Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
i long to know you we long to hear your voice we long to be close to you lord we long to be filled and totally yielded to the holy spirit hearing what you're saying and doing what you want us to do and speaking what you want us to speak lord father i thank you for that lord we thank you for what you've done for us lord god that you came and took on human flesh you came and and you died on that cross for our sins to break the power of satan and his forces off of our lives to give us a chance to know you to walk with you again to hear your voice to be reconciled to our creator to have eternal life with you forever that's your desire that's what you provided through the blood of your cross that's what you provided through your resurrection that's what you've provided in your word the truth the message that you want to be with us and you want us to be with you that's what it's about help us to get that lord in jesus name amen and amen [Music] patrick the lord for some reason don't know why he wanted me to tell you this there toward the end of your worship but he wanted me to tell you this that you haven't even scratched the surface yet of what he has for you not even scratch the surface of what he has for you to do what he's called you to do the people he has for you to reach the things that he has for you to flow in and to operate in you can't even scratch the surface but it's there for you and i just feel him say you've got to go deeper and it'll happen amen and that part of it was very strong go deeper yeah we got the the number two mike on here yep all right all right it's just it's just psalms 103 it says bless the lord all my soul soul and all that is in me bless his holy name bless the lord all my soul and forget not all his blessings who
forgives all our iniquities and heals all our diseases and redeems your life from destruction who crowns you with love and kindness and tender mercies and satisfy your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles amen psalm 103. that's for somebody there maybe for all of us amen i mean that's the good news bless the lord o my soul and all that is within me what does it say forgetting all of his benefits there who forgives our iniquities our sins and heals our diseases amen praise god i want everybody to turn to genesis chapter 3. the lord completely changed my message during praise and worship not even in the same ballpark as it was i mean we just went from a baseball game to a football game that's how different than we just went here genesis chapter 3 probably one of the most familiar passages of scripture of course this is about adam and eve in the fall of man to the serpent to satan's deception and lies let's read this verse one now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the lord god had made and he said unto the woman yea hath god said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden and the woman said unto the serpent we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden god hath said you shall not touch it neither shall ye you shall not eat of it rather neither shall you touch it lest you die and the serpent said unto the woman you shall not surely die for god does know in that in the day you eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods knowing good and evil and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise she took the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also into her husband with her and he did eat and the eyes of both of them were open and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons and they heard the voice of the lord god walking in the garden in the cool of the day and adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the lord god amongst the trees of the garden and the lord god called into adam and said unto him where art thou and he said i heard thy voice in the garden and i was afraid because i was naked and i hid myself
and he said who told me that was naked hast thou eaten of the tree whereof i commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat and the man said the woman whom you gave to be with me she gave me of the tree and i did eat and the lord god said unto the woman what is this that thou has done and the woman said the serpent beguiled me and i did eat and the lord god said unto the serpent because thou has done this thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field and upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life and i will put enmity between thee and the woman in between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head but thou shalt bruise his heel the prophecy of the messiah coming and unto the woman he said i will greatly multiply thy sorrow and conception and sorrow shalt thou bring forth children and thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee and he said unto adam because you have hearkened unto the voice of your wife and has eaten of the tree of which i commanded thee saying thou shalt not eat of it cursed is the ground for thy sake and sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life thorns and thistles thorns also and thistle shall it bring forth to thee and thou shalt eat the herb of the field and the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return into the ground for out of it once thou taken from dust our heart and unto dust you will return and adam called his wife's name eve because she was mother of all living unto adam also and to his wife did the lord god make coats of skins and clothe them and the lord said behold the man has become as one of us to know good and evil and now lest he put forth his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever therefore the lord god sent him forth from the garden of eden to till the ground from whence he was taken so he drove out the man and placed and he placed at the east of the garden of eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life i don't normally read an entire chapter like that but the lord wanted me to focus in on something this morning god almighty our creator yahweh the god of abraham isaac and jacob the god of this creation the universe the stars the planet this this planet the earth and mankind the god who created the angels long ago many of whom fell the father of our lord jesus christ you notice he says us there so that we we have the revelation of the trinity within this elohim plural
