 So, if you're a believer who is struggling to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, or you're a believer who hears the voice of the Holy Spirit, but you want to hear him with confidence and clarity, I want to present to you biblical keys that are going to help you to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit with confidence and clarity so that you never doubt that you're hearing him again. You, as a born-again believer, do hear the Holy Spirit. You, as a born-again believer, do have the Holy Spirit. I think that sometimes, especially when it comes to the topic of hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit, we imagine that there's this elite group of Christians who are so special, who are so favored, that God talks to them while those who are not special and favored in that way are left without hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit. Or maybe we imagine that we have to work to have that connection with God to where we can hear him. Jesus already paid the price for that connection. You hear the voice of the Holy Spirit because you already are connected. In fact, I have a verse here. It's found in 1 Samuel chapter 3. I'm going to read this portion of scripture to you. Follow along if you have your Bibles. It's going to be 1 Samuel chapter 3. Look at what happens here. This is amazing. Chapter 3 verse 1 of 1 Samuel. And I'm reading it here from my iPad up in front of me. Meanwhile, the voice Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days, messages from the Lord were very rare and visions were quite uncommon. One night Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed. The lamp of God had not yet gone out and Samuel was sleeping in the tabernacle near the Ark of God. Suddenly the Lord called out Samuel. Yes, Samuel replied, what is it? Jump down to verse 5 now. It says, he got up and ran to Eli. Here I am. Did you call me? I didn't call you. Eli replied, go back to bed. So he did. Verse 6. Then the Lord called out again. Samuel, again, Samuel got up and went to Eli. Here I am. Did you call me? I didn't call you my son. Eli said, go back to bed. Samuel did not yet know the Lord because he had never had a message from the Lord before. So the Lord called a third time. And once more Samuel got up and went to Eli. Here I am. Did you call me? Then Eli realized it was the Lord who was calling the boy. Now this is interesting because his mentor probably should have picked up on the fact that God was speaking to Samuel in the first place, but he was spiritually blind. He was spiritually losing his hearing. In fact, the word of the Lord was very rare in these days. So in fact, they were spiritually deaf and blind. So he couldn't recognize in the first two instances that God was speaking to Samuel. Verse 9. So he said to Samuel, go and lie down again. And if someone calls again, say, speak, Lord, your servant is listening. So Samuel went back to bed. Verse 10. And the Lord came and called as before Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel replied, speak, your servant is listening. John 10, 27. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Why am I sharing this with you? Because perhaps one of the greatest truths in regards to hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit that I can give to you, the believer from Scripture, is that you already hear the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is already speaking to you. His voice, as I said, is not reserved for some supposed elite spiritual group of Christians who hear from him. Well, all the rest of us just have to wait to hear from God until they speak to us. No, you have the Holy Spirit, you can hear from the Holy Spirit, and he's speaking to you right now. In fact, many of you know what he is speaking to you deep within your spirit. In fact, many of you sense that conviction of the Holy Spirit, the correction of the Holy Spirit, he's talking to you. And so it's not a matter of learning to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. If you're a born-again believer, if you're an unbeliever, it's a different story. If you're a born-again believer, it's not a matter of learning to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. It's a matter of learning to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit. So when a baby is born, if it's born perfectly healthy, it can see and it can hear. No one has to teach that child that newborn baby to see and no one has to teach that newborn baby to hear. They're just born seeing and hearing. In the same way, when you are born again, you already see spiritually. You already hear spiritually. No one has to teach you to do that. You cannot be taught to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in that sense, because hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit is not a skill to be acquired. Please hear this, people of God. Hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit is not a skill to be acquired. It's a sense to be sharpened. The difference is that you already have that skill or that sense. Excuse me. You already have that ability. Well, no one has to teach a child to see. They must be taught to observe and pay attention. Well, no one has to teach a child to hear if they're born hearing. The child must be taught to listen. In the same way, you hear the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit abides within you. You are hearing his voice. You are hearing instructions. You are hearing revelation. He's talking to you right now. I don't mean that in the sense that because I'm talking to you, he's talking to you. No, I mean that in the sense that he speaks to you in your spirit right now. He's talking to you. He's saying something. So the key is not in getting