HEARING THE VOICE - II

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FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP

HEARING THE VOICE OF IAUE – II

John 10:1  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

2  But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

3  To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.

4  And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.

Psalm 100:3 Know ye that IAUE he is Elohim: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

The last post ended with this comment:

“There are ways we can enhance our ability to hear the voice of the Spirit.  There also are things that we can do that interfere with our ability to hear the voice of the Spirit.  Most importantly, for the novice, there is a simple way to learn how to recognize His voice, especially for those who think they have never heard Him speak to them. “

I want to begin with help for the novice; for the one who does not know what it is to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.  Let me say right from the start, if you have bowed your knee to Messiah in faith, and have experienced the new birth, you have heard the voice of the Holy Spirit.  You may not have known it at the time; but you do have experience hearing His voice. 

(It would make sense to cover the foundation of insuring that the reader is born again and filled with the Holy Spirit; but it is reasonable to assume that any reader who has made it this far has at least experienced the new birth in Messiah that results from having bowed your knee to Messiah Yahushua.  If you are confident that you have not experienced the new birth or if you are unsure if you have experienced it; please wait patiently.  We will cover this in detail in three weeks.  Alternatively, you can email me at kaprion@gmail.com and we can discuss it one-on-one.)

I mentioned in the last posting that there are many who believe that the Scriptures (i.e., their current translation of the Scriptures) is the complete revealed will of IAUE.  They believe that there is no “voice” that speaks outside of the words contained in the Scriptures that could be the true voice of the Spirit.  This mistaken idea is based on the belief that if the Holy Spirit should speak something to someone then by virtue of the origin of the words, it would deserve to be “Scripture.”  However, if you believe the Scripture is the complete revelation of the Father’s will, then that would necessarily render such words to be heretical.  A single passage of Scripture could prove this belief to be false.

John 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

One of the primary objectives of the Holy Spirit is to teach the believer, to guide him into truth and to show him things to come.  He does not do this by causing you to read the right passage of Scripture; but rather by speaking to you about the right passage of Scripture so you may move from an academic understanding to a revelation of the truth behind it.   John repeats this message in his first epistle.

1 John 2:27  But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

From these simple words, we understand that it is the Holy Spirit’s role to reveal the Scriptures to us; to take us beyond the mere words on the page to the very heart of IAUE.  This takes communication.

Let me share an example with you.  Many years ago, I had the pleasure of being a part of a rich fellowship of believers in Central Texas.  Something very special was happening within this unit of around 200 people, whose lives had become revolutionized by the Holy Spirit.  I just happened to be in a Christian bookstore owned by one of these believers at a time when the owner was discussing a matter with a couple of the “elders” in the group.  It seems that a local radio station wanted to give the group a voice on the radio to share what they were learning, and to share their experiences.  The leadership was uncertain if they should accept the invitation or turn down the offer.  They decided to pray about it right then and there in the bookstore; so they formed a small circle (including me there were only about five in all).  They asked for direction from the Father what they should do; then they waited silently for a few minutes.  After the brief silence, they looked up at each other and asked if anyone had received any direction; and one lady said that she was given 1 Corinthians 14:9.  Everyone there was familiar with that chapter; but no one knew that specific verse by memory; so they got a bible and found the verse.  It said: “So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken?  for ye shall speak into the air.”  By this, they understood that they were to accept the invitation and “speak into the air” the things the group was learning.

This illustration shows that the Scripture WAS used to provide the revelation of the Father’s will regarding the matter; but the use of the verse was taken completely out of context, and the verse was given by the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to the lady.  Without the voice of the Spirit, there would have been no answer provided, regardless that it ultimately came from within the written words of Scripture.

