Father, I want to thank you for the time that we have this particular Sunday to get together, have fellowship with one another, and then have a time of worship of your name and who you are. Father, I pray that as we go through this topic, that can be very emotional. It can be very disconcerting. It could also be a topic that people are very confused by. Father, I pray that your word would be evident to us in teaching us and guiding us. and helping us in living a life that is holy, living a life that is godly, not for our own good, all for the glory of you. Thank you for this time, in your name, amen. You're having a conversation with a believer, a church, and you bring up the topic of your job. And you're wondering if you need to make a career change. You've been in sales world for a number of years, but as of late, you've really not enjoyed your job. You've been getting pressure from your boss to perform. You're not meeting goals that have been set. Others are meeting them, but you're not. And he's wondering what the deal is, because you've been a good salesperson, but things just haven't been going well. Your friend remarks that she's been wanting to talk to you about your career. She's noticed that you've become unhappy and that the work seems to be drudgery. She's been praying for you and she says that God told her that you need to go back to school for a career in finance. Well, this comes a little bit of a shock to you. You've never considered the financial world. In fact, you've gone out to seek a financial advisor just to get your own house in order. Well, she says that she's been reading Psalms 50 and shows you verse 10. It says, for every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills. And she tells you that livestock were a sign of wealth. God has told her that he wants you to take care of his wealth. What do you say? What do you do? Is God directing you through your friend? She's very sincere in her faith. In fact, she is one that you listen to in the Bible study because she brings out some very good points in the study. You wonder why God has not told you the same thing. What's the deal here? Why God hasn't shown you some other scriptures and talked to you the same way that he's talked to her? It seems odd, but you know, God works in mysterious ways. So what do you do? This afternoon, I've been asked to address the topic of what do you do when you hear from someone that God told me to say this to you? I'd like to view this topic from two different aspects. One aspect is the messenger side. and the other from the receiver side. So that's what we're going to take a look at in this time that we have together. So let's get started with the messenger. Why do people say that God told me whatever? I've come up with three reasons as to why that might be, and you might be able to think of some others and you can jot those down on your notes. The first one I put down is relationship. As believers, we desire to have an intimate relationship with God. Our salvation is one of relationship with the Almighty God. We are no longer enemies of God, as stated in Romans chapter six, verse 10, it says, for if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, but we are now called sons of God. In Romans 8, 15, it says, for you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father. Praise God for that change. But we see here a relationship with God the Father. So, there's a relationship going on here, and in a relationship you have communication. Do you not? Yes, you do. Saying that God told me something indicates a close relationship with God. I talk to him, he talks to me. So relationship may be a motive behind all this. Another item could be guidance. We sometimes feel insecure about making major decisions. It's sometimes frightful. When I married Linda and took her to be my wife, that was frightful. I not only had to consider myself, but I had to consider her in that relationship. So sometimes we feel insecure about making these major decisions. You know, what job should I take? Should we move to another house? Should we move to another house in the city? Or should we move to another house outside the country? Those are some major decisions. And we feel somewhat insecure in making those decisions. So we want to have some sort of validation with some of our decisions. And, you know, Who can say that God was wrong in guiding us when things go south? If we make this decision and it all goes south, we can say, well, God directed me to do this. So we put the blame on Him. Do we not? Another aspect is it deflects opposition. deflects opposition. If we say that God told me such and such, it validates our actions. If God said to do something and we tell others that we need to do something or whatever, you know, who's going to push back on that? Who's going to say, no, that's not right. Well, it is because God told me. God told me. Either one does what he says, or you don't. And it comes from God, and if you don't do it, it's disobedience. So that's my out. That's my out. Okay, so how does one hear from God? Well, you