father son and holy spirit in this we have all we have so much here in the book of genesis but the whole purpose that god created man and woman he created mankind the whole purpose was fellowship that we might be with him know him be loved by him and love him that we might truly be his children and those of you know that have had children you can think you know about it you can think you know what it feels like until they come into this world in front of your eyes there ain't nothing like it now i'm talking about normal people i'm not talking about freaks that have no natural affection there's some freaks in this world but i know when my girls were born my three girls every single time it was an overwhelming sense of love of the miraculous of god and how precious life and and this little human being that i made that that i had part of making that and that human being has a spirit and a soul and a body created in the image of god and god let me have a part of that and that's part of me right there and so anybody that's had a child you kind of get just a small glimpse of how god looks at us i mean i believe the moment we're conceived even before that i mean he told jeremiah he said before i formed you in the belly i knew you because god knows everything he knows the past present and the future before the future even before it ever happens so he knows everything but we we we forget i think sometimes just the very basics of what we're walking through here that god's desire for me and you is to to know him intimately to be close to him to be able to hear his voice to feel his presence to know that he is with you and in you and that you are walking in a plan that he has that is the best plan that there can possibly be for you
see adam and eve had that they had a perfect place to live they had they were sinless well there's no husband and wife that will ever be sinless again right think about that the first husband and wife neither of them had any sin at first they had perfect unity and perfect fellowship with god their creator in a perfect place they fellowshipped with god face to face every day and they talked about in this passage i heard your voice in the garden i hid from your presence they knew the voice of god and they knew the presence of god they they obviously that the voice of god was something that they recognize as distinct from any other part of creation they also recognize the presence of god as distinct from anything else in creation perfection you know what this is what i believe and what most bible scholars believe as well about why all of a sudden when they sinned they they knew they were naked what most bible scholars say and believe is that they were clothed with the glory of god because when we sin we lose the glory and when they sin they lost the glory i think it's interesting the bible talks about a woman's long hair being her glory but also being a covering for her so i believe the glory of god in the garden was their clothing and why am i saying all this because see when adam and eve listened to the lies and the deception of the serpent of satan the fallen angel hallel when they listened to him and they disobeyed god they lost they lost this glory this presence this intimacy they lost their home they lost unity in their marriage
they lost the glory and presence of god now let's fast forward for a minute mankind sin you know we have in the book of romans chapter 3 chapter 5 he talks about what in in adam all men died or became spiritually dead right he says but in christ all men can come alive can be made alive right i'm paraphrasing a little bit but i'm just i'm not trying to get stuck right there but the point i'm trying to make is is that what we lost as a human race mankind what we lost in the garden of eden is what jesus came back when god came in the flesh to redeem man he came to put all of that back to fix everything that was lost do you hear what i'm saying he jesus came did not sin came as a man god came took on a human body had to live sinless which he did and then paid the penalty that he didn't oh amen now i know this may sound basic but i'm going somewhere with this so when jesus died on that cross it says in colossians 2 that he made a show of principalities and powers it says also that he blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us the condemnation of the law of what we lost through sin right it says it when jesus said that he said i i have the keys i'm he that was dead and is alive forevermore revelation one and i have the keys of hell and of death it says the son of god first john the son of god was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil all right hear what i'm saying to you today we're going to get into this further but just get this in jesus sacrificed his blood sacrifice his death on the cross when he laid down his life they didn't take it he laid down his life for the sins of mankind to break the curse off of mankind to break the powers of darkness off of mankind so that mankind could come back
