 Don't believe the lie that it's difficult to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. You can begin to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit with confidence and perfect clarity. I want to give you three biblical keys that you can apply immediately to begin hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit. Before I begin, make sure that you're subscribed to EncounterTV and click that notification bell when you do subscribe so that you can receive notices whenever we put out new videos. You can also follow us wherever you're watching us. Now, when I talk about keys to hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit, what I mean is keys to recognizing the voice of the Holy Spirit. Hearing God is not a skill, it's a sense. You see, when you were born, you were born with your hearing. You were born with your sight. Those are senses. Likewise, when you were born again, you were born again with spiritual senses, the ability to hear and receive things from the heavenly realm. You can't be taught to hear. You can't be taught to see. When a baby is born, you don't have to teach it to hear. When a baby is born, you don't have to teach it to see, but you do have to train the child to listen and observe, to sharpen those skills, to use those senses properly. Likewise, you can't be told what God sounds like. This is probably the question that's put to me most often. What is the voice of the Holy Spirit sound like? How does he sound? How does he sound? And some may say, well, his voice sounds like the still small voice of whisper. And that would be biblically correct. Some would say, well, it sounds like the rushing of many waters, and that too would be biblically correct. But you see, if I go based off of another person's experience, then I myself will never learn to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit. I'm just going to be listening for those things that sound similar to what they described. But because it's an individual experiencing that sense, it's a subjective description, and therefore it's no good. Even if they actually have heard God, them telling you about their experience and what his voice sounds like won't do you any good. Instead, you must learn to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit for yourself. This is, in fact, the most powerful truth I can give you concerning the voice of the Holy Spirit. And that is that you are already hearing the Holy Spirit. That's right. You're already hearing him. John 10, 27 says, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. My sheep hear my voice. In other words, if you belong to him, you already hear him. If you belong to the Lord, he's speaking to you. You hear his voice. He knows you and you follow him. The key, again, is recognizing the voice of the Holy Spirit. We see a biblical example of this, 1 Samuel, chapter 3, verses 1 through 10. We see a story here of how Samuel was called as a prophet. He heard the voice of God speaking to him, and he thought that it was his master, Eli. Turns out it was actually the voice of God. He was hearing God. He just didn't recognize at that moment that it was, in fact, God speaking to him. So again, it's not a matter of hearing God's voice, but of recognizing God's voice. Now, when it comes to recognizing God's voice, all you have to do is silence the other voices that are not his, and the one that will emerge will be the voice of the Holy Spirit. Again, you're already hearing him. He's already speaking to you. These are the three categories of voices that will speak to you in your life. There is the satanic, the secular, and the spirit. Any bit of information that you will ever receive. Any belief that will ever be communicated to you. Anything that you will ever hear will fall under one of these categories, the satanic, the secular, or the spirit. Now, the satanic directly contradicts the Word of God. The secular often contradicts the nature of God, but the spirit always speaks in harmony with both the Word and the nature of God. So how do you silence these other voices? How do you practice this recognizing the voice of the Holy Spirit? Because, again, hearing the Holy Spirit really is not something that I can teach you. And if anybody claims that they can teach you how to hear him, what they probably mean is that they can teach you how to silence the other voices in your life to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit already speaking to you. Again, that sense was something that you were given when you were born again. So here's the first key to recognizing the voice of the Holy Spirit and silencing those other voices. Number one, it's the Word. John 14.26 says, But when the Father sends the advocate as my representative, that is the Holy Spirit, He will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. If you're serious about hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit, then you will be serious about receiving the Word of God. The Holy Spirit reminds and He reveals. What does He remind you of? What does He reveal? He reminds you of the Word. He reveals the Word, the truth. How is He supposed to remind you of a truth that you never received from Scripture? How is He supposed to partner with you in remembering what God has spoken in His Word if you yourself are not intaking the Word? Being in the Word familiarizes you with the voice of the Holy Spirit. Number two, silence and stillness. Silence and stillness. Silence is the practical side. Silence is the easier thing to do. Silence is the putting away of outer distraction. Matthew 6.6 says, But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father who sees everything will reward you. Here is an example of Jesus talking about setting the atmosphere, of moving aside distraction. Silencing again comes from removing outer distractions. So like turning off your cell phone or telling your loved ones that you're not to be disturbed at least for the time that you're spending in prayer. It's turning off the television. It's stopping the streaming service. It's making sure that your mind is focused on what God wants to say to you. So again, silence and stillness is twofold. Silence is the practical side. The putting away of outer distraction, the setting away of the atmosphere, the secluding of yourself, the communicating to others that you're not to be disturbed. And the second part of this second key is stillness. Psalm 46.10 says, Be still and know that I am God. Interesting that stillness precedes revelation. In the presence of God, we are told to be still. Psalm 37.7 says, Be still in the presence of the Lord and wait patiently for Him to act. Now on this key, silence and stillness, the easier part is silence. That's a matter of discipline. Whereas silence is the putting away of outer distraction, stillness is the quieting of the soul. And that's the more difficult part. The internal chatter, the internal chaos, the guilt concerning your past mistakes, the worry about your future, the sense of hurt that you might be feeling because of damaged relationships or harsh words that someone spoke to you. Or maybe a sense of your own inadequacy, possibly confusion about God and prayer and how to approach Him. All of the questions that we have concerning our spirituality, there's a lot that goes through the mind. Work and school and relationships and