Hearing God’s Voice - Pt 2

I do. My my mother in law, she would take my kids to Chick-Fil-A once a week, and I was thrilled. And she is in Israel for six months. And that was the first thing that I grieved, was that she is not here to take them to Chick-Fil-A every week. So they still get to go, but just not every week.

And tonight they got to go. And I was like, oh, I have to make dinner. Who has had the cauliflower sandwich? And do you like it? Anybody else? Yeah. Did you like it? Yeah. I wonder if they're going to make nuggets, maybe. No, I haven't had it. I I'm a I'm a I'm a Southwest salad with nuggets, girl.

Yeah. So I don't. I don't typically get the sandwich, but. Oh, my goodness. Thank you so much for having me again. It is an honor. It is a delight. I am humbled. I am really excited about tonight. And once again, I hope I make the keys proud. I'm here because of them. They are very dear to me and my husband.

Was there anybody that was not here last week? Oh, that's exciting. My name is Devon. My husband's name is Jamie. He's not here. He and Shane have been best friends their entire lives. And Becca and I have been friends now for 25 years. Um, and I have a passion for hearing the voice of the Lord and journaling the voice of the Lord.

There was so much meat last week. I kind of want to do a recap, if that's okay. And for those of you that weren't here, um, this is good. This is good for you, too. So last week, um, I said we live in two worlds. The shallow knowledge and the reality. We sort of cycle around these two. We know what is true, the shallow knowledge, and yet we live in unbelief and we allow stress and anxiety to govern our thoughts, which then governs our lives.

We have this concern access to new, pure, beautiful thoughts and have no idea how to activate them enough to see real change in our lives. Something that I get asked all the time. In fact, I was asked this very question last Wednesday night after the teaching. It was, How do I know the difference between my voice and God's voice?

Isn't it interesting that we can hear and receive all this information and still not get it? It's wild. Last week I challenged you all to wake up to the sound of your own voice. Wake up to your inner dialog. Do you know how you sound? Do you know how you sound as you go throughout your day and your night?

What are your thoughts chained to look at your life? And in what areas? Are you defeated, stressed, discouraged? You want to know the difference between your voice and God's voice? Well, first you have to establish how you sound. I asked, What do you think about God? And what do you think about yourself in an attempt to begin this process?

And we discovered that we have got a well formed neural pathways in our brain full of untruths, bad stuff, bad messages, lies. And because these pathways began forming as young people, they are familiar and even comforting, even if they're lies and not true. And they're ridiculous and unyielding to the Lord. And yet we go there and stay in that reality.

Our own thoughts. Our voice is what keeps us there. These untrue neural pathways. They're like our language is how we sound. And then I asked, What does God think about himself? And what does he think about you to establish a stark contrast between how you sound and how God sounds. Sorry, I don't need the board tonight.

It's just. It was her fault. Thank you guys for wheeling it up for me. I appreciate it. What is okay? I'm just start of it. I asked, what does God think about himself and what does he think about you? To establish the stark contrast between how you sound and how God sounds. We looked back at the Eden story to get a picture of how God sounds when He is speaking to us.

We read what kind of thoughts we were created to have the intimate conversation that God invites us to and remember God's unchanging. So He actually still sounds the same as he did in Eden with when he was having conversations with Adam and Eve. Beautiful, loving, hopeful, kind friends. We can't just take a quick glance at the truth here.

We can't be dismissive about what God thinks about us and what He says about us. That's what keeps us permanently in the shallow knowledge. Yes, I believe this, but I'm quick to dismiss it. Everyone in here has a Bible or access to a Bible. I imagine everyone in here has a phone. So even if you can't read, you can get the Bible app on your phone and have Scripture read out loud to you.

I'm serious. What are you hearing? What is filling your mind? We have to wake up to how we sound. But we must also make every effort to wake up to how God sounds. It's not just He loves me. Yeah, I get it. Da da da da da, blah, blah. How are we after a transformation or not? We do not have permission as believing people of God to disregard or downplay what he says about us.

We are not allowed to take a quick glance at the truth and move on. We are ready to obey and part of obey. Obedient here is believing what God says about us and how He thinks about us. We're asking the Holy Spirit to bring His revelation to us and we are ready to receive. We can only move forward from this place.