and have intimacy with our creator god again and have the glory of god again and hear his voice again anything that does not any christianity that does not tell you that christianity is about knowing god through jesus christ hearing his voice feeling and experiencing his presence his power his glory is a false dead christianity because it's everything that jesus came to restore to us not just eternal life in heaven but fellowship intimacy glory power now in this present world and what keeps us from experiencing it consistently two things listening to the lies of the serpent and disobeying god people tell me all the time well i don't hear god i don't hear from god well i can tell you you're probably somewhere in your mind and in your life listening to satan and not obeying god it's not real complicated folks how do i know that because i know it's god's desire for us to hear his voice to know his presence to be filled with his holy spirit to walk in the presence and power of the holy ghost to a lost and dying world come on now you almighty quiet out there see let me show you something john 17. i'll show you the sum of the whole matter i hate to say it but my denominational brethren out there they don't like you to talk about this baptist folk methodist folk especially those reformed cessationist heathens hate you to talk about
experiencing god hearing from god right i'm sorry but you know what those people that are bound up in that religion that says god doesn't talk to people anymore and god doesn't heal people anymore and the gifts of the holy spirit are not for today i'm holding my tongue i because there is a level of blindness there is a level of pride and arrogancy and just a spirit a nasty spirit of religion that is either ignorant as the day is long of the scriptures and the entire purpose of god in redemption or there's an agenda i mean when you're that bullheaded against what the scriptures say and you say you're a christian and you're that stubborn and that rebellious and that far off either you are just totally bound up listening to the serpent or you have a evil agenda you have an evil agenda can't be anything else other those do now granted there's some babies out there i would say some spiritual babies that will just say they're low information they just don't know that they don't know yet right but there's some people who ought to know but folks here it is right here let me read this john 17 verse 1 and these words spake jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said father the hour is come glorify thy son that the son also may glorify thee as thou has given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou has given him and this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true god and jesus christ who now has sent this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true god in jesus christ who knows then i mean in in a very simple phrase you could say that eternal life is knowing god through jesus christ now the word no is interesting because the word no in the greek here means to have a full
discernment of to have a full revelation of to know intimately not just i heard about him see that's why an atheist could never convince me because i don't just know about god i don't just have a religious creed that i follow i don't just have a piece of paper i have an intimate relationship with the creator who made me who has revealed himself to me who has touched me with his presence touched me with his voice washed my sins away forgiven me i know his mercy and his power and his reality in my life so you can't shake me into buddhism or hinduism or islam or secular humanistic darwinian philosophy you're too late it's like some some idiot trying to come up to me and tell me i don't like you know a rib eye steak medium rare you're too late chief and i've had some of them i have tasted and i have seen that the ribeye is good i'm sorry that you don't believe in the ribeye you understand then the scriptures say taste and see that the lord is good amen back up to john 16. i love with jesus speaking to his disciples here and and this is elementary i'm telling you but i'm going somewhere with this with our church this morning and those i know there are people listening this morning but can i say that normal christianity normal look at me everybody i know i told you normal new testament christianity is to repent of sin hate sin want to turn from sin want to live as holy and obedient a life to jesus and god and the scriptures as you possibly can but after that it is about walking with him intimately going deeper and deeper into the truth of god's word into the into the things that the holy spirit wants you to have
letting him speak to you and show you things to come and show you things to do that's normal anything less than that is so subnormal it's not even can't even be defined as christianity not new testament christianity i mean look we go to the book of acts and what do you see happening all 120 being filled with the holy spirit and speaking in other tongues as the spirit gave the mother what do you see you see them getting together and praying and the building's shaking what do you see them being thrown in prison and angels coming and the chains falling off and the prison door is opening and peter walks out following angels peter walks through the streets as a representative and an ambassador of jesus christ so filled with the holy ghost so anointed by the holy ghost that his shadow is healing the sick that's new testament christianity and listen people say well that was peter let me tell you peter was a man just like me just like you just like kevin just like oh he was a human being he was a man and we know he was flawed and we know he had issues and we know he sinned and he wasn't perfect but the blood of jesus washed that away he obeyed jesus and he got filled with the holy ghost baptized in the holy spirit because he obeyed and went to jerusalem and waited for the promise and he got filled with the holy spirit and what did he do he started speaking in other tongues preaching the gospel