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How to Recognize God_s Voice in Your Daily Life · truthunedited

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Speaker 1: There's a sound you've been hearing your whole life, and
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Speaker 1: you've probably been ignoring it. It doesn't come through your ears.
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Speaker 1: It comes in the pause before a decision, the strange
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Speaker 1: peace in the middle of chaos, the thought that rives
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Speaker 1: from nowhere and changes everything. What if that wasn't random?
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Speaker 1: What if someone has been speaking to you this entire
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Speaker 1: time and you just never learned his language. Welcome back
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Speaker 1: to Echoes of the Bible. I'm the creator of this channel,
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Speaker 1: and I have to be honest with you. This is
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Speaker 1: the question that kept me up at night, because if
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Speaker 1: the God of the universe is really trying to reach me,
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Speaker 1: why does it so often feel like silence? Then I
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Speaker 1: started noticing something hidden in these ancient stories, a pattern,
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Speaker 1: a method to how God speaks the same in every age,
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Speaker 1: including ours, And once you see it, you can't unsee it.
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Speaker 1: So before this video ends, ask yourself one thing. How
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Speaker 1: many times has he already spoken? And I miss? There
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Speaker 1: was a man named Elijah, and he was tired, Not
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Speaker 1: the kind of tired that sleep can fix, but the
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Speaker 1: kind that sinks deep into the soul. He had just
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Speaker 1: won a great victory for God, yet now he was
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Speaker 1: running for his life, hiding in the wilderness, asking God
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Speaker 1: to let him die. He felt completely alone, so God
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Speaker 1: told him to go and stand on the mountain because
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Speaker 1: he was about to pass by. And then something happened
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Speaker 1: that no one expected. A great and powerful wind tore
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Speaker 1: through the mountains and shattered the rocks. Surely God was
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Speaker 1: in the wind, but he wasn't. Then came an earthquake
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Speaker 1: that shook the ground beneath Elijah's feet. Surely God was
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Speaker 1: in that, but he wasn't. Then a fire roared past him.
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Speaker 1: Yet still God was not in the fire. The Bible
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Speaker 1: tells it plainly in First Kings, Chapter nineteen, Verses eleven
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Speaker 1: and twelve. And after the earthquake a fire, but the
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Speaker 1: Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire
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Speaker 1: a still small voice. Picture that for a moment, the loud, dramatic,
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Speaker 1: terrifying displays came and went, and God was in none
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Speaker 1: of them. Instead, he came in a whisper, a still
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Speaker 1: small voice. This is the first thing a person must
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Speaker 1: understand if they truly want to hear God. He is
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Speaker 1: not loud by accident. He chooses the quiet on purpose.
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Speaker 1: Most people spend their whole lives waiting for fireworks for
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Speaker 1: some unmistakable thunder from heaven, when the truth is that
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Speaker 1: God usually speaks softly, so softly that you have to
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Speaker 1: lean in so gently that if your life is full
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Speaker 1: of noise, you will miss it entirely. He does not
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Speaker 1: shout over the chaos. He waits in the calm beneath it.
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Speaker 1: Here is something easy to forget. God does not speak
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Speaker 1: to the whole world the same way like a stranger
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Speaker 1: shouting an announcement to a crowd. He speaks to people
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Speaker 1: one by one by name, aime, knowing exactly who they are.
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Speaker 1: Jesus painted a beautiful picture of this. He compared himself
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Speaker 1: to a shepherd, and his people to sheep. Now, in
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Speaker 1: those days, many shepherds would keep their flocks together in
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Speaker 1: one pen over night. In the morning, you might wonder
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Speaker 1: how each shepherd could ever separate his own sheep from
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Speaker 1: all the others. But it was simple. The shepherd would call,
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Speaker 1: and only his sheep would lift their heads and follow.
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Speaker 1: They knew his voice. In John chapter ten, verses three
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Speaker 1: and four, Jesus said it like this, And he calleth
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Speaker 1: his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And
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Speaker 1: when he putteth forth his own sheep. He goeth before them,
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Speaker 1: and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
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Speaker 1: He calls them by name, not by number, not as
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Speaker 1: a group by name. This means the way God speaks
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Speaker 1: to you may not look like the way he speaks
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Speaker 1: to your friend, your mother, or your pastor. He knows
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Speaker 1: your story, he knows the language of your heart, the
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Speaker 1: things that move you, the memories that shaped you, and
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Speaker 1: he speaks in a way that only you would fully understand.
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Speaker 1: So stop comparing your walk with God to someone else's.
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Speaker 1: You are not meant to hear him as they do.
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Speaker 1: You are his sheep, and He knows your name. And
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Speaker 1: here is something worth pausing on. If you've sensed even
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Speaker 1: a flicker of recognition while hearing this, that quiet awareness
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Speaker 1: that God may already be speaking to you in a
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Speaker 1: way that is uniquely yours, then understand that some stories
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Speaker 1: don't just inform you, they stay with you. If something
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Speaker 1: stirred in your spirit just now, you may be ready
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Speaker 1: for echoes daily, where every morning you go deeper into
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Speaker 1: one Bible story, the history behind it, the details most
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Speaker 1: believers never learn, and what it means for your walk
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Speaker 1: to day daily readings Biblical compareanons who teach as they
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Speaker 1: walk with you, and a community of pilgrims learning together.
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Speaker 1: The link is in the first pinned comment, But the
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Speaker 1: founding door is open only for a limited time. That
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Speaker 1: same personal voice we just described doesn't only whisper to
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Speaker 1: your heart. It has also given us something we can hold,
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Speaker 1: return to and measure everything against, and that brings us
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Speaker 1: to the most reliable place His voice is ever found.
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Speaker 1: If you want to hear God clearly, there is one
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Speaker 1: place where his voice is written down and never changes.
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Speaker 1: It is the Bible. Many people search for signs in
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Speaker 1: the sky or wait for a feeling, while the most
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Speaker 1: certain way God speaks is sitting right there on the shelf,
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Speaker 1: waiting to be opened. But the Bible is not like
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Speaker 1: other books. It is a live When you read it,
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Speaker 1: something happens that does not happen with ordinary words on
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Speaker 1: a page. The Book of Hebrews, Chapter four, verse twelve
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Speaker 1: describes it this, for the word of God is quick
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Speaker 1: and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword. The
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Speaker 1: word quick there means living. The Bible is living and active.
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Speaker 1: It reaches into places nothing else can touch. Have you
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Speaker 1: ever read a verse you had read a hundred times before,
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Speaker 1: and suddenly it felt like it was written just for you,
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Speaker 1: just for that day. That is not your imagination, that
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Speaker 1: is God speaking through his word. The writer of Psalm
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Speaker 1: one hundred nineteen, verse one hundred five understood this when
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Speaker 1: he said, thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
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Speaker 1: and a light unto my path. Notice what kind of
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Speaker 1: light that is? Not a giant floodlight that shows you
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Speaker 1: the whole road ahead. A lamp at your feet showing
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Speaker 1: you just the next step. That is often how God
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Speaker 1: guides through scripture, one step at a time. And here
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Speaker 1: is the great gift of the Bible. Because it is
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Speaker 1: written and fixed, it becomes the test for everything else.
