Do you really want to hear the voice of God?

The Voice of God and Democracy

The Spirit of Truth and the Voice of God

"For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world: 

to bear witness to the truth. 

All who are of the truth hear My voice."  The Lord Jesus.

"When He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth."  The Lord Jesus

"The Spirit is truth."  The Apostle John

One way to hear and speak the very words of God is to have an unwavering uncompromising unconditional commitment to the truth.  

Hear only the truth.

Speak only the truth.

Now by truth, I mean the word of God as affirmed by the Lord Jesus Christ, who Himself is "The way, The Truth, and the Life."  I don't mean simply being "brutally honest."  Nor do I mean "just the facts."  I mean "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God."

I mean the one and only truth, by which everything and everyone else is wrong if he or she disagrees.

How can we know and speak this truth?

God.

As it is written, "God is light, and in Him there is no darkness.  No.  No darkness.  At all."

God is truth and the truth. 

Simple right? 

Obvious, right? 

Then why all of the disagreement, denominations, opinions?

In heaven, will there be denominations or opinions?  Then on earth, there should be unity in mind and perception.  Jesus taught us to pray, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." 

In heaven, there is absolute truth:  God Himself.  Jesus Himself.  The Spirit Himself.  As it is in heaven, so it should be on earth.  Everyone in heaven hears and knows God's voice.

Do you want to hear and know the voice of God? 

Do you want to be a Spirit listener?

Jesus tells you how; this is what He says:

"For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world:  to bear witness to the truth.

All who are of the truth, hear my voice."

All who are of truth hear God's voice.

All who are of the truth:  Hear God's voice.

Are you spiritually desperate? (Part 2)

This is what the Spirit is saying to the spiritually desperate:

"If life is knowing Me, then death is My silence.  I am life, says the Spirit.  Live.  Trust me.  And I'll show you who I am.  Jesus is Lord.  Amen."

***

Without the Spirit, two things are desperately lacking in our lives:

1. The truest most trustworthy friendship.
2. The truest most trustworthy guidance.

THE SPIRIT IS OUR ONLY TRUE FRIEND
Think about genuine connections in your life.  How many are there?  Even with your very best friend on earth, there are times of separation or disconnection.  These are even necessary.  But with the Spirit, you are indwelled by the very best friend you will ever have.  God is love.  The Spirit is God, therefore, the Spirit is love.  You are indwelled by Love, and as it is written, Love never fails.  The Spirit alone is our truest and most trustworthy friend.  And being the most trustworthy, He is our only true guide.

THE SPIRIT IS OUR ONLY  TRUE GUIDE
Who amongst your wisest friends is never wrong and always knows what to do with your life?  Who knows why you were created, or where you should be in your life's journey and destiny?  Wise people give good and wise principles, or even good advice, but never perfect advice for you or me.  We need our Creator.  The Spirit is our Creator, as it is written, "The Spirit of the Lord has made me, the Breath of the Almighty gives me life."

The Spirit is our truest most trustworthy friend and guide...unless we think we're ok without him.

Are you spiritually desperate?

"On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, 'Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.'  By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified."  

John 7:37-39

About 20 years ago, I came to a point of desperation in my life, a point where I desperately needed to hear from God.  I used to listen without question to my pastor, but during this time something happened that changed everything.

I began to hear the voice of God for myself, 

and what my pastor was telling me didn't match what God was saying.

I felt devastated.

Though it seems obvious, at that time I never considered that my pastor may not being hearing from God on a given occasion, especially an occasion that directly involveed my life and not his. 

During this time in my life, hearing from God was a matter of life and death for me, a matter of my identity and destiny as I knew it at that time, because everything I'd hoped and dreamed and lived for had failed me.  

I had nothing but the voice of God.  

I had no one by the Spirit of God.

That's how I became a Spirit listener.

Through many hardships, mistakes, trials and errors, I learned that I needed to know God's voice for myself, so that I would know when my pastor (or any other believer for that matter) was speaking from God or was simply speaking from their own opinion.  This is true for me, you, and every believer.