preaching repentance from sin he's the one that said in the first sermon of the church about the baptism of the holy spirit and speaking in other tongues he said this promise is to you and to your children and to all those that are fall even as many as the lord our god shall call but then we got idiots in churches that call themselves preachers who get up and say this is not for today i'm sorry normal christianity is peter in prayer at the at the uh you know the middle of the day at lunchtime on the rooftop and the power of the holy spirit comes over him and gives him a vision while he's in a trance gives him a vision and then once the vision ends the holy spirit says there's three men coming to seek for you go with them and as soon as he comes out of that experience in that time with the lord sure enough there's three men knocking at the door that's normal he said well that was
peter well then there was a slowly low little servant believer not an apostle not an evangelist not a pastor not a deacon in acts chapter 9 named ananias and he's just a lonely old guy just a you know what we would call probably a lay christian whatever that's supposed to mean but what's he doing being a real christian and the holy spirit comes over him and god starts talking to him he says there's a man named paul or saul of tarsus he's seen me in a vision go to him he's in the street called straight at this person's house he's been praying go lay your hands upon him that he may see and be filled with the holy spirit you mean god didn't pick peter or james or john to go on that little mission no ananias people say well paul didn't speak in tongues wait a minute now when he got baptized in the holy spirit i think paul's the one said i think i thank my god i speak with tongues more than all of you and paul said that to a church he was having to correct about speaking in tongues properly in the right order in church but he said i speak in tongues more than all of you i love that scripture the first corinthians that's in first corinthians 14 if you want to know but the end of the first corinthians 14 leaves this instruction from the apostle paul he says forbid not to speak with tongues yeah we got pastors entire churches and domination say don't speak in tongues don't do that i don't know the bible or this or or the baptist the southern baptist hmm that's easy the bible or the reformed theologians the frozen chosen as they like to call themselves see i'm sick of it i'm just sick of you if god says you need the baptism in the holy spirit you need to speak in other tongues you need to lay hands on the sick and believe that that they will be healed you need to cast out demons you need to be able to hear my voice and what i'm saying to you and directing you if that's what the bible says and somebody slithers up to you and go we don't do that here we don't do that in our church
and you listen to that snake that's why you're not hearing god's voice are flowing in god's power because you've listened to a religious snake oh don't shout me down look i know you guys some of you got parents that are still in that world but see this is the sad thing yo there's a lot of people i love the way steve hill our late steve hill used to put it he said religion and we'll just say dead religion dead christianity is hanging around the cross true christianity is getting on the cross i'm going to take it a step further dead christianity has no intimacy with god doesn't value hearing god's voice being baptized and filled with the holy spirit speaking in tongues casting out demons laying hands on the sick that is not valued it's not even accepted john 16 says this says it this way verse 13 how be it jesus spoke when he the spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak and he will show you things to come he shall glorify me for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you you know the reason one of the reasons i'm sitting here i'm thinking about this [Music] about god speaking to us and let's read one more real quick john 10 verse 27 everybody ought to know this one by heart when jesus said john 10 27 you ought to mark all these down john 10 27 he said my sheep hear my voice and i know them and they follow me and i give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand now before i read you know before you read into that that we believe that means eternal security let me back up because it's important here
about this aspect because people say yeah oh yeah oh yeah god used to speak to people that way but he doesn't anymore how many ever heard anybody say that that says they're a christian they're almost everybody yeah everybody is raising their hand god doesn't speak to people like that anymore really well it's interesting you know what's interesting here is this verse my sheep here present tense greek verb oh boy [Music] theologians are in trouble this church ought to know what's the definition of a present tense greek verb say it loud man continuous taking place right now amen ongoing continuous action taking place in the present my sheep hear my voice and when jesus said this and this was put down by the holy spirit when when the holy spirit moved upon the apostle john to write these words in the greek language he used a present tense greek verb meaning my sheep will continually and in an ongoing matter and in forever presently hear my voice and they will follow me in an ongoing continuous and ever-present manner do you see any end to that and the sheep who continue to listen to his voice and follow him will have eternal life and they will never perish and no one will be able by pluck means to pull by force out of god's hand you see but this goes along with the passage we read in john 17. eternal life is knowing god right what is knowing god hearing my voice jesus said following me those who do this continually will have eternal life and they will never perish this is why this is so important you guys because you will either and i don't care if you're saved you're a believer or you're not a believer you're going to do one of two things from this point on in your