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Speaker 1: Any voice, any feeling, any so called message that disagrees
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Speaker 1: with what God already said in his word is simply
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Speaker 1: not from him. The Bible is the ruler by which
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Speaker 1: everything else is measured. When Jesus was about to leave
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Speaker 1: this earth, his followers were afraid how would they manage
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Speaker 1: without him? Who would guide them now? But Jesus made
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Speaker 1: them a promise, and it changed everything. He told them
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Speaker 1: that God would not leave them alone. Instead, God would
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Speaker 1: place his own spirit inside of them to live within them,
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Speaker 1: and guide them from the inside out. In John chapter fourteen,
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Speaker 1: verse twenty six, Jesus said, but the comforter, which is
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Speaker 1: the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name,
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Speaker 1: He shall teach you all things and bring all things
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Speaker 1: to your remembrance. Think about how powerful that is. Before
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Speaker 1: people had to travel to a temple or wait for
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Speaker 1: a prophet to bring a word from God. But now
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Speaker 1: for those who belong to him, God's voice lives inside them.
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Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit teaches and reminds, like a gentle guide
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Speaker 1: who never leaves your side. This is why hearing God
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Speaker 1: is not only about reading words on a page. It
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Speaker 1: is also about a quiet knowing that rises up from
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Speaker 1: within you. Sometimes you cannot explain it, You just sense
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Speaker 1: deep down what is true and what is right. The
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Speaker 1: apostle Paul described this inner agreement in Romans chapter eight,
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Speaker 1: verse sixteen. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit
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Speaker 1: that we are the children of God. The Spirit bears
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Speaker 1: witness with your spirit. It is like two voices agreeing
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Speaker 1: as one. That deep settled assurance, that inner yes that
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Speaker 1: you cannot quite put into words, is often the Holy
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Speaker 1: Spirit confirming the truth to your heart. Now Here is
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Speaker 1: where many people get confused, and it is important to
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Speaker 1: slow down. Not every thought in your head comes from God.
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Speaker 1: Your own mind is busy all day long, full of worries, wishes, fears,
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Speaker 1: and plans. So how do you tell the difference between
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Speaker 1: your own thoughts and the voice of God. The truth is,
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Speaker 1: no one can fully understand another person's heart. You cannot
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Speaker 1: crawl inside someone else's mind and know exactly what they
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Speaker 1: are thinking. Only their own spirit knows that, And in
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Speaker 1: the same way, only God's spirit truly knows the deep
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Speaker 1: things of God. Paul explained this in First Corinthians, chapter two,
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Speaker 1: verse eleven. For what man knoweth the things of a
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Speaker 1: man save the spirit of man, which is in him.
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Speaker 1: Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but
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Speaker 1: the spirit of God. So how does a person ever
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Speaker 1: come to know God's thoughts? Paul answers in the very
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Speaker 1: next verse, verse twelve. Now we have received not the
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Speaker 1: spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God,
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Speaker 1: that we might know the things that are freely given
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Speaker 1: to us of God. This is the key. Your own
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Speaker 1: thoughts tend to come from fear or from what you want.
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Speaker 1: They push you, rush you, and make you anxious. But
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Speaker 1: God's voice comes from his spirit within you, and it
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Speaker 1: carries a different weight. It does not match the panic
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Speaker 1: of the world. It lines up with who God is
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Speaker 1: and what he has already said. So when a thought arrives,
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Speaker 1: you can quietly ask does this sound like the world
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Speaker 1: talking or like God? Does it agree with his character
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Speaker 1: or does it pull against it? Learning to tell these
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Speaker 1: two apart is one of the most important skills in
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Speaker 1: the whole journey. Throughout the Bible, God did not only
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Speaker 1: speak through quiet whispers and written words. Sometimes he spoke
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Speaker 1: while people slept. He used dreams and visions to deliver
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Speaker 1: messages that were too important to miss. Think of Joseph,
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Speaker 1: the husband of Mary. When he discovered that Mary was
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Speaker 1: going to have a child, he decided quietly to leave her.
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Speaker 1: But God had other plans, and he delivered them in
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Speaker 1: the night. Matthew chapter one, verse twenty tells us the
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Speaker 1: Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph,
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Speaker 1: thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee
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Speaker 1: Mary thy wife, and Joseph obeyed. A dream changed the
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Speaker 1: course of his life and protected the birth of the Savior.
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Speaker 1: This was not unusual for God long before he had
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Speaker 1: spoken to kings and prophets through dreams and visions of
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Speaker 1: the night, and he promised that this would not stop.
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Speaker 1: In fact, he promised it would increase. The prophet Joel
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Speaker 1: recorded God's promise in Joel Chapter two, verse twenty eight.
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Speaker 1: And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old
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Speaker 1: men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions
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Speaker 1: sons and daughters old and young. God was saying that
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Speaker 1: this way of speaking would be poured out on ordinary people,
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Speaker 1: not just the famous and powerful. Now, not every dream
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Speaker 1: is a message from God. Many dreams are just the
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Speaker 1: mind sorting through the day. But sometimes a dream carries
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Speaker 1: a weight that stays with you long after you wake.
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Speaker 1: It lingers, it means something, and God, who has always
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Speaker 1: used the quiet hours of the night, may still be
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Speaker 1: speaking through them. Sometimes God does not give a person
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Speaker 1: words at all. Instead, he speaks through a feeling deep inside.
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Speaker 1: Most often that feeling is peace or the lack of it.
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Speaker 1: Have you ever faced a decision that looked perfect on paper,
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Speaker 1: yet something inside you felt uneasy, restless, unable to settle,
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Speaker 1: or the opposite, when a hard choice somehow filled you
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Speaker 1: with a strange and quiet calm that made no sense.
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Speaker 1: That inner sense is not random. God often uses it
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Speaker 1: to guide his people. Paul gave instruction about this in
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Speaker 1: Colossians three, verse fifteen, and let the Peace of God
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Speaker 1: rule in your hearts. That word rule is powerful. In
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Speaker 1: the original language. It pictures an umpire or a judge
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Speaker 1: in a contest, the one who decides what is allowed
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Speaker 1: and what is not. So the peace of God is
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Speaker 1: meant to act like a referee in your heart. When
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Speaker 1: you have peace, it is like a green light. When
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Speaker 1: that peace is gone and unease takes its place, it
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Speaker 1: may be a warning to stop and wait. And this
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Speaker 1: is no ordinary peace. It is not the calm that
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Speaker 1: comes only when everything is going well. It is something deeper,
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Speaker 1: something that does not even make sense to the human mind.
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Speaker 1: Paul described it in Philippians chapter four, verse seven. And
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Speaker 1: the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep
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Speaker 1: your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. A peace that
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Speaker 1: passes understanding. Peace you cannot explain, that holds steady even
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Speaker 1: in the middle of a storm. When you feel that
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Speaker 1: pay attention. God may be speaking not with words, but
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Speaker 1: with the quiet language of his peace. Here is the
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Speaker 1: good news. Hearing God is not a special gift handed
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Speaker 1: only to a chosen few. It is something that grows
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Speaker 1: the more you use it, just like your ears get
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Speaker 1: better at picking out a familiar voice in a noisy room.
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Speaker 1: There is a beautiful story about a boy named Samuel.
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Speaker 1: He was very young, serving in the House of God
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Speaker 1: under an old priest named Eli. One night, while he
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Speaker 1: was lying down, he heard a voice call his name.
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Speaker 1: He ran to Eli, thinking the old man had called him,
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Speaker 1: but Eli had not. This happened again, and then a
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Speaker 1: third time. The boy did not yet know it was God.
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Speaker 1: The Bible says in First Samuel chapter three, verse seven.