God to talk. Who can get God to do anything that's against his will anyway? He speaks when he desires to speak. But the key is learning to silence all of the other voices. You know, there are really four voices that will speak to you. There's the satanic, which contradicts the Word of God. There's the secular, which contradicts the nature of God. There's self, which is driven by selfish ambitions, your own desires. And then there is the spirit, which aligns with both the Word of God and the nature of God. And so you, as a born again believer, have to learn to silence those other voices that try to speak to you. You know, culture is speaking to you. Family is speaking to you. Friends are speaking to you. Your own emotions speak. Your own mentalities speak. Demonic voices speak. Everything's coming at you from all different angles. In fact, when you get online, you probably have noticed that there are many different opinions on anyone given topic. You post anything online. Any opinion that you post is going to be rejected and combated and criticized, agreed with. And you're going to notice a variety of different opinions and mindsets that are expressed to the medium of social media that even when you put something that you would think is a simple point, you're going to start an argument if you make a stance on any one idea. And that's because there are messages coming at you from all different angles. And if you're not careful, you begin to become confused. You begin to wonder where you find your footing. You begin to feel like you have no foundation. You begin to second guess the Word of God, second guess the voice of the Holy Spirit, second guess your identity in Him, second guess your salvation, second guess that you're forgiven. It goes on and on what begins to happen in the world. So we have to stop complicating this. It really is simple. And I'm going to give you these keys right now. The first one is something you can implement right away. In fact, all of these keys are things that you can implement like today. Like within 20 minutes after, within 10 minutes after you close the stream up, you could be in a private place in your own prayer room and hearing from the voice of the Holy Spirit, but it has to come back to simplicity. Remember this, anything that is spiritual will be simple. I don't mean that it will be easy, but I do mean that it will be simple in that it will be clear. It will be basic. Anything that is religious is always complicated. It's complex. There are hoops to jump through. There are rituals to perform. There are protocols to follow. There are various different rules and regulations under which you must submit yourself. And I'm not saying that the Christians shouldn't live by God's rules. I'm saying that we must live by the Spirit and in living by the Spirit, we will fulfill everything God desires for us. So it has to come back to simplicity. Stop complicating it. Your own fears will complicate this. Your own overthinking will complicate this. Overanalysis will complicate this. Emotions and the things that we tell ourselves that somewhat contradict the word or outright contradict the word. That will complicate this. So let me give you the first key right here right now. Number one is silence and stillness. Be still. Write that in the comment section right now. Two simple words. Type it out. Be still. This will help you remember the first point. Be still. I'm reading the verse here from Matthew 6.6. 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. Now here Jesus is speaking to the religious people about the fact that many of them were praying to be seen by man. Context taken into consideration, we can extract the biblical truth that it's important that we seclude ourselves during times of prayer. Now this is not that secluding yourself gets God to speak. Rather it's that that seclusion helps you to put away distraction. Seclusion doesn't make God speak louder. Seclusion helps you to listen more carefully. To where now you can listen for those instructions, that still small voice, for those whispers of the Spirit. You can listen now to what he is saying to you without the distraction of the world around you. So when I say silence, I'm talking about outer distraction. When I say stillness, I'm talking about inner distraction. What's the difference? Outer distraction is the practical. I put away my phone. I turn off the TV. I stop scrolling through social media. I ask my loved ones, hey, can you give me a few minutes by myself just to seclude myself with the Lord and pray? Like my wife, Jessica, my daughter, Aria, they understand that there are times when I need private moments. And in those private moments, I spend time with the Lord. And that's not to be disturbed. Now if there's an emergency, of course, but for the most part, they respect that. And I respect my wife's private time with the Lord. I respect my friend's private time with the Lord. So you need to be connected with people who will respect that in the first place. But this has to do with the practical. And by getting myself into that place of silence, I've removed the distraction. By the way, that's why we close our eyes when we pray. Many times we think that we close our eyes when we pray because if we don't do that, we're going to get in trouble. That's not it. You close your eyes when you pray because it removes one of the senses. And in removing one of the senses, it removes some of the distraction. So you go away privately. You put away distractions of the world. Again, media and all of those things. And then you practice stillness. Remember, this is key number one. Silence and stillness. So silence puts away outer distraction. Stillness quiets the soul. Stillness brings you to a place of inner peace. Psalm 46.10 