John 10:27
How Can I Hear from God?
Last week, I began a message that had several points, but it centered
around one question, "How Can I Hear from God?" By hearing, I do not
mean the voice God uses for salvation or for some other major turning
point in our life. I mean, "How can I hear from God to know what to
do in a particular matter? How can I hear from God daily to direct
me? Can I have regular, consistent, reliable communication with God?"
This should not only be our quest. It should be our reality. What
does our text tell us?
John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know
them, and they follow me:
Jesus’ sheep hear Jesus’ voice. The Shepherd directs his sheep with
His voice. He corrects His sheep with His voice. He blesses and
comforts His sheep with His voice. I want that kind of a
relationship, and I pray you do as well.
Just as review, let me remind you the first three thoughts I gave
last week.
1. To hear from God, you must make it your personal quest.
2. To hear from God, you must draw near to God.
3. To hear from God, you must wait on God.
Tonight, I add these thoughts.
I. To hear from God, you must surrender unconditionally.
A. This is a precept every Christian must eventually understand
and accept.
B. God cannot be bartered with, bribed, or bullied.
1. There is a price to be paid for an intimate knowledge of
His will, His heart, and His mind.
2. The price is a completely sold-out and surrendered life.
a. I am not speaking of achieving perfection with God,
but I am speaking of holding nothing back with Him.
b. As long we have locked doors in our hearts, we will
have broken communications with God.
C. Once you have surrendered, you can expect God will to test
you.
1. You may have determined and even be attempting to live the
surrendered life for a time (perhaps a long time) but
still not hear from Him.
2. Why?
a. Because if you become discouraged and quit, you were
not truly surrendered to Him.
b. You were bartering with Him.
c. If we are willing to surrender only IF He speaks but
not if He does not, then we are not surrendered—
we were bartering.
D. Hear me.
1. Anytime we become discouraged and quit doing something
for God, we were doing it for the things we seek, not
because we truly love God and want to give Him
everything.
2. We want our surrender to be unconditional and eternal—
as unconditional and eternal as God’s love to us is.
3. Even if God never speaks to us, we must demonstrate our
unconditional love by complete obedience and love to Him.
II. To hear from God, you must listen with your spirit.
A. Not all that have heard from God heard God speak with a voice.
1. Some (most) hear God speak to their spirit.
2. In fact, I do not personally know of anyone who has heard
an audible voice from God.
3. If anyone heard God, perhaps young Samuel did..
a. Notice the Bible said God "called Samuel."
1Samuel 3:4 That the LORD called Samuel….
5 And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I;
for thou calledst me.
b. The prophets typically wrote, "And the word of the
Lord came unot…."
c. Perhaps Samuel and perhaps Moses literally heard from
God, but most hear through their spirit.
4. It was only under Eli’s tutorage that Samuel stayed still
long enough for God to finish the conversation with him.
5. But most will hear God speak through their spirit.
B. God’s communicaiton is no less real when God speaks through
our spirit.
1. Elihu correctly told Job that God does not always speak to
the ear but to the spirit within us.
Job 32:8 But there is a spirit in man: and the
inspiration of the Almighty giveth them
understanding.
2. The Apostle Paul revealed that same truth.
1Cor 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us by
his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things,
yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save
the spirit of man which is in him? even so the
things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of
God.
3. God had to teach one of the mightest of prophets, Elijah,
to listen with his spirit instead of looking with his
eyes.
1Kings 19:11 … And, behold, the LORD passed by,
and a great and strong wind rent the mountains,
and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD;
but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the
wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the
earthquake:
12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD
was not in the fire: and after the fire a still
small voice.
C. If I heard the voice of God, it happened only once in my
life and that is the day I was driving down Watermelon Road.
God said, "If you were my son, wouldn’t you want to do
what I wanted you to do?"
D. Regardless of how God speaks to you, two things will likely be
true.
1. You must verify what you think you hear with the Word of
God.
a. In fact, there are three things I would encourage
you to do when you think you have heard a word from
God.
