SESSION 10

HEARING GOD’S VOICE

PRINCIPLE OF DIVINE GUIDANCE

OBJECTIVE
The students should understand that God wants them to hear His voice consistently in
their lives.

AIMS
1. The student will be able to know that God wants them to discover His will for
their lives.
2. The student should know what to do to prepare to discern God’s will.
3. The student will learn the different ways that God speaks to His children.

BIBLICAL FOUNDATION
Romans 12:1-2 Isaiah 30:21 Proverbs 3:5-6
Isaiah 55:6 Ephesians 2:10 Ephesians 1:3-5 Psalm 139:13-16

EXPOSITION

A. INTRODUCTION
DISCOVERY OF GOD’S WILL FOR OUR LIVES IS ESSENTIAL

 God has a plan for the life of every disciple of Jesus (Eph. 2:10 – Good Works).
 Psa 139:16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your
book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there
were none of them.
 Jer 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were
born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

 God the Father loves us and want only the best for us. We should live in His will.
(Deuteronomy 28:1-2; Romans 8:28; 2 Peter 1:3)

 God wants to reveal Himself and His will to us. (Heb. 11:6; James 1:5)

 God wants us to choose to go His way. (Proverbs 3:5-6: Psalm 32:8-9)

 Our obedience or disobedience to the will of God can affect other lives as well as
our own. (Joshua 6:8; Joshua 7:1-26)
B. GOD DESIRE TO REVEAL HIS WILL TO US AND TO MAKE IT CLEAR

 The word of God has already been given to us for most of the guidance we need
as a disciple of Jesus.

 In some area of our lives we need specific guidance and we need to seek God for
this. (e.g. ministry call, job, marriage partner)
 Luke 11:9-10 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and
you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 “For everyone who ask
receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
 God wants to guide us specifically (Psalm 25:12)
 Psa 32:8-9 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will
guide you with My eye. 9 Do not be like the horse or like the mule, Which
have no understanding, Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else
they will not come near you.

 God wants us to live as Jesus lived. He did only what He saw His Father in heaven
doing. We need God to show us the way forward.
 John 14:31 but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do
what my Father has commanded me. “Come now; let us leave.

 God chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless
in His sight. We can trust Him with our lives. He knows what we need and how
we should live (Psalm 139:13-16)
 Eph 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4
just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we
should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined
us to adaption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good
pleasure of His will,

C. PRACTICAL PREPARATION TO DISCREN GOD’S WILL

1. We must make Jesus our Lord and be genuinely willing to do His will
(Matthew 6:33)
 Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,
 which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove
what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

2. We should respond as God would in any situation and be obedient to His will.
 1 John 2:6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as
he walked.
 Psalm 25:9 The humble He guides in justice, And the humble He teaches
His way.

4. We should listen to God in prayer and we will find that practice makes perfect.
 Proverb 8:34 Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my
gates. Waiting at the post of my doors.

5. We should trust God.

 Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your
own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall
direct your paths.

6. We should have a clean heart (1 John 1:9) and the Holy Spirit should be free to
convict us of any ungodliness.
 Psalm 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear.

7. We should move towards maturity: this means more of God and less of us, which
will enable us to hear Him clearly.
 John 3:30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.

8. We should be expectant: God wants to speak to us, so listen for Him

9. We should fear the Lord: this means hating evil and living God’s way
(Proverbs 9:10). It is harder to do what we hate.
 Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and
the evil way And the perverse mouth I hate.

10. We should praise and worship: God inhabits our praises (Psalm 22:3) and we
enter His courts with praise (Psalm 100:4). We can get close to God in worship
and get to a place of expectancy where God will speak.

11. Fasting is not necessary in order to hear God’s voice but it can help. We should
fast regularly.
  Matthew 6:18 “so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to
your Father who is in secret place; and your Father who sees in secret
will reward you openly.

12. We should move in faith, i.e. knowing what God wants, obeying it and trusting
God to do what we cannot do. If God has spoken, we can ‘go for it’.
 Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who
comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those
who diligently seek Him
.
13. Four voices has access to your mind in life in general, and to hear from God
you need to:
 Silence the voice of others, e.g. what will people think.
 Silence your own voice and desires – take it to the cross.
 Silence the voice of Satan in the name of Jesus.
 Then Listen to God and make Him Lord and He will speak.

D. REMEMBER

 Guidance is a concern of the heart whereas knowledge is a concern of the head.

 Illustration: The will of God is like a multi-lane motor way. There is flexibility
within it. Whilst knowing it and following it you are free to move about within it.
Within the broad perimeters of the will of God, His specific guidance will come. It
is impossible to find this guidance while clinging to your own will.

E. THE WAYS GOD SPEAKS

 There are many ways that God speaks to us. But remember that God always
makes the choice about which way He will speak!

 Whichever way God chooses to speak to you it will always be in agreement with
the Word of God & the Inner Witness of the Holy Spirit in you.

1. Through the Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16; Psalm 119:9-11, 105).

 Psa 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And light to my path.

2. Through the inner still, small voice of the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:2; Acts 16:6-7;
1 Kings 19:12; Isaiah 30:19-21).
  Acts 11:12 “Then the Spirit told me to go with them, doubting nothing.
Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered the man’s
house.

3. Through the advice and counsel of men and women of God.

 Proverbs 12:15 The way of a fool seems right to him, but the wise man
listen to advice. (NIV)

4. By the audible voice of God.

 Acts 9:4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him,
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”

5. By dreams.
 Matthew 1:20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel
of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do
not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in
her is of the Holy Spirit.