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Speaker 1: Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord. Neither was
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Speaker 1: the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. He
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Speaker 1: was hearing the voice, but he did not recognize it.
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Speaker 1: He needed someone to help him understand what was happening. Finally,
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Speaker 1: Eli realized that it was God calling the boy, and
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Speaker 1: he taught Samuel how to respond. In First Samuel chapter three,
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Speaker 1: verse nine, Eli told him, go lie down, and it
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Speaker 1: shall be if he call thee, that thou shalt say,
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Speaker 1: speak Lord, for thy servant heareth. And so the boy did.
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Speaker 1: He made himself ready to listen, and from that night
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Speaker 1: on Samuel became one of the greatest voices for God
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Speaker 1: in all of history. Noticed this carefully. Samuel did not
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Speaker 1: become a great listener because he was holier than everyone else.
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Speaker 1: He became great because he learned to recognize the voice.
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Speaker 1: He positioned himself to listen, and when he heard he answered.
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Speaker 1: The more he responded, the clearer it became. Aim. That
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Speaker 1: is how the ear is built, not all at once,
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Speaker 1: but over time, through paying attention and saying again and again,
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Speaker 1: Speak Lord, for your servant is listening. Imagine trying to
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Speaker 1: hear someone whisper to you while you stand in the
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Speaker 1: middle of a crowded street. Cars are honking all around you.
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Speaker 1: People are shouting back and forth. Music blasts from open
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Speaker 1: windows and passing cars. Now, imagine that the person beside
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Speaker 1: you is trying to tell you something that could change
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Speaker 1: your entire life. They are speaking the most important words
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Speaker 1: you will ever hear, but you cannot make out a
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Speaker 1: single one of them, because the noise swallows every word
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Speaker 1: before it reaches your ears. This is exactly the trap
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Speaker 1: that so many people fall into without ever realizing it.
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Speaker 1: Their lives are loud from the moment they open their
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Speaker 1: eyes until the moment they close them again. At night.
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Speaker 1: There is a screen in the morning, sound in the car,
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Speaker 1: voices all day, and morse greens before bed. Every empty
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Speaker 1: moment gets filled with something, And in all that noise
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Speaker 1: there is simply no room left for a quiet voice
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Speaker 1: to be heard. This is not a new struggle. Long ago,
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Speaker 1: the prophet Isaiah watched as God's own people grew restless
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Speaker 1: and refused to slow down. They were anxious, they were
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Speaker 1: always rushing, always scheming, always running to one solution after another.
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Speaker 1: And God, like a patient parent, offered them something far better.
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Speaker 1: He offered them rest. He offered them quiet, but they
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Speaker 1: would not take it. Isaiah chapter thirty, verse fifteen records
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Speaker 1: exactly what God said to them. For thus saith the
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Speaker 1: Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and
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Speaker 1: rest shall ye be saved. In quietness and in confidence
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Speaker 1: shall be your strength. And ye would not read those
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Speaker 1: last three words slowly, and ye would not. God laid
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Speaker 1: the gift right in front of them. He told them
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Speaker 1: their strength would be found in quietness and in trust,
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Speaker 1: and they refused it. They wanted to keep running their
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Speaker 1: own way, keep filling the silence, keep chasing the noise.
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Speaker 1: The very same thing happens today. People feel uncomfortable the
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Speaker 1: moment things go quiet. The silence feel strange, even a
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Speaker 1: little frightening, so they reach for anything to fill it,
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Speaker 1: a sound, a scroll, a distraction, anything but stillness. Yet
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Speaker 1: the quiet they keep running from is the very place
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Speaker 1: where God's voice can finally be heard. So understand this clearly.
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Speaker 1: The problem was never that God stopped speaking. He has
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Speaker 1: not gone quiet. The problem is that the noise has
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Speaker 1: grown so thick that his gentle voice gets buried beneath
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Speaker 1: it before a person can ever hear God. Well, they
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Speaker 1: must be willing to do the one thing the people
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Speaker 1: of Isaiah's day refuse to do. They must be willing
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Speaker 1: to be still. There is something that can build an
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Speaker 1: invisible wall between a person and God, and the strange
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Speaker 1: thing is that most people never even notice it is
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Speaker 1: there that something is sin that has been left unconfessed,
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Speaker 1: wrong things that a person clings to and refuses to
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Speaker 1: let go of. Think of it like static on a radio.
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Speaker 1: The station is still broadcasting, the signal is still being
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Speaker 1: sent through the air, strong and clear from its source,
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Speaker 1: but something is interfering and so what reaches you is broken,
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Speaker 1: crackling hard to understand. The voice is there, but the
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Speaker 1: connection has been clouded. The prophet Isaiah dealt with this
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Speaker 1: very thing among his own people. They were crying out
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Speaker 1: to God. Confused and frustrated, they wondered why Heaven felt
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Speaker 1: so far away, why their prayers seemed to bounce off
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Speaker 1: the ceiling, why God had grown so silent toward them.
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Speaker 1: And Isaiah did not soften the truth. He told them
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Speaker 1: plainly what was really going on. Isiah chapter fifty nine,
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Speaker 1: verses one and two says, Behold, the Lord's hand is
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Speaker 1: not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy
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Speaker 1: that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between
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Speaker 1: you and your God, and your sins have hid his
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Speaker 1: face from you, that he will not hear. Look closely
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Speaker 1: at what Isiah is saying, because it matters. He is
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Speaker 1: not telling them that God had grown too weak to help.
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Speaker 1: God's hand was not shortened. He is not telling them
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Speaker 1: that God had gone deaf. His ear was not heavy.
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Speaker 1: The trouble was not on God's end at all. The
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Speaker 1: wall had been built by their own choices. Their sins
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Speaker 1: had come between them and God, and like a hand
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Speaker 1: held up over a face, those sins had hidden him
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Speaker 1: from view. This is not God being harsh or cold.
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Speaker 1: It is more like what happens between two people who
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Speaker 1: deeply love each other when one of them does something
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Speaker 1: wrong and refuses to admit it. A distance slowly creeps in.
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Speaker 1: They still live in the same house, but the warmth fades,
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Speaker 1: the easy conversation grows tense. The closeness slips away, not
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Speaker 1: because love has died, but because something unspoken now sits
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Speaker 1: between them. And here is the beautiful part. The very
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Speaker 1: moment that wrong is brought out into the open and
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Speaker 1: made right, the distance disappears, the closeness rushes back, the
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Speaker 1: conversation flows again. That is why turning from sin and
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Speaker 1: bringing it honestly before God is not merely some religious
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Speaker 1: rule to follow. It is the way the wall comes down.
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Speaker 1: It is how the static clears and the voice becomes
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Speaker 1: plain again. A person who wants to hear God clearly
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Speaker 1: must first be willing to stop hiding what is keeping
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Speaker 1: them apart. Here is one of the most dangerous mistakes
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Speaker 1: a person can ever make. When you want something badly enough,
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Speaker 1: your own heart can begin to tell you that God
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Speaker 1: wants it too, even when God has said no such
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Speaker 1: thing as all this happens because desires are lowed. A
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Speaker 1: strong wish does not sit quietly in the corner of
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Speaker 1: your heart. It speaks up, it argues, and worst of all,
22:11
Speaker 1: it knows how to dress itself in spiritual clothing. It
22:15
Speaker 1: can take your own wanting and wrap it in holy
22:17
Speaker 1: words until you become convinced that your wish is actually
22:21
Speaker 1: God's will for your life. This is not a modern problem.
