Hearing God, Week 7

Written By Tim Rivers
 

So good to see you in the house today. If you were visiting with us, we want to say welcome to Embassy City Church. We pray that you feel at home, that you feel loved, that you feel a part. Church is very interesting because a lot of people come to church for very different reasons. Some people come because it is just tradition. It's what they grew up doing. They feel guilty if they don't come. Some people come because they want to meet friends. Some people come because they want to hear a word of God and ain't get up out of here. But there are so many things that happen in the assembly. One of the things that happens is that, as Sarah mentioned, when we come together and worship, there's something dynamic that happens because you bring something to the table that I don't bring and I bring something to the table that you don't bring. And when you realize that God in you working in the assembly is creating a masterful painting of little mosaic pieces, how phenomenal is that? Did you know when you get to heaven, you won't be by yourself?

Some people are like, well, I'm an introvert. I'm sorry. Apparently there are gates there so you can't run. So you might as well get used to worshiping with people here on Earth to get you ready for how you're going to worship over there and somebody say, amen. So welcome to church, those who are watching online or in the overflow, welcome, welcome to church. Alright, so on October 26th, somebody say October 26th. October 6th, we have our fall carnival. Now we did this last year. We're going to do it again this year. This is an opportunity to invite all your friends, your family, your neighbors, anyone you can think of to come, people who would ordinarily not come to church on Sunday will come to a fall carnival. Here's the thing, it's still at the church, so if they think they're outrunning, God, they come over here. You may be trying to get a piece of candy, but we'll pray you through as well. So hey, after service, grab one of these cards and invite somebody. Invite somebody at the restaurant. If you're like, well, I'm awkward at the restaurant, just leave it with a tip. Don't leave it unless you tip, leave somebody else's card. Alright, this is the seventh week and the final week of our series called Hearing God. Give yourselves a big hand for making it all the way through.

Hey, I'm so proud of you for sticking with us. Seven weeks. We've been talking about hearing God. Many of you are in groups, 80% of you are in groups. And I pray that as you've been meeting in groups, that you've grown in community, you've grown in faith, you've made some good friends, but it ain't over. This is our final week of groups and then we kick off another set of groups and we're gearing up for spring. So if you made friends, continue to stay in contact with them. If you're not in a group, make sure you join a group because God does amazing things through community. I'm a little sad about wrapping this series up, but I think this is kind of the ending for this, but it's not the ending of you hearing God.

Come on. Now, the whole reason why we're doing this series is because our heart for you is to grow in deeper relationship and community with the Lord. And in order to do that, you got to talk to him. But you also have to listen to him. How many have ever been on a one sided conversation? It ain't good y'all. You got to learn how to communicate with God. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So if you have your Bibles, let's go to Job chapter one, the Book of Job, chapter one, verse number six, job chapter one, verse number six. This is what it says. Now, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, from where have you come? And Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down, doesn't that sound familiar?

And the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant job that there is none like him on the earth, A blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. Then Satan answered the Lord and said, does Job fear God for no reason? Satan is dramatic. Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side. You have blessed the work of his hand and his possessions have increased in the land, but stretch out your hand and touch all that he has and he will curse you to your face. And the Lord said to Satan, behold all that he has is in your hand only against him. Do not stretch out your hand. So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

Alright, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your goodness and mercy. Thank you for allowing us to be in your house. I pray, Lord, that as we wrap up this series, we would not forget the principles that we learned over the last seven weeks. Help us to be intentional about hearing from you. Do what only you can do. Speak to us. Speak to our hearts, speak to our minds. Help us to dig down deep in you. We give you name, all the praise, the glory and the honor because you're worthy of it in Jesus name. And everybody say amen. Amen. Amen. So I want to catch you up real quick. Maybe you've been with us the last seven weeks. Maybe this is your first time here and you're catching us right in the middle of this series. But I just want to wrap up, recap the entire seven weeks and kind of bring us up to speed on what we've been talking about. We started off this series talking about the importance of hearing God through the word of God. And we have established that the word of God is the primary and most fundamental way that we hear God. Let me ask you this, how many in this place can confidently say that in the last seven weeks you've heard from God?

