HEARING THE VOICE OF GOD BY PST. PETER TAN

~ HEARING GOD’S VOICE

HEARING GOD’S VOICE 1.  THREE BLOCKAGES TO HEARING I Kings 17:7 And after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him, “Arise go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidom, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you. so he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and said, ”Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a cruse; and now, I am gathering a couple of sticks, that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die. Elijah just went there in time for her funeral. Isn’t that good that God send a man there to interrupt a funeral that was going to take place? Verse 13 And Elijah said to her, “Fear not; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord the Go of Israel, ”The jar of meal (flour) shall not be spent, and the cruse of oil shall not fail, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.” And she went and did as Elijah said; and she, and he, and her household ate for many days. The jar of meal was not spent, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by Elijah. How does this apply to what we are talking about hearing God’s voice? Although this is in the Old Testament there are some principles that are similar that are applicable to us today. Elijah had just pronounced some time back to Ahab that there would be no rain except according to his word. And God told him to go to the brook and the crows brought his breakfast and his dinner. And he ate of it every day but the brook dried up. Some times we become so established and so familiar with certain things that God does that when God changes you don’t change with Him. You are in a state of panic. God is a creative God. He keeps changing and moving in creative ways continually. There are some things that are the same yesterday, today and forever. But there are some things that will keep changing so that you don’t get too comfortable and trust in your own strength and don’t lean on God. It’s what God demands that we be willing to change when He moves in a new way. Some of the songs that we sing carry an anointing. I think last year’s top tune was “I Worship You” and everybody were worshiping “When I look into your loveliness” This morning that song was sung in the Spirit and it was wonderful. But have you notice that when you sing a song of God after some time you found it joyous to love Him? You sing it as you get into your car or your motorbike “I worship you.” You are just caught up with that song. After for about a month do you realize that you still sing it but some thing changed. Because you are so used to that song that you are singing it for the sake of singing it not like when you first learned it. So you lost your anointing although you can still remember that song. Those of you who learn new songs you notice it at first you like to sing that song. But after several months it seems to get dull but the song never changed, the tune was the same and as lovely as can be. But you changed. God never wants us to be comfortable in an area where we are not willing to change and where we are depending on our own strength. Whenever you reached that point even if you are an Abraham God will ask you to sacrifice your Isaac to Him. God always demands our surrender. And so there are songs that we learned in the Lord. Some times after a long time we didn’t sing it then we bring it forth O it’s beautiful. That has to do with how God wanted us to be fresh in Him. The bible says in Psalms sing a new song onto Him. Sing it fresh onto Him. There are always new dimension we can enter into. And Elijah had seen the power of God working. It is a miracle for the crow to bring him his breakfast and his dinner. You might not have realize what sort of miracle it is. But how many of you have ever had your breakfast and dinner served by crows. Those are the most stingy birds in the world. You know how stingy those crows are. And yet God performed a miracle. I tell you if you think you are hard to change and hard in life, if God can change a crow He can change you. If God can use a donkey He can use you. If God can change that crow and make it useful He can change you. God’s methods changed. The brook had dried up. At that point most people would give up. That is why the people of God must learn a certain tenacity like a bull dog. You know how a bulldog bite. When a bull dog grabs you, you can shake all you want and he won’t let you go. When we grab hold of the promises of God we have to have the tenacity of a bull dog and you don’t let it go. You put your trust and your faith and grow your roots into God and hanging onto God. Be as tenacious as a bull dog but don’t look like one. Have that strength of that dog to hold on persistently. So when Elijah saw the change his trust in God was unfailing. He listened to God. If you can hear God’s voice all the time you never panic. You may lose your job. As long as you hear God’s voice, you can say, “O fear where are thou, O death where is thy sting.” You can say, “O fear where is your torment.” There is none because you hear from God. In every situation we face in life if we can only hear God we would have the most perfect peace. The most secure position in the whole world is to be in the secret place to hear God. Take time to pray and hear Him. As long as you can hear God there will be nothing that will shake you up. It’s a firm foundation to hear God’s voice. So God said to Elijah, “Go to Zarephath,” but notice God said some thing else, “I have commanded a widow to feed you.” So Elijah goes and meet the widow and what a welcome he received. When he went in the widow was all ready not to feed Elijah and the tears were running down her cheeks with a long face. And her son was also so sad. Her whole household was sad. Because all they had was this little flour and this little oil. And they were all ready to make a little cake and then die. But God said, “I have commanded her.” I would have thought anyone who had heard from God would say, “Halleluiah, glory to God.” When Elijah came she should have said, “Welcome glory to God.” If you are not used to shouting amen and glory to God we got good news for you. You better learn it here because in heaven its quite noisy. The bible says here the angels all sing glory, glory to God. Heaven is filled with the praises to the Lord. John Osteen when he was first new in the Pentecostal area he was a Baptist minister. So he went to this Pentecostal meeting he always asks, “Why must they sing glory to God?” Why can’t they just say like the Baptists’ way. Anyway after several tongue talking sessions John was speaking glory to God. He was in. When you have the joy of the Lord it comes out. You would have expected that widow at Zarephath would have said to Elijah, “Glory to God.” Instead there she was in a long face. And her problem was God had spoken to her and she didn’t hear it. What did God told Elijah? “I have commanded her” but she never heard it. She never knew that salvation, deliverance, was on the way in the form of the man of God Elijah. God commanded but she never hear. I tell you God is speaking to many people today and they are not hearing. And if you don’t hear God you may even die in your situation without coming out of it. To hear God is deliverance. Some people live and die and they die early because they don’t hear God. Thank God Elijah heard God. What happen if Elijah didn’t hear God? He would have died too. Instead of having one funeral there would have been two funerals, including Elijah’s. Elijah heard God and he went there. And this woman didn’t  hear God. Praise the Lord for people here today seeking the Lord in prayer and hearing from God. If in the church of God people don’t hear God today all you have is a religion. But because people can hear from God you have a living worship. That’s what is life. Life comes when you hear God. Not just having rituals. She didn’t hear God. That would be our text why she didn’t hear God. And there are several reasons behind the statement. And it had to do with some areas that knowing them would help us to renew our mind. We have concluded definitely that she did not hear the Lord. And within that statement that she made, it tells us why she didn’t hear God. She said to Elijah when Elijah went there. I Kg.17:12 And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a cruse; and now, I am gathering a couple of stick, that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die. Have you noticed how many “I” and how many “my” and how many “we” were there? I, I, I, we, we, we, my, my, myself. Her problem was she was self-centered. If you are self-centered, centered on yourself you can never hear from God. Some people think that they can please God and get what they want by being self-centered, selfish and greedy and covetous, no way. Self-centeredness will prevent you from hearing when God speaks to you. And the blessings come only when you hear and obey. She was so absorbed in her life, her son’s life, her own situation, my problem, my lack of food, my this, my that, in the end my funeral too. Self-centeredness will kill you. Christians do not realize it but to be born again is to be born out of self into Christ, where it’s no longer you who live but Christ who lives in you. In the world they would define the opposite of love as hate. The opposite of love will be hate. But in the bible in I Cor. 13 the opposite of love is self for love seek not her own. So the world doesn’t understand what the bible talks about love. You want to know what love is like you have a perfect demonstration in Jesus. He didn’t think about Himself when He was down here. All He cared for was for our salvation even to the extend of laying Himself down on the cross. And when He hung on to the cross, it was not the nails that hung Him there because the bible tells us that Jesus answered His disciples when Peter took the sword to protect Him. He said, “Put the sword down for I can call the Father and  He will give me 12 legions of angels.” One legion is nearly six thousand. He could have come down from the cross. The people were calling onto Him, “If you are the Son of God come down.” He could have come down. But He did not think about Himself or His suffering. When He was dying on the cross He saw you and me. I can prove to you that in John 17 when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane His prayers did not just covered the disciples. He said, “Father I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word.” (John 17: 20) He looked far and beyond. Ephesians one says before the foundation of the world He saw us. And all He was thinking about was us and not Himself. The opposite of love is self. Love means pouring out yourself. That’s the bible definition of love. So God wants us to be absolutely Christ like without self-centeredness. Self-centeredness will hinder us from hearing from God. Get rid of self-centeredness and you will have one block less that prevents you from hearing from God. Look very carefully the same statement that she said in verse 12 she said I do not have bread only a handful of flour and a little oil. And see I am gathering a couple of sticks. Her eyes only saw what she has. Her eyes were on the natural. She saw the flour, she saw the oil. She saw her situation. When we are self-centered we will begin to look at our circumstances. And incidentally if you ever get hurt in your life, it is due to something within you that has not died yet. Because a dead man doesn’t feel any hurt. Rom. 6 tells us if you are dead in Christ that you are dead and buried in Christ. If a person is dead and crucified with Christ you can curse him, you can spit at him, that person doesn’t feel any thing. Remember any hurt that you feel in your life is your pride being pricked. If your name gets run down why are you concerned about your name? You are dead in Christ. Be concerned about Christ’s name. If you are dead in Christ you wouldn’t be bothered. And as a result being self-centered she was surrounded by her circumstances. If you look at the natural circumstances you would never be able to hear from God. If your eyes and your perception are only on what you see physically you are not able to hear God because the things you see will hinder you. Even if you have heard from God once upon a time it might even hinder you from performing what God spoke to you. Like Peter walking on the water. When his eyes were turned on the waves he started sinking. When our vision began to go into the natural, disaster is the next one to come. We do know that all of us have natural circumstances to content with as we reign in life with Christ Jesus. But our inward eyes must not be affected we must look towards God. She didn’t see God. Her ears were not towards God. Her eyes were not towards God. Remember this was the Old Testament where the bible said in Deut. 28 there will be no poor among you. Wasn’t this promise for her since was also a daughter of Abraham? Wasn’t she an Israelite? The covenant of God belongs to her. But she didn’t appropriate that covenant. Even in the old covenant not everybody appropriated it. Same way in the new covenant many people don’t appropriate of the new covenant, which is a greater and better one. All prosperity belong to her. When Moses said you shall be the head and not the tail, wasn’t it meant for her? She was an Israelite. Moses never testify just for a few people. He testified for all the Israelites. It’s for her but her eyes were not towards the God of Israel. Her eyes were not there. If you turn and look at God no matter how big your problems are they become small.  