 Sometimes it's difficult to work through the confusion in this generation, especially because we're being bombarded with messages from all different sources. Your family speaks their opinions to you. Satan speaks lies. Your emotions speak. The world speaks. Culture speaks. And sometimes it can be confusing because we're trying to reach for something that's foundational, something upon which we can ground our lives. This is why it's important that we hear and then yield to the voice of the precious Holy Spirit. It's dangerous to ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit. And I want to talk to you about those dangers right now. This is going to be a challenging message and I want you to receive it. Just ask the Lord, say, Lord, I want you to speak to me. Lord, if there's anything in my heart that needs to be corrected, correct it now in the name of Jesus and receive this. I want you to type that in the comment section. Just type, I receive those two simple words. Let that be a public indication of surrender to the Holy Spirit, that you will embrace the Word of God. You will embrace correction. You will embrace the challenge that you might grow and then go deeper into the things of God. Just scroll across social media and look at all of the different opinions that are being thrown around. Even within the Christian faith, there's infighting and arguing and opinionated people who think they figured it all out. And it can be difficult to find your footing on any given topic. Just post one opinion online and see how quickly people begin to post their opposition to that view. And so it's difficult to ground yourself if you are not listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Now there are consequences to not listening to that voice. The first is spiritual decay or defeat. Now victory should be your posture. I know sometimes we teach things that seem to indicate that believers ought to struggle spiritually and I want to be careful about the way I say this because sometimes people misunderstand when I communicate this truth. Whom the sun sets free is free indeed. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. That's what we've been given as members of the Kingdom of God as citizens of heaven. So why does it seem sometimes like we're experiencing that internal defeat? Well, you shouldn't accept that as the norm. And sometimes we even say things that really allow us to hide behind a spiritual sounding excuse but really it's a form of pride. We'll say things like, well, Satan only attacks me so much because he knows I'm a big threat because he's afraid of the call on my life because he knows I'm a warrior in the Spirit. But bullies don't pick on people who are strong. Bullies pick on people who don't know their strength. Bullies pick on people who allow them to bully them. And so the enemy, once he's resisted, flees. So why then does it seem that Christians embrace this? I don't know because it's not the Christian life. If you are in spiritual bondage, you're not living the Christian life. Brother David, are you saying that if I'm struggling that I'm not a Christian? No, that's not what I said. I said, if you are in bondage, you are not living the Christian life. And by that, I simply mean God has given us a standard to which we can aspire. Yes, we will face tragedy. Yes, we will face trials. Yes, things will come against us that we don't understand. And no, not everything is going to go the way you want it to always go. But no matter what's happening around you, you can and should have victory within you. Even if there are things coming against you, you can have joy and peace and the love of God and clarity in the Spirit. You don't have to live in confusion. We see what happened with Samson when he ignored the voice of the Holy Spirit. When he ignored that conviction, when he violated his own conscience, then she cried out, Samson, the Philistines have come to capture you. When he woke up, he thought, I will do as before and shake myself free. But he didn't realize the Lord had left him. Now that's Judges chapter 16, verse 20. A quick note I want to give you on this portion of Scripture that you may find helpful is that here in the Old Testament, the relationship that the Holy Spirit had here with Samson isn't the same kind of relationship or even the same type of dynamic to his presence that you would find in the life of the born-again Spirit-filled believer according to the New Covenant, the New Testament. So when it comes to the born-again believer, the Holy Spirit doesn't come and go based upon the mistakes that you make. He grieves within you, he convicts you, he abides to help you get it right. But here the Scripture is talking about that demonstration of the Holy Spirit's power. In fact, we later find that when Samson's hair grows back, that he's once again able to perform this feat of strength, this demonstration of power, and that was a sign that God had not completely abandoned him. What's being described here is that influence of power upon his life, that influence had weakened. That power was not being accessed because of the position he allowed himself to be in. Now Samson had many different opportunities to recognize what was happening to him. As you begin to read the story, you see that Delilah, the woman who had deceived him, had actually had the Philistines attack him in several other different instances, a couple before this. And in those instances, he