Spoiler alert, all of us have because we have established that the word of God is the word of God. Two Timothy three 16 says, all scripture is breathed out by God. It is inspired by God. So when you read the Bible, it's not just words on the page, but it is the inspired word of God. But not only do we hear from God through the word of God, but we also hear God through the Holy Spirit. Now we know Acts chapter two, verse number 38. Jesus even said this, accept the man be born of water and of spirit. Acts chapter two verse 38 says, repenting me, baptize a one of you named Lord Jesus Christ. You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit At the moment of salvation, you are given the gift of the Holy Spirit. That is what makes you saved is when the Holy Spirit comes and he quickens you.

He makes you alive through the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit isn't just a presence in us, but he is doing something in us if we will allow him. And what we've established is that he will teach us all things, that he will bring all things to remembrance and that he will guide us into all truth. The thing is, the Holy Spirit is a gift that has to be opened and utilized. A lot of us, we are saved, but we're still relying on ourselves versus realizing that God has given you all the tools necessary through the power of the Holy Spirit if you would just tap in to what the Holy Spirit has for you. So we hear God through the Holy Spirit, also through Rama, and we studied this a little bit. Rama is when the word of God, the logos of God becomes personal in our lives. It's when the word of God becomes personal and the Holy Spirit does that. And then we talked about how you could hear God through godly counsel or trusted voices and we've established you can't just listen to anybody. You have to trust the people that you're committing hearing from God from. You have to be able to look at their lives and say, does their life reflect a person who loves God, who loves me, who will tell the truth, who doesn't want anything from me, who is not charging me to tell me a word?

If you got to pay to get a word that's called sorcery, that's a psychic somewhere, there's a little glowing crystal ball, but we have to have godly counsel. You can't just figure it out by yourself. You have to have somebody in your life that can hear from God And God will use other people to speak to you all the time through a word of prophecy, through words of wisdom, through words of knowledge. So we have to be open to hear God through other people. And then we talked about this last week, we talked about the inner witness or the conscience, how that when you are submitted to the Holy Spirit, God will give you peace in your inner man, in your inner conscience and will direct the decisions that you make if you don't have peace and you have the Holy Spirit. Wait, just wait.

Well, I don't want to wait. That's most of our response. Wait anyways, because you don't want to outrun God. Alright, now we've talked about all the different ways that you hear God, but I want to bring this up because most of us, we've been praying to hear from God, we've been studying the word of God, we've been submitted to the Holy Spirit, we've submitted something to Godly counsel. Maybe we feel peace in our mind. But has there anybody been in here that you've prayed about some situations you feel like you're hearing God, but the circumstances in your life does not match what you've been praying for? Have you ever prayed for blessings and your car breaks down or am I the only one? Have you ever prayed God use me and you get fired?

Or have you ever prayed, God, I'm ready to buy that house and the application is denied? How many have ever been in a situation where you feel like God is talking to you but the circumstances of your are not matching up with what you believe God has for you? So today that's what we want to talk about because here's the thing, God will speak through life events. Sometimes we want to hear a thundering voice from heaven telling us very clearly what our next step is. And sometimes God just allows or sends a situation. Now here's the thing. We have to establish this from the very beginning. There are two keys that you have to get ahold of when we're talking about God speaking to us through circumstances. Number one is God can and does speak through the circumstances of our lives, but with God, two things can be true at the same time. Not everything that happens is God speaking to us.

Lemme say that again. God can and does speak through circumstances of our lives, but not everything that happens is God speaking to us. Let me tell you something, if you didn't put gas in your car and you run out of gas on the highway, do not point your finger at God. You should have put gas on the car. How many times do we do dumb stuff and then we live the results of our dumb decisions and blame God? God, why did you lemme marry this person? All your friends, your family, the pastor, the premarital counselor told you not to do it. God, I just want to hear from you.

We have to establish that God will speak through life circumstances, right? We can talk about Moses. He says minding his own business, watching sheep, and then there's a burning bush and out of the burning bush, God begins to speak to him. That is a situation and a scenario which you don't think you're going to find yourself in, and yet God is speaking to him. We can talk about Noah and how Noah is minding his own business and God comes to him and says, Hey listen, I need you to build a boat. Why? Because I'm sending rain. What's rain? Don't worry about it. Build a boat.

