 Do you desire to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit with perfect clarity? Well, I want you to know that the Scripture makes it perfectly clear that the believer can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit with absolute clarity. You don't have to buy into the myth that the believer struggles to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's voice is not something that we should struggle to hear, and you don't have to accept the lack of clarity. You can come to know the voice of the Holy Spirit with such familiarity that you'll even be able to hear Him whisper, even in the midst of the chaos of life. That's what I'm talking about here on this edition of Spirit Church. But first, Stephen Moctezuma is here with me. He's going to lead you in worship, and then we're going to get right into this lesson. I know you're going to love it. Here is Stephen Moctezuma. Because your love never failed. I know I still make mistakes, but you have new mercies for me every day. Because your love never failed. And you stay the same through the ages. Oh, your love never changes. There may be pain in the night, but joy comes in the morning. I don't have to because I know that you love me. Oh, your love never failed. Oh, your love never failed. Work together for me. Work together for me. Oh, you may work together for me. Together for me. Stay the same because I know that you love me. I know that you desire to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit because you desire to please the Lord. In order to please the Lord, you must walk in obedience. And in order to walk in obedience, you have to know what the Lord desires. And in order to know what the Lord desires, you have to know His voice. You have to know what He has spoken. Now the good news is that you can hear the voice of God. You don't have to guess or struggle to hear His voice. You can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit with absolute clarity. Everyone, from the new convert to the seasoned Christian, can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit for himself. Can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit for herself. And I'm going to give you some keys here today on this edition of Spirit Church. Very practical, very simple keys that you can apply immediately. And I mean that as soon as you're done watching this video, you can go and apply these to your life. And I believe that you'll begin to hear the voice of God with clarity. Now, the truth is that you need the voice of the Holy Spirit. So before I talk to you about how to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, I want to talk to you about the need for the voice of the Holy Spirit. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 says this, Now, dear brothers and sisters, let us clarify some things about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and how we will be gathered to meet Him. Don't be so easily shaken or alarmed by those who say that the day of the Lord has already begun. Don't believe them even if they claim to have had a spiritual vision, a revelation or a letter supposedly from us. Don't be fooled by what they say, for that day will not come until there is a great rebellion against God and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the one who brings destruction. There is going to be a rebellion against the Lord and the Scripture refers to it as the falling away in the end times. And sadly, there are going to be some professing believers who participate in this rebellion. And in fact, I truly believe that we are already living in the days of that rebellion. I believe we are in the days of the falling away. All you have to do is look at the condition of the church. Many portions of the church or the so-called church are no longer declaring the Lordship of Christ or no longer preaching the gospel. You don't hear about the blood of Jesus. You don't hear about the cross. You don't hear about repentance. All you hear about is self and new ageism and humanism and all of these worldly things that have nothing to do with Jesus. There is a form of godliness, but there's no power. And there's no power because the name of Jesus is not being proclaimed. The truth of the gospel is not being proclaimed. Remember this, a Christless gospel is a powerless gospel. So we need to come into a place of discernment. And there are many opinions all around us. I mean, you can't even post anything on the internet. Just if you want to know really how cluttered the world is with information and opinion, just post something on Facebook. You can post something as simple as Jesus loves you. And multiple Christians will, by the third or fourth comment, be debating different things. That's because people are so opinionated. And social media has given many people who would not have a platform otherwise a way to express themselves as both a good thing and a bad thing. But there are voices that speak. There really is no way that most people can ground themselves. There are opinions on every form of theology. There are opinions on opinions. You could say, well, I disagree with that believer, but I think that we should just get along because we all love Jesus. And then there will be believers who disagree with that point and say, well, no, we shouldn't get along because they are wrong on this theology or that theology. And it goes on and on and on. We disagree on points and on sub points. And we go off into rabbit trails and we get distracted. And there are opinions coming at us from all different angles. There are political opinions. There