear my voice, that is not normal. In marriage, we call that fighting. In marriage, we call that a problem. If you go for weeks and months and you don't hear the voice of the one you love, that is not normal. And Jesus said, Your ears are heavy to hear. Hard of hearing because the heart is hardened. My desire is not to condemn you. But if the word of the Lord is rare, May I ask you honestly, did somebody plug your ears with the wrong teaching? Because Jesus says, "My sheep hear my voice. Are you his sheep?" Then hearing God's voice is not a gift: It comes natural. My boy is not, The first thing they checked when the boy was born is his hearing. They couldn't make his hearing: It comes with birth. Hearing God's voice is part of being a Christian Discerning. God's voice comes with training: Hearing his voice is natural. But when there is an infection called compromise or tolerating what's not pleasing to the Lord, or some theologian comes and puts a plug in your ear and says, you shouldn't be hearing God; We got to remove that and heal the infection.
The third thing I want to highlight today is this, If you are near the Holy Spirit you will hear the voice of God. Now look at Samuel. So, Eli didn't hear the Lord because he tolerated sin. Samuel heard the Lord. But before he focused on hearing the Lord. I want you to notice he ministered to the Lord. He ministered to the Lord. Grew in the Lord and he was close to the Lord. Don't focus on hearing God, focus on being near God. God doesn't speak to your position: He speaks to your proximity. God doesn't speak to your age; He doesn't look at oh you're 12 years of age, You're too young. He doesn't speak to your education level: He speaks to your proximity. He doesn't speak to your IQ: He speaks to your proximity. He spoke to, the fact that Samuel was given up by his mother to God, Was thriving in a toxic religiously lukewarm environment being a young boy. That's why never blame your environment for your spiritual complacency because he could be spiritually thriving though his environment was toxic. And parents, I want to challenge you to raise your kids to depend on God so much that even if they go to a public school they don't get contaminated. Even if they go to some friends, they can still serve God if everybody else around them serves the devil. The scripture says, the sons of Eli were corrupt and they did not know the Lord nor the duties of the priests. But Samuel in spite of that environment not having a Godly example being surrounded by weird cowards and corrupt people ministered to the Lord, Ministered to the Lord. And when God came to speak, He ignored the fact that Samuel didn't have a daddy as a priest. He didn't have a daddy as a prophet but Samuel had proximity to God. You want to hear God get near Him. Yeah, hearing God is like a Bluetooth. You have to first pair it and get near to it. Once your heart is paired with the will of God: once your heart is paired with pleasing God, all you have to do is make sure you stay close to the router called the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is within us and He speaks. The Bible says, in Revelation "And the spirit says to the churches he who has an ear let him hear." And it says in book of Acts chapter 13, as they worshiped and they ministered and they fasted: "the Holy Spirit said". So, the Holy Spirit wants to speak to you. He lives inside of you. He doesn't have a duct tape over his mouth. He wants to speak to you. If you're a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit. And if you have the Holy Spirit, you have a speaking Holy Spirit. You don't have Holy Spirit, the junior. You don't have Holy Spirit, the third. You have the Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. The Holy Spirit that heals. The Holy Spirit that speaks. The Holy Spirit that wants to guide your life. But He is like a Bluetooth. You got to get paired and stay near. He's like a Wi-Fi. You got to get connected and stay close. I have this crazy thing in my house, all the time. Anytime, I'm getting out of my house, the Wi-Fi works really bad in the garage. It works terrible in the driveway. And then there's that period when you get out of the driveway just about leaving the house and everything stops working in your phone because it's disconnecting from the Wi-Fi. And see that's how a relationship with the Holy Spirit is. The closer you are to the Holy Spirit, the stronger the signal. So, the problem is not your status. The problem is the signal. It's not the status you have in the church. And God doesn't even look at how many years you are in the church. God doesn't look like which Bible school you went to. And God doesn't look like which family you came from and how good, bad or the ugly are people when it comes to relating to the Lord from your family. He's looking at the signal. Are you connected by faith through Jesus. And you saved by the grace of God and how close are you staying to the router. Because if you stay near the Holy Spirit like Samuel, you will hear the Holy Spirit like Samuel.
