Helps and Hindrances
In this session, we are going to be talking about the helps and hindrances to hearing God's voice. Those things that aid us, assist us, and help us to hear God's voice, and other things that hinder us from hearing God's voice. First we will talk about the helps.
So one of the best things that you can do for your communication is relationship. The best thing you can do for your relationship is communication. These things work together. So what I would encourage you to do is spend quality time with the Lord and listen to the Lord. With my children, we have a practice in our home that we call "daddy time." This is where we have just one on one with one of the kids. "Daddy time" can be anything. It can be a short three minutes where one of them wants to just climb up in my lap, and they just want to be held or talked to or play. It can also be an extended time. Sometimes I take the kids out. In fact I try to make a regular practice of this. I have never committed to the children or told them what my intentions are, but in my heart I try to give my kids a major one on one time every week. Therefore, we will go out and have lunch, or do something together. That is "daddy time." It is always one on one, or one child at a time.
What I have found is that it really helps bonding, and it really helps communication. This is where the children tend to open up and talk about things that are on their mind. And I end up talking about things that are on my mind. I end up opening up. We have heard the statement before that it is not how much time you spend with somebody, it is the quality of time you spend with them. Now I think that is only half true. I think quality time is very important and so is quantity. If we are not careful, our concept of quality will lead us astray, and we will not feel as if we have to spend that much time. This also applies with your time with the Lord.
There might he several different types of time that you spend with the Lord. One of them might be your daily devotional. You just spend time with the Lord, and this is where you are being built up spiritually. God may be speaking truth to you, and you may have scripture that you prepare your heart with. You may have a prayer list and things that you cover and also some time where God can speak to you.
You may have a second type of time that you spend with the Lord where it is intercession. This is where you feel you are interceding and you are petitioning heaven and bombarding hell. The whole purpose of that time with the Lord is intercession.
There is a third type of time that you can spend with the Lord. I am not necessarily proposing that you have to do all of this every day. The devotion of course you need to do every day. But I firmly believe in another type of time with the Lord that I call "Daddy time." Galatians 4:6 says, "He has given us a spirit of adoption in our heart that we cry out, Abba Father." Abba is Aramaic for Father. It is the familiar form. In our vernacular, it might be translated "Papa" or "Daddy." "Daddy time" is where we come to the Lord and it is strictly a relational time. We do not have any jobs to do. There are no tasks to do. We are not approaching God with a prayer list. We are not interceding on behalf of everybody. It is strictly relational with no agenda. The whole reason we are getting together is to get together. What are we going to do when we get together? Oh, I do not know, just whatever comes! We will let God decide that. Or maybe something will come up in our hearts that we want to talk about. "Daddy time" is real important. This is when you develop quality and quantity "Daddy time" with the Lord. You make a practice of simply climbing up in His lap, putting your arms around His neck, saying "I just want to spend time with you. What do You want to do?" You are going to notice that your communication with the Lord is going to develop dramatically.
Probably one of the things on God's mind is that He wants to encourage you. He wants to talk about how much He loves you. He wants to talk about the wonderful things that He has made within you and the gifts you have. He wants to talk about what makes you special. God loves to do that with His kids. He likes to build them up, edify them, and prepare them for their destiny. When you learn to receive and to hear when God is speaking that way, it brings great clarity to the voice of the Lord. When you have "daddy time," you are going to open up and find out that He is a talking God.
One of the things that you can do is spend time with the Lord. This goes back to learning to tell the twins apart. You have twins on the inside of you -- the voice of the Lord and the voice of your own heart. Just like identical twins in the natural and when you first are acquainted with them, it is hard to tell them apart. The more time you spend with them you find the more distinct they become. The more time you spend with the Lord -- quality and quantity time, the more distinct and separate the voice of the Lord becomes from the voice of your own heart.
Now let me just give you an additional point to this. If there has been a gap in your quality time with the Lord, those voices then become less distinct. I mentioned in one of our earlier lessons about the twins, and I talked about Paul and Patrick Weaver. These are the twins that I got so acquainted with that I lost track of the fact that they were twins. Then I was not around them for quite some time and I saw them again. I confused them and made a mistake calling Paul, Patrick and Patrick, Paul. This was because I had not been around them enough and I had forgotten their distinct marks in their nature. So they will start to blend in together again if you lose that quality time with the Lord.
