SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES
(Jeremiah 33:3) “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
(Isaiah 30:21) “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.”
(John 10:27) “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:”
PROLOGUE
Over the years, people have asked me questions like, “What are the various ways God communicates with you, and how can you be sure it is His voice you are hearing?” In response, I always emphasize that God is eager to communicate with us; however, it is crucial to cultivate a heart willing to listen and spend time with Him in solitude, prayer, and studying His Word.
I tell them that hearing God’s voice usually involves quieting the chaos of our busy lives and dedicating time to God’s Holy Word. The Holy Bible is God's message to us, and understanding His message requires knowing His Word.
The question before us is, “How can we live a successful life rich in meaning and purpose if we struggle to hear and recognize God’s voice? The answer to that question can be found in John 10:27, where the Holy Bible states, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
To truly understand and embrace the things about God, we must be able to hear His voice. The truth is, “God is speaking, but are we listening, and is our heart receptive and open to hear His voice? Does that voice align with His Holy Word? Does it line up with scripture?"
In John 14:16, the Lord Jesus makes a powerful declaration about the role of the Holy Spirit, indicating that He will send a Comforter to be with His followers for all eternity.
This Comforter, also known as the Holy Spirit, is referred to as the Paraclete, a Greek term meaning "one called alongside to help." This title underscores the intimate, supportive relationship the Holy Spirit maintains with believers, offering reassurance that they will never be left alone in their spiritual journey.
Jesus states in John 16:13, "When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come."
This verse highlights the active role of the Holy Spirit as a divine messenger who conveys God’s truth to His people. It emphasizes that the Holy Spirit does not act independently but works in perfect harmony with the Father and the Son, revealing God's plans and insights to help believers understand His purpose for their lives.
In conclusion, the Holy Spirit plays a vital role in understanding God’s voice, and He is present in the heart of every believer to guide, comfort, and empower believers to keep their minds aligned with what has been revealed in Scripture, so that God’s purpose and will can be fulfilled in their lives.
"CULTIVATING A LISTENING HEART."
Developing a listening heart is essential to understanding God's purpose and will in our Christian journey. It involves maintaining a committed prayer life and studying God’s Holy Word on a daily basis.
The more time we spend in His presence through prayer, meditation, and studying His Word, the stronger and more resilient we will become in our Christian walk.
This message focuses on hearing God’s voice and cultivating a heart receptive to His guidance. We can reflect on several thoughtful questions to strengthen our relationship with God and deepen our ability to listen for His voice. These questions can help us become more attuned to His presence and better understand His will for us.
1. Am I genuinely receptive to listening to His voice?
2. Has my heart become hardened by past hurts or disappointments?
3. Am I too busy to listen to His guidance?
4. Am I assuming I know enough to navigate life on my own?
5. How does God's Word impact me, and what kind of influence does it have on my life?
"GOD IS SPEAKING, BUT ARE WE LISTENING?"
Psalms 25:9 beautifully illustrates God's compassionate guidance for those who are humble and have an open heart. In His infinite wisdom, He leads them along the paths of righteousness, sharing more profound truths and insights about His will and purpose.
(Psalms 25:9) “The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.”
One way God provides guidance is through His Holy Word, which offers wisdom, encouragement, and direction to those seeking to follow His ways. If you genuinely want to hear God’s voice, it’s essential to spend time in His Word and let His word to dwell in you.
A clear example of hearing God’s voice is like my broadcast on a radio station. When I transmit my message, people nearby can tune in and clearly hear my voice, learning from the teachings and insights I share. However, those outside that range have trouble; they may even begin picking up signals from a different station. I am still preaching, but they have run out of the signal range.
In summary, the Holy Spirit serves as our guiding light, leading us into the fullness of truth by providing invaluable wisdom, clarity, and direction throughout our spiritual journey. To fully benefit from His guidance, we must learn to listen for His voice not only with our physical ears but also with the ears of our hearts.
