MS- God, are you there? It’s me.

John 10:27

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

BIG IDEA: God speaks to us through His Word and His Spirit.

This is a pretty compelling thing to say: God speaks to us.

Saying that God speaks to us does not equate with the natural order of how the rest of the world wants us to approach life.

The implications are pretty heavy.

The world wants us to follow our own truth.

Approach life as we see fit

But

If we believe that God speaks to us, wouldn’t we want to know what he has to say about anything and everything that is going on around the world, in our communities, and in our own lives?

I know I would.

So instead of seeking for truth from within ourselves or from other people, we Christians seek truth directly from God.

I want to answer a few main questions tonight:

How exactly does God speak to us?

What can I do to hear from God?

How do I know something is NOT from God?

How exactly does God speak to us?

Big Idea: God speaks to us through His Word and His Spirit.

There’s a really good chance that God is speaking to you, but you simply haven’t learned to listen to his voice yet.

John 10:27 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

We are his sheep and it’s important that we hear his voice and recognize it.

God’s voice can be through our thoughts, and it is very rare to hear God’s voice audibly.

His Word:

2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,”

The Bible is the very word of God.

Reading the Bible, hearing a sermon, where the words the pastor is preaching speak to your own life.

His Spirit:

-Each of us has received the Holy Spirit when we decided to follow Jesus.

The gifts of the spirit such as word of knowledge, wisdom, or encouragement are ways that God divinely inspires our thoughts with truth that we could not have known otherwise.

What can I do to hear from God?

Have you given your life to God?

Repent of your sins and confessing your faith in Jesus

Are you walking in obedience?

Seeking to live out the fruit of the Spirit actively

Are you praying?

On your own and with others

Are you actively reading God’s Word on your own and at church?

Read on your own

Read with a friend(s)

Learn from someone smarter than you

If you’re doing those things, I want you to approach those situations with the expectation that God wants to speak to you.

And if you’re doing all of those things but you still don’t feel like God is speaking to you in any way, come chat with your youth leaders or myself.

How do I know something is NOT from God?

Red flags:

It doesn’t line up with scripture.

Other spiritual leaders in your life disagree.

Proverbs 11:14 “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.”

Proverbs 15:22 “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.”

It’s confusing.

1 Corinthians 14:33 “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.