Every believer in Christ can now hear the voice of God.  This is the privilege and birthright of every one who believes in the Lord Jesus:  young and old, rich or poor, Jew or Gentile, full time minister or home-school teacher.

But in order to Spirit listen, we must feel our desperate need to listen.  

As the Lord Jesus said, we have to be spiritually thirsty to receive His Spirit.

Are you spiritually desperate?

A Call To Spirit Listeners (Part 3)

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you received from God?"  The Apostle Paul

What is more important than God in us?  Who is more important?  Is there anything else more worthy of our thoughts, focus, and purpose?

If you believe in Jesus--

The Holy Spirit is in you.

The Holy Spirit is God.

Therefore, God is in you.

If we really believed that, how could our lives ever be the same?

We often think of how awesome it would be to have Jesus Himself with us like the apostles did.  I'm sure you've heard this before or read it before.  But it's worth repeating, hearing again, and reading again.  Jesus Himself said it was better for Him to leave so He could send us the Holy Spirit.  How could that be better to men who had been with Jesus Himself, in the flesh, for 3 whole years?  The only way it could be better is if the Spirit of Jesus Himself, the same Jesus they were with for 3 years, was not only with them, but in each and every one of the 12 apostles.  They would have their own "personal Jesus" in them, if I can say that reverently.

So it would be like having Jesus with each and every one of us all the time, instead of Jesus being limited in time and space, only in Israel, where people have to crowd him and press him to get near Him.  The real Jesus, in each of us, all the time.

To make this real to me, I often imagine if Jesus were sitting right next to me...say, on my job.  How would that affect how I work? 

If Jesus were with me, in the flesh, I'd just want to do whatever He said.  Whatever.  He.  Said.  How could I come up with better ideas or plans than Him?  My job (and my life) definitely wouldn't be a democracy if Jesus, the Lord, is with me.  I'd just do what He said. And there could be nothing at all better than that.

After I imagine this, I realize that I am actually in this situation.  Jesus is actually with me all the time by the Spirit.  All I have to do is follow Him, just like He said to the 12 when He called them.  He still says this today by His Spirit to all who want to be His disciples:

Follow me.

If you long to follow the Spirit no matter the consequences, like the 12 apostles followed Jesus, then you are a Spirit listener.

Let's begin our journey. 
Let's follow the Spirit of Jesus together. 
Let's be Spirit listeners.

Tell me your passion for this in the comments.

A call to Spirit listeners (Part 2)

So what Spirit are we listening to?  Who is He?  And how do we know Him?

Before we look at who He is, let's first look at who He is not:

He is not the Universe, or you, or me, or creation, or everything, or nothing, or the all, or whatever we think He is.

He is God, The One Who is Who He is, The Creator of everything and everyone.  The Spirit of God the Father, The Spirit of God the Son, the Spirit of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.

This is the Spirit I am listening to, and I am seeking to listen with you, if you are listening to the Spirit of the Only True God.

How do I know?  And how can we know together?

1. The Spirit always acknowledges and honors the Lord Jesus:  honoring who He is--the Son of the Living God, and what He did--Jesus died for our sins, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven.

2. The Spirit gives Jesus' followers power to bear witness to who Jesus is--convicting unbelievers and carnal believers of sin, and encouraging spiritual believers in the knowledge and likeness of Christ, uniting them in this pursuit.

3.  The Spirit always brings about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Key words--love, peace, and self-control.  God is love, therefore His motive is always love.  God is peace, therefore He never authors confusion or chaos.  And as it is written, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." The Spirit will never render you passive in mind or will.  Satan and demons will.  The Spirit will not.  Ever.

So what Spirit are we listening to?  Who is He?  And how do we know?

We are listening to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the only true God, and we know Him by the testimony of Jesus, by power as Jesus' witnesses, and the fruit of the Spirit that comes from yielding to Him.

.