22:26
Speaker 1: History is full of people who claim to speak for God,
22:29
Speaker 1: when in truth they were only speaking the longings of
22:33
Speaker 1: their own hearts. In the days of the prophet Jeremiah,
22:37
Speaker 1: the land was crowded with false prophets. They stood before
22:41
Speaker 1: the people and announced exactly what everyone wanted to hear.
22:45
Speaker 1: They promised peace, They promised that everything would turn out fine,
22:49
Speaker 1: that no trouble was coming. The people loved it. There
22:52
Speaker 1: was just one problem. God had never sent these prophets,
22:57
Speaker 1: and he had never spoken those words. So God, God
23:00
Speaker 1: gave Jeremiah a strong and serious warning to deliver. We
23:04
Speaker 1: find it in Jeremiah chapter twenty three, verse sixteen. Thus Saith,
23:08
Speaker 1: the Lord of Hosts, hearken not unto the words of
23:12
Speaker 1: the prophets that prophesy unto you, they make you vain.
23:15
Speaker 1: They speak a vision of their own heart, and not
23:18
Speaker 1: out of the mouth of the Lord. There is the
23:21
Speaker 1: phrase to hold onto a vision of their own heart.
23:24
Speaker 1: They were not necessarily lying on purpose. Many of them
23:28
Speaker 1: probably believed their own words. They simply spoke what they
23:32
Speaker 1: wished were true, what felt comfortable, what pleased the crowd,
23:35
Speaker 1: and then they stamped God's name on it, as if
23:38
Speaker 1: he had said it himself. The hard truth is that
23:42
Speaker 1: you can do this same thing to yourself without ever noticing.
23:47
Speaker 1: You can want a certain relationship so badly that you
23:50
Speaker 1: become convinced God is leading you straight into it. You
23:54
Speaker 1: can want a job, a move, a change, or an
23:57
Speaker 1: answer so desperately that you walk yourself into believing God
24:01
Speaker 1: is the one urging you forward, when really it is
24:05
Speaker 1: only your own longing pushing you. This is exactly why
24:09
Speaker 1: a person must be brutally honest with themselves before ever declaring.
24:13
Speaker 1: God told me. The first question is the hardest one
24:17
Speaker 1: to ask. Is this truly his voice or is it
24:20
Speaker 1: only my own wanting dressed up in disguise, pretending to
24:24
Speaker 1: be him? Not every voice that sounds spiritual actually comes
24:28
Speaker 1: from God. There is an enemy who works quietly in
24:32
Speaker 1: the shadows, and his greatest weapon is not brute force,
24:36
Speaker 1: It is deception. He rarely announces who he is. He
24:39
Speaker 1: does not march in waving a flag. Instead, he imitates,
24:44
Speaker 1: he twists, he lies, and his deepest hope is that
24:47
Speaker 1: you will mistake his voice for the voice of God.
24:50
Speaker 1: Jesus described this enemy in the plainest of terms. He
24:54
Speaker 1: warned that there is a thief who comes prowling, and
24:58
Speaker 1: this thief has only one perse in his heart. John
25:02
Speaker 1: chapter ten, verse ten records the words of Jesus. The
25:06
Speaker 1: thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill,
25:11
Speaker 1: and to destroy. I am come that they might have life,
25:15
Speaker 1: and that they might have it more abundantly. Steal, kill,
25:20
Speaker 1: and destroy. That is the entire mission of the thief.
25:25
Speaker 1: Everything he whispers is bent toward one of those three ends,
25:29
Speaker 1: even when his words sounds sweet on the surface. So
25:33
Speaker 1: how does this thief operate? One of his cleverest tricks
25:37
Speaker 1: is shocking when you first see it. He uses scripture itself.
25:42
Speaker 1: He takes the very words of God and twists them,
25:45
Speaker 1: bending them just enough to lead a person astray, and
25:48
Speaker 1: he is so bold that he once tried this very
25:51
Speaker 1: trick on Jesus himself. When Jesus was alone and hungry
25:55
Speaker 1: in the wilderness, the tempter came to him, and the
25:58
Speaker 1: enemy did not show up, denying God's word. Instead, he
26:02
Speaker 1: quoted it. Matthew Chapter four, verse six tells us what happened,
26:07
Speaker 1: and saith unto him. If thou be the son of God,
26:10
Speaker 1: cast thyself down, For it is written, he shall give
26:14
Speaker 1: his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they
26:17
Speaker 1: shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash
26:20
Speaker 1: thy foot against a stone? Did you catch what the
26:24
Speaker 1: enemy said? He spoke the words it is written. He
26:29
Speaker 1: used real scripture, but he bent it, lifting it out
26:32
Speaker 1: of its true meaning, twisting a promise of protection into
26:36
Speaker 1: a dare to do something reckless and foolish. Jesus saw
26:41
Speaker 1: right through the trick, because he knew the whole of
26:44
Speaker 1: God's word and would not let a single verse be
26:47
Speaker 1: ripped out of place to fool him. This is how
26:49
Speaker 1: you learned to spot the counterfeit. A voice that pushes
26:53
Speaker 1: you toward pride, puffing you up. A voice that fills
26:57
Speaker 1: you with a rushing panicked, urgency minding you act this instant.
27:02
Speaker 1: A voice that whispers fear into your chest, a voice
27:05
Speaker 1: that pulls you away from the people who love you
27:08
Speaker 1: and watch over your soul. These are rarely the voice
27:11
Speaker 1: of God. The true voice always leads toward life. The thief,
27:16
Speaker 1: no matter how he dresses up his words, is only
27:19
Speaker 1: ever working to take it away. Sometimes a person actually
27:23
Speaker 1: hears God clearly enough, but fear rises up and stops
27:27
Speaker 1: them from ever acting on what they heard. They are
27:30
Speaker 1: afraid of being wrong, they are afraid of looking foolish
27:34
Speaker 1: in front of others. They are afraid of what it
27:36
Speaker 1: might cost them to actually obey, and so little by
27:40
Speaker 1: little they push the voice aside and pretend they never
27:44
Speaker 1: heard it at all. Fear becomes a kind of filter,
27:48
Speaker 1: letting in only what feels safe and blocking out everything
27:51
Speaker 1: that feels risky. This is a very old problem, and
27:56
Speaker 1: it once gripped an entire nation standing at the foot
27:59
Speaker 1: of a mountain, when God came down upon Mount Sinai
28:02
Speaker 1: to speak to his people. The scene was overwhelming. The
28:06
Speaker 1: mountain was wrapped in smoke. There was thunder rolling across
28:10
Speaker 1: the sky and lightning splitting the air. A trumpet blast
28:14
Speaker 1: grew louder and louder, until the whole crowd trembled. God
28:18
Speaker 1: himself had come down to speak directly to them. You
28:21
Speaker 1: might think that is the very thing every person would
28:24
Speaker 1: long for, to hear God's own voice with their own ears,
28:28
Speaker 1: But that is not how the people responded. Instead of
28:31
Speaker 1: stepping closer, they shrank back in terror. The nearness of
28:35
Speaker 1: God felt like too much to bear. Exodus chapter twenty,
28:39
Speaker 1: verse nineteen captures their reaction word for word, and they said,
28:44
Speaker 1: unto Moses, speak thou with us, and we will hear.
28:47
Speaker 1: But let not God speak with us lest we die.