6. By visions (same as dreams but these occur while you are awake)
(Acts 10:9-18).

7. By angels (Luke 1:26-38).

8. By the gifts of the Spirit, e.g. words of wisdom, words of knowledge, prophecy,
tongues and interpretation (1 Corinthians 12:4-11).
 Remember 1 Corinthians 14:1-5 says that prophecy is for strengthening,
encouragement, instruction, comfort and edification of the Church, but
never for initial personal guidance.
 A prophecy may confirm what God has already been telling you, but if it
comes as a complete surprise, be very careful – test the spirits
(1 John 4:1).

9. By circumstances: letting mere circumstances run our lives is opening the door to
Satan, but be wise with regards to your circumstances and expect God to speak
to you through them.

10. By the desires of your heart.

 Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the
desires of your heart.
 11. By inner conviction or prompting of the Spirit. (Inner Witness) This is almost
undefinable but you will know it when you experience it!
 Acts 27:10 saying, “Men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster
and much lost, not only of the cargo and ship, but also our lives.”
 Illustration: Green light / Red light

F. TEST THE SPIRITS

 We must recognize that Satan will try to counterfeit God’s voice. This is why we
need to test God’s Word to us, especially when we are first starting out as
Christians.
 The best to recognize counterfeits is to become very familiar with the genuine.
Illustration: Like a bank teller- study the real and you will know the phoney
(1 Corinthians 14:29; 1 John 4:1).

G. IT IS THE FATHER’S PURPOSE THAT WE HEAR HIS VOICE

 the safest, the most productive place to hear God is through the testimony of
Scripture.
 95% of the direction we will ever need has already been laid down in
Scripture. We need to live with the Scripture as a pillar in our lives.
 However, even the Scripture (logos) can end up as dead doctrine and
legalism unless we balance the Scripture against another pillar: the pillar
of the Holy Spirit who speaks God’s Word to us for today (rhema). We
need to walk with these two sources of the Word of God in balance.

 The more we seek Him for every step of our lives, the more we will begin to
discern His hand, even in the minute and seemingly less important steps we have
to take.

 Some people are looking for something that is not there. They over complicate
the whole thing. They imagine that when we speak of hearing the voice of God’,
that we must always have a special vision or an actual voice speaking within us
that is so clear and unmistakable.
 It is rarely like this
 God’s voice within us comes through channels that are mostly already
built in our system, e.g. our mi, and the processes of thought, impulses of
the heart, feeling of unease or deep peace, hunches we get within our
spirit.
  There are of course, moments when He breaks through in a very clear,
supernatural way, because the situation demand it, or because it is
something that He does not want us to miss.

 It is within our spirit that we should receive the certainties which God gives, the
inner conviction that something is right before the Lord. We should not, and
cannot, move a step in the realm of faith without the witness of the Spirit.

H. FEATURES THAT ACCOMPANY A WORD THAT IS FROM GOD

1. It is accurate
This means that the Word comes to us in a direct and personal way which is very
powerful and arresting. It is like an arrow to a sure place in the circumstances is
very difficult to avoid or ignore.

2. It is relevant
This means that such a Word will be very relevant to the situations we are facing
within our lives. A word from God is normally marked by its application and
timeliness.

3. It is effective
God’s Word always produces an effect. If we receive it and apply it, it will bring
fruit.

4. It is fitting
A Word from God never stands alone! Not only is it fitting in the sense of being
relevant to the situation, but also in the sense of being consistent with other
witnesses in or life. Whenever we think we hear from the Lord in a particular
way, we should look for ratification of the Word in other areas (confirmation).
We should not make up things fit the Word, as this is dangerous, but rather,
we should find that there are many things into which the fits. They may be the
witness of other types of Word, or the witness of other circumstances.

I. A PRACTICAL CHECKLIST FOR GUIDANCE

 Does this guidance exalt the Lord or the speaker?

 Does it say the right thing in the right place, time, method, sequence, people,
structure, attitude, result etc.?
  Is the guidance received in harmony (or in line) with Scripture or does it
contradict?
 Is the peace of Christ ruling my heart? (Philippians 4:7; Isaiah 26:3).
 Isaiah 26:3 You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on
You, Because he trust You.
 Philippians 4:7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

 Have I obeyed God’s previous guidance for me?

 Am I willing to be selfless and put God first in this situation?

 What do the Scriptures say I should do in this situation?

 Have I prayed and taken a hold of God in this situation?

 Do my spiritual leaders and the body of Christ, in general, confirm the guidance
received?

 Am I acting out of temporary or momentary feelings or emotions?

 Am I limiting God by my intellect?

 Have I any expectancy that God will guide me?

 Do my circumstances enable or hinder the guidance received?

CONCLUSION
1. God the Father wants us to live in His will for our lives.

2. To live in God’s plan for our lives will enable us to live a fulfilled, joyous life. God
loves us and wants only the best for us.

3. We need to know that God wants to speak to us and guide us.

4. We need to hear God’s voice as part of our everyday life.

5. We need to learn to know God’s voice and His guidance in any situation.

6. God chooses which way He will speak to us.

 7. God’s Word to us will bring freedom, faith and guidance.

MINISTRY
Pray that every disciple would develop a sensitive spirit to hear God’s voice daily.

METHOD
The Question and Answer method is recommended to start with as it will help you to
get to know the level of understanding in the students.

ASSIGNMENT