know, I went to a very reliable source, and that's Google. And I googled, God told me to say this to you. because we know that the internet holds all wisdom and all knowledge and all understanding. So I did that, and it's interesting what you come up with. The first site was entitled, Four Keys to Hearing God's Voice. I love it. Four keys. Four items. I can do these. I can do these. According to Dr. James Johnson, James G. Johnson, There are four keys and they are number one, you go to a quiet place and still your own thoughts and emotion. And he gets this from Psalms 46, verse 10, and chapter 46 of Psalms is a song of Korah. And it says in verse 10, it says, see striving and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will exalt in the earth. I will be exalted in the earth. I struggled a little bit with equating the fact to go to a quiet place and still your own thoughts and emotions with that verse. I couldn't make that connection. And you look at that Psalm and it has nothing to do with how to listen to God's voice. It's actually a psalm describing, pointing people to the greatness of God and trusting him during times of turbulence. It's not a song of instruction as to how to listen to God's voice, but that's what he put in here. Okay, the second thing was, as you pray, fix your eyes and your heart upon Jesus. This enables one in seeing the spirit, the dreams and the visions of Almighty God. He references the book of Habakkuk, but not a verse. So I was struggling. I read through Habakkuk and I was, what's the deal here? How do you make this connection of fixing your eyes of your heart on Jesus? I couldn't I couldn't get there from here either. Well, I continued on. The third key that he has here is recognizing that God's voice in your heart often sounds like a flow of spontaneous thoughts. Really? That's pretty subjective. How do you know whose thoughts are whose? He doesn't give any scripture reference, because there is none, okay? And what do spontaneous thoughts sound like? I have no idea. I have no idea. Is it truly God speaking, or is it my own thoughts? How do I decipher which is which in all this? Very subjective. Okay, fourth key. We got a winner here. OK, two way journaling or the writing out of your prayers and God's answer. This brings freedom in hearing God's voice. Now, this one he cites Habakkuk 2.2 where God tells Habakkuk to write the vision down. I'm struggling here as well, because this is not really indication that this is how you listen to God's voice, is that you write down, you journal what you hear. I guess he could have used, you know, Moses. God told Moses to write things down. He told Isaiah. He told Jeremiah, not once, but twice. Jeremiah had to write down the book of Jeremiah twice. So. I'm struggling again with this. So there are four keys to hearing God's voice. You know, I found other sites that list four keys to hearing God's voice by other people. I think they're reading off the same script because a lot of it was the same stuff, just kind of with a different twist. One of them was entitled Beginner's Guide on Hearing God's Voice. And it didn't offer me any help at all as a beginner. Well, apparently it takes four keys to hear God's voice, but no one can support them from good hermeneutic work from Scripture. So here I am left. You know, I understand believers sometimes desire to hear from God, even receive a nudge from Him. Since we have this relationship, we desire that. We desire that. We also want to be obedient to His will. We desire for Him to speak to us, to tell us what we are to do or what we're not to do. So does God really speak to people, either audibly or in a still voice? Well, what does Scripture say? And that's where we need to go to. We need to go to scripture. You know, you read in Genesis that God talked audibly to mankind in his creation in the garden. He told them, be fruitful, multiply. God talked to Cain asking, where's Abel? Where's Abel? The next time you see Noah building the ark, then you see Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, God speaks to him. God appeared to Isaac and told him, do not go down to Egypt, stay in the land of which I shall tell you. To Jacob, and behold, Yahweh stood above it and said, I'm Yahweh, the God of your father Abraham, the God of Isaac and the land which you lie. I will give it to you and your descendants. But you know what? You get to Joseph. And I couldn't find anywhere where God spoke to Joseph. Now, that's really interesting. I mean, of all men, you'd think that God would have some conversation with Joseph saying, hey, I know you're in the pit, but don't worry about it. I'll get you out. I know you're in jail. Don't worry about it. You'll get out of this. Or maybe, you know, he's the second in command. I'm going to give you all wisdom. There's nothing in Scripture that talks about God talking to Joseph. Where you would think that that would be somebody that God would speak to. But Joseph made decisions. He worked through his life depending upon God to do God, for God to do his will in his life