Your circumstances may be as tiny as a mole hill but that mole hill will look like Mount Everest to you if you don’t have God. But when you have the Lord, when you keep looking to the Lord, then you will say, “This is nothing.” They are just like the dust that can be blown away by the breath of God because you see God. She did not see God. Her eyes were not towards God. She saw the circumstances. She didn’t see the Lord. If there is any situation any one of you right now is facing that seems to press you down, whether it be for healing or finances or any area in your life, if you see God those problems become very small. And every problem and temptation you ever face on this earth somebody somewhere has faced it before. And somebody somewhere has conquered it before. And those who did it sees God and conquered their problem. See God in your situation. See God in your finances. See God in your family life. See God there and then you say it is not there any more. When the doctor comes up to you and say, “This medical sickness is incurable,” and you let those words keep ringing in your heart and in your mind, you lose your hope. The negative words will prevent you from having God work in your life. But we are giving you the good news Jesus is alive. He still lives today. He still cares for you. His love is still reaching to you. And He is saying, “Nothing, nothing is impossible to Me.” If you can see Jesus then you can hear God’s answer for you. And you will not be like Moses when he faced the Red Sea. Moses just cried onto God. God asked, “What is that in your hand?” It was the staff. Lift it up and salvation came. If we are so engrossed in our problem we don’t realize what privilege we have in God. Have you realized we are living in the time when we can come to God so freely? When Jesus is available to everybody. When the Holy of Holies that was shut up to many is now opened. Everyone can come to the Father God in the name that is above every name the name of Jesus. You can come in that name and have your requests heard by God if you see Jesus. The third problem that the widow has is when she says that they may eat it and die. When you become self-centered you will come a person affected by your circumstances looking to the natural. When that happens you will lose your hope. This woman has lost her hope. She don’t even have any hope left. The fragile hope that was burning bright has been quenched by the fires of self-centeredness. So extinguished that she said we are ready to die. You have hope for and then you have faith. Faith is the substance of things you hoped for. If you don’t have any hope there will be no faith. She don’t even have any hope left. She has lost her hope. Faith comes from substantiating your hope. Even if your faith is not that strong to conquer that situation, but if you will let your hope be maintained, let your hope remain high in God, your hope will develop into strength in God. When there is a God there is a hope. When there is no God there is no hope. The epistle of Peter says once we were people without God, without hope, but now we are the people of God with a new hope in God. If you have God you have hope. If you have hope faith will develop and come. If you keep that hope up without failing you will see the fruits one day. Through the years build on the Word. Get the Word. Faith come by hearing and hearing the Word of God. Get the Word. The Word will build the faith up to get the hope into the present for you to taste your victory today. So these were the things that prevented her from hearing from God. What is the key? What is the solution? Look at the words that Elijah delivered by the word of the Lord to her. Elijah says, “Do not fear go do as you have said but make me a small cake for me first. Bring it to me and afterwards make some for yourself and your son.” Most people when they read these words they cannot understand why Elijah is so selfish. How dare he tell that widow that way? Here is a widow so sad, so destitute, so poverty stricken, so hopeless, and Elijah said, “Go and make a cake for me.” How rude. But you don’t understand the ways of God. The woman was self-centered. God has to make her act against her self-centeredness, serve others first before yourself. God was dealing with her self-centeredness. God was causing her to be concerned for another person’s need before her. Brethren some of the greatest miracles have taken place when people have forgotten about their problem. They begin to be concerned for others and give their lives to others. There has been many people in Kathryn Kuhlman’s meeting. Many people come who are incurable. And they have a whole section for people who are in wheel chairs. Some of the people have been coming over and over again. Something was being done in their life. And when the Spirit of God began moving all over the auditorium and the healings were being called out the power of God was flowing. Some people were healed some were not. But some of those who were not when they saw some other sicknesses besides them they say, “This is worse than mine.” And they began to be concerned for the others and pray for the others. Suddenly the power of God came upon them and suddenly they were healed. When you began to turn away from your self-centeredness, when you stop being concerned for yourself, began to pour your life to others you put yourself in a position to receive the power of God. You put yourself in a position to be blessed by God. You put yourself in a position to be a blessing to others. You put yourself in a position to be healed by the power of God. The woman had a self-centeredness to be dealt with. Serve others before you serve yourself. Every thing within her cried no because her whole life has been struggling for a living. This is beyond her. God will sometimes ask you to do things that your whole natural man says no. But if you will be obedient and willing and go ahead you put yourself in a position for blessing. The self-centeredness has to be dealt with. And in the same situation the bible tells us verse 15 she went away and did according to the word of Elijah. How did she deal with her natural circumstances? Remember the second problem was she looked to the natural. She acted contrary to the natural. Faith is a fact, faith is an act. Sometimes when we are in that situation God requires our faith to act out. You say, “Why should it be that hard for me?” It’s not because of that but if you could conquer it you would be able to help others too. Why can’t God just heal me? Why can’t some prophet just pick me out from the congregation and say, “Thus says the Lord you are healed?” God has many ways to deal with each one, as many ways as we all have different fingers on our hands. Remember this God is concerned for your whole life not just for your immediate needs. Sometimes God knows that you must get your healing in a certain way so that your whole life will be changed. But we are just concerned for the immediate blessings. God is interested in changing our life not just in giving us a blessing. Because if He can change our life we will not only have blessings, se will be the blessed. And so this woman took the flour, took the oil, I can imagine when she saw it she said, “This is all I have.” She had to act against the situation. Some people don’t have it easy but if you can go through it you will be a blessing. Kenneth Hagin was a young teenager about 16 years old lying down. Doctor pronounced him with three incurable sicknesses. And they called a pastor. The pastor came and said the last prayer. When the pastor came and prayed, “O Lord let your will be done. Give the mother’s strength to take it, to bear the circumstances that will be coming.” His spirit man awaken and said, “No, no, I want to live.” And in the end he read God’s Word, he saw in Mark 11:23-24 that if I believe I receive. And so everyday he was thanking God, “I believe I am healed, I believe I am healed.” One day he heard from God.  If you are healed, “What are you doing on the bed?” So he pulled himself up and he struggled. When he pulled himself up he saw for the first time he stood after nearly a year. The whole room spinned around him. He could hardly keep himself p. But he said, “I am healed.” And then everyday he just walked a little bit round the room. Brethren he is a mighty man of God today. The day he got healed when he was about 16 years old, Jesus was interested not only in his healing. Jesus saw the many years of ministry and that many people will be blessed by his life. You see God is interested in changing our lives and developing our lives to be a blessing not just in  healing you. He wants to heal you, yes. But He wants a change of your whole life. And today many have been blessed by his life. But he had it the hard way. There were no angels singing, no choir singing, no lightning striking, no glory clouds when he got healed. He was healed by faith. Sheer faith with a tenacity of a bull dog. And everyday he walked a little bit. And he timed that one day he is going to walk right down to the breakfast table. And one day he walked right down sat at the breakfast table and his grandpa looked up and saw him and said, “Has Lazarus been raised?” He said, “Yes, he has been raised.” God wants us to act against the circumstances, to act in faith. God demands that we give Him an act of faith to demonstrate our faith before He moves on our behalf. There has been many times that God has moved me. If you want financial prosperity I can tell you one simple thing. If you are down right to your last dollar don’t spend it. Give it away. Then you will see the miracle of God. God has moved me many times in situation that way. And I had seen the hand of God. Act against the natural like Peter walking on the water. It’s not natural to do that. But when you act against it with the word of God you will come up victorious.   And lastly when she had no hope. You know where she got her faith and hope from? Elijah came and said verse 14 thus says the Lord God of Israel, the flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth. Thus says the Lord, Elijah gave the word of the Lord. Verse 15 the woman acted on the word of the Lord. If you have no hope, if you have no faith, there is a source of faith and hope that God has given you. There is a source where you can draw from the rivers of hope and faith into you. Where you are dry and thirsty for hope and faith and meaning, there is a fountain that is for you – the word of the living God is freely available today for all who will reach it and take it. When you do this thing blessed are you for you can hear the voice of God speaking. 2.  BREAKTHROUGH INTO GOD’S POWER We are touching on hearing the voice of God. We have touched on the three blockages that block the widow from hearing from God. The bible tells us that God said to Elijah in I King chapter 17 I have commanded a widow to feed you. But the widow didn’t hear that command from God. When Elijah went to her she felt that she was all ready to die. To eat the last meal means to have a funeral service. That was all she was ready to do. She didn’t hear from the Lord. I will hear the Lord when He speaks. I will be quiet enough to listen to the Lord when He speaks. That was what the widow didn’t do. When the Lord spoke and commanded her to feed Elijah, she didn’t hear a thing. Sometimes God is speaking to us. We are too busy. We have too many things in our life. She was too busy looking at her own self. Self consciousness hindered her from hearing the Lord. Secondly that woman was looking at the natural circumstances around her. When she was distracted by the present circumstances and the temporal thing she forgot the eternal thing. So she was distracted by her circumstances. She couldn’ hear God. Thirdly this woman has lost all hope. When you lose your hope you have no more purpose to live for. And faith comes from hope. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Last week we ended with the woman and Elijah how the oil lasted and so did the little bit of flour that she had. It lasted them throughout all years perhaps. Just that little oil and the little flour it lasted throughout the remaining time of the famine. God’s power was working everyday. God’s power didn’t just work on the Sabbath day. If God’s power didn’t work for them one day they will starve. Sometimes we depend on ourselves so much that we don’t need God’s power. But when you are really depending on God’s power God just doesn’t work just for one day. If God stop working for one day they will miss their breakfast, lunch and dinner. They will starve. Everyday they needed God’s power. And everyday we need God’s power working in our life. Not just once or twice we need it every single day. I King 17:24 After this the son of the woman  the mistress of the house, became ill, and his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. (In other word he died.)  And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sins to remembrance, and so cause the death of my son.” And he said to her. “Give me your son!” And he took him from her bosom, and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, hast thou brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?” It is so easy to blame God. Elijah was not in the New Testament but in the Old Testament. The Old Testament culture always ascribe every thing to God. They always take God as the final cause. Remember we are reading the Old Testament. In the Old Testament the Hebrew language is a permissive language. I will give you scriptures so that you will not be confused in your life. So that when you read the Old Testament you will have an understanding about the working of the permissive will of God. compare II Sam. 24:1 with I Chron. 21:1. II Sam 24: 1 Again the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.” I Chron 21: 1 Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel. You will notice that in one scripture it says God moved David and the other says the devil moved David. When the Old Testament says God kills, God really didn’t kill. It means God allowed it to happen. It is a permissive sense. The Hebrew word says God did it but the Hebrew language means that God was just doing nothing. He just took His hands off. He was not actively doing it but He allows it. Why did He allow it? Usually because of disobedience. Because men insist on their own way God takes His hands off. Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s soul come into him again.” And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child, and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and delivered him to his mother; and Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”     I want you to see here that God’s power was working everyday in their lives. They had a miracle taking place everyday. Do you know that the things of God can be so familiar that we lose our respect? I mean when you fall under the power the first time in your life it’s beautiful but you see it in every service you can get so familiar that you lose your reverence for the things of God. You lose the respect and reverence when God is doing something and you just take it lightly. Don’t take the things of God lightly. When God heals one person it is a miracle. When God did a work in salvation and you have never seen people saved before and the first time you win a person to the Lord you felt like shouting halleluiah in the next twenty-four hours. You could hardly sleep because your mouth is praising God. But after the one thousand souls that you won to the Lord praise God and you say, “The sinner’s prayer,” you have lost your reverence for God. When you reached that stage God cannot work. That is why His power starts growing weaker and weaker in your life when you lost your reverence for God. There is a presence that we get acclimatized too to God working and moving. The first time the Israelites saw manna they took up and asked, “What is this?” Everyday it was a miracle. And in the evening God caused the fowls to come. Of all places this miracle was taking place in an impossible place in the wilderness. They got so used to eat that they grumbled after some time. They grumble “What is this manna?” everyday. The first day it was lovely. After the first month; praise the Lord, thank you Lord. When God’s Spirit began moving and people got blessed by the Lord, they say, “O thank you Jesus.” Then the second week “ah”. Third week “ah”. You lost your reverence for God’s power. Kathryn Kuhlman keeps her reverence for God all her life. Every time a miracle happened she looked at it as if it was a first miracle. The way she reacted to the Lord, she preserved that preciousness in her relationship with the Lord. Usually if your love for the Lord grows weak that happens. If your love is fresh everyday it will be the same. In the same way when we all walk in the Lord. The first time you fall in love with the Lord it was a beautiful relationship. Miracles were taking place everyday but suddenly there was a tragedy. For no reason mentioned the woman’s son died. The first thing that woman did she called her sins to remembrance. She felt condemned she said, “Maybe my sins have brought this.” I do not know what kind of life she lived. But the bible says she told Elijah, “Why have you brought my sins to remembrance?” Elijah didn’t do anything. He just ate at the table. Suddenly the woman’s son died and the woman came to Elijah and said, “Why do you bring my sins to remembrance?” You know what the woman has? An unrenewed mind. She had condemnation from the past. God works in this way. At first it was in the physical realm. But as God works He gets deeper. God wanted to get into the soul area. The same with your life and my life. Many of us came to know the Lord in His miracle working power that affects the physical body. But God is not only interested in your physical body. He is interested in your soul. After some time in your Christian life He began to deal with your soul. Through the power of the Spirit it affected your body. But now the soul has to be affected too in order for it to be changed, to be renewed, to be touched, to be healed. God wants to touch your soul. As God’s power moves stronger and stronger in your life, you will a healing and cleansing process in your soul. You will be aware especially if you are fasting and praying. When you are fasting and praying some of the things of your past will come up in your dreams. When you fast physically your body cleanses itself. Your soul also goes through a cleansing process.  All the things in your past little small shadows that are hiding come out in your dream and in your daily life especially. All these things are washed up for you to deal with before the presence of the Lord. God’s presence is powerful, so bright, so white. The more you go nearer to God’s presence the more you see dark spots in your life that you might have not noticed. The dark spots in your life will come out to be dealt with. So they are tasting God’s power everyday. But now it’s closer still. Her mind has condemnation. There was guilt in her. So this woman has problems in three areas. No. 1 she limited God’s power. He son died that would need another miracle. But she had already been receiving miracles everyday. The same God who could multiply the flour and the oil could heal the son. That never occur to her. She limited God’s power. Many times we limit God’s power. God has answered us in one area and we say God cannot answer this area. We put God into compartments. We say God you can do this but not this. Think about the times that God has blessed you. Think about the miracles He had done for you. Or if your life you feel down; if you are feeling the burdens in your life; problems coming upon you; remember count your blessings one by one. Remember what the Lord has done for you. If He had done one thing He can do a thousand things. If He had healed one blind man He can heal all the blind men. If one miracle is done God’s power is never in short supply. He can heal forever more. And there is still much power to do more. Do not limit God’s power. If He has answered the prayer in one area in your life all the other areas are areas He can do it too. The problem is she has limited God’s power.  She tasted God’s doing one thing but she did not taste God’s power doing another thing. The words she said are shameful for one who has tasted the power of God everyday. She limited God’s power. The second problem that she had was when she told Elijah, “Why do you bring my sins to remembrance?” She held on to her past. If you hold on to your past, your past can destroy your present and your future. She held on tightly to her past. It didn’t come out the first time. The first time Elijah met her her past didn’t come out. But it was there all the time. She kept the guilt and condemnation in her soul. It was sitting there in her like a sleeping giant. But the more she got to know God, the more she knows God’s power that sleeping giant woke up in her. That soul in her woke up for healing. Inside her she was still holding on tightly. She was still holding on to the past. Nobody knew but God knew. God has eyes, He knows every secret that you have in your heart, in your mind, in your life, and nobody knew but He knows. This woman was holding on secretly to her past. The things she had done in her past was still troubling her from time to time. When the children stopped playing, when the activities of the day came down and she sat alone at night her past came haunting her. A monster from the past kept coming and haunting her because she held on  the past.  That’s her problem. By holding onto her past she actually was cutting off herself from the forgiveness of God. If God loved her that much to the extend that the miracles were taking place in her own house, the ever flowing supply of the flour and the oil, what does the miracle say? You know what the miracle say? You know what God was issuing through the miracle? God is saying, “I love you. I love you enough. I care for you to multiply this oil, to multiply this flour.” God is saying, “I love you. I care about you now. I have forgiven you. Your relationship is good with me. I am having a beautiful lovely relationship with you otherwise there will be no miracles.” If she doesn’t have a relationship with God there would be no miracle. The miracles come forth from the relationship with God. Continual miracles especially. The first miracle you can receive might be through somebody else’s relationship with the Lord. If you continue to receive in your own life the miracles directly from the Lord, you know there is a relationship established. Establish a relationship first and then a miracle life will be established in you. You want continuous miracles establish your relationship with the Lord. God is saying, “I have forgiven you. I love you.” Love means forgiveness. Jesus on the cross says Father forgive them. To love is to forgive. God has forgiven you. God has loved us. That past, that block of wood she is holding on to blocked her from God’s love reaching her. She did not receive God’s forgiveness in her life. She is holding on to the past. If you hold on to the past just one incident, two incidents, ten incidents you may destroy your future. Warning, do not hold on to the past. You may destroy your future. There are some things to forget, there are some things to remember. Remember what the Lord has done. Remember the blessings. But there are some things to forget. And because she did not forget her past, you know what the past was doing to her? The past is now destroying her. That monster that woke up from the past and came to destroy her. And if Elijah didn’t do any thing she would be destroyed for the rest of her life. Thirdly she told Elijah, “Why have you killed my son?” Thirdly she did not take the responsibility on herself. And that sin exposed her. In the Garden of Eden, Adam sinned, Eve sinned, the serpent of course has sinned too. Adam didn’t say, “God I was wrong.” Adam said, “The woman you gave to me.” Eve didn’t  say, “I was wrong God.” Eve said the serpent. The serpent looked at God and didn’t say anything. It is easy just to blame somebody else for the faults we are hiding. By doing that we are avoiding responsibility