 I want to agree with you in bold faith that by the time you're done listening to this message that you will hear the Holy Spirit with both confidence and clarity. The Holy Spirit speaks to every born-again spirit-filled believer. So why does so many struggle sometimes to hear him? I wanna give you simple biblical practical keys that you can apply today. And I believe that you will hear the Holy Spirit clearly. You don't have to settle for confusion. You don't have to settle for second guessing. You can hear God because you are his child. I want you to write by faith in the comment section right now, I can hear him. Whether you struggle to hear him or not, whether you believe that or not, whether you feel you deserve that or not, it doesn't matter. Write that in the comment section. As I said, bold faith, I can hear him. It's a lie of the enemy that you have to work to hear the voice of God. It's a lie of the enemy that you have to prove yourself in order to hear the voice of God. Many believers imagine that they're working for God's approval or that they're trying to convince God who maybe is hesitant to connect with them, to connect with them. But we do not pray for connection with God, we pray from connection with God. You are connected, you are accepted, you are his child, and you can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. It's just a matter of exercising simple biblical keys that will cause his voice to become clearer. So there is a difference between praying to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and then praying to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit. You already hear him. In fact, I believe he's speaking to you right now through his word. I believe there's something that God has spoken to you deep within your spirit and you know that you know that you know deep within that he's spoken to you clearly, but it's all of the external clutter. It's all of the external distractions that cause us to doubt what we've heard in the Spirit. So the greatest truth that I can share with you concerning the voice of the Holy Spirit is that you already hear him. In fact, you are hearing him now. I'm not saying that you're hearing him because I'm speaking. I'm saying that in your spirit, he's speaking to you. So it's not a matter of hearing God. It's not a matter of, can I hear his voice? It's a matter of, can I recognize him? Let me show you this in first Samuel chapter three. Again, first Samuel chapter three, I'll read verse one and onward. Meanwhile, the boys Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days, messages from the Lord were very rare and visions were quite uncommon. Verse two, one night Eli, who was almost blind by now, by the way, this is a parallel reality that physical ailment in his eyes was symbolic for the spiritual condition. He was not hearing the voice of God as he should have been hearing the voice of God. So Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed. Verse three, 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? Verse five, 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. 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. So then the Lord called out again, Samuel again, Samuel got up, went to Eli, here I am, did you call me? This repeats, verse seven. Samuel did not yet know the Lord because he had never received a message from the Lord before. So in other words, he's hearing God but mistaking the voice of the Holy Spirit for the voice of his mentor. 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. 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 and the Lord came and called as before, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel replied, speak your servant is listening. So here we see an example of a prophet who was hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit but didn't recognize it as the voice of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was speaking clearly to him but he was mistaking it for the voice of a man. So Samuel heard the voice of God. He just didn't recognize the voice of God. John 10, 27 says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. So the question isn't, can I hear the voice of the Holy Spirit? The question is, do I belong to Jesus? Because if you are a child of God, then the Holy Spirit speaks clearly to you. If you belong to him, then you can certainly hear his voice with both confidence and clarity. This is not a skill to be acquired. This is a sense to be sharpened. Think about the fact that when you were born in the natural realm, that you were born if you were born healthy, perfectly healthy, you were born with hearing, you were born with sight, you were born with other senses of course but nobody had to teach you to hear. Nobody had to teach you to see. When you were born, you were born with sight, you were born with hearing. Now later you had to learn to observe and to listen but the actual sense itself wasn't something that was taught to you or wasn't something that you were trained in. It was something that you were born with simply by your nature. So when you were born, you were born with hearing and sight. When you are born again, you are born with spiritual hearing and spiritual sight. So again, it's not a skill to be acquired. It's not a reward for the super spiritual because again, I think sometimes as believers, we try to divide ourselves into groups and we say, well, those are the real spiritual ones over there, God speaks to them but I'm not special like that. I'm not close to God like that. I don't have what they have. They're favored in a way that I'm not and therefore they can hear God and I cannot. That's not the way it works at all. All of us who are born again have the Holy Spirit. All who belong to Jesus have the Holy Spirit and he speaks to you. You