July 18, 2010
Morning Worship
Text: Romans 8:1-17
Subject: Hearing from God
Title: The Witness of the Spirit
If you weren’t here last Sunday night you missed out on the beginning of a short series. How many of you know that God wants to speak to you at all times in every aspect of your life? We learned last Sunday evening that the #1 way and the most foundational way that God will speak to His children is through the written word. As you read through the word you will have a sense of knowing within you that a certain passage or verse is for you and that it is relevant for you right now.
Also, we learned that it is vitally important for you to know the bible. The less time you spend in the word the more likely you are to fall for the lies of the enemy. Conversely, the more time you spend in your bible the stronger you will become in your faith. Now, it’s not an automatic. You can’t just pick up your bible and begin reading it like a novel. You must read expecting God to reveal Himself to you as you read. That is another reason that it is important to be in church when you can. The Holy Spirit will open your eyes to truth when you hear the preaching of the word. It happened last Sunday morning as shared by several on Sunday evening. When I preached from Philippians 2, about how there is such power in the name of Jesus, and that at the “name” of Jesus every knee should bow (other translations say shall, will or even must bow) in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father… Every time you pray in Jesus’ name you not only use His authority, but the name itself sets the enemy reeling… For some of you that revelation became real and it works. That is the witness from the word of God and it is the fundamental way that God speaks to His children.
But today we want to go a step further. The bible is the foundation but it is not the only way that God wants to speak to you. He will speak to you by the Spirit in your spirit. That is where the problem lies. Many have not reacted properly to that inner witness to the point that they know for sure that it is the Holy Spirit. Many times we think that it is just us.
That is where I want to take you today – to the place where you can understand the difference between the carnal man and the witness of the Spirit.
You can know that it is the Holy Spirit speaking to your spirit.
Lord, open my eyes to see and my ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church…
I. RECOGNIZING DIFFERENT VOICES. Let’s begin with this thought. In this world there are voices that come at you from every direction. There are the voices of the world, your friends and family, the TV news, society. There are voices of the devil and his demons. And there is your own inner voice – your thoughts and emotions, the non-physical part of your natural man. And last but not least there is the voice of the Holy Spirit. They all want to speak to you. How do we separate the voice of the world and satan and even our own voice from the Spirit of the living God? Verse 1 and 2 give us a clue. 1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. Now I want you to understand this, ultimately there are only two voices speaking. The first is the voice of your enemy the devil and he will use your friends and family and even your own mind if you let him to lead you away from where God wants you to be. Look at the first few words in verse 1… . 1Therefore, there is now no condemnation… There is nothing better that satan likes to do than to convince the people of God that they are hopeless, helpless and hapless. This is your lot in life and you ought to just be quiet and accept it like a good Christian. You can’t do anything. God doesn’t work like that. You see, condemnation isn’t just about sin. If you are in Christ your sin is washed away and you know it. What it is about, is what it says in verse 2. 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death… The law of the Spirit of life is the witness of the Holy Spirit with your spirit concerning God’s will and plans that are set aside for you. He wants you to ask Him for direction and guidance in every step of your life. But the law of sin and death is what satan tells you is right. You should be able to do just what seems logical and everything will turn out OK. That’s walking in the natural and that is what the devil tried to do with Jesus in the desert. “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”; If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone…; Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” All these things seemed logical from a natural standpoint. Satan was saying, You don’t have to be hungry, God will always protect you, and you can have everything by taking the short cut. Jesus had an answer for him every time. It is written, it is written, it is written… after spending forty days fasting and praying it was the Holy Spirit that was speaking to Him so that He could know what God’s will was for His life. That is the Law of the Spirit of life and it is centered in the spirit man. Doing what seems right, just responding according to everything you have learned from your life experiences, your own understanding, and your present circumstances, that is the law of sin and death and that is centered in the natural man. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. I really want to stress this to you today; the focus of this passage is not whether you are going to sin or not sin. We know that Jesus has removed the stain of sin from the life of all who believe in Him. The Law was powerless because it required that we do something in the natural that couldn’t be done – keep the whole law. But Jesus took that requirement away from us at the cross. For those who trust in Him, the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. Again, the focus isn’t on whether we choose to sin or not to sin. The focus is whether we choose to listen to what the Spirit is speaking to our spirit or what the devil is speaking to our minds. How do you tell the difference? Did you ever have that inner witness that you just knew that you had to do something? You wake up in the middle of the night knowing that you have to pray for someone. You sense in your spirit that you need to go visit someone. Or, this is the hard one, you sense the prompting that you need to go and share salvation with that person over there. If you are depending on the Holy Spirit to lead you and teach you, you won’t be led into sin. The Holy Spirit won’t do that. That is where your knowledge of the word comes into play. You see, if Jesus had not known the word satan’s logic could have duped Him into taking a wrong path. You must recognize the voices that are speaking to you. Jesus said, “My sheep know my voice…
II. HEARING THE SPIRIT’S VOICE. There have been times in my life when I have been so sure of what God wanted from me and the direction I was to go. In one instance I had been asking God a question concerning my ministry and the answer I got from Him was so strong that I was almost sure that it was an audible voice. Looking back, I know now that it was not, but that it was such a strong impression that I had in my spirit where I knew without a doubt that God had answered me. 5Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. Do you see that your mind does play a part in hearing from God. In order for you to hear from God you must do so in the inner man, but you cannot experience in the Spirit what your mind or natural man is not in agreement with and vice versa. That is why Paul told the church in Rome that they needed to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. The mind, which is from the natural man, must line up with the spirit man in order for anything to happen. So the Lord may be dealing with you in a certain area of your life, let’s say tithing, and you hear a voice that says, “I can’t afford to right now”. Now immediately you know that isn’t the Holy Spirit because it is contrary to the world of God. So now you have to renew your mind. You must begin to think the way God thinks and believe the way God believes. If that inner voice is not in alignment with the word of God, then you are in the flesh – you are trying to do it on your own and it won’t work. In verse 5, the word that is translated “desires” means, to exercise the mind, that is, entertain or have a sentiment or opinion… desire comes from the natural man and not from the spirit. Now you’ll hear some quote Psalm 37:4 and say that the Lord will give you the desires of your heart. A couple of things to consider here. 1) remember that the heart of a man refers to the spirit man or the innermost part of a man. 2) you must look at the rest of that verse. Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. In order to hear from God you have to be tuned in to the same channel. You can’t hear from God by counting on Him to move in the supernatural. I heard Keith Moore from Faith Life Church in Branson say this, “Too many Christians are so focused on the spectacular that they miss out on the supernatural.” What he was saying was this – you expect God to speak to you through signs and wonders and prophecies and circumstances when the truth is that He wants to speak to you in the stillness of your inner man. So if in fact you expect to hear from God outwardly, in the natural, you will miss Him inwardly. As a believer you should have the witness of the Holy Spirit because He lives in you.
III. ACTING ON THE SPIRIT’S COMMAND Let’s jump down to verse 13. Your spiritual life is ultimately dependant on hearing from and responding to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Anything less is the sin nature at work. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live… for a Christian to think that they don’t need to hear from God – that they can just go on living a life that is pleasing Him by not doing the things that the world does – is a very dangerous attitude. Again, when we are talking about the sinful nature here we are not just referring to giving in to the lusts of the flesh, which is sin. Paul is speaking to the attitude that you can do it on your own without asking God’s guidance. Even in the little things… But in verse 14 Paul counters that idea with the truth of God. 