But then there are other scenarios in the scripture that people put themselves in Samson and Delilah, God, why are my eyes missing? Because I told you not to do this right? David Bathsheba, God, how did I end up in adultery? Because the scripture says that at a time when men went to war, you stayed back acting like you getting a staring at the I just love stargazing. I'm sure you do, Dave. Here's the thing. The reason why we're talking about this last is because it takes an incredible amount of spiritual maturity to look at the circumstances of your life and discern whether it is of God or it is not. And you have to be honest. You have to be honest with God. God, I put myself in this situation instead of saving all my money, I spent it all and now I ain't got no money for down payment.

I'm just getting real. And that's what we read about in the story of Job. I want to kind of unpack the story of Job because I think the story of Job gives us a very good indication of how we should navigate through circumstances in our lives. Now, this is what Job says in Job chapter 33, verse 14, for God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it. That's what Job said. Now, I want to talk about the story of Job and I want to extrapolate from the story three things, three ways that we can evaluate our circumstances by looking at the accusations hurled at Job through his three friends. Now, the three friends get a bad rap, right? We're like, there ain't no friends. They were coming after Job. Okay? Here's the thing. They didn't know the backstory. They know job really well and they know he's a righteous man.

They know that he walks upright, they know that everything's been going good in his life and now those things are not going good. They are wondering, job, what are you doing? No, what are you actually doing? And it's not just his friends, it's his wife too. So we're going to look at these three accusations and we're going to turn 'em into questions. And I encourage you that when you are in a situation or a circumstance to ask these three questions. Now lemme give you some context. First, the Bible opens up in Job chapter one by telling us that there's a certain time period of time when the sons of God, these are angels, they're coming to present themselves before the Lord. Now remember, God is a king, right? He rules over everything and he has his soldiers, or the scripture also calls 'em the sons of God, which are angels.

Angels do God's bidding. Okay? So at a certain time, I don't know exactly, this is going to be a great question to ask God at certain times, God brings in the sons of God the angels, and goes, Hey, alright, what's the condition? How's our kingdom looking? What are y'all doing? What are y'all up to? In this particular instance, Satan finds himself sneaking in to the council of God. Now here's what's interesting. Some of y'all are wondering, how in the world does Satan have access to heaven? If he's evil, how does he have access to heaven? Remember, Satan is still an angel. He's just a rebellious angel.

I don't want you to raise your hand, but some of y'all know you got four kids. But in every family there's that one, right? That one rebellious child. Now here's the thing. Well, you have a rebellious child, they keep rebelling, you kick 'em out of the house. But every now and then you may still invite them over for Thanksgiving with limited access, right? They don't have keys to your house anymore because that ain't their home. But every now and then you may invite them to the family dinner. This is basically what is happening. Here's what you have to understand about how Satan works. Satan is an angel and therefore he still has the same type of maneuvers that angels do. He has access to a spiritual realm because he is a spirit. We can read about this in Daniel. You can read about this in the second Chronicles, where remember the story of Daniel Daniels praying.

The angel comes to him and says, Hey, I was trying to deliver the message, but the Prince of Persia was fighting me. He's talking about Satan. Remember, Satan is called the prince of the power of the air, right? He also has access to the earthly realm. We see this with Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. Satan has access to the earthly realm. Satan only has access in the heavenly realm as God gives him access. Now, here's what's interesting in this story. God allows Satan to have temporary access into his counsel so that God can ask him a question. And the question is, what have you been doing?

Now, God already knows the answer, right? God does this man, he does these setups all the time, and Satan thinks He's like, oh, walking around to and fro. Yes, I don't know why he has that accent, but it sounds evil. Just walking around and God says, okay, have you considered my servant a joke? Now imagine if you were job and you got to listen in on the conversation. Wait, hold up. God, everything's good in my life. What are we doing here? I'm a righteous man. Why have you even bringing my name up to Satan? Michael, I get it. Bring it up to Michael. Let's talk about the army as the Lord. But why are you bringing my name up to Satan? And God says, Hey, have you considered that He's a righteous man, the state like matter. In fact, I, I should have been in drama.