says, Be still and know that I am God. I will be honored by every nation. I'll be honored throughout the world. The inner chaos prevents us from listening for the voice of the Holy Spirit. There's so much going on in our minds. I mean, have you ever noticed this that when you go to pray that suddenly your mind becomes cluttered with various different thoughts from throughout the day, you start to run through your checklist. And if that checklist is undone, there's like this little itch in the back of your brain that you want to scratch. And you can't quite get to that because you're just so cluttered and busy. And you feel like I'm forgetting something, but I don't quite know what it is. I need to do something, but I don't remember exactly what I need to do. There's that sense of unfinished business from throughout the day that causes you to feel this inner tension. Or maybe you're going through a breakup, or maybe your relationship that you have with someone is a little bit rocky, or maybe as a parent you have tension between you and your children, or maybe your neighbor is upsetting you, but all those relational dynamics that can begin to affect us emotionally and mentally. And not only that, not only are there the responsibilities of life and the relationship strains and responsibilities in that regard, but there are also things that cause us fear. Maybe you're worried about the future. Maybe you're worried about finances. Maybe there's something in your health that you just can't stop replaying again and again in your head. And so if you're not careful, all of these things begin to clutter the mind. Never mind that you also have to count some of those more spiritual or spiritual sounding distractions where now we're dealing with things like guilt, or shame, or confusion, or questions, or doubt. And we're wondering if God even accepts us. We're wondering if God's listening to us. And if we approach prayer like that or hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit like that, well, we're always going to be left wondering, Lord, do you accept me? Am I your child? Is it okay that I address you? I heard a preacher say this once, and it was so brilliant. His name's Pastor Phil Muncie. He said that we ought to approach the throne of grace with boldness. Now, I know that scripture, but here's what he said. He said, the Bible says to approach the throne of grace with boldness. To approach the throne with anything less than boldness is an insult to grace. Think about that, guys. An insult to grace. What did he mean by that? He meant that if you are approaching God with kind of this sheepish, oh, I don't know if you're going to speak to me. I don't know if I deserve to come to you today. That reveals to you that when you do believe that God can speak to you, that you thought it was because of your own works or because you performed well enough that week, and it reveals to us this self-righteousness. So there's all of these things coming at us when we pray. And it's not that those things show up when we pray. It's that they're revealed when we pray. We were just never silent enough to recognize that they were there. So all of that is stirring in us all the time. No wonder we're walking around with things like anxiety and depression and so forth. No wonder we're walking around with confusion and doubt and spiritual tension, because that's what's going on within us all the time. We're just never silent enough to recognize that that's what's happening within us. And so because of that, we just go on living in distraction. So how do you get rid of that inner chaos, that inner stirring? Worship and meditation on the Word? I think it was you, Vlad, that asked me the other day. How do you steal? How do you get rid of that? I mean, out of distraction, that's easy, right? As we said, you turn off the TV, you turn off social media and so forth. But that inner distraction, how indeed do you deal with that inner distraction, that turmoil inside, the questions, the stirrings of the mind and the emotions? You do that. You steal that through focusing on Jesus and worship. Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusted in thee. So when I'm focused on Jesus and worshiping him, now that begins to bring that inner stillness. Now that begins to do away with that inner chaos. There's this calm that comes over me within. So if I'm removing distractions around me, the practical means of discipline and spiritual seasons of seclusion, like that hour of prayer, that going away privately, and if I'm focusing on Jesus through worship and I'm meditating on the Word, Psalm 113, meditation on the Word, what is meditation? Meditation is simply repetition and thought. So now I'm meditating on the Word and what's happening now? I'm beginning to have that inner calm, that inner stillness begins to take me. So that's number one, silence and stillness. Number two is a little more practical. Well, these are all very practical, but what I mean is something that you can probably more immediately apply. Number two is the Word. John 1426 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. The Word familiarizes me with the voice of the Holy Spirit. If you're serious about hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit, you will get serious about reading the Word. Let me say that again. I'm not trying to condemn you. I'm trying to encourage you to attain all that God desires to give to you in the Spirit. If you're serious about hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit, you will be serious about reading the Word. Do not tell me that you're trying to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit while neglecting the Word of God. And don't tell me you don't have time for the Word when you're caught up on your