are favored, you are loved, you are accepted. Now granted, when we walk in disobedience as I'll cover in a moment, this can affect our ability to hear with confidence the voice of the Holy Spirit but this doesn't mean that we don't belong to God just because we make mistakes. So it's not as if you have to get to a certain level and then all of a sudden God says, okay, well, now I love you enough to instruct you or now I love you enough to speak to you or now I love you enough to give you specific guidance for your life. That's not how it works at all. So it's not something you're working toward. It's something you're working from. He's speaking to you now. He's being direct with you. He's convicting you or he's correcting you or he's encouraging you or he's revealing something to you in a prophetic way. The question is, are you removing the distractions that cause you to not pay attention to what God is saying to you? Are you recognizing that voice of the Holy Spirit? We complicate this so much. Think about this. If there was a room filled with a hundred people, think about, for example, your spouse or a very close friend or maybe your child, someone that you recognize their voice. I want you to think of them. Just imagine a loved one talking to you right now. Hear their voice. What are they saying? What do they sound like? Now, if your loved one were to talk to you amongst a crowd of a hundred people, let's say that room is chattering. People are talking. They're having conversation. You could, because you recognize the voice of your loved one, pick out your loved one's voice in a crowded room of even a hundred people. Why? Because you know them. You're familiar with their voice. You recognize their voice, but it's not something that you can necessarily teach. This is why when people ask me, well, what does the voice of God sound like? I have to be very careful in the way I answer that. Yes, the scripture talks about the voice of God causing us to tremble. Yes, the scripture talks about the thundering voice of God or the voice of God sounding like many waters. So, or the voice of God being like a still small voice. So those are some descriptions that the scripture gives us about the voice of God. But think about this. If we go solely by those descriptions, then we fall into religion rather than relationship. So what happens if you have an emotional thought that causes you to think it's the voice of the Holy Spirit simply because it was spoken with might or maybe spoken gently like the still small voice? So we cannot, and this is very important that we recognize this, we cannot by description alone come to understand the voice of the Holy Spirit. Sure, what the scripture describes is that the voice of the Holy Spirit is absolutely accurate, but that doesn't mean that we can't in our own minds create similar voices that sound that way. And this is where we become confused because we say, well, I wanna make sure I'm hearing God. I don't wanna miss him. I wanna make sure I know I'm walking into a future that he's instructed me or I wanna make sure that I'm being attentive to the voice of the Holy Spirit and not distracted by other voices. And so it's important again that we do not go by descriptions alone. Is it a still small voice? Yes, that's what the scripture says. Does he speak sometimes like a thunder or the voice of many waters? Absolutely, God speaks in that way sometimes. But we can in our own minds create instructions and then add to those instructions, those descriptions and then we become convinced we heard God when it's actually just our own mind or our own emotions. This is why again, we cannot go by descriptions alone. We do not hear the voice of the Holy Spirit by descriptions. We hear the voice of the Holy Spirit by familiarity. Going back to that analogy where you have that room filled with about a hundred people, you could pick out your loved one's voice. Why? Because you love them, you know them, you speak with them. But if you were to come to me and say, David, here's the description of my loved one's voice. They maybe have a little bit of bass in the voice. They speak softly and they talk really fast. Okay, I can take those descriptions, but even with those descriptions, those descriptions alone won't be sufficient to help me in trying to identify the voice of that loved one. I would walk into that room and I'd hear the bass in some people's voices, maybe people who talk fast. And through those descriptions alone, I couldn't identify their voice. So in the same way, we cannot do descriptions alone, identify the voice of the Holy Spirit, but we know the voice of the Holy Spirit when we become familiar with his voice. So how do we become familiar? I wanna show you that in scripture again. This is not a skill to be acquired. This is a sense to be sharpened. I'm not teaching you how to hear God per se. I'm teaching you how to recognize God because he's already speaking to you. He's already talking to you. I can't make God speak to you through instruction. You can't make God speak to you through any act that you can carry out. It's what God says is what God says. He speaks by his own will under his own terms in his own timing. And we have to be okay with that, but that doesn't mean we can't position ourselves to be undistracted by the other voices. So when you hear the voices in this world coming at you recognize that really there are four categories of voices that speak to us. Number one, you have the satanic. Number two, you have the secular. Number three, you have self. Number four, you have the spirit. Now you recognize the satanic because the satanic, even if in a subtle way, will always contradict the word of God. The secular will always contradict the nature of God. The self will always speak selfishly. The spirit will always