Transcription
And today we want to look at the concluding part of our message. How to hear and recognize the voice of God. How to hear and recognize the voice of God. Please open with me into Proverbs chapter 14, verse 15. Proverbs chapter 14, verse 15. The Message version of the Bible, Proverbs 14:15. It says, "The gullible believe anything they are told. The prudent sift and weigh every word."
In John chapter 10, verse 27. John 10:27, Contemporary English version of the Bible. It says, "My sheep know my voice. They know my voice, and I know them. They follow me."
So, we have outlined major channels through which God communicates with His people. But we have found out that beyond having a willing heart to obey God, there is another major area of challenge that every believer, every disciple must be aware of and must come to a point of maturity where you are no longer vulnerable to that pitfall. And that has to do with errors in distinguishing between the true voice of God of the Holy Spirit and the voice of your flesh, the voice of your own mind, or the voice of contrary spirits, demonic spirits.
I want to quickly bring reflect on two interesting stories. One was in the Bible, and the second one was a testimony of a very senior agent of darkness, a man who went very high in the occult, went high in witchcraft and in different dimensions of the workings of the kingdom of darkness, before eventually had a divine encounter, was saved, was transformed, and eventually became a minister of God.
The first case I want us to look at is in First Kings chapter 22. For expediency of time, we'll just look at verse 21 to 23. First Kings chapter 22, 21 to 23, from the Easy to Read version of the Bible. It says, "Then the spirit went and stood before the Lord and said, 'I will fool him.' The Lord asked, 'How will you do it?' The spirit answered, 'I will go to Ahab's prophets and cause them to tell lies.' So the Lord said, 'Yes, that will fool Ahab. Go out and do that.'" So that is what has happened here. The Lord made your prophets lie to you. The Lord himself decided, decided to bring this disaster to you.
Now, the second story is a story of a man who was very, very deep, deeply involved in the kingdom of darkness until God eventually saved his soul, transformed him, sanctified him, and then commissioned him as an instrument of God. And then who was this man? The man is by the name Omoba Jesu Emmanuel. Omoba Jesus was born at Ifon in Ondo State of Nigeria. When he was eight years old, he was initiated into different kinds of traditional societies. He grew up with the hebrew experiences of his grandfather. He practiced spiritism, angel worship, magic, and he belonged to many African and international occult groups and fraternal bodies. He had very advanced exposure to the secrets of witchcraft and secrets of the occult. In the mid-60s, he encountered our Lord Jesus Christ in his crystal ball. He then became born again and later an evangelist. He's been traveling since then to several countries in the world sharing his deliverance, the story of his deliverance from the kingdom of darkness. In his book, "My Conversion from a Witch Doctor to an Evangelist," some interesting insights of the secret operations of the evil kingdom I exposed. He also shared, he revealed how he and other herbalists used to manipulate people, how they used to manipulate people to seek the help of herbalists.
I want you to understand that this topic of spiritual communication is a very sensitive one, and it's a major channel of spiritual deception, spiritual manipulation. So he said they used to manipulate people to seek the help of herbalists. And how do they do it? One of the ways he said they used to do it is to speak to the, to their heart. To do so, they speak to the heart of people in the village, "Go to that herbalist, and they will solve this problem for you. Go to that witch doctor, and it will solve this problem." Take note that one of the ways from what we learn, one of the ten principal channels through which God speaks to people, to His own disciples, is by speaking to the heart of man, the heart of His sons and daughters.
One of the ways God speaks is through dreams. In the same way, one of the greatest channels of spiritual manipulation and deception by the spirits of darkness is through dreams. They give people fake dreams and make it appear like a real and genuine revelation. And this includes believers, until you come to a point where you have raised up your level of wisdom, your level of caution, beyond that gullible level where you just believe anything you see in a dream, you believe any word you hear come into your heart, to your mind, or you believe anything that you are told by anybody, and they are claiming that is a word from God. Until you come to that level where you don't just run with any of these things without verifying yourself from the Spirit of God, you could become very vulnerable to a lot of spiritual manipulation.