are spiritual opinions. There are opinions about the Bible. There are opinions about Jesus. There are opinions about the church. There are opinions about methodology and ministry. And all of this is coming at us. All of this is coming at the church. And there seems to be this grasping for something firm. There seems to be this desire that is reaching a tipping point for a clear and fresh revelation from heaven. And I believe that the church is coming into an hour now when we will rise and know the voice of the Holy Spirit with such perfect clarity that we will need no man to tell us what the will of God is for our lives. And that's the truth. That's how God wants it. But you know, the church is in many ways eating itself up. We're divided. We're distracted. We're opinionated about things that don't even matter. And because of this, there is confusion. There are opinions on top of opinions. There are opinions on events. There are opinions on how the church should respond to certain events. And let me tell you, I'm just going to be honest with you, it gets tiring. And then you have those who really don't have substance and they're commenting on these things. And I can just imagine many of these preachers as they're tweeting, they imagine in their minds that I know there's a lot of chaos, but my tweet, my message, this will be the one that calms everyone. This will be the point that everyone rallies around. And it just doesn't happen that way. So how do we in a world that is so filled with information, so filled with opinions, so filled with terrible perspective, how can we find clarity? It's important that we do because if not, we can be caught up in deception. Now, there are many options that we have for information and they're all very convincing. Many of them I should say are very convincing, not all of them. And you just can't appease every voice. Not everyone will agree with you on every point. In fact, everyone will probably disagree with you on some point at some point, no pun intended there. Your family speaks, your emotions speak, the worlds speak, false prophets speak, Satan speaks, demonic powers speak. But the voice of the Holy Spirit speaks too. I'm reminded of a scripture or a narrative here in Exodus chapter 17 verses 1 through 7. The scripture says this, At the Lord's command, the whole community of Israel left the wilderness of sin or whoreb and moved from place to place. Eventually they camped at Revadim, but there was no water there for the people to drink. So once more the people complained against Moses, give us water to drink, they demanded. Quiet, Moses replied. Why are you complaining against me? And why are you testing the Lord? But tormented by thirst, they continued to argue with Moses. Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Are you trying to kill us, our children and our livestock with thirst? Then Moses cried out to the Lord, what should I do with these people? They are ready to stone me. The Lord said to Moses, walk out in front of the people, take your staff, the one you used 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. So Moses struck the rock as he was told and water gushed out as the elders looked on. Moses named the place Massa, which means test, and Meraba, which means arguing, because the people of Israel argued with Moses and tested the Lord by saying, is the Lord here with us or not? So this is an amazing miracle. The children of Israel were thirsty and they were complaining against the servant of the Lord. And God speaks to Moses. He gives them a clear instruction. He says, strike the rock and water will come gushing out. So Moses, obedient to the voice of the Holy Spirit, obedient to the voice of God, strikes the rock and sure enough water comes flowing out. This is a powerful miracle. But then something happens and this is a separate event in Numbers chapter 20, beginning at verse 7 where the scripture says, and the Lord said to Moses, He and Aaron must take the staff and assemble the entire community. 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. 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. 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. Moses would cut off right then and there from the promise of entering into the promised land. Listen to me very carefully. This is why it's so important that you hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. When you disobey the voice of the Holy Spirit or when you act in a way that is contrary to what God has spoken, there is a consequence. Sometimes we act out of ignorance and sometimes we act out of willful disobedience. Now I can't say what it was here but Moses heard the Lord say speak to the rock and instead he struck the rock. Now what's interesting to me is that water still came forward. There were still results. But Moses missed something. His destiny was altered. People have missed their destinies because they do not obey or even try to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. I have a friend who is very prophetic and he told me a story about when he first started in the ministry. He traveled to a foreign country to minister the gospel and he and several pastors were getting ready in the morning to take a helicopter ride up to the top of a mountain. It was the only way that you can get to the top of the mountain in time for the service. That is if you wanted to gain some extra hours of sleep and they were all very tired. And so my friend heard the Lord speak to him in the morning that he was to go and speak. Not to take the helicopter but instead to hike up the mountain. Now