Can You Hear Me Now
People That Hear God Daniel 10
We have been talking about hearing God. This is far more important than I believe we make it out to be.
If I ask you if you hear our spouse, do you automatically think back to the day he asked you to marry him? Or do you think of this morning, or last night? When I ask if you can hear God, I am not talking about some momentous, supernatural event that you always look back to¡Kalthough there may be some of those. I am talking about listening to Him on a regular basis.
If I am to grow as a believer, I must hear God! Listen to me. You can grow into the image of this church without hearing from God. You can be conformed to the likeness of your religiosity without hearing from God. You can do spiritual disciplines without hearing from God. But you cannot grow into the image of God, be conformed to the likeness of Christ, or bear spiritual fruit such as true love, without hearing from God.
You see, hearing God helps me trust Him, know and obey His will, and change my heart.
Listening to others can change my life.
Listening to God changes my heart!
Did you know that one of the judgments of God upon unrepentant sinners is that He will withhold His words? It is as if God says¡K.since you don¡¦t want to listen to me¡K.I will stop speaking to you.
¡¥Behold, days are coming,¡¦ declares the Lord GOD, ¡¥When I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the LORD. (Amos 8.11)
People will stagger from sea to sea and from the north even to the east; they will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, but they will not find it. (Amos 8.12)
Hearing God is vital to our lives, that is why we need to listen to and obey our theme verse for this series.
He that has ears, let him hear. (Matthew 13.9)
I want you to open your Bibles to the book of Daniel, Chapter 10. We are going to read of an episode in Daniel’s life when he was fervently praying and seeking God--and he heard from God in a dramatic, powerful way. Before I read our text, let me explain a little of the background leading to the event we will read about. Daniel had been taken prisoner from his homeland and hometown as a teenager with other gifted young men and had been incorporated into the culture of Bablyon. Daniel continued to maintain his relationship with the Lord, and in his captivity he came across a prophetic passage speaking of the bondage of his people. God had promised that the slavery would last 70 years. As we begin to read, here is what has happened.
The king of Babylon had fulfilled the Scripture and had issued a decree two years earlier that allowed the Jews to return to their homeland. But a mass exodus from Babylon had not happened. You see, the Jews had spent 70 years¡Kthat is two generations¡Kin Babylon. Many of them had lost their identity. They were Jews in name, but in reality they were apathetic about the true things of God.
Daniel is an 85 year old man, retired from public office, and heartbroken over who the Jews have become. He begins to pray for their apathy. In this passage he has been praying and fasting for three weeks, when He receives a visit from the pre-incarnate Christ.
10:1 1In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a message was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belteshazzar; and the message was true and one of great conflict, but he understood the message and had an understanding of the vision.
10:2 2In those days, I, Daniel, had been mourning for three entire weeks.
10:3 3I did not eat any tasty food, nor did meat or wine enter my mouth, nor did I use any ointment at all until the entire three weeks were completed.
10:4 4On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, while I was by the bank of the great river, that is, the Tigris,
10:5 5I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, there was a certain man dressed in linen, whose waist was girded with a belt of pure gold of Uphaz.
10:6 6His body also was like beryl, his face had the appearance of lightning, his eyes were like flaming torches, his arms and feet like the gleam of polished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a tumult.
10:7 7Now I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, while the men who were with me did not see the vision; nevertheless, a great dread fell on them, and they ran away to hide themselves.
10:8 8So I was left alone and saw this great vision; yet no strength was left in me, for my natural color turned to a deathly pallor, and I retained no strength.
10:9 9But I heard the sound of his words; and as soon as I heard the sound of his words, I fell into a deep sleep on my face, with my face to the ground.
10:10 10Then behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees.
10:11 11He said to me, ¡§O Daniel, man of high esteem, understand the words that I am about to tell you and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you.¡¨ And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling.
10:12 12Then he said to me, ¡§Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words.
I Will Begin To Hear God When:
1. I Truly Desire To Hear Him. (10.2-3, 12)
I believe that the first aspect of truly hearing God is being in a position that all other voices are hollow echoes of emptiness. You must hear God.
In those days, I, Daniel, had been mourning for three entire weeks. (Daniel 10.2)
Daniel expressed his overwhelming desire to hear God as mourning. He wanted to hear God so much that all other desires became second.
I did not eat any tasty food, nor did meat or wine enter my mouth, nor did I use any ointment at all until the entire three weeks were completed. (Daniel 10.3)
He wanted to hear God. He desire to hear from God was so great that Daniel did not want to eat, drink, or even bathe!
Why was Daniel so anxious to hear from God? He looked around and was in such despair over the apoplexy and apathy of the people of God that he wanted to know how to be a part of the solution.
Daniel easily saw the problem. God¡¦s people enjoyed being in captivity. But he could not see what to do to wake them up to the incredible blessing that they were missing.
Let me ask you something. As you look around at culture, within and without the church, what do you see? Do you see people content to live without God? Does it break your heart? What can you do about it?
This is what Daniel was mourning about. This is why he so desired to hear from God. He wanted to somehow be a blessing to other people!
Here is the point. Daniel wanted to hear from God so much, that it consumed him. He had to hear. His motivation was pure, and his desire absolute. These are the type of people that hear from God. This is when/how God speaks. To people who want to hear from Him so they can communicate His love to others.
Then he said to me, ¡¥Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words. (Daniel 10.12)
People who really want to hear from God¡K.will.
¡¥For I know the plans that I have for you,¡¦ declares the LORD, ¡¥plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29.11)
Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. (Jeremiah 29.12)
You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29.13)
What is it that will make us want to hear from God?
