I want you to imagine you are getting ready to board a plane. When a pilot comes up to you and says, hey, I can save you some money, and I can fly you to your destination. You are reluctant, but you accept his invitation and go with him. So you guys are having a good conversation up in the air when suddenly he goes I can't fly in the clouds; I pass out. Now panic sets in because this stranger you reluctantly agree to fly with has a fear of flying thru clouds, and now he is passed out. You need to figure out what to do. Somehow you figure out how to get on the radio, and you come in contact with a freighter pilot flying, and what he does is start to circle and talk to you while he contacts air traffic control emergency services. Once he reaches them, you hear a soft, calm voice.
I'm John, and I'm here to help you. Now, this is important; you need to listen to me; if you don't, you will die. Do you understand me? You will die. Now I found your location, I can see you, but you can't see me. In about 6 minutes, you are going to hit a mountain. You must listen to me because you will run into the mountain and die if you don't. You need to know my voice because you will have other voices in your ear. So you need to listen to me. I will pause here because this part of the story is significant. So let's break this down. The mountain we can all agree that this situation is terrible. So let's look at the mountain as sin. One thing I learned on this earth in my 38 years is God gives us one way to follow him, and we choose the different ways in our lives.
Part of this is because we are born into sin, and it's who we are because we aren't perfect, and to branch off of that is because we have other influences that stray us from what God wants us to do. Now, what would you do in the story? Listen to John or the other voices you hear around you. The answer is easy right listen to John because you run into a mountain, but what if John talks in a whisper, I want you to follow me. That's quite right. That's how God can speak to us sometimes. God can talk to us in other ways, but do we pay attention?
I'm going to give a scenario and see if you can hear God. You wake up at 6:30, roll out of bed and rush around to get ready for work while getting the kids ready for school. You go to work, bust your hump till quitting time go, get the kids to go home, cook dinner, make the kids are doing their homework, and make sure they are showered and in bed by this time 8:00 so you go around and clean up the house and go to bed yourself and do it all over again. Oh yeah, I forgot one thing every chance you get during your day is texting on your playing games or Facebook stalking or watching TikTok. That sounds like a busy day. Now while you are doing that, God is talking to you. Would you hear him?
I wouldn't because what I described is my life right now. The only things I didn't mention are going thru the process of buying a house and my obligations to our church. Pretty crazy right? Don't get me wrong. I love my life, my crazy life. Here is the thing I left out a critical time that I do every day. Can anyone guess what it is? I slow down and spend time with God. For at least 10 mins a day, I dedicate time to God. Now it's in the morning right when I get up. And that is when I hear God the most. Now I gave that scenario because you have the same one. God is always with us, but do we take the time to listen? As I said before, God communicates with us differently, and I will give a couple of examples. Let's look at
Genesis 6:13
So God said to Noah, "I have decided to destroy all living creatures, for they have filled the earth with violence. Yes, I will wipe them all out along with the earth!
I believe it was an audible voice when God talked to Noah. What kind of audible voice? I don't know.
God also communicates with us in visions or dreams. Let's look at Genesis 15:1
15 Sometime later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, "Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great."
There are a lot of stories in the Bible where it tells us how God communicates with us. For example, we could look at Moses, Jonah, and Daniel.
God is everywhere and communicates with us every day. Do you listen to him?
Like it says in 1 Kings 19:11-13
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. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.
And a voice said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
Can you hear God's whisper? Can you see God's visions? I want to challenge you today. January 1st, everyone is making new years resolutions to go to the gym or stop drinking caffeine and find a spouse. How about we create a new year resolution to seek God's voice? I'm about to give you the tools to do this with me. I have found seven things we can do to seek gods voice.
Here are seven things to seek and hear God's Voice
1 Pray - You need to have a consistent prayer life. You need to go to your war room and pray to God
2 The word of God - We need to be in God's word, the Bible. The path he tells and shows you will not contradict the Bible
3 Inner Peace - When God speaks to you, your brain may be racing, but your heart and conscience will be at peace.
4 Wise Counsel - You need someone that has gone thru the same things you are going thru to help lead you in the right direction
5 Circumstances: God will manipulate and control natural circumstances to show what he
is telling you is from him.
6 Super Natural - God uses supernatural visions, dreams, angels, and burning bushes. Do not use supernatural happenings as the only means of confirming the purpose and ideas God may impart to you. Such happenings are rare compared to the total time of Biblical history.
7 Timing: When the six steps of confirmation above agree, you can be sure that God has spoken to you to confirm what He has revealed to your heart. But if you launch out before His perfect time dictates, you can fail miserably. You must continue seeking Him for the right moment to step out and act on that purpose.
Now that you have the steps, it's time to seek God's voice.