Friday, 24 June 2016
JILGM NORSA
Message: Hearing and Valuing God’s Voice by PRC
Key Verses: Exodus 14:13, 19: 10, 19 and 2 Chronicles 20:17, 21-24
Introduction:
Theology Term fairly familiar to Theologians: The general and specific will of God. I will relate these two terms to the Voice of God. The General Voice of God and the Specific Voice of God. Most of us we want to hear the specific voice of God. When we have job change, buying a new home, an important decision as much as marriage or family matters something like that we want the specific words from God. I believed God wants to speak specific Words to us. My concern is we want to try to hear specific words from God at different times of our lives without the habit of hearing the general words from God every day. I thing every 1,2,3,4 or 6 months or every few years have a big decisions and we won’t be able to speak that part of our life and yet we are not accustom on how he speaks or we are not habit of meeting with him and hearing from him on a regular basis. I think it is more difficult to hear specific words from God when we don’t even hear the general words from God. This is the one I talk to you brethren and this is very very practical. The Title of the Message for Today is:
HEARING/VALUING HIS VOICE
Value His Voice – I believed that if we value something then we will lot time for that. Question? Do you value God’s Voice? And you say yes. Then how much time did you allotted in you daily schedule? Many of us will be embarrassed on that question because we get so busy and we say that we have no hope or time to do this. This is very practical and we will start the how we will hear God’s voice?
4 POINTS ON HOW WE WILL HEAR/ VALUE GOD’S VOICE;
1. SET AN APPOINTMENT
– If you want to hear God set an appointment with God.
Exodus: 19: 10 (NIV)
10 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes 11 and be ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
Moses set an appointment to meet with God with them.
Exodus 19:19 (KJV)
19 And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long and waxed louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice.
God is telling I want to speak to people. He didn’t see just gather them but let them prepare to hear the Word of the Lord.
“God comes to a prepared atmosphere.”
When you look to the Bible before the encountered there is a preparation before they encountered in many instances. God comes on that prepared atmosphere. Question how much we (JILGM NORSA) prepared to meet God in the week ends. And think of this if you prepare for one week and you come here and no one greets you? There is no one greeter? And you come there is no musician being ready and there is no usher to help you to find the seats? And I was here and you didn’t have any notes and I said something, we will let the Holy Spirit lead. And I believed that many Churches that do not put a lot of preparation for the week end services before meeting with the Lord. The Holy Spirit is not that disorganize. The Holy Spirit can speak on Tuesday on what he wants to do on Friday. And yet we can allow the Holy Spirit to move in the week end without preparation, but there must have some preparation to us. Prepare to hear God. What is the number one way is to set an Appointment. If you don’t set an appointment with God you will miss it. How you could missed it if you don’t set it. That is the main point. If you don’t set an appointment to meet him you’ll miss it. Here’s the amazing things we set an appointment with people we don’t even like and yet we don’t set an appointment to meet with God. God is the most important person that we could meet. Now let me tell you how you will set an appointment with God. This should be very practical right? SET A TIME AND A PLACE. The same with your friend you set a time in your i-phone or your phone and you set a place to meet with him. This is I want you to do I want you to set a time and a place this week. Now, some of you will ask to me I know that the best time to meet God is 5:00AM. That’s the best time for some people but not everyone is at his best. And I know some of you at 5:00AM. Here’s you pick you do pick a time when you are your best! If you are best in the morning you are a morning person meet God in the morning. Some people will do after lunch time they go to a lonely place or park or bench they will take their bible with them or devotional notebook and they would be sometimes with the Lord. Maybe if you are a parent you can have your time after all your children went to the bed. Can now I need to meet with God? So this week this is your assignment to choose a time and a place. For you might get out from your house or inside your room. I know some meet with God in Star Bucks one of the Pastors I knew he meet God in Star Bucks who brought his head phone, a bible and a pen and notebook. Some of you will meet God in MacDonald. One of the Pastors sometimes has been awarded as Customer of the month of MacDonald hahaha..He has a pile of stocks of journals for 30 years consistently meeting with God wow! So set a time and a place wherever you are comfortable. If you don’t set a time and a place with God you are missing an appointment or you make him disappointment. Many many Christians live disappointed life because they missed an appointment with God. And actually God wants to talk to you and me but we miss always an appointment with Him.
2. BE STILL AND WORSHIP
Be still is very very hard for us.
Psalm 46:10 (NIV)
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God…
Exodus 14:13 (KJV)
13 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord…
There are three vicious armies that have surrounded Judah and Jerusalem before.
2 Chronicles 20:17 (NKJV)
17 You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord...”
2 Chronicles 20:21-24 (NKJV)
This is talking about the King
21 And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord (They put the singers in the front row of the soldiers), and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying:
“Praise the Lord,
For His mercy endures forever.”
22 Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated. 23 For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another.
24 So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and there were their dead bodies, fallen on the earth. No one had escaped.
Commentaries:
How would you imagine this is the way how we defeated our enemies when God is with us; we just bring the musicians ahead of us and just sing praise and worship and God will take care of the enemies to be defeated/ annihilate them totally or he will take care of the rest?