for our own problem. And by doing that we are actually saying I do not want to solve my problem because I am not the cause of it. Remember whatever problem you are going through are the ones that are killing your life not another person’s life. You are responsible for the source and the solution of those problems. Unless we face the problem and acknowledge, “Yes it is my problem; it is my weakness; it is my own character that needs to be dealt with and not the other person’s,” you won’t have the solution. Before you can receive the forgiveness of sin you must acknowledge sin. With the acknowledgement of sin comes the forgiveness of sin. So this woman did take the problem on herself. She did not say, “I am responsible for it.” She put all on Elijah. It’s very easy to blame the one next to you. She didn’t blame some Old Testament character but she blamed the one near her. Easy, just pass the buck to the one next to you. She did not take responsibility to herself. If you are not healed don’t blame somebody else. If you are having financial problem don’t blame somebody else. If you are having a problem in our life, a character of weakness, don’t blame somebody else. Stand up with your face towards God. Look towards the Mighty One and say, “I am the one that needs to be dwelt with.” And then God will do it. So because of all these areas she was blocked from the power of God. But you look at Elijah. When Elijah saw the situation that this woman was facing, Elijah did three things. In verse 20 he cried out to the Lord. Then in verse 21 he stretched himself on the child three times. When he put himself on the child and cried out onto the Lord, Elijah prayed with all his mind. The three things Elijah did are opposite from what the woman did. The woman limited God’s power. For Elijah if God can do the miracle for the flour and the oil God can also do the raising up of this dead boy. All I have to do is bring it before God. If God had done that one miracle through prayer I can come to God and bring this and God will have another miracle here. He did not limit God’s power. He prayed with all his might. No.1 Elijah prayed with all his might. That’s what you and I have to do. If you have a situation that keeps coming up, pray with all your might. Don’t look to the left or to the right but look to the Lord. And pray with all you might. And draw on the power of God into that situation. And that power of God will be released in your situation. God only rewards those who seek Him diligently. Heb. 11:6 those who seek God must believe that He is and He is a rewarder of those who seek Him diligently. Not just one or twice you must come to God with all your might consistently. And God will reward you. James 5:14 Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man. It is not just the prayer of the righteous. You read carefully in James 5 it says the fervent prayer of the righteous. Righteousness is not the problem because you can get forgiveness and righteousness as a gift. II Cor. 5:21 Jesus was made our righteousness for us. He was made sin so that we can have His righteousness we become righteousness. It is a gift from God. You and I are righteous to pray the prayer of a righteous one. But not all the righteous one are fervent. It’s the fervent prayer and fervent prayer is continual prayer with all your might. How long? Till the answer comes. If you pray one hour it didn’t come. Pray two hours it didn’t come. Pray three hours, four hours, five. Seek the Lord with all your might. And the answer will come if you are persistent. If one day is not enough spend two days. Two days is not enough, spend three days. If three days is not enough spend 21 days. Pray with all your might onto the Lord. And God’s power will soon come upon you. You will taste those power like nobody else have tasted before. God has some power in store to keep in your life. And He will put power into your situation. The second thing that Elijah did was that he came before the Lord. He prayed for the soul of the child to come back. You know what Elijah was doing? Elijah was creating the future. He had no time to hold on to the past. He took the Word of God; he took prayer; he took the Spirit of the living God and he creates the future. The future is yours to conquer. The future is yours to build. What we will be tomorrow is depending on what we do in the present. If in the present you spend all your time holding onto the past your future is doomed. Disaster awaits you, death awaits you, all kinds of suffering await you. All the afflictions await you. All the darkness awaits you. But if you would take the Word of God, you would take the love of God, you would take God’s power, and with God’s revelation you began to pray with all your might, you will shape your future. Creatively you began to bring that before God. You don’t wait for the future to just drop by. You create the future. Elijah took the power of God and changed the future. Because the present continued will become the present future. The child was dead. If nothing is done the child will remain dead. You can cry all you want but the child is still dead. You can complain all you want but the child is dead. You can blame everybody but the child is still dead. We need men and women of God who will take the weapon of the Spirit of God and create the future. Create your future. If you don’t do it the devil will do it for you. Take the things of God and the revelations God has spoken in your life. Write down the prophecies that are good for you that has confirmation in your heart and your spirit. Write them down see them pray over them. Fast over them. Seek the Lord over them. People take days off to go on a vacation. You take days off to go on a vacation with God. Any vacation with the Lord is a very nice one. I took all those things that God has said about the future and bring it before God. I pray and fast seek the Lord. God will never forsake you if you don’t forsake Him. Take the things God has said; fast and pray over them; seek Him with all your heart and you will create the future. Don’t do it in your own strength. Don’t do it in your own flesh. But take what God speaks for you that are in line with your spirit and your conscience and build them up for your future that God has for you. And for every single one of us God has planned a bright future. Put away the dark part. Everyone of you has a dark part. But everyone of us has a bright future.   Thirdly Elijah came before the Lord unlike the woman who put the responsibility on others. Elijah took the responsibility on himself. He took it as his responsibility to wake the son from death. He didn’t tell its your responsibility. He took upon his own shoulders the burden that others cast on him like a donkey and brought it before the Lord. When you take responsibility for our own healing then you would do something with all your might. When you take responsibility for your own financial life then you would do something in your own life that God can work out for you. Take the responsibility and bring it before God. You hold the miracle in your hands. In other words you are the one who will determine whether the miracle takes place or not. Thank God for health, but in your own hand lies the responsibility to do some thing. When you stand before Jesus at the Judgment seat, nobody can take your blame, not even your closest father, mother or your wife for your life. Everyone has to face God for their own life. God has entrusted to each one of us the sacred responsibility for our own life. 3.  THE AUDIBLE VOICE OF GOD In this message, we want to talk about the audible voice of Holy Spirit. In the book of Acts, we have an incident that we will look at. We will bring certain incidents together. We will include some passages from John and some from I Samuel to see the audible voice of God. God does speak audibly although God does not speak audibly many times. But when we talk about audible, it is more or less a spiritual voice that has a side effect on the natural sound waves or that produces certain sound waves in the natural. Sometimes the voice is discernable but some times, it is indiscernible. Please understand that we are touching on the 5 percent area of the normal way the Spirit operates; 95 percent of the time the Holy Spirit speaks through the inward witness and the inward voice of the Holy Spirit. The other 5 percent are what we call the spectacular. All 100 percent are supernatural but some supernatural things are not quite that spectacular. Like for example when we speak in tongues and we just come before God, that is supernatural but it’s not quite so spectacular. And in the same manner, we see that there are some things that are very spectacular, and audible voice is very spectacular. I mean it’s not every day that God will speak with His audible voice, lightening flashing, thunder roaring, earth shaking, angels singing and the booming voice of God comes down and says, “Thus says the Lord of Hosts.” It’s not every day but yet the audible voice can be heard but not understood. That is the amazing thing if you understand that the audible voice of God can occur. In other words, there is a spiritual vibration caused by the spiritual voice speaking. And it affects and has a side effect on the natural realm and there are some natural voices that are heard where some people could hear it and not understand it. Some can hear it and think it’s some thing else. It doesn’t occur every day. So after this teaching when you go out and you hear a sound like woo, woo, don’t automatically say that it’s the audible voice of God. On the other hand, we realize that maybe God wants to speak to us that we may have missed out. This is the purpose of this teaching. Acts 9 we have Paul who was not an apostle yet but called to be an apostle. On his way to Damascus, he was sitting on his donkey. As he was sitting on his donkey going to persecute the Christians, the power of God shone upon him. Jesus Christ looks down from His throne of glory. Jesus didn’t come to this planet earth. Jesus looks down from His throne of glory. Jesus wanted to speak to Paul some thing. So, the angels open the windows of heaven and Jesus speaks out through the windows in heaven and said, “Saul, Saul.” That little opening was so great that Paul fell off his donkey. That’s the glory of God. Some of us are saying, “Lord send Thy glory.” Some times, we know not what we ask. There was just a little bit of God’s glory and Paul was thrown from his donkey. While he was down on the floor, he heard the voice of Jesus through the mediation of the Holy Spirit who was the channel of telephone line. He heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” Then Paul says, "Who are you, Lord?" The Lord says, “I am Jesus.” That was frightening for him. He was against Jesus. He was after Jesus’ disciples. And here Jesus said, “I am Jesus.” Then Jesus began to speak to him about his life, about his ministry. We believe that Saul was born again at the same time. How do we know that he was born again? No. 1 when he addresses the Lord, he called Him Lord. No. 2 the Lord Jesus Christ commissioned him to the ministry. In Acts 26, Paul was sharing his testimony and he said how Jesus Christ sent him to be a witness. Jesus said that He has called him to be a minister onto the Gentiles to whom now He sends him. Jesus will never send an unbeliever. So obviously, something has happened - Paul was now born again. At the very instant when he met Jesus there was that glory that came, he responded, and there was this born again experience the mystery of God. That is the second reason. The third reason why we believe that he is born again is that when Ananias came to see Saul and he was at Damascus waiting at a certain place. When Ananias he saw Saul and he said brother Saul. You wouldn’t call a person brother in the New Testament unless he is born again. But as he heard this audible voice of God, there were other people with Saul. On the way, there when God spoke to him something happened to his companions.  Acts 9:7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. They heard a voice but they saw no one. That is insufficient for teaching we need Acts 22 in order to give more background before we can draw some principles from that. In Acts 22 Paul in sharing his testimony in verse 7 And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” And I answered, ”Who are you, Lord?” And he said I to me, “I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting.” Now those who were with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me. Incidentally, it was about mid-day when the sun was at its peak and yet there was a greater light that shine down upon them. But his next phase is interesting when you compare to Acts 9. It says in verse 9 Now those who were with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of the One who was speaking to me.  