was able to fight off the Philistines because he had not yet given up the secret to his power. It was only in this instance now, when he had finally come to that place of full compromise, he hardened his heart, he violated his conscience. He ignored the voice of the Holy Spirit and then found himself in this particular situation. It's a frightening thing indeed to not recognize the weakening of the influence in your life. Now again, the Holy Spirit abides with the true believer. And by the way, if you're a true believer, you wouldn't abuse that grace. You wouldn't say, well, the Holy Spirit's never going to leave me, so therefore I'll go on sinning. If that's your attitude, then the Holy Spirit likely doesn't live within you in the first place. But here we see this frightening reality of spiritual decay, this weakening, Samson's inability to function in the same level of power that he had beforehand operated in. And this happens to believers slowly but surely who ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit. And here's the thing about the Lord. He loves you too much to leave you in your compromise. He loves you too much to leave you to your mediocrity. As we begin to ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit, yes, at first there's that correction and then there's that deep conviction. And then there begin to become instances in your life that arise that really destroy your means of disobedience. I mean, just look at what happened with Jonah. God tells him go one way. He goes a completely different direction. And the scripture says that a whirlwind from the presence of God or from heaven had come and destroyed his ship. That was his means of disobedience. So as born again believers, we don't get away with stubbornness. We don't get away with the refusal to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Once God has claimed you as his child, the scripture is quite clear that he corrects those whom he loves or those who are his children. And so he corrects those things in that correction is uncomfortable for the time being. It's not always pleasant. In fact, it's never pleasant when you're being corrected in any given moment. But if you ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit, because of his compassion, because of his love, he will bring correction. There will be some disruption, then there will be some spiritual decay before then. And again, I'm not talking about the Holy Spirit abandoning you because you made a mistake. I'm talking about the fact that it becomes difficult for you to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. He still speaks to you, but you have trouble listening because you're so distracted by the things of the world. He still loves you, but you have trouble feeling loved because you're so caught up in sin. He offers to you peace, but you can't receive of that peace because your mind is so cluttered by the guilt and the shame of disobedience. It's not that the Holy Spirit abandons you, it's that you're no longer able to make use of that which the Holy Spirit is offering you, and he loves you too much to leave you there. And so my word of encouragement to you right now, at least for this first point, is that you begin to listen. Don't allow stubbornness to bring destruction. Don't allow stubbornness to cause you to miss divine opportunities. You see, the Holy Spirit doesn't change his mind. And sometimes when we're walking in that stubbornness, we try to convince the Holy Spirit to do it our way. And we'll say things like, well, maybe God will change his mind, or maybe if I ignore this for long enough, God will just let it go. But he doesn't do that. The Holy Spirit speaks consistently, persistently, lovingly. And while we may continue in our disobedience, God is going to bring correction. Why? Because you're his child. He is more loving and patient than you are stubborn. And so my advice to you is if you know that you're living in compromise, if you know that you're ignoring the voice of the Holy Spirit, correction will come. God corrects those whom he loves. He chastises his own children. And these aren't comfortable truths. These aren't truths that necessarily make us feel good when we hear them. But I'm telling you this because I care about you. I'm telling you this because you need to hear it, maybe. Maybe that's why the Holy Spirit drew you to this message. Or maybe if you're not living in that stubbornness, this is good truth to store away in your heart so that you might prevent that function of stubbornness or that walk of stubbornness. So don't be like Samson who continually gave himself over to compromise to the point where he didn't even recognize that the Holy Spirit had lifted that influence from off of him. Another danger we need to be aware of when it comes to ignoring the voice of the Holy Spirit is the sin of presumption. Now I want to balance this because I don't mean to inspire this being frozen in fear because often that's what we do. Either we freeze in fear or we rush away and in patience. And neither of these are how you want to walk with God. You don't want to walk so fast that you're walking ahead of his timing. And you don't want to walk so slow that you're walking behind his timing. We walk with Jesus, not ahead of him, not behind him. And so in order to have this purposeful pace where the divine grace of God is pooling on our lives unto that calling, we need to learn to walk with him. Walk