Message series, Recognizing the voice of God
God desires the fellowship of his children
Part 1
Text: John 10:1-5, 22-27
Opening:
1. Read opening story attached about lady w/prophesy for pastor
A. What is the desperate need of the hour in which we live?
1. Amid all the voices crying out to us…
a. Buy this house
Drive this car
Attend this church
Drink this beverage
Date this person
Believe this doctrine
Just relax
2. The desperate need is that we might hear God speak to us,
a. Not just through the Word,
not just through a brother or circumstances,
but His Spirit speaking to our spirit.
3. With so many folks saying, God told me to do this and God told me to do that… it is imperative we learn to hear from God and make sure it is him giving us our direction.
a. John says, "Little children, ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; " (1 John 2:18, KJV)
An antichrist person impersonating Christ with a false message from the Lord
b. Paul say, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;" (1 Timothy 4:1, KJV)
B. God desires that we fellowship with him
1. Jesus says that, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:" (John 10:27, KJV)
Note it does not say, my sheep know my book – it is excellent to know God’s book, but even more so to know his voice in our hearts.
2. Just like an earthly father communicates with his children so God
longs to communicate with us
a. What child is it that gets all his instruction form his father out of a book? What an absolute lonely life that would be.
b. As a Christian father writes up a list of rules for his children to follow, he also verbally keeps repeating the rules to his children.
So through the written word as well as the spoken word, he continues to teach his children.
3. God has given us the Bible to test all revelation that we receive
a. If someone comes to you and says God told me to leave my husband or wife and go live with another, how will we know if it was true?
b. I had an uncle who told me he did not need to go to church to remain a Christian. He said he could prove it from the Bible
Is that a true statement? No. How do we know? The word tells us in
"Do not stop getting together as some has done, but get together and encourage one another even more, as ye see the end times approaching." (Hebrews 10:25, KJV)
C. God speaks to those who listen
1. Does God speak to his children today?
Yes
2. In what manner does God speak to us today?
People
Circumstances
The Bible
His Spirit to our spirit
3. His Spirit moves within our spirit and communions with us
a. (Romans 8:16, KJV) "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:"
b. (Galatians 4:6, KJV) "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."
Closing…
1. Oh, the blessed privilege that is ours to speak, face to face, in the spirit with our heavenly father.
2. I’ve often said, you don’t know what love means, until you hear your heavenly father tell you.
3. I well remember the first time I sat on my back porch and held my first sit down and try it talk with my heavenly father.
He called my by name just like John 10 tells us and literally blew me away. I dropped the pen I was holding….
Attached story for opening thoughts on page 1
THE VOICE ON THE PHONE was not unfamiliar. She announced she had a message for me from God. She claimed to be a prophetess.
Without pausing to inquire if I were interested, she launched into a detailed pronouncement that my wife, Julie, and I would soon suffer a divorce. I had neglected my wife and failed to build the kind of marriage God intended for pastors. The penalty would be the forfeiture of my marriage.
I knew enough not to laugh out loud or question her sanity or tell her what she could do with her message. I thanked her for calling and hung up.
Could God really be speaking through her? What if she were right? Does God still speak through prophets and prophetesses today? What would they sound like if he did?
I placed a call to one of my spiritual advisers.
"Charles, I need your advice," I said. "I’m 99 percent sure her message was not from God. But help me verify for certain.
Charles then asked, Did the warning she gave, give any hope for reconciling the marriage and avoiding the divorce?" No, it did not. Then the message was not from God. "When God warned of doom in the Bible," "he usually provided a means for avoiding the consequences-often by repentance and restitution"
Paperback- The sound of Gods voice, by Roger Barrier, Baker Books Pg. 51-51