responsibilities and schedules and finances. It goes on and on and on and on. Our mind fills with chatter and our emotions are stirred in all different directions. How can you silence? How can you bring to stillness that internal chaos? Again, silence, the putting away of outer distraction, simple enough, put your phone aside, communicate to your loved ones, but stillness. Now that's the difficult part. But it is actually in the stillness that the flesh begins to die. That's why you can sometimes read the word, you can do ministry, you can enjoy a worship service, you can even watch a YouTube video like this. But the moment you go to pray, suddenly your flesh starts to squirm. Why? Because it's in the stillness that the flesh is destroyed. There's so much going on in our minds. And we recognize that there's an internal struggle. How do you silence the soul? Well, number one, it goes back to the word. If the word is in you, you have the word to meditate on. And when you meditate on the word, you receive revelation and revelation will always inspire worship. You want to bring stillness to the soul, worship Jesus. Turn your focus from the things of this world and place them on him. And in doing so, you will see the scripture is true when it says that will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. So number one is the word. Number two is twofold silence, the putting away of outer distraction and stillness, the quieting of the soul. Silence is practiced by discipline, that is setting the atmosphere. Stillness comes when we worship and meditate on the word. Number three, obedience. This is the third key to recognizing or hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit. Psalm 3723 says, the Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. The godly are the ones who are blessed by the direction of the Lord. Proverbs 3.6 says, in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. For every way you acknowledge him, there is a way that he will guide you. When you walk in obedience to the voice of the Holy Spirit, there is perfect clarity. Now, at this point, some might say, but I don't know what the Holy Spirit wants me to do. This is where it's important to understand that the will of the Holy Spirit is really clearly spelled out in the scripture. Live holy, live a lifestyle of prayer, be in the word, love one another, evangelize and so forth. The life of the Christian is described in the scripture. And God has given to us clear instructions that we are to obey in his word. So when you don't know what to do with those specific things in your life, where you should work, where you should go to school, where you should live, then always come back to the basics. And if you live the basics, that positions you to hear from God for the specifics. Obey the written word of God and the spoken word of God to your heart will become more clear. But obey as instruction because disobedience makes it very difficult to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. You see, some people want God to speak to them when they haven't done what he's told them. God will speak and not speak again until you've obeyed what he's already spoken. Why is God going to give you step two, three, four and five if you haven't taken step number one? Obedience brings clarity of mind. Obedience brings peace. Obedience brings wisdom. Obedience invites the guiding hand of God. Obedience helps you to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit. So number one, the word, the word, the word. Number two, silence and stillness and number three, obedience. Let me pray with you now. Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray that you would help that one to be a person who is sensitive to your voice. Father, help them to do the practical that you might do the supernatural. Let them obey your word that they might hear your voice more clearly. In the name of Jesus, we pray. I want you to say it because you believe it. Say amen. Well, that is it for the lesson. Here now is a question for conversation. What are some distractions that make it difficult for you to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and how can you begin to remove these distractions from your life? Let me know in the comments section right now. Here now are some comments from a previous video titled, God Wants to Give You a Sign. Morita Bo, our dear friend writes, Amen, thank you, David, for another great teaching. Yes, the word of God and encounters with God will always go hand in hand. They are linked together. Leslie Marie writes, I'm so happy you did a teaching on this. Oh, how I wanted this truth out there. Thank you, David, Stephen and the team. Your ministry is such a blessing. Orange Peacock writes, this teaching was awesome. God spoke to me through this teaching to let me know that it's okay for me to ask him for signs. Thank you, pastor, for this message and thank you, Stephen, for using your voice for the kingdom of God and not for the world. Catherine writes, I was so blessed to come across this message. This was exactly what I needed to hear. Keep preaching, pastor. And the final comment I'll read from this video comes from Pam Mays, who writes, Excellent word, thank you, David, for always drawing us back to scripture and showing us that experience is important, but it needs to be viewed through the lens of the word, praying for you and the team daily. Now, one more time before I say goodbye, if you're not subscribed to this channel yet, make sure that you don't wanna miss any of the content or the live streams that will help you to draw closer to the Holy Spirit. Make sure you're subscribed and click that notification bell when you do subscribe. You can also follow us wherever you're watching us. I wanna share a verse with you found in Hebrews chapter 13. It's gonna be verse 16. It says, and don't forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God. Whenever you and I make a sacrifice, a sacrifice that costs us something, whenever we do that, it's pleasing to our Heavenly Father. It brings joy to the Holy Spirit, especially when we give toward the gospel. God is pleased with our giving. You look at the production here, these videos that we create, the live streams that we do, the events, the in-person events that we host all around the world and the Holy Spirit School online. Think about the fact that we don't charge for any of it and we don't have to charge for any of it because of generous supporters like you who say, I wanna please God with my giving. You give through this ministry, not to this ministry. You give to Jesus, but through this ministry. So help us continue to do what we do. We can't do it without God speaking to His people to support the ministry. Help us today by giving a one-time donation and consider also becoming a monthly ministry partner. Go to davidhernandezministries.com slash donate to give a one-time gift. Go to davidhernandezministries.com slash partner to sign up as a partner and check out all of the monthly partner benefits over there at the website when you do. Until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God. Thank you for watching EncounterTV. Don't forget to subscribe and click the notification bell. Also, help us spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Make a one-time donation or become a monthly supporter by clicking on the donate link now.