Hearing the Whispers of God

3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. 5 They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.”

God talks to each of us by name.

There are other voices speaking but the sheep don’t follow those other voices because they don’t know them. In our lives there are a lot of voices and we have to place ourselves in the place where we hear his voice and follow him. Next week, I will teach on How to Recognize Good’s voice.

Call wants us to turn off the other noise or voices, and hear his voice. In two weeks, I’ll teach how you can recognize God’s voice. God still speaks… there are some that think he hasn’t spoken since the disciples died… it doesn’t say that in the Bible.

If God doesn’t speak today, then the greatest disservice we could ever do to people is to tell them that they could have a personal relationship with God. Dallas Willard

God wants to have a relationship with you!

God isn’t always the God people make him out to be… he is not distant and critical… he is up close and personal… He love you and wants to speak to you. God loves you and wants a personal relationship with you.

You can see this in Jesus name…

Why God Speaks

Matthew 1:23 NLT

23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’ ”

Jesus nickname so to speak was Immanuel or God with us… a personal God. God is here and he wants to speak to you. So listen to what he may be saying to you today.

Why does God speak to us?

God speaks to facilitate friendship

God is your friend… if you are saved.

Exodus 33:11 NLT

11 Inside the Tent of Meeting, the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Afterward Moses would return to the camp, but the young man who assisted him, Joshua son of Nun, would remain behind in the Tent of Meeting.

… as one speaks to a friend… God is our friend and you don’t have to talk with him in King James. He spoke to Moses face to face.

I love to talk with him as I drive around or go walking… Just talk to him about whatever… about everything.

God speaks to give guidance

God sees down the road where we can’t see. Awacs Plane Like that plane, God sees what’s down the road

We might not like it when he gives us guidance… if we did, he would not have to correct us. He sees the end from the beginning.

When young people pass away… people go why?

Isaiah 57:1–2 NLT

1 Good people pass away; the godly often die before their time. But no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come. 2 For those who follow godly paths will rest in peace when they die.

It seems like it was early for us, but God was actually protecting them from something that they would have been into. When something doesn’t make sense, we have to learn to trust that God was doing something that we don’t understand.

God sees the end from the beginning.

Proverbs 3:6 The Message

6 Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track.

He will keep us on track.

God speaks to provide perspective

He speaks to provide a perspective that He has that you don’t have. We have our perspective, but God has the right perspective. It’s outside of what we can know. God wants to show us spiritual things that we don’t understand.

Did you know God knows more than you and I?

God wants to show us what He is doing

2 Corinthians 5:7 NKJV

7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.

God wants you to put listening to Him ahead of looking at what’s going on. Don’t just trust what you see.

Wisconsin Badgers football team was playing and loosing horribly. But the fans in the stands were cheering. Milwaukee baseball team was playing and winning and most of the fans had earbuds in and every time Milwaukee would score the fans would cheer. They were watching to defeat but listening to victory.

God wants you and me to listen to him while we see what’s going on here. He wants us to respond to what we are hearing, not what to what we see. As the body of Christ, we respond differently. We haver some things in our world that we see going on that look bad, but God is speaking to us in another realm that He wants us to hear. We can’t let ourselves be pulled into the ugliness of all that’s going on.

Esther - The culture she lived in was prejudiced against her race and was trying to kill them, and she talked to the king… she saw that she was put in that place for such a time as this...

Our culture is in bad shape. In the middle of all of this junk that’s going on, God has put the church… River Church to be salt and light in this dark world. We need to see a Harvest of souls… of hearts and minds.

So what does it look like. There are a lot of ways that God speaks… Loudly through thunder and storms… His word, audibly, situations, disasters… and he speaks in whispers…

The Whispers of God

This is a gentle nudging from God to prepared people. This is actually how he speaks the most. So we are going to look at the whispers of God.

Elijah had just had a huge victory fo the Lord and then in Chap 19, he runs from Jezebel and goes to hide. God calls him out… God comes and gets him and speaks to him…

1 Kings 19:11–12 NLT

11 “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.