as he lived it. You don't see God speaking to anyone during the 400 years, 400 years of Israel's rule or Egyptian's rule under Moses. Then God speaks to Moses in the burning bush. There are numerous times in the Old Testament that God spoke to the prophets either verbally or by dreams or by visions. A number of kings sought out prophets to see what Yahweh would advise concerning going to battle. We can say that God spoke to specific people in the Old Testament, but we would also have to say that it was for a specific purpose that God ordained them to hear him and hear the direction that he gave. We don't see God speaking to them about what crops to plant or when to plant them. We don't see God speaking to those to have a job, what kind of job or even education, what kind of education. We don't see any of that direction from God to these people. Well, let's look at the New Testament. When you look at the New Testament, God speaks twice. God speaks twice. The first time is that Jesus' baptism where God says verbally to Jesus within the hearing of others, you are my beloved son, in you I am well pleased. The people heard it. It was verbal. The second time is that Jesus' transfiguration where God says verbally to Peter and John and James, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, listen to him. How do we know they said that verbally? Well, if you look in verse six, when the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified. These three, the big three, Peter, James, and John, were scared. They were fearful. Why? Because they heard the voice of the Almighty God. They heard that voice. Do we see any other occasions during which the course of Jesus' ministry on earth that God speaks to people or to Jesus himself? We don't. Okay, what about after Jesus ascends? We see angels give directions. Acts chapter eight, we see angel, a messenger of the Lord speaks to Philip and told him to go to Gaza. The word spoke is means an audible voice. It's not an impression. It's not a nudge. It's an audible voice. We see Jesus talking to Saul at his conversion and Acts chapter nine says that Saul heard a voice. saying to him, Saul, Saul, why have you persecuted me? Again, this was an audible voice. Saul could hear somebody speaking plainly to him. And the purpose of that conversion of Saul was to minister to whom? To minister to the Gentiles as a strategic point in time that God talked to Saul. We see an angel speaking to Cornelius, a Gentile. Cornelius sees a vision. The word vision means what is to be seen, a spectacle, an appearance, as opposed to a dream. There's a difference. The Greek word indicates that he saw this with his eyes. He saw this with the eyes. He wasn't sleeping. He saw it with his eyes. He didn't dream it. The same thing occurred with Peter. He had a vision. Same word is used there. So Peter wasn't in a dream. He saw a vision with his eyes. How that is manifested, I don't know. But he saw it with his eyes. Peter had another occasion reading in Acts chapter 12 where the angel of the Lord appeared and speaks to him. This time he is in prison. An angel strikes Peter's side. And it's not a nudge. Peter was a sound sleeper. He struck him. It's a strike. Wake up, Peter. Wake up. And he told him to get up quickly and get dressed and put his sandals on and follow the angel. And we can go on the first missionary journey. We see that the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 13 said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work of which I have called them. The Greek word translated here and in the text indicates that was said out loud. People could hear what was being said. It wasn't like one person heard it and he's translating it for the others. It was said out loud. There was no impressions. It was an audible voice that was said. The Holy Spirit verbally spoke and told the group to send Barnabas and Saul. And they did. In the second missionary journey, we see another occasion where the Holy Spirit forbids them from speaking, Paul, from speaking on the West Coast of Asia Minor. How is this done? We aren't really told how that was done, but it says that the Spirit forbade them from speaking. So they go to Troas, and then Paul has a vision that night, that would be a dream. A vision at night. And the missionary team then goes to Macedonia. Just as a side note, have you ever wondered why he was forbidden to go to that location, Paul and that group? I think I know why. If you look at 1 Peter. Chapter 1, verse 1, you see that very same area is the area that 1 Peter is written to. Peter writes to that group. There is some strong evidence that Peter was the one that established the churches in those areas. The Holy Spirit did not want them to work on top of each other. The Holy Spirit wanted Paul to go over to Macedonia. He had other plans. God had other plans for Peter, and that was to work in that area of Asia Minor. I throw that out free. I won't charge you for that. Anyway, we see in Acts chapter 18 another time God spoke to Paul at night by a vision, a dream. God encouraged Paul not to