speak according to both the word and the nature. And people complicate this. So imagine this, you have these four voices speaking. You're speaking to yourself. And sometimes we lie to ourselves. That's what you call self deception. Often the enemy tries to lie to us. Even more often the world tries to throw images and ideas through music and through movies and through posters and through all the other expressions of culture. The enemy, or excuse me, the secular world tries to push its agenda on us through constant propaganda and constant messaging. It's a barrage of deception. And if you're not careful, you will lend your ear to the secular communications of this world and it will cause you to walk under the heaviness of having heard those deception. So the satanic is speaking. The secular is speaking. Self, your mind is running. Your emotions are running. And the Holy Spirit is speaking in the midst of this. And so what we have to learn to do, and yes, we complicate this, what we have to learn to do to make it simple is instead of trying to pick out which one is the Holy Spirit, we have to learn to silence the satanic, silence self and silence the secular. Because by deduction alone, once you've rid yourself of those voices, the only voice now that's speaking is the Holy Spirit. And that is perfectly clear. Why? Because there's no other distraction now. So I wanna show you how to do that. How do you make it to where now you've silenced everything else and it's just the Holy Spirit speaking to you. The key is silencing the other voices. So here we go, key number one, silence and stillness. As you continue to pray consistently, you'll notice the intensification of your ability to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. You'll become more sensitive to his voice. Matthew chapter six, verse six, Jesus said, 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, Jesus is speaking about the necessity of private prayer. Now, within the context, the larger context of what he's talking about here, he's talking about the motivation behind your prayer, namely that some pray because they want to be praised by man. Well, those who are sincere pray simply because they want to actually fellowship with the Lord or communicate with the Lord himself. But something that we can glean from this portion of scripture that I think can still be applied to our everyday lives is the fact that Jesus tells us to go away and pray privately. In fact, as you study the gospels and you look at the life of Christ, you'll find that there were many instances where Jesus would retreat from the crowds, retreat from his disciples, retreat from the 12 disciples, and then even retreat from the three closest disciples. And he would go off by himself and he would be secluded. So there's something to be said of seclusion. Now, remember that there is a big difference between moments of seclusion and a lifestyle of isolation. Moments of seclusion are carved out of the day, mainly scheduled and planned so that you can devote time to the Lord every single day where you're just totally focused on him. Whereas a lifestyle of isolation is never being connected with anyone for either spiritual pride or fear or whatever it may be to where now you think that you don't need anybody else and that's not the way God designed us to function. But there's something about carving out a specific time in your day where you say this time belongs to the Lord and I'm not giving it to anybody else. And you have to stubbornly refuse, right? That in the comment section. Stubbornly refuse to give that time to anyone else. It's not for your spouse. It's not for your children. It's not for your friends. It's not for your work. It's not for your scholastic studies. There must be a time carved out of every day that is totally devoted to the Lord himself. This could be time in the word, time in worship, but of course, time in prayer. When you go, go by yourself. Go away privately, why? And shut the door because that is the removal of distraction. So if you want to remove outer distraction, you have to go to places of seclusion. This means you turn off the phone. This means you turn off YouTube and Facebook and all the social media channels. Wait and finish this lesson first and then you can go practice that. But there has to be a time in your day where you turn these things off. There has to be a time in your day where when people call, they're not gonna be able to get ahold of you. For me, it's the mornings. No one can get ahold of me in the mornings because that's the time with the Lord. No one can get ahold of me really even late at night because I even give that to the Lord and sometimes I have to switch those up depending upon how the schedule is. But every day, there's a carved out time where I say, Lord, this belongs to you and no one else can touch it. Now that removes outer distraction. What about all that inner chaos? Because you can turn the phone off and you can turn off and you can tell your loved ones, hey, leave me alone just for the next few minutes and they'll understand most believers who are living with other believers have that benefit of your loved ones understanding. You're not to be disturbed. And even if they're not believers, more often than not, they'll be understanding of that. So now you've removed outer distraction. There's not all of this imaging and messaging coming at your mind. Now you're in this private place. What do you do then? Okay, because now all of a sudden you begin to hear this inner chatter. You ever do that, you go to pray and all of a sudden the moment you go to pray, you're thinking about your responsibilities. You're thinking about relationship issues. You're thinking about finances. You're thinking about the future. You're thinking about maybe the fact that