17, March 2002
Dakota Community Church
Hearing Voices
Introduction:
II. Statistics on Prayer
According to a poll on prayer for Newsweek (3/31/97), the following percentage said:
They ask for health or success for a child or family member when they pray -- 82
They ask for strength to overcome a personal weakness -- 75
They never ask for financial or career success -- 36
God answers prayers -- 87
God doesn’t answer prayers -- 51
They believe God does not play favorites in answering prayers -- 82
God answers prayers for healing someone with an incurable disease -- 79
Prayers for help in finding a job are answered -- 73
They believe that when God doesn’t answer their prayers, it means it wasn’t God’s will to answer -- 54
They don’t turn away from God when prayers go unanswered – 82
When you pray do you expect God to speak?
If prayer is boring maybe it’s because you are having one-way conversations.
How often do you listen for His voice?
Hourly? Daily? In crisis times? For difficult situations?
Does God speak to all believers or only a chosen few?
John 10:14-16
14"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me-- 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father--and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
Matthew 11:15
15He who has ears, let him hear.
- If the capacity is there the ability must be developed.
Matthew 4:4
4Jesus answered, "It is written: ’Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Have you heard the Story of the Doctor who comes to a split in the road on a Vermont back country lane? The road sign at the fork points both directions for the same town. Seeing a farmer beside the road he asked him, “does it matter which road I take to get to town?” The Farmer replies, “Not to me it don’t.”
It only really matters to you!
THREE IMPORTANT TRUTHES ABOUT HEARING GOD
1. Hearing God is your responsibility.
Deuteronomy 5:25-27
But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer. 26 For what mortal man has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived? 27 Go near and listen to all that the Lord our God says. Then tell us whatever the Lord our God tells you. We will listen and obey."
- Don’t fall into paralysis of analysis. Pick out your own pants.
- Don’t settle for substitutes like books tapes etc.
- We learn what matters to us.
- You don’t need to pray about clear Word issues. (Let this cup pass.) (I feel I should get a younger wife.)
Ill.
Before refrigerators, people used icehouses to preserve their food. Icehouses had thick walls, no windows, and a tightly fitted door. In winter, when streams and lakes were frozen, large blocks of ice were cut, hauled to the icehouses, and covered with sawdust. Often the ice would last well into the summer.
One man lost a valuable watch while working in an icehouse. He searched diligently for it, carefully raking through the sawdust, but didn’t find it. His fellow workers also looked, but their efforts, too, proved futile. A small boy who heard about the fruitless search slipped into the icehouse during the noon hour and soon emerged with the watch.
Amazed, the men asked him how he found it.
"I closed the door," the boy replied, "lay down in the sawdust, and kept very still. Soon I heard the watch ticking."
Often the question is not whether God is speaking, but whether we are being still enough, and quiet enough, to hear.
-- Phillip Gunter in Fresh Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching (Baker), from the editors of Leadership.
Revelation 3:20
20Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
Quote:
God cannot violate human freedom
He has created a race of persons with freedom to make choices
He did not create fleshly robots
Mechanical beings over which he has complete control.
He created human personalities made in many ways like himself
In His own image
With a spirit akin to His own
Beings with self-consciousness and self-determination
Why doesn’t God just make me good?
But that wouldn’t be goodness. It would be slavery
And God is not interested in slaves, but sons and daughters!
God will not overpower us into goodness;
He can and does work through every possible means
To get our attention
To call us
To woo us and win us
But he will never ravish us
Or violate us as persons
David A. Seamands, Putting Away Childish Things
2. God is speaking to you everyday.
Hebrews 3:7-8
. 7That is why the Holy Spirit says, "Today you must listen to his voice.
8Don’t harden your hearts against him as Israel did when they rebelled,
when they tested God’s patience in the wilderness.
Ill.
Ann Landers had this to say about the letters that she has received over the years. "I’ve learned plenty-including, most meaningfully, what Leo Rosten had in mind when he said, ’Each of us is a little lonely, deep inside, and cries to be understood.’ I have learned how it is with stumbling, tortured people in this world who have nobody to talk to. The fact the column has been a success underscores, for me at least, the central tragedy of our society, the disconnectedness, the insecurity, the fear that bedevils, cripples and paralyzes so many of us. I have learned that financial success, academic achievement, and social or political status open no doors to peace of mind or inner security. We are all wanders, like sheep, on this planet." (Saturday Review)
Ill.
A businessman who needed millions of dollars to clinch an important deal went to church to pray for the money. By chance he knelt next to a man who was praying for one hundred dollars to pay an urgent debt. The businessman took out his wallet and pressed one hundred dollars into the other man’s hand. Overjoyed, the man got up and joyfully left the church. The businessman then closed his eyes and prayed, "And now, Lord, that I have your undivided attention . . ."
Become spiritually fit: F – Frequency I – intensity T – time
God is speaking to you in scripture reading.
Eph. 5:25
25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, HOW?
(Take her to a movie, shut-up and listen, wash dishes, buy a gift.)
Phil. 4:13
13I can do all things through Christ [who strengthens me.
Try to jump over the building. There will be specific moments when this verse will be the Word for you.
God will speak to you about big things and small things.
- What College to attend.
- What house or car to buy.
- What job to apply for.
- How to handle a rebel child.
- Blocked toilet.
- Parking spaces.
3. Although God is infallible – We aren’t.
Relieve God of the embarassment of your mistakes by saying "I believe God is telling me to do this or that" instead of "God told Me to..."
Ezekiel 13:1-8
1 And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2"Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy out of their own heart, "Hear the word of the LORD!"’
3Thus says the Lord GOD: "Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! 4O Israel, your prophets are like foxes in the deserts. 5You have not gone up into the gaps to build a wall for the house of Israel to stand in battle on the day of the LORD. 6They have envisioned futility and false divination, saying, "Thus says the LORD!’ But the LORD has not sent them; yet they hope that the word may be confirmed. 7Have you not seen a futile vision, and have you not spoken false divination? You say, "The LORD says,’ but I have not spoken."
8Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Because you have spoken nonsense and envisioned lies, therefore I am indeed against you," says the Lord GOD.
Ill.
A retired couple is at home one day when the husband states that he’s going out for an hour. “While your out could you pick up some trash bags and a gallon of milk,” asked his wife. “No problem” he said. “Now write it down,” she said, “so you won’t forget.” “I won’t forget,” says the husband, “it’s in here (pointing to his head) and it won’t get out.” “Now dear, you have the habit of forgetting things. You better write it down.” “I don’t need to write it down, I won’t forget.” About an hour later the husband returns and plops down on the table two turkey subs. The wife, looking at the two subs, says to her husband, “I told you that you would need to write things down. See, you forgot the sodas.”
How to tell if it’s the shepherd or the thief:
- The thief threatens, intimidates, and uses fear.
- The thief orders and uses force and pressure.
- The thief is urgent and compulsive. (Do it now)
- God will never lead you to do wrong even to accomplish good.
a. He won’t tell you to steal to help the poor.
b. He won’t tell you to pray at work, unless you are paid to pray.
c. He won’t tell you to lie to protect feelings.
Conclusion:
"We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with our more important tasks, as the priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves, it is part of the discipline of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform a service and we do not assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God." --Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
I challenge you to allow God to interrupt your plans this week.
