God Wants to Lead All His Children By His Own Voice — Santosh Poonen

God’s Word as the Foundation for the Children

It is so amazing as I sat there listening to the children recite from Psalm 16 over and over again. So many rich verses. I'm so glad that you all memorized that passage, primary, I think. I will make the godly my heroes.

That's the Living Bible paraphrase of verse 2. Verse 3, I have set the Lord continually before me, because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. As you children said those verses, I was just praying for you that the time will come when the devil will try to throw things at you to shake you, but you will remember what you memorized these last few weeks.

I've set the Lord continually before me, he's here, I will not be shaken. I can tell you now itself, you're going to be shaken. You're going to be tested to be shaken. The devil's going to try to shake you.

He's going to go to God and say, I want permission to shake this little boy, this little girl. And Jesus will say, okay, you can. But I'm going to make available to this little boy and this little girl power to keep them.

And Jesus will pray for you when you go through that time, that your faith will not fail. He won't pray that you won't be shaken, but he'll pray that you won't fail. And that's the meaning of this verse, that you won't be shaken from setting the Lord continually before you, and you will know the path of life.

So wonderful children, thank you for blessing us. Sometimes I think, you know, is it right that we clap for them every single one? I say, absolutely. As long as I'm here, I will at least clap. I think you all will too.

Because why? You know, it's not that we're puffing up anybody and it's not that we're making some better than others. We don't even say that you have to memorize it. If you read it, it's fine. But you make an effort to speak God's word and proclaim it loudly.

That's good. I encourage, I'm glad that you all do that. But we clap because we want every single individual child to know that this is the most important thing, much more important than whether you win the soccer game or come first in your class or anything else, to know God's word.

This is the most important thing. And we will clap in this church for that above everything else. Your parents will probably care about your grades too, but we don't care too much about your grades. No, you work hard in your school, please.

Your grades are important because it will help you live a life that's useful to God when you're not dependent on other people and you can be, you know, provide for yourself and the family that the Lord will give you.

But more important than that is to know God's word. And I'm so thankful that this church, the children here, you all are a shining example. Often we get people writing to us and say that they watch us online.

And I think those of you online can testify to this. And they say that one of the favorite parts of the meeting is when the children get up and say their memory verses. Some of them write to us and say that when you all do it, their children get up in front of in the room and say their memory verse.

It's awesome. I love it. And I hope that we will start a trend. It's not starting a trend, but I hope that we will perpetuate the trend, continue the trend of people who are interested in knowing God's word by our example.

That that's very, very important. So thank you. We are in a new book. I know Dave talked about it, but I thought I would just pull this up here. And for the benefit of those of you online, you would know this book.

God’s Purpose in Failure

This is a book that has a very personal, had a very personal impact on me and a very, it's a very personal book for me. It's perhaps the shortest of the books that we're reading, but it's called the purpose of failure.

As Dave said, you can get it for free online, the audio book you can listen to. And if you need a hard copy, let us know. We have some in the back, but I'll read from the back. What do you do when you hit rock bottom?

Do you see yourself as hopeless as a hopeless failure? Have you failed repeatedly in your attempts to please God? Have you made a mess of your life? Are you tired of pretending that you are victorious when you are not?

It is an amazing truth that God has a glorious purpose to fulfill even through the failure of his children, failures of his children. It is an amazing truth that God has a glorious purpose to fulfill even through the failures of his children.

Whatever blunders you have made in the past, you can make a new beginning with God today. Even if you have made a thousand new beginnings in the past and have failed, you can make the 1001st new beginning today.

God's not keeping count. I added that. It's not written here. God can still fulfill his perfect plan for your life. If God does not do miracles for many of his children, it is not because they have failed him in the past, but because they don't trust him now.

Oh, that you'll remember that. If God doesn't do a miracle for you or anyone else, it's not because you failed him, but it's because you didn't trust him now. If you have come to the end of yourself and are thinking about giving up, then this book will have an encouraging word for you.

Read on. And I can testify it has. The first chapter is the essence of a transcription mostly of a message that was preached there on April 9th, 2000 in Bangalore, India, 2023. And I remember that time.

