Knowing the Voice of the Lord
About this sermon
Dean Odle teaches that hearing the Lord is a normal part of Spirit-led Christianity, but every impression must be tested by Scripture. He places the lesson after teachings on knowing Jesus and the Holy Spirit because spiritual guidance must grow from relationship with Christ rather than from technique. Through John, Acts, and 1 Samuel, he distinguishes the Spirit’s inward witness from rare audible speech, ordinary human thoughts, emotional pressure, and manipulative claims made by other people. Samuel’s initial failure to recognize God’s voice shows that discernment can develop through repetition and mature help.
Chronological teaching outline
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Odle connects the lesson to previous teaching on Jesus and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, arguing that believers should expect the Spirit’s guidance. The series’ order matters to him: hearers first need relationship with Jesus and knowledge of the Spirit before pursuing guidance.
Jesus’ ministry and Acts are presented as a pattern of love, Scripture, good works, healing, and Spirit-led direction. Acts 10’s summary of Jesus doing good under the Spirit’s anointing shows that divine leading should produce holy and merciful action.
The central safeguard is stated clearly: no voice or impression from God will contradict the written Word. A testimony about receiving an instruction without first telling his wife illustrates the difference between private guidance and public manipulation.
Odle explains that divine guidance is often inward rather than audible and uses Samuel’s call to show that discernment develops. Samuel initially mistakes God’s voice for Eli, so repeated recognition and mature help are shown as part of learning rather than evidence of failure.
Biblical language about open visions and revelation is explored, with caution that unusual experiences must still be tested. The Hebrew discussion of an ‘open’ word or vision explains seasons in which revelation is rare without granting authority to every unusual experience.
He warns that spiritual technique cannot substitute for salvation, truth, and an actual relationship with Christ. Warnings about people who will mislead or find vulnerable hearers connect discernment of guidance with discernment of doctrine and relationships.
Personal examples show that guidance may restrain a desired action; maturity includes accepting limits rather than forcing an outcome. He recalls having to tell the Lord that a situation felt unbearable, yet treats honest prayer as submission rather than permission to disobey.
Odle cautions against dependence on another person’s claim to speak for God and urges direct prayer, Scripture, and patient confirmation. The inward witness may recur quietly, but believers should reject the pressure created when someone says, ‘God told me’ to control another’s choice.
Fasting, deliverance testimony, and remembered instructions illustrate how clarity grows when believers act on tested guidance. A deliverance recollection is used to show a specific instruction followed in practice, while prayer and fasting create space to examine motives.
The closing charge is to read Acts, walk with Jesus, and keep learning the Spirit’s voice without abandoning biblical boundaries. He assigns continued reading as practical training because recognition of God’s voice grows within the narrative and doctrine of Scripture.
Open each passage and read it in its complete biblical context.
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Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
- 0:00:05
Amen. Lord, we worship you this morning.
- 0:04:14
We exalt you, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The name of Jesus is above every name. And Lord, you are the same yesterday, today and forever. We praise you today. We worship you today. We God, we love you. We Lord, we just give you our lives and we do want to be not your sheep that hear your voice, Lord. That's what it's all about. To hear your voice, to follow you, to walk with you in a real relationship and to be led by the Holy Spirit. Lord, I pray this for everyone in this place, everyone that's watching and listening that they will they'll receive that understanding, Lord, and they will hunger and thirst and they will seek you until they are walking in that place with you. They hear your voice and follow you. I pray this today in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated this morning. Good to have everyone here. All of you watching and listening all over the place. Visitors here this morning. Good to have you. For those of you that have not been here, just to give you a little update, the last two weeks, if if if you haven't seen the last two weeks, particularly last week, last week, if you miss last week, then you're going to need to see last week or go back and watch it to fully understand where I'm going today. Because last week I talked about the need for the baptism, the Holy Spirit, and the week before that, it was called knowing Jesus. So we talked about knowing Jesus being truly born again, truly repenting of sin and that supernatural witness that you're born again and then developing a relationship with Jesus. Last week was about the next step that every believer, I believe every believer should take a lot don't because they choose not to or because they've been in denominations that taught them wrong about it. But about the baptism, the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. And we went through acts to acts 10 acts, chapter 19, first Corinthians 13 and 14. We went through those verses about the baptism of the Holy Spirit being filled. Not that you don't have the Holy Spirit in you when you are born again, but there is more. There's always more to be filled. And then even after they were filled, in fact, we see the disciples praying and asked for after they were filled, and they said, Lord, we want you to stretch forth your hand to heal and do signs and wonders and confirm your word. And it says that they were filled again. All right. See, this is the thing, too. I've been talking about never being satisfied, never being satisfied with thinking. Well, I'm this is why we have denominations. Denominations say, well, I got I got this much, so I'm satisfied right here. And then another group comes along and they go, well, no, there's a little bit more we need to go. They read a little further in the book. Right. That's what my dad did. Remember, I shared that last week. My dad got got saved.
