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Review
So, what we are attempting to do through this series of teachings is discern the difference between the voice of our Good Shepherd and the voice of the stranger that would attempt to lead us astray. And I hope you understand just how important of a message this is for us, church, because there are far too many Christians who never learn to discern God’s voice or the enemy’s voice. Because of this, I’ve seen so many led around by the wrong voice, which has robbed them of the life God has for them. Therefore, I am convinced that if we can just learn the Shepherd’s voice and heed what He is saying to us, our lives would be led on those green pastures and beside those still waters. So, we started out talking about the primary ways both the Lord and the devil speak to us. And we learned that the most common way they both speak is internally and not externally. So, the most regular way we will hear their voices is on the inside of us, in very subtle ways—the Lord speaking to our spirits in that still small voice and the devil speaking to our minds in a cunning, crafty way. However, like I’ve made the point of, it’s not always so easy to discern between what we hear in our spirit and what we hear in our minds. I believe we can all grow to where can tell the difference, but what I have found is that one of the easiest ways to be able to tell what comes from God and what comes from the enemy is by the nature of the things we hear. You see, the Lord was good enough to clearly show us in His Word what both His voice and the voice of the enemy tend towards. Yes, He gave us example after example in the Scriptures that show us what their nature is and, therefore, how they both speak to us and what the effects of their words will be. So, we started off looking at these things by looking at our first example of both God and the devil speaking to mankind in the Bible. I made the point that we need to understand that whatever we see first mentioned in the Scriptures is something we will see regularly repeated in the world today. Therefore, what the Lord said and what the devil said in this instance are certainly going to be the same thing that we will hear them say to us on a regular basis. Then two weeks ago, we started looking specifically at how we can tell when it is God speaking to us. In other words, what is the fruit of God’s voice. You see, God has given us a very simple and easy way to be able to discern God’s voice. Yes, I have found that the best way for us to identify the effect of God’s voice is by the fruit of the Spirit. Why? Because the fruit of the Spirit is the “produce” of God. So, what we did last week was we looked at most of these fruit that are listed in Galatians 5:22-23 and how they help us in identifying the witness of the Holy Spirit and our own spirit:
On the contrary, when any of these nine fruits are coming up in our hearts, we can trust that this is direction from the Lord because God is not going to lead you contrary to any of these. In other words, these nine fruit of the Spirit are the fruits that let us know we have heard God’s voice. We can trust them. They are reliable. What the Stranger Produces So now that we covered the fruit of the Shepherd’s voice, let’s look at some of the fruit of the stranger’s voice over the course of these next two weeks: Now when I say “fruit” of the voice of the enemy, don’t misunderstand me. His words definitely don’t produce anything good in us like the Holy Spirit’s fruit do. The stranger’s voice actually produces the polar opposite of what the Shepherd’s voice produces. This is what we are going to touch on today. You see, just like we can look at the things we hear in our hearts and tell whether they were from the Lord by how consistent they are with the fruit of the Spirit, we can also tell when it is the enemy speaking to us by the effects of his words. So, let’s spend this week looking at one major thing that the devil loves to produce in us through his words. Now in our list of things that the devil uses when he speaks to us, we see how the devil likes to do various things like push & pressure us, discourage & depress us, trouble & confuse us, but one passage of Scripture that I believe best encapsulates some of the enemy’s devices is found in First Peter 5:8. The Stranger’s Most Popular Weapons First Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” Now it is important to note that the apostle Peter added “casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” right before this verse on spiritual warfare (see verse 7). So why do you reckon he added this statement? It is because when we allow worry and doubt to dominate our minds, we are opening up the door to our adversary to devour us. In other words, not casting our cares upon Him will lead us a little closer to the cage of that roaring lion, making us more susceptible to being devoured. So, before Peter ever even mentions the devil, he mentions one of the things that can cause us to disqualify ourselves—worry. But that was just an introductory commercial to the verse I want us to look at. Now, let’s look at First Peter 5:8 in detail … Notice that first, he says, “be sober”: The Greek word for “sober” is nepho and means “to be mentally self-controlled, clear-headed, well-balanced, alert, and stabilized.” In other words, you could say that this word means “to think straight.” And why is being “mentally self-controlled” and “thinking straight” so important in dealing with the devil? It is because (as we’ve learned) the mind is the avenue he speaks to us on. As I briefly mentioned already, if he can get your thought life all out of whack, then he may devour you. Then Peter says, “be vigilant.” This term means “to be awake, watchful, and standing guard.” You see, as soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of a battle we need to be alert and watchful. If we were in a physical war and were walking through the enemy’s territory, do you reckon we might be a little sober and alert? Of course, we would! And why? It is because if you’re not watchful and clear-headed you could lose your life. Likewise, this world is the enemy’s camp, and we are his targets to steal, kill and destroy from. Therefore, we need to be fully sober and vigilant because the enemy has his wicked snipers targeting us at all times, waiting for an open shot. So, we must have this militant mentality at all times! Then, after our “to do” list is mentioned, Peter tells us why we need to be so mentally prepared by saying, “for your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” So, in this passage of Scripture, we have two of the primary weapons that he uses against us. The Prosecuting Attorney First, notice that he is called our “adversary.” In this word lies a key to understanding one of his weapons that he loves to use against us. The word “adversary” is the Greek word antidikos and literally describes “an opponent in a court of justice.” In other words, the devil is “the prosecuting attorney.” This word antidikos comes from the word anti meaning “against” and the word dikos where the word “righteousness” is derived from. Therefore, this title of “adversary” describes Satan as being the one who is “against righteousness.” Now we see in the Book of Job (Job 1:6-12) that Satan comes to present himself before God regularly to bring accusations against us because he is the accuser of the brethren. But we also need to understand that not only does he accuse us before God, day and night, but he also will accuse us directly both day and night. In other words, one of his primary devices that he uses against us is condemnation! Yes, the devil is constantly trying to make us feel guilty and worthy of punishment. The word “condemn” in the dictionary is defined as “to deem unfit for use” in reference to a building being condemned. And this is what the enemy desires to accomplish—to convince us that we are unfit to be used by God. But the reality is that we have an advocate (i.e., a defense attorney) with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous (First John 2:1) and if He be for us who can be against us? (Romans 8:31) In other words, if He, being the greatest defense attorney ever, is on our side then who can successfully win a case against us!?! Romans 8:32 implies that if God gave His only begotten Son for us then how could we believe that He wouldn’t forgive us of individual sins after we have been saved. If God was merciful to us when we were His enemies, how much more will He show us mercy now that we are His children? (Romans 5:9-10) Romans 8:33 asks the question— “Who shall bring a charge (or, accusation) against God’s elect (i.e., favorite, picked out, the one God voted for)?” He answers his own question by saying, “It is God who justifies!” In other words, “It isn’t God! He’s the One busy making people right before Him!” You see, God is the One who declares people innocent and righteous! Then, in Romans 8:34 Paul asks another question— “Who is he who condemns?” And again, He answers his own question by saying, “It is Christ who died…” That simply means that Christ took all of our condemnation and died in our place! Praise God! But, thank God, He didn’t stay in the tomb! Paul went on to explain— “…and furthermore is also risen.” Romans 4:25 says that He was raised for our justification. You see, it would not have been good enough for Jesus to just die for our sins. He also needed to be raised so that we could be justified with Him. So, Paul told us that He was not only raised from the dead, but He was also raised to the right hand of God, which is the ultimate place of power and authority. I think the next phrase is so awesome! Not only did Jesus die for us, not only was He raised from the dead for us, and not only was He raised up to the right hand of God for us. On top of all that, “who also makes intercession for us!” You see, Jesus is not the one bringing accusations and condemning us! He is the one standing between us and the Father, defending us as our Advocate and Intercessor! The devil is the condemner! He is the prosecuting attorney! You see, church, Jesus says to all of us what He said to the women caught in adultery— “Where are those accusers of yours?... Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more” (John 8:10-11). So, if Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), then He is saying that to all of us today— “Neither do I condemn you!” Yes, the only time He will ever cast judgment on anyone is on that Great Judgment Day, but until then, He says “Neither do I condemn you” yesterday, today and forever. Amen! What the Devil Walks About Like Now let’s move on to another very popular weapon that the enemy uses when he speaks to us. It is also referred to in First Peter 5:8 where the apostle Peter goes on to say how our adversary (i.e., prosecuting attorney) “walks about like a roaring lion …” First of all, notice how Peter did not specifically say the devil is a roaring lion, but that he is like a roaring lion. You see, this means that he is only likened to a roaring lion, and not actually a big, bad roaring lion himself. In other words, he just carries some of the same characteristics of a roaring lion, but is not to be viewed as something to be feared and terrifying. Why? Because our Lord has already disarmed, dethroned, and defeated him (see Colossians 2:15 & Hebrews 2:14). Yes, there is only one king of the jungle and that ain’t satan! Jesus is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and he alone is LORD. But that doesn’t change the fact that the devil operates a lot like a lion does. So, let’s delve into how the devil walks about like a roaring lion and what the Holy Spirit is trying to communicate to us by describing him this way … Notice how he’s described as “walking about.” This reminds me of how the devil is described as walking to and fro (i.e., back and forth) on the earth (See Job 1:7). The imagery we get from this is how a lion paces back and forth in his cage at the zoo when he would love to be outside of that cage “devouring” all those spectators. This is what the devil does with those created in God’s likeness & image – specifically the children of God who are negatively impacting his kingdom. And when he finds them, he seeks every opportunity to pounce on and devour them. But the good news is – He can’t! No, he is seeking those he may devour, and that is those who make themselves “devourable.” Let me explain … Like a Roaring Lion You see, it is very significant that Peter likens satan to “a roaring lion” here because the roar of a lion is one of a lion’s hunting tools & tactics. Yes, this description of him as a “roaring lion” describes one of his hunting techniques: You see, one of the hunting techniques of a lion is that when it is seeking its prey, it will roar with its incredibly loud roar—a roar that is so loud that it is said that one can hear it up to five miles away. Now it does this for a couple of reasons: Number one, it is to scatter the pack … You see, a lot of the animals that a lion likes to hunt travel in packs, and they do this because it’s in their nature to know that if they can stick together, the larger, more dangerous animals won’t be as inclined to go after them. So, the lion’s roar is used to scatter the pack, which makes that one lone “sheep” easy pickings for him. Church, this