28:51
Speaker 1: Think hard about what they were really asking. They were
28:54
Speaker 1: begging Moses to go and listen to God in their place.
28:57
Speaker 1: They wanted a messenger to stand in the gas app
29:00
Speaker 1: because being that close to God's voice felt far too
29:03
Speaker 1: overwhelming for them. In that moment, they chose a comfortable
29:07
Speaker 1: distance over a frightening nearness. They would rather receive God's
29:11
Speaker 1: second hand than meet him face to face. People still
29:15
Speaker 1: do this very thing to day. Deep down, they sense
29:19
Speaker 1: God calling them towards something, nudging them in a certain direction,
29:23
Speaker 1: asking something of them, but the fear of that closeness,
29:28
Speaker 1: and the fear of what obedience might require makes them
29:31
Speaker 1: quietly back away. They would rather hear about God from
29:35
Speaker 1: a safe and comfortable distance than truly draw near and
29:39
Speaker 1: risk the cost of it. And so the voice keeps speaking,
29:43
Speaker 1: gentle and patient as always, but fear keeps the door
29:46
Speaker 1: bolted shut, and the words never make it through. There
29:50
Speaker 1: are seasons in a person's life when they pray and
29:53
Speaker 1: listen and wait, and yet Heaven seems utterly silent. No
29:58
Speaker 1: voice comes, no feeling stir, there is nothing but a long,
30:02
Speaker 1: empty quiet. In those seasons, it becomes very easy to
30:05
Speaker 1: believe that God has walked away, that he has lost interest,
30:09
Speaker 1: or that He has stopped caring about you altogether. But
30:12
Speaker 1: here is something most people never understand very often, that
30:17
Speaker 1: silence is not punishment at all. It is a test,
30:20
Speaker 1: and its purpose is to grow a faith that runs
30:23
Speaker 1: deeper than feelings. Even the man whom God himself called
30:27
Speaker 1: faithful walked straight through this kind of darkness. A job
30:32
Speaker 1: lost nearly everything a person can lose, And as he
30:35
Speaker 1: sat in the ashes of his pain, he searched everywhere
30:38
Speaker 1: for God and simply could not seem to find him anywhere.
30:42
Speaker 1: Job poured out that struggle in Job Chapter twenty three,
30:46
Speaker 1: verses eight and nine. Behold, I go forward, but he
30:50
Speaker 1: is not there. And backward, but I cannot perceive him.
30:53
Speaker 1: On the left hand, where he doth work, but I
30:56
Speaker 1: cannot behold him. He hideth himself on the right hand,
30:59
Speaker 1: that I cannot see him. Forward, backward, to the left,
31:03
Speaker 1: to the right. Job turned and looked in every single direction,
31:07
Speaker 1: and in every direction God seemed hidden from his sight.
31:11
Speaker 1: Can you feel the ache in those words? He was
31:15
Speaker 1: not a wicked man being ignored. He was a faithful
31:18
Speaker 1: man who suddenly could not find the God he loved.
31:22
Speaker 1: Yet listened carefully to what Job said next. Right there
31:26
Speaker 1: in the middle of his darkness. In verse ten, he declared,
31:29
Speaker 1: but he knoweth the way that I take. When he
31:32
Speaker 1: hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Even
31:37
Speaker 1: though Job could not see God, he held tightly to
31:40
Speaker 1: the truth that God could still see him, and he
31:43
Speaker 1: grasped something powerful in the middle of his suffering. This
31:47
Speaker 1: testing was not destroying him, It was refining him. Just
31:51
Speaker 1: as fire is used to purify gold, melting away everything
31:56
Speaker 1: that is not pure until only the precious metal remains.
32:00
Speaker 1: So the trial was burning away everything weak in job
32:04
Speaker 1: until something more valuable was left behind. So when the
32:08
Speaker 1: silence comes into your own life, do not be quick
32:11
Speaker 1: to assume that something has gone wrong. Sometimes the quiet
32:15
Speaker 1: itself is doing a hidden work deep inside you. Sometimes
32:19
Speaker 1: it is growing in you a faith that no longer
32:21
Speaker 1: leans on constant words and warm feelings, but learns to
32:25
Speaker 1: trust the God it cannot hear simply because of who
32:29
Speaker 1: he is. Here is a surprising way that people miss
32:33
Speaker 1: the voice of God. They are so busy waiting for
32:36
Speaker 1: something enormous and supernatural that they completely overlook the simple,
32:41
Speaker 1: ordinary ways God is already speaking to them every single day.
32:46
Speaker 1: They want the burning bush. They want the booming voice
32:50
Speaker 1: rolling down from the clouds. They want the dramatic sign
32:54
Speaker 1: that no one could ever doubt. And while they keep
32:57
Speaker 1: waiting for the spectacular, God is quietly speaking through a
33:01
Speaker 1: friend's timely words, through a door that opened or closed,
33:06
Speaker 1: through a piece of plain wisdom he placed right in
33:09
Speaker 1: front of them. But none of it seems impressive enough,
33:13
Speaker 1: so they walk right past it, still waiting for the show.
33:17
Speaker 1: The prophet Micah cut straight through all this confusion with
33:20
Speaker 1: one of the simplest and clearest verses in the entire Bible.
33:24
Speaker 1: In his day, people were asking what enormous, dramatic, costly
33:28
Speaker 1: thing they had to do to finally please God. They
33:32
Speaker 1: imagined the answer must be something huge and overwhelming. But
33:36
Speaker 1: the answer Micah gave was far simpler than anyone expected. Micah,
33:41
Speaker 1: chapter six, verse eight says, he hath showed thee, O man,
33:44
Speaker 1: what is good? And what doth the Lord require of
33:47
Speaker 1: thee But to do justly, and to love mercy, and
33:50
Speaker 1: to walk humbly with thy God. Look at how plain
33:53
Speaker 1: and gentle that is. Do what is right, love mercy,
33:57
Speaker 1: walk humbly with your God. There are no fireworks here.
34:01
Speaker 1: There is no great mystery to unlock, no impossible task
34:04
Speaker 1: to perform. It is simple, clear, every day instruction for
34:09
Speaker 1: living an ordinary life well. And yet so many people
34:12
Speaker 1: stumble right past guidance exactly like this. Why because it
34:17
Speaker 1: seems too small, too obvious, too unspectacular to possibly be
34:21
Speaker 1: a message from the God of Heaven. Surely they think
34:24
Speaker 1: God would speak through something grander than this. But the
34:28
Speaker 1: truth runs the other way. Most of God's direction comes
34:31
Speaker 1: wrapped in the ordinary, hidden in the plain and the
34:34
Speaker 1: simple and the every day. If a person trains themselves
34:37
Speaker 1: to look only for the extraordinary. They will walk straight
34:41
Speaker 1: past the steady, quiet, faithful voice of God that has
34:45
Speaker 1: been woven into the fabric of their normal life. All along.
34:49
Speaker 1: People naturally lean toward voices that agree with them. It
34:53
Speaker 1: simply feels good to be told you are right. It
34:57
Speaker 1: feels good to have your plans approved, to be reassured
35:01
Speaker 1: that the road you already chose is the correct one.