be afraid to keep on speaking. The rest of Acts, we see a few more times where the Holy Spirit gives directions, but it gets very nebulous as to how that occurred. As time goes on throughout Acts, you see less and less occurrences, and you see the methodology not explained as to how that happened. I think that gives us some indication concerning the Holy Spirit and his speaking to us. As we see in the Old Testament, we see God directing specific people for specific reasons and accomplishing his purpose. We see that also in the New Testament. We need to keep in mind that this was not a common occurrence for God to speak audibly or by way of visions. This was not common that this occurred. We see God speaking a couple of times, and then we see Jesus speaking once to Paul, and then the Holy Spirit and angels speaking later on. We do not see guidance for people on what chariot to buy or what house to buy. It is all related to ministry purposes and God furthering the gospel throughout the world. We don't see any direction on education institutes that they were to apply for. When God or Jesus or an angel spoke, it was for an overall purpose of God's plan. There's no recording of the impressions or nudges or whispers or still small voice. None of that in Scripture. The rest of scripture, the epistles, we see instructions to believers. If hearing or feeling nudges or having divine impressions was something of the Christian norm, then one would expect them to be mentioned in the epistles to the churches, would you not? There would be encouragement to pay attention to God's speaking or having divine impressions as a way of getting direction. You'd see that, but you don't. There'd be instructions on how to discern when God speaks. There isn't any stating of four steps to hearing God or Jesus or the angels or the Holy Spirit in Scripture. You don't see that. One might argue that 1 John 4 1 provides instructions on making sure you are hearing from God and not yourself. Let's take a look at that passage. Because there are some that use this passage to teach that very thing. And this is where it requires students of scripture to be diligent in understanding the context, reading everything before and after, and in the verse, and understanding what is being said. 1 John 4, verse 1, John writes, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. And some people just stop there. Let's continue. because many false prophets have gone out into the world. So let's look at this verse. What's the context? What is John speaking of here? He's telling the beloved or the brethren, he's saying, do not believe every spirit. Every spirit indicates more than one. It can't refer to the Holy Spirit because there's only one Holy Spirit. And John says, every spirit. Then he goes on and says, then he says to test the spirits, plural. There's more than one. Then he goes on and says that. Test the spirits to see whether they are from God. OK, why? Because many what? False prophets have gone out into the world. John is referring to false prophets here. That's what he's alluding to as far as the different spirits. And what are they supposed to do here? He's warning them about false teachers, that there are more than one. The spirits John's referring to are false teachers. They are to be tested. Now, how are we to test them? Ah, go to verse two. John says, by this you will know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. So what is the test? You've got to test the teachers to find out what they believe or who they believe Jesus Christ was. Did he come to earth? Did he come in the flesh? Was he sent by God? Was he God? Find out from these false teachers what they believe concerning Jesus Christ. So you can't use this verse in chapter one or chapter four, verse one of John to say, OK, you got to test the spirits to make sure that what you're hearing inside you is from God. That is wrong hermeneutics, wrong interpretation of scripture. Lots of times people will pull things out of Scripture so that they can support their idea, their own idea on things. It is interesting that we see in Scripture warnings about false teachers, but not about voices from God that may be false. You don't see that. Why is that? It's because there are false teachers abound. Do we not see them today? All over. We are to test them, the false teachers. Not nudges. We don't test nudges. We don't test voices. The false teachers distort what God says. So since there's no teaching concerning listening or being aware of nudges or voices, then we can conclude that we gain direction in life by other means. And what are those other means? Well, Sam Fletcher spoke not too long ago about how to make biblical decisions in your life. It's well worth to revisit that session. On a cautionary note, I would add to you, brothers and sisters, that you carefully choose your words and how you speak. I've heard some well-meaning believers make statements like, God told me, or God is leading me, or God showed me. Be careful with those words. Because of what are you doing when you say those things? Maybe