 We're gonna return to Orange, California and just a moment where I'll be finishing that message on the power of the Holy Spirit Now it's time for our moment of truth segment This is where I take your questions and do my best to present a biblical answer to them The question for this episode is from Delano Seldivar from Dearborn, Michigan The question is how can you tell the difference between your own voice or your own thoughts and the Holy Spirit's voice? Well, that's a great question And this is a question that many people are wanting to know the answer to in fact It's probably one of the more asked questions in the Christian world Which is why messages on the voice of God are not in any sort of shortage in any sense But for my key verse, I want to go to John chapter 10 verse 27 where Jesus says something quite interesting John chapter 10 verse 27 says my sheep hear my voice I know them and they follow me or they come to me Now what's interesting there to me is that Jesus says my sheep hear my voice in other words They're not someone who's deaf to the voice of the Holy Spirit So Jesus speaks now to us through the voice of the Holy Spirit using the word of God Using other people using various other circumstances But Jesus will speak to us through the voice of the Holy Spirit and he's speaking to you now The truth is God is talking to you right at this very moment. God is saying something to you There's a word that God has given you there's something that God has breathed into your spirit and The issue is not whether or not I can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit The issue is not whether or not I can hear the voice of God. The question is am I a sheep? Because Jesus said my sheep hear my voice I think of scriptures like first Samuel chapter 3 where the prophet is called out by the Lord and At first the Lord calls them Samuel Samuel and he hears it And he mistakes the voice of God for the voice of his mentor Eli and he goes to his mentor He says master did you call for me and this happens a couple of the times before the prophet finally is told by his mentor Oh, that's the Lord calling you. Why do I bring this up? It's just to illustrate my point that I made first by referencing John chapter 10 verse 27, which is You can hear the voice of God without recognizing it. In fact, I believe you're hearing the voice of God right now So the question though I know Delano you had a specific question I hope it doesn't seem like I'm dodging it the question We should be asking is not how can I hear the voice of God because if you're a believer You already hear the voice of God and this isn't just semantics is a very important though seemingly insignificant shift that we have to make In our thinking it's not that we have to hear God It's that we have to recognize God in other words. We're already picking him up We already know the things he's telling us the issue was just discerning which is him So as I like to say there are three things categorically speaking or three voices categorically speaking that Communicate to you in everyday life whether that's to dreams whether that's to the Bible whether that's through your heart or your spirit Whether that's to other individuals whether that's to circumstances No matter how God communicates to you everything that he communicates falls under the category of spirit and so There's the spirit There's the satanic and there's the secular The satanic is very obvious it will always contradict directly the truth of the word of God The secular is a little more difficult to spot because it is more nuanced It's more subtle it has more to do with things that are not necessarily God But can be distracting in that they're good So the satanic is the things that are bad The secular is the things that may seem good but are distracting and the spirit is what is the pure voice of the Holy Spirit? So like I said those are three categories under which you can place any communication that comes your way So the question is how do you discern between those three because it's not just your own voice You're trying to decipher through it's the voice of the world Which is a secular voice and actually your voice counts as the secular and there's the voice the demonic Then there's the voice of the Holy Spirit, which is the truth So the secular contradicts the nature of God Which is why it's harder to spot because not many people know his nature But the satanic contradicts the word of God the spirit will always align with both the nature and the word of God So how can you tell the difference between I'll give you three practical keys real quickly Number one silence and stillness silence is the putting away of outer distraction Jesus said that when you pray go away quietly privately and when you pray in private your father who sees you in private Will reward you openly so silence is the putting away of outer distraction. It's practical It takes a matter of discipline turn off the TV turn off the phone put away those noises that affect you in the outer man The everyday life, but then stillness is a little deeper stillness is the quieting of the inner man stillness is the quieting of the soul So silence is the putting away of outer distraction stillness is the quieting of the soul and it has to do with Pushing down or clarifying and finding peace with those things that distract you during prayer We're talking about things that make you angry things that make you depressed things that make you fearful things that make you Concerned things that are just distracting simply because they're entertaining that are inward those thoughts that you replay those fillings of condemnation and guilt Those fillings of inadequacy and the inability to approach God all of those things are The inner chaos that I like to call it now You know what inner chaos is and you can identify the things that are a lie simply by this rule of thumb any thing any thought belief or idea that keeps you from approaching God in Confidence is a lie so Number one silence and stillness silence the putting away of outer distraction stillness the quieting of the soul Number two is obedience the scripture says God directs the steps of the godly now other than his directions of the steps for the Ungodly as it pertains to their salvation such as with Saul turning into Paul God Encountering him on the road to Damascus or road to Damascus That's God intervening in the sinner's life and directing them toward salvation toward repentance But other than that God really doesn't direct necessarily the steps of the ungodly He reserves that special favor of direction for those who obey his voice So those who walk in obedience to God are more likely to hear his voice Why because sin causes you to go deaf spiritually and it's not that God stops speaking It's that we have trouble listening So we say God tell me something he tells us and we say I don't really like that And we say keep telling me something but the longer you ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit the harder He becomes to hear so when God tells you to do something do it Otherwise, he's not going to give you step two if you if you you say God I'm listening for step number two. He said but I already told you step one and you did nothing with those instructions So God will speak and he won't speak again in most instances on any given topic Unless you go and first obey what he told you to do initially So number one silence and stillness number two is so important You need obedience and number three finally is the word the scripture says that I have hid thy word in my heart That I might not sin against thee I will hide his words in my heart that I might not sin against God is what the Bible says and This this hiding of God's word in your heart keeps you from disobeying But it also brings clarity to your mind It also brings when you hear the voice of God more often to the scripture It becomes familiar if I asked you to describe the voice of any one of your loved ones You may be able to give some description to it But even your description would fail to describe the full quality of their voice But you know their voice the moment you hear it and it is because of that recognition Is that is in place that you're able to hear it and recognize it at the same time But that recognition only comes from you spending time and hearing them So the word of God is a key to hearing the voice of God So how can you decide or discern between your own voice this are you a secular the satanic or the spirit? It's number one silence and stillness number two obedience and number three Reading the word of God and that is your moment of truth There's this idea that our dreams are more important than God's will center Homosexual sin heterosexual sin why we were all yet sinners Christ died for us