Part 1: The Voice of God (Part 1 of 3)

Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. Everybody we're going to be looking at the voice of God how to hear it. How he speaks, how we hear it and then after we hear him speak and we're listening to him what do we do with it once it gets into our hearts and our minds. Listening to the voice of God, hearing God speak being able to discern that and then telling the world what it is that God is telling you. Let's come in up next you can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcasts today if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings to us that's like saying amen or yes then that rating will encourage others to listen now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. Everybody listen if you were to get into looking around and seeing what is some of the most asked questions in Christianity it it's certainly right near the top is how do you hear the voice of God. So here's what we're going to do for the next three podcast. We're going to unpack that we're going to be looking at we're going to be considering the voice of God having the ears to hear the voice of God and then after God speaks what do we do with that with our mouths. In other words why would God speak to us if we don't intend to say anything and that what he's given us he's going to speak so we need to listen with the intent to announce what it is that God is saying. So listen as always we love this challenge that it's time for you to live out what you believe in it's time for real life. So let's dive into this right now the voice of God how do I hear the voice of God how do you hear the voice of God. Now first of all let's just take a flyby of how God spoke in the Old Testament. The Bible tells us that when God spoke in the Old Testament he just flat out spoke he just audibly spoke and you say well why would God do that then and not do it now. Well we'll answer that soon but I'll just give you a little hint it's called the Bible. For example the book of Hebrews tells us that in the early days when God spoke to the fathers he did so by the prophets but when we back up we kind of go to the original prophet in the sense of Abraham could be argued as a prophet. God spoke to Abraham and God spoke to Abraham audibly so mark that down. We know that God spoke to Adam and Eve audibly and that's an amazing situation to where God even walked with them in the cool of the garden and the perfection of the garden God walked with them and spoke with them. I personally believe that it was none other than a Theophonies or a Christophonies in the garden I believe Jesus Christ walked with Adam and Eve in the garden but when you look at the Old Testament you're talking about God's speaking and as we graduate for example to the life of Moses God said regarding Moses I'm gonna speak to Moses face to face like a man speaks to his friend so God revealed himself to Moses in amazing ways he spoke God shook the mountain of Mount Sinai the children of Israel tremble at the shaking of the mountain and at the voice of God then we move forward and we hear that that God spoke to Elijah in a very very still small voice. The point is this God speaks how do we hear fast forward to our age 21st century how do we hear God speak now this is going to require you and I discipline it's not because God's not speaking you and I live at a time where we are so bombarded with external noises it's hard for us to hear so listen to this God gave us the Bible there's a reason why this book is still preserved to this hour in fact technically we have this book the world has this book either in hand or on a device and even for people in remote parts of the world they have been given crank up Bibles you can crank it and it's and it energizes the little device and the Bible is read to them and their language it's a remarkable why is that so important because in our day and age how do you hear the voice of God it's by reading the word of God you say well Jack what if there's a place in the world where there is no Bible that's pretty cool great question great concern we need to get them the Bible but don't worry God's got that covered in Romans chapter one God says he's speaking to all those in the world he's revealing himself even his eternal Godhead and power to them so that they are without an excuse so we don't need to worry about the people running around the Amazon jungle that we haven't reached yet thank God there's groups of people trying to reach them but God has always already spoken enough to them so that they know so how do we hear this voice Jesus said my sheep my people hear my voice and they follow me so when we go to the Bible and we read it we we need to expect God to be speaking to us see well Jack how does God speak to you always in my life God will use the word of God to speak so can you tell us how that happens it goes this way and this is where I mentioned a moment ago it takes discipline we need to take in the Bible now look I'm an old guy but back in the day when computers were being invented there was this this little jingle I think it was called a guy go garbage in GI garbage in geo garbage in garbage out another word you put into the computer garbage and the computer is going to spit out garbage well we know this in our dietary life you eat junk and you're gonna have a junk of a life your deliver is gonna fail you're gonna get sick white garbage in garbage out here's the cool thing when you start ingesting the Bible Bible in Bible out when you have Bible when you pick up and read the Bible why should I read the Bible you want God to speak I sure do well guess what you need to eat Bible you need to eat it by reading it as you read the Bible God's word gets inside of you it's a supernatural hey can I put it to you this way just saw commercial this morning I got to break down them by this stuff I'm convinced it's this nature's nature's friend or nature's fruit or nature's vegetable nature something on what it is it's but everybody's taking it and if you listen to everybody talking about it I'm 90 years old and I took nature's whatever it's called and now I feel like I'm 13 wow I don't know about that but everybody's talking about how great it is and so what's happening supposedly if you take this this stuff it's all natural it's in a pill and you get like you know 17 carrots and and so in celery and tomatoes and you get all these things and then this bottle's got all the fruits if that's true or not I don't know I need to buy it and check it out take that principle regarding the scripture the Bible is that way when you open up the word of God and you've never done this before you should start in John's gospel because you will be given the revelation of the deity of Jesus Christ as you read that you become familiar with who Jesus Christ is how he spoke to those to which he came in contact with how did he deal with certain situations it's contained in the scriptures here for us to read if we ingest the Bible it gets into us like that pill you take the pill the Bible and it becomes part of you so that when I know this is gonna sound corny but it's true God speaks to me most when I'm in my yard or I'm unplugged from demands even ministry can kill you I've got to unplug from ministry life if God's going to speak to be speak to me about my own life secondly I cannot receive a sermon from God in Bible study without getting alone I've often said that being a pastor teacher is a very lonely life to live you see Jack are you crazy you're on all kinds of media all