you're hungry or maybe you wanna go to sleep and all of these thoughts begin to clutter the mind or you go to pray and then 10 minutes into the prayer you realize, wait a minute, my mind has been wandering this whole time and I don't think there was anything fruitful about when I went to pray or maybe you're distracted by prayer itself. Do I sit? Do I stand? Can I pace? Is it all right if I lie down? When do I do intercessory prayer? When do I do spiritual warfare? When do I worship? When do I make my supplication? When do I lift praises to God? And for that matter, when do I pray in tongues? How much of my prayer should be in tongues? Can I pray out loud? Do I have to pray in my mind? How does all of this work? And all of these questions begin to arise. And not only that, but you're also bombarded by the internal conflict with some of the lies of the enemy that you actually led yourself or allowed yourself to believe over time, namely that you think God has rejected you or you can't get over that past mistake or you think that God is maybe displeased to hear from you or you imagine that God is maybe disgruntled and he doesn't really want to talk to you. He'll do it, but he's doing it begrudgingly. And so there's all of this conflict, whether that be guilt or fear or doubt or questions, all of this is going on inside. And you have your questions about prayer. You have your doubts about God. You have your doubts about yourself. You have the guilt. You have the shame. You have the distractions of life. And all of this is stirring inside. Am I talking to anybody this evening? All of these things are stirring within you. I call all of this inner chaos. Now, here's the thing. Many times we as believers will say, oh my goodness, none of these thoughts affected me. None of this was here until I went to pray. Isn't that what we say? We say, I was perfectly fine. My mind was perfectly clear. Oh, but the moment I went to pray, suddenly all of these things started to clutter my mind. My friend, I have news for you. The inner chaos did not show up when you went to pray. The inner chaos was revealed when you went to pray. You've just never been silent enough to hear what's actually going on inside of you. Psalm 4610 says, be still and know that I am God. I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world. There is a stillness with which we should approach God. And that inner chaos doesn't allow for that peace to take hold of your mind and your heart. And so again, we say, well, this just showed up when I prayed. No, you've been walking around with that your entire life. You've been walking around with that all week. You just weren't quiet enough to hear what was actually going on inside of you. Constantly distracting yourself, social media, TikTok videos and YouTube videos and Facebook posts and news reports and on and on and on and conversations and entertainment and constant distraction, constant movement. Why? Because we don't want to slow down, become still and face what's going on within us. But the moment we finally do, we finally realize what has been happening within our hearts the whole time. We just didn't pay enough attention to see it. No wonder we're walking around with fear. No wonder we're walking around with depression. No wonder we're walking around with confusion. Why? Because all of this has been stirring within us and we've never had a moment of silence and stillness to where we could actually expose it and then address it. So you deal with outer distraction through silence and that is seclusion. And then you deal with inner chaos through the stillness of the soul. How do you bring stillness to the soul? Only the Holy Spirit can do that. How does He do that in us? This is where you worship. This is where you meditate on the word. Now, some might think that meditation is an ugly word because often it's associated with New Age practice. But the scripture is quite clear. You can even reference this, for example, in Psalm chapter one. When you meditate on the word day and night, you become like a tree planted by the rivers of water. So what does it mean to meditate on the word? It's quite simple. Meditation in the world says empty your mind, empty your mind, empty your mind. Why? Because the enemy likes voids. But meditation in a godly sense is to fill your mind. Fill your mind, fill your mind with the word. Meditation is repetition in thought. And so we say things like, well, I have intrusive thoughts so there's nothing I can do about this. No, my friend, you can take hold of it through the authority that God gave you and through the practice of meditating on the word. I know it doesn't seem like you can control your thoughts. I know it doesn't seem like there's anything you can do to help that. I know it seems like you're absolutely helpless but this is what the Bible teaches that we can choose what we place our mind on. So when we make a practice of meditating on the word, thinking of those truths, rehearsing those truths, repeating those truths internally, now the word begins to wash our minds and then we can also worship. A very powerful man of God once told me that if you're gonna pray for an hour, worship for 45 minutes. Now this wasn't an exact formula that he was giving me to follow. Rather, he was communicating the importance of worship in our devotion because the scripture declares, thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusted in thee. In other words, when I can put my focus on Jesus, suddenly there's stillness that comes over my soul. When I put my focus on my circumstances, I can be riled emotionally. Why? Because my circumstances constantly change and therefore my emotions and my thoughts will constantly change. And if I link myself to my own thoughts, then that's gonna be a constantly shifting ground because