is one of the things that you can expect to hear from the stranger—words that promote disunity and separation amongst the body of Christ. Anytime there is a thought that enters our mind that is “leading” us away from unity, love, and faithfulness, that’s a red flag. These thoughts often manifest themselves in things like us getting in strife with one another, leaving a local body of believers, and isolating ourselves. Please know that this is one of the devices of the devil – that roaring lion – to disjoin the body of Christ and separate us from one another both in our physical presence and in our hearts. Number two, the lion’s roar is used to paralyze its prey. Yes, the other result of that lion’s roar is that it can essentially paralyze its prey with fear and make it an easy target to devour. You see, because a lion’s roar is so loud and deep, it is extremely intimidating to the other animals, and it can cause them to freeze right where they are at. So not only does his roar “scatter the pack,” it can cause some of the herd to freeze in their tracks. Church, all of this describes another weapon that our enemy likes to use on us—FEAR! Yes, the fear that keeps us from moving forward, the fear of connecting with other people, the fear of obeying God, etc. etc. etc. Yes, if he, through his intimidating and paralyzing words can get us into any of these various forms of fear, then the result will be us allowing that fear to paralyze us. The result of this will be for us to basically just stop following the Shepherd’s words, to where we are just opening up the opportunity for the devil to pounce on us and devour us. It can also cause us to allow that fear to separate us from the rest of Christ’s body and other healthy relationships we have in our lives. The Giant of Fear One of the best examples we have in Scripture of this is found in the account of David and Goliath in First Samuel 17. In this story, we are told that Goliath came to present himself before the armies of Israel for 40 days and verbally taunted them twice a day. So not only was Goliath’s appearance intimidating, but his words made Israel “dismayed and greatly afraid” (vs.11). Then David came on the scene and there were several things that he did in this event that we can do as well to counter that giant called “fear.” The first thing he did was realize that Goliath was not just defying the army of Israel, but he was defying the armies of the living God. David realized Israel had a covenant with God and that meant that God was bound to give them the victory over these Philistines. You see, in a covenant, when one of the parties went into battle the other fought with them. Therefore, David knew that because of Israel’s covenant with God, that this “uncircumcised Philistine” (i.e., this Gentile who did not have a covenant with God) was no match for him. Church, it doesn’t matter what it looks like in the natural if you have a covenant with the Lord of hosts. Then those words that Elijah told his servant in 2 Kings 6:16 are true for us— “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them!” The second thing David did was recall to his memory his past victories. He recounted how he was used by God to kill a lion and a bear who, in the natural, seemed to be impossible victories. So, remember: recalling our past victories will spark faith in us for the current giant in our life. We need to build memorials in our lives that call to remembrance all the things God has brought us through. So, after David got the Ok from his authority to face Goliath, he went down to the brook and gathered five smooth stones and then drew near to the Philistine. Then we are told that Goliath looked at David and “disdained him.” This resulted in him beginning to roar like a lion, trying to put fear in David’s heart. And Goliath said something that the enemy still says today— “Come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field” (vs.44) In other words, “Come on! Try and take me on! Try and believe for your healing! Try and take this city for Jesus! Try it and I’ll take your family, friends, health, etc. away from you and leave you with nothing!” So, what was the enemy trying to do to David? He was trying to put a picture in David’s head of what would happen to him if he confronted this giant. This illustrates to us how the enemy will try and use our imagination against us. If he can get us to ponder those pictures of defeat in our minds, then our faith will grow weaker. You see, it has been well-said that the word F.E.A.R stands for “false expectations appearing real.” And the way that these false expectations appear real is in our mind and our imagination. On the other hand, if God can get us to ponder images of victory in our minds, then we will grow in faith and, therefore, will receive what God has for us. You see, we have to see it in here (i.e., in our heart and mind) in order to see it out here (i.e., in the natural)! So, what did David do when Goliath was trying to paint that picture of defeat in him? Did he just stand back and do nothing? No, David verbally responded to those fear-filled images by creating faith-filled images in himself! We are told that he saw Goliath dead in this valley with birds and wild beasts eating his carcass. Saints, it would do us good to sometimes just close our eyes and imagine ourselves going to the mailbox and opening up that envelope with an anonymous check in it. It would do us good to picture our kids, hands raised, worshipping the Lord. When we start seeing it through the eyes of faith then we will start seeing it with the eyes of our head! And we see that as David got this positive imagery in his head and spoke it out of his mouth, he also began to speak many concrete, faith-filled words. In verse 46 alone he used the word “will” three times- “the Lord will deliver you into my hand,” “I will strike you and take your head from you,” “I will give your carcass…” David had tremendous confidence and boldly confessed what would happen before he ever saw it happen. Likewise, we must also learn to do these things David did as we face the giants in our lives that try and paralyze us through fear. But if you are going to take anything away from this story of David vs. Goliath, know this: The best way to counter fear-filled thoughts is to speak faith-filled words! Why do I say this? It is because before David ever tried to take on Goliath, he first spoke faith-filled words. I just love a quote I heard from Mark Hankins! He said, “Never run at your giant with your mouth shut!”—to which I give a hearty ‘Amen!” Bold Like Lions Now there is another passage of Scripture that uses this exact same terminology that we see in First Peter 5:8, and it is found in Proverbs 28:15. In this verse, Solomon says, “Like a roaring lion and a charging bear is a wicked ruler over poor people.” Now we know how this biblical principle works, don’t we? If we get the wrong person in a position of authority, whether that be in the government or in the church, it can be dangerous “like a roaring lion” and a charging bear. But do you know what else is dangerous? It is when we allow the devil to rule over us like the tyrant he is. And this occurs when we see ourselves as poor & powerless. Yes, it is the helpless that allows the ruler of the darkness of this world to be dangerous like a roaring lion and a charging bear. But we are not helpless, saints, and (again) he is not the king of the jungle either. We need to understand that the enemy cannot just come into our life and devour everything he wants to. We have authority over him, and we can be confident in this. You see, regarding this confidence & boldness, Proverbs 28:1 says that the wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion. Isn’t that interesting that the wicked person is said to flee when no one is pursuing them? Church, we need to understand that we are not wicked anymore. If we are a born again, child of God, our nature has been changed and we are not sinners any longer. Sure, we can still sin after we have been saved, and likely we will. But that does not change our nature. But think on this: How many of you believe that before you became a follower of Christ that there was no amount of good deeds/works that you could have done to be made righteous? We all believe that, right? Why? It is because we are born a sinner and our works cannot change our nature. So how can we believe that after we are born again and made the righteousness of God in Christ that there is any amount of bad deeds/works that we can do to be made a sinner? No, when you were born again, your nature changed from being a sinner to being righteous in Christ. Therefore, there is nothing you can do to be considered wicked now that you are born again, just like there was nothing you could do to be considered righteous when you were born the first time. It is simply a result of the nature you are born with. Your “do” does not affect your “who.” No, you have been made righteous in Christ! That means that you have been made fit to be used by God. You do not make yourself usable; you were made usable by Jesus! Therefore, when you pray for someone in the name of Jesus, you should see it, not as you praying for them, but as it is in truth, Jesus praying for them! Friends, as a general rule, we are too self-conscious in the church. We look at ourselves far more than we ought to. The truth is that we are dead, and our life is hidden with Christ in God (see Colossians 3:3). The truth is that, as the body of Christ, it is no longer we who live, but Christ living through us (Galatians 2:20). For to live is Christ (see Philippians 1:21)! So, we need to quit seeing ourselves praying for people because in essence it is Christ praying for people! We are operating in His place (i.e., in His name). So, forget getting “self-esteem”! That is a worldly philosophy! The Christian philosophy is that we should be striving to get more “Christ-esteem.” But notice it is the wicked who flees when no one pursues. And this is exactly what sin consciousness will do in our lives: When we see ourselves as “wicked”—that is, when we are conscious of all of our faults, weaknesses, mistakes and shortcomings—we will flee when no pursues. That means that we will run from God when He is not out to get us. This happened in the Garden after the first sin of man, and it is still happening today when God’s children sin. We sin, and instead of running to God (like we should), we run from Him thinking He is pursuing us to punish us. But the truth is that God is pursuing you when you sin, but not to punish you; He is pursuing you to restore, redeem, and reconcile you! So, the wicked—or, the one who thinks he or she is wicked—will flee when no one pursues. This describes far too many Christians. They are running from the righteousness of God because they have an incorrect view of God and of themselves. But, again, God is not pursuing to punish; He is pursuing to pour out His protection and provision. They are even running from the devil because they have an incorrect view of him and also because they have an incorrect view of themselves. But we are not to be fleeing from him; he is supposed to be fleeing from us! Do you see the perverted thinking much of the church has adopted? We think we are being pursued! We think God is out to get us and we think the devil is going to get us. Both of these beliefs are so far from the truth! God is for us, so who can be against us! This is what we should be believing! But notice the second half of this verse … “But the righteous are bold as a lion.” This is the truth we need to displace that lie with! The devil is said to walk about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, yet we see him as the big, bad lion. But we are the righteousness of God in Christ, and we need to see ourselves as that big, bad lion! Why? Because we are in the Lion of Judah! We are the ones who are hid in the King of the Jungle! Therefore, we should be the bold, confident ones! We should be the ones that are walking about boldly like lions, seeking which works of darkness that we can devour—not the reverse! Hallelujah! Friends, understanding our righteous position in Christ will produce boldness and confidence! Having our state of justification revealed to us will produce the full assurance of faith in our hearts! Hallelujah! We are to be playing the part of the lion; not the devil! We are to be the ones on the hunt; not him! We are the ones with the authority! We are the ones with the position! We are the ones with the name above all names! We ARE the righteousness of God in Christ! So, stop fleeing like the wicked and start pursuing like the righteous! Be bold and be confident! Know that his works have no legal grounds and that you have the authority to cast out the works of darkness by the power of the blood and His anointing! You are the one to be feared, not satan! Conclusion So, these are just a couple of the ways the stranger –the devil – speaks to us. Of course, there are many other things he speaks to us to try and sabotage our lives. But these are just a couple of things that I consider his “heavy artillery.” Church, these truths are so important to understand. Once we start recognizing his devices, we can truly bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. This will most certainly lead us into a life of victory. Amen and amen.