God is not showing you such things. They admit that, you know, when you question them that they didn't hear God speak, they won't go that far. They just feel that this is what he wants. Ah, they feel this is what He wants. When one says, God told me, it authenticates and brings authority into what is being said. That's why we need to choose our words closely. Be careful in what you say. You are speaking God's word when you say that. That's a very sobering position to be in, is it not? You're acting as a prophet, a messenger of God when you say such. Be careful, be careful. The only time you can be assured that you're speaking God's word is when you read scripture. And you can be reading scripture and know that that is the word of God. And you can be bold in saying such. Nudges and feelings are subjective. How can one be assured that's not your own desires? One can argue that's a prompting of the Holy Spirit. How do you know? Well, Scripture doesn't give any guidance on this at all. We are to live on the surety of God's word, not feelings we have. His word is our foundation. His word is our foundation. We address the messenger. Now let's look at the receiver of God told me to say this to you. How do you respond to one like that? Someone that a dear brother or sister says that, how do you respond? So as a receiver, I would tell you that you need to be gentle and loving towards those people. You don't want to hit them over the head with the Bible. You don't want to call them a heretic. That's not Christian love. That's not loving one another. So you may want to go and ask a few questions, and those questions might be, thank you for your input into my life. I appreciate that. I appreciate your concern in my life and what I need to do. I would like to ask you a couple of questions, though, just for help me understand what you're saying here. What makes you sure that is from God? What you're saying. Did God tell you verbally or is this an impression you have? If God told you verbally, What was your response when he spoke to you? It should be that of fear if God speaks to you, because you're hearing the Almighty God in doing so. You might want to approach it this way. Thank you for your desire for best of me and showing love. May I ask you a question? Are you saying God spoke to you or that you just have impression that this is what you think I should do? Get some clarification on what they're saying here. Some people are not careful with the words they use. And you need to give them the benefit of that doubt and help them give understanding as to what they're saying here. They say that God told them, but really, are they thinking that this is really important that you do such and such? You know, after much prayer for you, they feel that this is the right direction for you. It may be the case. But that is not how God directs us. Another way would be if the person does not think that what they are saying came from God or they think they heard God tell them something that you might want to offer to go through scripture with them and to see what it is it says about God speaking to us through his word. Go there. We have to be careful and read the context of the passage like what we're looking at, 1 John 4 there, and use good hermeneutic principles in understanding and getting the right interpretation of Scripture. A couple of weeks ago, I heard Stuart Scott make a statement that I thought was really good. He said, we know that Scripture is for us. It says in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 11, now these things happen to them as an example, that they are written for our instruction. Then Stuart Scott goes on to say, not all things were written to us. Not all things are written to us. One could argue that we're to eat fish and loaves only. I mean, that's what Christ multiplied, and maybe we should multiply fish and loaves. That wasn't written to us, that was written for us, for instruction, for instruction. We have to be very careful on narratives in scripture that we don't take the narratives and say, OK, this is what it is teaching me to do. I can say that 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 18 says that we are to give thanks in all things. And that's what we're to do. Give thanks in all things. We have to rightly divide the word of God. So what do we what do we use as far as maybe an introduction into understanding where we go with people on scripture? to show them that scripture is all that we need. Well, I'm sure that you can think of some verses right off the top of your head. We might want to start off with 2 Peter. I love Peter. I love Peter. He's a good guy. 2 Peter 1, verse 3 says that he has given to us everything for godly living. It's past tense. He has given. Not that he is giving or will give us in the future what we need to live a godly life. He has, past tense, given us everything that we need. Is not scripture enough to live a godly life? Does God say we need to listen to him talk to us or to nudge us or to whisper to us? No, scripture is enough. Scripture is enough. 