my friend at the time he will say this. He was overweight so he was not really up to the challenge of climbing that mountain. But he obeyed the voice of the Holy Spirit and he woke up hours earlier than he had to wake up. He got dressed hours earlier than he had to get dressed and he began on his trek up that mountain. By the time he arrived at the top he was sweaty and he was tired and he was exhausted and he was a bit dirty from the traveling. When he got to the top of that mountain he found there was some tragic news. The helicopter had crashed and every person on that helicopter died. Now it's quite possible that the Holy Spirit tried to speak to those other pastors to those other people on that helicopter. But because he obeyed the voice of the Holy Spirit my friend was spared from that tragedy. Moses was not attentive to the voice of God. God told him speak to the rock and Moses struck the rock. Why? I believe it's because Moses was thinking about the separate incidents recorded in Exodus chapter 17. Now these locations are different. I don't have time to go into laying out the difference between these two narratives or these two stories but these are separate occasions. Moses remembered what the Lord did and acted upon a memory or acted upon tradition instead of a fresh message from the Holy Spirit. This is why the church is in trouble and I might get in trouble talking about this. This is why the church is in trouble today. They're looking for God in a tradition that he's no longer in. They're looking for God to move in ways that they remember he moved. They're looking for God to use means that he used to use. I'll give you just one example. There are many ministries right now that are just starting and they're investing a lot in the television. But you know what? God's not really doing things in television anymore. Sure God's using great networks and I'm not saying they're not anointed by God but to start now in television is not really what God is doing. I believe God is moving in new media. He's moving through internet. He's moving through smart television. He's moving through our devices. I mean think about how everything has changed. So again, let me reiterate. I'm not saying God doesn't use TV ministries. I'm saying that to start one now is a completely different story. Those who started then, they're in a good position to make some good transitions. But my point is that some people, they will try to touch on what God used to do and therefore miss out on what God is doing now. God is doing something fresh in the earth. God is doing something different. It's going to look different. It's going to sound different. It's going to be delivered through different means and it's going to be applied through different methodologies. And if you're not careful, you will look for God in the striking of the rock when he's saying to speak to the rock. And though you will see results, water will come forth. You'll see miracles, water will come forth. You'll see salvation, water will come forth. You will miss out on your destiny because you're not obeying the voice of the Holy Spirit or even applying your ear to listen for it. Most people don't even try to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit so they don't know what they're missing. So don't judge your success by results. Anybody can see results. But the question is, is it the destiny that God has placed you and is it the result that God has planned to give you? And that is the difference between hearing the voice and not hearing the voice. We can miss our destiny if we don't hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. Moses was trying to perform today's miracle based upon yesterday's instruction. Power is not found in systems. It's found in obedience. I'm going to say that to you again. Power is not found in systems. It is found in obedience. God is not mechanical. God is not predictable. In fact, God will just do things differently just to mess with your humanity. Sometimes God will do things completely different than we are used to him doing them just so you know that it was God that did it and not the method. Just so you know to rely upon God and not your systems and your structures. God likes to move in ways we least expect so that we can't get the glory for working the system. Instead, he requires faith in response to hearing his voice. Moses was excluded from the Promised Land because of how he responded to the voice we have to hear him. Now, it's not all just warning that I'm going to give you. It benefits to hearing the voice and I'm going to tell you how to hear it. You see, I'm going to read John chapter 5 verse 19 where the scripture says, 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. So Jesus makes it clear that there is not a single thing he does. He didn't speak a word. He didn't think a thought. He didn't tip. He didn't heal one sick person. He didn't teach one lesson until he saw his Father do it. Jesus was reflecting perfectly from heaven upon the earth the perfect will of God and he did it by perfect obedience to the voice of God, to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Jesus, you'll often see healed. Jesus taught. Jesus walked. Jesus cast out devils. Jesus ate. Jesus wept. But you'll never see once in the scripture that Jesus hurried. Jesus never hurried because Jesus was never late. And Jesus was never late because he was always in God's perfect timing. You and I can pray for the day that we are in tune with the will of God down to the hour or even the minute or even the second. But Jesus was so in tune He was