Isn’t it funny in Acts 9 it says they heard the voice and in Acts 22 it says they did not hear the voice. Thus, the bible contradicts itself, no. Every time you think there was a contradiction, it is more because there is a revelation. When you find the revelation involved, it will harmonize the seemingly contradictory scriptures. The scriptures do not contradict at all. You will find in some scriptures it tells us that Judas went and hang himself. It’s in the gospel. Then in the book of Acts chapter one it tells us that Judas fell down and his bowels gushed out and he died. The question is how did Judas die. Some times when you witness to people, they ask, how did Judas die? How Judas died is not concerned with you right now. Then when you witness to some people they ask you, where did Cain get his wife. Where did Cain get his wife is another question but where are you going after this life is a more important question. When you are right there on the brink of eternity, you are about to die off not knowing what will happen in eternity and you are asking where did Cain get his wife. Get saved first then find out where. So here is a seeming contradiction but that is not. Incidentally, Cain got his wife from one of the descendants of Adam because in those days when the bible is silent it does not mean that nothing was happening. None of the daughters of Adam were recorded. And in those times, when even one chapter has passed in the book of Genesis, it could some times mean about one hundred years. As far as Judas was concerned, some bright Alec says that when he hanged himself the rope was a bit thin. It broke and he fell down on his stomach because he possibly was heavier on that part and there was a sharp rock underneath where he was hanging and it pierced him right on the stomach. But if you study the bible language, the word hang is actually in the infinity tense. They should have put the word “to” there. He went to hang. Possibly, it never happened at all. He went to hang himself. Put in the incidents together as he was there in a hurry thinking to hang himself in remorse and in guilt, with ropes all over the place he tripped over and there were sharp rocks all over the place and he burst out and he died. He went to hang but he didn’t hang himself yet before he fell. Anyway, that is another possibility. Here is where Acts 9 says they heard the voice. Acts 22 tells us they did not hear the voice. In the Greek, there is an interesting ending to the “phone” which is the word voice. “Akouo” is the Greek word for the word hear. What happened is they used a special ending in the ”akouo” in Acts 9 to mean they heard some thing without understanding. When you tie it back to Acts 22 where it says they did not hear the voice, it means that they did not discern the voice and what he was speaking. You could hear a sound without discerning what it means. It could be a voice that is speaking in discernable language but you did not hear the language and all the enunciation of the language in proper sound. Therefore, you could not comprehend and understand. The audible voice of Jesus just sounded like a sound to them. They heard of course Paul’s conversation. They never heard the voice in a true sense. They may not even have known that it was somebody talking. That is not the first time that such a thing occurred. In the book of John chapter 12:28 Father, glorify Thy name. Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing by heard it and said that it had thundered. They didn’t hear any voice they only heard a thunder. That’s all they heard. They just heard some sound and they possibly wouldn’t know that it was a voice speaking. Some of them could have heard some sort of words. This was the other statement some of them made it say, “An angel has spoken to Him”. Jesus and His disciples heard the actual voice that’s how they could record this. Spiritual Condition to Hear the Audible Voice That seems strange to us because it is the same voice and how can people hear it differently? The audible voice of God is still a spiritual voice. Because it’s still a spiritual voice depending on the spiritual condition or state of the hearer, they may not be able to discern it. Some people think that you will always be able to pick the audible voice up and discern it with the natural hearing. No, there still need to be a spiritual state or condition to hear. If God were to speak audibly right now, to the whole church and we were to hear the voice of God proclaiming, “Glorify Me,” some of us will still not hear it. Although it’s called the audible voice of God, it’s still the spiritual voice that needs spiritual discernment, spiritual perception, and spiritual position to hear that voice. Otherwise, we may just say it thundered. Somebody else say, “I heard that voice saying, ‘Glorify Me,’ and they may get into an argument. They would think it’s your imagination. It still takes faith even though it could be an audible voice. Some of us are wishing for the audible voice then we don’t need faith any more. No, you still need faith. Because there will still be those who cannot hear the audible voice. If you are not in the spiritual position even though the audible voice comes, it will be mumbled up. We will not be able to discern it. We will just say it thundered. Those who heard the voice we will say that they are imagining. The bible says there is actual voice speaking to Jesus. And there was also the voice of the Lord Jesus speaking to the apostle Paul and the rest didn’t hear it. They couldn’t discern the voice. It says they did not hear the voice. What a strange occurrence in the audible voice? We began to see here that the spiritual audible voice of God could only be discerned based on our spiritual position. Sometimes we need a certain preparation to hear it. And that’s where we want to see what are the conditions. We don’t just want to hear it. We want to understand what we hear. We want to hear with understanding. We want to be able to receive the impartation that the voice is bringing forth. Remember this is not the common way that God speaks. But He may and He does from time to time. He can speaks in signs. When William Branham was ministering at a certain place and he was being baptized there was a voice that came as he came out from the water. An angel spoke and people saw a huge cloud that was in a figure of the Lord Jesus. And even the natural meteorology department said it’s a phenomenal cloud unheard and unseen before. But the thing that is interesting is that somebody else who sees the same natural phenomena cannot see the spiritual image. Even though they could be looking at the exact thing, they could not see the spiritual image. Neither could they even hear the spiritual image. That’s the strange thing for the audible voice of God is still in the spiritual realm. It only has what I call a side effect in the natural world. When Elijah was on the mountain the bible tells us that he heard that still small voice. And when we read that scripture in I Kings chapter 19 we think that if we were there we could hear it. Not necessary so. I Kg. 19:11 And he said, “Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountain, and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. There was a lot of noise up there although there was nobody else but Elijah. Strong winds are not silent. Strong winds are noisy. If you have ever sat under a tree especially certain types of tree when a strong wind is blowing, it sounds some thing like people talking. There are some spiritual sounds that sound like noise to the natural. Just like if you are in a graveyard at mid-night and you are not really strong in the Lord. I can assure you that there are natural sounds you hear which you think is something else, perhaps some ghosts having a conference. So there were this strong winds and it blew through the place. It broke the rocks so the rocks were falling; the winds were howling and then the earth was quaking. And there was this still small voice. It takes great discernment to know that is not a pussycat that got lost in the mountain. Elijah heard that still small voice. I want you to notice some thing here. When he first heard it, he didn’t discern the voice yet. In spite of all these noises, he heard a noise that was not just natural a still small voice. And God apparently didn’t speak to him at all yet until he walked out in response to that voice. So, he must have heard some sound that he could discern, although he could not discern what it was yet. The bible tells us in I Kg. 19:13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Do you notice there were differences between the still small voices and suddenly a voice came to him. There were two parts to that voice. In the first part, there was a sound but he could not discern the words. Yet in spite of all the noise, the winds were howling, the earth was quaking, and the rocks were falling and added to that the fire was burning. He heard an exceptional voice that he knows that this is God’s voice trying to tell me some thing. Some of us in the natural have experienced that. Maybe your loved ones or your children who are quite far away and you hear a sound. We hear the sound, we recognize the sound but we don’t discern the voice. We had to pay attention and go near and say, “Are you calling me?” You heard some sound but you are not sure whether it’s the person speaking or not. It sounds like the person but you are not sure. Sometimes over the phone when the lines get very weak, you hear the person talking. You said, “Hold it you are too soft. Can you speak louder?” You hear sounds but you don’t discern the voice. Apparently, there are two stages to that voice. The first part he heard a still small voice. But he knew that’s God’s voice. That was fantastic. The wind was howling, earth was quacking rocks were falling, fires were burning and he heard the sound and of all the sounds he know this is the one. He wrapped himself with a mantle and went out to the entrance of the cave. As he stood there then the voice said, “What are you doing here Elijah?” It’s an interesting phenomenon as we look at the voice of God. That God can speak audibly and there are some side effects on the natural. It does not mean that when God speaks we will naturally hear it. So, what are the conditions that we have to meet in order to be in a place to hear God’s voice and understand it should He choose to speak audibly? There are conditions that we have to meet. They are found in the book of I Samuel chapter 3:2 At that time Eli, whose eyesight had began to grow dim, so that he could not see, way lying down in his own place; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down within the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. The Lord called, “Samuel, Samuel.” And he said, “Here I am” and ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call you; lie down again.” So, he went and lay down. And the Lord called again, “Samuel, Samuel,” And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.”  Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Within Our Sphere of Experience Now here is the Lord calling Samuel and in verse 10 And the Lord came and stood forth, calling as at other times, “Samuel, Samuel.” Now this is in the middle of the night. Samuel was sleeping and he had never heard the audible voice of God yet. And here, he heard God audibly calling him. He could hear his name but thee was a little bit of muddling here. He heard the voice as if it was Eli’s voice. We all are experienced enough to know a person’s voice. Sometimes people’s voice does sound like each other but generally, each one has a particular voice. Everybody has a different voice. The interesting thing is that when you hear the audible voice of God you may hear it as if it was somebody else’s voice. Some heard it like thunder that means it must have really sounded in the natural to that of a thunder. So, the audible voice of God does sound a lot like some natural sounds within the circumference of our experience. Sounds like sounds that we have heard in our experience. We need to discern that when God does if He so chooses. We see in No. 1 here Samuel heard it and he thought that it was Eli. He must be so convinced to come to him three times. Remember all the other of Eli’s sons was also there. Why, of so many people staying in that place he yet also says it was Eli’s voice. Because it sounds like Eli’s voice. The audible voice of God when you actually hear it sounds like somebody else's voice you know. And it can sound like some natural sounds that you have heard. It’s just like when God bring to your mind scriptures. The scriptures He brings to you are within the circumference of your vocabulary. For example, God could say to a little teenage girl in prophecy and say, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Do not be afraid, I am with you.’” Maybe to a little kid who had received the same prophecy God says, “Don’t be scared.” The actual words of prophecy come out differently because the vocabulary of each one of them is different. When the Holy Spirit wants to speak in a sense, He could some time supernaturally bypass the limited vocabulary of a person. But in another sense, He is also limited to the vocabulary of that person. In a sense when the audible voice of God is speaking to us, there are all these experiences and natural knowledge we have. You would hear it to a certain extend because our mind associate a new experience with the old. How do you learn some thing new? When you learn some thing new, you associate the new thing with the old things you have learned. For example, if you have never tasted a durian (a South East Asian thorny fruit) before, how do I tell you about a durian? She had not eaten a durian before. How do I describe the taste of a durian to her? If I were to describe to her I would have to take from her experience. I will say it has a bit of this cheese smell and you mix it with a little bit of socks that you haven’t washed for two weeks. Add butter on it. So, I try to take her experience and put it together to form a new. Our natural mind works this way to learn some thing new. We take about two, three things of the old and form some thing new. Then the new thing that we learned becomes added to our knowledge then we got more things to compare now. When we hear the audible voice of God we tends to associate with sounds that we have heard. Suppose that in the nighttime you hear this voice “nei, nei, nei.” What comes to your mind? Immediately your mind would straightaway go into your computer data and pull out some sounds that sound similar. Because our mind works that way. It wants to straightaway associate it with some natural thing straight away. Should God speak audibly to you? You may hear it to be a voice of someone familiar. You may hear it to be the natural sounds that are mixed in it but it’s a fresh new voice all by itself. That is the first phenomena. Samuel thought that it was Eli because it was within his experience. Why does he think that? It is because Eli would keep calling for him any way. In the Midst of God’s Will The second area that we see here is that he heard an actual name being called, “Samuel, Samuel.” He heard an actual voice speaking to him. And he ran to Eli. So apparently, he was in the position where he could hear quite discernibly. The second reason is this, Samuel continually ministered before the Lord. Now it’s easier to discern God’s voice when you are in the midst of doing the will of God. When in John chapter 12 the voice sounded from heaven and said, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” The rest of them said it thundered. But Jesus was hearing the perfect voice because He was in God’s will. Some of His disciples possibly heard the voice too. Some others have some knowledge of angels and said angels spoke. How they interpreted the voice was based on their spiritual level and condition. So, we see here that Samuel was fully obedient to the level he was. No matter what your spiritual condition you don’t have to be super spiritually and strong to hear all those things. A young Christian can hear the audible voice of God provided he or she is right where God wants him or her to be. Samuel was a little boy and he was faithful as far as he was concerned. Response The third area here is in verse 10 that is the fourth time the Lord came and called Samuel, Samuel. If you respond to the audible voice of God in some way, it will keep on speaking. Samuel did respond but he responded to the wrong person. Notice that voice didn’t speak anything else. You remember the two stages of Elijah we mentioned in I Kg. 19 He heard a still small voice then he went out. Then only the voice starts speaking. So, he hears some sounds. He couldn’t discern it yet. The audible voice of God when He speaks to us, there will be no revelation given until you acknowledge your recognition. In other words, it’s like a phone ringing and you don’t hear any thing until you pick up the phone.  So, in the audible voice of God, you won’t just suddenly get a message until you give a response. Notice that Samuel has to say, “Speak Lord for thy servant hears.” Then only the voice starts speaking to him. He demands a response. Let me tell you sometimes people have heard the audible voice of God and not discern it and they have missed the message. Of course, you don’t respond to every sound. Remember all the spectacular things are confirmed by the inward witness. Anytime had God spoken in a spectacular way you will sense a bubbling in your in your spirit man. How did Elijah discern all the sounds in I Kg. 19? The winds were howling, the rocks were falling, the earth was quaking, the fires were burning, and a still small voice was sounding. How did he discern? Because there was on sound that created a response in his spiritual perception. You could discern the voice of God, the sound, with your spirit man. In the early hours of the morning when I was praying, I heard a voice calling my name. I had to hear carefully two or three times before I realize that it was a voice calling me. It’s only when I responded and say, “Yes Lord.” Then He knows that He is recognized and then He starts speaking. We need to respond before we get the rest of the revelation.   4.  CONDITIONS TO HEARING THE VOICE OF GOD In this message, we want to talk about some conditions that are necessary to hear the voice of God. Lets look at I Kg.17: 6. The background of this story was God sent Elijah to the brook when there was a famine that took place as he prophesied. And while he was there, being fed by the ravens and drinking off the brook, it dried up. We did not know for how long it lasted but it dried up. So, the time came for God to change His method of provision for Elijah. Remember God is never limited to a method. Sometimes He provides you by the ravens and by the brook. But then when it ends that means He is going to provide you by a new way. Praise God that Elijah did not despair. He did not cry like some people do, "God why did you fail me in this way?" God never fails. Principles remains the same but His method changed. God has billions of ways to supply our needs. But we need to be in the right place, in the right time doing the right thing. If you are in the right place at the wrong time, doing the right thing, you won’t get it. If you were in the wrong place doing the right thing at the right time, you wouldn’t get it too. We need to get it right on three areas. Elijah had just exhausted God’s supply in one avenue. Now God in verse six is saying I want to change my means of working with you. In supplying him at the brook, God took care of him only. But now God wants to move along and change the whole direction. Lets look at verse six. And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook. And after awhile, the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him, “Arise go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.”  I like what God says here in verse 8 and 9 God says, “I have commanded,” – in other words, “I have spoken to the woman. I have commanded her to provide for you.” So there goes this man of God to this woman. Verse 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” And she said, “As the Lord God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a cruse; and now, I am gathering a couple of sticks, that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”   God sent Elijah to this woman. He traveled all the way from the brook Cherith right to Zarephath. As he goes right to Zarephath remember what God said, I have commanded. So, he comes all the way, only to find that this woman was thinking it was her last day, and she was preparing her last meal. She was preparing her funeral. Look at what the bible says. She said, “We are going to eat and die.” How come this woman didn’t hear God? God says I have commanded her. Most of the time, you would have expected that as he came to the woman, the woman would say, “Are you the one whom God has commanded me to provide food?” That would be the normal response. After all God said, “I have commanded this woman.” But she did not have any word from God. I wonder how many times God speaks to us and we do not hear. God says, “I have commanded this woman,” but she didn’t hear that command from God. There are some problems that this woman was facing. We have done a teaching on how to hear the voice of God. We are building on that ground. Now in I Kg. 17, we see the reason why this woman couldn’t hear from God. She was looking at herself and her condition. She was looking at her little bit of flour and a little bit of oil. Her eyes and her soul were tied to this life. She was tied to the cares of this life. She was tied to the things of this world. And as a result of that, she could not hear God. God had to send Elijah all the way to tell this woman what to do. If this woman had heard from God, she would not have needed the man of God to repeat the command. She should have been ready. There was another woman if you remember in Elisha’s time. Elisha used to pass by that town. Every time Elisha passes by, Elisha seems to meet this woman. This woman told her husband that there is this man of God who passes by. Let us prepare a room and let the man know that every time he passes by this is the place where he can stay. They prepared a room for the prophet. Now that woman was hearing from God. That woman discerned correctly. It did not say she heard a, “Thus says the Lord.” It did not say that this woman saw a vision. But this woman was sensitive to what God was telling her to do. Whereas this other woman, this widow, was not paying any attention to what God was saying. The command had gone out but she did not hear. The reason is she is tied down to the things of this life. She was looking at herself, her situation, her son, her condition and some thing was holding her back from hearing from God. Being In the Spirit See God is a spirit and when He speaks, we need to be in the spirit. If God speaks in the spirit and we are in the flesh, we cannot hear Him. We are talking about how to be led by the Spirit. That is the condition that we have to place ourselves in to hear from God. It’s interesting to know that all through the bible God has required people to come out of their physical situation, out of their affairs of this life to a solitary place before they could hear clearly from God. Some times, it looks as if it was on purpose. The question is why should they have to go all the way to the mountain before God speaks. Why couldn’t God speak to them when they are in their house in their room? Couldn’t have God spoken to them there? He could of course. God’s presence is everywhere. He can speak anywhere anyplace any time. But it’s not God that is the problem. It’s us. We need to hear from God. It is our condition and our being tied down to the things of this life. And God has required that sometimes we come out of our situation and place ourselves in the position to be led by the Spirit to hear from Him. Now some of us desire to be led by the Spirit but we are not willing to give the time to hear from God. We expect God to interrupt the affairs of our lives and the activities of our lives. As we are busy in the affairs of this life, we expect God to interrupt us and say, “Hi you over there.” God will not do that. He gives His inward witness to a certain extent but the strength by which we hear from God is based upon how established is our private hearing from God. If we could hear privately in a solitary place, it will strengthen our hearing in the affairs of life. But if all the time we are involved in buying and in selling, in the humdrum of the things of life you may never hear from God. We may live and die without hearing from God. We may live and die without so much as hearing the command that God is commanding. God wants us to make an effort to come out of the things of this life and enter into a solitary place. I don’t know where the solitary place for your life may be. God