Quiet Games
Pt. 2 - Hearing Aids Pt. 1
I. Introduction
Are you ready? OK, on the count of three. 1, 2, 3. Go! . . .
See it does my heart good to know that some of you aren't any better at playing the quiet game than I am!
I love childhood games like Freeze Tag, smear the guy with the ball, Crack the Whip but my least favorite game was the Quiet Game. No sound. No action. No movement. I didn't like it then and lo and behold the disdain for the game has carried over into my adult life.
But we have already learned that as a believer there seem to be long seasons of silence when we deal with God. If you haven't experienced that, then just hold on that day will come. I much prefer the moments when I hear God clearly. I much prefer the seasons when at every turn God's voice is easily discernible and recognizable. The issue is that more times than not I find myself in Deuteronomy 5:22 - "He spoke in a tremendous voice from the fire and cloud and dark mist. And that was it. No more words."
So what do you do when God is hard to hear? When your prayers bounce back? When silence isn't golden but annoying? Having no ability to hear is terrible. The fact that as I age I find myself saying "what" or "huh" more is bothersome. We know in the natural that when someone starts to lose their hearing there are two options one is we ask the people talking to shout louder or we invest in hearing aids. In dealing with God, we learned last week that He is consistently and persistently speaking. We also learned that He has a still small voice and He throws His voice so we may experience prolonged periods of silence if we wait for Him to raise His voice. So, I want to suggest to you that we must learn to embrace and employ hearing aids.
II. Text
John 10:27
Jesus said this, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."
Jesus directly connects our ability to hear His voice to our ability to follow Him. If we can't or don't hear His voice it becomes a struggle to follow. Jesus says that those of us who are His sheep hear his voice however, He doesn't address quiet seasons so if He is expecting us to hear we should use every tool possible to better hear Him.
So what hearing aids are available to help me tune in to His voice so that I can follow?
The Bible gives us 7 hearing aids that are designed to help us filter or judge the leadings, promptings, counsel, and guidance of others. In the midst of a quiet season or stretch these hearing aids help us know how to proceed. I want to deal with 3 today.
A. Scripture
This has been and will always be the foundation for hearing. All the other aids in hearing must be bounced off this because it is the standard against which all other voices are judged.
I am convinced too many of us discount God's written Word because we have developed a preference for the convenience/easiness of His spoken Word. It is easier just to wait for it to be read to me on Sunday. However, we have forgotten that this Word was spoken and this Word overrules and is the foundation of all true spoken Word. In fact, some of us get in trouble because we don't using the hearing aid of Scripture and since we are not versed in verses any voice that sounds like God can trick/mislead/misguide us. We must have an adequate scriptural underpinning to help us discern.
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16-17
We tend to not like this hearing aid because we have grown lazy. Not hearing His audible voice? Need direction? Need help? Need advice? Here it is in black and white but you will have to dig. Quit chasing prophets and prophecies especially if you haven't spent any time listening to this! I submit to you that often times our seasons of silence are self-inflicted simply because we won't open His written Word. If God never spoke again, then He has already spoken enough. Volumes of direction, guidance and principles that apply to every step of our life. How to live, who to marry, how to work, how to navigate relationships, how to mourn, how to rejoice, how to give, how to parent. It is all here. A wordless believer is a hearing impaired believer. Consistent hearing requires consistent reading.
2 Peter 1:3 - For His divine power has bestowed on us absolutely everything necessary for a dynamic spiritual life and godliness through true and personal knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence! This Word contains everything you need for life and godliness.
So you will struggle to hear God's voice if you don't know God's Word! Know His Word hear His voice. If you are in a season of silence, turn to His Word first! Not after you have tried every other voice.
2. The Holy Spirit
John 14:26 - But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my Name, will teach you all things and will remind you everything I have said to you.
He brings everything Jesus said to our remembrance. Think about that statement. The Holy Spirit helps us recognize and remember the sound of Jesus' voice!
The Holy Spirit is an essential aid in hearing the voice of God. That is why it is so essential for you to be filled with the Holy Spirit. As Pentecostals we have so often sold the Holy Spirit short as something that is just for good services or public gift displays. However, one of His key and forgotten roles is to help us hear more clearly. We focus on the speaking that the Holy Spirit does and fail to rely on the hearing that the Holy Spirit does.
Hebrews 10:15-16 - "But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us for after He had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds I will write them." I Corinthians 2:12 - Now we have received the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God."
The Holy Spirit is a major hearing aid that we have turned into a major side show. We need to recalibrate and rely on the Holy Spirit to help us hear! I want you to experience the Holy Spirit not just so that you speak (in tongues) but so that you can also listen more efficiently.
3. The Prophetic
I want you to esteem and understand that we wholeheartedly believe in words of knowledge, words of wisdom, and personal prophecies. We know these are gifts of the Spirit. So we can't dismiss or discount God's ability to speak to us through someone else. We have been told "Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good" (I Thessalonians 5:19-21).
There is nothing to fear. We simply know that the One who knows everything about us can use anyone He chooses to use to speak to us! Have these gifts been misused and abused? Yes! Have these same gifts been underused and as a result silent seasons drag out that should have been short lived? Yes! Does the prophetic take the place of Scripture? No! Does it supplement and assert the Word? Yes!
I think because of how the gift has been used it has scared us into silence. We must learn to allow the Holy Spirit to prompt and interrupt our daily conversations. You don't have to stand up on your desk and declare thus sayeth the Lord! You can interact with people in a normal fashion and at the same time listen to the Holy Spirit and by saying what you hear Him say you can be used by God to end silent seasons in people's lives. Again it is absolutely necessary to have a foundation of Word before we try to speak for the Word.
My question is who is suffering in silence simply because you won't prophetically speak? What prompting, what leading, what simple truth are you being directed to give? As small or insignificant as it may seem that word may crash through the silence in someone's life. Remember last week I told you God throws His voice. I think one of the most difficult truths to learn is that God's voice can sound like me!
So do we chase prophetic words? No, but we don't run away from it either. We embrace that God does use people including us to speak! The prophetic word can direct and correct! The prophetic word can confirm and affirm. We hear the voice of God through the prophetic when we balance it against the written Word and according to 1 Thessalonians 5:21, we sift through and cast aside weakness, wackiness, and what doesn't matter without throwing out The Voice behind the voice. We cannot afford to be a non-prophet organization! May God begin to use each of us to speak accurately, correctly and regularly!
Speak Lord I am listening. I renew my commitment to hear you through the aid of your written Word, with assistance of the Holy Spirit and I will speak when you say speak and I will be careful to listen when I am spoken to.