(1) Verifiy with Scripture.
(2) Devoide yourself—as much as possible—of your
own desire.
(3) Get counsel from those you know to hear from
God
Pro 11:14 Where no counsel is, the people fall:
but in the multitude of counsellors there is
safety.
b. These will help you as you learn to listen for God.
2. You will probably process through different levels of
hearing from God.
a. God started speaking to my spirit in conviction about
things I needed to stop and start. I needed to stop
sin and start service.
b. At some point, God began to show me things that I
thought were very simple out of the Bible, but others
people did not seem to see.
c. And at an even later point, God begin to let me feel
His goodness, His love, His comfort.
d. And at a much, much later time, I began to hear God
leading in some important matters.
III. To hear from God, you must walk in the Holy Spirit.
A. This gets a little more complicated now.
B. To hear with your spirit is not always to hear with words
at all.
1. Sometimes to hear from God in your spirit is to be
directed by a peace from the Holy Ghost or its opposite,
an unrest from the Holy Ghost.
a. This is very hard to express.
(1) You might all of sudden have an idea come to you,
followed by a peace and calm and then an
assurance.
(2) Or it might be completely the opposite. Perhaps
you made a decision and feel completely restless
or dissatisfied about it.
(3) This could be God the Holy Spirit directing your
spirit.
b. Again—and always…
(1) …make sure you actions and thoughts are in
accordance to the Word of God.
(2) Do your best to die to self and self’s desires.
Do your best to seek only God and what God may
want.
(3) Seek other godly people give you counsel.
c. But having done so, know that God often speaks and
gives direction through the condition of our spirit
with the Holy Spirit.
d. When attempting to discern God’s will, you are looking
to find complete harmony with the Word and complete
peace in your spirit.
(1) If you do not feel that peace, back up to where
you did and start seeking again.
(2) Ours is a WALK in the Spirit not a LEAP.
(3) We do not want to go great distance or commit
ourselves to great projects without having many
steps along the way for God to grip our spirit
and turn as He desires.
2. Sometimes to hear from God in your spirit is to be
directed by silence and circumstances.
a. There is a mode, a pattern of living that the
Christian should be living.
b. It is not complicated. It is a three-point cycle.
(1) We love God above all else.
(2) We obey God in all things.
(3) We stay at what God told us until He tells us
something else.
3. Christians are to stay in this three-point cycle the
remainder of our earthly lives.
4. This three-point cycle is the life of walking in the
Spirit by faith.
5. How does this help us hear from God?
a. When there is an opportunity in front of you, you stick
to your cycle, waiting for God to give you a
direction to take advantage of it.
b. If you do not hear, you do not change course.
c. You say, "But I will miss the opportunity."
(1) If you do, you are hearing from God.
(2) you say, "But I didn’t hear anything."
(3) Exactly. God speaks through His silence just as
loudly as He speaks with His voice.
d. Get this thought
(1) God is a big enough God that if you are
listening, He can be heard.
(2) If you don’t hear from Him—while loving, obeying
Him, and listening for Him—then not hearing to
do something is God’s direction to stay on your
existing course.
(3) You may not like that because you thought you
ought to do something different, but that’s
you thinking.
(4) God’s silence directs as much as God’s voice
directs.
C. I have seen God…
1. …let some opportunities expire.
2. …direct a believer the long way around and come back to
the opportunity so they could take it.
3. …direct some past the opportunity they saw to a better
opportunity all together.
D. The reality is that if you are following God one step at a
time, you ARE hearing from God and you ARE where God ants you
to be until He speaks clearly enough that you can hear and
understand Him.
Can I hear from God? If you are part of the flock, you can; but you
have to let God speak before you can hear His voice and you have to
learn how to listen with more than your ears. Remember, God is a
Spirit and not only must they that worship Him, worship Him in spirit
and truth but also they that hear Him, but hear him in Spirit and
truth.
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