Number four, If you want to hear God's voice obey the last thing He told you. God didn't tell Samuel to tell Eli about the what He told him. But I do want you to let you know that after Samuel revealed the word that was given to him; The scripture says, we begin to see Samuel being established as a man that was recognized as the one that hears from God. The first word that came to Samuel from the Lord was a hard word. And Samuel treasured that word, stewarded, shared it when he was asked to share it. And you begin to see people who obey what God tells them seem to hear God more. Obedience magnifies the voice of God in your life. Disobedience to the word that you hear from God deafens your ability to hear more. When I was younger my biggest prayer was "Lord I want to hear your voice. I don't want to miss your voice. I don't want to ever confuse your voice. Lord I want to discern your voice. My prayer changed to more of Lord I want to obey your voice, I want to obey the voice. I do know is yours, If I'm not sure you'll make it clear but it's the one that I am sure. Give me strength to obey". The Bible doesn't say in Deuteronomy 28, "If you diligently hear my voice blessings will follow you." It says, "If you diligently obey my voice": May I submit to you. Adam heard the voice of God in the garden but he obeyed the voice of a serpent. It's not hearing the voice that changes your life: It is obeying the voice that transforms your life. Jesus heard the voice of a serpent in the wilderness but He obeyed the word of God and that that way He overcame Satan. And so don't get so fixated that you're like "Oh I just want to hear and treasure the voice of God." Yes but if you don't ever do what He says, you will start hearing Him less, less and less. And you'll become a spiritual junkie instead of a spiritual soldier. You become a person that is spiritually overweight instead of having an overflow of God's blessing because you have more words than you actually do. I'll rather hear less and do more than hear more and never do anything that He says. Jesus says, those who only hear but they don't do it: they're like people who looked in the mirror, walked away but nothing changed in their life. You got to ask the Lord, give me the grace to obey. So, if you're here today and you say "I don't remember last time the Lord has spoken to me." Let me ask you a question, Did you do the last thing He said? Sometimes just go back to the last thing He said and do that. Your and my disobedience to the voice of God puts a mute on God's voice. Have you ever had music playing on your computer and then somebody on accident put a mute on it. You can still see the bars: everything is there but nothing is coming out. Same thing with the voice of the Lord in our life. When we consciously, willfully choose to disobey it: we mute that voice and we don't hear Him anymore. And we go into "autopilot complacent, lethargic, predictable, routine, boring may I submit Christianity". And we're just hanging in there holding on to Jesus's mind. Blessed assurance, everything is going to be fine as long as I'm going to heaven. Christian life is more than that. It's a living relationship with God where you can hear His voice. He convicts you. He speaks to you. He comforts you. He strengthens you. And you know Him as your father and as your shepherd. Amen!
Don't dismiss God's voice just because it sounds familiar. A principle from Samuel's story, that's very good and that is this: One of the reasons we miss God's voice, we don't discern it. Especially those of us who are beginning our Christian faith is this way because it sounds like your thoughts. Samuel, the scripture says, heard the voice of God thought it was Eli. Now watch this. Samuel on the other instance saw Eliab and thought this is God's anointed. So his thoughts, he thought they were the voice of God. So the common confusion that happens is this: is when you mistaken your thoughts for God's voice. And when you mistaken God's voice and you say, "Oh this is just my thoughts." But commonly where most of us will hear the Lord whether it's going to be 100% through the word of God, through our spirit, through visions, through dreams. Rarely most of us are going to get trances though some people get that but most of us probably don't like to just go unconscious completely for three hours to hear God. And so most of you are going to get it like through a daydream, an impression or you will get it through a dream when you're asleep or you will hear a voice in your spirit. The Bible says, the Holy Spirit speaks to our spirit confirming that we are children of God. Three voices we must