FINDING THE VOICE OF GOD

1 John 4:1; 5:8-9; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2Tim. 1:7-9

1 John 4:1 “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

(1 John 5:8 NIV)  the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.

(1 John 5:9 NIV)  We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.

(1 Tim 4:1 NIV)  The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

(2 Tim 1:7 NIV)  For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

(2 Tim 1:8 NIV)  So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God,

(2 Tim 1:9 NIV)  who has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,

Introduction

            There is a spirit of truth and a spirit of error.

(1 John 4:6 NIV)  We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

            John said that we are to test the spirits. Think about the spirit world for a minute. There is good and there is bad. Evil influence and evil impulses. Satan works through our thoughts. He deals with us in the realm of our spirit. A Christian must be able to discern these spirits or voices. Let me try to enlighten you. Satan does not appear to us in a red devil’s suit with a long tail and horns. The Bible describes this angelic being as an angel of light.

            So what is our test? 1 John 5:7,8 reads “the Spirit, the water, and the blood: these three are in agreement.” Or to put it another way, whatever voice you hear, whatever impulse or influence you feel, there must be agreement or harmony with the Word of God.

            Consider with me for a moment the spirit world. Think about all the voices in the air. Cell phones, radio waves, etc. There are dimensions of this world that we cannot see with our natural eye. We must discern the voice of God amidst all the clutter and the spirit of this age. To explain what I’m speaking of, I refer to the experience of Elisha when he and his servant were surrounded by enemy soldiers. The servant was fearful and was in panic. But the prophet prayed and said “Oh God! open his eyes” and God pulled the curtain of this dimension aside for a moment and there standing by each of those soldiers was an angel with a sword.

I.                   THE SPIRIT OF ERROR (1John 4:6)

A.    Antichrist

(1 John 4:3 NIV)  but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

1.      Lawlessness

(2 Th 2:3 NIV)  Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.

(2 Th 2:4 NIV)  He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

a.       A failure to live by the rules. The school shooting in Colorado last week illustrates an example of what I’m speaking of. Men become a law unto themselves.

2.      Iniquity i.e. rebellion against divine authority

a.       The Old Testament story of King Saul in 1 Samuel 15: 1-26 illustrates this very well. His attitude was one of calculated rebellion and it cost him his kingdom.

b.      This is a subtle and deceptive spirit that will bring rejection and defeat in our relationship with God. Remember our marching orders: He is our Lord! We march to his beat. We have surrendered all to follow Him. Trust and obey for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

c.       In one of my pastorates, there was a man who told me: I teach my children not to listen to the preacher, form your own conclusions about God…Then end result of this thinking is that this man lost his children to the world. One of them became a homosexual.

B.     The spirit of the Pharisee (Matthew 23: 1-39)

1.      Legalism (V.4) The put heavy loads on men’s shoulders. There was a time in my ministry when I thought that the length of a woman’s hair or the way we dressed was a mark of spirituality. In error, I placed heavy burdens on people; many could not bear them. This is known as legalism.

2.      Why did they do this? (verses 5-12) “Everything they do is done for men to see”

a.       This does not mean that the Christian has no restraints. There must be enough of God in us that will cause us to dress and conduct ourselves as Christians. WWJD

b.      Hypocrisy (v.13)

C.     The critical spirit

(Mat 7:3 NIV)  "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

(Mat 7:4 NIV)  How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?

(Mat 7:5 NIV)  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

1.      How is it that you can see a thing so small that it can float in a sunbeam? Because you are looking for it? This spirit is self-destructive. It hurts the one who is critical. It is a twisted mentality that says you can build yourself up by tearing someone else down.

2.      This is a spirit of error that must be defeated and put out of our heart. We must bring it under submission of the Holy Spirit.  How?

a.       The first step is humility. We face our own needs. Then we practice looking for the good in those we met. If we seek, we shall find.

b.      Second step is found in Romans 15:1 and Galatians 6:1

(Rom 15:1 NIV)  We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

(Gal 6:1 NIV)  Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.

D.    The Pharisee spirit wants to convert others to their way of thinking. Matt.23:15

1.      Not happy to be in error themselves, they want others to follow.

2.      V. 16: He calls them blind guides  They major in minors and minor in majors.  V. 23 They are very careful to subscribe to their rules, but leave out things that are more important, i.e. justice, mercy and faithfulness. Then Jesus uses humor and says you strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

3.      Their emphasis was on the outward appearance, but they were dead inside. Jesus didn’t negate everything they believed, but he said, first clean the inside, then the outside will also be clean. V. 25

II.                THE SPIRIT OF TIMIDITY  (Fear-KJV)     (2 Tim. 1:7-9)

A.    Some of our greatest battles will be mental.

1.      Somewhere I read that over one-half of hospital beds are filled with people with emotional disorders. Another word is psychosomatic or real illness and disease brought on through excessive stress and anxiety.