at the pace of grace. Move at the sound of his voice. Work with him. Walk with him. Cooperate with him. And you'll find that you're not running ahead into things that you shouldn't. On the other hand, I don't mean again to inspire you being frozen in fear. I know some believers who won't do anything for God because they're waiting for a dream or a vision or the sky to open up and God to speak from heaven in an audible voice. I want you to go to this city at this time and do this sort of ministry for this many years. And you're going to preach on these topics. And you're going to minister to these specific people. It's not necessarily how it works. In fact, as you look at the New Testament as a whole, there's this picture that becomes clearer and clearer as you take in more truth, namely that God gives to us certain resources and abilities and responsibilities. And we are to use those resources and abilities and responsibilities according to the general will of God. In other words, all of us must use what God has given us to fulfill the Great Commission to serve in the local church to help fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. It's not always going to be this ultra specific instruction that we're waiting for. And if you're always waiting for that ultra specific instruction, you may be frozen in fear. And sometimes what we call wisdom is actually just fear. We just don't want to admit that to ourselves. So there's a balance. You don't want to stay frozen and say, well, I don't have a specific instruction for every single day of my life. I don't want to necessarily do anything now. But neither do you want to fall into this trap when I'm describing here the sin of presumption. That is to say that you think that just because you're the one doing it, that surely it must be God. Or because you want to do it, that surely it must be God's will. Again, a balance. Here's what the Bible says in 2 Samuel chapter 7. I'll read verses one through five. When King David was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all the surrounding enemies, the king summoned Nathan the prophet. Look, David said, I am living in a beautiful cedar palace, but the Ark of God is out there in a tent. So David is making this observation about the fact that God doesn't have this tabernacle in which he can dwell. Verse three, Nathan the prophet replied to the king, go ahead and do whatever you have in mind for the Lord is with you. Now, there are some who may say that Nathan wasn't prophesying here, but he was speaking from a place of authority in a prophetic office. So I think it's just semantics at that point. Nathan was speaking presumptuously as a prophet of God. Now verse four, but that same night the Lord said to Nathan, go and tell my servant David, this is what the Lord has declared. Are you the one to build a house for me to live in? And of course, as many of us know that it was actually God's will that Solomon built this and not David. It was the son he wanted to build it, not David the father. So Nathan had to go back and correct this. Even though he had spoken to David, go ahead and do all that's within your heart to do. And thankfully, he did that. Thankfully, he obeyed. But if you want to walk with the Lord and you actually match that pace at which God is walking, then you're going to be able to avoid these types of situations. Remember this, nothing will slow you down quite like what you imagine is a shortcut, especially when it comes to the call of God and the things of God, because we try to rush the process. And by rushing the process, we're just prolonging things, because eventually we're going to have to admit that what we were doing was presumptuous and that God wants us to undergo the process anyway. So again, walk at the pace of grace. Don't rush ahead of them. Don't make presumptions. Don't make assumptions about what God's will is. But at the same time, don't be frozen in fear either. There's a balance to it. How do you balance all this? How do you find that fine line upon which you should walk? And that is a lifestyle of prayer. Continually yielding yourself to the Holy Spirit through your pace. Slow down. Don't rush so many things. Don't be so wrapped up within your own emotions and desires that you crowd out the will of the Holy Spirit trying to speak to you. Make sure you're making time to get into the word to pray. I think of the New Testament, Book of Acts, how they wanted to go into Asia and they actually made plans to do so. They began to go there in order to take the gospel there. They desired a good thing, but then the Scripture says that the Spirit of Jesus prevented them from doing. In other words, now is not the time to take the gospel to that specific location or at least you're not the one specifically to do it. And so that shows us that at least in the New Testament church, the early church, they understood that you just go about doing what you believe to be the will of God based upon His word and general commands and that the voice of the Holy Spirit will guide you. This is why you need that safety net of prayer. You need to be in the word. You need to be in prayer, but if that's not the lifestyle that you're living, if you're not living a lifestyle of the word and of prayer and of attentiveness to the voice of the Holy Spirit or awareness of His presence in your life, if you're just rushing through things, then you're not going to have that safety net when