latest Netflix series, when you're caught up on your favorite show, when you've spent hours scrolling through YouTube and TikTok and Facebook or whatever website you're on. Don't tell me you don't have time for the Word when you've implemented all sorts of hobbies and you had time for friends. And I'm not saying we shouldn't have these other things. I'm simply saying that if we do have time for those things, then surely we should have time for the Word. And so the Word begins to familiarize you with his voice. Now, there are those who have said that because the Word of God is sufficient, the Holy Spirit doesn't need to speak to us directly. I would actually state the opposite. It's because the Word of God is sufficient that we can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit for ourselves. The more familiar I become with the written Word of God, the more accurately I can hear the Ramah Word of God. The more I steward the revelation of the written Word of God, the more I can be entrusted with the specific instructions of the Holy Spirit. He gives you specific instructions for everyday living, but you have to learn to familiarize yourself with the voice of the Holy Spirit through the reading of the Word because the voice of the Holy Spirit will never contradict the Word. Now, let's say that, I don't know, name one of your closest friends. I want you to picture one of your closest friends. That one friend who you can call when everything goes wrong, or maybe it's your spouse. Maybe it's a parent. Picture that individual that you know really, really well. You spend a lot of time with them. You're very familiar with them. Really close. If I were to put your friend or your loved one in a group of about 100 people, and that crowd was having a chatter, maybe everyone's talking, almost like at a social gathering. Everyone's just talking. And I told you with your eyes closed, can you pick out the voice of your friend? Most of you would say, yes, I could pick out the voice of my friend or my loved one in a crowd of 100 people because that's how well I know them. I know their tone. I know their volume. I know the qualities of their voice. I know the cadence of their speech. I could pick out their voice in a crowd of 100. Do we all have a friend like that or a loved one like that? Okay. But if you were to describe your loved one's voice to me, I could not pick out their voice in a crowd of 100 people because I haven't heard it myself. Now, you may be able to give helpful descriptions like, oh, they have a deep voice or a scratchy voice or a high pitch voice, or they kind of have a choppy cadence. You can give me descriptions, but because I never heard their voice for myself, I would not be able to pick their voice out of a crowd of 100 people when you could. In the same way, I could give you descriptions of the voice of the Holy Spirit from scripture alone. The scripture talks about the Lord having a voice of many waters. The scripture talks about the still small voice. The scripture talks about Him speaking with authority. I could give you these biblical descriptions, but through those descriptions alone, you would not be able to come to know the voice of the Holy Spirit. Then the question would be, what if your own thoughts, because you heard that description, matched that description? Then we would be deceiving our own selves. Those descriptions alone, while they're helpful, while they're poetic in some sense, those descriptions alone aren't going to be helpful in the everyday practical understanding of how we ought to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. So how do we become familiar with the word? You have to hear His voice for yourself. Get in the word, the word, the word, the word. Now, I want you to write that in the comment section, the word of God. So number one, we talked about silence and stillness, and I told you to write, be still. Now I want you to type in, actually make it two words, make it simpler. Just type in the word, and we all know what the word is. Really, there are four ways that the Holy Spirit speaks, are four categories under which we can mark the communications of the Holy Spirit. Number one is the word, and the word of God is the foundation of your understanding for the voice of the Holy Spirit. Number two is wisdom. Wisdom is that divine reasoning within. I'm not saying that you become God. I'm saying that because you're so close to the Lord and you're in the word, you naturally will acquire wisdom. Wisdom is that divine purposeful pull on your life that brings you into alignment with God's will and nature. And so when God begins to develop wisdom in you through the reading of the word, what begins to happen now is your mind becomes patterned after the teachings of Scripture. Your mind becomes patterned after the word of God, after the truth that the Holy Spirit affirms. And in patterning your mind after the nature of God's reasoning, you develop that wisdom which begins to help you discern and helps you to make decisions in your everyday lives. And number one is the word. Number two is wisdom. The word brings wisdom and wisdom is that trait within you that God can use to help guide your life. Now, those two are foundational. I'm going to give you two more right now. Those two are foundational and they're the primary ways that God helps to guide our lives. Number three is the whispers. The word, wisdom, whispers. What do you mean by whispers, David? I'm talking about those specific instructions spoken to your heart directly by the Holy Spirit. He speaks those things personally to you. And in so doing, helps you to navigate very specific situations. Like for example, I can't find chapter and verse who I should marry. I can't find chapter and verse what job I should take. I