God is Speaking, Will we Listen?

Good morning! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. I hope all of you got the messages we sent out by email and by phone on Thursday afternoon letting everyone know we were canceling our Christmas Eve service due to the weather. If you somehow did not receive the communication and you showed up, I sincerely apologize for that. As the day began with heavy rains, strong winds, and even a couple of alerts on my phone about tornado watches, I simply didn’t want to ask people to come out in potentially dangerous conditions. I hope you were able to spend a safe and happy time at home celebrating the birth of our Savior.

As we look to the coming of the new year later this week, I wanted to begin preparing us as a church for tackling 2021 head on. I want to invite you to join me from January 11 to January 31, a total of 21 days, to focus on prayer and fasting with the purpose of hearing God speak to us as we start a new year. I hope our focus at the start of this year helps you be able to tune into Him better throughout all of 2021.

This might sound familiar to many of you, and that’s because last year we also had a focus at the beginning of January where I asked us to spend time praying and fasting as a way to set the tone for a new year. A few of you joined me last year and from time to time shared with me how the times you were having with God during those three weeks were meaningful to you. I want to challenge those who joined me last year to do so again, and to those who didn’t I want to ask you to consider joining us this time around. I wanted to start preparing us for this a couple of weeks ahead because in the past I’ve begun the emphasis on prayer and fasting the same day that I’ve asked people to join me, and I realize that maybe people need a little more of a “heads up” to pray and ask God if this is something He wants you to participate in.

A twenty-one day fast doesn’t mean that you don’t eat at all for twenty-one days. You can choose to skip one meal a day (I skipped breakfast one year, and lunch another year) for the three weeks. You can choose to fast from sunup to sunset once a week for three weeks. I know some people fasted from coffee last year, and others fasted from social media. I’ve heard of people who fasted from sugar, and others who fasted from TV for three weeks. Although the biblical model of fasting is primarily fasting from food, I know some people are not medically able to do that, so fasting from other things may be the way you can participate. The important thing about fasting is that we take the time we would normally use in that activity and use it to spend time seeking God, praying, and listening for Him to speak. If it’s only a time to skip a meal and occupy our time with something to distract us from being hungry, then we’re missing the point, and we won’t reach the potential of being able to draw close to God and hear Him speak that we are aiming for.

There are many reasons for us to have special time to focus on hearing God speak, but probably the most important one is that when we are practiced at hearing God, identifying His voice in our lives, and obeying what we hear, then we are much more likely to be able to discern what God wants from each of us individually and also what He wants from us as a group of believers serving Him and serving this community. We don’t have to guess at what God is doing, because God is telling us what He is up to.

If you have your Bible with you, please turn to John 10:24-30. In this passage, Jesus was in the Temple for one of their annual celebrations, and the people were divided about whether or not He was the Messiah. They had been looking for signs that would tell them when God’s Messiah would come, and they were speaking to Him and weren’t even sure if it was Him. Let’s read...

John 10:24–30 NLT

24 The people surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father’s name. 26 But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, 29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.”

Let’s pray...

In this passage, we see Jesus in the temple surrounded by crowds of people who are there to fulfill their religious duties. Many of these people were probably serious about their religion, but all they knew was how to follow a list of rules of dos and don’ts and all the rituals that Judaism required. They thought that being God’s people was something they were born into. “My parents are Jewish, and they worshiped at this temple, so I am a Jew and I worship at this temple,” they thought.

When Shannon and I were younger, we bought our first home in Sacramento, California. We found a realtor who helped us look for several months until we finally found a home we wanted and that we didn’t get outbid on. During that time, we became friends with Sandy and her family, and she became more than just our realtor. I remember one conversation we had with her where we were talking about faith. I had asked her about her faith, and she answered, “Well, I’m American, so I’m a Christian.” It reminded me of statements I had heard when I was teaching overseas and would ask people about their view of God and faith. Most of them believed that because they had been born into a certain culture or nationality, that determined their faith, and they also believed that all Americans were Christians. In their minds, ancestry, heritage, culture and faith all went hand-in-hand.

But as Christ taught and preached that “the Kingdom of God has drawn near,” it revealed something about true faith.

True faith is not based on heritage or culture, it is based on a relationship with God and with His Son, Jesus.

God had revealed Himself - His character, His plans, His standards of living righteously, etc. - throughout the centuries through prophets and their writings. They were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write what God wanted to say to His people. But these writings all pointed forward to God’s plan and to God’s Messiah, His Savior. Salvation was always intended to be through faith in this Savior.