Sometimes circumstances can be used to cause you to desire to hear God. Things like: crisis, failures, emptiness, loneliness, problems, even opportunities.
I believe that the best way to desire to hear God is not circumstance, but choice. We can choose to want to hear God. We can decide that hearing God is what we need.
Key Thought: People Pursue Their Passion.
You will try to attain what your heart¡¦s aim. You may not have a systematic plan for it, but it is the direction you gravitate to. You head, not toward your head, but in the direction of your heart. We need to put hearing God, knowing God, loving God first in our lives. I think that for many of us, we have changed this.
Go back to Daniel. He wanted to hear from God, not get things from God. He wanted to know how he could be used by God to bless others, not be blessed by God or others.
I think that somehow we have changed a consuming love for God with a desire for what God will give me if it looks like I love Him. We want to be blessed, not be a blessing.
Question: Do I Pursue God Or God¡¦s Gifts?
You will hear God when you really want to hear Him. This is pretty much what God does. He gives us what we want when it comes to our relationship with Him.
If we want to hear Him, we will.
If we want to get by without hearing from Him, we will.
2. I Totally Dedicate Myself To Respond To What I Hear. (10.10-11; 1.3-17)
The next aspect of people that hear God is this. When they hear Him, they respond to His voice.
Illust: I have songs on my computer that I can listen to when I want to. Many of these songs have really great spiritual truth in them, but that is not why I listen to them. I don¡¦t listen to Caedmon¡¦s Call so that I can hear from God. I listen to them for enjoyment.
Appl: Unfortunately, we have a tendency to do this with God. We want to hear from Him, so that we can hear from Him¡Knot so that we can do what He says. We want to hear from God like He is a supernatural Mp3 that they can play when they want. People that truly hear God don¡¦t want to hear from him for entertainment. They want to hear from Him so that they can be changed by Him.
Then behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. (Daniel 10.10)
He said to me, O Daniel, man of high esteem, understand the words that I am about to tell you and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you.¡¨ And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling. (Daniel 10.11)
Daniel instantly responded, even in a moment that was beyond human comprehension. He did not understand what was happening, but He knew Who was causing it to happen and that was enough.
This was the pattern of Daniel¡¦s life. When he knew what God had said, he did it. Lets go back in time to when Daniel was about 15 years old.
Dan. 1:3 3Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his „Tofficials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles,
Dan. 1:4 4youths in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king¡¦s court; and he ordered him to teach them the „Tliterature and language of the Chaldeans.
Dan. 1:5 5The king appointed for them a daily ration from the king¡¦s choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king¡¦s personal service.
Dan. 1:6 6Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.
Dan. 1:7 7Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them; and to Daniel he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abed-nego.
But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king¡¦s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself. (Daniel 1.8)
They separated him from his family, friends, religion. They changed his name, language and education. They did everything that they could to convert him¡Kbut he refused to be converted. He was willing to give up the non-essentials, but would not compromise on sin. He had the Scripture and knew that he could not eat this food. He was dedicated to respond to what God said.
I believe that Daniel heard from God in the future, because he responded to what he heard in the present.
If you do not listen to God now, and respond to what you hear, why would he continue to speak to a wall?
God speaks to those who truly desire to hear Him, and to those who are dedicated to let His voice change them.
Let me go one step further. I believe that God speaks to people who decide in advance that they will respond to Him.
Illust:; With the elections coming up, almost every day we hear opinion polls in the news. But how many of us orient our lives to these opinion polls? You know what we do? We either agree or disagree, and then we voice our opionion as to why. All the opinion polls do is give us a platform to speak our opinion.
Appl: Many of us treat hearing God like a heavenly opinion poll. We simply want to know God¡¦s opinion on the subject, and we are free to agree or disagree, but it isn¡¦t going to really affect our lives.
Listen to me on this. God¡¦s voice is not an opinion, it is the decision.
God loves you. When He speaks into your life, it isn¡¦t as an elected official trying to appease a special interest group.
You are His Special Interest!
He is especially interested in helping you become like Jesus!
When He speaks, it isn¡¦t so that He will feel better because He was heard. It is so that I will be better by hearing Him.
3. I Am Completely Devoted To Him.(10.9-19)
This is the driving force.
God speaks to us in love, and when we are in love, God speaks to us.
When I am devoted to God, my desire is to hear from Him, and my love compels me to trust and respond to what He says.
For how can such a servant of my lord talk with such as my lord? As for me, there remains just now no strength in me, nor has any breath been left in me. (Daniel 10.17)
Then this one with human appearance touched me again and strengthened me. (Daniel 10.18)
He said, ¡¥O man of high esteem, do not be afraid. Peace be with you; take courage and be courageous!¡¦ Now as soon as he spoke to me, I received strength and said, ¡¥May my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.¡¦ (Daniel 10.19)
Then he said to me, ¡¥Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words. (Daniel 10.12)
Looking at this passage we see how Daniel viewed God. It was in worship, love and trust.
This is what God wants. This is what we need. Look at a passage you hear quoted often.
Jesus answered, ¡¥The foremost is, ¡¥Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; (Mark 12.30)
and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.¡¦ (Mark 12.31)
Question: Am I in love with God?
Conclusion: Let me put this in a more direct way. I believe that some of you are hearing from God right now. He is asking you¡K.Do you love me? He loves you. He gave His Son for you. His desire is to bless you and help you become who He made you to be. Do you love Him enough to listen?