life you are going to listen to the voice of jesus christ the word of god the written word and the holy spirit speaking you will listen to god and follow him obey him walk with him desire intimacy with him or you will listen to the voice of satan the serpent the demons the fallen angels and the deceived people that he had you will listen to their voice and follow them and obey them what voice are you listening to people say well now we have god's written word so god doesn't need to speak to us really can i just say this you want to know how god speaks to people let me give you several ways number one you can write this down yes god has spoken to us through his written word and that is the first number one primary way not the only way but it is the first way that god will speak to us he will speak to us by what is already written and also he can cause certain passages to leap off the page and come alive to you as you're reading praying meditating on a passage okay a lot of reason and i'm just going to make this very strongly here a lot of reason that a lot of people aren't hearing from god is they're not they're not willing to take time to read the bible do what's already written in it so you you really shouldn't expect a whole lot extra right so us pentecostals you know we get cues that we don't you know we want to depart from the word of god that's that's that may be crazy charismaniacs but true pentecostals value the written word above any experience or any uh revelation or any prophecy or any uh manifestation that might happen the word of god the written word of god is first but we don't stop there just like i've said many times there's nowhere written in the bible that it says dean odle moved to auburn alabama and start a church and do that by the way in 2009 that's not in the bible so how do i know to do that if i don't know god and know how to hear
god's voice and do what he wants me to do the second way god speaks i'll just give you another one i could give you a bunch i'll give you a few colossians 3 15. i'm just going to quote it to you you can look at it later let the peace of god rule your heart all right now the bible's very clear that if we are children of god then the holy spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of god what does that mean now wait a minute now the holy spirit is what spirit how does the holy spirit a spirit the spirit of god how does he bear witness with our spirit that we are children of god it obviously is more than just knowing the scriptures because it was the scriptures that we heard it was by hearing the word of god preached that we even knew that we needed to ask jesus for salvation that we needed to ask for forgiveness that we needed that we needed to know god through jesus christ we had to hear the word preach how will they know unless they hear right so how do we know after we've received jesus how do we know that we are children of god the bible says that the holy spirit comes and he bears witness to the word of god that we've received and that we've heard now how does he do that i know that the the reformed frozen chosen and some of the baptist folks and some of the methodist folks now the baptist used to be used to believe this but some of them probably still do but when you're born again and the holy spirit comes to let you know that you are truly born again you will feel something he is the dove that represents peace his symbol the dove represents that peace of god he is the wind he'll represent that refreshing breeze he is the fire and sometimes you'll feel that burning as they did on the road to emmaus did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us and opened to us the scriptures the holy spirit he's also the river of water that'll bubble up inside of us and flow up and out of us you get what i'm saying here he's he's another symbol he's an oil
the anointing oil hear what i'm saying true christianity is built on the foundation of the word of god but it is a living breathing experience that has encounters with the holy ghost that you can feel and that you can experience if you have a christianity in which you've never felt anything from god and never heard anything from god you don't have the real thing back in the garden i'm going back what did they have in the garden they had his voice they could hear his voice and they knew his presence they could feel it they knew god's voice and presence was in the garden and they hid themselves see and that's just another truth right there sin in your life will cause you to run and hide from the voice of god in the presence of god that's why people don't come to church they like to go to churches where the serpent is speaking through the pastor not the holy spirit because if you have sin in your life and the holy spirit and the presence of god is in a place you will either get it out or you will run in high and that's the way church is supposed to be if you're in sin and you're in church you should not be comfortable if you are comfortable while you're in adultery or pornography or homosexuality or unforgiveness or bitterness or hatred or racism or whatever if if you're if you can sit in a church and and never be bothered you're in a dead church and the serpent is at work because once god starts speaking once the holy spirit the presence of god starts moving and the voice of god is speaking mr adam or mr eve you gonna run high go find somewhere to go in a little dark place and start sewing some fig leaves together you know what those fig leaves are i think steve hill said that's you trying to figure it out trying to work it out yourself trying to deal with you're seeing yourself instead of letting god deal with it right but that let the peace of god rule your heart i love it you know why the witness of the holy spirit will bring peace it'll bring the presence of god sometimes it can just be like a refreshing wind sometimes it can be like a fire sometimes it can be just like oil washing over a wound just a soothing sometimes the presence of god can touch
