Hearing the Voice of the Holy Spirit

In our world there are many different voices clamoring for attention.  Every one of them claims to know what is best for our lives.  These voices come in all shapes and sizes.  Some promote godly ideas and views and some promote ungodly/sinful ideas and views.  Each one is loudly fighting to be heard.  The enemy uses many different voices to capture our attention and to deceive us into falling into sin.

We must learn to hear the Holy Spirit.  How can we hear his voice above the noise of the other voices?

I.                    Turn off the competing voices.  We must tune out the other voices to hear the Holy Spirit.  He often speaks in a quiet voice not a loud yell. 1 Kings 19:9-13, There he came to a cave, where he spent the night. The Lord Speaks to Elijah. But the Lord said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Elijah replied, “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.” “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. 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. 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?”

We see here that God did not come in any of the bold demonstrations of his power, he came to Elijah in the still small voice.  Elijah could have been so distracted by the other demonstrations that he missed the voice, but he had learned long before how to turn off the other voices.  He heard the Word of the Lord. 

A.      Turn off the voice of this world.  1 John 4:3-6 “But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here. But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.”

There are many voices in our world that would try to bring confusion and deception.  We must have discernment in order to distinguish which voices belong to the Spirit and which belong to the world.

How do we know which are which?

1.       1 John 4:1 “Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.”  Test here literally means to put them on trial. 

a.       We must try them to see if they line up with the Word of God. 

b.      We must try them to see if they promote Jesus. 

c.       The Holy Spirit will never say anything contrary to God’s Word, nor will he promote anyone or anything other than Christ! John 15:26 “But I will send you the Advocate —the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me.”  John 16:13-14 “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me.”

d.      The voices of this world promote false philosophy.  They might include:

i.                     Pride

ii.                   Perversion

iii.                  Greed

iv.                 Envy

v.                   Pleasure

vi.                 Power

                                    Try every one against God’s Word, when you find them TURN THEM OFF!

B.      Turn off the voice of your will. This voice doesn't speak from outside but inside of you.  It is the voice of the old man, your sin nature.  At salvation you are dead to sin, however, that old man still lives in you.  He will rear his ugly head and speak to your new man, trying to get you to revert to your old ways. 

1.       Paul struggled with his old man.  Romans 7:21-24 “I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?”

2.       Our old man will be with us until we reach heaven, however, we can learn to identify his voice and turn it off.  Romans 8:11-13 “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.”

II.                  Tune into the Voice of the Spirit

A.      Be Attentive.  Often people don’t hear the Spirit because they are not listening carefully.  Just as children often miss what their parents are saying to them because they are not listening carefully, we often miss what the Spirit is saying to us.

Revelation 2-3 contains letters to seven churches.  These letters are very different in many ways, but one way they are all alike.  They are all warned to pay careful attention to the Spirit.  Revelation 2:7,11 17, 29; 3:6,13,22 all say, “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.”  Here we see God repeat himself word for word seven times.  Do you think he wants us to get the message?  List carefully to the Spirit!!!  We need to expect the Spirit to talk to us every day!!!

B.      Be Still.   We can hear the Spirit best when we are still. Of course he speaks when we are busy and active, but it is much easier to hear him when we purpose to be still and listen.  The Word admonishes us to be still.  Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.”  Psalm 4:4 (NIV) “Tremble and do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.”

C.      Be Patient. Remember that God is not working on human time.  He speaks in his time.  Far too often we lose patience waiting and give up before we hear from the Spirit. Often we get ourselves in trouble because we ask for direction, then before the answer comes we take matters into our own hands and do what we think is best.  I can tell you from personal experience, my ways are no way as amazing as God’s!

1.       King David understood waiting on the Lord.  He was anointed King of Israel at about 15,         and was not crowned King until he was about 30.  Psalm 13 (NIV) “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

2.       Isaiah teaches us about waiting.  Isaiah 40:29-31 (KJV) “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

D.      Be in the Word.  The Holy Spirit speaks to us as we ready the Word.  As we read he may say: “This is for you,” “Pay attention to this,” “Look more closely,” etc.  Every time we are in the Word we are positioning ourselves to hear from the Holy Spirit. We can’t complain about not hearing from the Spirit when we are not in the Word! 

                        Ephesians 6:17b “and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”                                      Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the                                   sharpest two- edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow.                         It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.”  We see here that wielded by the Holy                         Spirit, the Word is like a scalpel in the hand of a surgeon. We need to be in the Word                           daily to receive what the Spirit has to say.

                   E.       Be in church.  Titus 1:3 (KJV) “But hath in due times manifested his word through                              preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our                              Saviour.”  The Holy Spirit speaks to us through anointed preaching.