Listening, Unburdening & Worshipping - Part 2 — Zac Poonen

Hearing God’s Voice in the Wilderness and in Life

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, every temptation that came to Him, He said, No, but God said this, Satan, you may say this, but God said this, it's written. That is the great conflict that has been throughout human history.

When Eve stood before the tree of knowledge of good and evil, she knew what God said and she heard what Satan said. And I want to say to all of you, we are always hearing these two voices. And Jesus said, One thing is needful.

Living by Every Word from God

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from God's mouth. And if you can think of the times in your life where you made a mess of your life, I'll tell you where you made it.

It's because you didn't listen to the voice of conscience telling you something. You were busy going to church, going to meetings, going to sing praises, and you didn't listen to the voice of conscience telling you something else.

When Religious Activity Replaces Listening

And that's how most Christians, and even Christians who are supposed to know better, made a mess of their life. They can be so involved in service. You see, this is why Jesus said that many people who are doing greater things than Martha, Martha was just making food in the kitchen, but there are people who have done miracles in Jesus' name, who will stand before me on the final day, and the Lord will say, I don't know you.

You never had time to listen to me. You read my word, and I said in my word, One thing is needful, to sit at my feet and listen to me. But you didn't bother. You thought, I wanted you to go and do this and that, the other thing, the other thing for me.

I didn't want all that. I wanted you to listen to me. You know, in the Living Bible paraphrase of 1 Corinthians, I really like that paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 4, verse 2, 1 Corinthians 4, verse 2, he's talking about we are servants of Christ, verse 1, and it's required of stewards, we are stewards of the mysteries of God, and it's required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.

And the Living Bible says, paraphrase of that, the most important thing about a servant, listen to this, the most important thing about a servant is that he does just what his master tells him to. You know, we are happier with a servant who will do exactly what we say, rather than someone with good intentions goes into the kitchen or goes into the garden and does what we don't want them to do.

Developing the Habit of Listening to God’s Word

That's why it's so important to develop the habit of listening. Learn from Genesis 1, if you listen to God's Word, something will happen in your life. God said something, and the trees came up, the animals came forth, the light came forth, the stars came forth, the sun came forth, the same God, when he speaks something to your heart, and you listen, something will happen.

That's why the Lord told Mary, and the Lord told Martha, this thing that Mary has chosen is the most important thing. And I want to say to all of you, especially those of you who are young, you're starting life, you know one of the most important and useful and very valuable habits that you can acquire, right at the beginning of your Christian life, is the habit of listening.

Lord, I want to listen to your voice. You say, well, how can I know? I hear so many voices in my heart. I hear the voice of my flesh, the voice of the devil, the voice of God. I'll tell you how you can identify God's voice.

That's how I learned to identify it. When I was a young Christian, I faced the same thing in my heart. How do I know? Is this the voice of God, or is this my own feelings, or is it the devil? So many things we don't know, God's voice.

But there's one place where we can be absolutely sure of God's voice, and that's the Bible. So, if you develop the habit of reading and meditating on the Bible regularly, and make that a discipline in your life.

Scripture Discipline and Spiritual Depth

Remember what Jesus said, one thing is needful. And say to yourself, no Bible, no breakfast. No Bible, no lunch. If you make a simple rule like that, man shall not live by breakfast and lunch, but by every word that proceeds from God's mouth, it will change your life completely.

There was a mother who gave a Bible to her son and wrote in the front page, my son, either this book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book. That's all. I've met numerous believers who say, I'm so busy, I don't have time to read the Bible.

And I see in their life a shallowness. They know so much, they may come to the meetings, but they never seem to develop in a knowledge of God. Because you can't develop in a knowledge of God if you don't listen.

Discerning God’s Voice from False Direction

And so many people say, I think the Lord led me to do this, and I know they're going completely off track. How do they get these crazy ideas that the Lord told them to do something? I'll tell you. Because they haven't developed the habit of identifying God's voice among all the voices that they hear in their heart, because they haven't read the Bible.

The Danger of Busyness with Good Things

And it's one of the great tricks of the devil today, is to get people to be so busy, that they don't have time to read the scriptures. It's like a story I read about all the demons having a conference in hell, and Satan asking them, wherever that was, not in hell, wherever it was, they were discussing how to make Christians backslide, and never become spiritual.

And so many people had bright ideas that they'll bring in more pornography, or boldness, or materialism. And then one demon said, listen, those things will all, they'll identify as sin. But let's keep them busy doing good things, so that they have no time to listen to God.

And Satan said, that's it. Let's get these Christians to be busy doing so many good things. They will not watch dirty television programs, they'll watch good ones. But they'll spend so much time watching these good programs, Christian TV programs, that they won't read the Bible.

You know that's happening today? Good Christians who will never see anything dirty on television. Are watching good clean programs, and spending hours listening to all these preachers. They don't know the Bible.

They don't have time to read the Bible. Be careful. Listen again to what Jesus said. One thing is needful. Luke 10 .42. And I want to say to you, never forget it in all your life. Listen. If you listen, it can protect you from wrong paths you take in your life.

Isaiah’s Call to Rest and Trust

Let me show you a verse in Isaiah. Chapter 30. You know, these are people who the Lord had said to them, Isaiah 30 verse 15. Come back to me in repentance. Turn back to me. And rest. Be quiet. Trust in me.

There you'll find your strength. And they said, no, no, no. We are in a hurry. Verse 16. We've got to rush. We've got work to do. We've got to get on our scooters or cars. And we've got to flee. We've got to do this, that and the other.

A lot of work to do. It's okay. The Lord said, if that's what you want to do, go right ahead. What is going to be the end result of that? One thousand of you believers will run away from one demon. One thousand of you believers will run away in fear.

But the Lord longs to be gracious to you. Verse 18. And he's waiting to have compassion on you. He wants you, verse 20, last part, to see your teacher. And if you look at Jesus as your example. Listen to this.

Verse 21. Then, you will hear a word. You will listen to a word in your ear saying, this is the way. When you turn to the right or the left means when you take a wrong turning. That's the meaning there.

Hearing Direction at Life’s Crossroads

You're going along life. And you come to a fork in the road. You know how many times in our life we have to take a decision. Shall I do this? Shall I do that? Shall I marry this person, that person? Go this place, that place.

And you're taking the wrong turning. You'll hear a voice saying, no, not that way. To the left. Imagine all through life. What a way to live. I tell you, it's been the greatest longing of my life for many years.

To live like this.