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Review
So last month, we began a new series on discerning between the voice of the Shepherd and the voice of the stranger. And church, this is such an important message for us to learn because I’ve seen far too many Christians led by the wrong voice when if they would have simply followed a simple criteria given to us in the Word, they would have known that the enemy was attempting to lead them astray. Yes, we have learned in Jesus’ parable in John chapter 10 that the Lord’s sheep are promised that they can both hear & know the voice of the Good Shepherd and also recognize the voice of the stranger. Therefore, Jesus spoke very definitively that we can and should know the difference between God’s voice and the voice of the enemy. So, we started out talking about the primary ways both the Lord and the devil speak to us. And we learned that the most common way they both speak to us is internally and not externally. No, the main & regular way we will hear their voices is on the inside of us, in very subtle ways. As for the Lord, we saw how He mainly speaks to us in our spirit and by His Spirit. Therefore, learning to hear the voice of the Shepherd is not going to come from looking out here somewhere, but by looking in our heart where the Holy Spirit resides—for the Lord primarily communicates to us spirit to spirit. On the other hand, while the stranger is also mainly speaking to us on the inside, he is not communicating with us in our spirit. No, he speaks to us in our minds—constantly bombarding us with thoughts that seek to steal, kill, and destroy us. However, like I made the point of last week, it’s not always so easy to be able to discern between what we hear in our spirit and what we hear in our minds. I believe we can all grow to where can tell the difference, but what I have found is that one of the easiest ways to be able to tell what comes from God and what comes from the enemy is by the nature of the things we hear. You see, the Lord was good enough to clearly show us in His Word what both His voice and the voice of the enemy tend towards. Yes, He gave us example after example in the Scriptures that show us what their nature is and, therefore, how they both speak to us and what the effects of their words will be. So, we began in the Beginning – in the Book of Genesis where the enemy showed up on the scene – and looked at the initial way that he attempted to deceive Adam & Eve. I believe this one example gives us great insight into how the stranger attempts to lead us out of the fold and on to the path that leads to destruction. But the first thing we did was we looked at what the Lord said to Adam before the serpent ever opened his mouth: So, what did God say in Genesis 2:15-17? What were the words of the Good Shepherd? If you were to ask most people what the Lord told Adam in this passage, most would only recognize how the Lord was commanding Adam to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And while that was certainly part of what He commanded, that was not the only thing. In fact, it wasn’t even the first thing He commanded. No, the Lord actually “commanded” him first to freely eat from every tree of the garden. Church, this is much more significant than most realize because it teaches us how the Lord was not just being a “Law-giver” but had actually first given Adam an invitation to “freely” eat from any other tree of the Garden. So, the Lord essentially gave Adam “freedom” before He gave him a “law.” And did you know that is how God always is? Most see Him as the Law and as this Being who basically just wants us to follow His rules, but that’s not His heart. Sure, He has rules, but they are given out of love—because He wants His best for us and following His ways is the way of blessing. But in a perfect world, the Lord freely gives us all trees to eat. That, my friends, is abundant prosperity. It is the Land of Blessing! God’s will is always to give us heaven! Amen! And the fact is, just as the Lord offered “freedom” first, we need to be listening for His voice that tells us what we can have & can do. So, if we are hearing from the Shepherd correctly, what are we going to hear? A bunch of don’t do this or don’t do that? No, you will first hear do this and do that? In other words, the Lord primarily likes to speak to us all the things we can have and can do before giving us the things that are off limits. We looked at how easy it is for us to misinterpret the things God is saying to us by looking at His Parable of the Prodigal Son. You see, when you consider the context of this parable, you’ll learn that Jesus was not just trying to teach about this younger, wasteful son, but He was actually trying to correct the ones that the elder son in this parable represented. Yes, it was the religious that Jesus was admonishing and so this parable was aimed more at teaching the error of the elder son than the error of the younger son. You see, this parable begins by Jesus saying that “a certain man had two sons” (Luke 15:11). Then in verse 12 we are told – “And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood.” Notice that! The father divided not just to him but to “them” his livelihood. Have you ever seen that? So that means that at this point the father went ahead and divided to both of his sons their inheritance. Now we will go on to see later in this parable how the elder son got upset because of all the things his father did for his good for nothing younger brother. And how did the father respond to him? He reminded his son that he was always with him and all that He had was his. In fact, there are no indications in the story that the elder son knew this. Perhaps he was unaware that the father had divided to both of them his livelihood. And I believe that’s exactly what happened because that is what religion tends to do—miss all that the Lord has freely given and base its relationship with Him on all that it does for Him. Church, these truths of this parable illustrate to us how easy it is for us to miss what the Lord is saying to us. Yes, as the Lord Jesus said, God’s Word can be made of non-effect through our traditions. Likewise, what God is saying to us can fall on deaf ears through a wrong belief system and the traditions we might have erroneously adopted. And I believe the same thing happened to Adam & Eve: I believe they lost sight of every tree that the Lord had freely given to him in the Garden and got “tunnel vision” on the one tree that God forbade. Which is exactly what the enemy will attempt to do to us. But then we saw how the Lord also made sure to tell Adam that there was one tree that was forbidden. So, one thing we have to make sure we have ears to hear are those words of the Shepherd that do indeed tell us what is not for us. But like we saw, even in those things where the Lord tells us don’t do this or don’t do that, He speaks these things in such a gentle & gracious way. In other words, God’s heart is not to speak to us in that old Cecil B. DeMille “Ten Commandments” tone that booms from heaven saying, “Thou Shalt Not …!” No, His words are always with grace, seasoned with salt like we are commanded to speak to others in Colossians 4:6. I asked the question – Do you think the Lord is going to tell us to talk to one another like that if He Himself isn’t willing to do so? No, even God’s commandments are spoken “with grace” and are “seasoned with salt.” Do you know why this is so important to understand? It’s because the stranger loves to masquerade as an angel of light. So, he will try and deceive us into thinking God is speaking to us by speaking words to us that don’t add to us and come across in a fashion that doesn’t taste right. So just know that if the words we are hearing are not “with grace” and haven’t been “seasoned with salt,” then they likely are not from our Good Shepherd. But we saw that after God had given them these commands, the first words we see out of satan’s mouth in the Scriptures was “Has God indeed said.” Another way of translating that is— Did God really say …?” So, if I start having thoughts that contradict something that I know God has said like “I wonder if that’s really true” or “Is this really what this verse means?” So, the first thing we saw come out of the devil’s mouth in the Bible is him questioning what God says. And that is what we can expect in our lives as well – steady doses of him trying to get us to question what God has said. So be on the lookout for the reasoning that comes after God has already spoken to us. God’s truth is usually pretty simple. But the devil likes to complicate it. And notice how he complicated it here with Eve: After saying, “Has God indeed said” he adds— “… You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” So, what we saw that he was doing was getting her to look more at the fact God didn’t allow them to eat of all the trees of the Garden, but had made the one off limits. In other words, he got her focused on how the Lord was supposedly withholding something from them rather than how He had allowed them to freely eat of every other tree. That’s a scheme of the enemy – to get us questioning God’s intentions instead of believing that He has our best interest in mind. This is why He winds up telling her that God knows that they would become like Him, knowing good & evil. So, he wanted her to believe that God was withholding something from them – trying to keep them from something. So, we spent last week essentially looking at the first things God & the devil spoke to mankind, understanding that whatever we see first mentioned in the Scriptures is something we will see regularly repeated in the world today. Two Witnesses But again, the issue seems to be a confidence of whether what we are hearing in our hearts is the Lord, the enemy, or just our own selves. And the reason for this lack of confidence is because our hearts can so easily deceive us into thinking what we are hearing is the Lord when it was just us or it was us when it was really the enemy. Did you know that even the great apostle Paul didn’t totally trust the things he “thought”? Notice in Romans 9:1 where he said, “I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit …” So how was Paul so certain that what he was saying was the truth in Christ and he was not lying? Most would think a person would just automatically know that because, wouldn’t one know if what they were saying was true or not? Not necessarily. The Bible teaches us in other places that a person can “deceive themselves” in thinking they are spiritual when they are not. So evidently, we can think something is true and be completely deceived. So how did Paul prove to himself that what he was saying was the truth? Because his conscience also was bearing him witness in the Holy Spirit. In other words, his conscience was confirming that this was not a lie by the Holy Spirit bearing witness that it was true. Here, the same Greek word is being used to translate the three words “also bearing…witness” as in Romans 8:16 and it is obvious that Paul is saying that his conscience was bearing witness along with the Holy Spirit. So evidently, we have a co-witness on the inside of us that will testify concerning what the Lord is saying to us—our own spirit & the Holy Spirit. This is how we can know what is true and what is a lie. Now we made the point of a couple of weeks ago, First John 2:20, says, “we know all things.” So, what part of us is it that knows all things? Our spirit! You see, our spirit is eternal and, therefore, has characteristics that supersede things here in the natural. Therefore, our spirit man knows everything. So, when it bears witness to something, it knows what is true and what is a lie. But then we have the Holy Spirit living in us as well to also bear witness to things, and we know he knows everything as the omniscience of God Himself. So, with these two things bearing witness with us, how could we ever be led astray? Saints, this is a fail proof method for hearing from God because if you have two witnesses that know all things speaking up on the inside of you, you have a certain conviction. Doesn’t the Bible say that in the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established? And doesn’t it also say to not receive an accusation against an elder without two or three witnesses? The Bible is obviously big on having multiple witnesses. So why would hearing from God be any different? Yes, both our born again recreated spirit that is full of the life of God and the mighty Holy Spirit Himself living in our hearts know everything and will keep us from following a lie. But here is my point: If your spirit is also bearing witness along with the Holy Spirit, then how do you identify the witness of your own spirit? In other words, how can you tell when it is your spirit or when it is your soul and your flesh? Well, I believe there are some very clear and distinct ways of being able to tell where what we are hearing is coming from. Yes, the Lord showed me the most practical way to identify the witness of both our spirit and the Holy Spirit. And, saints, this will keep you out of a bunch of error, so listen well … I have found that the best way for us to identify the witness of our own spirit is by the fruit of the Spirit. Why? Because the fruit of the Spirit is the “produce” of your recreated spirit because it is the spiritual makeup of this hidden man of the heart. As the Lord said to me before, the fruit of the Spirit are the muscles of your spirit. So, what I want us to look at this week are these fruit that are listed in Galatians 5:22-23 and how they help us in identifying the witness of the Holy Spirit and our own spirit. So, let’s turn over there and look at this list … Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” So, these are the fruit of both the Holy Spirit and our newly recreated spirit. Therefore, when any of these nine fruits are coming up in our hearts, we can trust that this is direction from the Lord because God is not going to lead you contrary to any of these. Likewise, if anything contrary to these nine fruits of the Spirit are dominating our heart, then we can be certain that this is not direction from the Lord. So, at what point in any of our lives is the Holy Spirit going to speak to us, or is our own spirit going to lead us in anything outside of these nine fruit of the Spirit? The answer is simple – NEVER! Yes, the Lord will always speak to us things that will provoke and lead us into love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Love Now the first fruit that we see listed here is a big one, in that it is God Himself. LOVE! Yes, everything I hear from God will be laced with love, right? Yes, if this is His core nature, then everything He communicates to me will tend towards love and will certainly not be contrary to that. You see, in First John 4:19 we are told that “God is love.” This little powerful phrase holds such a wonderful revelation! God does not just have love; God is love! He is the embodiment of agape—unconditional and unfailing love! If you’ve seen pure love, you’ve seen God clearly! If you’ve experienced unconditional love, you’ve experienced a piece of God! Now here is my point: If you’ve felt love, you’ve felt God! You see, the problem that many Christians face is that when a thought or idea comes into their heart, they do not feel like they know if it is God. In other words, they have a thought to go pray for someone, but they do not know if it is God leading them to do that or if it was just them thinking this up on their own. Well, let me give you one major indicator if it’s God or not: If its love; It’s God! If it is not pure, genuine love then you better think twice about it. You see, since God is love, then it stands that when we have compassion just well up in our hearts for someone or for something that it is God “moving us with compassion.” And you can bet that if we follow that compassion that there is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit on the other side of obedience! We see that Jesus was compelled by love, only saying what He heard His Father saying and only doing what He saw His Father doing. Yes, Jesus was moved with compassion. He followed after love (First Corinthians 14:1). To me, this love of God is one of the most common fruits that the Lord uses to help us identify the inward witness within us, and the reason I believe this is because this is the predominant way that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was led to do things. Actually, we have at least five specific miracles that Jesus performed as a direct result of being moved with compassion (the feeding of the four thousand, the feeding of the five thousand, the two blind men, the leper, and the widow’s son being raised from the dead) … So, these three words— “moved with compassion”- are one of the most important lessons we can learn from the life of Jesus! Why? Because whenever He was moved with this compassion (i.e., deep love) the gifts of the Spirit followed, and He did great things. So, another way of saying this is that Jesus was “led by love.” On the contrary, the devil will not compel us towards love. In fact, the stranger will do everything he can to lead us away from the love of God. Yes, he will lead us away from the fold and away from our Shepherd. He will do this by filling our minds with unlovely thoughts towards others and if he is not successful in getting us to become hateful, angry, and bitter towards the brethren, he will simply distract us from actually loving others. Did you know that one name given to satan in the Scriptures is the accuser of the brethren? Yes, in Revelation 12:10 tells us, “Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.’ ” So, this reveals to us that the devil’s core nature is to accuse the brethren before God day and night. In other words, this is not an occasional thing, but what the devil is constantly doing, accusing God’s people day and night. So, if this is what he is constantly doing before God, don’t you think this will be something we will also get a steady dose of in our minds? You can bet on it! No, God is not in the accusing business; He’s in the excusing business! So, if I am hearing from God, I will be led into love and certainly will not be led to accuse the brethren. Someone will say— But don’t we all do stupid, wrong things? Sure we do! But love covers a multitude of sins! It doesn’t seek to expose them! No, Love will always lead us to look at the best in others and not nitpick all their flaws and faults. Amen? Joy Now let’s look at the next fruit of the Spirit and see another fruit of God speaking to/leading us—joy! Yes, when joy manifests in your heart at the prospect of doing something, that’s the Lord! When you just sense the joy of the Lord on the inside of you when you hear something, that’s the Lord! Have you ever had that happen to you? Do you remember the instance where when Elizabeth heard Mary’s voice and the baby she was carrying (i.e., John the Baptist) began leaping in her? It says in Luke 1:44 (This is Elizabeth talking)-- “For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.” Now I understand that the baby (i.e., John the Baptist) was who leaped within her womb, but this is a good illustration of how the Lord confirms things with us… You see, what happened here was Mary went to visit Elizabeth and right when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit. But in verse 44, Elizabeth said that as soon as she heard this greeting, something happened on the inside of her. Her baby leaped within her for joy. And this is exactly what happens with us sometimes when the inward witness is manifested within us. Our new man will start doing back-flips on the inside of us. Our spirit will start jumping, leaping, and praising God. Amen! You see, this event with Elizabeth was the Holy Spirit witnessing with her that Mary was carrying the Messiah. There were no indications that Mary had told her anything. She just had a witness within her when she heard Mary’s voice. Amen! And that is what He will do for us who are already filled with the Holy Spirit! There will be an excitement that wells over within us when the Spirit is bearing witness with our spirit. Glory to God! And we can trust that joy within us to be the fruit of the inward witness! Saints, this is certainly a good way to distinguish between truth and error… Is there an inner excitement within us regarding what we are hearing? Friends, if you leave a church meeting, Bible study or any other thing, not feeling excited and joyful in your heart, then there is a good chance that the Holy Spirit and your spirit are not bearing witness to the message you heard. Therefore, God wasn’t in it. Peace And we can easily see how the third fruit of the Spirit is a wonderful way of identifying the leading of the Lord … You see, the fruit of peace is considered to be one of the primary ways that believers can know when the Lord is directing us into something. We use terminology like “I had a peace to do it” or “I didn’t have any peace about that.” That’s because we learn that this fruit of peace is usually a good barometer of if the Lord is in it. We see this in Colossians 3:15 where the apostle Paul exhorted us to let the peace of God rule in our hearts: This verse begins by saying, “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts…” Listen to what it says in the Amplified Bible— “And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as an umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state]…” Notice, first of all, how the Amplified Bible translates peace as “soul harmony”… This answers the question of how do we detect the peace of God in our hearts. It’s like a harmony in our soul. There might be a lot of noise on the inside of us. There might be a lot of clanging cymbals and off-key notes in our souls, but look for the harmony. The word “harmony” is defined as “the combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords and chord progressions having a pleasing effect.” So, this goes back to what I said earlier – The peace of God within us is the fruit of our spirit harmonizing together with His Spirit, creating a co-witness that is manifested in peace. Let me say it again this way… When the Holy Spirit is bearing witness along with our spirit- the fruit of both of those witnesses within us is peace. Therefore, you can trust the peace of God within you to, what? “Rule in your hearts” As evidenced by the Amplified Bible’s translation, the word “rule” that Paul used here literally describes a referee or umpire that is officiating something. Paul was saying that we are to let the fruit of peace be the umpire of our hearts, which means that it should call the shots in all of the decisions of our life. In other words, if there is not any peace in a decision we are going to make, then the Holy Spirit is not in it nor is our spirit in it. Someone might ask, “What does peace feel like?” Again, it is like a harmony in your heart. I would say it makes you feel “clear” and “at ease” on the inside. When you are in peace about something, you will know it! You will just feel at ease about the decision. There will be an absence of confusion and frustration and you will just be at peace about it. Yes, saints, peace is the umpire of our heart, telling us if we are "safe" to follow what we are hearing in our heart or if we are "out" of the will of God. So, if you are experiencing a war or conflict inside of yourself, then it is not the time to make a decision. Confusion and frustration are the exact opposite of God’s peace. And the enemy reigns in confusion & frustration. That’s why when that is the fruit we are feeling, we don’t need to make any major decisions. The Rest of the Fruit We really only have time to spend talking in depth about these big three—love, joy, and peace—but the Holy Spirit will certainly speak to and lead us through these others as well. For example, if you and I are feeling impatient and are getting antsy, that’s usually not the Lord. Why? Because the next fruit of the Spirit is longsuffering (or patience depending on what translation you use). So, the Holy Spirit is certainly not going to lead you and I through impatience. Do you see that? So I would counsel you that if you are ever making a decision and if it is in all honesty based on you being impatient with a particular situation or not long-suffering with a particular person, you should really reconsider if that’s the Lord. Why? Because God is not impatient, and the fruit of the Spirit is long-suffering. So, He will not lead you through impatience. The next two fruits of the Spirit are goodness & kindness, so when thoughts of kindness or goodness come up in your heart to bless someone or do something for them, those can generally be trusted to be the Lord. The only exception would be how our heart could have a tendency to go this way because of the filter that we’ve developed. Therefore, it is sympathy and empathy operating, but not pure compassion from the Lord. This is when we need to pray like Paul did for the Philippians when he prayed that their love would abound still more and more in all knowledge and discernment. For what purpose? That they would be able to recognize what is best. You see, you can find plenty of things to love, but there are only so many things that you individually can pour into. This is when you need to be led by the Holy Spirit. But, yes, the majority of the time when a thought or idea comes up in your heart to show someone kindness and do good to someone, that’s the Lord! You don’t have to over-spiritualize it and overthink it. As Nike says, “Just do it!” Even if it’s just you, what’s the worst that could happen? Just pray for the Lord to help you have His knowledge and discernment in your love towards others. He will take care of you! You know what else He is not going to lead you through? Faithlessness. Why? Because one of the fruits of the Spirit is faithfulness. How many people join something, begin something, etc. saying, “The Lord told me to do such and such” and then a month, two months, three months later say, “Well, the Lord is telling me to stop, leave, etc.”??? People do this all the time and I want to say, “Did God change His mind?” You know, a lot of people claim to be led by the Lord when they quit something. People quit on their marriage, claiming that the Lord gave them the okay to leave their spouse. People quit their jobs feeling like their season there is done due to circumstances, etc. Now don’t get me wrong, there are times where change must come. Certainly, seasons change. But what I am saying is that this is not as frequent as many Christians feel they have experienced. No, a good rule of thumb is, that if God put you somewhere or hooked you up to someone or something, you need to honestly evaluate why you are disconnecting. Why? Because feelings and emotions are very deceptive. The Bible tells us that the heart is deceitfully wicked above all things; who can know it? You see, we can very easily misinterpret what is going on in our heart as to why we are wanting to leave the place, person, or thing that God has joined us to. And we are even more susceptible to being deceived because don’t you know the devil is going to try and separate you from the people and things God has joined you to? He sure is! He is all the time trying to stir up divorce, split churches, etc., etc., etc. because he knows how important unity is in the Body of Christ. So, therefore, when we are feeling like quitting anything that there is a remote possibility God has joined us to, we should be slow to make a presumptuous decision. Amen? Now the next to last fruit of the Spirit is translated “gentleness” but is most commonly known as “meekness.” This is humility, one of the most valuable yet underrated fruits of the Spirit. So, guess what the Lord is not going to speak to me? Things that foster my pride. For example, the Lord is usually not going to speak to me things that feed the pride that’s in my flesh. No, He is not going to always jump on my side when there is contention between myself and another. He will lead me into meekness & humility, showing me how I can lower myself and serve others. But if what I am hearing is “How this person never speaks to me?” or “How that person never does anything for me? Well, if that is not our own pride talking, it is the voice of the stranger trying to pull the strings of that pride. But no, the voice of our Good Shepherd will not feed our pride but will always lead us into meekness & humility. This will be Him inspiring us to esteem others better than ourselves and to look out for other’s interests and not just our own. Finally, regarding the fruit of self-control, we see how this “inward ruling power” is how the Lord operates as well. No, anytime we blow up and lose control of our emotions—venting all our feelings in outbursts of wrath, etc., that is the flesh, not the spirit. Verses 19-21 reveal that these things are works of the flesh, as opposed to fruit of the Spirit. No, even when it comes to spiritual things like the Holy Spirit moving upon us, He is not going to take control of us and make us do things we don’t want to do. Now, He will put you on your back sometimes (falling out in the Spirit, not sickness) in an attempt to minister to you, but He will not make you obnoxious. No, the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets. Therefore, the Lord is not going to lead us into behaviors, as godly as they might seem, where we are not in control. Conclusion So, these nine fruit of the Spirit are the fruits that let us know we have heard God’s voice. We can trust them. They are reliable. And the Lord is never going to lead us in a way contrary to them. In fact, the stranger is the one who will lead us away from love, joy, peace, etc. You can bank on that! So, when you believe you have heard from God, just ask yourself the question, was that along the lines of love, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, etc. or am I violating any of these fruit by what I am feeling “led” to do. The Lord is consistent, saints! He will lead us in the way of these fruits of our righteousness and we can know when it is Him by how those words line up with His fruit. Amen. Review