there's nothing stable about me unto myself. But when I focus on the Lord Jesus, when I give to him my worship, when I focus on the word and I meditate on the word, there's a stillness that comes over the soul and suddenly the voices of internal conflict, the voices of shame, of guilt, of doubt, of confusion, of distraction, of worry, all of these voices now go silent. Why? Because I'm so enamored with the person of Jesus. I'm so raptured by the essence of who he is. I'm so focused on the face of the master that everything around me grows dim. And as you begin to worship, there's this stillness that comes over the soul. And it deals with that inner chaos. So that's key number one, silence and stillness. Shut the door and shut down the thoughts and emotions. I'm not saying you have to lose your mind. I'm saying that you have to focus your thoughts on who Jesus is, on who God is. Trust in him. Stop looking to yourself and instead trust in him. That's number one, a key to hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit or I should say recognizing the voice of the Holy Spirit. Silence and stillness. And this is why many believers can't hear the Holy Spirit. It's not that he's not speaking. It's that they're allowing so many distracting things to come at them that they can't decipher between the voice of the Holy Spirit and self and the secular and unfortunately the satanic. This is why we must practice discipline of prayer, time alone with the Lord, remove the outer distraction through the practical means of shutting that door so to speak. And you removed that inner chaos by worshiping and meditating on the word. Number two, the word. The word is key to hearing his voice. John chapter 14 verse 26 says, 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 said. So here we see that the Holy Spirit has a twofold job when it comes to the voice of God. He reminds and he reveals. He reminds you of all the things that God has taught you through his word and through teachers. He reminds you of the truths of scripture and the sayings of Jesus. And he also reveals things to you, of course that have to do with specific instructions for your everyday life. The word of God familiarizes you with his voice. Remember I talked about that familiarization. Well, when you're in the word, you become familiar with the voice of the Holy Spirit. Don't tell me you're serious about hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit and you're not serious about devotion to the word. Don't tell me you're desperate to hear instructions from God when you're not disciplined to get into the word. You wanna hear God speak, get into the word. You wanna for sure word, get into the word. You wanna know instructions for your future, get into the word. The Holy Spirit works with the word, not against the word. So the word of God is the foundation upon which we build our relationship with the Holy Spirit, with Christ. And this of course enables us to become more familiar with him through that relationship. And so when I become familiar with the word, a foundation is laid. If you're not in the word, you're not gonna be able to recognize when the satanic is speaking. By the way, the word of God is your greatest weapon against the voice of the satanic. Think about Jesus in Matthew chapter four when he was being tempted in the wilderness. Whenever the enemy would speak, Jesus would reply with the word and he would say, it is written. So that's how you combat the deceptive communications of the enemy through the word of God. But if you don't know the word, you're not gonna have truth to which you can compare the lies. If you don't have a standard, you'll never know if you're off standard. If you don't have a plumb line, you'll never have a reference. You need the word of God as the reference for truth so that when the secular world tries to communicate to you or when demonic powers try to lie to you, you can recognize those deceptions because right there it is written. So silence and stillness is how you suppress the voice of self and the word is how you silence the voice of the enemy and silence the voice of secular culture because the word of God is that foundation. Now I'm gonna give you a bit of a breakdown here because I think it's important that we cover this. I wanna show you the four ways that the Holy Spirit primarily speaks and these are really categories and you won't find necessarily another category though you may find other methodologies by which the Holy Spirit communicates. But it first starts with the word. So I'm still under point number two. Point number one was if you wanna hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, get the practice silence and stillness. That's the removal of outer distraction in the quieting of inner chaos through worship and meditation on the word. Number two, I'm showing you that the key to hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit with confidence and clarity is silencing the voice of the Satanic and silencing the voice of the secular to becoming familiar with the word. Now we're gonna break down the word a little more and how it works with our overall or I should say probably the more holistic way of hearing the Holy Spirit. So second Timothy chapter three, verses 16 and 17 says, all scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. So number one, it's the word. The word is the foundation upon which you build your relationship with the Lord. The word is the safety net. So often we think we hear God and let's just humble ourselves and be honest. None of us hear God for ourselves with perfection. And if you think you do, you're walking in self deception and you have to be very careful about that. We primarily rely on the word. You wanna hear God speak? Look to the word. So the word is the foundation. So