On another occasion, I received a phone call from a friend who had the sound of desperation in his voice.  He was begging me to pray and to call him back with a verse of scripture, trusting that the Holy Spirit would lead me to what he needed.  After he hung up, I asked the Holy Spirit to give me the verse that the Father wanted my friend to read; and he did. I immediately went to the Scripture to read this passage before calling my friend; and I absolutely could not fathom how this could help my friend at all.  I called him, anyway, and told him that the Holy Spirit had given me Proverbs 6:12-13.  Now my friend read exclusively out of the New American Standard version of the bible.  This made a difference because the wording was quite different in this version.  It read, “A worthless person, a wicked man, is the one who walks with a perverse mouth, who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who points with his finger.”  After reading this passage, my friend was astonished at the specificity of the answer he received.  He had just been called in to a meeting with his boss.  His boss had been angrily accusing him of all manner of wrongdoing in their company, while winking at him and pointing his finger at him through the entire tirade.  My friend had begun to question whether he was actually responsible for anything wrong; as he was unaware going into the meeting of anything he might have done that was inappropriate.  The verses gave him the confidence to know that he was indeed innocent of any wrongdoing and that it was his boss who was the “wicked man.”  Within days, the truth became known, and my friend was completely exonerated. 

Here again, though it was the Scripture that was used to give my friend the answer he needed; it was the voice of the Holy Spirit that pointed me to the right passage of Scripture.  No voice – no answer. 

One more illustration:  A fierce hurricane was moving across the Gulf of Mexico towards Corpus Christi, TX.  I had family living in Corpus Christi and I was concerned not only about them; but all who would be affected by a hurricane hitting the shore.  The news broadcasters feared the worst because of the expectation that the warm water of the Gulf would only fuel the storm increasing its severity. I set myself to pray about it, and the Holy Spirit spoke to me to ask IAUE to cool the temperature of the waters in the Gulf of Mexico.  So, instead of praying for anyone’s safety; instead of praying to dissipate the storm, I prayed that the Father would cool the temperature of the water.  In fact, I also prayed that in doing this, he would protect the sea life within the Gulf from this change in temperature.  The storm slowed its advance for the next two or three days spinning round and round over the Gulf of Mexico; all the while the weather men and news broadcasters believing this to be the worst possible turn of events spelling horror for the coastal cities.  To their surprise, the hurricane dissipated into a tropical storm before it reached the coastline.  The next day, the breaking of the hurricane was attributed to the mysterious cooling of the temperatures of the Gulf waters. 

Cooling the water cannot be found in the Scriptures; but it can be found in the voice of the Spirit at the right time.  So, let us put to rest the notion that the Scriptures are the only way the Spirit speaks to man, today.  He speaks to us constantly about all things in our lives. The problem usually is that we simply are not listening.

For those who do not know what it is to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, let me encourage you to contemplate the last time you considered, maybe even planned to do something you knew was against the will of IAUE, some sin in which you take delight, or some opportunity to do something that you knew was wrong.  Do you remember hearing the loud warnings going off inside of you, trying to persuade you not to sin; but rather to do the right thing?  That was the Holy Spirit.  You probably thought it was your own conscience or just memories of your parents’ voices telling you not to do such things; but it wasn’t.  It was the voice of the one committed to guiding you into all Truth, trying to protect you from something that would not benefit your life.

You were able to hear Him in that circumstance because he was yelling at you.  The volume of His voice was louder than He usually speaks; because it was the sound of warning; just like when your parents yelled at you when you were nearing harm’s way, or when you were about to do something they had repeatedly instructed you not to do.  Once you recognize that the Holy Spirit speaks to you in this loud warning voice; you can learn to recognize His voice when He speaks more softly.  Ultimately, you can hear Him when He whispers, or even shares a thought with you.  If you and I are sitting in a room together having a conversation; you would not want me to yell at you every time I said something.  That kind of volume is not appropriate for conversation when impending danger is not a factor.  In the same way, you can learn to hear the Spirit speak in increasingly softer tones, in more appropriate volumes.

How do you get there from the “warning” volume?  There is a simple exercise that you can begin to practice to develop your ear to hearing His voice.  Several times during the course of every day, be silent, pray and ask Him what He wants you to do.  Even if you only think you have heard something, the moment you “hear” it, give it your immediate obedience.  The confirmation of His voice will come after you have obeyed.