Hearing the Voice of God

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Hearing the Voice of God
Youve got to fall in love!!
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Hearing the Voice of God

• My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and
  they follow Me - John 1027
• How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
  How vast is the sum of them! If I should count
  them, they would outnumber the sand. When I
  awake, I am still with You. Psalm 13917
• Intimacy was Gods idea in the garden the Lord
  walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day.
  It was Gods idea that he and man would have a
  face to face relationship. Jesus and the
  indwelling Holy Spirit have reversed the curse of
  broken relationship between God and man.
• Mark Virkler - www.cwgministries.org Communion
  with God

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Four Keys to Hearing Gods Voice

• from Habakkuk 21-2
• 1. I will stand at my guard post (Be still
  Quiet yourself down)
• 2. I will keep watch to see (Look for vision
  - Fix your eyes on Jesus)
• 3. What he will speak to me (Hear Tune to
  spontaneous flow)
• 4. The Lord said Record the Vision (Journal -
  Write it down)

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Key 1 Quiet Yourself Down

• Be still and know that I am God Psalm 4610
• O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes
  haughty Nor do I involve myself in great
  matters, Or in things too difficult for me.
  Surely I have composed and quieted my soul Like
  a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul
  is like a weaned child within me. O Israel, hope
  in the LORD From this time forth and forever.
  Psalm 131
• The still small voice 1 Kings 1911

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Key 1 Quiet Yourself Down contd

• In order to hear Gods voice we need to become
  quiet and still on the inside.
• Habakkuk
• Jesus early morning, up the mountain at night.

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Key 1 Quiet Yourself Down contd
Cultivating outer and inner peace

• find a quiet comfortable place to sit where your
  body can be at rest
• when thoughts of things that MUST BE done come to
  your mind have a notepad and write them down
• Thoughts of sin if its conviction of sins
  youve committed then confess them, and receive
  forgiveness. If its a dark cloud of condemnation
  rebuke it! There is therefore now no
  condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
• Doubts and unbelief this is a waste of time,
  God isnt going to speak to you, God doesnt
  speak to you this way. Reject these thoughts and
  replace them with faith.
• Mind wandering focus on Jesus. Proactively use
  your imagination to create a picture of you being
  with Jesus
• Get in touch with your heart begin to speak or
  even sing in tongues, or release that spontaneous
  song that is bubbling up in your heart
• Smile ?
• Other times to get in touch with your heart is
  when you are doing a mindless task like driving
  your car or exercising, or taking a shower. In
  these situations, your body is going through the
  motions and so your heart has an opportunity to
  speak / spirit communes with Spirit.

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Key 1 Quiet Yourself Down contd

• Right and left brain functions
• Left analysis, reasoning, logic, numbers,
  reading, writing
• Right- music, art awareness, creativity,
  imagination

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Left Brain
Right Brain
Speech
Music Appreciation
Art Awareness
Computation
Creativity
Writing
Romance
Logic and Analysis
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Key 1 Quiet Yourself Down contd

• It is easier to commune with the Spirit and to
  receive the bubbling thoughts from the Spirit
  that light on our minds like intuitive,
  spontaneous thoughts, if we are operating on the
  right side of our brains.
• Moving from the left to the right speaking in
  tongues, music. Smiling
• But now bring me a minstrel. And it came about,
  when the minstrel played, that the hand of the
  LORD came upon him. He said, Thus says the LORD,
  Make this valley full of trenches. 2 Kings
  315
• David used music to calm himself and worship God
  - the psalms

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The Four Keys

• Quiet yourself down
• Fix your eyes on Jesus
• Tune to spontaneous flow
• Write it down

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Key 2 Fix Your Eyes on Jesus

• There are two aspects to fixing your eyes on
  Jesus.
• First you are looking to connect with Jesus, you
  are not looking to empty you mind or enter into
  any new age state of emptiness. You are only
  after communion with one Jesus. So we fix our
  imagination on the person of Jesus.
• Second, is a fact that God speaks through
  visions, pictures, dreams or word pictures. Not
  only does he light spontaneous thoughts on our
  hearts but he loves to communicate through
  pictures, visions, dreams.

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Key 2 Fix Your Eyes on Jesus contd

• How did the prophets hear from God?
• He said, Hear now My words If there is a
  prophet among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself
  known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him
  in a dream. Numbers 126
• God says that he will speak through the images of
  a dream and a vision. They actually SAW from the
  Lord. Same thing in Habakkuk I will watch and
  see what he will say to me.
• And it shall be in the last days, God says,
  That I will pour forth of My Spirit on all
  mankind And your sons and your daughters shall
  prophesy, And your young men shall see visions,
  And your old men shall dream dreams - Acts 217
• One of the key ways that God speaks to us is
  through visions and dreams.