so reflective of God's will in heaven upon the earth that he walked in perfect obedience. He walked in obedience. He walked in the will of God right down to the millisecond. I want you to think about that. Down to the millisecond everything was perfectly timed because he walked in obedience to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Now Jesus walked with a peace. Do you have peace? Jesus had clarity. Do you have clarity? Jesus laid hold of his purpose. Do you know your purpose? Jesus walked in effectiveness. Jesus walked in miracles. These are actual results of hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit. Now hear me. There are many things that you can judge your success by. You can judge it by how much money you make. You can judge it based upon how many people like you. How many people know your name? You can even judge it based on spiritual results by how many people are getting saved in your life. How many people are getting healed. But the only standard that we measure our success by is whether or not we obey the voice of the Holy Spirit. True success is not results. True success is obedience to the voice of the Holy Spirit. And that is how Jesus walked. He did not miss one appointment. He did not miss one miracle. In part of his destiny, he walked in perfect obedience to God and you can too just by hearing and obeying the voice of the Holy Spirit. Now miracles took place. He was effective. He had purpose. He had clarity. He had a peaceful, restful flow. People who are in the will of God, they're not in a rush. They're not burdened. They're not chaotic. I know some of you don't like to hear this from the truth. Maybe your ministry is not growing because you're not organized and you're not organized because you're not hearing the voice of God. And God is a God of order. God will not bless a mess. Are you stewarding well what he has given you? Are you taking care of what he has entrusted to you? How do you know you have to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit? Now we judge our success for example. I personally am a cat person. Now I know this is YouTube so the YouTube community will welcome that but those of you who are listening to the podcast or any other form of media you may say, what? I'm so disappointed to hear you're a cat person. I don't own a cat but I prefer cats because they don't do anything and they leave me alone. Other than that I'm not really an animal person but I do have compassion where there's a dog and he's got a missing eye and he's shaking and they have the sad music and the camera's zooming in on their face and the voice comes over. If you'll donate just 5 cents a day you can help so and so come out of the dog pound or whatever it is they're raising money for. And I'm thinking of all the causes I can put my money toward. Of all the things that are going wrong I would much rather put my money toward a starving child helping human beings out first and then we'll solve some of those problems but you know there are many causes out there but the only thing that really affects anything is what you do for eternity. I'm all for feeding programs I'm all for sheltering the homeless I'm all for clothing those who don't have clothes I'm all for visiting the prisoner visiting the sick in the hospital I do many of those things but the truth is that it does no good to feed a man today who's going to hell tomorrow. What do I mean by that? I mean that there is no greater cause than the gospel. There is no greater cause than that which counts for eternity and only that which counts for eternity truly counts. You see even if I do something that impacts a nation or the world and in the history books let's say I win the Nobel Peace Prize I know I never will I don't do any of that kind of work but in the world really doesn't acknowledge ministers of the gospel in fact we're persecuted and hated but let's say someone becomes a historical figure for helping this nation or that nation history will remember them yes but then even one day history will be no more only what impacts eternity truly counts and if you want your life to impact eternity you have to be hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit Jesus had actual results Jesus actually made a difference the greatest cause you can be a part of the greatest difference you can make is making a difference with the gospel I'm not just about impacting lives and changing lives I want to change and impact eternities and in order to become that person who is peaceful and clear and focused on their purpose and effective and operating in miracles and seeing actual results that affect eternity you have to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit so how do we hear the voice of the Holy Spirit well number one you have to stop believing and this isn't one of the points but this is this is my introduction to these points you have to stop believing the myth of the Holy Spirit it's not that God has anointed certain people to hear his voice and other people to just listen no no God has anointed every believer to hear his voice John chapter 14 verse 26 the scripture says but when the father sends the advocate that's the Holy Spirit as my representative that is the Holy Spirit he will teach you everything and remind you of everything I have told you Jesus said my very words are spirit and life where has that been recorded? Jesus is teaching right here in the word Jesus is the word this is the written word Jesus is the written word made flesh he's the word made flesh so this word is the revelation of Jesus it's the revelation of