you and just tears roll down your face you just can't control that's the presence of god that's the peace of god and the bible says let the peace of god be the rule or the umpire now what's the umpire do in baseball you save her out right so a lot of times god doesn't have to say words to us he just lets us know in our heart if something's safe or it's not safe right okay now the third way god speaks is by what elijah called a still small voice yes god speaks imagine that the creator can actually talk my god i just think of the state in which christianity is in america and europe in australia too and africa and south america central america antarctica arctic iceland i think of the state that this that this is that yeah people think i'm preaching heresy right now there's a bunch of christians that if they were friends with me on facebook after this sermon would defriend me because go the creator can't talk to us anymore when i say the still small voice i mean god will speak clear sentences to your spirit you don't hear them with your physical ears but you do hear them very clearly on the inside of you just as if he was standing there talking and that is communication god's spirit to your spirit and he will say things like he told me back in 1989 on the fifth day of a seventh day fast he said very clearly not with i didn't hear him with my physical ears but it was as clear as him sitting next to him he said read matthew 24. he'll say things like that to you he'll say things like tell patrick this when you get done with praise and worship right god forbid i remember in israel one time when i was when in israel needed a flight home but we're going to have to fly back standby so i was in the old city staying at a
youth hostel across from david's the remains of david citadel we're staying right across the street and i had to run out and have to run out the gate it was about a 20-minute run walk into jerusalem and into the old to the new city part to the travel agent and i remember we're we're we'd gone to see this travel agent and we needed a miracle from really we needed two tickets from israel to atlanta georgia you know not just a hop skip and a jump but we needed two tickets for under a thousand dollars think about that travel agent said well i'll try to get you on this and on that and there was limited flights and there was issues going on and we were just like wondering well are we going to be able to go home right got up that morning my brother stayed down here in the in the room the two guys that we had uh we were sharing the room with one from new zealand another one from australia they'd already gone home i went up on the roof to pray and i just felt uneasy i didn't have peace in my spirit i tried to pray and just couldn't couldn't pray so finally i just gave up you know sometimes okay just give up i went back downstairs my brother he said man i tried to pray and i couldn't pray i said maybe the lord wants us to pray together you know there's power and agreement if any two of you agree so i came and i said this lord show us what your will is now here's where we're going to drive baptist people and to reform people crazy started praying in tongues both of us together started praying in tongues and as we prayed in tongues for a few minutes the holy spirit god spoke to me very clearly not like you hear me right now but clear as a bell he said go to the travel agent now i i raised my head up i said the lord said go to the travel agent right now so we took off i mean we ran down the stairs out the door down the street out the gate whoo we're booking through the you know going the round people we're we're practically running half the way there we get there this is no joke i opened the door to the travel agency she didn't call us we didn't have cell phones then she was going to have to call the hotel the hotel was going to come up and get us long story short we we opened the door the travel agent that was working on getting us a ticket is on the telephone she's got a telephone on her ear the old kind she's got the telephone on her ear and she says she looks shocked her mouth just hangs open she said i have two tickets to atlanta
for 350 each but you have to get them right now they will be gone in two minutes i said they're ours we get them we sat down with her we bought the tickets we're on the boom she and so this jewish lady working in this travel agency goes how did you know to come here at this moment she said if you're five minutes late they're gone i didn't call you so we told her freaked her out she wouldn't think about that don't tell me that the creator can't talk to his children it's ridiculous right nowhere in the scriptures either that it said dean and alan go to the travel agent in jerusalem right now at nine o'clock in the morning you know she had told us i forgot this part to call her at 4 pm this was 9 o'clock in the morning this kind of stuff is what we're going to need to be walking more in the days ahead than ever before now how many ways did i give you three is that three let me give you four god can speak to you in an audible voice if he wants to meaning you hear him with your spiritual ears and your physical ears that is rare he doesn't usually do that because he usually doesn't need to do that with his children if you're being hard-headed and he had can't get your attention and you're in big trouble and you really need to know something he can speak loudly to you we're just going to move on past that remember did god do this in the scriptures do we have a witness to this remember when jesus was baptized he said what it a voice came from heaven and said this is my beloved son in whom i'm well pleased now some people thought it thundered and some people heard what he said i think god does that anyway some people are in tune to hear and some aren't i know i do it a lot my wife is trying to tell me something i don't she's talking but i didn't hear what she said and i get in trouble a lot it's a man thing anybody know what i'm talking about in