He says, listen, you've got to hedge of protection around him. You take that away and he'll curse you to your face. And God's so confident in Joe, he's like, go ahead, touch everything around him. Just don't touch his body. Imagine God being so confident in you. Then he's like, listen, all these people are great. This one, he's righteous though. Go ahead, take all this stuff. This goes so against prosperity Gospel. Can I talk? Does God wants you to prosper? Yes, according to scripture, but prosperity doesn't look like possessions over possessions, over possessions, over possessions. The scripture never indicates that those who have possessions are more blessed than those who do not have. That's why the principle of scripture is being blessed, not being rich.

Can you be blessed and rich? Yes. Can you be poor and blessed? Yes. Sometimes the blessing for some people is not to have riches because they act crazy when they got. So God would rather save your soul and let you keep dealing with drama in your life. Oh God, then give you a bunch of stuff and you forgot that's not even in the notes. So here's what happens with job. Job is minding his own business. Satan gets permission from God actually is instigated by God to remove all the things in Job's life. So the scripture says that his family is sitting there partying and then a servant comes in and says, yo, the oxen were grazing and they were slaughtered and so were the servants. And then not just taken away, but slaughtered, right? The oxen, the sheep, the camels, the donkeys and the kids.

And they come in one after the other and Job is getting hit with this information. The Bible says that while one was finished in the sentence, another one comes in and says, Hey, you lost some more stuff. And while that's happening, another one, has anybody ever been there where you're like, is there anything else that could go wrong in my life? And right when you say it, something goes wrong. You are like, I'm going to quit asking the question right back to back. They're coming in, they're saying all this stuff is being lost and this is Job's response. Naked I came for my mother's womb and naked shall I return? The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Can you imagine Satan's response to this?

I was a liar again, I missed it again. So he goes back, God says, Hey, another invitation, he goes back up to God and God's like, yo, what happened? He's like, man, you know what? Yeah, you striked his body and he'll curse to his face and God says, all right, strike his body. Just don't take his life. Oh my Lord. Remember at this point, job doesn't know that God is having a convo with Satan about his life. He just thinks it's bad luck. He's like, what is going on? I'm living right. I'm doing right. Why am I losing all my stuff? And so his wife is looking at him like, listen, I know you Job. You're a righteous man. That's why you're blessed. You are doing something wrong. Why don't you curse God and die? And he's like, you talk like a foolish woman who you calling foolish.

Interesting that we don't hear about her for the rest of the story. Something happened. You scrape your own boils then and that's literally what happened. He's scraping boils and while he's doing this and he's in misery, three of his friends come and they've been hanging out with job and they actually come the right way. There's three things that we notice about these friends and this is how we know that they're good friends. One, they came because he was in need. He was in trouble. That's what a friend's supposed to do when you're in trouble, they come to your aid. Secondly, the Bible says that when they saw him, they wept, they empathized with him. They saw him in his condition. The Bible says they didn't even recognize him. He was in such a bad condition, they didn't recognize him and they wept. They had empathy from him. And then third, they just sat with him.

If you want to know if someone's a good friend, whenever you're in trouble, are they coming to you? Do they empathize with you and will they spend time with you? That's good. For seven days they're just sitting there and then they got to open their mouth. Here's the interesting part. They've been hanging out with Job. They're watching him in his condition and the scripture says they go, something's off. Job. This is not supposed to be happening in your life. We've seen you. You are rich bro, and now you have nothing. Something is off with your relationship with God. This circumstance right here is of your own doing. And so there are three accusations that they hurl at Joe that I think if you turn them into questions, it will help you evaluate a circumstance in your life. Number one … is considered to be probably the oldest of the three. He begins to talk and he tells job, he goes, listen, this is happening to you because they're sin in your life.

And isn't that just like a good old friend that when you're going through a hard time, they come and they're, what you doing? What kind of sin are you involved in? And he accuses job. He says, listen, you must be sinning because this doesn't happen to people who don't sin. Now, that's not necessarily biblical because we all sin, right? But he does bring up a good question. If we are going through a circumstance in your life, you have to ask yourself this question, is there active sin in my life right now that is causing a circumstance in my life that is hindering me from hearing from God? Here's what we do know according to scripture one Corinthians 11, we talked about this in church going wild, that there are times where if you don't live according to the word of God, if you're not striving for sanctification, if you're living an open rebellious sin against God, God will discipline you.