Christ the Holy Spirit takes the word and makes him real the Holy Spirit takes the word and intensifies and vivifies and glorifies and magnifies Jesus he takes your attention and places it on Jesus when you read the word you are communing with Christ because the Holy Spirit is taking the word and making it spirit just like in John 6 we see where Jesus said that the Spirit alone gives life but that now my words my words I have spoken are spirit and life so those words that are spoken the Holy Spirit breathes upon and makes them real to you you can't really claim anything from the word for yourself until the Holy Spirit has given you the revelation of it the Holy Spirit has to breathe upon it he breathes upon the promises of God he breathes upon the instructions he breathes upon the revelation and he makes that yours the Holy Spirit doesn't just make the word real he makes the word yours the promise is yours the promise has come to pass when the Holy Spirit touches them now my point here is number one to understand and to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit you need the word this is your guide remember this the voice of the Holy Spirit will never contradict anything in the word this Bible the Bible is the perfect word of God it is without error in its message and it is divine in nature these very words are spirit and life this is not just a book though the binding and the pages and the ink are just of this world this here is revelation this is the word of God this is precious this is rich when you begin to get into this book it begins to transform you it begins to change you and the Holy Spirit speaks to the word because the scripture says that he reminds us and he reveals he reminds and he reveals to the two things he does but how is he supposed to remind you of something you've never read how is he supposed to reveal to you if you're not in the word you have to seek you have to knock you have to ask then he responds ask and it shall be given seek and you shall find knock and the door will be open when you read the word knocking on the door of revelation you're saying Lord let me see tell me what you're really like show me what your nature is tell me about your likes and dislikes what do I do that pleases you what do I do that displeases you talk to me show me what direction do I need to take in my life with this particular instance and then just read the more often you're in the word the more you begin to realize what his voice is like people say well what is the voice of God sound like well it sounds like God and I know that's not the answer you want to hear but for example what does my voice sound like you could try to describe it but even in describing my voice a human voice if you try to describe my voice to one of your friends they wouldn't know my voice if they heard me talking in a crowd but you would why because you watch these videos regularly you're with the teachings we spend time together in the word and so you become familiar you recognize the voice that's what it's like to hear God you just spend time in the word it's that simple listen it really is that simple spend time in the word get into the depths of the word get into the richness of the word and you'll begin to become familiar with the voice of God so number one is the word number two is silence and stillness now silence is the easy part Matthew chapter 6 verse 6 says but when you pray go away by yourself shut the door behind you and pray to your father in private then your father who sees everything will reward you now prayer that is done in private is less distracting that's why we close our eyes when we pray we're shutting out natural sight we're looking with the eyes of our heart the inner man is focusing on Jesus and so when you go away into the silence you're putting away all of the outer distraction that's the easy part that's turning off your phone that's turning off the television that's turning off the internet not yet finish this video and then do it that's telling people you can't be reached for a certain period of the day that's setting aside all of the responsibilities and the tasks that have laid themselves before you praying before the Lord and saying Lord I make time for you here I am you know the Holy Spirit wants to lead you into the depths of prayer but he waits for you at the gate of stillness so silence is the putting away of outer distraction but stillness is the quieting of the soul be still my soul all of the noise all of the clutter the emotions the stress the prayer requests the burdens, the hurts the sickness the financial trouble all of it creates inner chaos now some people will come to pray and they'll say you know this chaos, this inner chaos I don't fill it until the moment I go to pray and they'll say things like this isn't it amazing that I'm not distracted until I try to pray the truth is that inner chaos is always there you just don't realize it until you're quiet enough to hear what's going on inside of your own heart so prayer does not invite chaos it reveals it it shows where you are just try for a moment after this video go and be still somewhere and look at all that's going on inside of you 24-7 it's only when you go to pray in stillness that it's finally revealed imagine you've been walking around with that what you learn to be still Psalm 46-10 says be still and know that I am God stillness precedes revelation if you want to know him you have to be still Exodus chapter 14 verse 14 says the Lord will fight for you you need only to be still stop fighting stop wrestling stop trying to solve all your