If you hear the voice of God!

There is a very real danger in our lives, spiritually and physically, that prevents us from entering into a supernatural rest. That is our inability to hear the voice of God in our lives.

There is a popular passage in 1 Kgs 18-19, where we see a confrontation with the prophets of Baal and Ashteroth. He confronts them at Mount Carmel. He gives the false prophets the first opportunity to call down fire from heaven, IOT light the altar before them. It gets to a point where panic sets in the false prophets and they begin to offer blood sacrifices from their own persons to entice their god.

1 Kgs 18:27 - We see Elijah mocks them saying cry louder, for he is a god and he must talking or pursuing or traveling on a journey or he sleeping, and you must wake him! Elijah says cry louder!

What we see here is Elijah on a proverbial physical high and a mighty victory spiritually. The issue with spiritual highs is eventually you must walk through a valley. A valley of baca, a valley of the shadow of death, a valley of achor. So Elijah calls down fire. Elijah beheads the false prophets, and Queen Jezebel finds and seeks to harm Elijah. She is mad.

We see a similar story with King Herods wife, herodius, who sought the head of John the Baptist on a platter all because he confronted their sin and told the truth. The truth of God creates confllict.

See, something about the truth and bringing darkness to light forces the enemy to come after us. If you are standing your ground and fighting for what holy and righteous, evil descends upon you like a plague of locusts.

So Elijah, coming down from this victory and spiritual high, begins to descend into a valley. We all know valleys. We were victorious, and now it seems like we are failing. We had prayers answered, and now silence. Scripture reveals him on the run from Queen Jezebel and fighting depression. He wanted to die. He wanted to give up.

I have experienced moments like this where we want to give up and give in. The only thing that brought Elijah out of his depression and his literal death spiral of wanting to die was the still, small voice.

We see in 1 Kings 19:11-12 that Elijah was told to behold as the Lord passed by him. And a great wind, a strong wind rent into the mountains, IOWs tore into the mountain. Scripture says the wind broke the rocks by its sheer velocity. The WOG says, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was fire, and the Lord was not in the fire, but after the fire, God’s voice, that still small voice, spoke to Elijah.

I believe God is trying to tell someone here right now that the darkness you are in is temporary. Elijah was in darkness but the voice of God brought him to behold God passing by. We was in the middle of the cave, but God brought him to the mouth so he can see. Sometimes, God wants us to see the effects of his presence before he speaks to us. Elijah was stuck in a cycle of despair and death. God is trying to tell you to walk out of that darkness into the light. Whatever situation, whatever hell is in your life right now. God is trying to tell you to behold!

The Lord God is going to do a work in your life, the wind tore into the mountain and broke the rocks — I believe that is God telling you that what you thought was permanent structure, a permanent problem, a permanent mess God is saying behold how I am going to smash the rocks in your life. I am here to tell you that God can remove, God can tear away, but you have to remember that God was not in the wind. The WOG is trying to tell you that the blessings God pours into your life are just blessings. God does not reside in the blessings. These blessings are not meant to become idols in your life.

After the wind was was an earthquake, God will shake the foundations in your life to get your attention, but just as surely as God shakes the foundations in your life - I believe God will shake the foundations of the enemy who comes against you.

But you have to remember that God was not present in the earthquake. I feel in my heart right now that God is not enthroned in the destruction of our enemies or the deconstruction of our mountains in our lives that overwhelm us and drown us.

After the earthquake, there was a fire.… Oooh....

I believe when the world tears into you and everything feels broken, God is trying to speak to you. When the very foundation of your life is shaking, God is trying to speak to you. When everything in your life is burning and you see a catastrophe, God is trying to speak to you in that still, small voice. He is saying that you have not been forsaken, and you are not alone, and though everything seems dark while you are walking in your valley. God is with you! God has not left you! God has not forsaken you!

There is power in that still, small voice.