deals with each one differently. The geographical place may change but the principles are the same. Separation From the Spirit of the World Lets examine very carefully here I Kg. 19: 8 after Elijah has eaten of angel’s food that was cooked for him. So he arose, ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God. That’s a long, long journey. It says that he went in the strength of the food as far as Horeb. Notice what Horeb is called, the mountain of God. And it was on that mountain that took him over a month’s journey. Imagine for one month all you are doing is just walking and walking. When you read about what happened on the mountain of Horeb it looks lovely. There was this strong wind that blows, there was this earthquake, there was this fire and there was this still small voice. We tend to look at all these things and we get caught up with that and say, “O isn’t it wonderful that God spoke to Elijah? Isn’t it wonderful he heard this still small voice?” But what about that one month over where all he did was walking and sweating? Wasn’t that a pre-condition to hear God? For forty days and forty nights everyday, he got up and walked. That is a tedious thing to do. Some of you are not hearing from God because God is telling you, “I want you to get up and pray.” We only have to get up and pray. Elijah has to get up and walk for miles everyday. Some of us give up after one week. I mean when we start praying in the morning it lasted only three days. But here God is watching you and God says, “I will wait till the fortieth day.” Why must He do that? I don’t know ask Him. And even if you ask Him, you may not hear Him until after you do it. God seems to require that of Elijah and He seems to require of everybody. It’s so common in the Word that some times we missed it. Let’s look at the life of Moses. We will look at the incidents first and then we draw the principles. Exodus 3:1 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian; and he led his flock the west side of the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And it was while he was on the mountain that day he saw some thing. He had to go aside and God spoke to him. Many times, he had passed by that way but this time he went to see what that flame of fire was and he heard the voice of God. What about our Lord Jesus Christ? Lets look in the gospel of Mark 1:35 Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. Notice the word solitary place. In the gospel of Matthew chapter 14 after the feeding of the five thousands in verse 23 And after He had dismissed the crowds He went into the hills by Himself to pray. Now the Mount of Olives is a long way to descend. It takes a long time to climb up. Jesus went all the way up, why, to hear God. Just in case, you missed it. The gospel of Luke chapter 22 verse 39 And he came out, and went, as was His custom, to the Mount of Olives. Notice it was his custom to doing that. And his disciples also followed Him.  Jesus’ prayer closet when He was on this earth was on the mountain. It’s amazing how many times He went up there to pray to be alone. Now Jesus had many homes opened to Him. In fact in Mark chapter one the home He was staying in was Peter’s home. I am sure He had a place to pray if He wanted to. Its not that Jesus didn’t have a room or a house that was offered to Him. There were many people who offered their homes to Him. He would have been welcomed to stay forever too. It was not that He didn’t have a closet although he does have a closet in the bible. So, it’s not that He didn’t have a prayer closet. But I want you to notice here He always try to get back to nature. He always tries to get back to a place where the works of men are not around. Where all you have, is the natural surrounding and being quiet by yourself in a mountain. Why is that so? There seems to be some thing there that I am pointing to. God requires that we separate from the activities of this life and have an act of separation from the things of this life to go aside to hear Him. It is a different thing when you are fasting and seeking to hear God and to be led by the Spirit while you are working and daily active in the things of life. And when you are fasting and seeking God and you are completely secluded from the things of this life and the affairs of this life, there is a higher degree of concentration you could give yourself to hear from God and God’s Spirit. In bible times, God required people to go to a geographical place to hear Him. I don’t know why He does that. But He has required it. He has required sometimes for people to make great expense and great sacrifices to go out of their way and place themselves in a position to hear God so that God could speak to them for what He wants them to do. We have to watch this principle very carefully. That is the methods that we are watching at. You got to isolate methods and principles. The principle behind it is not that you can only hear God on a mountain. Thank God, it’s very hard to look for a mountain. Imagine if you are a Singaporean looking for a mountain. Then you have to go to Malaysia all the time to hear God. So, don’t take this to the extreme and conclude that therefore you can only hear God on a mountain. That’s not what we are saying. You are looking at the method and confusing method with principle. The principle behind it is as I have said is this: God is a spirit. There are two spirits that are operational. One is the spirit of the world and the other is the Spirit of God. When we talk about the spirit of the world, we are not necessarily talking about something evil. Remember all the inventions of men have to do with human soul and the human intellect and indirectly they are the spirit of the world. You take any magazine, do you know all these things are the product of the spirit of the world. What is it saying, materialism, buy, covet, possess, fashion etc and this is the spirit of the world. The spirit of the world tells us to be like them. Get this, get that - it’s the spirit of the world. We are looking at the principle now. We have looked at the method now is the principle. There is a spirit of the world that prevents your spirit from ascending above it. There is a spirit of the world that is a gravitation force that pulls you down. So that when the spirit of the world pulls you down you cannot hear God. If you surround yourselves with the spirit of covetousness, the spirit of materialism and all you see is the physical things of life you can never hear God.  God could be speaking but you can never hear God. See in the Tabernacle of Moses there are these three departments. There is the Holy of holies, there is the Holy Place and there is the Outer Court, each separated by a veil. Did you know that the only place that you can hear God is in the Holy of holies? All these are primary religious rituals in the Outer Court is to gain entrance into the Holy of holies where the presence of God dwells. It was in the Holy of holies where you can hear God. We cannot hear God until our spirit is set free from the grip of the spirit of the world. The grip of the spirit of the world tries to pull you down everyday because you live in the world but Jesus said you are not of the world. And as long as you live in the world as long as you contact people or any thing that is produced by man, there is the spirit of the world involved. In the morning, all you have to do is to look at the newspapers and there is the spirit of the world there. It’s involved and it moves in everything. It governs the affairs of this life. Eph.2: 2 In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.  Notice that the power of the air. He has not finished talking yet. Verse 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. Verse 4, But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us. The first three verses are important to understand the blessing of verse 4. Paul was saying that it is the spirit of the world, the prince of the power of the air that pulls people down and influences people’s mind. If you remember the book by Howard Pitman “Demons: An Eye Witness Account”, he talked about the major types of demon power. He speaks about the warring demons and they were dressed like Roman soldiers. But then he says he saw another demon that is one of the big bosses too. And that demon looks like an ordinary businessman. Dressed like a businessman. That demon could have walked on the streets and we would have thought that he was a prominent businessman. You wouldn’t recognize it because part of the spirit of the world is materialism and being concerned about material things. Remember Jesus said life consists more of clothes, of shelter, and of food. Jesus was not concerned on this area. In fact, Howard Pitman himself said before he met the Lord and had the encounter of demons he had lived the average Christian life. He worked hard to earn a good salary. He worked hard to gain large amount of finances. He thought that he was pleasing God. He said in one moment in the presence of God he found all his life’s work burned up into ashes. He wept and cried bitterly when he saw that all his works were considered worthless before God, and he begged God for a second chance. God gave him a second chance and told him to tell the world what he saw and experienced. All these things have to do with the spirit of the world. Now this also can be taken to the extreme. I am not saying therefore lets become hermits and completely abandon the world system. That will be a wrong interpretation. There are a lot of the people in the bible who lived in the world but not of the world. If you conclude therefore lets give up every thing, lets go, and live off the land like a hippie, then what you are saying is that you are to live outside of the world and be not of the world. I am not saying that. The word world or cosmos in the Greek means a world system. Jesus is not asking you to come out of the world system. But Jesus is saying that you are in the system but make sure you are not of it. You are not influenced by it. You are not motivated by it. He wants us to remain in the world system so that we could be witnesses. If you come out of the world system, you might as well die and be with God in heaven. There will be no witnesses. So note what Ephesians two is trying to tell us. Verse 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses. Now the worddead in trespasses is connected to verse one. Because verse one says, we were dead in trespasses and sins. And the meaning of being dead in trespasses is also in verse two. The spirit of the world is influencing us, unknowingly, ignorantly. The spirit of the world was influencing our decisions, our life and our motivation. Do you know that a lot of Christians are motivated by the spirit of the world? Why, because they live only for materialism, that is being motivated by the spirit of the world. If for one moment the supply for their need doesn’t seem to come, they will keep God out. They will not be able to be like Job (bless his heart) he missed God in some ways but not in this area. For some Christians, if their material things were all taken away they will curse God and die. Job did not understand that God did not cause his problems. His problem was he thought that God caused everything. But the good part about him was that when everything was taken away, he says if he dies, he will die loving God. He didn’t live for material things. He says, “I’ll still bless God. I love God not because He feeds me. I love God because He is God.” But some Christians if their supply does not come in they will give up their faith. They will give up Christianity and they will give God up.  