35:04
Speaker 1: There is comfort in being affirmed. But that very comfort
35:08
Speaker 1: can quietly become a trap, because a person can slowly
35:12
Speaker 1: drift into only listening to whatever pleases them, while ignoring
35:16
Speaker 1: the truth they would rather not face. The Apostle Paul
35:20
Speaker 1: saw this danger coming from far off, and he warned
35:23
Speaker 1: his young friend Timothy about it directly. He described a
35:27
Speaker 1: coming time when people would no longer have any appetite
35:30
Speaker 1: for solid, healthy truth. Instead, they would go searching for
35:34
Speaker 1: teachers who would simply tell them whatever they liked to hear,
35:38
Speaker 1: scratching their ears with pleasant words. Tewod Timothy Chapter four,
35:43
Speaker 1: Verses three and four give the warning in full, for
35:46
Speaker 1: the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.
35:50
Speaker 1: But after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves
35:54
Speaker 1: teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their
35:58
Speaker 1: ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
36:02
Speaker 1: That phrase itching ears paints the picture perfectly. Their ears
36:08
Speaker 1: itched for soothing, comfortable words. They wanted messages that asked
36:12
Speaker 1: nothing hard of them and never told them they were wrong.
36:16
Speaker 1: So they gathered up teacher after teacher, piling them high,
36:20
Speaker 1: each one ready to scratch that itch with whatever the
36:23
Speaker 1: people wanted to hear, And in doing so they slowly
36:27
Speaker 1: turned their backs on the truth and wandered off into
36:30
Speaker 1: made up stories instead. This is a real and present
36:34
Speaker 1: danger for anyone who sincerely wants to hear God. If
36:37
Speaker 1: you will only accept the messages you enjoy, and you
36:41
Speaker 1: push away anything that corrects you, anything that asks you
36:44
Speaker 1: to change, anything that wounds your pride, then you are
36:49
Speaker 1: not actually listening to God at all. You have only
36:52
Speaker 1: learned to listen to an echo of your own wishes
36:55
Speaker 1: bouncing back at you. A person who truly desires to
36:59
Speaker 1: hear godd must come ready to receive the hard words
37:03
Speaker 1: right alongside the comforting ones. The voice that only ever
37:07
Speaker 1: pats you on the back and never challenges you is
37:10
Speaker 1: almost certainly not the voice of the God who loves
37:13
Speaker 1: you enough to tell you the truth. If a person
37:16
Speaker 1: truly wants to hear God, they must learn to do
37:20
Speaker 1: what Jesus himself did over and over again. They must
37:24
Speaker 1: pull away from the crowd and find a quiet place
37:27
Speaker 1: to be alone with God. This was not something Jesus
37:30
Speaker 1: did only once in a while. It was a habit,
37:33
Speaker 1: a steady rhythm, built into the very fabric of his days.
37:36
Speaker 1: Think about how crowded his life was. People pressed in
37:40
Speaker 1: on him from every side. The sick reached out to
37:43
Speaker 1: touch him. There were always more mouths to feed, more
37:46
Speaker 1: questions to answer, more needs around him than any single
37:50
Speaker 1: person could ever meet. And yet, right in the middle
37:53
Speaker 1: of all that pressure and demand, Jesus kept stepping away
37:58
Speaker 1: to be by himself. Luke chapter five, verse sixteen tells
38:03
Speaker 1: us simply and clearly, and he withdrew himself into the
38:08
Speaker 1: wilderness and prayed. He withdrew. He pulled back on purpose.
38:13
Speaker 1: The crowds wanted more of him, but he understood something important.
38:18
Speaker 1: To stay strong and to stay close to his father,
38:22
Speaker 1: he had to keep making room for silence. He guarded
38:25
Speaker 1: that quiet time as if his life depended on it.
38:29
Speaker 1: He even did this when there seemed to be no
38:31
Speaker 1: time for it at all. There was one particular morning
38:34
Speaker 1: when the work was already piling up, and people were
38:37
Speaker 1: beginning to search for him. But notice what Jesus chose
38:41
Speaker 1: to do before any of the busyness could begin. Mark
38:44
Speaker 1: Chapter one, verse thirty five records it. And in the morning,
38:48
Speaker 1: rising up a great while before day, he went out
38:52
Speaker 1: and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. He
38:56
Speaker 1: rose before the sun was even up, while the rest
38:59
Speaker 1: of the world was still wrapped in darkness and stillness,
39:02
Speaker 1: before the noise of the day could start, He slipped
39:05
Speaker 1: away to a lonely place to be alone with God.
39:09
Speaker 1: This is the pattern worth following. Carve out a few
39:12
Speaker 1: moments of real quiet, do not rush to fill them
39:15
Speaker 1: with a long list of words. Simply be still and listen.
39:20
Speaker 1: The person who never makes space to be alone with
39:23
Speaker 1: God will always struggle to hear him clearly. When God
39:27
Speaker 1: places something on a person's heart, there is great wisdom
39:30
Speaker 1: in writing it down. It may feel like a small
39:33
Speaker 1: and simple act, but putting it on paper does something powerful.
39:37
Speaker 1: It slows your racing mind enough to think clearly. It
39:40
Speaker 1: creates a record you can return to later, and bit
39:43
Speaker 1: by bit it builds a history between you and God,
39:47
Speaker 1: a history you can look back on and trust. This
39:50
Speaker 1: is not some new idea invented in modern times. God
39:54
Speaker 1: himself once gave this exact instruction to a prophet named Habakuk.
39:59
Speaker 1: This ma had been wrestling with God, asking honest and
40:03
Speaker 1: difficult questions, waiting and watching for a reply, And when
40:08
Speaker 1: God finally answered him, the very first thing he told
40:12
Speaker 1: him to do was to write it down. Habakuk Chapter two,
40:16
Speaker 1: verse two records what God said, And the Lord answered
40:20
Speaker 1: me and said, write the vision and make it plain
40:23
Speaker 1: upon tables that he may run that readeth it. Write
40:27
Speaker 1: the vision, make it plain, Make it so clear and
40:31
Speaker 1: so simple that anyone who reads it can understand it
40:34
Speaker 1: and act on it without confusion. God did not want
40:37
Speaker 1: his message to get lost or forgotten, or twisted over
40:41
Speaker 1: time by a faulty memory. He wanted it captured, written,
40:45
Speaker 1: and kept safe. There is just as much value in
40:48
Speaker 1: this for you. When you sense God leading you in
40:51
Speaker 1: some direction, write it down and place the date right
40:55
Speaker 1: beside it. Then as time passes, you can look back
40:59
Speaker 1: and see whether it can aim to pass, whether it
41:01
Speaker 1: matched the heart of God, whether it produced good fruit
41:04
Speaker 1: in your life. A written record keeps you honest, and
41:08
Speaker 1: it strengthens your faith as you watch again and again
41:12
Speaker 1: how God proved himself faithful. A spiritual journal is far
41:16
Speaker 1: more than a diary of daily events. It slowly becomes
41:20
Speaker 1: a living conversation between you and God, written down and
41:24
Speaker 1: treasured for years to come. There is an old practice
41:27
Speaker 1: that many people have quietly set aside and forgotten, and
41:31
Speaker 1: yet it has a remarkable power to clear the path
41:34
Speaker 1: so a person can hear God. It is called fasting.
41:38
Speaker 1: To fast simply means to go without food for a
41:42
Speaker 1: period of time on purpose, in order to seek God
41:46
Speaker 1: with greater focus. And though it may sound strange or
41:49
Speaker 1: even difficult at first, fasting has a way of quieting
41:52
Speaker 1: the body so that the spirit can grow alert and tender.
