Today, I am concluding our July message series, which I’ve called “How To Hear God Speak.” In this series, we’ve been talking about prayer as not just one-way, but two-way communication. Prayer is not just about asking God for things, it is about a relationship in which God speaks to His children. If you believe that God is speaking to you about a direction for your life, then the wise thing to do is to do what He is saying. But how do you know if it really was God speaking to you? If it really wasn’t God, but you act on it, you could end up in big trouble.

Discerning whether God is really talking to you is kind of like one of the problems with email. Email is a wonderful invention. Yet, like everything else, it has it’s dangers. One of those dangers is called spam. Most spam emails are from people trying to sell you something you have no interest in. However, some spam emails are more dangerous. They are called phishing emails. A phishing email pretends to come from a respected institution that you do business with, such as your bank. It may politely ask you to click a link and log on to your bank account. However, although the site you go to looks like your bank, it is not. Within a few minutes after you’ve entered your name and password, the senders of the phishing email will have emptied your bank account. You must be very careful with emails, because it’s easy to be deceived.

It’s even more important to be careful about discerning if that impression we receive is really God’s voice or not. So today, I’m going to talk about “How To Discern God’s Voice.” Is that great idea you got as you were driving to work or as you were reading your Bible, is it really from God or not? How can you tell if the impression or idea you have is from God or not? How can you test that impression you have? TLB 1 John 4:1 Don’t always believe everything you hear just because someone says it is a message from God: test it first to see if it really is. The Bible tells us to not believe everything you hear, whether the message came from a pastor, from a book you read, from another person or from an impression you have. You need to test that message or idea.

Jesus said about His own teaching: MSG John 7:17 Anyone who wants to do His will can test this teaching and know whether it’s from God or whether I’m making it up. So today I’m going to give you three ways to test an impression, a teaching or any other way that you think God may be speaking to you. If the impression you have lines up with all of the biblical tests I’m going to talk, then you know it’s from God. If it doesn’t line up, it’s not from God.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my July 29, 2007 message entitled Discerning God’s Voice

We are currently in a message series called “How To Hear God Speak.” Last week we talked about five common ways that God speaks to us. God is a speaking God, we’ve just go to learn how to hear Him. Sometimes we need direction from God, but we miss His call. We haven’t learned how to get direction from God in the very real decisions that we have to make in life.

This week I’ve entitled the message “Getting Direction From God” I’m going to expand on how God communicates with us through the Holy Spirit. On all of the major principles of life, God’s Word is very clear. It teaches us what is right and wrong. However, many of the decisions that you and I must make in life are not directly answered in the Bible. There is no Bible verse that will tell you who to marry or what church to attend or what career to pursue and the list could go on and on. Those are very important decisions. There are also many smaller, everyday decisions that we need God’s guidance on.

This morning we’re going to look at a six step process to hearing God. It’s found in a little three chapter book in the Old Testament called Habakkuk. In the first chapter the prophet Habakkuk asks God six questions. In the second chapter he does six things to get direction from God. Finally the third chapter records God’s answers to Habakkuk’s questions. Now to get the most value from the message this morning, I’d like to ask you to think about an area in your life where you’re facing a major decision in the near future. Think about that area as we go through these six steps this morning and then put the six steps into practice this week.

Let’s read the first two verses of Habakkuk 2 which outline the six steps the prophet followed. NLT Habakkuk 2:1-2 I will climb up into my watchtower now and wait to see what the LORD will say to me and how he will answer my complaint. Then the LORD said to me, “Write my answer in large, clear letters on a tablet, so that a runner can read it and tell everyone else.” I’m going to take these six steps and put them into three points that will make it easier for you to remember them.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my July 15, 2007 message entitled Getting Direction From God

Last week we started a new message series called “How To Hear God Speak.” We talked about why it’s important to hear God and how you can prepare your mind to actually hear God speak to you. It’s very important to be able to hear your heavenly Father speak to you. Just imagine what trouble your children would have in life if they couldn’t hear you speak to them. You are God’s child and God is your Father. You never outgrow that relationship. You never grow up to the point that you don’t need to hear your Father speaking.

Jesus said in NIV John 12:49 For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. Jesus heard what His Father commanded him to say and He said it. Jesus’ words and actions were determined by listening to His Father speak and the same should be true of us.

A 5-year old girl named Barbara had disobeyed her mother and was sent to her room. After a few minutes the Mom went to her daughter’s room to talk to her about what she had done. Through teary eyes Barbara asked “Why do we do wrong things, Mommy?” Her mother replied, “Sometimes the devil tells us to do wrong things and we listen to him. We need to listen to God instead.” The little girl sobbed and said “But God doesn’t talk loud enough.”

Sometimes we think that God doesn’t talk loud enough but He is speaking. We just need to recognize all of the ways that He speaks to us. CEV Job 33:14 God speaks in different ways, and we don’t always recognize his voice. If we think that God only speaks in one way and we don’t hear anything in that particular way we may think that God is silent when He’s speaking. As you read the Bible, you see that it is full of hundreds of examples of God speaking to people. In the Bible, God uses many different ways to communicate. He spoke to Moses through the burning bush. He spoke to Jacob through an angel. He spoke to the nation of Israel through a cloud. He spoke to Balaam through a donkey and the list could go on and on.

Today my message topic is “Understanding How God Speaks.” The emphasis in my title is on the word “How.” What are the ways that God speaks? I’m going to talk about five ways that God speaks to us. These are not the only ways but these are five common ways that God speaks to people.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my July 8, 2007 message entitled Understanding How God Speaks

Today we begin a new message series entitled “How To Hear God Speak.” This is an incredibly important topic. People who hear God speak to them are successes in life, people who don’t hear God speak end up failures. People who hear God find joy in fulfilling God’s purpose for their life. People who don’t hear God miss out on God’s purpose.

Just this past week, someone made the following comment on my blog “No matter what I try (and I’ve tried for 30 years), I don’t hear God. I listen. I pray. I read the Word. I’ve begged. I’m bitter and sour to the fact that – as bad as I want a relationship with Christ, I don’t have one. I’m seeking a true relationship with God, a real relationship like I have with anyone else.” If you can identify with that comment, then this series is for you. If you hear God speak sometimes, but you want to hear Him more clearly, then these messages will help you.

I’ve entitled my first message in this series “Preparing To Hear God.” My basic premise is that God is a speaking God. The Bible shows us a God who is not silent, but a God that has spoken throughout history and continues to speak today. The problem is not that God isn’t speaking, the problem for many people is that they are not prepared to hear God.

Right now in the air of this room, there are thousands of electronic signals flying around. Cell phone messages, text messages, wireless internet signals, but we are all unaware of the content, because we either don’t have the proper equipment or it is not tuned into the messages. What is the equipment you need to hear God? In order to hear God speak, in order to be guided by God, you need to be a child of God, you need to have a relationship with God. At the end of the service today, I’ll give you an opportunity to begin that relationship. However, some people have that relationship but it is very weak, they are not really tuned into God’s wavelength very much.

Many people have not prepared themselves to hear God. That’s what I’m going to talk about today. But before we get to the question of “How can I prepare to hear God?” I want to look more closer at the question “Why is it important to hear God?”

To hear more about this topic, listen to my July 1, 2007 message entitled Preparing To Hear God