Not only that they will blame God and some of them may even curse God and die. They will even say, “Why be a Christian if I cannot have all these things?” Do you know what they are? They are Christians but they are influenced and motivated by the spirit of the world. And it’s those very Christians who find it very hard to hear God. They find that they can’t hear God. Why, because as long as they are being influenced, motivated and guided by the spirit of the world, they won’t be able to hear the Spirit of God. Some Christians knowingly are aware that the spirit of the world is motivating them but most of the time, Christians are ignorant unless it’s pointed out to them. Now understanding that being dead in trespasses is being motivated and being moved by the spirit of the world, lets look at verse 5. It says, Even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly place in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Notice that Paul contrasted being raised up in heavenly places against being dead in trespasses. In other words, he is saying that our spirit must ascend out of the grips of the spirit of the world. The spirit of the world is concerned with food, clothing and shelter. You say but surely, God cares, yes, but remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6. My desire in God as I have always prayed is, “Lord I want to have the same mind that Jesus had when He was on this earth. I want to understand the processes of His thought when He walked on this earth the kind of thoughts that occurs to Him. The kind of motivation that He was moved in, I want to move into that kind of spirit.” And in Matthew chapter 6, He is pointing again the spirit of the world against the spirit of God. In verse 25 “Therefore, when you see a therefore the previous lines are important. Verse 24 says there are 2 masters. See there are two spirits. Either the Holy Spirit is proclaiming Jesus as Lord or the prince of the power of the air is causing you to be dragged down by the spirit of the world. There are two masters and you cannot serve both. You either serve one or the other. God won’t do it but supposing that for a moment all your food, your clothing, your shelter, your prestige, your status and everything you owned were taken away from you, could you still say, “I love Jesus.” You don’t need that to happen to examine yourself. You can imagine it. And if you imagine it and say, “I cannot really say I love Jesus,” the spirit of the world is dragging you down. That is why you cannot hear from God. That I why you find it hard to be led by the Spirit. Because being led by the Spirit you have to be free from that spirit of the world first. We all know verse 33 seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added onto you. Some Christians are claiming that all the time but they don’t practice verse 25. It says Therefore I tell you, do not worry. Some translations in the Greek says, take no thought. That means don’t even allow it to affect your thought life. Don’t ever allow it to grip your thought life until it’s a motivation in your life. Matthew 6: 27 Jesus is speaking against worrying again. Then in verse 28, He considers the lilies of the field. They just grow they neither toil nor spin. Then in verse 31 therefore do not worry take no thought what we shall drink or what we shall wear. Now verse 32 He says this is what the world does. He says for all these things the Gentiles seek. Jesus summarizes the spirit of the world. Everything you see in the world, you could see in the papers, you could see in the magazines. You know what the world seeks after, materialism. You mix with the people of the world you see their motives. Some people become philanthropists but they are still materialistic and that is just a small side thing for them. Some time back I saw a small little article about an interview of all the top multimillionaires and billionaires of the world. It was a small little write up about each one of them. You know what each one of them wanted? More money. See the world system grips them. Anyone of you who have been exposed to this system of this world especially those of you way out there earning your living you must be aware of the spirit that is there. When you start off you say a hundred thousand dollars is enough. When you hit that goal, it’s not enough. You see it’s the spirit of grabbing. It’s the spirit of wanting more and more. You are never satisfied. We are not saying it’s wrong to possess, to be blessed, or to be rich. A lot of people in the bible are rich; Abraham, Joseph, Daniel but they remain spiritual people. What we are saying here is that there are two spirits we need to be aware of. There is the spirit of the world. You don’t need to have a lot of money to be caught by the spirit of the world. You could be the poorest church mouse and you are caught with the spirit of the world. You know the spirit of the world is, food, clothing and shelter. O what shall I do? From the moment, you are born into this earth and the average person who grows up in life that’s the first goal that they want. They want to earn a decent living. See it’s caught up already in the spirit of the world. It takes Smith Wigglesworth to say that making a living is one of the lowest ambitions someone can have. It is the ambition of living a life for God that all of us should have. Now lets contrast a little bit and have a glimpse of heaven. We are born into this earth and the world system runs contrary to God’s ways, so we cannot see the picture God sees. Thank God, in heaven food, clothing and shelter are automatically yours. They are bought with the precious blood of Jesus. What do I do in heaven then? Imagine on this earth you slog so hard for food, clothing and shelter but when you go to heaven, you find that they are all free. Then you ask, “What do we do in heaven?” There is a different motivation when you get to heaven: you are there to discover all that God has placed in you. You find out that God has placed in you as a service to other creatures. That’s the goal. It’s different. If we have the heavenly vision that we are raised and seated with Christ, we will lose sight of the goals that this world set, food, clothing and shelter. There are a lot of honest sincere and hardworking human beings out there working from morning till night and worrying about providing for their house and forgetting that they have a God. And they work their fingers to the bone. They spend all their time and their mental energy, their physical energy working and slogging. Some of them work and slog for 50 years and their happiness depend on circumstances. Joy comes from the Spirit. And the happiness that they experience when they pay up for their house is short lived. They work all their life on earth by the time, they have completed the payments for their very own house, they are about to depart from this world. That’s all you have to show after 50, 60, 70 years of this life. Perhaps some have two or three homes. Perhaps some have a fat bank account. On earth, you end your life slogging for food, clothing and shelter. When you get to heaven, you find that you start your life in heaven with food, clothing and shelter already provided for. Then you realize what should be your motivation here on earth. The motivation should be the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Eph. 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. That’s our goal to be led by the Spirit, to discover our life’s goal, to discover the purpose for our life. Along the way as you discover God’s life and God’s purpose as you seek first the kingdom of God food, clothing and shelter will be added to you. God knows you need them. What God is saying is don’t even let it occupy your thought life. Let your thought life be occupied with pleasing God; worshiping God; seeking His will; being led by Him. That’s the reason why that widow in I Kg. 17 couldn’t hear God. Because she was not in the heavenly places. Do you know Elijah was in the heavenly places? He always says, “I stand in the presence of God.” Do you ever wonder why he hears God so easily? Wherever Elijah goes, there he hears the voice of God. He says, “I stand in the presence.” There is this widow and she was not even a millionaire. All she has was a little flour and a little oil. But she was already caught up with the spirit of the world. You don’t have to be rich to be caught with the spirit of the world. All she was involved with is her life on earth; her survival on earth and she missed God. Thank God for the man of God being sent there. Because for once she began to look to God. And she began to realize that God is bigger than her little jar of oil and her little pinch of flour. God is bigger than that. And life is more than food, clothing and shelter. Life is seeking and finding God’s purpose for our life. Being led by the Spirit I Cor. 2: 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. We have not received the spirit of the world that is concerned with the world system. We received the Spirit of God. That is why Jesus has to pull out from the world system and go to the mountain to pray from time to time. Jesus had to leave everything behind and go to the mountain to pray. If you haven’t experienced that, it’s lovely. Sometimes, I just love to go to a natural place and just get detached from every thing. All you have are the trees and nature around you. And you feel that you don’t have a care in the world. Now you are more concerned about God’s will in your life. You find that your spirit soars into the heights of heaven and you move into that realm. Not all of us are able to go that distance some times. But there are times when God does tell you to separate yourself geographically. But at other times in my personal life when I pray, it’s strange but this is what I like. I don’t like distractions. When I pray I like to go into a room or a place and I completely switch off all the lights. It is dark so that I don’t even see the tables. I don’t want to see any thing that is made by man. I only want to be conscious of what is going on in my spirit. We are not talking about living in spiritual darkness. But I like the cutting off of the things of this life. I like to just sit quietly if I can I try to go to a place solitary. That is why you can keep the principle in many different ways. It is not necessary to always run to the mountain. Even the mountains today are quite nosy. You run up to Genting Highlands casino resort and you will find people there gambling. See the spirit of the world is everywhere. I want to separate out of the spirit of the world that is there in order to go into the heavenly and experience the realm of God. That’s what it takes in order to hear God. Notice the promise here in I Cor. 2 it says we have received the Spirit, which is from God that we might know the things that has been freely given to us by God. That means there are things that are freely given to you but you do not know them. The works that God has called you to. It says that we might know the things that are freely given. They are already freely given but we don’t know them yet. For eyes has not seen nor ear has heard the things that God has in store for us. If we were to quiet ourselves and pray, I tell you God can even give you the world news. At one time while I was praying, I was aware of what was going on in Europe. I saw a lot of demonic power running away from that area for whatever reason and gong down south. And I asked God, “What is that?” Then the Lord said that the same spirits that used to dominate and oppressing those areas and causing all these strife and wars are moving down south. In other word, they will be going to some other countries. In the world people are talking about a new era, they are moving into a new freedom. They forget the demon spirits have not left the world yet. God was telling me that while one part of the world experience freedom the demon spirits just move south and begin to cause more oppression on other countries that use to be free. It is just a change of stage and actors that the same demon spirits are involved. God also showed me that part of what was happening was a light, which came down and said that those were the prayers of my saints that caused the demon spirits to scatter forth. But sadly I saw them moving down I didn’t know fully well what was going to happen but I saw the spirits moving down south. You began to see violence and riots increasing in those areas. It was the same spirits that worked. They just changed the country they work in. What I am saying here is not some thing you could just move in without an effort. You have to take an effort to move into the realm of the spirit. Cut off the spirit of the world and move into the area of the Spirit of God. Sometimes it takes going out to a geographical place. But if you understand the principle involved, you could get the same principle working with a different method. Just as God called Moses to the mountain. Just as God called Elijah to the mountain. Just as God’s Spirit called Jesus to the Mount of Olives. Just as God called Paul to Arabia. God will call some of you out of your vocation. He may not demand that you leave your place yet. He will demand that you leave your place for a while for a season of prayer to hear God. Don’t ask God, “Why don’t You speak to me here?” It’s not up to us. We got to separate ourselves out. But through time as you develop the skill within your own context you will know how to separate yourself out in order to hear God. Then the Spirit can lead you.     This series is found at http://www.eaglevision.com.my/zvoice.htm