So, a few weeks ago, we began a journey towards discerning between the voice of God & the voice of the enemy. We are basing this series of teachings on Jesus’ parable in John chapter 10 of the Good Shepherd, the stranger, and the Lord’s sheep. In this teaching, Jesus had a lot to say about how the Lord’s sheep both hear & know His voice and how they also will by no means follow the voice of the stranger. Therefore, Jesus spoke very definitively that we can know the difference between God’s voice and the voice of the enemy. Church, this is something that I believe so many Christians are grossly ignorant of, and because of that, we are seeing the enemy rob us of much of the life that God has promised us. But I wholeheartedly believe that if we can truly learn to differentiate between what God is speaking to us and what the enemy is speaking to us, we will not be deceived and led astray from God’s plan for our lives. So, we have started off talking about the primary ways both the Lord and the devil speak to us. And we learned that when it comes to the most common way we hear from them, we don’t need to be looking for the spectacular. No, the main & regular way we will hear their voices is on the inside of us, in very subtle ways. As for the Lord, we saw how He mainly speaks to us in our spirit and by His Spirit. Therefore, learning to hear the voice of the Shepherd is not going to come from looking out here somewhere, but by looking in our heart where the Holy Spirit resides—for the Lord primarily communicates to us spirit to spirit. This means that while God certainly can speak to us with an audible voice or through some other spectacular fashion like a prophecy, a dream, etc., He prefers to speak to us in that still small voice and by bearing witness with our spirit. Yes, this will be the most regular way we will hear from God. On the other hand, while the stranger is also mainly speaking to us on the inside, he is not communicating with us in our spirit. No, he speaks to us in our minds—constantly bombarding us with thoughts that are aimed at our demise. You see, like it is with God’s voice, the enemy is not going to present himself to you in red pajamas with a pitchfork, saying, “Hey, I am satan, and here is what I want to say to you …” No! He is a deceiver, so he will offer you ideas and suggestions that will seem like they are just you thinking them. So no, the devil doesn’t predominantly speak to us in an overt & obvious way any more than the Lord does. And we learned how he sows thought after thought in an attempt to lead us away from those paths of righteousness our Good Shepherd has for us. So, it’s not the physical problems we go through that the devil uses to speak to us; it’s the thoughts that come as a result of the trials & tribulations that communicate his deception. That’s where the battle really is! So, while the Lord speaks to our spirits, the enemy speaks to our minds. Once we understand these things, we are in position to know where we need to be listening to hear God’s voice and how to be cautious against the thoughts that enter our minds. However, it’s not always so easy to be able to discern between what we hear in our spirit and what we hear in our minds. I believe we can all grow to where can tell the difference, but what I have found is that one of the easiest ways to be able to tell what comes from God and what comes from the enemy is by the nature of the things we hear. You see, the Lord was good enough to clearly show us in His Word what both His voice and the voice of the enemy tend towards. Yes, He gave us example after example in the Scriptures that show us what their nature is and, therefore, how they both speak to us and what the effects of their words will be. So, starting this week, I want us to begin looking at how to tell when these things we hear on the inside of us are from the stranger and when they are from the Shepherd. We will do so by looking at some obvious characteristics of these things that will help us to easily identify their origin. So, let’s begin in the Beginning – in the Book of Genesis where the enemy showed up on the scene – and look at the initial way that he attempted to deceive Adam & Eve. I believe this one example gives us great insight into how the stranger attempts to lead us out of the fold and on to the path that leads to destruction. Freedom Before Law But before we look at the temptation described in Genesis chapter 3, the first thing we need to consider is what the Lord did indeed say to Adam before the serpent ever opened his mouth. Genesis 2:15-17 tells us – “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’ ” So, what did God say? What were the words of the Good Shepherd? If you were to ask most people what the Lord told Adam in this passage, most would only recognize how the Lord was commanding Adam to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And while that was certainly part of what He commanded, that was not the only thing. In fact, it wasn’t even the first thing He commanded. No, the Lord actually “commanded” him first to freely eat from every tree of the garden. Church, this is much more significant than most realize because it teaches us how the Lord was not just being a “Law-giver” but had actually first given Adam an invitation to “freely” eat from any other tree of the Garden. So, the Lord essentially gave Adam “freedom” before He gave him a “law.” And did you know that is how God always is? Most see Him as the Law and as this Being who basically just wants us to follow His rules, but that’s not His heart. Sure, He has rules, but they are given out of love—because He wants His best for us and following His ways is the way of blessing. But in a perfect world, the Lord freely gives us all trees to eat. That, my friends, is abundant prosperity. It is the Land of Blessing! God’s will is always to give us heaven! Amen! And the fact is, just as the Lord offered “freedom” first, we need to be listening for His voice that tells us what we can have & can do. So, if we are hearing from the Shepherd correctly, what are going to hear? A bunch of don’t do this or don’t do that? No, you will first hear do this and do that? In other words, the Lord primarily likes to speak to us all the things we can have and can do before giving us the things that are off limits. This is why the apostle Paul told us in Second Corinthians 3:17 that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. It’s because when the Holy Spirit is involved in it, freedom is what will accompany it. So, if the Holy Spirit is speaking to us, what will His words tend towards? You guessed it – freedom! Yes, the Lord tends to invite us to freely eat all the trees He planted in our garden. He says to us— “Come freely eat of My peace. Freely partake of the joy of the Lord. Yes, delight yourself in the abundance of every tree I’ve placed in your garden.” Yes, what we saw the Lord saying in Isaiah 55:1-2 is what He says to us today— “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.” Church, this is one of the most missed things that the Lord says to us—a grand invitation to delight ourselves in the abundance of trees planted in our gardens! And to do so “freely” because in His grace, He has provided them free of charge. A great example of not having ears to hear what the Lord has freely given us is the Parable of the Prodigal Son. In fact, just the title of this story shows how easily we can miss what the Lord is trying to say to us—for this Parable is not just about the younger, prodigal son; it is actually the story of two sons. You see, when you consider the context of this parable, you’ll learn that Jesus was not just trying to teach about this younger, wasteful son, but He was actually trying to correct the ones that the elder son in this parable represented. Yes, it was the religious that Jesus was admonishing and so this parable was aimed more at teaching the error of the elder son than the error of the younger son. But what have we heard concerning this story? We’ve heard far more about the prodigal than about the second half of the parable, haven’t we? But again, that was not the main point the Lord was attempting to communicate. You see, this parable begins by Jesus saying that “a certain man had two sons” (Luke 15:11). Then in verse 12 we are told – “And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood.” Notice that! The father divided not just to him but to “them” his livelihood. Have you ever seen that? So that means that at this point the father went ahead and divided to both of his sons their inheritance. Now we will go on to see later in this parable how the elder son got upset because of all the things his father did for his good for nothing younger brother. And how did the father respond to him? He reminded his son that he was always with him and all that He had was his. In fact, there are no indications in the story that the elder son knew this. Perhaps he was unaware that the father had divided to both of them his livelihood. And I believe that’s exactly what happened because that is what religion tends to do—miss all that the Lord has freely given and base its relationship with Him on all that it does for Him. Church, these truths of this parable illustrate to us how easy it is for us to miss what the Lord is saying to us. Yes, as the Lord Jesus said, God’s Word can be made of non-effect through our traditions. Likewise, what God is saying to us can fall on deaf ears through a wrong belief system and the traditions we might have erroneously adopted. And I believe the same thing happened to Adam & Eve: I believe they lost sight of every tree that the Lord had freely given to him in the Garden and got “tunnel vision” on the one tree that God forbade. Which is exactly what the enemy will attempt to do to us. Always With Grace & Seasoned With Salt But then, of course, the Lord did make sure to tell Adam that there was one tree that was forbidden. So, one thing we have to make sure we have ears to hear are those words of the Shepherd that do indeed tell us what is not for us. In fact, the apostle Paul made it clear that half of what God’s Word will do is provide “reproof & correction” (Second Timothy 3:16)—meaning, part of what God will speak to us will be those “don’t do this” or “quit doing that’s.” But what I have come to understand is that even in those things where the Lord tells us don’t do this or don’t do that, He speaks these things in such a gentle & gracious way. In other words, God’s heart is not to speak to us in that old Cecil B. DeMille “Ten Commandments” tone that booms from heaven saying, “Thou Shalt Not …!” No, His words are always with grace, seasoned with salt like we are commanded to speak to others in Colossians 4:6. Do you think the Lord is going to tell us to talk to one another like that if He Himself isn’t willing to do so? No, even God’s commandments are spoken “with grace” and are “seasoned with salt.” What this means is that we can expect that when God is speaking to us, everything He says will be “with grace”—that is, it will be accompanied with graciousness. You see, God’s Words will always add to us and not subtract from us. Yes, His Words give and impart! Not only that, but the Lord knows exactly how to speak to each of us. In other words, He knows how to season those words to our taste. Now that doesn’t mean He is going to tell us what we want to hear all the time, but it means that even with the things that might be difficult to “swallow,” He knows how to season them to make the medicine go down. Do you know why this is so important to understand? It’s because the stranger loves to masquerade as an angel of light. So, he will try and deceive us into thinking God is speaking to us by speaking words to us that don’t add to us and come across in a fashion that doesn’t taste right. So just know that if the words we are hearing are not “with grace” and haven’t been “seasoned with salt,” then they likely are not from our Good Shepherd. Did God Really Say? But let’s now look at what the devil said in lieu of God’s commandment: In Genesis 3:1-2, we are told— “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?’ WHEN THE DEVIL SPEAKS, HE … Pushes, Pressures, & Rushes Frightens & Worries Accuses & Condemns Discourages & Depresses Troubles & Confuses THE EFFECTS OF THE DEVIL’S VOICE Fear Doubt Confusion Depression Condemnation Oppression So, the first words we see out of satan’s mouth in the Scriptures “Has God indeed said.” Another way of translating that is— Did God really say …?” So, what we can see through the law of first mention is that one of the most predominant things that will come out of the devil’s mouth is questioning God’s Word. This would include everything that God has verbally communicated to us and all that He has said to us through the Scriptures. So, for example, if I start having thoughts that contradict something that I know God has said like “I wonder if that’s really true” or “Is this really what this verse means?” Now again, don’t look for this on the outside somewhere. Where does this devil predominately speak to us? In our minds! So, this “Did God really say?” is going to mainly occur in our thought life. Likewise, don’t look for this exact terminology either, but rather look for the spirit of this questioning of God that occurs in our hearts & minds. Let me give you a couple of examples: Say you have dealt with some sort of sickness in your body and have been believing God for your healing. But the manifestation of God’s promise of healing hasn’t come as quickly as you would like. As a result, you go through weeks, months, and even years of physical issues while standing on God’s Word. Then one day when we are feeling weary, the thought comes— “I wonder if by His stripes we were healed is really talking about physical healing.” Perhaps we had never given any consideration to this before, but that idea just pops into our minds one day out of nowhere. Well, what should be going off on the inside of you if this happens? All kinds of red flags should be going off! Why? Because this is essentially another— “Has God indeed said.” How about if you and your spouse are having a spat, and in the midst of the fight, the thought enters your mind, “Divorce is so common in the world today. I wonder if what God’s Word says about it is really relevant in the world we live in.” What’s going on here? Thoughts are being planted with the intent of getting us to being open to something we might not have ever been open to considering before. And that’s where the enemy gets us, saints. He will plant those thoughts and if we start considering them, we are doing the same thing that Eve did when he approached her—she started conversing with him which never winds up well. So, the first thing we see come out of the devil’s mouth in the Bible is him questioning what God says. And that is what we can expect in our lives as well – steady doses of him trying to get us to question what God has said. The Simplicity of Christ The apostle Paul gives us some interesting insight into what was happening in Genesis chapter 3: In Second Corinthians 11:2-3, he said, “For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!” So, Paul reveals to us that what satan was ultimately doing was complicating the things of God. He compares here how the serpent craftily deceived Eve to how he continues today trying to corrupt our minds from the simplicity that is in Christ. Now again, notice where it is he is trying to deceive us? In ourminds. So, this is where his deception is aimed at. But what is it that he is attempting to lead us away from? The simplicity that is in Christ. You see, the devil likes to complicate the things of God, but God really does things in a simplistic manner. It’s black & white. It’s not rocket science. You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to figure out what God has said and understand it. All you need is the Holy Spirit to remove the veil, and then the life & light of the truth will be revealed to you. But what the devil likes to do is send conflicting and complicated messages. Like here – he