F4F | Hearing God's Voice in a Noisy World?

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the

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Faith here on YouTube. If you've ever been told, you know, because Jesus says in John 10, my sheep, hear my voice, that that means that somehow you need to learn how to hear the mysterious voice of God directly out there communicating to you, go ahead and hit the subscribe button.

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You've been deceived by a false teaching. We'll explain that as we go, but in the meantime, let's talk about what it is that we're going to do on this segment of Fighting for the

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Faith. We're going to be heading over to the Toronto Airport Church, and we're going to be listening to Lillian Brown.

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Lillian Brown is going to explain to us about hearing God in a noisy world, and we're going to note how she twists scripture here, and we're going to show you from scripture where you know that you're actually hearing

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God's voice, because nowhere, and I mean this, nowhere in scripture are we told that we need to learn how to hear

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God communicating out here somewhere in the ether. Tune into the radio station

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KGOD, you know, it's nonsense. The whole thing is nonsense. It's based on a twisting of scripture.

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We'll demonstrate that as we go, so let's go ahead and let's tune in as Lillian Brown tries to explain this teaching to us.

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Here we go. Did you feel anything when you walked in the building? No. Yeah.

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Oh, look at that. What did you feel? Oh, well, presence. Yeah, presence is always with us, but you know, presence never leaves us.

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Okay. As long as we're hungry, he's going to come, and he's going to give us more and more and more and more. More presence.

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So today I'm going to share with you guys on our continuing series called Hearing God's Voice in a

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Noisy World. Anybody here live in a noisy world? That's right.

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I'm telling you, the city that I live in has about probably over 500 ,000 people, and it is extremely noisy.

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I hear everything from screeching tires to music, to voices, to like heretics.

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Yeah, you know. Screaming dogs, barking, everything that you can think of. And we're surrounded by noise all the time, aren't we?

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Well, one day I was driving home, and I stopped at a light.

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I stopped at traffic lights, and right there beside me pulls up this little car. Now, people play the music so loud all the time anyways.

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I don't know about you in your city, but in my city, they play music really, really loud. And sometimes when the weather is nice,

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I just like to wind down my window and get fresh air and just, you know, listen to my own worship music.

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And this day, this car pulls up beside me, and I looked over, and the car is dancing.

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Have you ever seen a car dance? Man, it's dancing, and it's vibrating, and the sound of the bass is just coming out and shaking my cars while I'm thinking like it's going to be a wind or something.

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I looked at the car, and in the backseat of the car, there are no seats, just two speakers.

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And the car is just like booming, right? And I thought to myself, well, two can play at this game.

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I'm going to crank up my worship music. So I cranked it all up, but to no avail.

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That sound just kept booming, booming, booming until we drove away. But you know, we live in a very noisy world, but within this noisy world,

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God has trained us up, and he's teaching us how to hear his voice.

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You see, I just have to interject at this point. What do you mean God is training us to hear his voice?

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And so you're going to note that the whole premise of a teaching like this is that somehow

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God wants to communicate to us, but he's incapable of successfully communicating.

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So it's up to us to actually figure out how to hear God, who's desperately trying to communicate, but can't.

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I mean, what kind of God is that? I mean, what's the point of being an all -powerful, omniscient, you know,

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God if, you know, when you communicate, and you're trying to talk to somebody, and they can't hear you, you know, there's the

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Holy Spirit wanting to talk to us. And he's, oh, this is the Holy Spirit, and I really have something

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I need to say to you, but I haven't figured out how to communicate in a way that you'll be able to hear me.

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So could you, like, pay attention, learn how to tune in to hear my voice?

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I know it's noisy and stuff out there, but I've been trying to tell you some things, but, you know,

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I just feel powerless because you never seem to be listening when I'm talking. This is nuts.

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When God speaks, you're going to know it. If he's speaking to you, there ain't nowhere to hide, you know.

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I mean, even Balaam, who was a guy who was into prophetic flim -flam, when

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God talked to him, he was, like, terrified because he didn't expect there would be somebody on the other line.

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You kind of get the idea. So the whole premise of this is bonkers, that the all -powerful, almighty, all -knowing

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God is communicating, and you can't hear him. That doesn't make any sense.

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...know his voice. If you've not heard a teaching on how to hear God's voice, Mark Verkler has an excellent teaching, and we do also teach it in our...

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No, Verkler is to be avoided like the plague. The man's teachings are bonkers.

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And if you go to fightingforthefaith .com, type in Mark Verkler in our search bar, you'll find me critiquing his teaching about how to hear

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God's voice. ...in our school of ministry, and lots of our other seminars that we do here at Catch the

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Fire. But within this world of noise, we are always searching for a little bit of quiet, because in the quiet, sometimes, we hear

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God much better. What? So we've got to hear

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God in the quiet. Where does it say that in Scripture, that we've got to hear God in the quiet?