It was very critical, crucial time in my own life. And this message came very as a timely message. I didn't hear it live. I was here in the United States, but I read it later. It impacted me deeply. So I want to encourage all of you to please read this book.

Maybe, maybe you're not feeling now. Maybe you feel like, okay, things are going well, but the time will come when the devil will try to find a moment of vulnerability to try to get you to be self condemned or discouraged over some past failure.

And and then remember this, go back and read it even perhaps. I remember when the picture that I got in the light of this was that things that I saw as stumbling blocks that caused me to stumble specifically periods in my life, weeks or months or years, even that I'd wasted or backslid, they're like stumbling blocks.

And I look back and saw them as things that I'd fallen over, tripped over and gotten hurt by. And there's a little bit of a regret, but there they were. If I look back on the path of my life, I could see them there.

And then the Lord, when they said, go pick them up, let's build a house with it. Let's use those same stumbling blocks, those periods of life, which were full of sin. They were dishonoring to God, yes, but the grace of God is even greater than that.

And the grace of God says, pick up that same stone, pick up those years, that period of your life that you're embarrassed about or that you wish you had never even done and completely wasted. Bring that to God and see if he won't use that to further his glory and to finish the work in your life.

So I went from saying that I am, I will, that God will finish his plan for my life despite my failures to saying that God will finish his plan in my life because of my failures. And then I could say, thank you, Lord.

I'm not proud of my failures. Sin is never honoring to God. And it's why Jesus had to die. I see my names written in his wounds, but I see it in such a way that because of that failure, God could bring me to such an end of myself, such a place of hopelessness, where I'm never again going to try to do it in my own strength.

Repeated Failure and Dependence on Christ

Now, I'll be honest with you, it doesn't happen overnight. And it doesn't happen just with one breaking. It happens through, at least in my case, and I think I see that in the life of Peter, for example, I see that in the life of Paul, through repeated failures, where I hit a bottom as it were, and I say, thank you, Lord, you're going to use it.

And then something else comes. And I realized that there's another bottom yet. Until we reach a complete end of self-confidence, God's going to have to continue to break us until we come to such a place where there's, I realized it is absolutely impossible for me to be Christ-like.

It is absolutely impossible for me to be a godly husband. It is absolutely impossible for me to be pure. It is absolutely impossible for me to have control over my tongue, no matter how long I was able to hold on.

See, that's the thing is we can hold on for so long, and then it just gets tiring after a while, and then you fall. When you can, when God can break you through that and allow you to fail even, and you come to the place where you realize, I can't do it, Lord, I want to be dependent on you.

I want to be crying out to you to hold me up 10 years down the road like I am now, and like I was when I first came to you. As helpless as I came to you when I was full of sin and you cleansed me for the first time is as helpless as I want to remain on the day he calls me home.

This is what it means to be a branch in the vine, that verse we have on the wall back there. I think about it. I don't get to see it very often. So I'm usually sitting over there, I can't see it or I'm singing.

But think about it. I think about that when I sit up here. I'm like a branch in the vine. And the day I'm no longer a branch in the vine is the day I will die. But as long as I'm remaining in the vine, and Jesus is the one sustaining me, if he cannot fall, I cannot fall.

The secret to the branch remaining full of fruit is that the vine remains full of fruit. And if I'm in the vine as a branch, I will bear fruit as long as Jesus bears fruit, and he will bear fruit for all eternity.

He's the Alpha and Omega. So not despite my failures, but because of it. And like Paul, I can say, therefore, I will rather glory in my weakness. I am ashamed of it, but I'll glory in it. And I'll give that glory to God.

And I say, thank you, Lord, that you took my failures and turned it into something beautiful. He brings beauty out of ashes. This is our God. I hope you're hopeful today, dear family. I am, that there's no situation that's too far gone.

God has a plan for our life. So please read that book. I heard a story once about two sparrows sitting on a tree high up, looking down on the earth and watching the busyness of the city and the world down.

And this man driving or walking back, walking down the street with a furrow on his brow. His brow was, it seemed like he was carrying a heavy burden and just shaking his head and sad, discouraged. And somebody else over there just frustrated about something.