sends someone preaching “another” Jesus than the one the apostles preached. He sends someone trying to give “another” Spirit than the one we have received. He sends a “different” gospel than the one we already accepted. So that is something to be on the lookout for: Like it was with Eve after God had already given the gospel to Adam, satan will come after the fact with those “Has God really said?” questions, trying to add or alter the truth that we have heard. So be on the lookout for the reasoning that comes after God has already spoken to us. God’s truth is usually pretty simple. But the devil likes to complicate it. And notice how he complicated it here with Eve: After saying, “Has God indeed said” he adds— “… You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” So, what he was doing was getting her to look more at the fact God didn’t allow them to eat of all the trees of the Garden, but had made the one off limits. In other words, he got her focused on how the Lord was supposedly withholding something from them other than how He had allowed them to freely eat of every other tree. That’s a scheme of the enemy – to get us questioning God’s intentions instead of believing that He has our best interest in mind. This is why He winds up telling her that God knows that they would become like Him, knowing good & evil. So, he wanted her to believe that God was withholding something from them – trying to keep them from something. Faith Vs. Fear What does all this boil down too? What can we conclude from all this? It is that the devil seeks to pervert & complicate what God has said. Yes, he will try to instill doubt in God’s Word and His words. Yes, he is constantly seeking to get us to question Him. So, the nature & characteristics of satan’s words are fear & unbelief. Therefore, if we begin to sense fear regarding things we are thinking, that’s a good indication that the roaring lion has been speaking to us. If unbelief is being fostered, then there is a good chance the devil has been planting the thoughts that have produced this harvest. And God forbid, if we are starting to lose hope, then the devil is likely the author of that feeling of hopelessness. You see, we serve the God of faith & hope. So, He will lead & guide us into the things that produce faith & hope. Yes, the Shepherd seeks to instill faith in us. Yes, God’s voice will challenge us to believe what we cannot see, to trust when we do not understand, and to have hope when all seems hopeless. I remember one very distinct example I have of this: When Shannon and I were faced with a financial challenge, the Lord spoke to me & through me— “Is there anything too difficult for Me? You need to begin to believe bigger and see further and stop limiting Me.” Now this was not something I was used to hearing from God, but from what I’ve learned since, this is one of the main things God will communicate with us. It will always be to believe Him more! However, the devil will attempt to do the opposite; He will do everything in his power to try and get us NOT to believe God. So, he will constantly attempt to instill doubt, fear, and unbelief in us. Church, God’s desire is to be loved & believed, and the devil knows that. So, he will do everything in his power to get us to doubt what God has said. In fact, the majority of the things he speaks to us is aimed at this unbelief. So be on the lookout for those temptations and only entertain words that inspire faith & hope. Review
Today, we are continuing our new series on discerning between the voice of our Good Shepherd and the voice of the stranger. Now as I mentioned last week, I would venture to say that we all believe God still speaks to us today. I also think that most of us believe that the devil is real and can also speak to us as well. However, what I feel many Christians are ignorant of is how they both speak to us and how to tell the difference between what is of God, what is of the enemy, and what is simply of us. And this is why we are doing this study—it is to teach us how to tell the difference so that we know what voice we are to submit to and what voice we are to resist & reject. Yes, if we do not realize where those words are coming from and embrace them as if they are our own, then we are going to have a very difficult time living a victorious life. So, what we started out doing last week was looking at the primary & predominant ways in which the Lord our Shepherd speaks to us. You see, if you were to ask most believers how they think that God speaks to His people, they immediately gravitate towards the spectacular. What I mean is that they only expect Him to speak in the more supernatural ways such as through an audible voice, visions, dreams, angelic visitations, etc. And while these forms of guidance do indeed occur today, they are the exception and not the norm. In other words, while these experiences most certainly are supposed to be a part of the life of a Christian, they are not the way God speaks to us on a consistent & regular basis. Yes, on a day-to-day basis, God more commonly leads His children today by less mystical means, and we learned what that less spectacular but no less supernatural kind of guidance is last week. A highly respected and fruitful minister once said, “Many Christians are looking for the spectacular and, all the while, missing the supernatural.” You see, God’s predominant ways of speaking to us will probably not give you any goose bumps and you will probably not be awe-struck by the things you hear, but that does not mean that these other things are any less supernatural. God leading us by putting an idea in our heart of how to show someone His love is no less supernatural than an audible voice telling us to do the same. They are both equally supernatural! The only difference is one is a more spectacular experience while the other is a more common experience. Thank God for these spectacular and miraculous forms of His communication, but if we want to have God communicate to us on a daily basis, we need to learn these other supernatural ways that He speaks to us. And that is where most miss it – they are looking for God’s voice in the wrong place. So, what we learned last week was that the Lord mainly speaks to us on the inside of us, in our spirit. In other words, His primary mode of communication is not externally, but it’s internally. Therefore, learning to hear the voice of the Master is not going to come from looking out here somewhere, but by looking in our heart. And the reason for this is because the part of the Godhead that dwells with us today is the Holy Spirit, and where does the Holy Spirit reside? Inside us—that is, in our spirit. Therefore, the Holy Spirit communicates with us, spirit to spirit. This is why the apostle Paul said that the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit (See Romans 8:16). Now like we said, the way that the Holy Spirit does this might be recognized differently in each of us. Some might describe it as a knowing. Others might describe it as a peace. Still others might say it is something simply seeming good or not, a “check” in their spirit, or even a still small voice. However you describe it is up to you, but what it really is, is the Holy Spirit bearing witness with your spirit according to the Scriptures. And so, what we must learn to do is detect the Holy Spirit in our spirit so that we can hear what He is trying to communicate to us on a daily basis. We also looked at Jesus’ parable of the True Shepherd in John chapter 10 and saw how the Shepherd entered through the door to approach His sheep and lead them in & out. In other words, the way that the Lord “gets through to us” is through the door, which is the Lord Jesus Himself. So, what we learned from that is that Jesus will be the avenue by which we are going to hear from God and be led by the Spirit. First of all, this means that the Lord Jesus Himself, who is the litmus test to all truth, will be the door that God is going to speak to me through and lead me in & out through. Therefore, my coming to know Him, heeding His truth conveyed to me through the Gospels, and having a heart to honor & glorify Him in all I do is a big part of hearing from God. You see, I’ve seen far too many Christians who believe the Lord spoke something to them, but it was contrary to Jesus’ teachings, His character, and to the overall truth that He represented. These will swear up and down that they heard from God, but what they fail to understand is that the Lord does not “come up some other way.” No, He will consistently approach us through His Son and never violate that. Church, it is all about Jesus. So, if we are going to be on the right frequency to hear what the Lord is communicating to us, we must have our hearts set on the “Door” Himself—for this is how we approach the Lord and He approaches us. Amen? Along these same lines, we learned that Jesus is also the Word. So, we saw how one of Jesus’ ways of approaching us is through the Scriptures. And I’ll tell you, church, this is one of the main avenues God has used to speak to me throughout my Christian walk—through the Word of God. I explained how I’ve found that as I had given my time to studying the Scriptures, the Lord would speak to me through the Bible. And, no, not necessarily as I was reading & studying it, but when I would be doing my daily activities, a verse would pop up in my heart when I needed it, conveying some truth to me that I needed to know at the moment. I would know that this wasn’t just simply me remembering a Bible verse, but it was the Lord specifically communicating to me through that Word He had already spoken. Amen! Church, I believe that when it comes to hearing from God, the most fundamental way in which God speaks to us is through His Written Word. You might say that the Scriptures are the way to hear from God on demand. So having both the Word of God and the Spirit of God, we ought to have no problem consistently hearing the Lord speak to us. Therefore, what the Lord also taught in John chapter 10 is absolutely true—we do hear & know His voice and ought to live with the utmost confidence in that. So again, what we learned is that these are the primary ways of God speaking to us while they are not the most flashy and spectacular. So, we have to learn how to hear from God on His terms and not in the way that tickles our ears or satisfies that emotional part of us. Hearing & Knowing the Voice of the Stranger However, like it is with God’s voice, the enemy is also not going to present himself to us in a spectacular way. No, he is not going to come to us in red pajamas and with a pitchfork, saying, “Hey, I am satan, and here is what I want to say to you …” No, he is a deceiver, so he will offer you ideas and suggestions that will seem like they are just you thinking them. He will even present himself, as the apostle Paul said, as an angel of light, trying to make you think what he is saying is the Lord speaking to you. So no, the devil doesn’t predominantly speak to us in an overt & obvious way any more than the Lord does. Therefore, it is imperative that we learn both what he tends to speak and how he speaks it. Which is exactly what we are going to do this week: I want us to look at how the stranger speaks to us because, like I said, it is critical that you and I learn how the enemy is communicating to us as well, lest we be deceived and travel down that road of him stealing, killing, and destroying in our lives. First of all, I want you to notice how in John chapter 10 Jesus not only makes a strong point in how the Shepherd communicates with His sheep, but He also refers to the voice of the stranger. Yes, in John 10:5, Jesus said, “Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” So, first of all, what we can take away from this is that, just as we can be sure that the Lord, our Shepherd, speaks to us, we can also be certain that the devil speaks to us as well. Therefore, whether we have realized it or not, if we are of the Lord’s sheepfold, the stranger has spoken to us and tried to lead us away from the path God has for you. Now most of us might question that because we might not have necessarily known it was the enemy, but I can assure you that if you are a child of God, the devil has spoken to you—just about every day of your life. But again, the reason a lot of Christians might not believe this is true is because they did not know it was him. This is what I’m seeking to remedy in this teaching—that we would know when it is him every single, solitary time. Not only that, but when Jesus first said in this verse, “yet they will by no means follow a stranger”, this shows us that just as we as the Lord’s sheep, will hear the voice of satan, we will not follow it either. In other words, just as we can be confident in the fact that we hear & know the Lord’s voice, we can also have faith in the fact that we will not follow the voice of the stranger too because we can decipher when it’s him. Now it’s certainly not that we want to hear what the devil is saying to us but what I believe is so important to understand about this is that if we can recognize when it is him speaking to us, then we know what to reject, right? That’s why Jesus went on to say that we by no means will follow the voice of the stranger, but will “flee” from him. Fleeing From Temptation Church, learning to “flee” from the enemy’s temptations is an important part of Christian living. No, this is not us running from him, but simply us getting as far away from his devices that we can. We will learn why this is important momentarily. This reminds me of the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife (See Genesis 39:7-18): Do you remember how she lusted after him and how the Bible teaches us that she made passes at him day after day? Now don’t make the mistake of just looking at this biblical story from a natural perspective. Sure, the temptations for things like adultery are out there. But what I want you to see here is how this is an illustration of how the tempter tries to lure us away into sin. You see, doesn’t the Book of Proverbs teach us that sin is like a harlot, crying out after us on the street corners? It sure does, and the way Solomon describes these temptations is as that harlot speaking to us, attempting to allure us from the path God has us on and into her bedchamber. He oftentimes refers to her in the original King James version as the “strange woman.” In fact, take a look sometime at the Book of Proverbs at how many times Solomon refers to this “strange woman.” Here are just a few of them: Proverbs 2:16 says, “To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words” Proverbs 5:3 says, “For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil” Proverbs 6:24 says, “To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.” Proverbs 7:5 says, “That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.” Saints, this is exactly what is transpiring all of the time in our lives! We are just out & about, living life, and “day by day” and “on every corner” the strange woman is speaking to us, trying to get us to take detours away from holiness & righteousness. And sin’s words are indeed sweet, smooth, and flattering. Well, what did Joseph do? The Bible says that he did not “heed” her (See Genesis 39:10). That means he did not listen to her. I wonder what the church would be like if none of us ever listened to the enemy? I wonder what our own personal lives would be like if we never