So if you're not living right and your circumstances seem dire, maybe you need to start there. Now. If you are living right, then you got to persevere through the suffering. And believe me, God will allow you to suffer. Just because you're suffering doesn't mean that God has forsaken you. Sometimes God allows suffering in our lives to allow us to draw close to him. A faith that is not tested cannot be trusted. We love to talk about faith and miracles and signs of wonder. Somebody's got to be sick. If we want to see miracles, somebody's got to go through some heartache. If they want to be set free, somebody has to be going through a circumstance if we want to see all the miracle signs and wonders that we pray about and we preach about. So one thing you have to do if you're in a circumstance that does not seem to be aligning right, ask yourself the question, am I living in sin?

Because here's the thing, God will chastise sin. He will, and he will discipline sin. And sometimes we don't like to admit that we're going against God. There are some things in your life that you didn't know was wrong, but when you're made aware of he that knows to do good and doesn't do it to him, it is sin. So when you know to do something right and you don't do it, that is sin. And when you live in open rebellion against God, God will chastise it and sometimes the circumstances in our lives are caused by our own making.

So he talks for a few chapters and then … runs up and says, Hey, listen, the reason why your kids are going through this is because they ain't living right? And the principle here is like, listen, this ain't necessarily happening to you job, but it's on your offspring. In other words, you reap what you sow something that you did. Now you're paying for now something that you did in your past and this is how Satan accuses us. Sometimes Satan will come in your life if there's a circumstantial life and he'll say, you know what? This is what you're reaping because you sowed so many sinful things. Here's what I can tell you. Don't live in the condemnation of your past when God has taken care of it.

Listen, there are some things that happen in our lives, maybe physically, naturally, there may be some causes in your life that happened. There are people who have dealt heavily in drugs before they came to the Lord. They may have some elements physically in their body. Now God can heal them, right? But there are some things that you participated in before you came to know the Lord. Let me tell you something. God has taken those things and cast them away as far as the east from the west. You don't have to live in the condemnation of yesterday, but you have to ask yourself this question, in my present life as a Christian, am I reaping what I am? So you can't eat chicken wings every day. Here he goes with the chicken wings and blame God for high blood pressure.

Am I right? Are chicken wings good? Yes. Yes. Can you eat 'em in moderation? Yes, but we got to understand that the principle of reaping and sowing is biblical. That whatever you sow you shall also reap. So you have to evaluate your life. Is what I'm going through caused by what I am doing? Am I simply sowing what I am? If I'm mistreating people, should I be shocked when people are mistreating me? If I'm not being kind, should I be shocked if people are not kind to me? If I'm not being friendly, should I be shocked that I'm alone? How many people of'em run as people, like people are just not friendly the way you're saying that is giving me a good indication, right? Then the third one comes out so far and his accusation is, you deserve worse. He says, what you get, God should do even worse.

And I'm like, how much worse can you get except for death? And death will be a relief, right? That's what Job said. Kirsten is the day that was born. He said, I would rather die if you put this in a form of a question. Am I expecting more than I deserve? There are certain times in your life where you will go through a situation that if you've been doing great and God allows you to go through a trial or a circumstance or situation, we can sometimes think that God owes us more than we get. God, I know you got me in this. Just tell you the Camry, but I deserve, I deserve that S-Class Mercedes.

We sometimes get that way with God like, God, I deserve better as a child of God. I should be. Here's the thing, we deserve death. It's the kindness of God. It's the kindness of God that we even get to sit here. That's why I think it's so misleading the messages of the prosperity gospel because it tries to lead people into thinking that if you don't live in a certain status that God isn't blessing you don't misunderstand what I'm saying. God wants you to be blessed, but blessings for everybody looks different. So at the end of the story, God rebukes the friends. Now it's interesting He doesn't rebuke them because they ask questions. He rebukes them because they accused job and tried to play God because any good friend is going to ask some questions. Any good friend that sees you going through suffering or circumstances is going to say, yo, what's up bro?

Is there something you got to tell me? Is there something that you're hiding? Is there something in your life that may be causing this? A very good friend is going to say, Hey, listen, is there sin in your life? Are you just simply reaping what you're serving? Do you think maybe you're expecting more than you deserve? God doesn't rebuke them for asking questions. He rebukes them because they try to play God. They were accusing him. And that is what Satan will do in your life. When you go through circumstances, he will come in your life and try to get you convinced that it's the judgments of God against you. And sometimes it's not. Sometimes it is, but sometimes it is not. So how do you know if God is speaking through life events? How do you know if God is talking to you through your circumstance?