you move too fast. So trust not in your ability to hear the Holy Spirit. Trust in His ability to speak to you. And in order to walk in that instruction, you must learn to slow down, slow your pace, match the pace of the Lord and say, okay, Lord, I'm attentive to your voice. This way, if you step a little too far, you know His voice. He'll speak to you and He'll be faithful to call you back in line. So we avoid the sin of presumption if we listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. If you ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit, you may get a little ahead of yourself. Now this one, I think, is something that I will just pause for a moment, and I want you to ask the Holy Spirit to help you to receive this next one. Just say, help me, Holy Spirit. And if you're being challenged by this word, let me know in the comment section. I'm curious to know what you're finding challenging about the message. When we ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit, we fall into a trap of tradition. Please remember this. Holy Spirit, help me communicate this. When we ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit, we fall into the trap of tradition. Yesterday's revival can quickly become today's religion. Yesterday's revival can quickly become today's rituals. We will say things like, well, I've never seen God do this before, but the question isn't, did God do this before? The question is, is it in His nature to do it? So many believers miss moves of the precious Holy Spirit because they're stuck on the specifics rather than the spirit. They're stuck on the specifics rather than the principles. They know the works of the hand of God, but they don't know the nature and the heart of God. We just see that Moses understood God's ways. Well, the children of Israel only knew His actions. There are people who are so, how shall I say, rigid in their approach to God that they think they can have them down to a system, put them in a little box and say, if I've never seen Him move like this before, there's no way He can do it without my permission or without my being comfortable with it. Not only is that extremely arrogant, but it causes you to miss out on when the Holy Spirit does move, and it's something that He necessarily hasn't done before. Now, the methods by which He moves may change from time to time, but the message He backs will never change. So the principles, always there. The message, always there, but the demonstrations and the methods may differ from time to time. So again, the question is not, did God do this before? The question is, is it in His nature to do it? And you look at the Old Testament, look at the New Testament. In principle, you could see that God really can't be boxed in. He has many expressions of and facets to His power. Look at Exodus chapter 17, beginning at verse four. Watch this now. Then Moses cried out to the Lord, what should I do with these people? They're ready to stone me talking about the children of Israel. The Lord said to Moses, walk out in front of the people, take your staff, the one you use when you struck the water of the Nile, and call some of the elders of Israel to join you. I will stand before you on the rock at Mount Sinai. Strike the rock, and water will come gushing out. Then the people will be able to drink. Watch this now. So Moses struck the rock as he was told, and water gushed out as the elders looked on. So here we see a demonstration of power that came about as a result of an act of obedience. Moses' response to the voice of God, his instructions. He strikes the rock, water gushes out, the people have something to drink, and now they don't want to stone Moses anymore. So this is a wonderful miracle that took place, but watch what happens now with a similar situation. And there are various reasons as to why I believe these are two separate accounts. Some would argue these are the same, but I believe after having studied it that these are two separate accounts. Numbers chapter 20. I'll begin at verse 7. And the Lord said to Moses, you and Aaron must take the staff and assemble the entire community. As the people watch, now watch this, similar situation, different act the Lord is requiring of him. As the people watch, speak to the rock over there, and it will pour out its water. You will provide enough water from the rock to satisfy the whole community and their livestock. So Moses did as he was told, he took the staff from the place where it was kept before the Lord, then he and Aaron summoned the people to come and gather at the rock. Listen, you rebels, he shouted. Now how many would like Moses as a pastor there? Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water from this rock? Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with the staff and water gushed out. Now wait a minute, that's not what God said to do. God told Moses in this instance to speak to the rock. Now why did he strike it? Why did he strike it twice? I believe this is because he was remembering a previous act that the Lord had committed and he was going based on ritual instead of revelation. Now watch this, then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with the staff and water gushed out. So the entire community and their livestock drank their fill, but the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you did not trust me enough to demonstrate my holiness to the people of Israel, you will not lead them into the land I am giving them. So now they've been leading the people of Israel all this time because of this one act the Lord says, you are not going to enter the Promised Land yourself. Why? Because the Lord was not honored because Moses did not honor the instruction. He did not obey the specifics of what God had given him to do. He chose system over spirit, ritual over revelation. Power, please hear me now, power is not found in system. It's found in obedience. It's found in the act of faith. He sacrificed the future for the familiar. Many of us do that. We sacrifice our future in Christ by limiting God because it's not familiar to us. Where does the Bible say that God has to act only in a way with which you are comfortable? Where does the Bible tell us that God has to tell us every way in which he chooses to move before he moves in that way? Where does the Bible tell us that God is limited to only a certain type of demonstration of his power? Where does the Bible tell us that everything that God does has to align with what we deem as practical or according to our will? Doesn't say it any place. So when you hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, this is important because you can avoid the trap of tradition. Now, I am not saying that every thought that flies into your mind is of the Holy Spirit. In fact, I think that more often than not, when people claim that they're doing something in the name of the Lord, that it's not actually the Lord speaking to them, but they are operating out of their own imagination. I have other content on this channel where I talk about how to discern between your own emotions and the voice of the Holy Spirit. But the point I'm making here is simply that when you do obey the voice of the Holy Spirit, you avoid that danger. That danger is the trap of tradition falling into that way of systemizing God's spirit. You can't do that. You can't program God's power. God is not a vending machine. You can't just put something in and expect to get a certain result back. God is sovereign. God moves as he will. And if we're not willing to submit ourselves to the nature and power of the Holy Spirit, we could miss moves of God simply because we fell into the trap of tradition. Well, I've never seen God do this before. Yes, but is it in his nature to do it? John chapter five verse 19. So Jesus explained, I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. Here we see that Jesus mirrored the Father. He was a perfect reflection of the Heavenly Father. He obeyed his Father down to the last millisecond. Everything he did was a reflection of God the Father. Now we look at the life of Jesus. He walks as a reflection of the Father's will. And we see that he had this peaceful rested flow. He just moved according to the will of God. Never did he have to rush. Never was he impatient. Never did he fall under the tension of that kind of impatience either. He simply flowed with the will of God. Why? Because he was walking in step. Clarity about his calling. Of course, we know Jesus is God. There was never a time he wasn't God. But he did also model for us how to walk in right relationship with the Heavenly Father. There's clarity there. He walked with purpose. There's effectiveness. And we measure effectiveness by obedience toward God and the way it impacts eternity. No one was more effective than Jesus. And we see that because he walked in this alignment. Now you can have that. You can walk in that kind of power. Now maybe not unto that kind of perfection and maybe not with that level of potency. Maybe not yet. All things are possible to him who believes with God all things are possible. But all of us have imperfections. All of us in that sense can afford to be more obedient to the voice of the Holy Spirit. More responsive to not delay and drag our feet when he speaks. But to move when he instructs us. To not try to debate or reason with him or negotiate our way out of something that we find uncomfortable or embarrassing or difficult to understand. Rather we walk with him in faith and obedience listening to his voice. And as we walk according to the voice of the Holy Spirit we avoid that spiritual decay. We avoid the sin of presumption. And we avoid the trap of tradition. Father I pray you help them to be attentive to your voice. Give us what we need Lord to remove distractions. Help us to walk in patience at a purposeful pace according to your will. We thank you Father for everything you do for us. And now I want you to begin to repent. Right now between you and the Lord speak to him. Don't write it in the comment section. You speak to him yourself. Just begin to talk to him and say Lord I'm sorry. Holy Spirit. Precious Holy Spirit. I'm sorry for the times I've grieved you. The times I've ignored your voice. The times I've stifled your instructions. Help me to walk with you. Help me to walk at your pace and listen to your voice. To not delay or to debate or to hesitate. To be responsive to you. Sensitive to your spirit. In Jesus name we pray I want you to write it if you believe it right amen. If you enjoyed this message and you think others need to hear it leave a like on the video so you can spread it. And also let's stay connected. Make sure you subscribe to my channel so that you can continue to receive my teachings on the Holy Spirit. I also want to invite you to be a part of what God is doing through this ministry. 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