And he said they were doing, they do this regularly. It's a common, this is a regular practice in the kingdom of darkness and by the agents and spirits of darkness. Another way, he said, they manipulate people to seek the help of herbalists is that they influence, they will influence someone to give them the advice. So when they want to make you go to a herbalist, they can come to you in spiritual form, not in human form. And since it's in spiritual form, whatever you hear, there is nobody around, there's no person around. So it will, it could appear to you like a voice that you are hearing from the Lord or from the Spirit of God. Another way they also said they do it is now they would send someone, influence someone, and sometimes the person being influenced is not aware, is not aware that he or she is carrying a message that is in error, a message that is not, that is being instigated or initiated by demonic spirits and demonic agents. He said they will influence someone to give people the advice, "Go to the herbalist, go to the witch doctor."
So eventually, he was saved. So one of the lessons we learned first from this case is that demonic spirits use other people, will use others people to speak to you. Demonic spirits will use other people to speak to you. In some instances, to tempt you into error, to tempt you into an error, to mislead you into error. In some other instances, to mislead you out of God's will, out of God's will. In some other instances, they will come to misinform you deliberately, intentionally misinform you.
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And expose you to diverse consequences and wrong decisions due to the misinformation. So he said spirits will sometimes use someone also to abuse you seriously, to provoke you seriously, to offend you seriously, in order to provoke you to say something or do something or react in anger. Sometimes when they want to, you know, make you make a major mistake by reacting in anger, the spirit will influence someone to abuse you, to offend you, to provoke you to a point where you can no longer bear it, and you react or you say something in anger. I pray that more than ever before, from now on, you will not fall into the straps, you will not fall into these traps, in the name of Jesus.
And from the first story we read, Ahab had deviated from walking with God. And so God wanted him to face the consequences of disobedience. And he preferred to be listening to false prophets and prophets who were not connected with the living God. So at a particular time, the spirit of the Lord stood before the Lord and said, "This, I have an idea of what a different way Ahab will be taught a major lesson. This battle that he's thinking about going into, I will go and be a lying spirit in the mind and in the heart and mouth of his, those prophets he listens to." Oh, so and then of course, by the time he hears what they are saying, he will go, he will act on their supposed prophetic word. And you could see some words that were used. He said, "Yes, I will go and fool him." In the, God's word, he said, "I will deceive him." And the Lord said, "You will succeed in deceiving him." In Easy to Read version, he said, "I will fool him." And how is it going to fool him? Through a lie, through the oppression of a lying spirit. How was he going to deceive him? Through by operating as a lying spirit. And then he said, "I will draw him in." The Voice Bible, he said, "I will draw him into a battle that he ought not to fight because God was not going to be with him, and he was going to be made to lose that battle." He said, "I will draw him into this battle." And how was it going to be influenced to go into that battle? By becoming a spirit of deception within the words of those people, those spiritual people he listens to. Praise.
Hear the Lord. So how can we, how do you reckon it's God's voice or God's leading? How do you know the way to be sure you are hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit, God's voice? To spend time learning it. Spend time, spend time learning how to hear and recognize the voice of God. You can easily, for instance, you can easily recognize the voice of your parents, the voice of your spouse, or your children. How? Why? How? How do you come to that point? Because you spend enough time with them. You have spent enough time with your parents, enough time with your spouse, enough time with your children, enough time with that particular person that when you hear the voice without seeing the face, without seeing the person, you know that this is. Even when you hear a similar voice, you know, you still know that this is not the voice of that particular person. And you achieve this by spending enough time with them, hearing that voice all the time, hearing that voice over and over, over and over, over and over. If you were never around them for so long, like children who did not grow with a parent or parents or both parents, they wouldn't, they wouldn't recognize the voice of their parents. They won't. So it's not just because you know you are the son or the true son or the true daughter of your father or mother that automatically makes this happen. No. If from the beginning you were raised somewhere else, away from your parents, when you eventually come in contact with them or you speak with them on phone, you can, you will be able to recognize your father's voice because you never, you know, you never really interacted with your father long enough, close enough to now know his voice distinctively. So it is not just the biological relationship that makes you recognize the voice. It is not just the spiritual report when that you achieve when you give your life to Christ and you have now become a child of God, a son of God, a daughter of God, that automatically enables you to recognize God's voice. You come to this point through consistent interaction. Hearing the voice of God on a consistent basis is the same way recognizing God's voice. You get familiar with His voice, God's voice, by spending time with Him. Can I hear somebody say, "By spending time with Him"? Say it one more time. That is how you get to know this is the voice of the Holy Spirit, by spending time. Can you now understand why?
