Hearing His Voice
We have been fasting as a church for two weeks now, seeking God for vision for the church in 2020 and ourselves in 2020. As I was praying and asking God what He wanted to speak to us, He led me to Luke 8.
I want to ask a question, please don’t raise your hands. How many are struggling a little hearing the voice of God as you fast?
I believe Jesus wants to speak to this struggle today.
I. What if I’m not hearing His voice?
Now, there are many reasons we might not hear the voice of God, I won’t be going over all of them today. I will share three reasons God revealed to me as to why some of us might be struggling to hear the voice of God as we fast.
Luke 8:4-15 New Living Translation (NLT)
4 One day Jesus told a story in the form of a parable to a large crowd that had gathered from many towns to hear him: 5 “A farmer went out to plant his seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seed fell on a footpath, where it was stepped on, and the birds ate it. 6 Other seed fell among rocks. It began to grow, but the plant soon wilted and died for lack of moisture. 7 Other seed fell among thorns that grew up with it and choked out the tender plants. 8 Still other seed fell on fertile soil. This seed grew and produced a crop that was a hundred times as much as had been planted!” When he had said this, he called out, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.” 9 His disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10 He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of God. But I use parables to teach the others so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled: ‘When they look, they won’t really see. When they hear, they won’t understand.’11 “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is God’s word. 12 The seeds that fell on the footpath represent those who hear the message, only to have the devil come and take it away from their hearts and prevent them from believing and being saved. 13 The seeds on the rocky soil represent those who hear the message and receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they believe for a while, then they fall away when they face temptation. 14 The seeds that fell among the thorns represent those who hear the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so they never grow into maturity. 15 And the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest.
1. You are Hard Ground: You have hardened your heart.
i. The footpath, where the word is stepped on and stolen. How is a footpath created? It is the result of the word of God being continually “stepped on” in your life
1. Step on the word of God enough times and eventually the soil of your heart becomes packed and packed until it becomes a footpath
2. Eventually, when God speaks to you, His word doesn’t even have the potential to penetrate the soil of your heart because it is too hard. This is when the enemy (the birds) can steal it away, the enemy can’t steal a word you haven’t first rejected
a. Rejecting God’s word doesn’t always mean you don’t want to hear it, just refusing to follow or obey Him when He speaks is the same as rejecting His words.
ii. Causes of a hard heart
1. Pride & Stubbornness: I do things my way, period.
Ezekiel 3:7 New Living Translation (NLT)
But the people of Israel won’t listen to you any more than they listen to me! For the whole lot of them are hard-hearted and stubborn.
Zechariah 7:12 New Living Translation (NLT)
They made their hearts as hard as stone, so they could not hear the instructions or the messages that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had sent them by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. That is why the Lord of Heaven’s Armies was so angry with them.
2. Unbelief: The lie that God did it for them, but He won’t do it for me so I won’t follow and obey Him
Hebrews 3:7-14 New Living Translation (NLT)
7 That is why the Holy Spirit says, “Today when you hear his voice, 8 don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness. 9 There your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for forty years. 10 So I was angry with them, and I said, ‘Their hearts always turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’ 11 So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’”[a] 12 Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters.[b] Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. 13 You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. 14 For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.
3. Hatred: A hard heart toward others
a. Hatred can seem like such a harsh word, we typically prefer to use words that are easier to swallow like unforgiveness, bitterness or resentment, but it’s all hatred in the eyes of God.
b. Hatred is a hardening your heart toward others, which always leads to a hardening of your heart toward God.
i. Greatest Commandment
Matthew 6:14-15 New Living Translation (NLT)
14 “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.15 But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.
iii. The solution:
Jeremiah 4:3 New Living Translation (NLT)
This is what the Lord says to the people of Judah and Jerusalem: “Plow up the hard ground of your hearts! Do not waste your good seed among thorns.
