Hearing the Voice of God
From The HeartPublish date: 01/04/2009
Foundation Scriptures: Romans 8:14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Romans 8:14 AMP
I. The sons of God are led by His Spirit.
- As a child of God, one of the greatest and most important things that you and I can learn and master is the ability to hear God's voice and to be led by the Spirit.
- Romans 8:16
- NKJV - The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
- AMP - The Spirit Himself [thus] testifies together with our own spirit, [assuring us] that we are children of God.
- Proverbs 20:27 KJV - The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.
- God will enlighten us; He will guide us; through our spirits.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:23 KJV - And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- I am a Spirit being—I have a soul—I live in a body.
- Your Spirit is instantly made a New Creation when you received Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
- Your soul is a work in progress.
- The difference between Spirit and soul:
- Hebrews 4:12 AMP - For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.
- 1 Corinthians 14:14 NKJV - For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.
- James 1:18-21 NKJV - Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. 19 So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; 20 for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
- You cannot receive the Word of God or the things of the Spirit of God while you are filled with the spirit of the world and yielding yourself to sin and uncleanness.
- Present your body to the Lord:
- Romans 12:1 NKJV - I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
- 1 Corinthians 9:27 NKJV - But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
III. The Number One way God leads us is through the Inward Witness.
- God does not lead you through your head - your thoughts - He leads you only through your spirit man!
- He leads you through an inward intuition.
- When God leads you in a direction, you might feel: a desire in your spirit toward that thing; a peace; a green light; or a go-ahead.
- When you are heading in the wrong direction God will restrain you, you might feel: a check; a red light; or be grieved in your spirit.
- 1 John 5:10 NKJV - He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.
- Romans 8:16 AMP - The Spirit Himself [thus] testifies together with our own spirit, [assuring us] that we are children of God.
- 1 John 3:24 NKJV - Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
- 1 John 3:14 NKJV - We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.
- Ezekiel 36:26-27 NKJV - I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
- Never put out a fleece.
- Judges 6:36-40 NKJV - So Gideon said to God, "If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said — 37 look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said." 38 And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew." 40 And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.
- The enemy can influence circumstances.
IV. Following the Inward Witness.
- Psalms 18:28 NKJV - For You will light my lamp; The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
- Isaiah 28:16 KJV - Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
- You can train your spirit and you can trust the inward witness of the Spirit to lead and guide you.