WHOSE VOICE YOU LISTEN TO?
WHOSE VOICE YOU LISTEN TO?
BIBLE PASSAGE: 2 KINGS 18:25, 30; 19:29-37
Picture taken from Google
Lesson Prepared by: Krisha of
Solomon’s Wisdom FB page
Lesson ideas taken from: https://blog.kcm.org/
OCTOBER 04, 2020
LESSON KEY VERSE
My sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
JOHN 10:27
INTRODUCTION:
Our bible passage for today is about the King
Hezekiah and the king of Assyria named, King Senaccherib. We have read how the
king Assyria gave doubts to king of Israel telling these words, “Am I now come up without the Lord against this place to
destroy it? The Lord said
to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it” (2 Kings 18:25). Did God really say these words? And he urged the people of Israel not to
trust king of Israel for his words about Yahweh. 1 Kings 18:30 says, “Neither let Hezekiah
make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us,
and this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria”.
He showed evidences of their victories against neighboring countries and no
doubts they would win in Israel as well; this is what king of Assyria was
pointing out. In line with Israel’s situations, we can say that really in this
world we can hear different voices and sometimes we don’t know to whose voice
we should listen to.
Our lives can sometimes feel like constant noise—voices from every side—influencing the way we think and feel. But, in the midst of it all, there is one voice we need to hear the most—the voice of God.
When
you’re seeking the answer to one of life’s challenges, do you ever wonder if
you’re hearing God’s voice, or if it’s just your own voice? Maybe you’re hoping
to hear from Him, but you don’t want to get it wrong and make a bad move. Do
you need to hear Him today about your finances, your children, your marriage or
your health?
There is good
news—God is speaking to you all the time. In fact, A.W. Tozer said, “It’s the nature of God to speak.”
He wants to have fellowship with you, and He wants you to hear Him—all the
time.
God
has promised to lead His children by His Spirit and enable them to know His
voice. That means you can learn to know exactly what the Spirit of God is
saying to you about every situation. You don’t have to go
through life blindly making decisions or relying on your own abilities.
When
you learn to tune in to God’s voice, it won’t be an occasional event but an
everyday part of life. That’s why, in the New Testament, Jesus said, “He who
has ears to hear, let him hear,” 15 different times.
We
can learn to hear God!
If
you’re longing for certainty in your fellowship with God, here are four ways to
know if you’re hearing God’s voice:
LESSON OUTLINE:
1. CHECK YOUR RECEIVER (JEREMIAH 29:13)
And ye
shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Have you ever tried to watch
television or listen to the radio without turning it on? Of course not! You
already know that if you don’t turn on the receiver, you’re not going to hear a
thing. When you do turn them on, you fully expect to hear something!
So, how do you check your
spiritual receiver? The one way to know if your spiritual receiver is turned on
is to answer this question:
Do
you expect to hear from God?
Some people say, Well,
God just doesn’t talk to me. But here is an important truth: even if you
don’t feel like God speaks to you—He does. In fact, He’s speaking to you right
now. But, if you aren’t expecting to hear from Him, you haven’t even turned on
the receiver!
Now, let’s be clear—He
isn’t going to scream, yell and demand that you pay attention. He is always
speaking to you, but He speaks in “a still small voice”. 1 Kings 19:12 says, “And after the
earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a
still small voice”. So, to hear Him, you have to tune in and
listen carefully. Another way to describe the way we hear God’s voice is
through an inward witness.
What
is an inward witness?
God doesn’t communicate
with us the way we communicate with one another. He communicates from His
Spirit to your spirit, and then your spirit communicates what you hear to your
mind. That is what we call an inward witness. It is very similar to a thought
or a prompting. It’s very subtle and requires a closeness with God and regular
practice to hear it more quickly and clearly.
That’s why the more time you
spend with the Lord and the more you practice tuning in to His voice, the more
it will become a voice that “thunders in marvelous ways”.
Job 37:5 says, “God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which
we cannot comprehend”.
How
do you come to a place where you know whether it’s you or the Lord?
Certainty in knowing that you are hearing God’s
voice comes to the person who is united with Him. 1
Corinthians 1:17 says, “But he that is joined
unto the Lord is one spirit”. United means
“joined,” or “in union.” It doesn’t apply to someone who is not living
for God. It applies to whomever seeks Him diligently, spends time fellowshipping
with Him through prayer, and obeys the commands in His Word.
A receiver who is intact and ready to tune in to
the voice of God is one who is expecting to hear from Him and is willing to
learn to know His voice.
2. FIND HIS FREQUENCY (JOHN 10:4)
One kilohertz (khz) is equal to 1000 hertz. Like hertz,
kilohertz is used to measure frequency or cycles per second, one khz is equal
to 1000 cycles per second (electro magnetic waves. You don’t understand, right?
Ha,ha; I’ve just mentioned this to know that the frequency is needed for us to
hear properly.
There was once a time when you had to work to tune in to a
program on the radio or television set. You had to find the right frequency.
You never questioned if it was broadcasting—you knew it was—but you had to do
your part to find the frequency and tune in.
How do you locate the frequency God uses to speak to you?
Most often, we miss His frequency because we’re tuned in to hear
some huge revelation; when, in fact, He is giving simple instructions. That’s
what He will do when you first begin to hear from Him—and He will continue to
do this for the rest of your life here on earth. Obedience in the simple things
is very important to God—it reveals the willingness of you heart.