The WOG reveals that it was only that still, small voice that brought Elijah out of his depression, to the mouth of the cave to behold the presence of God in Elijah’s life. In our darkest moments, only that still, small voice brings us into the light.

Open your Bibles to Hebrews 3:7-11

Hebrews 3:7–11 KJV

Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

In the book of Hebrews, the Holy Spirit is saying, “If you just hear his voice!” In a profound moment, the question that echoes today is still relevant to us, as the Holy Spirit has pleaded: If you will just hear his voice and harden not your hearts, as in provocation. IOWs, as rebellion. A profound burden “IF.” If you will just “HEAR” the voice of God. The God of the Most High! “I was grieved with that generation!” “So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter int my rest!

Hebrews 3:12 KJV

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

The reality is that when we harden our hearts with unbelief, we depart from the living God. Hebrews 3:19 “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”

But unbelief does not start with doubting, scripture reveals the Holy Spirit pleading if we hear his voice. I believe that unbelief starts when we stop hearing the voice of God in our lives, and when that happens, everything goes out of kilter. Like Elijah, we experience a death spiral! But the voice of God has not stopped speaking to us. Scripture say if we just hear. Just as we flail against God and harden our hearts, and unbelief grows, the opposite is equally true! God has not stopped speaking. Psalms 29 is a passage that speaks to me every time I read it. I remind myself why I am called because His voice is the voice over many waters! His voice glories in thunder. This psalm is known as Lord of the Thunderstorms.”

Oh, how prophetic it was for Christ our lord to speak and still the storms in our lives. His voice is powerful; His voice is full of majesty. Are you letting your Master’s voice echo in your life?

The voice of the Lord shatters cedars. The cedars of Lebanon were known for their strength and use in construction. IOWs, the voice of my God shatters the cedars, shatters the strongholds of the world that trap you, with walls that imprison you.

That still, small voice is the same voice that brought Elijah out of darkness to the mouth of the cave, and he beheld the Lord pass by him. It does not matter what the world brings, His voice shatters depression. His voice shatters prison bars. His voice shatters addictions. His voice shatters despair. His voice shatters the enemy’s grasp on your life. His voice divides the flames of fire. That fire that burns and threatens to envelop you, consume you, or destroy you! His voice divides the line of attack against you and in your life.

Brothers and Sisters, that means that you walk boldly through fire because the fourth man is by your side! He is before you and beside you. God encamps around you! His voice shakes the wilderness and uncovers forests! That means nothing, the enemy is standing is untouchable! God is no respecter of persons; just as he can shake the foundations in our lives, he can shake the enemy's foundation and bring everything to light! Whatever is hidden, he makes visible. Let me tell you this, My God shakes the enemy's territory! But you have to hear the voice of the Lor,d or nothing will change in your life.

“If you just hear his voice and harden not your hearts!”

We see this today by ignoring the burdens God places on our lives. We ignore conviction. We reject scripture. We prioritize materialism. We neglect worship. We justify sin. We resist forgiveness, or we resist forgiving others! We deny God’s existence, maybe not with our words, but most assuredly with our actions! We trust in ourselves and our understanding; we do not lean on God. We mock faith. We ignore the needs of others! Just as Israel stopped hearing God’s voice and hardened their hearts, it is so easy for us to do the same.

V.19 says the Israelites could not enter into His rest because of the unbelief!

In Hebrews 4:1 “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.”

The WOG gives us a promise: rest. There is a fear lest we fall short of that rest. Of that promise. There is a terrifying possibility that I or you will receive God's judgment, and we will forfeit our promise of rest!

Hebrews 4:2 “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”

IOWs, though some hear the word, it will not profit them because there is no faith mixed in. James calls these hearers of the word and not doers of the word! One of our greatest weapons against our circumstances, against the world, against the accuser of the brethren is walking in the power and authority given to us by the Holy Spirit, but before you can walk in power, you have to walk in faith! Are you walking in faith, brothers and sisters!? Do you know faith in your life?