problems in prayer just give it to the Lord and be still Psalm 37 verse 7 says be still in the presence of the Lord and wait patiently for him to act most people don't realize that a big part of stillness is just waiting on the Lord that's how I begin prayer I just go in I'll start worshiping and I just wait the truth is according to Psalm 80-18 that you have to be still and the Lord has to invite you or call upon you or quicken you before you can call upon him sure you can with your mouth say Lord I need you you can call upon him but who do you think was it that put that desire in you in the first place it was the Holy Spirit so every time you desire to pray every time you think to pray every time you're being pulled to pray that quite possibly could be the work of the Holy Spirit when you pray in you that is from the Holy Spirit he's calling you and when you respond to that and when you're still enough to hear that response he takes you right in now we struggle and we try to fight all these different battles in our own mind and we worry and we think that by worrying we're going to change any circumstance whatsoever but it's not true you can't change anything by worry I like to use this analogy the Holy Spirit attacks its prey in the animal kingdom when it destroys the body of its prey and it bites down the prey will begin to struggle and squirm or tense up it's not until the prey stops tensing its body that the predator knows that it has ownership over the prey and until the prey stops fighting the predator will not let go now I don't mean to say that God is a predator or he's attacking us but in a good way he wants to kill our flesh our flesh is the prey of prayer prayer kills the flesh and prayer and stillness stillness will destroy the flesh quietness will destroy the flesh waiting will destroy the flesh waiting in prayer and just being still and letting all that clutter in your mind all those thoughts letting them just bounce off of your revelation of Jesus because you have the word you have a revelation of who he is you hold on to that revelation you focus on that revelation and every thought that comes against you bounces off of that revelation because you're holding to that truth worldly meditation tells you empty your mind but godly meditation is meditation upon the word it's meditation upon what he said there's substance to the meditation and because there's substance to our meditation we don't invite evil spirits like emptiness does evil spirits will look to fill the emptiness so when you empty your mind you're inviting at least when you empty your mind in meditation and godly meditation you're inviting demonic influence but when you fill your mind with the word and hold to that revelation and say I will not let that go you let all of those thoughts bounce off of you and your flesh begins to die prayer grabs hold of the flesh and the flesh will tense it will squirm and prayer will hold on until the flesh stops squirming the flesh stops fighting and then you enter right in and you begin to worship and you sense that connection you begin to read and there's revelation for some people it's going to take you 45 minutes of waiting on the Lord some it will take you 3 me who took me 4 hours for a day for a week straight before I finally saw breakthrough in that area my flesh finally stops squirming but do it because it is the silence and stillness that will allow you to hear the voice of God now finally the final key here is number 3 obedience obedience to the voice of God Psalm chapter 37 verse 23 says the Lord directs the steps of the godly he delights in every detail of their lives whose step does he direct whose steps does the Lord direct the godly Proverbs chapter 3 verse 6 in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths if you acknowledge him he will direct you if you walk in godliness he will delight in every detail of your life if you walk in godliness he will direct your steps God does not direct the disobedient sure for the sake of salvation he'll use his sovereign hand to move them along to the point where they have an opportunity to repent for the most part God is not instructing the ungodly the Lord directs the step of the godly this means that you must obey I want you to hear me on this God will speak and not speak again until you obey what he's spoken I want you to get that because it's so important I know it's heavy but I need you to understand this God will speak and not speak again until you obey what he has already spoken some of us don't want to go hear the voice of God because we know he's just going to repeat what he told us last time some of us don't like going into the deep places of prayer because we're revealed before the Lord and he can see us and we don't like what he sees delay is disobedience delay is disobedience when you obey the voice of God his voice becomes even clearer you say but I don't know what to do next I'm not quite sure what the instruction is here just obey what you know and the rest will come with clarity I have no specifics just obey his word start with the word what does his word say to do find your time in prayer in silence and stillness you do those two things and eventually that spoken word to your heart will become clearer and clearer and clearer and if you obey what God tells you to do in his word if you obey what God tells you to do in prayer he begins to speak more and more often and more and more clearly and really it's not even that disobedience keeps God from speaking it keeps us from hearing so number one the word number two silence and stillness and number three