"THE DIFFERENT WAYS GOD SPEAKS TO ME."
Romans 10:17 declares, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
To better understand this verse, we can say that our faith grows when we listen to a sermon delivered by someone led by God’s Holy Spirit, which helps us receive divine revelation of what is being shared.
God started talking to me around the age of eight. It all began after I listened to my grandfather preach on Revelation 17:9, which describes the city on seven mountains, referring to Babylon the Great. At that time, I didn’t know much about the town I lived in, let alone about a city thousands of miles away.
One night, lying in bed, I picked up my Bible to read the passage he had preached. Suddenly, I heard an unseen voice say, “That is Rome, Italy.” That was my first encounter with God, and the moment I realized I could listen to His voice.
Over the years, I often found myself in challenging situations that seemed unavoidable. During those times of uncertainty and stress, I heard a whispering voice inside me, giving guidance on how to find a way out.
This calm yet assertive voice offered insights that helped me make the right choices when I felt lost. It warned me about people's hidden intentions and actions, even alerting me to conversations about me that were happening behind closed doors.
After entering the ministry, God would often give me specific words tailored to the needs of hurting people. These words were usually personal and known only to Him and the person I am ministering to. Listening to and acting on this whispering voice has resulted in preventing suicides and even mending broken marriages.
The Lord communicates with me in various ways, including whispers, direct commands, visions, enlightening dreams, and sometimes through an overwhelming sense of guidance. When He speaks to me in a whisper, it often catches me off guard because it feels as if He is standing right next to me, very close.
I'll say that if He shows you a vision while you're praying for someone, please rearrange, if needed, the way you saw the people in the vision, even if you have to move them around. God has a purpose for it, and you'll see more healings and so on if you do it this way.
I have vivid memories of ministering in truck stop chapels where His whispering voice felt so real that I often opened my eyes, half-expecting to see an Angel standing before me. There have been times when I heard His voice rebuking an evil spirit, as if He were angry, and other times, it felt like a rush of wind passed by me.
I have noticed a shift in the past four years of living and ministering alongside my wife in the Philippines. Unlike before, the whispers of God’s voice have begun to come to me in broken phrases rather than complete sentences.
My pastor, Brother Bryan Henson, who leads Miracle Life Church in Fortune, Venezuela, once shared insight with me that has resonated deeply. He explained that God had me on "milk" before, nurturing my early spiritual development.
He said, Jerry, much like a mother gently weans her child, God is guiding you to realize that even when it seems He is distant, like a mother in another room, He remains close. The weaned child knows its mother is always near and will never truly leave it.
God knows I cherish my relationship with Him. He also knows I do not engage in miracle ministry promoting Jerry. He understands that I have a strong desire not only to fulfill what He wrote about my life and ministry in His book but also to experience Him now—walking, healing, and delivering His people.
I want to leave something for new ministers, especially those called to special ministries. My advice to those of you who desire to know God more deeply is this: “When you minister to a church body or an individual and hear the inward voice of God’s Holy Spirit, only say what He says, and please do not try to add to it or make it make sense. God has a reason for speaking the words you hear, and I assure you that it will accomplish His will and purpose.”
I would like to conclude by sharing a true story of how God used me to ignite a fire during a West Virginia church revival, which was filled with people who initially seemed to dislike me. Another pastor that they knew asked me to help him in this revival, and on the first night of the revival, he was a no-show.
I recall that night when I stood behind the pulpit, addressing the church congregation and sharing that, as a truck driver evangelist known as “The Guardian Angel” on radio and TV, I had just completed a 700-mile run and driven nearly 200 miles in my personal vehicle to attend this revival.
I remember telling them that the minister who arranged this meeting was not present. Still, something unexpected happened when I asked everyone to give a round of applause to God’s blessed Holy Spirit, my preaching partner.
It was then that, although they did not know me, He moved on the ones to my left and began taking them out all the way to the back of the church. Then, to my surprise, He started doing the same to those on my right, moving from one row to the next, all the way to the back of the church.
