I am convinced in my spirit that to be a successful person of faith you should be willing to position yourself to hear from God. You need to hear from Him personally, not just limiting yourself to hearing from pastors and others who hear from Him. They are simply passing along messages they have heard, and rightly so, but that doesn’t negate your need to hear from God yourself.
Luke 12:11-12
“When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”
But how can he teach you if you don’t know it is Him?
In August of 1996, I was sitting in the back of the sanctuary of my home church. It was one of those services where the Holy Spirit just moved through the place. I was sitting there while other people had begun to leave. I was alone with the Spirit; even in a public place. With my head down, and my eyes closed I heard, “I have not given you the skills and talents you possess not to be used for my service.”
This wasn’t my voice in my head, so I then did what any normal person would’ve done, I looked up to see who was holding the microphone, but the pulpit was empty.
I drove home, and I then did what any normal person would’ve done, I looked in the mirror to see if my hair had turned white. I had seen the Ten Commandments, I knew what happened to people that God spoke to.
I also knew the story of Samuel as a little boy, but I’d never applied it to myself. This was a major turning point in my life and the birth place for my ministry, but it started with my hearing from God directly. For the most part, you will probably not hear something audible, but you need to know when He is speaking.
The Father sent us the Comforter, the Teacher, the third person of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Spirit himself, and He is supposed to talk to us.
He is supposed to teach us
He is supposed to guide us
If not, we are leaving too much on the table!
The scriptures say this about The Holy Spirit,
John 14:16 (KJV)
“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever;”
John 14:26 (KJV)
“But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
John 15:26 (KJV)
“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, [even] the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me”
This revelation and knowledge is an expected gift from God. As a man, or woman of faith you need to learn to hear and to know His voice when He speaks.
One thought on “Expect to Hear From God By Pastor Kevin Stephens”
Absolutely! Truth. As you so aptly said, know the difference between your own thought and the voice of the Spirit. That is who we follow.