So this is one of the reasons why, one of the areas, one of the areas that is so under, so much attack in this present dispensation by the spirit and kingdom of darkness in the lives of believers is in their, is in distracting believers from studying the written word of God. Anything that is not going to add to your spiritual strength, the devil will even lead you, will remind you to go and do those things, and will always, you know, encourage you to spend as much time as possible, sometimes too much time on those things because he knows, and those spirits know that those things add no value to your spiritual fortification and your spiritual strength and growth and maturity. But anything that is going to make you stronger in the spiritual realm, the devil will do everything to get you distracted from it, to get you distracted.
So you get familiar with the voice of God by spending time with Him. And you do that by reading, not just owning a Bible. You do that by reading and meditating, meditating on His word, meditating on His word, meditating on His word. And that is why as a believer, you must intentionally, intentionally learn to study at least five different versions of the Bible, at least five different versions of the Bible. Intentionally. And I want to please encourage you, we thank God for the advancement in technology and how it's also a great benefit to spiritual things and the, the advancement of the kingdom. But please, there is a great reason, a very strong reason why every child of God must have a hard copy, hard copy of the Bible, hard copy of the Bible. And you must, with the advancements of time, avail yourself of any new version of the Bible that has been clearly proven to be of great benefit in the, in the realm of Bible study and clear insights and translation of the original word of God.
In the last time I did my extensive research, I got about 71 different versions of the Bible. Carried out very extensive search and eventually I discovered that 10 of them stood out for different reasons. By observe, for instance, by the time you have used, taking this version of the Bible, the second one, a third one, most of the other versions have nothing new or different to tell you. So if you have these three, then you don't need over 50, 60 of the other versions. So that was how I arrived at 10, 10 different versions of the Bible that I refer to every time I do a study. And I want to really and recommend one of those versions to you. It's called the Easy to Read version. It's very, very, very useful, very clear interpretation of the word. And then some other versions, the Living Bible, Amplified Bible, then there's the Amplified, there's a classic edition of the Amplified Bible. It's a classic edition that is also included in my current selection of the top ten. The Voice is a very good one. The Message Bible is another very good one. God's Word Translation is another very good version. So from time to time, you, you know, if you have studied the book of Matthew, the last time with a particular version, the next time it's good to change the version and use another one. It will, you will, you will discover certain things from that different version that wasn't so amplified, wasn't so clear with the first version that you used.
So you become familiar with God's voice and God's leading through His word by studying it and recognizing how He thinks, how God thinks, how God acts, how God views you. So the day God will give you an instruction that is completely contrary to the way God thinks, the way God acts, the way God instructs us normally, you won't just act without praying to ask God again, "Lord, are You really the one saying this? Are You really the one saying this?" Very important. So you need, by studying the word, by recognizing and recognizing how God thinks, how He acts, and how He views you, when a different voice, a different voice tries to lead you, you are able to recognize it instantly as a counterfeit or a lie. So God, God, you can recognize and distinguish between God's voice and other voices, and the voice of lying spirits, deceptive spirits, by consistently studying the word of God.
And I want to let you know that one of the ways you, you grow spiritually is by studying the word. There is a transfer of the anointing. Every time you study the Holy Bible, there's a transfer of the spirit. When you are reading very, any strong spiritual book, there's a transfer of spirit. So you need to understand that every time, and especially times maybe when you are fasting and you are studying the word, there is a transfer of the anointing of the Holy Spirit as you are studying and meditating on the, on the word of God. In the Bible, the Bible is a word and voice of God. Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 16. Amplified Bible Classic Edition. It says, "Every scripture is God-breathed, given by His inspiration, and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, and for training in righteousness, in holy living, in conformity to God's will, in taught purpose and action." Second Timothy 3:16, Amplified Bible Classic Edition. Behind every written word is the voice of the Lord. Every written word is transmitted by the spoken word. So as you read it, the Lord is talking with you. As you meditate on the scriptures, God would reveal or confirm things to you. You will reveal or confirm things to you. Sometimes, as you are praying, "God, are You really the one leading me in this direction? Are You really the one speaking in this direction?" He may not answer just as you pray, but the next time you are studying the word, as you are studying the word through a particular verse you are reading, God can answer that prayer you had prayed earlier, asking Him for clarity and for direction, for confirmation over a particular thing.
