Untitled Sermon (6)

Hearing God

1 Kings 19:11-13 NLT - “Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the LORD told him. And as Elijah stood there, the LORD passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. 13  When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And a voice said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

***ILLUSTRATION: Sound of RADIO STATIC

Why is it so difficult to hear God’s voice?

This is what it’s like when you’re learning how to hear God’s voice— Static/garbled noises

“God doesn’t think or speak the way I think or speak either.

If I want to hear Him, I’m the one who must change, not Him.” – Finochio

God speaking to us is on a DIFFERENT FREQUENCY—

we need to learn how to TUNE IN.

3 Things to Help You TUNE IN:

1 – FILLED W/ HOLY SPIRIT –

“God wants to share the deepest parts of Himself and His innermost thoughts with us. He does this through His Spirit by living inside of us.” – Bolz

If you are a Jesus-follower,

the Holy Spirit IS AT WORK IN YOU;

you’re SPIRIT-BORN;

but Spirit BORN

isn’t the same as Spirit FILLED;

God wants to FILL US

with His SPIRIT because

Holy Spirit is God’s FREQUENCY—

He’s the One Who makes the connection

2 – TUNE OUT

FEAR / DOUBT / INSECURITY

Holy Spirit is CONNECTING YOU to the FATHER – Why?

So you KNOW you have NOTHING TO FEAR;

You can know that you are Heavenly Father’s son / daughter;

You have the ABILITY to HEAR GOD speaking to you;

the fear of NOT HEARING Him speak to you is thrown out the window.

Holy Spirit is the One who helps us

SEE what God sees

HEAR what God hears

So we can SPEAK what God SPEAKS—to ourselves & to others to encourage them

DISTRACTIONS

WHIRLWIND / EARTHQUAKE / FIRE

The loud stuff / distractions of life

***PHONES / DEVICES

We’re like Elijah—we’re wanting or expecting God to speak to us in the loud, booming, excitement of ‘whirlwind, fire, earthquake’ when He is speaking to us in the still, small voice.

3 – TUNE IN by GETTING QUIET

To hear that still small WHISPER

Takes PRACTICE but not a lot.

NOTE: SILENCE from God

it isn’t rejection or Him mad at you;

it’s often His way of drawing us in CLOSER to Him

His whisper QUIETS / CALMS / STILLS us. 

God whispers because He wants us to GET CLOSE to Him

Start with ‘God I WANT YOU’

Not just a WORD from God or

the things God can GIVE / DO

We want HIS HEART

God’s heart for US is COMPLETE & PERFECT LOVE,

God’s heart is also FOR OTHERS—

To encourage them, speak strength to them;

1 Corinthians 14:1 - “Go after love like your life depends on it and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially that you might prophesy.”

Sometimes when life is crazy & noisy it’s hard to hear God speaking His love, hope, encouragement to us; we NEED EACH OTHER;

We are ALL BATTLING LIES every single day;

Sometimes we need HELP FIGHTING the lies

Sometimes we need to be REMINDED of WHO WE ARE

& that GOD IS FOR US, we’re not alone.

This is where getting a WORD from God – prophesying is so powerful

1 Corinthians 14 – that all may prophesy

Every Jesus-follower filled with God’s Spirit can get a word to encourage someone else;

When we share a WORD with someone its NOT to make US look awesome but to reveal how AWESOME JESUS IS.

PRACTICE:  God speaking to YOU or an encouragement for SOMEONE ELSE

Filter to run whatever ‘voice / word’ you hear:

Philippians 4:8 NLT - And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

TRUE – lines up with God’s Word; how God sees them, sees them thru His Son

HONORABLE – respectful; not revealing shame;

RIGHT – lines up with God’s standards; become more like Christ

PURE – things that are good to talk about

LOVELY - the best, not the worst; ‘what promotes peace rather than conflict’; friendly; kind;

ADMIRABLE – positive, constructive rather than negative, destructive

EXCELLENT - the fine, good things in others;

WORTHY of PRAISE – things to praise; things that bring praise to God