He spoke in gentle whisper. We need to learn to hear the whispers of God.

1. He whispers encouragement

I think he does this all day long. When someone gets under your skin… steps on your last nerve, he is right there to encourage you. Look at what he says…

When you think you are out there by yourself, he says....

Romans 8:16 NLT

16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.

You are my child....

God’s Word is life giving…

Isaiah 55:3 The Message

3 Pay attention, come close now, listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words. I’m making a lasting covenant commitment with you, the same that I made with David: sure, solid, enduring love.

Listen to me… You will always receive life-giving, life-nourishing words here. We will not fuss and condemn… we will speak life. I’m not saying that God doesn't’ want you to respond at the altar… and repent from sinful lifestyles.

He says You are my child

We belong to him and he loves us. He know what you said last night… did last night… thought last night and he doesn’t kick you out of the family… He loves you. He sees you not as you are but as who you are becoming.

You are my child

You are my child I love you

Nothing you can do to change that.

Agape Love -

You are my child I love you I am so proud of you

God looks at you at the lens of who you will be.

2. He whispers warnings

He will give you a check in your spirit… a little voice in the back of your head…

example -

Acts 16:6–7 NLT

6 Next Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time. 7 Then coming to the borders of Mysia, they headed north for the province of Bithynia, but again the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there.

God was telling Paul, don’t go there… people want to kill you. Some of you need to hear this. You need to listen to the Holy Spirit and he has put Pastor Kathy and I in your life to help. Jesus did not heal & feed everyone. If he had, there would not have been anyone for Peter to heal.

We need to hear the HS speak. Some of you need him to stop your thumbs… Maybe you are about to post something you don’t need to post.

Maybe he uses this phrase on you ...

Don’t do it

Maybe he is telling you to get away from a relationship you are about to get into. Don’t date that person… don’t move in … don’t do it.

End the secret

That secret you have been carrying around that you hope no one ever finds out… Find someone to talk to. It will eventually destroy your life if you don’t.

James 5:16 NLT

16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

Get Help

Maybe the HS is telling you that you need to get some help…

Isaiah 30:21 NLT

21 Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say, “This is the way you should go,” whether to the right or to the left.

HS wants to direct you… I can’t tell you, but God can and does.

3. He whispers direction

Job, relationship, any decision… Involve him in the process. Ask God… let the emotion of the purchase pass.

Luke 2:27 NLT

27 That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required,

Acts 20:22 NIV84

22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.

I don’t know what God is telling you, but he will talk with you.

Maybe God is telling you to

Slow down

You are doing too much… and you are neglecting the things that are important.

Do it now

Maybe God is directing you to finally surrender to him… today.

Take the next step

We are working on some next steps. We will call one of them the Growth Track… We would like to offer different classes like Financial Freedom… Sharing your faith…

4. He whispers dreams

God will put inside of you dreams… A long time ago, God placed a dream in me to pastor… however it didn’t seem possible because I had gotten off the track he had for me… or so I thought.

Job 33:14–15 NLT

14 For God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it. 15 He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds.

I have never had a vision of the night… never remember dreams…

Acts 2:17 NLT

17 ‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.

God wants to use you and I to be a solution… to be light in the middle of the darkness.

Maybe God is telling you…

Go all in

Give God your best

You can…

Make a difference

If we can find God, Find Freedom, Discover our purpose that we can make a difference.

Speak to me Lord I’m open to hear

Samuel answered the Lord

1 Samuel 3:9 NLT

9 So he said to Samuel, “Go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went back to bed.

Are you ready to say, Speak Lord, your servant is listening.

We need to be tuned in…

Maybe when you go out to eat, the Lord may want you to encourage the waitress… he might want you to leave a BIG tip… He may want you to help someone with something at their house… to prepare a meal.

Speak to me Lord I’m eager to respond

John 10:27 NLT

27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

Pray -

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