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. You know, this is the very precept that you need to live your life by. You need to learn to hear the voice of God in your inner man – be led by the Spirit – and then act on it. That is where the great difficulty comes in. Many Christians will hear that inner voice give a command or a gentle leading and pas it off as your own mind, when it really is God. Oh, I don’t need to be obedient to that. It was just my own thoughts that I heard. Until you make up your mind that you are going to do what the Spirit is saying in your heart, you will never become tuned in to His voice. Let’s go back to the idea that many have about God speaking to them through other people. So many Pentecostals or Charismatics today depend on a word of prophecy from another or an outward sign as a confirmation or some miracle to show them God’s direction for their life. If you are waiting for that you are not being led by the Spirit. You are waiting for something to happen in the flesh. Turn over to Acts Chapter 21. I want to show this to you. First of all the great apostle Paul was told back in Acts 9 about the many things he would suffer for the cause of Christ. Actually, let’s go back t chapter 20 and then we’ll go to 21. Acts 20 and beginning in verse 22, 22“And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. How did Paul know that he was supposed to go to Jerusalem? He was compelled by the Spirit. It doesn’t say that some miracle happened to show him the way. He didn’t need some angelic visitation to bring a message. The Holy Spirit that was dwelling in him – the same Holy Spirit that is in you and me – was nudging him. It doesn’t say he heard an audible voice. I have to believe that by this time in his Christian walk he had become so familiar with the voice of the Spirit inside himself that it was just as real as a spoken word. In fact, if Paul had waited until he heard a word of prophecy from someone before he acted he wouldn’t have gone to Jerusalem. 23I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace. Acts 21:4-5, 4Finding the disciples there, we stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. 5But when our time was up, we left and continued on our way. Here is something interesting. The disciples that Paul found in Cyprus were hearing the voice of the Spirit. But they misinterpreted the voice. Paul knew he would suffer. Paul knew he had to go to Jerusalem. The Spirit told him and he was going. These disciples had a word from the Spirit about what was going to happen to Paul when he got to Jerusalem. They interpreted that to mean that he shouldn’t go. They misinterpreted because what they heard didn’t make sense in the natural. They thought that if anything happened to Paul it would be such a great loss that the church couldn’t stand it. But Paul stayed the course because he was sure that it was the Spirit that he heard. Now go down to verse 10, After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’” 12When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. Now look at this. Agabus only spoke what the Holy Spirit had shown him. It was the people around Paul who misinterpreted and tried to convince him not to go. Again, look at how sure Paul was about the inner leading of the Spirit, 13Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.” So many times I think that Christians are afraid to respond to the inner voice because He may be asking them to do something they aren’t comfortable with. I also believe that mindset is the death of the church, for if the church isn’t going to be led by the Spirit then we have become nothing more than a glorified Rotary club. If we won’t respond because we are afraid then the bible is a lie and we might as well go on our merry way and live like the rest of the world. Romans 8:15 says, For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. If you are a son of God then you should be led by the Spirit of God. One more thing. You are a dichotomy – you’re made up of two parts, natural man and spiritual man. You have a witness to what God desires for your life in the spirit man, but listen to this, your spirit man is not alone. Right along side your spirit man is the Spirit of the Living God. There are two witnesses in you. 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Closing:
Let’s back up just a little. The written word of God is the foundation and the most basic way for you to hear from God. You need to be in the word so you have the basic principles of God to guide your life.
You also have the Spirit of God living in you and that same Spirit that empowered Jesus and kept Him connected to the Father is given to you for the same purpose. Shouldn’t we be hearing the voice of the Spirit the same way that Jesus did. Shouldn’t we be hearing what God wants and then respond? Shouldn’t we be calling those things that are not as though they were? As heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ can’t we know the voice in our inner man the same way? Isn’t he the same spirit in us that was in Jesus? Shouldn’t we be totally dependent upon the leading of the Spirit in our lives for everything in our lives? Jesus did; why can’t we?
Now some people see this as a problem. They say, well you’re just trying to be like Jesus! I hope that is my problem because that is exactly what the word says we are supposed to be…
Right now I believe the Holy Spirit is speaking to hearts all across this congregation and you are sensing an inner witness in your spirit man that is saying, “He’s right. You need to take the time to listen and respond to what the Spirit is saying to you.”
You know, that is what being Pentecostal really is. It’s not just about speaking in tongues and falling under the power. It’s not about physical manifestations. It is about hearing a work from God and then acting on it.
If you will do that – if you sense in your spirit man the prompting of the Spirit – and then act on it, your life will be changed. You may not be good at it at first. It may take some time, but the more you do it the better you will be. A couple of weeks from now you just can’t wait to hear from Him again. In a couple of months your life will be transformed. In a couple of years you are hearing and doing things for the Lord that you never dreamed you could do.
14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