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But the truth is, the Lord wants us to hear him no matter where we are in what circumstance.

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Right. But it's up to us, apparently, because he's powerless to communicate in a way that we'll hear him regardless of where we are.

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You know, I just had a granddaughter born last year. May 10th, a year ago, my first grandchild was born.

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And I spent a lot of time at my daughter's house, helping her in the first couple of weeks. And she was trying to get the baby into routine and getting her to go to sleep.

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And what she would do is, she'd turn on this thing called an ambient noise machine. Can you imagine?

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When I had my babies, the house was really very quiet. It was always quiet when I put them to bed.

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Now you need a special noise machine to put babies to sleep. And it simulates the sound.

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You never had it when your babies were little. You know, you go for a drive around the block, they fall asleep. You turn the vacuum cleaner on, and they fall asleep.

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Maybe it's just my babies, you know, but my babies are adults now. But you know, when they were little, we would do things like that.

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And it worked every time. You know, like dolphins and maybe waves and different things that, different kinds of sounds that allow them to sleep.

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But you know, within this noisy world, we are being trained to hear the voice of God.

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And when we learn more and more and we train our ears, then it doesn't matter how noisy it is around us.

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Again, why would we have to train our ears if an all -powerful, almighty

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God is communicating to us? No, I'm the all -powerful

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God, but I can't figure out how to be heard. Here we are.

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We can still hear his voice. So what does God say about that? In John 10, 27.

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All right. John 10, 27. Open up your Bible there. As my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

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I give them eternal life. They shall not perish forever. So what does it mean when you...

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Yeah, so we're going to take a look there at what Scripture said. So when Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice, does that mean

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God's out there communicating and you need to hear the audible voice of God, apparently, who's having a very difficult time communicating in a way to be heard?

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No, that's not even close to what Jesus meant. And we'll show you the context. Three rules for sound biblical exegesis are context, context, and context.

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Now, the context here, we're going to note that Jesus begins this context in the opening portion of John 10.

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Here's what Jesus says. Amen, amen. Yeah, that's what it says in the Greek. Amen, amen. I say to you, he who does not enter the sheep fold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.

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But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

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When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice.

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A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him for they do not know the voice of strangers.

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And now you're going to note verse six, this figure of speech. Right, Jesus is talking figuratively.

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This figure of speech, Jesus used with them. This whole metaphor is a metaphor. And so what

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I find fascinating is that Jesus in the text itself, it makes it clear that Jesus is doing this.

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Jesus is speaking figuratively. Okay, you're not really a sheep.

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Bah, you know, you're a figurative sheep. That's kind of the point. This is a figure of speech.

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So they take a figure of speech and then they interpret this literally to the point where now you've got to hear

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God's voice. And if you're not hearing it, well, then you're doing something wrong. I mean, you may not even be a believer.

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Some of them talk this way. You may not even be a Christian if you're not hearing the audible voice of God. And then now verse 27, my sheep hear my voice.

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But we know from the earlier verses, this is a figure of speech. I know them, they follow me, I give them eternal life.

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Now, it is helpful for us to note something. And that is that Jesus himself in Luke chapter 10, verse 16, talking to his disciples who would become the apostles.

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The one who hears you hears me.

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The one who rejects you rejects me. The one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.

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So the question is, okay, so Jesus wants us to hear his voice. The question is, where has he promised for his voice to be heard?

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Answer, in the teachings of the apostles. Where's the only place you can find where the apostles are talking?

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Answer, the written word of God. And so the idea here is that Jesus makes it clear in Luke 10, 16, the one who hears the apostles hears

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Jesus. You want to hear Jesus? Listen to Peter. Listen to John. Listen to Matthew.

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Listen to Paul. Yeah, you listen to these fellows. They were sent by Jesus as his emissaries.

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And the one who hears them hears Jesus. That's exactly what he says. And this concept is not foreign, by the way.

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I mean, this is the whole point of scripture. Take a look at this text. In Mark chapter 7, starting at verse 1, it says this.

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Now, when the Pharisees gathered to Jesus with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem.

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So the headquarters in Jerusalem decided to send some highfalutin officials, Pharisees and scribes and stuff.

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Check out Jesus. See if this guy's really on the level. They saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.

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For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders.

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Tradition of the elders should be capitalized there. That's an actual body of work. It started off as an oral tradition and then later got written down in the

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Talmud. The tradition of the elders is an extra biblical body of work that the

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Pharisees claim that Moses received on Mount Sinai and didn't write down so that the

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Gentiles would never hear it. So you're going to look in your Old Testament, the Tanakh, the

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Torah and the Prophets, and you're not going to find any command to wash your hands, but it's in the tradition of the elders.