learn to discern. The first voice is the voice of God. Here are few characteristics to help us discern the voice of God. First thing, a lot of times it sounds like your thoughts. It's very quiet but persistent. It's peaceful yet it's clear. It's consistent with the scriptures and it has a sense of conviction a sharpness to it without the condemnation. Even if the Lord is actually judging you through His word or convicting you; there's a sense of hope. You actually want to change. You want to, you want to like change your life around for God not feeling hopeless. Then, there's your own thoughts. My own thoughts. They are tied to our flesh, fleshly desires. They're typically driven by emotions. So, they have like a waves component to it. They're strongly connected to logic and intellect. They sound right but if you put them on weight scales they lack spiritual depth and they typically push you to premature decisions. Then, there's the demonic voice. The demonic voice is different. It carries an aura of fear paralysis, doubt, shame accusation. You feel less than hopelessness, doubt. It's very subtle. It has a twisting of scripture. Satan doesn't oppose the scripture at first. He messes with it. First time he came to Eve, he didn't say, no! He just says, "Well, kind of you know like he puts a question mark." He takes scripture out of context. He came to Jesus and said, "Well the Bible also says, he is a twisting serpent. He likes to twist the scripture to hurt you to hurt the character of God." And then one thing about Satan's voice is that it creates urgency with confusion. When he comes, he makes everything seem like urgent, pressure, fear and doubt. The moment you feel that coming on, you can 100% know. The Bible says, he's a father of lies. All he does is lies. God's voice oozes peace about it. Conviction, clarity, quiet yet persistent, consistent with the scriptures and always has hope. Because that's who Holy Spirit is. He's the spirit of hope. You can't be taught to hear God's voice but you and I can discern God's voice. People can teach us to discern it better but hearing Him comes naturally as being born again Christians. And Samuel heard the voice of God. He just didn't discern that it was God. He thought it was Eli. I wonder how many times, that crazy thought was actually God. How many thought, How many times you went to a coffee shop and the person next to you and for some weird reason, you got a sharp elbow pain. No reason. It came for 3 seconds and it left. And it was actually God speaking to you to pray for an elbow of the person next to you. You're like "Oh this weird." How many times an impression that would come in and we would just. It's not that we don't hear. Most of us don't discern it and dismiss it because we're like "Well it's Eli that he called me." What if it was the Lord. So, my encouragement to you is to test the spirits. Hold on to what is good and take risks because God wants you to hear Him. And you say, "What if I make mistakes?" That's okay because it's better to. God wants us to know Him and He will guide us into all truth. And I'm not saying that you come up to somebody and you say, "Thus says the Lord and hand them a business card says, I am an established prophet of Tri-Cities Washington and I operate in the realm of Pacific Northwest." Don't do that. You can just easily come and say, "I felt in my heart. I just wanted to submit it to you. I don't know what that would mean for you but I want to share that with you." I heard Landon Schott. I was riding on my bike a few days ago and I was listening to his teaching on hearing God. And he comes and gives a word to somebody. And this big guy, he gives him a word. He said, I hear the Lord put on my heart that joy is coming back and the guy's like okay and so and Landon leaves. And you know his wife gave such a strong words to somebody and he felt so like he's like man, what kind of word is that joy is coming back, Really! And so he just felt so, like man I should have delivered a stronger word. And so he gets in the car with the pastor who was hosting him and he said, "You have no idea what that word meant." He's like, "Yeah happiness is coming back." He's like "Yeah look everybody needs that word." He said, "No, his wife's name is Joy. And he's waiting for her to come back". And when you gave that word that actually did not mean about happiness; it actually meant that his wife is coming back. And he's been waiting for that. He's like "Oh wow! That's a powerful word." You see like how sometimes the Lord could give us a word and we just like "Ah we dismiss it. It's not a big deal". If God speaks act on it. Amen!