This place of receiving. Can't receive. If your hands are tight around your life, around your thoughts. We're learning the difference between how we sound and how God sounds. Are you with me? Are you with me? Last week we read through several scriptures to confirm how confident the Lord is in His own character and in His love for us.

Remember the brain. It takes the path of least resistance. And there's not much resistance to our well-formed, ugly, untrue self-loathing. Full of shame, future tripping thoughts. Those pathways are quick and easy. But remember, we get to choose what we think, who we listen to, and what we believe. Allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us, to live and look like Jesus.

It's hard work carving new, narrow pathways of truth is hard. The brain does not want to do it. Have you ever tried to learn a new language as an adult? Anybody in here As an adult? Not as a child. As a child, It's much easier. How about writing or reading a new language with different letters and characters? Coming from a missionary background, we have really dear friends who are American and they moved to Taiwan back in like, I think, 2002.

They did not speak a word of Mandarin Chinese, not a word. Certainly didn't read it or write it. But they were so committed to learning because they could see prophetically into their future. And they knew that in order to have an impact on the people of Taiwan, it was worth the hard work of learning their language. Now, and so I'm asking you tonight, are you willing to make the same investment, the same commitment?

Can you look into your future prophetically and see that learning this discipline of surrendering your mind is worth the hard work? I was praying on the way over here and I just felt like I should say, if you if you can't look prophetically into your life because you feel hopeless, discouraged, and everything seems dark. I don't know if that's any of you in here.

It's okay. And I want you to find somebody here in this room to pray for you afterwards. Find somebody that can. DECA will do it. I will do it. I don't have to know you. The Lord can give me a word of encouragement. In fact, no one is safe from a word of encouragement from me. We can look prophetically because we're asking the Lord for His perspective and he is looking into our future and he sees nothing but hope.

And if you can't see it, that's okay. It's because we're asking for his perspective. Last week we read scriptures that told us that it's really worth the hard work. The song says, I'm sure a lot of you in here know I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning back. Jesus says, Follow me and I will make you.

Are we prepared to let him make us? No. Turning back to live in the reality. If you're in pain right now, maybe someone has hurt you. Maybe you're walking through some exceptional grief or under extraordinary distress. Maybe you're financially bankrupt. I don't know. Are you still committed to this? No. Turning back. Because let me tell you, the enemy doesn't want you tuning in and listening to the voice of the Lord when times are hard.

That is when our familiar thoughts are the most comforting. They beckon to us. And the world has got an opinion on what you should think and how you should live. And that opinion is made loud and clear. So, for example, when I have an argument with my husband, the last thing I want to do is sit down for a new language lesson.

You know, Right. I mean, I know how this argument is going to go. He pushes all of my triggers gladly, it seems, with joy. And I push all of his. And during the fight or maybe even after, I have a thought. Did I marry the right person? I don't think I did. This is a hopeless cycle. He's never going to understand me.

What am I going to do with those kinds of thoughts and that kind of bad language? That's bad language right there. I know. What the world says I should do is to point the finger. Well, he's really selfish, and he. You're right. He's never going to understand you. You're being held back by him. Think about your own struggles and call to your that call to your untrue thoughts, messages you live out that are lies.

That's what keeps us living in this reality. If we don't learn this new language, if I don't speak forgiveness and peace over the argument with my husband, regardless if I'm right or not. And I am always right if I don't extinguish the thoughts that I married the wrong person. If I don't take that thought, what captive, then I'm agreeing with the lie and I'm slipping into that old familiar pathway with the oh so familiar messages that say I'm a failure, I'm not lovable, I'm better off alone or whatever.

The messages that you hear regularly, your thoughts are always going to go back to that round and round between the knowledge, shallow knowledge and the reality. Do you see the picture as anyone desperate to break this cycle? I know I am. Romans eight seven. The mind of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God.

I don't want my thought life, my voice, my mind to be hostile. I want Jesus to make me more like him. Are we ready for complete surrender and obedience when it comes to our own voice? Do we want to be delivered from this? We have to sacrifice it. It'll be painful because most sacrifices are. We meditated a little bit on second Corinthians 1015.