gave “heed” to the stranger? I can guarantee you, saints, our church services, and our own personal lives would be ultra-blessed. Then there came the time when Joseph entered Potiphar’s house and no one else was in there but he and Potiphar’s wife, that she caught him by his garment. And I’ll tell you, saints, there come times in our lives when the strange woman will just grab you—that is, the enemy will go from the place of just speaking to you to trying to grab your emotions too. In other words, he will make you feel things along with those words that he speaks to you. Well, what Joseph did was what we all must learn to do: Genesis 39:12 says that he left his garment in her hand and “fled’ from her. Sounds a lot like what Jesus told us that his sheep would do when the stranger came to steal them away—they will “flee” from him. You know, saints, I think one of the biggest mistakes that we make when resisting temptation is that while we try not to act on it, we don’t “flee” from it. In other words, we hang too close to the sin instead of “abhorring what is evil” (Romans 12:9). In fact, we cling to that which is evil and abhor that which is good—which is the exact opposite from what we are told to do here. The apostle Peter taught us to “abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (First Peter 2:11). That means to get as far away from the things your flesh lusts after as possible. And why? Because it wars against your soul—meaning, it messes with your inward man and creates a conflict inside of you. So, the solution to the messes we find ourselves falling back into is to stay as far away from the mess as you can. That way, if you fall, you don’t fall in it. Kind of like a mud-puddle: If I don’t get too close to it, then even a stumble I might have will not result in me falling in it. Amen? Recognizing the Strange Voice Now notice how Jesus went on to say that His sheep will flee from the stranger “for they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus did not mean that we are not going to know when it is the devil speaking to us. No, what He was saying was that His sheep do not “recognize” and are not “intimately acquainted” with a stranger’s voice—meaning, we can tell it’s the voice we shouldn’t be following because it’s a “strange” voice when compared to the voice of our Good Shepherd. This reminds me of that wise principle of how being so familiar with the genuine article is the best way to detect a counterfeit. You see, if I become so familiar with the Lord by spending time with Him & giving heed to His Word, it’s less likely it will be that I will be deceived by a counterfeit. And that’s what Jesus was implying here—that because of the sheep’s familiarity with the Shepherd, they were able to know when another voice was indeed “strange.” So, again, this means that just as we can expect to hear & know the voice of the Shepherd, we can also expect to hear & know the voice of the stranger. No, not because we want to hear the enemy, but because he will be speaking to us, and we need to know when it is him. I wonder how many times in our lives that the enemy has been speaking to us, but we were ignorant of the fact it was him and we just swallowed his lies “hook, line, and sinker.” I can guarantee you we’ve all done this, and probably this week. On a related note, the apostle Paul said in Second Corinthians 2:11 that we are not to let the devil gain the advantage over us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. Well, it sure seems like most believers are ignorant of the devices of the enemy, doesn’t it? Like I said earlier, this is from believing that bad circumstances that occur in our lives are from God, to believing that a certain thought that pops in our minds is just us thinking it. We see far too much of this ignorance in the body of Christ and this a big reason why, as Hosea prophesied, God’s people are destroyed—for a lack of knowledge. No, all Paul meant here when he said that we are not ignorant of the devil’s devices is that we, as God’s sheep, have the ability & responsibility to know the devices that the devil uses against us. It doesn’t mean that we are all walking in this light, but it simply means that all the tools have been given to us to know what his devices are. In fact, the word used for “devices” here comes from the Greek word noema which comes from the root for the word describing our mind or thoughts. One expositor translates this word as the “mind games” of the devil, and oh how he plays these mind games with us. Amen? But if I can come to recognize both how & what the Lord is speaking to me versus how & what the stranger is speaking to me, I have the advantage! Amen? So, we have now a couple of verses that clearly teach us that we have the ability to know when the stranger—the devil—is speaking in an attempt to steal, kill, and destroy from us. But what this verse we have just looked at does, is it establishes how he speaks to us. Let me explain … Where the Stranger Communicates Now, again, it is important to understand that the way the Shepherd and the stranger speak to us is not predominantly in that outward, overt way. Sure, they both can try to communicate to us through, say, other people, but most of our “hearing” from them occurs inside of us instead of outside of us. But the difference is that the enemy does not communicate with our spirit like the Holy Spirit does. That’s because he does not operate there. However, he certainly engages our soul, and that’s where the battle is. So, those thoughts that pass through our minds and those feelings/emotions that we experience do not always originate from us. Sometimes that “idea” that pops into our mind was planted by the enemy. This is why it is so critical that we learn how to tell when it is him. So, just like we saw in Second Corinthians 2:11, the devil uses “noemas” to speak to us—that is, he uses those mind games to communicate his lie, temptations, etc. to us. These are those “wiles” spoken of by the apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:11. His schemes, tricks, and methods are all aimed at our minds. Now I will say that it’s not a huge deal whether we can tell the difference between our own thoughts and the ones the enemy sows, because if it isn’t according to the way God teaches us to think, then it needs to be brought into captivity, whether it was from the stranger or ourselves, right? The bottom line is we need to know that the soul is the realm that the enemy operates in. So, becoming aware of any and all thoughts that are contrary to the knowledge of God and bringing them into captivity is how we ought to respond. So in the weeks ahead, we will look at how to tell when these things we hear on the inside of us are from the stranger and when they are from the Shepherd. Yes, there are some obvious characteristics of these things that will help us to easily identify their origin. But what I wanted you to learn today is that, just as we can be confident that the Lord our Shepherd is speaking to us and how He does it, we can also know that the stranger has a voice as well—one that we can both expect and identify. The Voice of the Shepherd vs. the Voice of the Stranger - Part 1: The Shepherd's Still Small Voice11/6/2022 Introduction
Today, we are beginning a journey—a journey towards discerning between the voice of God & the voice of the enemy. I would venture to say that we all believe God still speaks to us today. I also believe that most of us also believe that the devil is real and can also speak to us. However, what I feel many Christians are ignorant of is how they both speak to us and how to tell the difference between what is of God, what is of the enemy, and what is simply of us. Therein lies the problem for most believers. For example, when it comes to how the Lord speaks to us, if you were to ask most believers who actually believe God still communicates with us today how they think that He speaks to His people, they immediately gravitate towards the spectacular. What I mean is they only expect Him to speak in the more supernatural ways such as through an audible voice, visions, dreams, angelic visitations, etc. And while these forms of guidance do indeed occur today, they are the exception and not the norm. In other words, while these experiences most certainly are supposed to be a part of the life of a Christian, they are not the consistent way that God speaks to us on a regular basis. Yes, on a day-to-day basis, God more commonly leads His children today by less mystical means, and today we will learn what this less spectacular but no less supernatural kind of guidance is. A highly respected and fruitful minister once said, “Many Christians are looking for the spectacular and, all the while, missing the supernatural.” You see, God’s predominant ways of speaking to us will probably not give you any goose bumps and you will probably not be awe-struck by the things you hear, but that does not mean that these other things are any less supernatural. God leading us by putting an idea in our heart of how to show someone His love is no less supernatural than an audible voice telling us to do the same. They are both equally supernatural! The only difference is one is a more spectacular experience while the other is a more common experience. Thank God for these spectacular and miraculous forms of His communication, but if we want to have God communicate to us on a daily basis, we need to learn these other supernatural ways that He speaks to us. And that is where most miss it – they are looking for God’s voice in the wrong place. The truth is that the Lord mainly speaks to us on the inside of us, in our spirit. Therefore, learning to hear the voice of the Master is not going to come from looking out here somewhere, but by looking in our heart. This is a point we will revisit shortly. So, what we will do throughout this series is learn how to detect it when it is Him speaking in our hearts. But we are not just going to learn how God speaks to us; we will also compare it to how the devil speaks to us because, whether you realize it or not, the enemy is constantly bombarding our minds with thoughts that are aimed at your demise. And if you do not realize where those words are coming from and embrace them as if they are your own, then you are going to have a difficult time living a victorious life. You see, like it is with God’s voice, the enemy is not going to present himself to you in red pajamas with a pitchfork, saying, “Hey, I am satan, and here is what I want to say to you …” No! He is a deceiver, so he will offer you ideas and suggestions that will seem like they are just you thinking them. He will even present himself, as the apostle Paul said, as an angel of light, trying to make you think what he is saying is the Lord speaking to you. So no, the devil doesn’t predominantly speak to us in an overt & obvious way any more than the Lord does. Therefore, it is imperative that we learn both what he tends to speak and how he speaks it. Likewise, we also must learn what the Lord will generally speak to us and how He communicates with us. Once we learn these things, we are in position to know exactly what voice we need to be heeding and what voice we need to be rejecting. The Parable of the True Shepherd Now I want us to begin in John chapter 10 where we have an interesting parable given to us by the Lord Jesus that I believe beautifully describes the difference between how the Lord speaks to us versus how the devil speaks to us: In this teaching, Jesus describes how we are the sheep of His pasture and how He is the Good Shepherd. However, the emphasis He makes is on how His sheep hear & know His voice. He also emphasizes how there are strangers & thieves whom His sheep do not know, entering in for the intent of stealing, killing, and destroying the Lord’s flock. So, while there are a lot of important truths contained in this parable, one that stands out to me is how the Lord makes clear the difference between the Shepherd of the sheep and the strangers who are attempting to steal His sheep. In this, we see much of the differences between the nature of God versus the nature of the devil. And church, you will see this throughout this series, but understanding the core differences between the Lord and satan are so incredibly important to the Christian life—particularly as it pertains to their mode of communicating with us. Yes, knowing what God’s tendencies are versus the devil’s tendencies can be the fundamental difference between believing a lie or the truth. And what I have observed over my years in the church is that there are more Christians who fail to understand this than there are those who know the truth. Therefore, many Christians live under the delusion that things that the thief is actually responsible for are the Lord’s doing. So church, know this today – that anything that comes to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10) is of the thief and is the core nature of the devil. However, everything that comes to add life and life more abundantly is of the Lord. In fact, if you want a further description of what our Good Shepherd’s nature is, just look at the 23rd Psalm where we see what the Lord our Shepherd does for us. In short, it’s the good life—that we would see the goodness of the Lord right here in the land of the living (See Psalm 27:13). Once we understand this, it will make a tremendous difference in how we respond to the things life throws at us. We will then know what to submit to and what to resist (James 4:7). But what I wanted us to specifically look at in this new series of teachings is not what the Lord does versus what the devil does; I wanted us to look at how their core nature is reflected in what & how they communicate to us. The Door of the Shepherd So, let’s begin this week by looking at how our Good Shepherd is described in this parable in order to first learn how He operates: First of all, in verses 1-2, Jesus begins by saying, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.” Notice that Jesus makes the point here that He, the shepherd of the sheep (vs. 11), enters through the door, but the thief and the robber climb up some other way. This teaches me that, contrary to popular belief, the Lord has a specific & primary way of approaching us and speaking to us. Yes, there is a specific & appropriate avenue that the Lord enters by. Likewise, there’s a specific way that He speaks to us and leads us in our life. On the same note, the devil doesn’t come through that same “door,” but attempts to get to us some other way. And what we will learn in this series of teachings is what is that way that the Good Shepherd will speak to us and how the thief will always violate it. Well, Jesus goes on to describe how He Himself is also that door, doesn’t He (See John 10:7)? So, what does that teach us? It teaches us that the Lord Jesus is going to be the Way of “getting through to us.” In other words, He will be the avenue by which we are going to hear from God and be led by the Spirit. Amen? Yes, He is indeed the Way, the Truth, and the Life! You see, the Lord Jesus is litmus test to all truth. So, the door that God is going to speak to me through and lead me in & out through is JESUS Himself. Therefore, my coming to know Him, heeding His truth conveyed to me through the Gospels, and having a heart to honor & glorify Him in all I do is a big part of hearing from God. I’ve seen far too many Christians who believe