Sermon Central
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Hearing In Your Belly Series
Contributed by Bob Ashcraft on Mar 27, 2001 (message contributor)
Summary: To build a relationship with God, we must hear His voice. He is speaking to us but are we really listening?
March 21st, 1999
The Voice of the Spirit Part I
“You Can Hear Better With Your Belly Than Your Ears.”
Deut 8:3 "So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.
To build a relationship with God, we must hear His voice.
God is speaking 24 hours a day.
His proceeding word is always available.
“God does not speak intermittently, we hear intermittently” – Steve Sampson
The church has become de-sensitized to the voice of the Spirit.
Heb 5:11 of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
Paul begins making comparisons of Jesus and Melchezidek.
He then digresses to complain of the low attainments of these Palestinian Christians.
Hard for me to state intelligibly to you, owing to your dullness about spiritual things.
So, instead of saying many things, he writes in comparatively few words.
Many in the church today have become dull of hearing.
The Spirit is unable to explain much
Hearing by your spirit man, not your natural man.
Rom 10:17 “Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God.” Word = rhema (spoken, revealed by the Holy Spirit, not a physical transaction)
We are triune beings.
We are spirit beings, we have a soul, we live in a body.
1Thes 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our body is world conscience.
It is corruptible and likened to machinery.
It is the five senses.
It operates in the physical realm.
Our soul is self-conscience.
It is our mind, our emotions and our will.
It operates in the intellectual realm.
Our spirit is God conscience.
It is the human spirit that communicates with God.
It operates in the spiritual realm. This is where God communicates to us.
Heavenly communication happens in the spirit realm.
Anything that God speaks to you, is not a product of your reasoning or thought processes!
1 Cor 14:14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.
Your spirit man resides deep within you.
John 7:37-38 37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
** Notice Jesus didn’t say out of your head will flow rivers of living waters.**
Your spirit is not in your head it is in your heart or your core.
It is not made up of physical matter.
It is of the unseen, not the seen.
Consider these two scriptures;
Prov 20:27 The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly. (KJV)
(belly – hollow, core, bosom, womb)
John 7:38 …out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Prov 20:27 The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the innermost parts of his being. (NAS)
Prov 20:27 The lamp of the LORD searches the spirit of a man; it searches out his inmost being. (NIV)
Prov 20:27 The spirit of a man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the inner depths of his heart. (NKJ)
Prov 20:27 The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all his innermost parts. (RSV)
Prov 20:27 A man’s conscience is the Lord’s searchlight exposing his hidden motives. (TLB)
The Communication of The Holy Spirit
1) The witness of the Holy Spirit.
Rom 8:16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
A witness is a ‘knowing’ or a ‘spirit connection’ that God is confirming an answer.
It is like a light bulb turned in our spirit man.
Can be descried as a tremendous lightness or flooding peace.
There is such a thing as a positive and negative witness.
Instead of feeling lightness or peace you sense a sudden heaviness or deadness in your spirit man.
Some describe this as sinking or evaporating feeling concerning what they are hearing.