I want to read it again tonight. We can demolish we. We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogance attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war every single thought, and we insist that it bow in obedience to the anointed One. Since we are armed with such dynamic weaponry, we stand ready to punish any trace of rebellion as soon as you choose complete obedience.

That's Paul talking. That's not Jesus. I don't know. Sometimes when Jesus is giving instructions, I always say, Well, yeah, it's easy for you. Jesus. I don't know, maybe it's just me. But Paul was every bit human and he's saying, We have been given the power to do this. Last week we talked about the strength and genius of the Holy Spirit to do this work in us.

And all we have to do is catch the thought and submit it and ask him for new true thoughts. Scripture charges us with the task of renewing our minds, which means that we participate with the Holy Spirit. Here we are invited to grow in confidence, in our identity, in God. I read John 1027 The sheep that are my own here and are listening to my voice.

I know them and they follow me. You are never going to regret obedience to the Lord. I can confidently say no one has ever regretted hearing and believing the voice of the Lord ever in the history of mankind. I know it's a pretty crazy thing to say. No one's ever regretted taking on the thoughts of the Lord.

No one has ever regretted taking their own thoughts captive and taking his in exchange. You're not going to regret sacrificing your future tripping thought life. You're not going to regret loving the Lord your God with every passion of your heart, with all the energy of your being and with every thought that is within you. Matthew 2237. You're not going to regret that.

You're not going to wake up one day and wish I wish I could just think the way I used to think. You're not. Okay. So that was a bit of a recap on last week. Tonight, we're going to look at an experience in Jesus's life where hearing his father and believing it was recorded in Scripture. I want to start by reading a verse Matthew six, verse ten.

It's part of the Lord's Prayer says, Your kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. I'm sure most of you probably have that memorized.

Last week I said, Have. If you've ever wondered what the will of the Lord is for your life, that this is it. Hearing and believing His voice, His will is for you to live out your whole life, believing his truth about you. In all of your circumstances. His will is for you to drive down the new narrow pathways of what his he says is true.

His will. His plan for your life is for you to be so confident of who you are in him against your own hostile voice, against the hostile voices of the world, and against the enemy's voice. Seriously, he says, become fluent in my language. This is what I want for your life. No one in heaven is insecure or struggling with the truth.

You know that No one. And Jesus says, Your will. Okay. What's his will for us to be confident in what he says about us? Your will on earth as it is in heaven. So his will is for us to learn this new language, which is the language of heaven, and to take on your thoughts and bring them down into every single moment, every single circumstance of our life, every single relationship.

I mentioned that my one of my new favorite things to do is especially when I'm struggling with a particular I don't know person, I don't know circumstance is to say, okay, Lord, if you're looking out at this through my eyeballs, how do you see this? How do you see this person? How do you see this circumstance? And every single time it is totally different than the way I'm looking at it.

This is why I'm asking him, because I need his encouragement. I need his perspective. He says, Here, take my perspective, take my heavenly language, bring it down and inserted into your circumstances. I want to dissect one of these particular times what Jesus chose God's thoughts. Matthew 611 Which is the next verse, says, Give us this day our daily bread.

Have you ever considered what daily bread means? I think most of us, including myself, think it means, Father, please provide all we need for this day that we're in. And that's true. And that's a good interpreter of what that means. But I suggest it has another meaning. Let's look at another passage of Scripture. I'm going to read Matthew 316 and 17, and then Matthew four one through four.

When Jesus was baptized, he went up at once out of the water and behold the heavens were open. And John, the baptized, saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And behold, a voice from heaven says this is my son, my beloved son in whom I delight. Then Jesus, led by the Holy Spirit, into the wilderness to be tempted, tested and tried by the devil.

And he went without food for 40 days and 40 nights. And later he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, If you are God's son, command these stones to be made loaves of bread, that he replied, Jesus, it has been written man shall not live and be upheld and sustained by bread alone. That by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.

Another translation says Nothing can satisfy the son's appetite, but the words of God. Okay, the beginning We hear the father declare proclaim. The heavens opened up. Can you imagine if you were witnessing that loudly? This is my son, my beloved son in whom I delight. And right after this declaration, the Holy Spirit alighting on Jesus. And then He's immediately led into the wilderness.