41:56
Speaker 1: Is important to understand what fasting does and what it
41:59
Speaker 1: does not do. Fasting does not twist God's arm or
42:03
Speaker 1: force him to finally speak up. What it really does
42:07
Speaker 1: is humble the one who is fasting. It places your
42:10
Speaker 1: hunger for God above your hunger for everything else, and
42:14
Speaker 1: in that lowly hungry place, your heart becomes soft and
42:18
Speaker 1: ready to truly listen the earliest followers of Jesus understood
42:22
Speaker 1: this well, and they leaned on it before making their
42:25
Speaker 1: biggest decisions. They did not merely sit down and talk
42:29
Speaker 1: things over among themselves. They fasted, and they prayed, and
42:33
Speaker 1: they waited patiently for God to point the way. In
42:37
Speaker 1: Acts chapter thirteen, verse two, we find them doing this
42:40
Speaker 1: very thing. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted,
42:44
Speaker 1: The Holy Ghost said, separate me, Barnabas and Saul for
42:48
Speaker 1: the work whereunto I have called them. Pay attention to
42:52
Speaker 1: exactly when God spoke. It was while they were ministering
42:55
Speaker 1: to Him and fasting, as they set aside food in
42:58
Speaker 1: order to seek him. He spoke with clarity and gave
43:02
Speaker 1: them direction that would go on to change the course
43:05
Speaker 1: of history. And there is a beautiful promise woven into
43:09
Speaker 1: this kind of seeking. The prophet Isiah described the true
43:13
Speaker 1: fast that God honors, along with the result it brings
43:17
Speaker 1: to the one who practices it. Isiah chapter fifty eight,
43:20
Speaker 1: verse nine says, then shalt thou call and the Lord
43:24
Speaker 1: shall answer. Thou shalt cry, and he shall say, here
43:27
Speaker 1: I am. You shall call and the Lord shall answer.
43:32
Speaker 1: When you are willing to lay aside even your own
43:34
Speaker 1: need for food. In order to seek him. You are
43:37
Speaker 1: declaring with your whole body that you hunger for God
43:40
Speaker 1: more than for anything this world could ever offer you.
43:44
Speaker 1: And He draws near to a heart that hungers like that.
43:47
Speaker 1: God never intended for a person to walk this road
43:50
Speaker 1: completely alone. There is real safety in surrounding yourself with
43:54
Speaker 1: other believers, people who are wise, who love God deeply,
43:58
Speaker 1: and who love you enough to tell you the truth
44:01
Speaker 1: even when it is hard to hear. When you believe
44:04
Speaker 1: that God has spoken something to you, these people become
44:08
Speaker 1: a kind of protection, helping you test whether what you
44:12
Speaker 1: heard truly came from Him. The Book of Proverbs returns
44:17
Speaker 1: to this point again and again. It teaches that the
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Speaker 1: person who tries to figure everything out entirely on their
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Speaker 1: own is walking in danger, while the one who welcomes
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Speaker 1: wise counsel finds safety and stands firm. Proverbs Chapter eleven,
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Speaker 1: verse fourteen states it plainly, where no counsel is the
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Speaker 1: people fall. But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.
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Speaker 1: In the multitude of counselors there is safety. One person,
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Speaker 1: all alone, can be fooled. One person can talk themselves
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Speaker 1: into nearly anything they already want to believe. But when
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Speaker 1: you bring what you are sensing to a group of mature,
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Speaker 1: godly people who carry no hidden agenda, and who genuinely
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Speaker 1: care for your soul, they can help you see clearly
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Speaker 1: what you might have missed on your own. This same
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Speaker 1: wisdom rises up again later in the very same book Proverbs,
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Speaker 1: chapter fifteen, verse twenty two declares without council purposes are disappointed,
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Speaker 1: but in the multitude of counselors they are established. Without
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Speaker 1: counsel plans fall apart. But with many wise counselors they
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Speaker 1: are made firm and steady. So when a word you
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Speaker 1: believe came from God is able to stand up to
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Speaker 1: the honest questions of people who love you and who
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Speaker 1: walk closely with God themselves, that is a powerful and
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Speaker 1: reassuring sign. If they consistently confirm what you are sensing,
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Speaker 1: you can move forward with far greater confidence. Hearing God
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Speaker 1: was never meant to be a private, lonely affair carried
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Speaker 1: out in isolation. It was meant to be tested, strengthened,
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Speaker 1: and confirmed within a loving thing family of faith. Most
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Speaker 1: people picture prayer as simply talking to God. They bring
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Speaker 1: their list of requests, say their words, finish with amen,
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Speaker 1: and then walk away. But prayer was always meant to
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Speaker 1: be far more than that. It was meant to be
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Speaker 1: a conversation, and a real conversation always moves in two directions.
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Speaker 1: You speak, and then you listen for a reply. This
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Speaker 1: is the very part that so many people skip without
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Speaker 1: even thinking about it. The moment they have said everything
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Speaker 1: they came to say, they stand up and leave, never
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Speaker 1: pausing to wait in silence for God to respond. But
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Speaker 1: the heart that genuinely longs to hear God learns to linger.
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Speaker 1: It learns to sit quietly after speaking, and to truly
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Speaker 1: expect that God just might say something back. The young
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Speaker 1: boy Samuel showed us the perfect picture of this listening posture.
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Speaker 1: Once he finally understood that it was God called out
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Speaker 1: to him, he did not keep on talking. He grew
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Speaker 1: quiet and made himself ready to receive whatever God wanted
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Speaker 1: to tell him. First Samuel, chapter three, verse ten tells
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Speaker 1: us what happened next. And the Lord came and stood
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Speaker 1: and called as at other times Samuel. Samuel. Then Samuel answered,
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Speaker 1: speak Lord, for thy servant heareth, Speak Lord, for your
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Speaker 1: servant is listening. What a beautiful and humble way to
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Speaker 1: come before God. It is the posture of a servant
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Speaker 1: who has delivered his own message and now waits, attentive
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Speaker 1: and still ready to receive his instructions. And God himself
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Speaker 1: warmly invites this kind of listening prayer. He once spoke
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Speaker 1: to the prophet Jeremiah with an open invitation, calling him
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Speaker 1: to come and ask, and promising that he would answer.
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Speaker 1: Jeremiah Chapter thirty three, Verse three records it call unto me,
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Speaker 1: and I will answer THEE and show THEE great and
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Speaker 1: mighty things which thou knowest not. And call to me,
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Speaker 1: he says, and I will answer you, and I will
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Speaker 1: show you great things you do not yet know. There
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Speaker 1: is a promise of response built right into those words.
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Speaker 1: So when you pray, do not only speak after you
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Speaker 1: have poured out your heart. Fully, grow quiet, wait, listen,
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Speaker 1: leave space for the one who has promised that he
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Speaker 1: will answer. Because there are so many voices crowding this world,
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Speaker 1: a person must learn to test what they hear instead
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Speaker 1: of simply believing every impression that drifts into their mind.
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Speaker 1: Not every thought that feels spiritual actually comes from God,
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Speaker 1: and the wise heart pauses to check carefully before following
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Speaker 1: any voice at all. The apostle John gave believers this
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Speaker 1: very instruction. He told them plainly not to trust blindly,
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Speaker 1: but to examine and test the thing they were hearing.
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Speaker 1: First John chapter four, verse one says, beloved, believe not
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Speaker 1: every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God.