imagine that we're building a structure now. The word is that foundation. Now upon the foundation you build like the skeleton of the building or the framing is how they would put it if you're a builder. The framing is wisdom. Romans 12, two says, do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. These, by the way, aren't different degrees of God's will. There are three different descriptions of the same will. James 1.5 says, if you need wisdom, ask our generous God and he will grant it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. So the word is the foundation. Wisdom now is the framing. Now many believers are of the impression that the Holy Spirit is constantly speaking specific instructions for our lives. And often what they're confusing for the specific instructions of the Holy Spirit is actually the wisdom of God that was deposited in them or imparted in them through the devotion to the word. So first it's the word, the foundation, and the word itself begins to reform the way you think. It begins to reshape your thought patterns. It begins to refocus your mind. And now you'll notice that your thought patterns begin to change. Your inclinations begin to change. So the word is the foundation. Wisdom is the framing, like the wood framing. Imagine you're building a house. Word is foundation. Wisdom is the framing, okay? And now with wisdom, you have that inner guiding voice of the Holy Spirit working to wisdom. Really, wisdom is that divine pool on our lives. It's divine guidance that comes through us and works through us. It's God's reasoning nature within us, that's wisdom. It's God's reasoning nature within us, that's wisdom. So the word, foundation, wisdom is the framing. And these, by the way, are the two primary ways that you're going to hear the Holy Spirit. And then number three, the whisper. Write these down. The word, wisdom, the whisper. Now this is where you begin to see specific instructions from the Holy Spirit for your everyday life. We referenced, of course, John 14, 26 for that, where the Holy Spirit doesn't just remind us of what God has said, but he also reveals and guides us into all truth. And so someone said, if it's in God's word, why does the Holy Spirit need to speak it to us? If it's not in God's word, why would the Holy Spirit speak it to us? Now these questions fail to take into account the need for specific instructions for details of our lives, not addressed in chapter and verse. For example, where you should live, who you should marry, where you should work, and so forth. Now of course we understand that wisdom would actually cover a lot of these bases, but there are moments when we absolutely need to hear for ourselves specific instructions tailored made for our everyday lives that come from the Holy Spirit. So the word covers most, wisdom takes care of what's left over and the small percentage that's left over after that, the whisper of the Holy Spirit will take care of. So then there's wonders. So if the word is the foundation and wisdom is the framing, then the whisper is like the drywall and the electrical and the plumbing. Now it's beginning to come together a little bit more. There's some function to it. And then you have the wonders and I would liken the wonders to the decorative aspects of the construction phase. Now you're putting in the wood floor, the carpet, maybe there's a certain light fixture that you really like. My wife is big on interior design, so she likes the details coming together at the end. And that's what I would equate to the wonders. This is things like prophets versus Thessalonians 5, 19, and 21, visions, Acts 2, 17, and 18. This is also things like dreams, John, excuse me, Job 33, verses 14 and 15, miracles, signs, and wonders, as we see in Mark chapter 16, verse 20. So wonders now are the decorative pieces of this structure. They're not the foundation, but they are the decorative pieces of this. Now, many believers have this reversed unfortunately. And by that, I mean that they live by wonders first. First they live by wonders, and then they live by the whisper, and they leave wisdom and the word as a secondary means of hearing the Holy Spirit. And because of that, they walk in this very strange way. They're very bizarre. They come up with strange ideas. They get themselves into situations that God did not call them to be in. So this is why we have to, of course, use the word as the foundation, wisdom as the framing, the whisper as the plumbing, the electrical, the drywall, and then the wonders as the decorative finishing as opposed to the other way around where we think we can hear them first through wonders, because then you're gonna be swept up by lying wonders because you're not grounded in the word. So wonders are important. The whispers of the Holy Spirit spoken directly to our hearts. That's important, and he still speaks in that way, but you have to base it first on the word and wisdom. So that's number two, the word. So so far we've seen keys to hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit with clarity. Key number one, silence and stillness. Key number two, the word. Now, key number three, and I wanna challenge you here, obedience. The Bible says in Psalm 37-23, the Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Whose steps does he direct? The godly, Proverbs 3-6 says, in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. This means that for every way you acknowledge him, you receive direction from him. Faithfulness is progressive. You have to do the difficult thing. Don't tell me you want the Holy Spirit to speak to you prophetically when you haven't even listened to what he said in the word. Don't tell me God is calling me to cross the oceans to preach the gospel. When you're not even listening when he's told you to cross the street to