Many times God will examine your heart. It is as He turns the search light of His Spirit on your heart. I find God doing this with me almost continually. As often as I will listen, it seems as the Lord will speak to me. He will say, "Why did you do that? Why did you react to that person that way? What were you thinking? What was in your heart?" Sometimes the answer is good. It is not always bad. The Lord is often probing, proving, and examining, and testing. Job 23:10 is an encouraging verse to me. It says, "But He knows the way that I take, and when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold." So when God examines your heart and motives, it can be good news sometimes. Continually listen. Exercise your senses all the time.
If we are not obedient to the voice of the Lord, then what we are doing is by choice turning a deaf ear to God's voice. The repercussions to that should be obvious. When we turn a deaf ear, we are setting ourselves up to have difficulty in hearing the next thing He says because our hearing is now dulled. When we start saying to the Lord, "No, I don't want to listen to that. No, I do not want to hear that," our hearing will be effected, isn't it? It's just real important to be obedient.
Now what happens if while you are hearing this teaching, you begin to examine your heart. Or maybe the it is the Lord that is examining your heart. You begin to realize that you have not been obedient as you needed to be in some areas, and you are afraid that it has affected your hearing. What do you do now? You confess it. You take it to the Lord and say, "God, I have been wrong. I have turned a deaf ear and have not been willing to hear what you have to say. Lord, I ask You to forgive me." Then you repent, and have a change of heart-- a change of direction. "Lord, I turn my back on my spiritual deafness. I choose to have keen hearing, to listen and obey." So, this does not doom you to deafness because you disobeyed. It will affect you and it will cause your hearing to diminish, but you can also confess it and repent. Then your hearing can be restored. Isn't that good news?
Now, how do you do that? Now I do not think anybody here needs lessons on stirring up lust and being covetous. The carnal man has probably taught you that lesson well enough. Now redeem it and do it in the spiritual way. By the way, this is the only thing God tells us to covet. So some of you that are looking for an excuse to covet. You have it on this one. Covet to prophesy. The reason we encourage you to do that is because number one it is a scriptural command. Number two is as you have a strong passion and desire to hear God's voice and to minister that voice to other people, it is going to aid you in the hearing process. Because that is your focus and burning desire, you will turn your attention to it.
Now what if you just do not have that desire. What if you do not have that passion? Stir it up. II Tim. 1:6 says, "Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands." So what do you do if you do not have a passion and desire? You stir it up. Now generally speaking, our emotions tend to follow our though processes. If you start dwelling on something like if someone said something rude to your earlier. Soon you may find that your emotions follow by feeling offended and before you know it you are in a full blown argument with this person in your mind. They are no where to be seen! Why is that? Your emotions have followed your thoughts. Now this is not an absolute and there are some strong emotional motivations that we have that it is not always easy to guide them with your thoughts. But by and large your emotions can follow your thoughts.
It works the same way with positive thoughts. Think of a friend that you have not seen for fifteen years. Maybe you have been out of contact with them. Think back to that friend and everything you liked about them and how you enjoyed their company. The first think you know is that you have fond feelings. Your emotions are beginning to respond. So if you do not have a desire when the word says to desire spiritual gifts, and you do not have a coveting nature when it comes to prophesying, what do you do? Stir it up by thinking about it.
So they took those twelve rocks and they walked with them for a day. Where ever they lodged for that night, they piled them up and made a little memorial. So that when people came around and asked why that pile of rocks was there, they could testify of the miracle that God did to bring them into their promised land. These were rocks from the river Jordan. I call them Jordan stones. They are a place where we remember what God has done. I have Jordan stones in my heart. When God does something really exciting such as when He speaks to me, and I hear His voice clearly, and have a way to validate that it really was the Lord -- that is a Jordan stone. I even have a place where I write them down. Because you can forget them. Then when God speaks to me and you say, "Is it me or is it God?", you can remember your Jordan stones. You can remember that He came to you at a certain time and that was God. God did this, and God did that. Faith begins to arise in your heart. You have a memorial, or a place to remember what God has done for you. It really bolsters your faith.
I do this when I am prophesying. There are times when I begin to open up and prophesy the word of the Lord and fear begins to enter my heart. Maybe the natural man enters in and says, "You are making a mistake." Remember the unjust judge that doesn't know what is going on in spiritual things? In my heart sometimes and when I am prophesying, I begin to recount my Jordan stones. I put my mind to good work. See, my spirit man is prophesying. My natural man needs something to do. Faith will arise. You do the same thing. You are making hearing the voice of God a lifestyle, aren't you? Keep yourself a notebook that has your Jordan stones in it.
