Hearing from God

Photo by: Ron Cobbs – Hearing from God.jpg

Yesterday evening, while I was worshiping, I had a powerful impression to write on this topic.  I reviewed my previous blogs and saw that they were on a similar topic.  While looking at my notes, I noticed that God wanted to say more.  Look at the previous blogs titled “Hindered Prayer” and “Answers to Prayer”.  Apparently, this is part 3 of a series.

Have you ever wondered about truly hearing God’s voice? Going further, have you ever wondered why you don’t hear God’s voice? I have learned that God talks all the time.  You must learn how to hear His voice.  I want to repeat that statement.  You must learn HOW to hear HIS voice.

Let me ask you a question: “As soon as you wake up in the morning, do you ask the Lord first what things you need to get done?”  Oh, most folks scroll through their messages on their Cell Phone first before saying a word to the Lord.

Ok, now for the nitty-gritty.  Why are you not hearing God’s voice?

I. You are not seeking Him.

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NKJV) “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Some of us are not seeking after God because we don’t want to hear what He will say.  We believe it is like when we were little kids, going to our parents and asking for that brand-new, shiny bicycle, and our parents kept telling us, “No!”  Or maybe we don’t seek after God because He may ask us to give up something that we enjoy doing.  (Getting deep, huh?) My point is that we don’t seek God because of what we think He will say.

Your lifestyle has gotten to the point where you are too busy for God.  All of us are busy.  Some of us are so busy that the only time we think about God is Sunday morning at Church.  Be honest, how many of you are genuinely seeking God daily? God will never overpower your free will.  If you don’t want to seek after Him, He won’t make you come to Him.

II. Unconfessed Sin

Yes, I mentioned this in the other blog, and it is worth repeating.  God goes silent when we have committed a sin and haven’t dealt with it.  I’m not referring to your sins before becoming a Christian.  I’m referring to the sins you commit “while” living the Christian life.  God is Holy, and committing sins grieves Him and the Holy Spirit.  You can’t tell yourself, “I will just do more good works to compensate for that one bad thing I did.”  No. You must deal with it.  Confessing your sins is NOT ONLY telling God you’re sorry or making excuses why you did it.   Confessing your sins is saying the exact words that God says about you.  For example: “Father, I have sinned against you by doing ___________.”  When God used Nathan to confront King David with his sin, King David did not make excuses.  Right after Nathan spoke exactly what God told him to say to King David, David immediately confessed. (2 Samuel 12:13).

God loves you very much and has made provisions to deal with your sin through Jesus Christ.  Your good works cannot erase your sins.  Only Jesus can remove your sins. Confess your sins to God and ask for forgiveness.  He wants to forgive you. (1 John 1:9)

III.  The way you treat your Spouse.

Here is another item mentioned in the Hindered Prayer blog.  This topic is very lengthy, but I will be direct.

• God commanded Husbands to love their wives. God knew that wives have a special need to see, feel, and experience love.  Love for a wife is like water and sunshine to a plant.  Wives do not operate on “…I told you I love you on our wedding day, so if anything changes, I’ll let you know.”  If God told husbands to love their wives, He knew that men struggle with effectively “showing” love to their wives, and they need to work on it. (1 Peter 3:7). Men, let me repeat this.  If you don’t treat your wives correctly and show love to your wife, YOUR PRAYERS ARE HINDERED!  Which also means you pipeline in hearing God is blocked!
• God commanded Wives to submit and respect their husbands. The quickest way to shut down a man is for a woman to disrespect him publicly and at home.  Wives, if you are calling your husbands a bunch of names behind their backs. Stop it immediately.  Speaking negatively about him will never bring the positive things you desire.  You need to speak life into him, not tear him down.  Yes, he is not perfect.  So stop trying to change him.  If you turn him over to God, I promise you, God knows how to change him.  (Ephesians 5:21) Women, if you are having issues submitting to your husband and you are disrespecting him.  YOUR PRAYERS ARE HINDERED!  Which also means you pipeline in hearing God is blocked!

To repeat: God gets quiet when you mistreat your spouse.

IV.  Unforgiveness

This is one of the most dangerous items.  The reason I say it is the most dangerous is that we will live our lives thinking everything is okay, without realizing that we haven’t forgiven someone from the past.  Jesus was very clear about unforgiveness.  If you don’t forgive others, then God will not forgive your sins.  In the most popular model prayer, Jesus mentioned forgiveness twice!  Matthew 6:12, and Matthew 6:14.  Unforgiveness blocks the communication pipeline you have with God.  And if you don’t resolve your unforgiveness, God will judge you with the same measure of judgment you are exuding towards others.