obedience and then I just want to give you this I know this is going a little longer than usual but I know you'll love the teaching here and it will help you so let me just give you one more quick thing here Jesus said in John chapter 10 verse 27 my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me Jesus said my sheep hear my voice I'm reminded of first Samuel chapter 3 verses 1 through 10 when Samuel was first called by the Lord he didn't recognize the voice of God God called him Samuel Samuel went to his master Eli and said Eli did you call me Eli says no I didn't call you go back to bed well after a couple of times of this happening Eli eventually realizes Samuel the Lord is speaking to you and so he tells Samuel go and when you hear that voice speak to you again say speak Lord your servant hears and so Samuel went back and eventually he made a connection with the Lord and was called as a prophet so Samuel heard the voice of God he just didn't recognize it there are three voices that will speak to you in your life no matter what you hear no matter what the source of the information is anything that ever comes in your direction that is information or ideas or anything like that anything that comes your way is going to be from one of three voices it's either going to be from the satanic the secular or the spirit the satanic is easy to spot the satanic will always contradict the word of God the secular is a little more difficult to spot because it's subtle it contradicts the nature of God unless you're spending time in his presence you're not going to know what God is like in other words the satanic voice will speak and you'll say I don't believe that because the word of God says exactly the opposite but you learn to resist the secular voice because you'll hear something or see something or something will come your way and say no I don't think the Lord's in it because I know his voice or I know his nature and this doesn't look like something he would want me to do or this is not something he has spoken to me or this is not something he wants from me right now so it's a little more subtle and then number three there is the spirit so the satanic will contradict the word the secular will contradict the nature of God and the spirit will always align with both the spirit is the voice of the Holy Spirit so how do you discern between these things well when it comes to hearing God really as often as we say Lord I want to hear your voice Lord I want to hear your voice what's interesting is that it's not really about hearing him because you already hear him if you belong to God you already hear the voice of God you just have to recognize his voice among all of the other voices that are speaking my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me Jesus said it very clearly my sheep hear my voice the question is not can I hear the voice of God the question is am I a sheep do I belong to him and if you belong to him then he's speaking to you right now he's talking to you through his word through his spirit all you have to do is shut out the other voices and recognize the voice that's speaking to you Father I pray right now for that one who's receiving this prayer and I pray Lord for perfect clarity help them Lord to shut out the voices of the world help them to hear you above all the noise give us a hunger for your word Lord take us deeper into your word than ever before take us deeper into prayer than ever before and let our faith rise so that we can walk the walk of faith more radically than ever before we thank you Father for your voice that is now speaking in Jesus name we pray if you agree I want you to say amen well I know that you enjoyed that teaching because I know it was from the Lord and I know that many of you messaged that you wanted teaching on the voice of the Holy Spirit so I'm going to welcome now the new members of Spirit Church there you are up on the screen we love you we are praying for you I always say that because I always mean it I'm going to read now your comments from last week's video the first disciples and then I want to talk to you about our fundraiser where we are don't go anywhere and I want to talk to you about becoming a monthly partner if you've never stuck around for the end of this I want you to stick around and even if you have before and you're not yet supported or maybe you are supporting either way there's going to be a little something for everybody after I read these comments so these are from last week's video God's anointed the first disciples and that was actually a series I did on the call of God it was a seven part series go and check it out I know it will bless you if you feel that God is calling you to the ministry it's a absolute must for you Connie writes thank you David for sharing this message I'm truly blessed by God for knowing your ministry I am learning to surrender to God and to yield to him my calling for the moment is to own a business in career placements God bless you I pray that the Lord would bless what he has called you to do Mahoradu's writes I thank God for your ministry it's a great joy to learn more about God's kingdom Diane writes thank you for sharing the in depth meaning of God's words in John 3 30 he must increase and I must decrease this is impacted my everyday life I pray encounter TV can be a blessing here in Indonesia Wow watching all the way from Indonesia well God bless you we thank you for watching encounter TV or spirit church here on encounter TV Alvira writes this brought me to tears this series really blessed me thank you David these teachings make