And the two sparrows were having a conversation and says, I wonder why they look so anxious and so worried. They must not have as big a God as we do. It's a parable. They must not have as big a God as we do.

Jesus said in Matthew 10, I think, are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? Two sparrows sold for a cent. That means it's worth half a cent. And those sparrows have more faith than you and I. Do you not know that you are of much more value than two sparrows?

If we are a much more valuable to God, God says you're valuable. Yes, the sparrow is valuable, but you're much more valuable than that sparrow. How much more shouldn't we have faith? If the one whose problem it is, it's not my problem to solve, it's his problem to solve because I'm his child.

If the one whose problem it is to solve says that I'm more valuable than two sparrows, and not even one of those sparrows can fall to this ground without their God noticing, shouldn't that cause us to walk around with a smile and say, Lord, I know I don't see the end.

I don't know how this is all going to work out, but you're my father. And I will not be shaken because I'm going to set you continually before me. I will not be shaken. There was an incident at our kid's school a few months ago that caused me to think about this.

Trusting God in Situations Beyond Our Control

You know, you hear often of situations where there are, you know, there are lockdowns and things like that. And I've imagined for most of us, we're a little bit separated from that. Many of our children are homeschooled or we have environments that are relatively safe, we think, we think.

But that's not the case for many people in the world, that they don't have the freedom to pick a safe environment for their children. Think about not just in this country, but other parts of the world.

You know, a lot of people think homeschool is the Christian way to do it, and you won't find that in the Bible. I think there's a lot of benefit in it. And, you know, but the Christian way is not necessarily the homeschool way.

There are benefits to it, like I said. Because, for one, simply because that's not an option available to many people. And if it's not available, then that doesn't make it the godly way. But even for us in the situations that we're in, and for our kids that were in that school, there was a situation where we were just told that there's some kind of lockdown or something like that.

And we found out after the fact that it was, they maybe used a word that was stronger than they needed to. So, of course, you're locked down immediately. Parents tend to go into a panic, because what they don't want you to do is to show up there and make things worse.

But the thing you want to do is to show up there and see, is my child okay? And I think about all these situations that you hear about, even here in Colorado and schools down in Denver and Texas, or different parts of the country and the world where we're in situations that are beyond our control.

And that's exactly the picture I got. You know, here was, we were at home, and there's nothing we could do. Every part of my bones says, drive over there and, you know, take control of the situation. And the Lord said, God gave me this picture of the two birds sitting on the tree, watching it.

And our Heavenly Father watching over that situation. And that's when I thought about the verse that we are memorizing for this week from Isaiah 30. Verse 21, you will hear a voice in your ear saying, this is the way, walk in it.

And that's the essence of the burden on my heart this morning, is that all of us know that it is our right. It is our privilege that in every situation, God wants to speak a voice in your ear. And when you hear that news, maybe, and granted, you know, I don't want to just say that I tend to be optimistic.

Maybe I do. But I want it to be more than just optimism. I don't want it to be a, you know, ostrich, bury your head in the sands. Everything's going to be OK when the calamity is coming. But a faith, it's not blind faith even, you know, I don't think the Bible talks about blind faith.

We don't close our eyes and say, we look to heaven. It says, open your eyes. It's an eye-opened faith. But the question is, what are you looking at? Are you looking at the problem? Then that's worse.

It's better to actually close your eyes then. But if your eyes are fixed on him, fixing our eyes on him, the author and perfecter of our faith, I say I open my eyes and there I get faith. And in that situation, I hear a voice saying, this is the way, walk in it.

And on that day, it was simply just be calm. Don't do anything. Don't leave the house. Don't just be calm. I've got this under control and I will show you what to do when the right time is there to do it.

I think any of you parents can relate to that, where you find out maybe, let's say your child was playing somewhere and you heard, let's say dad, you're at work and mom calls and says he fell and hit his head or she's in pain or something like that.

The initial reaction is I'm away from the problem. And therefore I need to do something. I need to go over there. But do you hear a voice in your ear saying, this is the way, walk in it? Will you hear a voice that says, don't go, stay.

I've got this. Like Jesus did. Jesus faced a situation like that. In John 11, you read that a close friend of Jesus was sick. And it's like that. There's a problem over there. Run, go take care of it.