2.      Dr. Donald  Tubesing, an educational psychologist, likens stress to the tension on a violin string. If the string is too taut, it snaps, but if it’s too slack it won’t make music.

a.       He is saying that a certain amount of stress can be productive, but if it becomes extreme, it can be destructive.

b.      Ask yourself these questions:

(1)   Do little things irritate me?

(2)   Do I have trouble sleeping and wake up tired and irritable?

(3)   Do I worry a lot?

(4)   Do I feel trapped?

(5)   Do I constantly complain?

(6)   Do I frequently snap at those I love?

(7)   Do I suffer many physical symptoms?

B.     Anxiety and Depression

1.      This condition is a natural result of excessive stress and worry. The dictionary defines worry in this way:

To strangle, choke, or suffocate. To torment with annoyances, care, anxieties. To plague, pester and bother.

2.      Some people inherit this trait or either their parents teach it to them. When you grow up in that type of atmosphere, it is only natural that you, too, will be that way.

3.      Sometimes it is caused by real physical disorders. When we are sick, our imagination can run away with us. There have been times in my life that I thought I was having a heart attack, but it was stress.

a.       There was the preacher who went to the doctor. He was going to resign his church; he didn’t feel well at all. The doctor said, your problem is not your church. Your trouble is in your liver.

b.      An example is found in Elijah’s life (I Kings 18. 19)

(1)   A prophet of God, overwhelmed with depression. Notice when it set in. It came on him immediately after a great victory on Carmel. Jezebel threatened and he began to run. He finally stopped for he realized that he couldn’t win by running, so he waited on God.

(2)   Look at some of the traits:

(a)   He wanted to escape from ordinary associations.

(b)   He prayed for death

(c)    He lost his confidence in the promises of God.

(d)   He assumed an attitude of rebellion

(e)    He accused God of being unfair, and unwise.

(f)     Then he was tormented by the feeling of guilt, which seemed beyond his control.

III.             THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH (1 John 4:6)

There is an answer to all the voices of negativism and doubt that plague our mind.

A.    Spirit of obedience and trust

1.      Instead of adopting the spirit of this age, i.e., rebellion, disobedience, critical attitudes, anxiety, etc., Let us grasp the true spirit of submission to His Lordship and complete trust in His Word.

(Heb 2:1 NIV)  We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

(Heb 2:2 NIV)  For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment,

(Heb 2:3 NIV)  how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.

2.      Maintain a teachable spirit. Be a true disciple, i.e., one that seeks to learn through the discipline of teaching a submission.

B.     The Spirit of Holiness

(Rom 1:4 NIV)  and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

1.      The spirit of the Pharisee causes us to trust in ourselves: that we are righteous. The spirit of holiness recognizes the One who makes us Holy.

2.       He is all my righteousness, I stand complete in Him I worship Him.

3.      The word holiness means set apart, separation, sanctification.

(Eph 4:22 NIV)  You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;

(Eph 4:23 NIV)  to be made new in the attitude of your minds;

(Eph 4:24 NIV)  and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

4.      True righteousness and holiness. I can see myself as God sees me. The critical spirit is taken away, my crutches of hyprocisy are gone. In its place is an attitude of kindness and gentleness toward other people. The legalism falls at the foot of the Cross and I now see the truth of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone!

C.     The spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline (2 Tim. 1:7-9)

1.      Become more interested in others, their problems and needs and your troubles will fade in the distance. Someone has said, When I get a man out of trouble, the hole he leaves behind is the grave in which I bury my own troubles.

2.      The spirit of power (Acts 1:8) “you will receive power when the Holy Ghost comes on you..” “greater is he that is within you than he that is in the world.

3.      Jesus gave us good instruction about the cares of this life in Matthew’s gospel

(Mat 6:25 NIV)  "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

(Mat 6:26 NIV)  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

(Mat 6:27 NIV)  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

(Mat 6:28 NIV)  "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.

(Mat 6:29 NIV)  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

(Mat 6:30 NIV)  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

(Mat 6:31 NIV)  So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'

(Mat 6:32 NIV)  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

(Mat 6:33 NIV)  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

(Mat 6:34 NIV)  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

4.      The Spirit of Love

a.       There is no power greater than the spirit of love. Not the word eros from which many use the word. Among other means, is an act of possessing.

b.      But the love that is spoke of here is the agape. Love that comes from God. “God is love’ “For God so loved the world (John 3:16).

Conclusion: Among all the voices that are crying out for us, let us shut out those voices of error and unrest. Learn to trust Him who holds all in His Hands. Seek first the kingdom…Phillipans 4:6(Phil 4:6 NIV)  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.