The following night, I recall praying for a man who was having difficulty walking, and I was struggling to pray myself. I remember placing my Bible on his leg as I prayed for his healing when I heard God’s whisper telling me to deliver a message to a lady walking by.
The message was: “Tell her that her son is on his way home.” I didn't understand what it meant, and I knew I shouldn’t say anything except what the Spirit of God had directed me to say. The woman showed no outward expression of motion, but she returned the next night and set the church on fire with a spirit of revival.
When it was time for testimonies before the message, the woman raised her hand to share her testimony. She began to share that I had given her a word about her son and informed the church that they had been trying to find her son, who was in military service for several months, but they had difficulty getting in touch with him.
She went on to say that something happened when she got home after the service and had just prepared dinner for her husband. She mentioned that while I was at home talking to my husband, informing him about the preacher in our revival—yes, she called me an idiot.
She said that she hadn't gotten the words out of her mouth before the phone rang, and it was her son calling from the plane just before his flight to tell her that he was on his way home. I have gone through this multiple times, and the main point is: 'What if I had tried to add, understand, or say something like, “Your son may be in the world, but according to this word, he will be saved?''
In summary, notice that God never revealed anything to me like that; He only asked me to tell her that her son was on his way home, and by my obeying that whispering voice, an entire church that didn't know or like me was transformed into a mighty revival.
MY CONCLUSION
We are reaching a crucial moment in history, when the Church of God is ready to confront the forces of the Kingdom of Darkness. This time will be followed by a spiritual awakening, and the stakes have never been higher.
In this fierce battle for souls and truth, believers must develop the ability to discern and clearly hear God’s voice amid the confusion and distractions around us.
It's time for us to heed the call in the second chapter of Joel and the seventeenth verse. The scripture passage emphasizes the importance of spiritual leaders earnestly seeking repentance, divine intervention, and reconciliation.
The writer urges, “Let the priests and ministers of the Lord weep between the porch and the altar,” emphasizing the importance of genuine grief and repentance in a confused world. This word reminds us of the responsibility spiritual leaders have in guiding their church communities back to a path of faith and devotion.
May we, in this dark hour of spiritual and physical unrest, sincerely embrace our calling as ministers of the Lord to reflect deeply on our actions and intercede for our people, bridging the gap between divine grace and human weakness.
In true repentance, may we strengthen our walk with God, which will empower us to stand firm in our faith, make wise decisions, and share the light of the Gospel of the kingdom in a world that desperately needs hope and guidance.
All kinds of witchcraft surround us on these islands, but we have no fear because we know what we gave up, who sent us, who is in us, and who is around us.
We stand on His word that declares, “greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world,” which relates to the world, the flesh, and the devil. It is dangerous to hold revivals across the Philippines without being able to hear God’s voice correctly.
I remember back in March 2022, during a revival in Occidental Mindoro, Philippines, an elderly woman approached me one night during the service. She used hand gestures to show she wanted prayer because she couldn't speak or hear. God answered her request that night, and the entire Mangyan tribe turned to Him.
During another service the following day, people from that tribe came down from the mountains to join us. They claimed that "Jesus had appeared to them in dreams and visions" after he healed the elderly woman in their tribe.
My wife and I prayed for a young woman on our way to church who had been struggling with a blood disorder for over a month, similar to the woman who touched the hem of Jesus' garment. During the service, the young woman came forward for prayer, and the power of God in that corporate anointing healed her of it.
There are many more stories I could share, like the time God healed Pastor Joseph Dunn's father, who was suffering from lung cancer during one of our Virginia miracle services.
The miracle happened when he was about to undergo surgery to remove his lung. But when they opened him up, the doctors couldn’t find any cancer. Beloved is still alive today, over 70 years old, testifying about how God spared his life when medical science had given up on him.
International Evangelist
Jerry W. Hulse, Ph.D.
Miracle Life Church International