You can. Like me thinking, I can go over there and figure it out or I'll help. No, Jesus heard a voice in his ear saying, this is the way, walk in it. Just stay here. Don't go to Bethany. And that's why God, the father was able to do a miracle.

And Jesus was able to fulfill his, the perfect plan that the father had laid out for his life. What would not have been the perfect plan would have been for Jesus to say, father, I got to go. I mean, I'm not even going to wait for you to tell me.

I know this is a no-brainer. I got to go there and heal him because he loves you. He loves me. You've given me the power to heal him. Let's do it. Jesus would have missed the perfect plan that the father had for him.

Lazarus would have missed. I think perhaps, I don't know, you know, let's not get too far down the path of imagining the what-ifs. Jesus finished the plan for his life that the father had for his life that we know.

But for us, will you pause for a moment when that sudden trial comes, that sudden news comes, will you pause and say, Lord, I want to hear, you said that I would hear a voice in my ear saying, this is the way, walk in it.

Speak to me, Lord. Speak to me. Let's turn there. Isaiah chapter 30. I want you to see it. It's a verse we're memorizing this week. And I thought I would speak on that so that as you memorize it this week, you would be able to think of situations in your life where, especially for us men, perhaps, I don't know, sisters, you probably face this too, and children, maybe, I don't know, you probably face it too.

But especially for us men that tend to think that we're the protectors and we're the chivalrous ones and all that, you know, what's the word nowadays? They use toxic masculinity for it. Especially for us, perhaps, there is a little bit of toxic masculinity that the Lord needs to break so that we're leaning on him.

And learning from him who was the perfect example as a man, strong, unbending, but gentle and weak and leaning on his father. The perfect example. Isaiah 30 verse 21. It says, your ears, well, let's begin verse 20.

Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression. In other words, although the Lord has been disciplining you during a period of time, although you face some difficulty and you face some discipline, he, your teacher, will no longer hide himself, but your eyes will behold your teacher.

Your ears will hear a word behind you. This is the way, walking it whenever you turn to the right or to the left. So this is a promise. You will see and hear Jesus himself. It's not a voice. It's not just a, you know, like a voice through a megaphone.

In the schools they have that too. You know, they send an announcement through the speakers. Is that what you expect to hear? Some kind of speaker megaphone? Have you expected to be some kind of loud megaphone that God will give you a voice?

No, it's a person. It says you will see him and you will hear him. And the next time you're faced with a sudden trial, pause for a moment and say, Lord Jesus, there's only one thing that matters right now in this.

Not the problem, not my child that's gotten hurt or that other situation in the school or something else. There's only thing, one thing is needful. I want to see you and I want to hear you. I want to see you and I want to hear you.

And oh, how that will change the situation drastically. All of a sudden now eternity can come into that situation. Jesus can come into that situation and then the problem is solved. I want to see you and I want to hear you.

The Holy Spirit Leads God’s Children

Let's turn to Romans chapter 8. This is our right. This is our privilege. If you are a son of God, you have a privilege. You have a right to hear his voice. As much as every one of my children has a right to hear my voice.

If one of my children came to me and said, Dad, you're my dad, but you never talk to me. I never hear you speaking to me. I don't know what your voice sounds like. There's one of two things is happening there.

Either the dad is too busy with his own world that he doesn't have time to speak to his son or daughter. That's bad. And it's possible that a human dad could be like that. There may be some children grow up like that, never hearing their dad talk to them.

I hope dads, you take time to speak to your children, talk to them, play with them, speak at their level. Or the child is too busy doing something else that they don't hear the dad speaking. Dad is speaking, but the child is busy with their computer game or doing something else.

That's if it's here on this earth. When it comes to our heavenly father, the first is not possible. Jesus, God is speaking. He's speaking. He cares about you. Like we have heard even already. He knows about every detail of what's going on in your life.

He's interested in your life. He wants to. He cares about everything in your life. You're much more valuable than sparrows. In fact, you're more valuable to him than even the earth in itself. All of this earth will pass away.