here any me any men's up in here know what i'm talking about we have pms you know men have pms right permanent man syndrome is what i call it we have issues they just can't you're not going to change them ladies so just give up [Laughter] yep i know what let me give you let me give you a few more we're going to quit god can and does speak as we have many examples through dreams and visions what's the difference between a dream and a vision a dream is a vision while you're asleep a vision is a vision while you awake simple right now when you're awake there are two different kinds of visions and i'm going to give you the tournaments in the bible open vision remember the days of samuel says before samuel really stepped into his prophetic office it says there was no open vision and there were no prophets who saw visions from god with both their physical eyes and their spiritual eyes an open vision is when god opens a window in the spirit realm or in heaven or he appears or an angels appear and he can do that at any point in time he did it with daniel he did it with john in the book of revelation god can open give you an open vision i've had i've had several of these not a lot but i had one wide awake eyes open god opens a window in heaven and i see jesus standing at the right hand of the glory of the father and i see the holy spirit descend upon jesus like a dove and god speaks to me about the end times okay that was october 1987. accompanied by the witness of his holy spirit his presence got to do that but dreams and vision closed vision is when maybe you're praying maybe you're in church worshiping and all of a sudden you just see like a short movie play out in your your mind or you see a short glimpse of something the example i've shared when i had the i saw god swat the drone out of the sky i just had my eyes closed i'm praying about something totally unrelated well i just keep praying about god's protection and i saw a drone a predator drone u.s predator drone flying in the sky heading toward where i lived looked like a small movie playing out and i saw the hand of god come out of heaven this massive hand swat it down out of the sky like it was a fly now that's not something i made up because i never thought of god swatting a drone out of this guy with his hand before okay but god spoke to me through that just glimpse of a vision
i've had people come up for prayer this happened in georgia a woman came up for prayer for her voice she was having she's a singer a friend of my wife's great singer the devil was trying to rob her voice she was losing her voice and having all kind of problems with her vocal cords and her throat and couldn't sing i mean it's bad when a singer is can't sing you know that's i mean gifted very gifted she walked up for prayer and i didn't i didn't know for sure that that's what she was walking up for prayer for but as she walked up for prayer all of a sudden i see her plainly walking up the aisle and i see this hand from about here down to here and i could see through it but i could see it this is plain day it was purple and it came down and their veins popping out of it and it had these long claws and i saw it wrapped around her throat like this clearly demonic so the lord was given a revelation and showing through a vision we won't go i mean we dreams we'll you know y'all know about that but and i'm gonna give you one last one just for today and we're gonna we're gonna quit i'll give you two more how about that god can and does it's biblical speak through other people through the gift of prophecy word of knowledge word of wisdom meaning god can give somebody else a word for you about things i don't know why people find this odd christians should not find this odd throughout the bible i mean even even you have the prophet agabus giving a prophetic word to the apostle paul as if he needed it help hearing from god the man who wrote half the new testament yet god was making a point i believe you will never be an island to yourself the foot cannot say to the hand i have no need of thee we will always have need of each other and god can always and will sometimes to bring humility in our life use somebody else to speak to us about something and we got to be able to receive directly from god and also from other people it's never i got i know a lot of people out there oh well i can hear from god i don't need the church i don't need to be in church i don't need to have a pastor i don't need elders i don't need anybody telling me what the holy spirit's saying i got the holy spirit in me let me tell you you're in pride and you're going to be deceived because you're you're a prideful little island out to yourself and if you're not humble
