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Transcript

The Experience of His Voice · First15 Devotional

0:04
[SPEAKER_00]: As we continue our week on knowing God through experiencing Him, today will explore what it means and looks like to experience His voice.
0:14
[SPEAKER_00]: This can often be an intimidating topic.
0:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Many of us feel inadequate or even unable to hear the voice of God, but nothing could be further from the truth.
0:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope today you will feel the pressure or weight, lift off your shoulders.
0:33
[SPEAKER_00]: As you learn just how simple the relationship and knowing God truly is, welcome to the first 15 podcast.
1:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Our scripture for today comes from John chapter 8 verse 47, scripture says, whoever is of God hears the words of God.
1:20
[SPEAKER_00]: To seek the fullness of relationship with God is to hear His voice, John 8 47 says, whoever is of God hears the words of God,
1:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Just like when I seek true relationship with a person, a conversation must happen.
1:40
[SPEAKER_00]: When we seek to truly know God, he talks with us.
1:45
[SPEAKER_00]: He is not a God who is silent, but a God who speaks to us in any and every way he can.
1:54
[SPEAKER_00]: All throughout the New Testament, there is both teaching on hearing the voice of God and instances where the people of God
2:04
[SPEAKER_00]: In John 14, verses 16 and 17, Jesus says, and I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.
2:25
[SPEAKER_00]: You know Him for He dwells with you and will be in you.
2:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And later, in John 1613, Jesus says, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth.
2:42
[SPEAKER_00]: For He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come.
2:56
[SPEAKER_00]: God Himself dwells within us
3:02
[SPEAKER_00]: He longs for us to know the will of our heavenly Father, the way Jesus did.
3:07
[SPEAKER_00]: He longs for us to follow His leading, moment by moment, the way the apostles did.
3:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And He longs for us to engage in conversation with Him, as all those who are in true relationship with one another too.
3:26
[SPEAKER_00]: God has constantly speaking to us.
3:29
[SPEAKER_00]: The problem is that we don't know how to listen.
3:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Scripture tells us that he is declaring the invisible attributes of his nature through creation.
3:42
[SPEAKER_00]: When I take time to experience first hand the things God has made, I feel his presence.
3:49
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a reason it's peaceful to be in creation.
3:54
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a reason it's restful to be in the mountains, lay on a beach or swim in the sea.
4:02
[SPEAKER_00]: All of creation is declaring the wonderful character of our loving God.
4:08
[SPEAKER_00]: We just need to learn how to listen.
4:12
[SPEAKER_00]: God speaks to us through His revealed word.
4:16
[SPEAKER_00]: The inspire of Scripture dwells within us and longs to use the Bible as a wonderful avenue to encountering its author.
4:25
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible is not a biography written after someone has died.
4:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Rather it is the living active words of a living active God who longs for relationship with us.
4:42
[SPEAKER_00]: God speaks to us through one another, all of us as believers have been given the same spirit who has called us to a lifestyle of encouraging one another.
4:55
[SPEAKER_00]: We are called to be a critical part of the process of discovering God's heart and will in each other's lives.
5:04
[SPEAKER_00]: If we will make time to learn how God speaks to us for others, we will discover the very words of God, given by grace to the lips of man.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And God speaks to us directly from His Spirit to our Spirit.
5:23
[SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit is a vocal God.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He longs for us to know His thoughts,
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[SPEAKER_00]: He longs to direct us, whether it be through words, a sense, a desire, and uneasiness or a prompting.
5:40
[SPEAKER_00]: He is always speaking to us.
5:43
[SPEAKER_00]: In order to learn to hear his voice moment by moment, whether we're in solitude or in chaos, we must make time in the secret place to seek the fullness of relationship with him.
5:57
[SPEAKER_00]: It's in seeking relationship with God that we become familiar with His voice, and are able to follow Him as sheep with their shepherd.
6:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Take time and guided prayer to seek the face of your heavenly Father.
6:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And hear His voice, however He is choosing to speak.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Don't limit yourself to hearing Him in only one way.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The path to the fullness of relationship with him is marked by his voice in each of these ways and more.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Open your heart to hearing him through any and every way he is speaking.
6:38
[SPEAKER_00]: That you might grow in your relationship with a good and loving God.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As we begin, meditate on Scripture that declares God to be a vocal God, allow Scripture to stir up your desire to hear God in every way He speaks.
7:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Revelation 320 says, behold, I stand at the door and knock.
7:43
[SPEAKER_00]: If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me.
8:32
[SPEAKER_00]: and next.
8:34
[SPEAKER_00]: In what ways are you comfortable hearing God?
8:38
[SPEAKER_00]: What ways might be new to you?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Know that there is grace to grow in every facet of your relationship with him.
8:48
[SPEAKER_00]: don't limit yourself to only what you've known were experienced up to this point.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Rather seek the truth of God's word by His Spirit, and discover a wealth of relationship you might not have yet experienced.
9:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And last, she's one of the ways God speaks that's new to you, and asking to help you have conversation with him through that avenue.
9:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, hearing his voice through all of these avenues is meant to be the byproduct of simply seeking relationship with him.
10:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Just as we don't seek to hear the voice of another person, but seek relationship with them and get a conversation as the result.
10:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Simply seek to know God and talk with him.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Jeremiah 33 verse three says, call to me and I will answer you and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.
11:08
[SPEAKER_00]: to have conversation with God might sound strange for some, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
11:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Rather, to have conversation with God available to us and to not take advantage of it is strange.
11:24
[SPEAKER_00]: God longs to speak to you.
11:27
[SPEAKER_00]: The creator of all longs to have dialogue with you.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The King of Kings and Lord of Lords is inviting you to meet with him that you might have true relationship.
11:42
[SPEAKER_00]: See God with all your hearts.
11:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Look to Scripture and the lives of biblical believers
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[SPEAKER_00]: Because of God's heart to speak to you, you can live your life in constant conversation with a God who is both a near to you and loves you.
12:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for listening to today's podcast.
12:30
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Josh Miller with First 15.
12:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Tomorrow will look at the experience of God's peace.
12:36
[SPEAKER_00]: If you haven't already, make sure to follow the podcast so you won't miss an episode.
12:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I have so much hope and expectation for what God will do in our hearts tomorrow.
12:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Have a wonderful rest of your day and may God bless you as you see Kim.