Listen to me every one of us is fighting for battles; Maybe you are fighting a battle of your health, your marriage, Still and knows that I am the Lord. Is it possible that sometimes we don’t know that He is God in this situation? Because we don’t get still. Before you can know you have to be still. Just start worshipping. This is personally I am doing. My wife Cristy she usually she has her phone with praise. But for me I personally ask God what song do I need to sing to you today? And He will impress me on that song I will sing that specific song and internalize it. The song might be sung 30 yrs. ago or last week or today. And on these songs it allows me to enter in the presence of the Lord. I just begin to worship God. If you are in Mac Donald or Star Bucks you just put an earphone, have your gadget and just close your eyes and sing within. Your family, your finances and your job right now. Stand Still and Worship. Just get still before God. It says again in Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God…
Acts 13:2 (NKJV)
2 As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said or speaks…
3.) PRAY AND READ
This is the structure that will work for everyone. Although some will make adjustment a little bit. Just take some time to pray to the Lord and read His Words or Read few verses.
Mark 1:35 (NKJV)
35 Now in the morning (time), having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place (there’s a place); and there He prayed.
Jesus set an appointment to meet with his Father. And he set a time and a place.
Psalm 119:147 (NKJV)
147 I rise before the dawning of the morning, And cry for help;
I hope in Your word.
Prayer and the Word of God.
What we pray about? Pray whatever in your heart that day. Maybe that day you have phone call from your children that they need your prayer, and that is in your heart, or today you heard something about your job and that is in your heart. Just pray about whatever is in your heart. Just tell God whatever is in your heart. And read the Bible somewhere? Pastor gets many questions how do you hear God? No. 1 question in the Bile and Reading is where should I read in the Bible? Are you ready? On the inside, that’s the place I found to read the Bible. Anywhere in the inside is good. You can read proverb a day there are 31 proverbs. Maybe you read one chapter in the Old Testament and one chapter in the New Testament or you can read through the Bible in a year. 6 chapters per day you can finished one year. It’s up to your reading plan. Sometimes you can encounter be got and so be got…you can escape that. Just read somewhere in the Bible. Read the Gospel, the book of Acts or the prophets.
4. LISTEN AND WRITE
Listening is the hardest thing for us to do but if we learn to do we will hear God’s voice. I want to tell you few things about listening and writing.
I suggest that plain and clear version you should have NIV, A New Living Translation or The Massage something a dynamic translation rather than exact translation because it is easy to read.
Psalm 45:1The Message (MSG)
45 My heart bursts its banks,
spilling beauty and goodness.
I pour it out in a poem to the king,
shaping the river into words:
Here’s what it says;
When I meet with God my heart sing to overflow and the best thing that I can do is to write like a poem to the Lord. That’s what I do. We have 150 poems that David wrote.
1 Chronicles 28:19 (NKJV)
19 “All this,” said David, “the Lord made me understand in writing, by His hand upon me, all the works of these plans.”
When I mean with God, God would just speak to me about the things in the need of the need of the Church and I just write thing and as I write thing I would understand what God would say. It’s so fast to write when the Holy Spirit overflows and God started to speak through your spirit.
Habakkuk 2:2 (NKJV)
2 Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
The best thing I Know to hear the Word of God is to write when you meet Him. Write your prayer. Ex. Lord I’m concern about my daughter. I pray that you will bring friends around her that will encourage her about the Lord. I pray that the friends that drag her away from you that they would get away from her life. I pray God that you will give her a memory to bring her in your church so that she will remember your presence. Write your prayer. And then write what you think God answers to your prayer. What do you think it is come from God? What do you thing God’s will to your daughter? I love your daughter, I want to see your daughter come back, I will answer your prayer for your daughter. Just write on what you think God is saying and answers to your prayer.
Write what you think God is saying to you through the scripture that you read that day? Ex. You read one of the proverbs “A Wise Man seek Counsel or a Wiseman holds his tongue, A Wiseman holds to control the Words what he says” I think the Lord is saying to me that I should seek counsel in the decision that I would make, that I should learn to speak wisdom instead of foolishness or We call this The 7 Navigator question?
1. What new things have I learned today?
2. Is there a command for me to obey?
3. Is there an example for me to follow?
4. Is there an error or mistakes for me to avoid?
5. Is there a sin for me to forsake or confessed?
6. Is there a promise for me to claim?
7. Is there a new thought about God Himself?
After a while you will be surprise or shock you could not even cope up in writing how God is speaking to you continually. And then years from now you will have volume of Journals and you will look back and see how God directed your life and how God help you to write that decision when you needed to make that decision and you will look back and see thank you Lord that I showed up for our appointment.
1 Samuel 3:1 (NKJV)
3 Now the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation.
Rare in Hebrew meaning a limited supply. Ex. We say something is rare is limited but this is a secondary meaning but the primary meaning of this word is Valuable and Precious.
The Word of the Lord was Valuable, It was Valuable and It was Precious, Another way of saying this Word of the Lord is Valued! People valued hearing the Word of the Lord.
Question? Do you really value in hearing God’s voice? Illustration to See and Encourage you to buy this book;
The Book Entitled Whisper by Bill Hybels ( is the founding and senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, one of the most attended churches in North America, with an average attendance of nearly 24,000) . In this book he discussed how parents and kids hear God. One of the illustrations was a believer name Tom working in advertising as executive and having a busy life and has no time for God, sometimes after the Church services in Willow Church he encountered Bill. Here’s Bill Hybels Testimony in video presentation about this Man who encountered God:
So I encourage you brethren started today to buy your own rocking chair study table, devotional notebook, ball pen and put in a place where you can set an appointment with God daily. Your life will absolutely change and you will never be the same again because you will see the glory of God in your life.
God bless you all and thank you!
Let’s pray?