In Romans 4, Paul explains how Abraham and David, and by inference all who were saved in the time before Jesus came, were saved by their faith in God and in God’s promise of a savior. He goes on to explain that all who are saved, Jew and Gentile, are saved by faith in Jesus. But faith in Jesus is not just believing some facts and statements, it involves relationship.

Jesus told the people at the temple who were asking Him to clearly state whether or not He was the Messiah that He had already answered their question, but that they refused to believe it because they were not His sheep. Jesus then defines those who are His sheep as those who hear His voice and follow Him.

Jesus defines His sheep as those who hear His voice and follow Him.

So if belonging to Jesus involves hearing and identifying His voice from among all the voices in our lives, then we need to make it a priority to learn to listen and recognize when God speaks to us.

What Do You Mean, God Speaks to You?

I remember a conversation I had with some friends was a Sophomore of Junior in college. We were sitting in the cafeteria, and there was a group of us who were all members of the campus Christian Fellowship club. All of us were faithful and active in the group, some even had positions of leadership. Somehow, we started sharing with one another ways that we had heard God speak to us at different times in our lives. It seemed like a normal conversation among Christians who were active and growing in their faith. But suddenly, one of the older and more mature guys in the group couldn’t take it any longer. He had been listening, and with a frustrated and almost angry voice he finally exclaimed, “What do you mean, you have heard God speak to you? I have NEVER heard God. How can you say God speaks to you?” After the shock of his statement wore off a little, the rest of us started explaining to Him how we had experienced God’s voice in our lives. That moment has always stuck with me, because the friend who had never heard God’s voice was well respected and considered one of the people in the group with a stronger faith, or at least he knew more about the Bible and about God than others did. I had always assumed that people who were followers of Jesus also knew how to hear His voice and experience His activity in their lives.

However, many people in churches all over the country have similar stories. They have never heard God speak to them, or if they have, it’s been so long ago that they have forgotten how to hear Him. There are probably people here in our church who can identify with this frustration. Let me as this question and you can answer quietly in your mind.

When was the last time you heard God speak to you in a way that you knew it was Him?

Some of you can say, “I heard Him this past week,” and others might be more like my college friend, you’ve never heard His voice, or it’s been so long ago that you don’t really remember it well. I’m not here to bash anyone, or look down on anyone, but I do want to call each one of us to a season of seeking God’s voice in a new and deeper way, whether you’ve never heard His voice, or whether you just need to hear Him more clearly. Maybe these twenty-one days of prayer and fasting are exactly what you need to take your relationship with God to the next level.

So as we approach this season of seeking God and listening to His voice, I want to give you some simple tools that I think will help you hear Him when He speaks to you.

1. Be intentional in listening for God to speak.

Occasionally, God may break through the noise and chaos of our lives and speak to us with an important message. God sometimes does this to call people to Himself when they are lost and they need a Savior, or when one of His children has walked away from Him and they need a tug in the right direction to return to Him. But men and women who are growing in their faith and maturing as followers of Jesus don’t get there by accident, they have learned to seek God intentionally, listen to His voice, and obey what He asks of them. Intentionally seeking God is a skill that grows with time, and hearing God is something that becomes more common and clear with increased practice. It’s work, but it is well worth the effort. Here are some suggestions about how to be intentional in seeking Him.

Set aside a time and place that is conducive to hearing god.

Approach your time with an expectation that God will speak to you.

Find a way to put off distractions and interruptions that creep in on your time with God.

beware of smartphones. Some people are in a season of life that is full of distractions (young kids, etc.) but carve out the time you can and don’t expect to have as much time as you wish… you can still have time with God.

2. Have a plan for your Scripture reading.

Don’t just read random passages of Scripture. Many years ago I heard a pastor explain the dangers of looking up random verses to figure out what God is saying. A person who was feeling guilty about some money he had come across dishonestly was desperately looking for God’s instructions on what he should do, so he randomly opened up to Matthew 27 and put his finger on a verse.

Matthew 27:5 NLT

5 Then Judas threw the silver coins down in the Temple and went out and hanged himself.

Troubled by this verse, he thought to himself, “This can’t be what God wants me to do. Let me try this again, maybe I’ll get a better answer.” So he randomly opened to Luke 10 and put his finger in the middle of verse 37… “Then Jesus said, ‘Yes, now go and do the same.’”

Randomly opening your Bible and seeing what is there is not a dependable way to hear from God. Instead, having a plan for reading and studying the Bible is a much better process for hearing God speak. Instead, we need to be reading the Bible in a systematic way. There are different reading plans that you can find that walk you through reading the Bible.

There are many devotionals out there that are helpful to people as they get started in developing a habit of spending time reading and listening to God. Those might be a good resource as you start to develop this habit. However, I firmly believe that the best way to grow in your ability to hear God speak is to spend time reading straight out of the Bible in a systematic and organized manner. The more you feed on God’s word, the stronger you become in your faith.