Hosea 10:12 New Living Translation (NLT)
12 I said, ‘Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you.’
1. Repentance
a. Plow up the hard ground of your heart, humble yourself, confess your sin before Jesus, repent of pride and unbelief, release forgiveness to whoever you need to forgive and ask God for forgiveness for your pride, unbelief, and hatred
2. Rocky Soil: There is Hidden Sin in your life
i. When I say sin, I’m referring to missing the mark. I’m not just talking about iniquity or transgression, they fall more so under a hardened heart, but they can also apply here.
ii. On the surface you appear to be good soil, the word of God penetrates your heart, but hidden sin prevents the word from truly taking root in your life and because of lack of moisture (water, cleansing, holiness) when the sun (temptation, trials, disappointments, etc…) comes out, any growth experienced withers and the word that was planted in us dies.
iii. Causes of rocky soil:
1. Secret Idols: Unchecked Addiction (food, substance, sexual, control/manipulation, and media)
a. A heart that is like rocky soil is a heart that refuses inward wholeness
John 3:19-21 New Living Translation (NLT)
19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.[a]”
iv. Rocky Soil, eventually becomes packed down and hard if the rocks are not removed.
1. Your hidden sin will cause you to feel trapped. Every “good” word from a speaker, or time of prayer will disappoint as what God speaks to you doesn’t take root and last. If unchecked, this leads to unbelief as you begin to believe the lie that “this God stuff” doesn’t work and reject Him all together.
2. People with hearts like this often hear from the Lord, but then days, weeks, months later are heard saying, “The Lord never speaks to me.” This is because their hidden sin sets up the word of God to be burnt away during times of difficulty in their lives, usually caused by their hidden sins.
v. The Solution:
Psalm 19:12-13 New Living Translation (NLT)
12 How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. 13 Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin.
1. Repentance:
a. Humble yourself before the Lord, acknowledge your hidden sin(s) before Jesus
b. Confess and expose yourself to trusted brothers/sisters, become accountable to them and someone farther along in the faith and permit them and Holy Spirit to wash you in the water of the word.
c. Begin the long process of digging up old wounds and allowing Jesus to speak to them and wash them in His words.
d. Ask Jesus where He was during any traumatic moments and allow Him to share His perspective of them with you.
e. Partner with what He says about you and the people involved in the traumatic past events.
3. Thorny Soil: Other words have already taken root in your heart and will choke out anything contrary to their purposes
i. Paradigms, priorities, and goals that are not aligned with Jesus’ are the thorns in your heart. These thorns will allow the word of God to be planted in your heart, because following Jesus might help you get what the thorns want, but the moment the seeds bud and grow in a direction that opposes the thorns, they will choke the word of God before it can mature and bear fruit.
1. Cares
a. Anxiety, worry
i. A fear motivated life
2. Riches
a. Servant of Mammon(money)
i. A money motivated life
3. Pleasures
a. I want to be comfortable, I want title and position
i. A self-centered/comfort motivated life
2 Timothy 3:4 New Living Translation (NLT)
They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God.
ii. Solution:
1. Humble yourself before the Lord, confess your thorns before Him.
2. Ask Jesus for forgiveness and break partnership with the paradigms, priorities, and goals that do not align with Jesus.
3. Partner with only the word of God in your life
1 Peter 5:7 New Living Translation (NLT)
7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.
Matthew 6:24 New Living Translation (NLT)
24 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.
Psalm 16:11 New Living Translation (NLT)
You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.[a]
II. Tending the Soil of our Hearts
1. Frees us up to truly hear, ears to hear
i. When we have removed these obstacles (like water from our ears), we are free to hear and receive God’s word, grow roots, grow in maturity and bear fruit.
ii. This is how we become familiar with His voice
2. How this happens is completely up to Holy Spirit and you!
i. It may happen in an instant
ii. It may be a process that takes 2-5 years or longer
iii. Tending to the soil of your heart will be the work of a lifetime
Proverbs 4:23 New Living Translation (NLT)
Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
III. Take time for Repentance
1. Acknowledge the hard ground, rocks and thorns in the soil of your heart
2. Confess them before Jesus right here and now, ask Him for forgiveness
3. Break up, dig out, and weed your heart by verbally breaking partnership with the lies and lifestyle you have chosen
4. Commit to searching the scriptures for and partner with the truth of God’s word
5. Repeat for 2-5 years