Here is what I did when I first started prophesying. I was so afraid that I was going to make a mistake. My big fear was that I was going to say something that was wrong. At that time I really did not know the Bible too well, and I was afraid I was going to prophesy something false. Now I really wanted to prophesy. I had the desire. My problem was boldness, faith, and confidence in God. I said, "Lord, will You please give me a little boost here? I need some help. I know You would love for me to get over this fear thing and get on with it, but I'm not able to do that. At least I am not doing it." Here is what He did. I found myself asking the Lord to give me a prophecy that was very scriptural. That way even if I get up and prophesy and miss it and it's not Him, at least it is scripture. The worst I have done is gotten up and quoted scripture!! How is that going to hurt anybody? Even if I failed, I have done well by quoting scripture. That was my helper step. Once I started doing that, then somehow the faith arose in my heart then to depart from just quoting a scripture or prophesying a word that was just very obviously drawn from a particular verse.
Religious tradition is when we do things in the house of the Lord, or in our spiritual lives simply because that is the way we have always done it. It's not based on the truth or word of God. Then that can be a bad thing. We want to do what God has required of us or leading us to do. But when we have traditions and God speaks to us saying to violate those traditions, that may be a real hindrance to us. So we are denying the voice of the Lord because of our tradition.
I know this is not a marriage course, but let me just give you the way I see it. I think it is far better to hear the Lord clearly before you take a step in a relationship. That does not mean that you have to know if this person is going to be your husband or wife before you take them out on the first date. I would not be that extreme. I would say this, though. Spend time with them. Keep your emotions in check. Don't let them flow freely, unless you have heard from the Lord that it is okay. Because you can fall in love with somebody that is not purposed for you. What are you going to do? You either marry them out of the will of God, or you obey God, and you are crushed. Neither one of those is an attractive alternate, is it? I would suggest whether we are talking about dating or anything else, to try not to get too emotionally involved until you have heard from the Lord that it is okay. Then only be involved only to the extent that God has told you. Most of these things are step by step, aren't they? We just do not fall in love overnight. The Lord can guide you. If you find yourself very emotionally involved, it may be very difficult for you to hear clearly. If that is the case, one of the best things you can do is bring your emotions back into check. That is possible. Next, rely on the spiritual wisdom and counsel of other men and women of God that you respect. Lean on them. Be accountable to them and it could be the saving of you. Again, this is not just in marriage. This is in anything.
The first one when God does not speak is when we are in a test. Evelyn Hamon, Dr. Hamon's wife, does a wonderful teaching on this. When you go to school, the teacher lectures and gives you instruction. Sooner or later, there is going to be a test. If you are taking a test and you raise your hand, saying you forgot one of the problems, the teacher will say she is sorry. She cannot answer your question because this is a test. There comes times when God has instructed you. He has shown you His character and His nature, and then He gives you a test to see if you will operate based on His character and nature that He has shown you. It's a test, and we cry out to God for answers. He says that He is sorry. He cannot answer you. It's a test.
Another time when God may be silent is that normally when He is silent in one area, He is talking to you in another. Some people that are real interested in going into ministry are asking the Lord, "When is the time for me to go into ministry?" They just do not hear an answer from the Lord. It may very well be that the Lord is talking to them about their family. Put your family in order. Let's have some structure here. Let me talk to you about disciplining your children and loving your wife sacrificially. What you do is say, "Okay, God, if you are not talking and I am in a test, what area are you talking to me in?"
A third area is if God is silent now, He may have answered you before now. There are times when we are asking God and trying to talk to Him, and God is silent. If you find yourself in that situation, go back to the last time you remember God spoke to you. What did He say and have you done it? Were you obedient to your last point of contact and conversation? If you were not, that may be the reason He is silent. You are not being obedient to that. If you will come back and be obedient, then you can get beyond that, and God will talk to you about more things. So there are times when God is silent. These are some of them.
Lord, we thank You for identifying some of the things that can help us and other things that can hinder us. My prayer for these people is that You would cause them to focus on the helps and avoid those hindrances in hearing Your voice. In Jesus' Name Amen.