The animals will pass away. The trees will pass away. The mountains will pass away. It'll be shaken. Heaven and earth will pass away. And as despite all of that beauty that God created, there's something that's more valuable to him.

And that's you. And so he's speaking. He's speaking. And so if you haven't heard his voice, if consistently in situation after situation after situation, you find that you don't know what to do. There's an important decision to be made.

And I don't know. I don't know what to do. Or something else, some sudden calamity comes and you're like confused. I don't know what to do. Then I want to tell you, I hope you'll go back from this message to seek God and go to God and say, Lord Jesus, you paid a price with your precious blood.

That was the most precious thing there is. The blood of Jesus Christ is the most precious thing. You gave all of that for something so that I would be a child of our heavenly father. You and I share the same heavenly father, Lord Jesus.

You paid a price. And just like the father spoke to you in every little situation and guided you and specifically told you not to go to Bethany in that situation, specifically said, now say this. And specifically said, now do this.

And specifically said, now go there. And you were able to finish your life perfectly. I have the same father. If one of my children comes to me and says, Dad, I hear you talking to my brother and my sister, but you never talked to me.

I would have to hang my head in shame. I say, I'm a bad father. Now, God is not an evil father. We're all evil. The best of us fathers is evil compared to God. God is not partial that he would speak to Jesus in his years saying, go do this, not do that.

Now they're trying to trap you. Say this. Ask them that other question. They won't know what to do. Then say this other thing. They'll be so busy arguing with each other that you can just walk through that situation.

If you did it for my older brother, Jesus, father, I expect you to do it for me. And I hope from now on that that will cause us to have what I call an expectant faith and expecting faith that I expect to hear.

And if I haven't heard, I fall on my face and I don't just go on and say, well, God never speaks to me. I hear Santos, did you say he speaks to you, but he never speaks to me and just shrug our shoulders and move on with it.

I used to live that life. I'll be honest with you. God, I didn't hear God speaking to me. He was speaking, but I couldn't hear him. But I would hear about others. I would read the biographies of godly men and women who heard him and who got out of tight situations and God did a miracle.

I say, Lord, I want that life. And I hope if that's your testimony where you're not sure and God, you're not sure if God is actually speaking to you or like a question. One of my children asked me years ago, Lord, how do I discern between God's voice and my own voice?

You children ever face that yet adults have a face that I do. Is it my own reasoning? Is it my own smart thinking? Is this a worldly wise thing to do? Or is this the voice of God? Can you discern the voice of the Holy Spirit?

There's only one voice of the Holy Spirit and there's a million others. So the chances that you'll pick the wrong one are pretty high. And I don't mean to laugh about it, but I say this is serious. And I want to tell you that if you're really sincere, you really ask God to make his voice clear.

He will. Let's read Romans chapter 8. Sometimes I like to read the Bible backwards. And what I mean by that is you have to, when you read a verse, for example, in verse 12, where it says, so then you need to know what that previous verse says.

And then if you read verse 13, because, for, if. Verse 14, because. Verse 15, because. So since there's all those becauses, let's start with the verse 15. You have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption.

Now, when you read the word because or for, as my Bible has, that means that it's going to say something. And then the result of that is actually in the previous verse. Right. So like we in our home, we have this thing, you know, sometimes our children will ask silly questions.

Why do I have to do that? And you hear other people say, well, because. Just because. We like to say because I love you. That's the end of all questions. You do it because I love you. So because I love you.

But here it is. You have received a spirit of you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you've received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out about father, daddy.

That's the reason Jesus went up to heaven. You know, children, why Jesus went up to heaven? He says in John 16, John 14, 15 and 16, especially chapters 14 and 16. He says in verse 14, chapter 14, I think that if I go up to the father, it'll be better for you.

You know, what's better than Jesus actually being here physically is that you can say daddy. Before that. The disciples could watch Jesus saying daddy to his father. He would say he would say to his daddy and they're like, man, when I see Jesus praying, it's like he's talking to his dad.

I wish I could. I could have that too. And Jesus said, wait, go to the upper room. I'm going to go to the father. I'll send the Holy Spirit and then you can call him daddy too. You will have power. You will have the Holy Spirit within you that within you, you will find that Christ saying daddy.