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Key 2 Fix Your Eyes on Jesus contd

• What is vision/eyes of your heart/imagination?
• Close your eyes and picture your bed in your
  house. How many can see that inside your head?
  The way that you see your bed is the same way
  that most people see most visions from God. The
  picture is light and gentle and is seen within.
  It may be hazy or sharp, precise or unclear.
• Spontaneous Vision we may receive a spontaneous
  inner picture in the same way as we receive
  spontaneous thoughts. As we are driving along we
  get a picture of a friend, pastor, missionary
  flash into our mind from left field. That is
  mostly for us to pray for them at that moment.

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Key 2 Fix Your Eyes on Jesus contd

• Types of Visions
• spontaneous vision on the screen of your mind
• spontaneous vision while in prayer
• seeing a vision outside yourself 2 Kings 617
  Elishas servant saw the armies of the Lord
  encamped around him
• Vision while in a trance Acts 1010-23 Peter
  sees a vision of the sheets coming down from
  heaven with animals in them
• All types of visions are valid. Seeing visions in
  your mind the first kind is just as valid as
  a Technicolor trance vision.
• Jesus used vision John 519 The Son can do
  nothing of himself, unless it is something He
  sees the Father doing.

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Key 2 Fix Your Eyes on Jesus contd

• Blocks to seeing in the spirit
• Disdaining the visual/imagination, idolising the
  rational. Repent for not honouring the visual,
  repent for idolising the rational, commit you
  imagination to the Lord ask him to cleanse and
  restore, start practising
• Fear of opening yourself to the new age or
  demonic activity. Renounce this fear and put your
  faith in Gods ability protect you than the
  devils ability to deceive you. After all, God
  has designed us with these capacities so that he
  can speak to us.
• Cutting off visual capacity / imagination in
  order to avoid imagining the wrong thing. But
  there are better ways of dealing with this its
  called repentance. You dont have to pluck out
  your eye, wash it in the blood of Jesus.

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The Four Keys

• Quiet yourself down
• Fix your eyes on Jesus
• Tune to spontaneous flow
• Write it down

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Key 3 Tune to Spontaneous Flow

• What does God voice sound like?
• The booming voice and angelic choir versus the
  whisper
• The voice of silk (the story of Elijah and the
  gentle whisper - 1 Kings 1911)
• Why dont you speak a little more loudly!!
• The three sources of thoughts (2 Cor 103-5)
• My own mind
• The Enemy
• God

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Key 3 Tune to Spontaneous Flow contd

• How to determine the source of thought
• Nature of the thought (Rom 86)
• Is it kind, loving, positive, wise, inspiring,
  energising?
• Is it vicious, destructive, negative, condemning?
  
• Is it natural, analytical, logical, plain?
• 80 / 20 rule
• Nature of the thought lines up with the nature of
  the source
• Satan accuser, adversary, liar, condemner,
  thief, murderer
• Holy Spirit Edifier, Comforter, Teacher,
  Creator, Lover, Healer, Giver of Life

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The Four Keys

• Quiet yourself down
• Fix your eyes on Jesus
• Tune to spontaneous flow
• Write it down

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Key 4 Write it down (dot com)!!

• Two way journaling
• Quiet yourself down, fix your eyes on Jesus, be
  open to spontaneous thoughts that alight on your
  mind
• Not New Age automatic writing
• Ask Jesus a question (but not an emotionally
  charged one)
• Gods voice often sounds like your own
• Light and gentle
• First person
• More kind, loving and wise than you normally are
• Your personality and generally your vocabulary
• Dont worry about spelling/grammatical mistakes
• Dont analyse until after youre done

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Cautions and Reminders

• Praying through an idol (Ex 144)
• Story of Balaam (Num 224-22)
• (2 Pet 215-16) forsaking the right way, they
  have gone astray, having followed the way of
  Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of
  unrighteousness but he received a rebuke for his
  own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking
  with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of
  the prophet.

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Jesus
YOU
Thing
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Cautions and Reminders

• Does your journaling line up with the timber of
  the Bible? If not, disregard
• Its OK to make mistakes
• Submit your journaling to 2 or 3 other mature
  hearers from God that you trust
• Focus on what is your sphere of responsibility /
  authority
• Dont make life altering decisions based ONLY on
  your journaling
• Practice, Practice, Practice
• Be in the Bible
• Be part of a fellowship of believers
• FAITH, LOVE, HOPE INTIMACY AND FRUITFULNESS

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The Four Keys

• Quiet yourself down
• Fix your eyes on Jesus
• Tune to spontaneous flow
• Write it down