And the last thing: and we're going to finish up. And that is this, If you want to hear the voice of God. You can't hear God if you already decided what you wanted Him to say. I want you to notice what Eli did not tell Samuel: "Samuel when the Lord speaks tell him, Speak Lord and tell me what I want to hear". I wonder how many times, why we miss the voice of God is because we come to God with a script instead of surrender. If you made up your mind, I'm going to marry this person. Don't ask the Lord what he thinks about it. I don't like it when people come up they already have a wedding date, everything like pastor so what do you think about it. It's like really what am I going to say, No: not a good idea. Ah, you're against our marriage. Like you should have been here before you made a decision if that's what you wanted to hear my input. But if you're coming to the Lord and you already made up your mind, please understand: I'm not saying that God is just not going to bless that. If you want to have his perfect will: You can make up your mind. But you can come to the Lord and say "Lord this is what I want to do. I might struggle if you tell me otherwise, If you're patient with me Lord I'll get on with the program". But be honest with God. Don't make up your mind. And then treat God as someone that just puts a stamp of approval. Can God bless our plans? 100%. The Bible says, if you delight in the Lord, He will give you the desires of your heart. He'll change those desires first. He'll put those desires first. But to hear God's voice you must come this way, "Speak Lord": not your boss is listening but your servant is listening. That means I'm here to listen and I'm here to obey. I have willingness to obey. Not only eagerness to listen and then compare with my notes. I don't like that Lord! So, can you say something else. Do you have anything else that you can tell me like any other word that you have for me. No. Okay, Lord I'm going to go find a different voice. And that's how many people live. They don't want to hear the Lord's voice. They want to hear from the Lord what they want him to say. And be very honest if you want to hear God: Be open with the Lord and say "Lord speak, Lord Your servant is listening. And as a servant I don't have an agenda, I have a heart willing to obey." Amen. Amen. And if you do that God will speak. But if you come in with a preconceived, pre-decided idea already, it will be very difficult to speak. Give you an example. One king was going to war. He had a friend named Jehoshaphat. And Jehoshaphat said, "Before we go to war, let's hear of the Lord's will. What does the Lord want us to do?" So they already made plans to go fight. And now they want to hear what the Lord wants to do. So they invited this all the prophets. And all the prophets came in and says, go to war you'll be successful. They just literally were just confirming whatever these guys already pre-decided. And then they invited this one. And the king Jehoshaphat: He says, is there not like a real prophet who like doesn't tickle everybody's ears and not that he's has to be Debbie the downer always negative but like real word from God. Because Jehoshaphat discerned right away. These guys are paid. They're not real deal. They're not prophets. They are guys for profit. This is something is off with this. So he's like, "Yeah there's this guy but he never says anything I like to hear." And Jehoshaphat he's like, "Well then I want to hear from him." So this Micah comes in and Micah plays right into their scheme. He comes in. He's like "Yeah go and you will win and God will bless you." And Ahab's like "Dude stop. Like tell me the word of the Lord". He's like, "Oh okay, You want to hear the word of the Lord?". Yeah! God was planning to take you out and there's a great way to do it. And the way He's going to do it is by you going to battle and you're gonna die. And the guy's like "See I knew he never says anything good about me." And Jehoshaphat said, "Don't say it like that." If your attitude toward God is God always has to agree with everything that you want to do, You're not trying to hear God. You're trying to lead Him. You want to get God on your program. Now if that is your version of Christianity, good luck! Christian faith is "There is a Lord. We submit to Him". So, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. Meaning we arrange our program to fit his purpose. So, that's why we don't pray, "Speak Lord what I want to hear". We pray, "Speak Lord: your servant, I'm here willing to serve is listening. You can count on my obedience and willingness to rearrange my plans to serve your agenda". And if you have that attitude, God will deal, work and speak to you. Now if you're not there yet this is what I would encourage you to pray. This is Samuel prayer version two for 21st century Christians living in Tri-Cities Washington: "Speak Lord, I'm not yet ready to obey but be patient with me and help me to get there". I've prayed that prayer numerous times. I said, "Lord I'm not going to lie to you. I have a feeling, you're going to ask me something I would not want to do. Be patient with me as I get on the program. I don't want to miss your voice but I also don't want to pretend that it's it's easy because my selfish desires have too much stock invested into them. I put a lot of thought into this idea. I really have worked it. I have people backing it up and you coming and just doing this to it. That's going to hurt. I need to have a funeral for that idea. We need to cry over that. I can't just jump into that. So, Lord be patient with the servant who is very slow but help me to get on with the program and Lord I will get on with your program". Amen. Rise to your feet.