If you are going to the throne room of God, seeking Him, asking for your needs, but you still have issues with so-and-so over there, God will be silent. When it comes to unforgiveness, it is always your turn to take responsibility for fixing it.

V.   Lack of Obedience

Do I need to discuss this in detail?  If God tells you to do something, and you haven’t done it, or you’re avoiding it, He will go silent.  You are praying, “Lord, I’m seeking you, and please tell me what you want me to do.” God is thinking, “As soon as you do the other thing I told you to do 3 months ago, I can tell you the next thing you need to do.” What we should pray for is for God to use the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the things we haven’t done and give us the ability to do what He has asked us to do.

If you truly have a pure heart (i.e., the right motives), God will remind you of ALL the things you haven’t done.  When God tells you to do something, do it immediately with passion.

VI.   Seeking to hear God’s Voice through Prophets

Have you noticed that prophets, prophetesses, and other special “so-called” ministers of the gospel are popping up everywhere? Why is that? Jesus warns during the end times to beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.  (Matthew 7:15) Jesus didn’t say that prophets will no longer exist.  In fact, if you keep reading, Jesus said in verse 16 that you will know them by their fruits. Meaning, look for their motives.

God made you, and He knows everything about you.  Don’t you think God knows how to talk to you?  If you believe that, then why do you seek prophets before seeking God? Perhaps, since you haven’t been seeking God daily, a crisis has arisen, and now you want to hear from God.  So you go to a person who you feel is more spiritual than you, hoping to get a word from God.  Sound familiar? A false prophet will tell you what you want to hear with an ulterior motive.  When God sends a true prophet to talk to you, their job is to confirm what God has ALREADY told you.  Many false prophets deceive people because they can tell you a couple of things about yourself.  That is because they are using demonic familiar spirits.  Demons study you, they watch you, and they know a lot about you.  Why? Because they are looking for your weaknesses and ways to deceive you.  A false prophet will say something like, “You are experiencing trouble in your mind.  You have issues in your heart, and God has a word for you.”  Now you are hooked and will listen to whatever they say.  Well Duh.  EVERYONE has troubles and issues they are going through.  Jesus clearly said, “In this world, YOU WILL HAVE TRIBULATION but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.” Jesus is saying, “Look, you’re going to go through hard times.  But don’t worry, I got this.  Just come to me! I’ll get you through!”

Please do not misunderstand.  If you are stuck or afflicted, God can choose to send someone to speak directly to your situation.  I’m talking about things that God has already spoken to your spirit, then He sends a messenger.  Remember, King David already knew that he had committed a sin and was trying to conceal it. So God sent the prophet Nathan to remind him (confirm) of the sin he committed.  Just to be clear.  I am not saying that Prophets do not exist today.  I am just pointing out that you should seek God first before running to anyone “saying” they are a prophet.  If you need help, God will send someone to you to confirm what He has already told you.

King Saul made a terrible mistake by seeking a witch because God had stopped talking to him, and the Prophet Samuel had died.  King Saul was in a state of panic and was trying to hear from God, but he didn’t know how.  So he went to a witch (medium) to talk to Samuel, who had already passed away.     You can read the whole story in the book of 1 Samuel, Chapter 28.

VII.  You are seeking God with the wrong Motives.

When you ask God for “stuff” that is not in accordance with HIS Will, He will go silent.  The bible is very clear regarding asking things according to His Will.  I know I’m bringing up the topic of prayer.  But Prayer is about communication with God.  You don’t go to God to give Him your list of needs and then walk away.  You go to God because you enjoy going to Him and because you have a relationship with Him.  Prayer is more than you talking to God.  It is also God talking to you.

Summary:

Are you starting to understand that God sees your heart?   He sees your motives.  If you feel that God is not speaking to you, check your motives.  Check to see if anything is hindering or blocking the pipeline, causing God to be quiet.  God wants to talk to you, more than you will ever know.  God wants a relationship with you, and you can have an intimate relationship with Him.

I learned this a long time ago, and it has stuck with me for years: You know the voice of who you spend the most time with.  If your mother called you on the phone, you wouldn’t say, “Who is this?”  You immediately recognize the voice of the person because you have spent time with them.  God wants you to recognize HIS voice.  So take the time to spend time with Him so that you can hear His voice.

Be Blessed!

Ron

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