the time all the time listen the only way that that's possible is that I shut down and get away from humanity on Wednesdays and Fridays and Saturdays and you hear I'm saying you got to get alone to get fed for something to come out you've got to get alone with the word to have that experience of hearing what God is saying so friends listen God is speaking his voice is crystal clear it's the Bible that he uses he's gonna use scripture and believe it or not what's fun about that is I could be at the beach I could be gardening I could be taking a walk I could be doing something that is allowing my mind to relax I'm not on the phone I'm not texting I'm not distracted and when that moment begins to happen the realization of his voice is so present where what he is saying lines up 100 percent with the revealed will of God which is the Bible the Bible is God's will when he voices his will you know it somebody might ask what do you hear do you hear a Bible verse I could sometimes yes but most often I hear this is this is fun I hear in my mind I hear God's word and it's paraphrased in a manner that it gets my attention it's it's unique enough not that God's word isn't unique of course it's unique but it might come to me like this God might speak to me and say don't trust in yourself Jack don't listen to your own counsel listen to my counsel if I am speaking to you you don't have to make a mistake just wait on my word listen to what it says but don't lean on your own imagination here are your own ideas Jack that thought will enter my mind while I'm on the lawn I know it's from God because number one I wouldn't have said that to me and it's unique enough to where it's got the identification of God's authenticity on it it's truth it's divine or from this prospect of another world how about that it's not the wisdom of this age it's from above and so when he speaks it's in absolute correlation perfectly with scripture now this is an important thing to point out because people today will say and I'm really tired of it aren't you it's quite dangerous you know what Pastor Jack or your friend will tell you God spoke to me you do you do understand right when you say that God spoke to me you better be careful what you're saying because you know what you are actually saying in the 21st century thus say at the Lord you know you could get yourself killed in the Old Testament for saying that if you said let's say at the Lord God told me to do this or to do that or to whatever boy you better be right or if you're not right you're dead because you're invoking the name of God and you are actually incriminating God by saying he told me to do this so watch this a lot of people who don't know their Bibles but their spiritual will say things like this oh God told me God told me that I should divorce my wife because he wants me happy guess what God just told me that he didn't tell you that why because God's Bible makes it very very clear that's not how he speaks he's not going to say that to you oh God told me that he wants me rich no God didn't tell you that I'm telling you right now God didn't tell you that but see when people are in the vicinity or the neighborhood of what they want they will be so bent on achieving their own desire that they'll cloak their decision-making process with with Bible with with Christian ease they'll wrap it with a Christian bow and they'll say oh God told me don't ever say that you're going to get in huge trouble with God I'm you should be very careful in fact even in my own life when I know God spoke to me if I'm going to say something publicly about that I have got to say I believe God spoke to me about what I'm going to share with you you be the judge according to God's word if what I'm saying is true okay it's very important so be careful no God's voice and you can know his voice by judging what the thought process what the thought conclusion is in your mind by judging it against the word of God when Paul the Apostle spoke to the Bereans right they tested everything that was spoken against the Bible so imagine that Paul is preaching new testament truth right to the Bereans what did they do they went through their Old Testament to see what Paul was saying was true that's amazing imagine which in love to have heard his sermon Paul would have preached a new testament sermon with Old Testament doctrine epic and they could have they could have qualified everything Paul said against the Bible so what what are they discerning hey God speaking through this guy that's exactly what Isaiah said it's exactly what Micah was talking about in Joel oh my goodness what Peter just said that's right out of the book of Joel wow that's discerning the voice of God and let me wrap it up by saying this don't have your life be led by people who come up to you and say God told me to tell you oh boy well pastor don't you believe in the gifts of the spirit every single one of them I do as long as they're operated in accordance with the scripture you say well what's the problem with what you just said a moment ago a friend of mine had a word for me well why didn't why couldn't God tell you the word himself well because God was using the the voice of a prophet in my life watch out the new testament verbiage given to us and the gifts of the spirit regarding a prophet is one who heralds forth the word of God one who puts forth the word of God if your friend tells you hey the Lord told me to tell you that you need to give me your brand new car okay your friends are lunatic he's he's manipulating you and that's not God speaking okay now if God says to you hey I want you to give your new car to your friend let God confirm that to you in the word in the Bible apply that to dreams gosh the things I've heard listen people who say I know this is going to happen in my life why what was said I had a dream years ago and then a friend of mine said he had the same dream this is going to happen maybe let's see how are we going to know if God was speaking judge it against the Bible against the word see listen today can you imagine if every Christian around the world took this book God's word and let it be the authority of their lives the church would get cleaned up overnight and Christians would go to church on Sunday morning and listen I love this I operate under this this authority that God has given his people I better be teaching the Bible on Sunday morning rightly because the church that I pastor these people eat up the Bible they read it every day their animals you just can't parade somebody out in front of these people they're going to bust them the church is going to call them out wait a minute okay that's great because number one it means actually that I'm doing the job I'm supposed to do by feeding them the word of God and staying out of the way and the second thing is they know enough to hold me accountable to what is being said is an alignment with scripture that's how you want to roll with your life so the next thing is hearing how to hear but that will have to save for part two so listen we believe this we believe that it's time for you to live out what it is that you believe in that's why we say it's time for real life that's why we're doing what we're doing here and now but listen we would love for you to hit the subscribe button that's so important for it's not that we need it to make ourselves feel good we need to send a message to the powers that be in the social media world which is they've really been tough on us lately by you actually 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