Hearing the Voice of God

You know, I just I really feel like the Lord is telling me today To tell you that if you feel like the

Lord might be trying to tell you something Then he's not trying to tell you anything

Hello, dear ones. My name is Justin Peters. I hope that you and your family are doing well today I want to thank you very much for watching this video

Undoubtedly, you have heard many people say something to that effect. Maybe you have said something to that effect

I really feel like the Lord was telling me to do such and such. I would offer you a challenge.

Find one example anywhere in Scripture, Old or New Testament, where you find someone saying anything even remotely like that.

I really feel like the Lord might be trying to tell us to do such and such.

Whenever God spoke in Scripture, everyone knew exactly who it was that was speaking and they knew exactly what

God was saying. You may be thinking, wait a minute, what about the boy Samuel?

Well, yeah, that would be the one sort of halfway exception. I say halfway because this story is in 1

Samuel chapter 3. There's a couple of points to be made about this. Notice in the text, 1

Samuel chapter 3, that Samuel was ministering to God before Eli.

Notice that the text says that a word from God was rare in those days and visions were infrequent.

This was a period in time in which God was not speaking much at all to anyone.

When God did speak on this occasion, it came as quite the surprise to Eli.

Notice too that Samuel was just a boy. He did not hold the office of being a prophet at this time.

He was just a boy. But even at that, Samuel still knew exactly what

God was saying. God was calling his name. Once God called his name three times, it dawned on Eli, because Eli didn't hear the voice, just the boy

Samuel. Samuel reported this to Eli and then Eli told him, this is

God. Even the boy Samuel knew exactly what God was saying.

But that was an anomaly, that Samuel didn't know exactly who it was at first that was speaking.

That is the only example anywhere in Scripture that you find of someone not knowing immediately that it was

God when, in fact, God was speaking. So you can't take an example from the boy

Samuel and extrapolate from that something that should be normative for us today as believers.

In fact, I want to show you just how abnormal Samuel's experience was, because we're going to compare this real quickly to a few other examples of God speaking.

What I'm about to show you is the norm for God speaking. Notice how clear this is.

The word of Yahweh, and I say Yahweh even though the translation says Lord because the name there is the

Tetragrammaton, Y -H -W -H, the English transliteration of God's name, the

Tetragrammaton. So the word of the Lord, now look how confident this is. The word of Yahweh came to Abram.

The word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah. The word of Yahweh came to Ezekiel. The word of Yahweh came to Elijah.

Very clear, very direct, unmistakable. There was none of this, oh, was that you,

Lord? Or was that me? Abram, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Elijah, none of these prophets, none of these men had any question as to exactly who was speaking and as to exactly what

God was saying. There was none of this, oh, was that you, Lord? Or I feel like the

Lord might be trying to, no. The word of the Lord came to these men. Even in the

New Testament, when the Holy Spirit spoke, He spoke very clearly, very precisely.

Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Crystal clear exactly who it was that was speaking and exactly what the

Holy Spirit said. Nothing like I feel like the Lord is trying to tell us such and such.

Couple of more examples. Let me show you how clear this is. In Genesis chapter 6,

God gives Noah the instruction to build an ark. God not only tells

Noah to build an ark, He tells him the materials from which to build the ark, gives him the exact parameters, tells him how to do it, the measurements, all this.

Very clear. Now, there is only one account of God giving these instructions to Noah.

And best as we can tell from the chronology, the amount of time that elapsed from God giving these instructions to Noah to build the ark and the time that the ark was completed, probably between 55 and 70, 75 years.

Now let that sink in for just a moment. So here's Noah and his family and God comes to him out of the blue and says,

I want you to build an ark. Here's how you're going to do it. Here's the materials to use. Here's the specifications and the parameters.

Here's how you're going to do it. And so what does Noah do? He gets busy. He starts, he and his family start building the ark.

Over a period of decades, at least 50, maybe 70, 75 years building this thing.

So confident was Noah that God had spoken to him to do this. At no point, apparently, during this entire decades long process, was

Noah ever thinking, you know, I sure hope I heard God right.

You know, can you imagine Noah sitting down, you know, hammering away on the ark and putting lumber and all this stuff and maybe the ark is a third finish and is taking a long time and all of their day, sunup to sundown, is consumed with building the ark.

At no point, apparently, did Noah ever stop and think, boy, I sure hope I heard

God right. It sure is a lot of trouble we're going through. Maybe that was just a, maybe

I just thought God told me to build an ark. Maybe, maybe that was just a, maybe that was just a dream.

Maybe, maybe that was just me. You know, no, no one knew exactly who said it and he knew exactly what

God said. So confident that he spent the next number of decades building this gigantic ark.

I'll go one more, Genesis 22, God speaking to Abraham. Now, it came about after these things that God tested

Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, here I am. And he said, take now your son, your only son, whom you love,

Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there is a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which

I will tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him and Isaac, his son, and split wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which

God had told him. On the third day, Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance.

Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey and I and the lad will go over there and we will worship and return to you.

Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife.

So the two of them walked on together. Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father, and said, my father, and he said, here

I am, my son. He said, behold, the fire and the wood, but where's the lamb for the burnt offering?

Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.

So the two of them walked on together. Ponder that one just for a moment.

You who are parents watching me, how confident was

Abraham that God had spoken to him? Not only that it was God who was speaking, but exactly what

God said. So confident was he, so unmistakable was

God's voice that he was willing to take his son,

Isaac, whom he loved, up on the mountain and slay him.

At no point did Abraham ever have to worry or wonder, was that God?

Did I hear God right? What if that was just some voice inside of my head? No, he knew

God had spoken so unmistakably that he was willing to take his son up.

And he did, took his son up, bound him on the altar, and was ready to plunge a knife into his chest.

That's how confident Abraham was that God had spoken to him. Are you that confident that God has spoken to you in some still small voice or some dream or vision?

Dear friends, if you have to wonder whether or not

God spoke to you, he didn't. Okay? If you have to wonder whether or not

God spoke to you, he didn't. Well, I just really feel like the

Lord is trying to tell us, said nobody in the Bible ever. When God is speaking,

God is speaking. It is crystal clear exactly what he says. To quote myself, if you want to hear

God speak to you, dear friends, there's one way I guarantee you, you will hear God speak. Read your

Bible. If you want to hear God speak to you audibly, read it out loud. One hundred percent guaranteed, you will hear

God speak. I hope that this has been encouraging for you, dear ones. God speaks to us through his sufficient word.

Until our next time together, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of his Holy Spirit be with you all.