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 16 through 17, we know it well here. It says that scripture is inspired by God to teach us, to reprove us, to correct us when we need it, to train us in righteous life. Scripture is given to us, why? Verse 17, so that we would be adequately equipped for every, not some, but every good work. Why do we need something other than Scripture to equip us? It provides wisdom, it provides instruction. Psalms 119 verse 24, it says, your testimonies are my delight. They are my counselors. What we need to do is immerse ourselves into scripture. We need to saturate ourselves with scripture. Do you realize that you hold in your hand more of God's word than the Old and New Testament people had? They didn't have the Old and New Testament. You do. You hold more than what they have. You hold more than what David had. You hold more than what Paul had. Why would we want anything more from God? He's given us everything and more than what they had. The problem is that we want it easy. We want it now. Just tell me what to do. And I'll do it. The reality is, is that he has. He's given us everything that we need. Some may question what we do in case where we have some, we ourselves have strong impressions about what we should do or encourage others to do. But make sure that those impressions line up with scripture. Is it true? Ephesians chapter four verse or Ephesians chapter four through chapter six, Philippians four, eight through nine. An impression of taking all your wealth and buying lottery tickets violates a number of scriptural principles. Look for scriptural principles. Keep in mind, Jeremiah 17 9, the heart is deceitful more than all else and is desperately sick. Who can know it? Your impressions may be just that. Your impressions. And they may not be God's. OK, if you have strong inclination to talk to someone about their life, you might go to that person and say, you know, I've been praying for you. I've seen this in your life. I see that you're struggling here. What do you think of the idea of, and then state it. You're not inferring that God has told you anything. You're not taking God and being the spokesman for him. You're just concerned about another brother or sister and you're coming alongside. If you are in need of specific direction for a major decision, search the scriptures. Search the scriptures. Ask for wisdom. James 1, verse 5. And seek the counsel of others. Seek the counsel of others. That could be other elders. It could be people in this church that you can talk to. Seek them out. We are all fallen, but God gives wisdom to others for a benefit. Not that we seek to know what God may have told them to tell us. Seek the counsel of others is one reason why we belong to a local assembly of believers. So that we can all minister to one another. We can all minister to one another. Scripture says in Proverbs 11, 14, where there is no guidance, people fall. But in abundance of counselors, there is salvation. Proverbs 15, 22, without consultation, plans are frustrated. But with many counselors, they succeed. Make sure the counsel comes from people who have demonstrated sound wisdom. Sound wisdom. Gaining wise counsel, that's a whole other subject. that we could look into, but we won't. Much more could be said on this topic of God told me to tell you, but hopefully you've gained some understanding and some direction on how you talk to people and how you receive that word. It's been said that if we desire to hear from God, read God's word aloud or listen to it being read, we sometimes forget that the printed words are indeed God's word. The written word is just as much God's word as it was when the disciples on the mountain heard God say, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well, please listen to him. Listen to what is written. Take value in the fact that you have God's word. Go to it. It is sufficient for all things in life. And those things that are not plainly told us to do, we can ask for wisdom and then make the decision. Make the decision. I trust that we will have the same attitude towards scripture as the Psalms had when he wrote Psalm 119. And I would encourage you to read that Psalm. I know the pastor reads that on his time of prayer. That's a beautiful Psalm, a rich Psalm. I want to close this time with a portion of Psalm 119, and I want to pray a Psalm. in closing, so let's pray. Father, instruct us, O Yahweh, in the way of your statutes, that we may observe it to the end of our lives. Cause us to understand that we may observe your law and keep it with our heart. Cause us to walk in the path of your commandments, for we delight in it. Cause our heart to incline to your testimonies and not to dishonest gain. Cause our eyes to turn away from looking at worthlessness and revive us in your ways. Cause your word to be established in your slaves as that which produces fear for you. Cause our reproach, which we dread to pass away, for your judgments are good. Behold, we long for your precepts. Revive us in your righteousness. In your name we pray, amen.