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And watch what Jesus does with this here. By the way, this is one of the reasons why the Pharisees are heretics. They're not sola scriptura folks.

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So when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. There are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups, pots, copper vessels, and dining couches.

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And the word for washer is actually baptizo, to baptize. Baptizing a couch, why would you do that?

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Anyway, so the Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, why do your disciples not walk according to, and watch the phrase, tradition of the elders.

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That should be capitalized. It's an official body of work. But they eat with defiled hands. So Jesus said to them, well did

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Isaiah prophesy of you, you hypocrites, as it is written. This people honors me with their lips.

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Their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

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And now Jesus makes a very important distinction. And watch how he uses words interchangeably.

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The word commandment of God and Moses. Watch what happens. You leave the commandment of God, who's speaking there?

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God is. And you hold to the tradition of men. And he said to them, you have a fine way of rejecting, watch, the commandment of who?

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God. God's speaking here in this commandment in order to establish your tradition. For Moses said, now isn't that interesting?

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Honor your father and mother. That's in the written Old Testament. And Jesus said, that commandment didn't come from Moses.

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That commandment actually is a commandment of God. God is speaking to you through that commandment.

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So Moses said, honor your father and mother. Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.

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Love the Greek, die the death. So but you say, but you say, if a man tells his father or mother, whatever you would have gained for me is now core bound.

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That means it's a gift given to God. Well, then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother. Thus making void, watch, the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down and many such things.

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So you're going to know Jesus says that the Old Testament, God is speaking to you through it.

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Whether it was Moses who wrote, or Samuel who wrote, or David, or Solomon, or Malachi, or Isaiah, or Amos, God is the one speaking.

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Yep. And he says the same thing to all generations, which is very helpful.

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And so then Peter himself even kind of picks up on this in his epistle. 2nd Peter chapter 1,

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Peter writes regarding what we are to pay attention to right before he's going to his death.

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So Peter is getting ready to die. He knows he's not long for this world. And here's what he says in 1st

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Peter chapter 1 verse 16. We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and the coming of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty for when he received honor and glory from God the

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Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory. This is recounting, if you would, the

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Mount of Transfiguration, where he said, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven.

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See, God didn't have any problem being heard when he was speaking, for we were with Jesus on the holy mountain.

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And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, or you could say more sure, to which you will do well to pay attention to as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart.

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Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the

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Holy Spirit. So Peter, as he's getting ready to go and spend eternity with Christ, he's literally telling the church, us, all of us, pay attention to the

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Scriptures, the prophetic words, the writings. And even Paul did the same thing as he was nearing the end of his course, writing to young Pastor Timothy in one of his pastoral epistles, one of the last things that Paul writes, he says to this to young Pastor Timothy, as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you've been equated with the sacred writings, gramata, and which you're able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, all

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Scripture, grafe, writing, that's what that is, all Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.

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So think of it this way, the only place you can go today and know with certainty you are hearing the voice of God is where he has promised to speak.

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He has spoken to us in the Old Testament through Moses and the prophets.

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He has spoken to us and is speaking to us now through the writings of the apostles, whom

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Jesus said, the one who hears you, hears me. And so we are admonished by Scripture itself to be in the

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Scriptures. This idea that God is communicating but we can't hear him and it's up to us to learn how to hear his voice, we're not hearing the voice of God when we do that.

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We're either hearing our own heart or our own insane minds or we're hearing, well, the demonic.

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Over and again, Scripture points us back to Scripture and it is a twisting of Scripture to somehow put it on people.

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Oh, Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice. So are you hearing his voice or not? You better try harder. Right, like it's up to me to hear

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God talking. If Jesus wants to talk to me, he's going to talk to me. And there's nowhere

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I could be on planet earth in outer space, in the depths of the earth or in the heart of a mountain.

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It doesn't matter where I am. In the depths of the sea, I could be at the bottom of the mariachi trench.

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If Jesus is going to talk to me, regardless of where I am, he's going to be heard.

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So, I mean, this is just absurd. It's a twisting of God's word. And this is a staple within the charismatic movement and it's a false teaching extraordinaire.

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So yeah, that's the idea. John 10, Jesus is not telling you, you have to hear his audible voice.

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That's ridiculous. You want to know where you hear Jesus's voice? Where he said it would be.

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The one who hears his apostles hears Jesus. So where do I go to find the apostles talking?

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The written word of God. So if you want to hear God's voice, read your Bible. You want to hear it out loud?

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Read it out loud. You'll hear the voice of God. Guaranteed. All right, if you find this helpful, please feel free to share this video with others.

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And of course, you know, like the video, subscribe to the video itself. And if you'd like to get more of this kind of teaching, head over to fightingforthefaith .com,

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So until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ, his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.