preach the gospel. Don't tell me God is calling you to serve in some large ministry when you haven't even served locally. Don't tell me God is giving you a gift of miracles when you haven't even devoted yourself to developing Christ's character. Don't tell me God's raising your voice to speak to the nations of the world when you're not even speaking correctly to your loved ones in your home. First obey the practical, the foundational and then God will begin to guide you into the more supernatural. So we must obey what is written in the word. We must obey what wisdom tells us to do. And as you obey the written word and as you walk according to the wisdom of God and only then does he begin to entrust to you the whispers of the Holy Spirit. God will speak and then not speak again until you've obeyed what he's already spoken. Why are we asking for step number 10 spoken directly to our hearts from the Holy Spirit when we haven't even taken step number one clearly spelled out in the word of God. Many believers get stuck and unable to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit because they're not obeying what he has already spoken. They know what he said. He's made the instruction clear. In fact, this is why many believers avoid prayer because they already know what God has said and they don't wanna go back to the prayer room and be confronted on their delay. Once you know what the Holy Spirit has spoken, once you see clearly what the scripture instructs, this is when you need to act and then he'll begin to bring to you the next instruction. Father, I pray you help them do it. Give us wisdom, Lord. Help us walk according to your word. And as we practice these things, as we repent of sin and compromise, and as we turn to you now, I pray you would help us to hear your voice. Make you precious Holy Spirit that you're working in their heart now. Come on, just begin to ask him to forgive you. If you've been walking in disobedience, you need to turn from that. Ask him to forgive you. Devote yourself to the word, to the discipline of prayer and to the joy of obedience. Holy Spirit, empower them. Give them grace. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray and I want you to write it. If you agree, write amen. If this message blessed you, make sure to leave a like. It'll help to spread it to others. Let's stay connected. Make sure you're subscribed to my channel so that you can continue to receive my teachings on the Holy Spirit. When you subscribe, click the notification bell. Proverbs 11, 24 and onward. The scripture declares, give freely and become more wealthy. Be stingy and lose everything. The generous will prosper. Those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. There's something about being a good steward of your resources. When you give generously, God causes generosity to flow through you like a river. And with that generosity comes an increase in resources. This is Bible. Verse 26, people curse those who hoard their grain, but they bless the one who sells in time of need. If you search for good, you will find favor. But if you search for evil, it will find you. Trust in your money and down you go. Think about that. You know you are trusting in your money when you're afraid, when you hear certain news in the economy. How many times do we hear doomsday saying, oh my goodness, everything's gonna collapse. Society is done. Currency and banking and okay, maybe so. I don't know, I'm not an economist. But I do know that God is in control. And I do know that no matter what comes, God is in control and I can trust him. So trust in your money and down you go. But the godly flourish like leaves in spring. Why? Because the godly are generous. I wanna invite you to practice generosity. If you believe in our mission as a ministry to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ all around the world to the power of the Holy Spirit, if you've been blessed by this ministry, maybe the teachings have helped you. Maybe you've attended a service where the Holy Spirit impacted your life. Maybe you've read a book or went to the Holy Spirit School online. Whatever it may be that impacted you, I want you to consider today paying it forward. Ask the Holy Spirit, what would you like me to do and then step out in faith? I need many of you to become monthly ministry partners. You know, when you give single gifts, those are so appreciated. Don't hear what I'm not saying. We appreciate all giving all amounts, all sorts from all different places. But when you become a monthly partner, this enables us to plan for the future because we know that there are certain people committed to giving a certain amount every month. And that really is the basis for our planning events and projects and so forth. So would you consider today, right now, becoming a monthly ministry supporter by going to davidhernanisministries.com slash partner? Partner for any amount that the Holy Spirit leads you. And you can also give a single gift by going to davidhernanisministries.com slash donate. We accept currencies from all different countries. We even take Bitcoin, but do try to use the website first. If the website doesn't work, then you can use Facebook and YouTube's giving options. But again, try the website first. Go to the website now, ask the Holy Spirit, what would you like me to do? What would you like me to give? And he may speak to you to do something sacrificial, something generous, and you will obey the voice of the Holy Spirit and see just how God responds to his word. Be a good steward of your resources. Obey the voice of the Holy Spirit. Be generous and you watch what God does in your life. Well, I appreciate you taking the time to be with me. I love you. I appreciate you. I pray for you. And until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God.