Shannon tells of how her older brother bulked up for football when he got to college. Her brother, Jeff, had played football in high school, and he left for his first year of college as a tall and lanky teenager. When he came home from Christmas break, Shannon was shocked at the change in him. You see, his coaches and trainers had told him he needed to bulk up and put on muscle, so he had spent the semester eating and exercising. In fact, Shan tells of how Jeff kept a refrigerator by his bed, and he would set up an alarm for 4 AM to wake up, eat a block of cheese, and go back to sleep. After several months of intense feeding and exercise, he had gained many pounds of muscle.

Now, I’m not telling you to set an alarm for 4 AM to gorge on Scripture and then go back to sleep, but I think that the same principle applies. We can spend three or five minutes reading a few verses or a devotional, and that’s better than nothing. But it’s even better when we spend 20 minutes, 40 minutes, or an hour reading, thinking about what we’ve read, praying through it, and listening for what we are supposed to do in response to what we’ve read. The more spiritual nutrition we ingest, and the more we exercise spiritually through obeying what God tells us, the stronger we will get.

One last comment about spending time reading. Reading books about walking with God does not replace reading the Bible. Like I said earlier, there are many great devotionals out there. There are other great books about following God. We sometimes use some of these books in our group studies. But as good as those resources are, they don’t replace the need for us to be reading God’s word directly for ourselves. Yes, God can use those books to encourage us, inspire us, and even speak to us at times, but nothing is as good as going directly to the source that those other books are written about.

Because Scripture is the way God most uses to speak to us, it is important that we have a translation of the Bible that we can understand easily.

Choose a translation of the Bible that you can understand easily.

Some of you may love the sound of the King James Bible, it may be what you grew up with and what sounds familiar to you. If you understand all the words the King James Bible uses and if each time you spend reading it you leave feeling encouraged and like you heard God speak, then keep using it. However, if you often get to the end of a passage and you can’t tell someone else what you just read using regular English words, you might want to consider finding a modern translation that you can understand better. The translations I use most often are the Christian Standard Bible (CSB), New International Version (NIV), and the New Living Translation (NLT). Remember, the Bible was originally written in Hebrew and Greek, but God speaks all languages, and more than anything, He wants you to know Him and listen to Him. A good Bible translation allows us to hear Him more clearly.

3. Don’t just bring requests and listen, also praise and thank God.

Remember that God wants a relationship with us, not just followers who stay at a distance from Him. When our times with God are limited to telling Him our requests and listening for His commands, we are limiting how intimate and close our friendship with God can be. When we praise and thank God for who He is and for the things He has done for us, we are reminded of God’s goodness and love for us, and of His greatness. This helps us see Him for who He is, and strengthens our relationship with Him.

A secondary benefit is that when we spend time praising and thanking God, our faith in God grows because we are reminded of God’s faithfulness in the past, which helps us trust Him for our future.

Finally, as you forward to this season of seeking God and hearing His voice...

4. Obey what you hear God say.

Obedience to God can be obedience to something specific He has asked you to do, or it may be to some of the commands He has given all of us in His word. When we are obeying what God has told us to do, we show that we are trustworthy and God continues to show us the next steps we need to take. When we disobey, however, God may wait for us to obey what He’s already told us to do before He entrusts us with more. On the other hand, when we know what God wants from us, but refuse to do it, why would God continue to show us what He wants from us if we are going to ignore it like we have ignored what He has already told us to do.

One of the things Jesus repeated was the principle that when we are faithful in small things He will entrust us with greater things. At first you may not hear God say great and challenging things to you. He often starts with giving us small acts of obedience, and as we prove faithful, He gives us bigger and bigger responsibilities. We might be seeking guidance for a big decision in our lives, but God might wait to reveal to us His will until we’ve shown that we are willing to obey him in smaller areas of our lives. If we can’t trust and obey God in a smaller area of our lives, how will we be willing to trust Him in a bigger area of our lives?

Obedience allows you to hear God more clearly, and God continues to speak to you and reveal His will to you as you obey.

Finally,

If you have never heard God speak to you, maybe God is calling you to move from someone who has grown up knowing about Him, to having a personal relationship with Him. It is never too late to become one of His sheep. This might be the year when hearing His voice becomes a reality in your life. If you want to know more about how to move from where you are now to starting a personal relationship with Jesus, please stay behind today as the others dismiss, or reach out to one of our leaders, deacons or to me by email or phone during this week. We will gladly help you in this journey.

Let’s pray.

Hebrews 13:20–21 CSB

20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.