me fall in love with Jesus more and more each time I am called to be an evangelist I pray that the name of Jesus will continue to be glorified as I walk in his will and tell the lost about the hope that saved me be blessed forever well Alvira God bless you and I pray he bless your call to the ministry of evangelism very excited to hear about that Sanisa Rossell writes hallelujah to the lamb pastor David all of your sermons have made my faith grow I'm always blessed by all of your messages thank God for your life I always include you in my prayers everyday pastor well thank you so much I really do appreciate your prayers and to those of you who are praying for me thank you I love you and I appreciate it and finally Patty Gonzalez writes David my husband and I love your teaching it is a blessing from God I know he will bless you more and I'm so excited to be a part of your ministry campaign it's all for his kingdom well God bless you Patty and Patty you probably know where we are but I want to just update all of you on where we are with this campaign this is how far we are now look at the progress we have made praise the Lord we're almost there and in fact I estimate that this what you're seeing right here will be done within the next two or three months and I'm so excited for it for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about let me try to give this to you as briefly and concisely as possible but listen up here this is important to hear because you can be a part of this okay here's what we're doing in short we are going to build a world evangelism center that ministry center will be the home of a 24-7 prayer room a television production studio that can house a studio audience so that you can come in and be a part of the tapings and you can be a part of the live broadcast it will be a production facility that can broadcast live it will be a production facility where we can produce multiple different programs and it will be a place where we can launch the brand new network that we're working on it's the encounter TV network and that is going to be taking advantage of the new media such as top box television sets smart TV Apple TV Roku things like that and Android and Apple devices it's going to be the TV network of the future and that means we're basically going to reach more people in a more efficient way so the cost per person reach is going to be much lower than if we did traditional television broadcast now in addition to this facility those monthly costs will also help us to do more events more often and more locations and I know you're excited about that that means we can start coming to more countries and all of that now here's where it breaks down as far as the expenses go because I want to give you a little breakdown here I need you to understand what I mean by monthly support when I say become a $30 a month partner I mean that you sign up and that you become a supporting says I'm going to give $30 every month and I'm sticking with your ministry I'm with you now the people who give a one-time gift we appreciate that we love that we use that and it helps to fund what we're doing here but the monthly support is really what we're counting on we needed a thousand new $30 a month partners to help make up for the cost of the new hires we would have to make the facility costs and the cost of the events that we're going to start doing so a building has monthly costs there's rent there's air conditioning for a studio audience definitely going to want that there's electricity there are utilities there is security security cameras alarm systems insurance office supplies all of that is going to be on a monthly basis so that's why we need the monthly partners and also the events that we're going to be doing so thank you for sticking around for that explanation so to recap world evangelism center brand new facility and events that we're going to be doing more often why we want to win more souls in a more effective manner so we need two things we need monthly partners we need one-time donors you're going to sign on to become a monthly partner i'm going to send you either my book carriers of the glory or 25 truths about demons and spiritual warfare your choice i'm going to sign it for you as a thank you for becoming a $30 a month partner now do that today sign up help us take the gospel all around the world and we sure do appreciate what you do becoming a monthly partner with this ministry is what keeps this ministry going and helps us to plan for the future so here's what you're going to do if you're watching this on youtube wait until the end of the video and a link is going to appear you're going to see a red button on the video click that button sign up to become a $30 a month partner today listen if you hear the voice of the Holy Spirit telling you to sign up obey his voice don't delay say i'm going to do it i'm going to sign up to become a $30 a month partner today do that and then stick with us for the long term this is something we're going to do to evangelize the world and i'm excited about everything that's happening it's going to be awesome so do that today thank you for those of you who have partnered stay with us continue to partner don't stop your partnership we love you we are praying for you well that is it for this edition of spirit church until next time remember nothing is impossible with god thank you for watching encounter tv don't forget to subscribe also help me win souls by spreading the gospel through events and media make a one-time donation or become a monthly supporter by clicking on the donate link now