How to hear from God?
I Samuel 7:1-13
The life of the believer is full of mystery.
Each day brings new surprises
We don’t know what to expect or where it will lead us
But what we do know for sure is the enemy is still the enemy
And our need to hear from God remains unchanged
But there are times when we need to hear from God corporately,
as a group
We are not positioned to hear from God
There is sin in the camp an offense punishable by death
According to Joshua 7 and according to Joshua it makes us unfit and illequipted to face the enemy
I hear you say that we are no longer under the law that is true but rather than it being physical death it is spiritual death which may be worse
Sin weakens the defense and our offense
I. We must pray for the presence of God
7:2 and all the people of Israel mourned and sought after the LORD
a. It may be missing and you not know it
In chapter 4:3
They realized the key missing element’ the elders said let us bring the ark (the visible presence of God) that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.
When the presence of God is among us verse 7 of chapter 4 the enemy is afraid
But mere possession of the ark does not guarantee victory
God must possess you!
The enemy will rob you of the presence of God
He robs you by leading you astray
He robs you by giving you a false sense of security
In Ch 4 The wife of Phinehas dying at childbirth named her child Ichabod-No Glory =Presence of God
The Shekinah Glory
II. There must be a call to repentance
And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” 4 So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only.
There must be cleansing and purification and that begins with confession
A. They put away false gods
Samuel calls the people to repentance, to “return to the LORD with all your heart.”
Repentance is primarily a matter of the heart—“direct your heart to the LORD.”
It is not a matter of human maneuvers such as the Israelites had earlier tried.
Directing one’s heart to God naturally implies turning away from false gods—“foreign gods.”
There must be a literal putting away of false gods
We worship and don’t know that we worship & we don’t know who and what we worship
There are so many things that we worship and don’t know it
It could be as simple as food and as huge as another person
Joh 4:22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
Joh 4:23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
Joh 4:24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
Our spouses
Our children
Our material possessions
Our fiancés
Our jobs
Our positions
These must be put away, they must be taken off the alter of our worship
Whatever you have put in Gods place must be removed now!
Exo 20:1 And God spoke all these words, saying,
Exo 20:2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Exo 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before me.
Exo 20:4 "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Exo 20:5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God,
B. Commit to God only
Literally commit your hearts to God
Serve Him exclusively
III. They Prayed
a. Their hearts were prepared for prayer
When you have striped yourself clean of impediments then you are ready to pray
b. They poured out water- symbolized ownership- marking the territory-land
c. They Fasted= that’s personal sacrifice-self-denial
d. They confessed Sin
e. Samuel interceded
IV. The Results
The same place that they had lost before
Not again
The enemy will come again
But this time the results would be different because they were different
The LORD thundered