can't find chapter and verse what school I should attend, what state I should live in, what company I should start, who should my business partner be. Now, wisdom will help guide those things in a very general sense, but sometimes you need those very specific instructions of the Holy Spirit spoken to your heart for your very specific situation and that's needed. So the word and wisdom are foundational. Then there's the whispers. And then number four, there's wonders. Now, wonders are things like when prophets speak to you or visions and dreams. Here's the problem and I'm just going to be real blunt with you. The problem is far too many Christians try to live their lives the opposite way. Instead of having the word as the primary foundation and wisdom as the secondary foundation, they try to have wonders as the primary foundation and the whispers of the spirit as the secondary foundation. In other words, they have the whole process upside down on its head. And so they live by signs and wonders. They live by demonstrations of the prophetic. They live by words of knowledge. They hang on the words of people who claim to be prophets. And so because of that, they're not grounded in the word. They can't discern when they're hearing something false. They can't discern when something is a false or a lying wonder. And so this is why you have to start first the word, then wisdom, then the whispers, then the wonders. Do not reverse that. Otherwise, you'll find yourself in some very chaotic situations. So number one is silence and stillness. Number two, I gave you was the word. And number three, and this one's really going to challenge you. I want you to hear this whole point because I want you to do some searching of your own heart and be vulnerable with the Lord. Say, search me, Lord, show me where I'm missing something here. If you allow it to, this part, this point is really going to challenge you. And that is obedience. Are you obeying the instructions he gave you? Psalm 37, 23, the Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Proverbs three, verse six says, in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path. So God guides those who obey. I'm not saying God will not speak to the unbeliever. I'm not saying he won't speak to the rebellious. I'm saying he just won't give them any further instruction. Why is he going to give you step three, four, and five when you haven't taken steps one and two? Why is he going to give you the next part of the plan? If you haven't submitted yourself to the first part of the plan, this by the way is why many Christians avoid prayer. I want you to really evaluate yourself here because they already know what God spoke to them. Can I be honest with you? You might be watching this and it's possible that you already know what God requires of you. You already know what he's spoken and you've tried to bargain with God. You've tried to reason with God. You've tried to negotiate. You tried to get him to do it your way. You've tried to let him. You've tried to have him let you keep certain things. You've tried to avoid giving things up. You've tried to reason with him and you realize that God cannot be bargained with. God cannot be negotiated with. When he gives a command, it's either yes or no. It's not, well, Lord, let's reason out something and maybe we can work a better deal for me that I prefer. No. Many of us have done that to where we've heard the instructions of the voice of the Holy Spirit. Ignore those instructions and now you can't even go to the place as a prayer because when you go to pray, it's the first thing you sense and that conviction gets stronger and stronger. My advice to you is just do it his way. Just obey him because he's not changing his mind. Just take that step because that's the instruction that he gave you and so obedience helps you to receive further instruction. This is why there's a danger in ignoring his voice because the longer you ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit, the easier he becomes to ignore. I want to say that again. That's a warning for some of you. The longer you ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit, the easier he becomes to ignore. Don't ignore him. Don't ignore the Holy Spirit. So Father, I pray you help us to apply these keys. Give us the grace to obey and follow after you. May we commit your word to our heart. In Jesus' name we pray. I want you to say it because you believe it. Say amen. Hey, if you enjoyed this teaching, please do leave a like right now so that this teaching can spread even further. Also, let's stay connected. You and I subscribe to my channel to continue to receive my teachings on the Holy Spirit. Also, if you've been blessed by this ministry, I want to invite you to be a part of something amazing. 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We just need laborers to go out and get it. People are being saved, healed, delivered and empowered. This ministry is growing and it's stretching and we need the resources to keep up with the growth. So if you've been blessed by this ministry and you want to continue to see this ministry grow, you want to help us continue to do what we're doing, this is where we need your help. This is where you got to get involved. Don't sit on the sidelines. Jump on in with us. Join this movement that the Holy Spirit has entrusted to us. One more time, davidhernandezministries.com slash partner? Sign up today to become a monthly ministry supporter or give a single gift by going to davidhernandezministries.com slash donate. Those single gifts are also very important. Whatever you do, single or monthly, large or small, everything counts. I love you. I appreciate you. I pray for you. And until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God.