the Lord spoke something to them, but it was contrary to Jesus’ teachings, His character, and to the overall truth that He represented. These will swear up and down that they heard from God, but what they fail to understand is that the Lord does not “come up some other way.” No, He will consistently approach us through His Son and never violate that. Friends, it is all about Jesus. So, if we are going to be on the right frequency to hear what the Lord is communicating to us, we must have our hearts set on the “Door” Himself—for this is how we approach the Lord and He approaches us. Amen? Along these same lines, we know that Jesus is the Word too, right? So then, we can see how one of Jesus’ ways of approaching us is through the Scriptures. And I’ll tell you, church, this is one of the main avenues God has used to speak to me throughout my Christian walk—through the Word of God. I’ve found that as I had given my time to studying the Scriptures, the Lord would speak to me through the Bible. And, no, not necessarily as I was reading & studying it, but when I would be doing my daily activities, a verse would pop up in my heart when I needed it, conveying some truth to me that I needed to know at the moment. I would know that this wasn’t just simply me remembering a Bible verse, but it was the Lord specifically communicating to me through that Word He had already spoken. Amen! Church, I believe that when it comes to hearing from God, the most fundamental way in which God speaks to us is through His Written Word. You might say that the Scriptures are the way to hear from God on demand. You see, the Bible is said to be living and powerful (Hebrews 4:12). Therefore, it should not be read like a history book or some other manual of facts. It is a living Book, not a dead book—a Book that actually contains God’s Word to us. Hebrews 4:12 also teaches us how His Word is sharper than any two-edged sword—which is a common description of God’s Word. In fact, Ephesians 6:17 talks about how our lone piece of offensive weaponry is called “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” And the reason it is called “the sword of the Spirit” is because the Holy Spirit takes those truths that were aforementioned and communicates them to our heart. In other words, our sword of the Spirit is those “rhema” words that He speaks to us either while we are reading the Bible and a specific Scripture just jumps off the page to us, or a Scripture that comes up in our heart while we are doing our day in and day out activities. But one thing that I believe is so powerful about Hebrews 4:12 is how it actually teaches us how we can better discern the voice of God: Notice how the writer of Hebrews goes on to say, “… piercing even to the division of soul and spirit.” You see, probably the most common problem people have when it comes to hearing from God is they do not know when those leadings, promptings, and ideas are them and when they are the Lord. How do we know? Well, this verse tells us that this is how we know! His Word is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the division of soul and spirit. In other words, it can cut between and divide what is just coming from our soul—our own thoughts, our emotions, etc.—and what is coming from our spirit—the part of us that knows all things and that the Holy Spirit is communicating directly with. You see, the Scriptures teach us that the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. So, this shows us the primary way in which the Holy Spirit communicates to us—from Spirit to spirit! So, our spirit is the part of us that gets directives from the Lord. Therefore, the way that we can more accurately tell the difference between what is of the soul and what is of the spirit is by the Word—hiding God’s Word in, and giving it entrance into, our heart. The 119th Psalm teaches us that when we hide God’s Word in our heart, we can keep ourselves from missing the mark (i.e., sinning). It also teaches us that the entrance of His Word brings light and understanding to the simple. Brethren, do not be unwise (or, simple) but understand what the will of the Lord is! How? By planting God’s Word in our hearts! But how does this work? Well, by putting God’s Words in us, we are, number one, giving the Holy Spirit more to work with. In other words, we are giving Him Scriptures to remind us of and fulfill His ministry in our lives. Number two, we are filling ourselves with the genuine article—the pure and unadulterated words of God—and this will help us to better detect the counterfeit directives that we hear on the inside of us. Glory! I’ll tell you, saints, God’s Word is an awesome thing, and it is the plum line for hearing from God. So don’t get the cart before the horse. Put God’s written Word in its proper place of priority in your life, and if He wants to speak something additional to you, He will. Amen. God’s Voice on the Earth Now the next and very important thing we need to understand is how Jesus makes a strong point in this parable that we, as His sheep, both hear & know the voice of our Good Shepherd. So, if we are His sheep and are a part of His flock, then we do in fact hear & know His voice. No, not “we can” or “we should;” we do! Now I know that a lot of believers out there believe that they don’t hear the voice of God very well. They stress how they really struggle to recognize the voice of God, but what Jesus said here is either true or it is not. So, if it is indeed true that one does not hear God’s voice then it is because they “ain’t” His sheep. Now I don’t believe that is the case with most believers. Sure, there are some who are not legitimately born again and that’s where the problem lies, but I believe that with most Christians, the reason they do not believe they hear the voice of God very well is because they have not truly come to realize how He speaks to them. So, let’s now look at what is that most predominant way that God does speak to us outside of His Word … You see, like I made the point of earlier, I see more Christians looking for God to speak to them from the outside-in. In other words, they are looking for Him to either speak audibly to them or for him to write it in the clouds or on the wall. Even others are only looking for His voice through various gifts of the Spirit like prophecies, interpretation of tongues, etc. And let me make one thing very clear once again – God absolutely does speak to His people through these more spectacular methods, but they are the exception and not the rule. What I mean by that is a person might hear the audible voice of God a couple of times in their life. They might have the Lord speak to them through those proverbial “billboards” a couple of dozen times in their lifetime. And they might hear the Lord legitimately talking to them close to a hundred times through others being used in these various gifts of the Spirit. But here’s my point – if this person only learns to hear the Lord talk to them in these ways, then that’s a little over 125 times over many years? Do you think the Lord only wants to speak to this man or woman that infrequently? I doubt that. In fact, I believe the Lord wants to speak to us every day, but I also don’t think He will do this through all the ways I just described. No, I believe there is another much more predominant and less spectacular way that the Lord speaks to His people and this is what we, as His sheep, desperately need to learn so that we can hear from God on the frequency He is communicating on—and that way is this: The Lord speaks to us internally much more than He does externally. And He does this through His precious Holy Spirit whom He sent to indwell us. You see, this is technically who is speaking to us from the Godhead. But the vast majority of Christians do not understand this because they do not realize that the Holy Spirit is the One who is present here on the earth today. They see everything from God’s manifest presence to His speaking to us as directly from the Father or from Jesus, but in reality, it is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit that we experience here on the earth. Yes, God the Father is not the One who technically “shows up” in a church service because He is seated on His throne in heaven. Even Jesus is not the One who technically speaks to us here on the earth anymore because He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. No, it is the Holy Spirit Who literally is present here on the earth. It is the Holy Spirit Who manifests Himself in glory and directly communicates to us. He is the One who is here now! Therefore, He is the One who we experience in these different ways here on the earth today! Why is this so important to understand, you might ask? It is because, if the Holy Spirit is the One Person of the Godhead who is technically present with us today and when we truly understand that, we can know where to look for God to speak to us. Now I believe Romans chapter 8 teaches us just how the Holy Spirit communicates with us: Romans 8:14 says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”—which is saying the same thing as we saw in John chapter 10—that if we are the Lord’s sheep, we do hear & know His voice. In this case, the apostle Paul is saying that if we are sons of God, then we are led by God’s Spirit. Then Paul goes on to say in verse 16 how “the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.” Now the original King James Version says, “the Spirit itself” but the Greek word used here is where we get our word “automatic” from—which means “self-operated.” So “Himself” is more appropriate here because the Holy Spirit is not an “it”, He is a Divine Person! The phrase “bear witness with” literally means “co-witness” in the original Greek language. So, who is the Holy Spirit a co-witness with? This verse goes on to tell us— “our spirit”- that is, the real us. No, He does not bear witness with our head (our soul) or with our feelings (our flesh). He bears witness with our spirit that has been recreated in Christ Jesus. Our spirit, which has a witness in itself, will line up with the things of God, and when it and the Holy Spirit start “testifying” what they know to do, we will have the co-witness going off on the inside of us. When we are looking for direction from the Lord we are to look inside because He bears witness with our spirit, not our intellect, mind, or feelings. This is why it is so imperative that we walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. It is because if we are walking in the flesh—that is, our flesh is dictating our daily decisions and we are fulfilling its lusts—then we are not going to be in tune with the witness of our spirit. And if we are not on the frequency of the Spirit, then many of the things our own spirit is communicating to us and the Holy Spirit is communicating to us will come across like static. We will not be able to pick up on what God is leading us to do. Therefore, in order to be able to discern what our spirit is saying and what the Holy Spirit is saying, we need to be walking in the Spirit so that it is being broadcasted loud and clear in our hearts. One of the ways that you can tell when the Holy Spirit is bearing witness with your spirit is found in the last part of this verse: It says that He “bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.” Well, how do you know that you are a child of God? Someone would say, “I do not know how I know; I just know!” So, that is a Scriptural response because the witness of the Spirit is manifested as simply a “knowing.” So, if the Holy Spirit can bear witness with your spirit that you are God’s child then do you think He could bear witness with your spirit to let you know what job to take or who you are to marry? Of course He can, and He will, if you will just invite Him to. This is why I like to call this witness our “knower.” First John 2:20 says, “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.” The anointing, the Holy Spirit, knows all things and communicates those things to our spirit. Therefore, when direction comes—you will know it! If you are like, “Ehhh, I don’t know about that” or “Ehhh, I’m not sure why, but there is something not right about that.” Those “Ehhh’s” are oftentimes how the Holy Spirit is co-witnessing with our spirit to not do a certain thing. So, learn to obey those checks in your spirit promptly because oftentimes they are the Holy Spirit leading you not to do something. However, those uneasy feelings can also just be your head trying to talk you out of what your heart is telling you to do. That is why we must first be honest with ourselves and humbly accept the correction and then practice being led through trial and error. We should do this on the small things like asking for direction on what route to take home from work or asking Him to help you find something that you misplaced. You ask the Holy Spirit things such as this and then wait till He bears witness with your spirit. Then when something just pops into your heart or you just “know” something, act on it! Sometimes you’ll miss it and sometimes you’ll hit it right on the head. Just learn from your mistakes and from your successes (even journaling everything down to the minutest detail like how you were feeling, the fears, etc. This would be wisdom) and you will grow in your ability to be led by your “knower.” You see, we don’t have to know everything; We just need to know the One Who does know everything! And when we learn to detect the “knower” we will know everything we need to know. So, this is how the Holy Spirit speaks to us—it’s a knowing. Others describe it as a peace, as something simply seeming good or not, a “check” in their spirit, or a still small voice. However you describe it is up to you, but what it really is, is the Holy Spirit bearing witness with your spirit according to the Scriptures. And so, what we must learn to do is detect the Holy Spirit in our spirit so that we can hear what He is trying to communicate to us on a daily basis. Conclusion So, what we have learned this week is that the Lord our Shepherd has specific ways in which He communicates with us. He is not in the business of hopping the fence with surprise ways of approaching us but rather tends to enter through the door—that is, through the Way of Jesus and the Holy Scriptures. Then, we saw how important it is that we believe that we, as His sheep, hear & know His voice because if we don’t go into this whole thing with faith, we are not positioned to hear from Him the way we are promised here. Finally, we saw how the voice of God here on the earth today is the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we must look for His voice, not externally, but internally. And we saw how the Holy Spirit speaks inside of us—in that still small voice that bears witness with our spirit. In other words, it is just a knowing, a peace, or a sensing that something is good or bad. Church, once we start discerning how the Good Shepherd speaks to us, we will know where to look for His voice. And once that happens, we will more easily be able to tell the difference between what God is saying on the inside of us and what is just our own thoughts. Now next week we will delve more into how the devil speaks, because he also fits into this equation. We also must learn to discern when it is him interjecting those thoughts and feelings in our heart. Get ready for some life-altering truth! |
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