- 0:07:14
We got born again in the Baptist Church right down here, Northside Baptist Church, 1979 ish somewhere in that time period. And my dad made the mistake after he was born again and baptized in water. So that's where the Baptist pretty much stopped. And my dad kept reading the book, got to that book of acts, started reading about this baptism, the Holy Spirit, the gifts of tongues and prophecy and healing and miracles and things like that, visions, words of knowledge, words of wisdom. So my dad goes and asked the pastor at the time, what about this? And he got the door slammed in his face. And because he was a baby Christian, that caused him to stumble and really set his life on a bad course for the next few years. Quite a few years, actually. So this is not about me picking on denominations. Frankly, I don't care about denominations, neither does Jesus. He cares about one thing. This right here. And you either live your Christian life by this book, the Bible of Genesis to the maps, or you choose to say you choose to pick and choose. And this is again, this is why we have denominations. This is why there are many Christians that can't seem to agree with each other on things. Because they won't stick to this in its context. And that's why we have these problems. If we would all just be as as you know what the Muslims call us, people of the book, that's what we're supposed to be. Problem with Christianity is we've got Christianity that don't like much of this book, entire denominations that come against things that are in this book. But we're not going to be that way, are we? Remember, we believe the whole Bible is the inspired, infallible word of God and is profitable for doctrine, right? For instruction that the man of God or woman of God may be perfect. That word perfect means mature, grow up, quit being a child spiritually, grow up and be thoroughly furnished under all good works. So see, if you're going to really I believe if you're going to fulfill your calling, the fullness of your calling, you are going to have to pursue the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And then you're going to have to learn to discern and hear the voice of God. I've entitled this this this morning. We're going to call it knowing the voice of the Lord. We've had knowing Jesus, knowing the Holy Spirit, knowing the voice of the Lord, knowing when he's speaking to you now. I got quite a few scriptures to go through, so I hope you have your Bibles this morning. And remember something Leonard Ravenhill, I may not have the quote exact, but Leonard Ravenhill said the problem in Western Christianity, you know, and he died in 1994. He's one of the great prophets, man, just man of God.
- 0:10:16
He wrote in 1959, Why Revival Terries? It's still just like he wrote it yesterday. He wrote the terrifying book Sodom Had No Bible. Think about that one for a minute. And he was just a man of God. I remember David Wilkerson talking about him. He was kind of David Wilkerson's mentor. And David Wilkerson was holding a pastor's conference in there in Times Square Church in New York. And by that time, I think Leonard Ravenhill was in his 80s. And he said, you know, all the pastors were there. And and so David Wilkerson said, Hey, Lynn, do you have anything to say to the pastors? And Lynn said, Yes. And they said he slowly shuffled up there to the pulpit. He said, You come to this conference this week and I'm sure there's going to be a lot of railing on what's wrong with America and all the sin that's in America and all the morality and all the political problems that's in America. He said, I'm going to tell you what the problem is. You the pastors. And he went and set out. So just give you a little hint about Leonard Ravenhill. He didn't play games. But he he made the statement at some point to the effect that he said Christianity in the West over the last few decades has become so subpar, subnormal that in anybody dares to try to live normal Christianity, they're seeing weird or extremist or, you know, you're one of those Pentecostal holy roll holy rollers. If you want to talk about hearing God's voice or visions or dreams or prophetic words, you know, but that is normal Christianity. And I'm about to show you that about to walk you through normal Christianity. In fact, that could be another title for this, but normal Christianity because normal Christianity is loving Jesus, loving the word of God, loving holiness and righteousness, loving people enough to do what you need to do so you can be an example to them and lead them to Jesus. And sometimes to do that, you're going to have to walk in the supernatural. And that means you're going to have to know sometimes their thoughts or the secrets of their heart. And I tell you, it's and I shared this, you know, I've talked about Jesus with the woman of the well several times in these last few weeks because it's so powerful because Jesus has given us an example of witnessing to somebody using the gifts of the Holy Spirit to jar them out of their spiritual slumber and blindness because he walks up to this woman and they start talking a little bit and they're getting nowhere, really. And then Jesus tells her, go get your husband. And then she goes, I don't have a husband. He said, yes, that's true. You've had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband.
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