*See, my kids will say they can taste the love cooked in the food at the house, but I promise you can tell a difference between a home-cooked meal and fast food! Fast food will kill you, and that is just what spiritual death looks like when faith is not present in your walk with God!*

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” I believe the Holy Spirit is speaking to you right now, but some of us cannot hear him. For whatever reason, we have hardened our hearts.

The reality is we live in a gospel hardened society where the word is preached, but there is no transformation in our lives. We place zero expectations on God for our circumstances to change and try to take it on by ourselves. If there is no expectation for God to move, I can promise you that you are in danger of a physical and spiritual death spiral. Stop moving and listen to God. Expect confirmations in your life from others. Pray for dreams. Pray for visions. Pray for discernment. Pray for revelation through God’s word.

“IF you would just hear his voice!” not in provocation, not in rebellion, not with a heart of stone, but a heart of flesh. Not in irritation or unbelief, but with hope and faith!

Hebrews 4:3–5 “For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.”

This is scripture revealing something to us, God is inviting you into the same rest that God entered into on the 7th day of creation. This is the same rest Christ bought for us on the cross and the HS is trying to warn you, trying to plead with you, trying to speak to you right now!

Hebrews 4:6 “Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:”

The WOG is saying it is impossible to enter into this rest with unbelief!

Hebrews 4:9 “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.”

Oh what a beautiful promise!

Hebrews 4:10 “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.”

IOT enter into the rest of God, you have to stop striving. Just as God ceased his works, so must we!

Hebrews 4:11 “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”

Labor means to work diligently. Biblically, laboring with faith is the cornerstone of living out God's promises.

Christ is that rest! Christ sits at his Father's right hand, interceding for us as our High Priest. The peace of Christ surpasses anything in the world and of the world. I want to point out that diligence is not the same as striving. You strive in the world with work(s). You strive against God. You strive against man, but when you are diligent for the Lord, you are about your father's business.

When you strive, you are scheming, plotting, and achieving, but with God, you diligently prepare your heart. It is impossible to strive and prepare your heart because with striving comes strife, but labor to enter that rest of Christ Jesus is a promise of God!

Hebrews 4:12“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

That word “for” is a conjunction. That means the three-letter word “for” connects v.11 to v.12 together. IOWS, We enter into God’s rest by submitting to the surgery of God’s word. The word of God represents the character of God. The WOG is living. The WOG is active. The WOG is quick. The WOG is powerful. The WOG is piercing. The WOG is discerning. That two-edged sword brings both healing and separation: life and judgement. If you disregard the WOG in your life, the WOG will disregard you before the Father.

The WOG penetrates so precisely and thoroughly into our inner being that it discerns and defines that obscure dividing line between soul and spirit. The Greek word for spirit is “pneuma.” Spirit can be described biblically as our spiritual life in relation to God. The Greek word for soul means psyche, and that is our innermost thoughts, emotions, desires, and choices that affect us and drive us spiritually!

The WOG awakens and strengthens His life in our spirit. The WOG exposes the self in selfishness, the soul in soulishness, and brings to light the conflict inside of us. BUT you have to submit to the piercing word of God in your life. You have to hear him! So that your heart is softened, changed, and transformed. Faith is the substance for things hoped for, but evidence not seen. Unbelief is the substance of hesitation, where doubt drowns out your destiny. Unbelief is the substance of fear wearing the mask of reason. Unbelief is the substance of unanswered prayers, spoken but never believed. Unbelief is the substance of prison doors, and where faith holds the key. Unbelief is the substance of silence in the face of a shouting promise.

“If you will just hear his voice and not harden your hearts!”

The reality when you harden your heart against hearing the voice of God move in your life is condemnation, judgment, forty years of wandering, and the promise made in wrath that you will not enter into that rest! Forty years in the wilderness sounds like a lifetime of sorrows..

Some of us know what a lifetime of sorrows feels like.

The Promise Of Rest Is Before You Now! This is your call!

Benediction

Hebrews 13:20–21 KJV

Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.