So, if you’re waiting for God to send you out to part the Red
Sea, you may be missing what He’s saying to you right now—which might be to clean
out your closet or stop watching certain television shows or spend more
time with your children. He will talk to you about the small things in your
life that you need to change—adjustments you need to make. He will begin to
deal with you where you are, which most often involves helping you walk in
God’s best by getting rid of things that are holding you back.
God wants liberty and freedom for our lives, and that begins
with training. He teaches us how to be led by the Spirit. But, if we
disobey these promptings in the little things, we won’t graduate to the bigger
assignments. Sometimes, the small things He asks of us may seem unimportant or
involve giving up things we think we enjoy. But to reach a level of intimacy
with God where we hear His voice and have launched us into new places in the
spirit, obedience must become a non-negotiable in our lives.
That’s why Matthew 18 tells us to become like little children—which
means not to be high-minded and think we’re all-knowing. To find God’s
frequency, you must be willing to hear His voice in the small things.
3. LEARN TO DISCERN HIS VOICE (JOHN
10:27)
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they
follow me:
(Insert an audio about how sheep hear their
shepherd).
If your spouse or closest friend calls you on the
telephone, do you know it’s them before they tell you? Most likely you do! But
how? Because you’ve spent so much time with them, the sound of their voice and
their way of saying things has become well-known to you—easy to recognize.
The same is true when it comes to our
relationship with God.
If you want to get to a place where you don’t have
to wonder whose voice you’re hearing—yours, the devil’s or God’s—you need to
spend time with the Lord. A lot of time. But, if you keep your mind and your
heart full of the things of this world, it will be difficult for you to
differentiate between the Spirit of God and your own thoughts. That is the
definition of a carnal mind—one that has not been renewed by the Word of God.
The more time you spend with Him, the more certain
you’ll become about hearing God’s voice. It isn’t just time talking to Him,
though. We learn His voice when we listen to His voice. That’s why in Matthew
17:5 He said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye
him.”
4. LINE IT UP WITH HIS WORD – THE BIBLE
(2 TIMOTHY 3:16)
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and
is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness:
One sure way
to know if you’re hearing God’s voice is to line up what you hear against the
Word of God. God will never tell you to do, think or say anything contrary to
His Word. If you have a thought and you don’t know if it’s God or not—you can
look it up in the Bible and settle it right away.
The Spirit
of God will only tell you to do things that will give you a more abundant
life. Every change He tells you to make is designed to bring blessing
into your life and minister grace to you. So, He isn’t going to tell you to
refuse to forgive someone or spend money frivolously, or anything else that
doesn’t match His Word.
God always
agrees with His written Word, and His Word always agrees
with Him. In fact, Psalm 138:2 says I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise
thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified
thy word above all thy name. That means God has put His Name
on His written Word the way we would put our name at the bottom of a contract.
He has given us His Word as a covenant and signed it in the Name of Jesus, by
the blood of Jesus. Since God cannot lie, there is no way He will ever do or
say anything contrary to that Word. He has absolutely joined Himself to it
forever.
God trains
us to recognize His voice through His written Word. He uses it to tune our
spiritual ears to what is real so that we can easily recognize a counterfeit.
When you’re
trained to hear God’s voice in His Word, the devil won’t be able to sneak
deceptions in on you. When he tries to razzle-dazzle you with some
religious-sounding voice that says, “I love you, my son. But it’s just not my
will to heal you at this time,” you won’t buy it. You’ll rise up and say,
“That’s not the voice of God. That’s a lie from hell because it doesn’t agree
with the Word that says, ‘By His stripes we are healed’” (Isaiah 53:5, NKJV).
To live in confidence
that you are hearing from Him, you need to have a knowledge of His Word
continually in your heart. And you do this by drawing near to God (James
4:8) “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you…” That’s your
part—to seek Him. God’s not going to run you down. Your part is to diligently
seek Him. That involves spending time in the Word and in prayer. And whatever
place you give Him in your life, the Spirit of God will fill it up for you.
The best
part about hearing God’s voice?
You
won’t just avoid counterfeit voices—you’ll be given access to secrets and
knowledge that will make you the head and not the tail (Deuteronomy 28:13). In
Jeremiah 33:3, He says, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and
mighty things, which thou knowest not.” All you have to do is pursue a
life in which you hear the voice of God, heed it and walk into a victory you
never thought possible.
When you
check your receiver, find His frequency, learn to discern His voice, and line
up what you hear with His Word—hearing God’s voice won’t be an occasional
event, but a lifestyle. And when someone asks you, “What is the Spirit of God
telling you today?” you won’t hesitate for a moment. You’ll know exactly what
to say.
CONLUSION:
From
Pastor Dave Coop’s illustrations:
My
uncle at one time was a piano tuner. Even though he has an excellent ear for
music he still carried a tuning fork to ensure that what he heard come from the
piano was in tune. By comparing what he heard to the pitch of the tuning fork
he could tell if the note was on or off. The Bible is like that tuning fork. We
hear different voices, but even though we may have been saved for years we
still must always compare what we hear to the tuning fork of the Bible to
ensure we are not heeding the voice of the stranger. If we will study and
meditate on the word of God, we will know it is the Father’s voice, for the
same Holy Spirit that inspired the Bible is the same Holy Spirit that lives
within us. Like the two disciples travelling on the road to Emmaus the Lord
will reveal Himself through the scriptures. Luke 24:27 says, “And beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things
concerning himself”. Jesus tells us that if we search the scriptures, we
will find they testify or support what He says to be true. (John 5:39 says, “Search
the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they
which testify of me”.
We
hear different voices, but even though we may have been saved for years we
still must always compare what we hear to the tuning fork of the Bible to
ensure we are not heeding the voice of the stranger.
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