The second one, second major way through which you can recognize whether truly a voice is a voice of the Holy Spirit or a contrary voice, and take note, I've been saying this, when we say contrary voice, it's not only the voice of demonic spirit. The contrary voice could be your own voice. It could be your heart desire. It could be the things you naturally, you normally prefer. It could be what you like. And that is why out of the abundance of the thoughts of a man, the thoughts of a woman, dreams come. Dreams come.
So, the second, so one, second major way is through the inward witness of the spirit. Through the inward witness of the spirit. Romans 8, verse 16, Easy to Read version. He says, "And the Spirit himself speaks to our spirit and makes us sure that we are God's children." The inward witness of the spirit. Very key, very key. You will either begin to feel a peace as you consider the decision, or a feeling of uneasiness, uneasiness. And this happens a lot when you have something in your mind that is not God's will, or it is not yet God's time. It's not yet God's time. The timing is not yet now. So anytime there is no release in your spirit, if it is possible, please put that thing on hold. If it's a decision, put it on hold. If it's a choice you're about to make, put it on hold. If it's an investment, a transaction, business, or relationship you're about to get into, please put it on hold.
One of the very powerful keys to verifying whether something is true or not is time. Can somebody say, "Time"? So all you need to do to just confirm whether this thing is real, this thing is true, give it time. And one of the common patterns with satanic deception, including human deception, and that includes the local 419, is that for it to succeed at a particular stage, the most everything must be, you know, rounded up as quickly as possible. Haste is a key factor in the realm of deception. So that is one reason why most of the time, most of the big things that will need to happen in your life, God will have prepared you ahead of time. It is not, it is not a common thing for God to do to come suddenly, suddenly and just give you a major assignment without that you have never had a revelation about. The only time, thank you, thank you Lord. The only time God can give you to just suddenly give you something big that you never, He never showed you before, is when God is using you to replace someone. Sometimes God can use, you know, He can use you, it can add to what He has already ordained for your life. When God, so God can use you to replace someone. So what that person was, someone else was actually supposed to do, God can now suddenly hand, hand it over to a faithful or obedient son or daughter of His.
Anytime you are troubled in your spirit, please be patient. Time, time, time, time will reveal many things. Time will reveal many things. Pretence is normally exposed with time. Scheming is exposed with time. People can pretend very well, but they cannot pretend forever. So if you are the type that you refuse to give the best you could ever offer in whatever circumstance in life, you refuse to, and you are now so patient about it, you are most likely going to eventually hand it over to the right person. But if you are hasty, you will hand it over to an expert schemer. So time is key.
And then the last thing is prayer. There are times, many times, you will need to go back to God with a prayer, asking God, "Lord, are You really the one saying this thing? Are You really the one giving this message?" And if sometimes an instruction could be given, but God may not want you to be involved. "Lord, should I be involved?" So there will be times you will need to always go back to God and clarify things. And can I tell you something as we close here? When the devil sees you have this habit of not hastily running with anything you hear, whether directly by yourself or from a supposed vessel of God, you don't just hastily believe anything, but you are the type that would always make such things a point of prayer, asking God for confirmation. At a time, the devil will no longer bother with you. He will rarely come to you. He will still come, but not too often. But when you are a believer that anything he notices that anything you hear, you believe that this is God, anything someone tells you, you believe that this is God, he will continue to direct more to such blessings. So you must always pray, raise prayer points, asking the Holy Spirit to verify and confirm whether a supposed message from God is a dream you had, a dream someone had, and what that dream is inferring, is it really the Holy S, is it really God that is bringing this message? Once I believe that when you add these three major filters, you can call them filters in how you handle spiritual sickness and revelation, you will not be vulnerable to errors. You will not be vulnerable to costly mistakes. Somebody say amen.
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