You ready for this? Yes. You go back through the last six weeks that we've been talking, you start with the word of God and it is what I'm going through in alignment with the word of God. Well, I'm going through suffering. It's in the word of God. You'll suffer. I'm going through a hard time. It's in the word of God. You'll go through a hard time. Well, hey, hey, God is raining down. Blessings isn't the word of God. He will bless you, but you got to go back to the word of God first. So lemme tell you something. If you're going through a circumstance in your life, don't start with a circumstance and work backwards. And a lot of us will do that. We'll go through a circumstance and we'll try to justify our circumstance by going back and interjecting into the word of God.

It's called I see Jesus. It's where you're interjecting your own belief system into the word of God. We want to do expertise. We want to extrapolate from the word of God, the truth of God. So if I'm going through a circumstance, I got to go back to the word of God and go, Hey, is my life in alignment with the word of God, with what God is saying? And then from there I go to the Holy Spirit. Is the Holy Spirit speaking to me? Am I getting …? I know I'm going through a hard time, but how many know that God can speak to you even in the midst of trials because this is exactly what happened to job. Job is going through a hard time and in the Bible says that the earth quake comes and a whirlwind comes to his life, and then this is what the scripture says.

God speaks through the whirlwind. Now, lastly, we talked about how God spoke through a still small voice in the inner witness, but sometimes God will speak to you in the midst of a whirlwind in your life. The Holy Spirit will speak to you. Then you have to go back, alright, it's aligning with the word the Holy Spirit is speaking to me. Then you submit your circumstances to trusted voices. Obviously these three guys we're not that trusted, but when you're going through a circumstance in your life, one of the best things that you can do is submit that to people who love you

And ask them to be honest with you. Hey, why do you think I'm going through this? And you may not like the answer. Or if they really love you and they know your life and they know how you live, they may say, Hey, listen, God may be trying to talk to you. There have been times in my life where I've been praying God, I'm ready for a breakthrough and instead I got to breakdown. There are times where God use me. This happened to me 2015, I was ready man. I was like, all right, God, I've been in ministry for many years and I'm ready to go to the next level. God, what do you have for me? I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready for more. Lord, give me more. I'm ready. Your servant is listening and I feel like I'm hearing from God because I'm getting prophetic words.

I feel peace. I feel the Holy Spirit is speaking to me. I'm in my word. And then guess what? I lose the job in ministry that I had and I'm like, this is the very opposite of what's supposed to happen. Now I'm evaluating my life. I'm like, there's no sin in my life. I'm not actively sitting. I'm not actively rebelling against God. What is actually going on? And I went and got a job at Justin Boots, selling boots, and while I was there, I was like, this is not aligning with my purpose. Has anybody ever been there where you're like, this is not aligning with the prophetic words that I've gotten? No one gave me a prophecy and said, I'm going to be an expert on cowboy boots.

And I'm sitting there doing marketing at a godless place wondering this, the end of my ministry is this it? I am making more money. I like that, but it's not aligning with my purpose. A year and a half or a year goes by and I realize, you know what, God, I'm going to stop asking why this is happening and I'm going to start asking, what are you trying to teach me? As soon as I change the question, God opened the next door. Then you got to go evaluate the inner witness. Is there peace in your life? Maybe you're going through a hard time and a hard circumstance, but you still have peace and it's confusing people. That's the Holy Spirit. And then we go to life events. We don't start with life events. We start with the word of God, the Holy Spirit, trust the voices inner witness, and then we interpret the life events based on what we've already learned about how we hear from God.

Now, for many of us, there's this phrase in the church world called open door. God, I want to open door. God opens some doors. Lemme tell you, lemme tell you what Paul said about open doors in one Corinthians 16, verse nine. He says, because a great door for effective work has opened to me and there are many who oppose me. Did you know that not every open door is going to be clearly open for you just to walk through? There are some times when you walk through an open door, it's going to be crowded with adversaries, but just because there are adversaries does not mean that God did not open the door for you.