You see how it's better for Jesus that he's in heaven for us that that Jesus is in heaven, not here. If he was still here on this earth, not having ascended to the father, I could still watch him call his father daddy.

And I wouldn't be able to call him daddy. But he ascended up to heaven and he has asked the father. And the father sent another helper, the Holy Spirit, that Holy Spirit now dwells in me. And I hope he dwells in you.

If you're born again, the Holy Spirit dwells in you. But you want the Holy Spirit to grow. And that's why we cry out for the fullness, the increasing fullness of the Holy Spirit, so that more and more and more and more situations when I'm faced with that trial, I have something, not something, someone within me who says daddy.

You see the difference between me saying daddy because I have to try to. Yeah. Is he really my dad? Maybe. And the Holy Spirit within me crying out daddy. The Holy Spirit says daddy on my behalf. It's beautiful.

So then you go back to verse 14. The result of that is all who are being led by the spirit. Now the Holy Spirit has come within me and he is crying out within me, daddy, Santosh's daddy, Santosh's daddy on my behalf.

And now he says, I want to lead you all who are being led by the spirit of God. These are the sons of God. So if you want to know who is the son of God and who is the daughter of God, you can say, well, I said the prayer.

I asked Jesus into my heart. Yes, that's true. But there should be some characteristic. Of the fact that the Holy Spirit actually dwells within you. He's leading you. A lot of people know the daddy part.

Yeah, I call him daddy and the Holy Spirit calls. That's great. But do you know the consequence of that? As you grow spiritually, as the Holy Spirit is filling more and more of your life, now he's leading you.

So if somebody asks you this question, if you didn't know what the answer already, you should know now. How do you know who is the son and daughter of God? You say, are they being led by God? Now you ask yourself that question.

Am I really a son of God or am I really a daughter of God? Now, be careful with how you ask yourself that question. Listen to me. If you find that you call yourself a son of God or a daughter of God, but you're not being led by God, he's not leading you in specific situations.

You're just perplexed. I don't know what to do. Like, OK, I guess I'll do this. It seems like the best option. But you're sort of there, not sure if that's really God's will for you. Then I say, you go to God and say, Lord, somehow I'm not hearing your voice.

You know, he's speaking just like my children. I think they can all testify that I speak to them. If not, they'll tell me after the meeting that you need to speak to me more often, less like you preached.

So but God is speaking. He's always speaking. And if I'm not hearing his voice, I don't have to question whether I'm actually a son or daughter of his. If you're really born again, if you have repented of all your sins of Jesus Christ, the spirit of Christ dwells in you, you're his child.

Don't let the devil. I'm not going to add to the unbelief and the doubt that the devil tries to sow in your heart. That's not what I'm trying to do here. But what I'm trying to get all of us to understand and say, Lord, I am your child.

I know it. I believe that your Holy Spirit is working in me. I've repented of all known sin. I've forsaken it. I've turned. I want to follow you, but I'm not able to hear your voice. And you said that the characteristic of the sons and daughters of God is that they would hear your voice and they would be led by you.

Lord, lead me. And I think you will. You'll find that God is delighted with that prayer when you hold him to his word. I love to think that God delights is delighted when we hold him to his word. You know, most earthly people, if you hold them to your word, especially politicians, they don't like it because they said something.

And you're like, you said you would do it. See here, it's on tape. And they're like, well, you know, but God's not like that. If you take God's God, you said it. He gets a big smile on his face. OK, you asked me to.

I'll fulfill it in your life. It's the exact opposite of every human being that says things that they can't fulfill. God has already planned a way by which to fulfill it. And then he says it. That's the way I look at it.

So he says, oh, really? Yes, I did say it. Yes, I'll do it for you. You I told you that I would lead you because you're my son. You're my daughter. I'm going to lead you now. Ask me for it. This is the God we serve.

Let's go back to verse 13. The result of that, where we have a spirit within us calling daddy, the spirit within us leading us step by step in every single situation. We put to death the deeds of the body and live.

This is the secret to life, eternal life. The Holy Spirit coming dwelling within us, leading us step by step. Us putting to death the deeds of the body and living. God wants us to live, live a life of dependent on him.