enough to listen to sometimes a little child can speak i don't know god's given faith words she didn't even know that it was god speaking to her to speak to me as a four-year-old and i knew it was from god you got to be humble enough to listen because god will speak through a donkey if you're not listening he'll make the donkey talk to you and then everybody thank you crazy as a loon right but he's got to make a donkey talk to you it's probably because you're not listening and being stubborn right i know god has sent me to people i've been the last warning to a lot of people right before judgment has come on their lives or even death and god's told me at times that i that if they didn't listen that would be it so i'm gonna give you the last one i love this i think it is oh where is this passage babe you have to look it up for me about your integrity integrity will guide you but there's two parts to this she'll look that verse up for me but sometimes it's your integrity doing the right thing proverbs 11 3. read it loud the integrity of the upright shall guide them but the perverseness of the transgress transgressors shall destroy them integrity sometimes and well all the time it's right to do the right thing sometimes you say i don't know what way to go i don't know what to do well what's the what's the ethical thing what's the righteous thing what's the godly thing god's not always going to tell you when you got to make a decision to either do the right thing or do the wrong thing amen you know you find somebody's wallet on the ground with a bunch of money in it and their name and address in there you don't have to hear the voice of god you don't have to read a bible scripture your integrity should lead you to do the right thing you should know what to do right and this kind of goes along with it you you can make it a the last one or another number but this is this is true sometimes this is my final thing i promise sometimes your circumstances will lead you what do i mean by that sometimes god doesn't necessarily speak
in a situation he just puts you in a place where there ain't but one way to go and you know what you can be thankful for that because sometimes if there's three or four ways to go it gets difficult but i've had god do this to me where every other doorway and passageway i had to get a certain thing accomplished and every single door shut and hemmed me in and hindrances and problems and there was only one way to go and i was praying about it and the lord wouldn't say a word and then it was just like i knew okay you've shut 15 doors and opened one that's the way to go right you get what i'm saying sometimes your circumstances lead you you know here's a good one you want to go on vacation you don't know if you should go on vacation or not well let me look oh well we don't have enough money to go on vacation well there's your answer you get what i'm saying sometimes your circumstances just say no this is not the time this is not the right time right it's not complicated but god wants us to be a people who know him who walk in his glory and his presence that know his presence and that listen to his voice however he speaks and that is new testament christianity and that is eternal life and it's just a lifetime of walking that out and if you say well i i feel like i'm not as sensitive as i should be you know what you can change that maybe some repentance of some sin maybe you've been neglecting time in prayer maybe you haven't been fasting maybe you haven't been spending time in the work maybe there's something that's just clearly written in the word you just refuse to do it but walking in the holy spirit hearing god's voice experiencing god's presence that should be normal christianity and it doesn't matter if you're a young person a teenager an adult now i love what kenneth hagin used to say about this you know kenneth hagin was a prophet kenneth hagin knew how to hear from god and walk in visions god explained him he had a great understanding and revelation of the gifts of the holy spirit the ministry gifts but he said there would be times that he would feel like he was getting dry and stale and and wasn't as sensitive to the holy spirit and he said you know he wasn't living in sin he wasn't running
after women or you know he wasn't he was he was serving god with all his heart and you know what he he said he said i i'd finally realized you know what the reason i'm not as sensitive i need to be is because i need to fast for three days and and spend some extra time in prayer he said every single time he said i'd fast for three days and spend extra time in prayer in the word boom sensitivity to the holy spirit come right back somebody needed to hear that right there sometimes the flesh just too loud the emotions are too loud the flesh is loud and people around you and everybody's clamoring for your attention and you're distracted and you've got all these things going on and the lord's like you want to know why you can't hear it's too noisy your flesh is talking too loud you're listening to everybody else you're running after what everybody else wants you to do i want you to sit here and be with me i want you to fast for a few days i want you to sit here i want you to get in the bible i want you to quiet it down so you can hear me again hear me quiet it down and tune back in amen all right let's pray father we thank you lord we thank you for the truth of your word we could spend four or five sermons in this alone of hearing your voice experiencing your glory and your presence walking in obedience being led by your holy spirit and the gifts of the holy spirit lord i pray in jesus name put put a hunger in us like we were singing that song lord that we long to know you let it be real that we long to know you we long to be intimate with you we long to hear your voice we long to be like adam and eve before they fell into sin to have that intimacy to have that that daily communion to know what you're saying about things in our lives father i ask you to move upon your people and hear those listening those who will listen to this message that real christianity is alive it's a walk and a talk with the creator who made us through the blood of jesus christ lord we choose to listen to you to listen to your word and to not listen to the serpent and his evil followers jesus name we pray amen