You have to stop and ask yourself the question, God, why am I being opposed? It's because there's an effective work and God cannot allow you to go through that door without strengthening you first. Here's the second way that you know you're hearing God through life events when we're confident that he will speak to us. What is this whole series bit about? Hearing God, hearing God through the scriptures, hearing God through the Holy Spirit, hearing God through trusted voices, hearing God through the conscience, and now hearing God through your circumstances. If you can get to this point to where everything you go through, everything you go through in life, you ask this question, God, what are you trying to teach me? Yes, you will always hear from God. It's a guarantee. And sometimes God may not give you a direct answer, and when he doesn't give you a direct answer, the answer is persevere.

Thank you Lord. Well, God, I need an answer. Like yesterday, if he ain't talking, he wants you to wait. I don't want to wait. See, you have some of y'all on the edge. You see, please just say the next thing. That's how God does us. Sometimes He allows things in your life good and bad to teach you how to quiet yourself. Listen, wait, be patient. Stop being in a hurry. I need a word from God right now. Sometimes he's going to put you in a situation that's going to have you waiting for a while. I've been waiting for 30 years, okay? Because to God a thousand years is like a day.

Do the math on 30 years, like a couple seconds, what are you trying to teach me? God, some of y'all are going through the circumstance right now. You're waiting. You've been in this series for seven weeks. You're like, man, I was confident that I was going to get a direct word in the next seven in these seven weeks, and I ain't heard jack squat, and now you're coming up here telling me to wait. Yes. Well, what do I do while I wait work? Isn't that what the scripture says when I come back? Will I find you working,

Doing what you've always done until, until he tells you the next thing to do? I didn't come to hear that, but I said it first. 1 Thessalonians chapter five, verse 16. I want to close with this passage. Rejoice, always pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything. Hold fast. What is good? Abstain from evil from every form of evil. Now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of all Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful.

I love this last part. He will surely do it. What do I do with what I've heard from God? Rejoice, always pray. Always give thanks in all circumstances. Why should I do that? It's the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. What so you mean? This whole series about a hearing from God doesn't end in some crescendo where I just start giving everybody prophetic words and reading your driver's license number. We're not going to have a no because if all I do is try to get you hyped up and thinking, you got to be in some kind of trance or some kind of ugh to hear from God, you're always going to try to seek an experience to hear from God, but sometimes God is speaking to you simply by what you're going through or simply through the word of God or simply by a quickening or simply by a trusted voice or simply by your conscience.

God is speaking all the time. The question is, are we listening? Hopefully, that's what you learned over the last seven weeks is that everywhere you move, everywhere you turn, everywhere you go, as a Christian, God is speaking to you. The question is, are you listening? Because if you're confident that God is speaking to you, always rejoice. Always pray without cc, give thanks. In all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Let's pray. Lord, thank you that over the last seven weeks we've been able just to dissect your word and learn about how we hear you.

My heart's desire. Your heart's desire is for us to commune with you regularly, always. It doesn't have to be some big ordeal, some big show. It's simple. Sometimes it's a whisper. Sometimes it's through the earthquake or the whirlwind. Sometimes it's through your words. Sometimes it's through the Holy Spirit. Sometimes it's through the inner conscience. Sometimes it's through trusted voices. I just pray that the awareness of hearing you has been elevated over the last seven weeks. Help us to learn how to live in the simplicity of a daily walk with you. Help our relationship with you, not to be circumstantial, but help it to be consistent.

Jesus, you demonstrated to us while you were on earth that you were never in a hurry was walked. Help us to have that type of pace in our relationship with you. Not to be in a hurry, but to always walk, and as I'm saying that, I'm also asking that you would hear your people and that you would answer them and that they would hear we give you name, the praise, the glory and the honor because you're worthy of it. Could you stand to your feet all across this place? I think it would be appropriate to end this series in a moment of worship. Just a couple minutes. If you don't have to leave, I asked you not to leave. Just give us two more, two or three more minutes just to seal this word, seal this series and our hearts through worship. So if you could just bow your heads, close your eyes, lift your hands as a sign of surrender and just openness, creating just physically a funnel, but spiritually open to hear from God through worship.

Tim Rivers
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Hearing God, Week 6