Talk about going from a mountaintop experience to a valley. Have you ever experienced something like that? I have. About a year and a half ago, I received this powerful time of healing ministry in my life. It was it was really amazing. And for about a month, I don't think I have ever felt more free and more hopeful. And then after about 30 days or so, I just I don't know, it kind of lifted off me and I felt like I was being led into a wilderness and it wasn't fun.

It's still a hard it's still a struggle. After 40 days of no food. Jesus's body and mind were feeling extremely weak. I have fasted from food before. It's difficult. I think the longest fast maybe I've done is about seven days. When I was pregnant with my first child, I was sick almost the entire pregnancy and there were days I could keep absolutely nothing down.

So I'm growing another person and I can't eat a thing. And I was starved. And you get to a point when you're fasting or when you can't keep any food down. Well, you can't stop obsessing about food. It literally is all you think about. And I started to have, like, these imaginations about food when I was pregnant. And I had this little dog that was like under £9, and I was laying in my bed obsessing about food.

And she walked by the door. And I remember thinking, if I lived on a desert island and there was nothing to eat but my dog, would I eat my dog? Would it be worth it? Because she has hardly any meat to offer me? And I stayed in that imagination for a little while. And then I was like, okay, I think we need to go try to eat something.

Let's try again. Look at this verse. Jesus was without food, so he's starving. 40 days. But he was also without a home. He didn't have his phone with his favorite playlist. He wasn't staying in any kind of a hotel. He certainly wasn't juicing. When I fasted from food, I was drinking broth, maybe juice. He didn't have any family or friends close by.

So the verse says he was hungry. And you want to say, Well, no kidding. But I think we can take some license here and say he was starving and not just for food, but maybe for some connection and some comfort. Any time I've ever fasted, I've never gone out into the desert without shelter, money, pillow. I have any of you know, I'm comfortable.

I can shower, right? I'm still with the people that I love. I can watch TV. I can distract myself. The enemy approaches him at the end of this when he's at his absolute weakest and what are the what's the first word the enemy says? If, if, if you are the son of God. What was the last thing that was proclaimed in the story?

This is my son, my beloved Inhumans. So well pleased. His weakest moment when his mind is foggy, his body is starving, he's dirty, he's lonely, and the enemy comes and he challenges the truth. So what's Jesus going to do with this thought? What's he going to do with that voice? I experience this all the time, don't you? Maybe you're experiencing it now in some of my most painful circumstances in my life, the enemy has challenged my position in God, God's love for me.

He's planted a thought. He's pointed to my circumstances and he says, If God provides all that you need, why are you having to file bankruptcy? If you're such a good parent? Why do you have unbelieving children?

He challenges God's spoken and written truth, and we let him get away with it. We go along with him. We somehow start questioning and doubting, and the next thing you know, we are swallowed up in unbelief. And we look at our surroundings and our feelings and we unknowingly maybe agree with the enemy. We continue to live in this unsustainable realm of the reality and the shallow knowledge.

We don't extinguish those thoughts. We end up plot future tripping with no grace, sailing down the unreal listed narrow pathway, hostile thoughts blaring. I'm not going to let him do that to me anymore. Are you with me? Look at Jesus's answer. It is fascinating. He looks at his surroundings. He's feeling starving and he recalls what the father says, and he chooses to live from there.

It was his choice to make. He says man shall not live and be upheld and sustained by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God. That is an extraordinary response. In other words, Satan, food and comfort. Don't keep me alive. Just the words of my father. And I believe him. And I believe him.

I can't even fathom how blessed the father was when Jesus said that Here's my son who is living and moving and believing the truth. Here is my son in whom I delight, who takes my thoughts as his own. Jesus, He captured the thought. He took it captive and he made it submit and obey to the truth. I am beloved.

I am my father's delight. I really know what sustains me. And giving in to hostile, untrue thoughts is not the path I'm going to take. So we go back to Matthew 611. Give us this day our daily bread. We can see it's much more than just a request for the days provision. Jesus is praying. Father, give me your thoughts today.

Give me a new mindset, your mindset right now in this minute, I need your thoughts. Remember, man doesn't live by bread, but by every word that comes straight from the mouth of God. The father is serious about this. Heaven was brought down through Jesus into the wilderness right in the middle of his hard, starving circumstances. Jesus chose his father's truth, and the father was worshiped by his obedience.