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Speaker 1: Because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
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Speaker 1: Try the spirits, test them, hold each one up to
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Speaker 1: the light, and see whether it truly matches the God
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Speaker 1: you have come to know through his word. And the
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Speaker 1: main test is always this, does what you are hearing
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Speaker 1: line up with the true character of God, with his
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Speaker 1: deep love, his perfect goodness, and his pure holiness. God
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Speaker 1: will never lead you to do anything that goes against
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Speaker 1: who He is. There is also a wonderful and practical
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Speaker 1: way to know whether something is truly from God. You
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Speaker 1: can look closely at the fruit it produces in your life.
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Speaker 1: The voice of God, when it is followed, always grows
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Speaker 1: good things in a person, the very things that look
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Speaker 1: like him. Paul listed these things one by one in
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Speaker 1: Galatians chapter five, verses twenty two and twenty three. But
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Speaker 1: the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long, suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
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Speaker 1: Against such there is no law, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness,
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Speaker 1: and self control. This is the kind of fruit that
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Speaker 1: the Voice of God produces in a life that follows it.
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Speaker 1: So when you weigh a voice in your heart, ask
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Speaker 1: yourself what it is growing inside you. If it leads
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Speaker 1: you toward these good and beautiful things, it carries the
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Speaker 1: mark of God. But if it leads you somewhere dark,
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Speaker 1: toward anger, division, pride, or shame, then it does not
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Speaker 1: come from Him. No matter how spiritual or holy it
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Speaker 1: may try to sound. Here is something that changes everything
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Speaker 1: about this journey. Every single time a person actually does
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Speaker 1: what God has shown them, even in the smallest of matters,
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Speaker 1: their ability to hear him grows clearer and sharper. But sadly,
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Speaker 1: the opposite is also true. When a person hears God
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Speaker 1: and refuses to obey, the voice slowly grows fainter and
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Speaker 1: harder to make out, until what was once perfectly clear
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Speaker 1: becomes difficult to hear at all. Obedience works like turning
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Speaker 1: up the volume, while disobedience quietly turns it down. Jesus
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Speaker 1: taught this principle in a way no one could miss.
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Speaker 1: He explained that the way a person handles the small
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Speaker 1: things will determine what they can be trusted with. Next,
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Speaker 1: Luke chapter sixteen, verse ten records his words, He that
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Speaker 1: is faithful in that which is least is faithful also
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Speaker 1: in much. And he that is unjust in the least
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Speaker 1: is unjust also in much, faithful in that which is least.
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Speaker 1: That is always where it begins. God often starts by
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Speaker 1: asking you to obey in small, quiet, almost unnoticed ways.
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Speaker 1: And how you respond to those little things opens or
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Speaker 1: closes the door to greater things. The person who keeps
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Speaker 1: ignoring the small promptings should not be surprised when the
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Speaker 1: larger guidance seems to slowly dry up and fade away.
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Speaker 1: Jesus made this same point in another picture, comparing the
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Speaker 1: person who hears his words and obeys them to a
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Speaker 1: wise builder, and the person who hears but does nothing
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Speaker 1: to a foolish one. Matthew chapter seven, verse twenty four says, Therefore,
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Speaker 1: whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I
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Speaker 1: will liken him unto a wise man which built his
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Speaker 1: house upon a rock. Notice this carefully. Both men in
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Speaker 1: that picture heard the very same words. The difference between
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Speaker 1: them was never in the hearing. The difference was in
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Speaker 1: the doing. The wise one acted on what he heard,
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Speaker 1: and his house stood firm against the storm. So if
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Speaker 1: you want to keep hearing God, clearly, do not treat
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Speaker 1: his words like an interesting hobby to collect and admire.
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Speaker 1: Act on them. Every single step of obedience sharpens your
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Speaker 1: ears for the next thing he is going to say.
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Speaker 1: Learning to hear God is not a single lesson that
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Speaker 1: a person masters once and then tucks neatly away on
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Speaker 1: a shelf. It is a relationship, and like any real
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Speaker 1: and living relationship, it keeps growing and shifting across the
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Speaker 1: entire span of a person's life. God will not always
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Speaker 1: speak to you in exactly the same way. He will
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Speaker 1: meet you differently in your seasons of joy than he
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Speaker 1: does in your seasons of sorrow. He will speak differently
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Speaker 1: in the dry wilderness than he does in the times
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Speaker 1: of plenty, and differently when you are young than when
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Speaker 1: you have grown old. But one thing never changes, and
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Speaker 1: that is his deep desire to keep on speaking to you.
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Speaker 1: This whole thing is meant to be a lifelong walk,
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Speaker 1: one step taken after another drawing a little closer to
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Speaker 1: him with each passing year. The prophet Hoseiah spoke about
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Speaker 1: this very kind of ongoing pursuit, this steady reaching forward
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Speaker 1: to know God more and more deeply. Hosea chapter six,
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Speaker 1: verse three captures it beautifully. Then shall we know if
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Speaker 1: we follow on to know the Lord? His going forth
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Speaker 1: is prepared as the morning, And he shall come unto
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Speaker 1: us as the rain, as the latter and former rain
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Speaker 1: unto the earth. Follow on to know the Lord, It
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Speaker 1: is not a single arrival at a finish line, but
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Speaker 1: a continual following, a pressing forward day after day after day.
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Speaker 1: And notice the tender promise tucked right inside those words.
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Speaker 1: His coming is as certain as the morning, and as
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Speaker 1: refreshing as the rain upon the earth. Just as the
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Speaker 1: sun faithfully rises every single day, without ever failing, So
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Speaker 1: God faithfully comes to the heart that keeps on seeking Him.
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Speaker 1: And God himself made a sure promise to all those
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Speaker 1: who would search for Him with everything they have inside them.
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Speaker 1: Jeremiah chapter twenty nine, verse thirteen declares, and ye shall
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Speaker 1: seek me and find me when ye shall search for
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Speaker 1: me with all your heart. Seek me, and you will
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Speaker 1: find me when you search for me with all your heart.
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Speaker 1: That is the invitation that stretches out across an entire lifetime.
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Speaker 1: The same God who spoke from the very beginning of
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Speaker 1: all things is still speaking even now, and he will
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Speaker 1: keep on speaking to the one who keeps drawing near
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Speaker 1: to him, not because he has any need to be heard,
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Speaker 1: but because he knows that you, more than anything else
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Speaker 1: in all this world, have a need to hear him.
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Speaker 1: But before you move on, think about this for a moment.
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Speaker 1: Right now, someone you know is feeling distant from God.
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Speaker 1: They are wondering if he even hears them, aching to
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Speaker 1: know that he is still near. What if this very
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Speaker 1: video is the message they needed. You have the power
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Speaker 1: to put it in their hands. So share it. Pass
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Speaker 1: it along to a friend, a loved one, any one
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Speaker 1: who needs the reminder that God has not gone silent.
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Speaker 1: One simple share could change the course of someone's entire
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Speaker 1: walk with him. And if your heart was touched to day,
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Speaker 1: I would love for you to stay with us. Subscribe
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Speaker 1: to the channel right now, Tap the bell so the
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Speaker 1: notifications find you and you will be here for every
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Speaker 1: new journey we take through these timeless stories. There is
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Speaker 1: so much more ahead, and it would be a joy
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Speaker 1: to keep walking through the Word together, side by side.
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Speaker 1: From all of us here at Echoes of the Bible,
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Speaker 1: thank you for spending this time with us. Until we
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Speaker 1: meet again, keep your heart open, keep listening, and never
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Speaker 1: forget that the God of Heaven is still speaking, and
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Speaker 1: he is speaking to you