Do you know that our obedience isn't? It's an act of worship to the Lord. So when I'm obedient and submit my thoughts, that's that's. Worship guides. Jesus chose his father's truth. The father was worshiped. It's the coolest thing I've ever heard. Remember, there's continuous worship in heaven, and heaven is coming down through worse than right back up to the Father.

That's the cycle we want to be in. Jesus was feeling miserable. Doesn't matter how you're feeling. It matters what you're believing. His circumstances were difficult, but it wasn't about that. It was about whether or not he believed the truth about what God said to him.

I love this. It's just. Oh, it just moves me. It can fix me. I think last week I was reading these verses of what and how much the Lord loves us and I said, It can. It can make me feel uncomfortable. Like, okay, all right, I'm not that lovable. Like, Jesus, Lord. Tone it down. And much easier for me to love him than it is for me to receive his.

He adores me. He has adoration for me constantly. And I do. I want to, like, tone it down. It's a little tough for me to stay in that place. I just don't think I'm worth that much love. Maybe a little bit. Not that much. And it's that kind of thinking that keeps stuck in a cycle. So the Lord knows this isn't easy for me to break these chains that I'm chained to.

So he's nothing but filled with grace for me and for you. But I have to start. I can't stay in that spot. I can't. I can.

And I'll become old, bitter, hard, angry, fearful. I'll get worse. You don't just stay fly. You have to be proactive about this. You don't just stay as you are. You get worse in the habits that you have developed. So this, if you stay in the and the shallow knowledge, you don't tap into this. You aren't just going to stay in your spiritual walk like this.

It's okay. I'm good. You get worse. It it leads to death before your body dies. Okay. I want to take a few minutes and I want to lead you in listening to the father speak. I want you to get your pen. If you don't have a notebook and a pen, then pull out your phone, because I know you've got that.

And pull up the little note section and you're going to type out the word says, Don't be afraid. The father is big enough for this. We can trust him. We're in a safe environment where we're loved and supported, being afraid that we're not going to that we're going to somehow get this wrong is what keeps us stuck. But not anymore.

The Holy Spirit is capable of correcting us if we step out of truth. He's big enough, guys. Be brave here. I want you to start by just asking him a simple question. If you've never done this before, Jesus, what do you think of me? And then I want you to begin writing everything that comes to your mind. It's going to sound like how you sound.

Meaning you're not going to hear Morgan Freeman's voice. If you hear the audible voice of the Lord, raise your hand, because that's amazing. But that's not typically what happens. You're not going to hear some deep, booming old man voice is going to kind of sound like you. You're the sound of your voice, not your voice. You understand what I mean?

If anything, that you are writing doesn't line up with what the scriptures say. It's not him. It's going to sound like it's in first person as though you're having a conversation. Be brave. You guys, this is something that needs to become a daily practice. Remember, his sheep are listening to his voice. They recognize it. So I'm going to have someone play a little bit of music, and we're just going to take a few minutes, and I want you guys to practice this.

Okay? So have you. All right. Okay. It's amazing. Don't think that you're bigger than God in this somehow that God doesn't speak to you about the things that you need him to speak to you about. Like cars, like children, like school, like homework. He has personal I hear it all the time. He doesn't speak to me that way.

Oh, my gosh. The Bible is I read how many scriptures I read last week. Ask Me Let me give you my knowledge, my thoughts, my voice. You can't tell me. You cannot tell me that he doesn't speak to us like this. Now it's my testimony. And now for all of you have done that. Now for the first time.

It is your testimony. It only gets bigger and better. Only. Okay, that's my time. Last week, I didn't even know there are monitors there with time. This week I do. Thank you, Lord Jesus. You are so good and faithful and we love you. Help us to receive your love for us. We do not want to dismiss your truth.

We do not want to dismiss your thoughts and your voice as we know any better than you has. If we have any idea how to live life, we don't. You created us. So you get to call the shots, not us. And we submit and surrender to you. I just bless everyone in this room who is vulnerable, who is afraid, who feels uncertain.

God may your confidence flood them, bless them, keep them in Jesus name. Amen.