                    [Times Square Church Pulpit Series]

                     God Wants You to Know His Voice!

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By David Wilkerson
April 19, 1993
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          The devil does everything in his power to make his
          voice heard in this world. At one point he even had the
          audacity to interupt Jesus while the Lord was speaking
          in the synagogue:

          "And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the
          sabbath day He entered into the synagogue, and
          taught... And there was in their synagogue a man with
          an unclean spirit; and he cried out, saying, Let us
          alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of
          Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who
          thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him,
          saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him" (Mark
          1:21-26)

          Using the voice of the man, Satan cried out loudly,
          having one purpose in mind - to send fear throughout
          the entire congregation! He wanted every person within
          the sound of his voice to cower in fear - to believe he
          had power and authority, even as he was being cast out.

          Peter warns last-day believers that Satan will come to
          them with a loud voice, trying to bring fear: "Be
          sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil,
          as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may
          devour" (1 Peter 5:8).

          Here is my point: If Satan is making his voice known in
          these last days, showing his power to the masses of
          lost souls, how much more important is it for God's
          people to know their Father's voice? Do you think the
          Lord would sit by as Satan roars at the world - and yet
          remain silent Himself? Never! Isaiah said: "And the
          Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard"
          (Isaiah 30:30)

          Since Adam and Eve, God has been speaking to man.
          Scripture says that from the very beginning, "They
          heard the voice of the Lord God" (Gen3:8). Adam said,
          "I heard thy voice in the garden" (verse 10)

          From Genesis onward through the New Testament, God made
          His voice known to His people - to Abraham, Moses,
          Caleb, Joshua, Samuel and David, to righteous kings and
          judges. In the books of the prophets we see this phrase
          repeated time after time: "And God said..." God's voice
          was known and understood. He always made His voice to
          be heard!

          Jesus confirmed this in the New Testament, using the
          example of the Good Shepherd: "The sheep hear his
          voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and
          leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own
          sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him:
          for they know his voice. And a stranger they will not
          follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the
          voice of strangers" (John 10:3-5).

          Jesus stated to Pilate: "Every one that is of the truth
          heareth my voice" (18:37). The message to us is clear:
          If you have God's Spirit in you, then you will hear and
          know His voice!

          Yet we live in a day when many voices clamor for our
          attention. Paul warned: "There are...so many kinds of
          voices in the world, and none of them is without
          signification [meaning]" (1 Corinthians 14:10).

          Perhaps you have had the experience of many other
          Christians: When you pray, seeking to hear and know
          God's voice, your mind is flooded with all kinds of
          voices, You may wonder, "How can I distinguish the
          voice of God from my own flesh? How can I be sure it is
          God speaking, and not the voice of a tempting spirit?"

          Let me share with you a few insights I believe God has
          given me on this matter of hearing and knowing His
          voice:

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                       If You Are Living in Sin, You
                       Will Never Hear God's Voice!

                      -------------------------------

          If you are coddling some secret sin, you can be sure
          you really don't want to hear God's voice. That is
          because you already know what He will say to you - and
          you don't want to hear it!

          When Adam and Eve sinned, it brought shame. And with
          that shame came guilt, fear and condemnation. This
          shame is called "nakedness" in the Old Testament - and
          being naked meant standing in God's presence clothed
          only with guilt.

          "And the Lord called unto Adam, and said unto him,
          Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the
          garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I
          hid myself" (Genesis 3:9-10).

          Adam hid from God's voice, because of the guilt and
          shame of his sin. And that is exactly where many of
          God's people are today - hiding, afraid to hear God
          speak!

          You may have lukewarm Christian friends who don't like
          to go to church with you. When you first met them they
          were living carelessly. Indeed, they were burdened with
          guilt and shame - but they weren't ready to give up
          their secret sin!

          When you brought them to church with you, God's Word
          pierced their conscience. They knew they were hearing
          the voice of God, calling out to them, "Where are you -
          what are you doing?" Fear struck their heart! The holy
          presence of Jesus made their sin seem vile and they
          could not wait to run out of church and hide!

          Beloved, if you want to hear God's voice you have to be
          ready for a total cleansing. You must be willing to
          have every sin exposed and cast away!

          The prophet Isaiah had an awesome vision of the Lord
          sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. Seraphim
          covered themselves with their wings because of the holy
          presence of God. They cried out: "Holy, holy, holy, is
          the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his
          glory" (Isaiah 6:3).

          God's voice was so mighty it shook the temple. And at
          the sound of it, the righteous prophet Isaiah fell on
          his face, crying: "Woe is me for I am undone; because I
          am a man of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the
          King, the Lord of hosts" (verse 5). Isaiah was stricken
          with a sense of sin and uncleanness - because God's
          voice is a purging voice!

          "Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live
          coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs
          from off the altar: and he laid it upon my mouth, and
          said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine
          iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged" (verses
          6-7).

          Isaiah could not hear God's "directing voice" until he
          had first heard His "purging voice."

          You see, direction and guidance come only after purging
          because if you haven't been purged, you can't go any
          farther with the Lord. Yet thousands upon thousands of
          God's people today flock to meetings to get a quick,
          "cure-all" word from God. They want a prophet to lay
          hands on them - to tell them what to do and what the
          future holds. Most of what they hear, however, is
          flattery: "Thou shalt be mightily used of God!" "Thou
          shalt be a witness to the nations!" "Thou shalt be
          blessed and prosperous!"

          How many of these people do you think would flock to
          meetings if the "star preacher" pointed a finger at
          their heart and gave them the purging Word of God?
          "You're still unclean - you never have let go of your
          secret sin! You have no vision of Jesus' holiness. Hear
          His voice - repent!

          If you want to hear God's voice of direction, you must
          first be ready to have your soul purged and cleansed.
          His Word comes to pierce our conscience and expose
          wickedness - so He can use us!

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                       It Was Only After Isaiah Heard
                        the Voice of Purging That He
                       Heard the Voice of Direction!

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          Once he had received purging, Isaiah received direction
          from God: "I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom
          shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here
          am I; send me. And he said, Go... " (Isaiah 6:8-9).

          How excited we become after the purging! Once we have
          repented and become broken, we pray, "Lord, You know
          that I've been cleansed, that all sins have been
          purged. Now I'm ready to hear Your voice of direction
          speak comfortably to Thy servant - I'm ready to obey!"

          Yet if you want direction - if you think you're ready
          to do what He asks - then let me ask you: Are you ready
          for an unsettling word - a mission of hardship and
          rejection - a life of faith with no guaranteed comforts
          except those of the Holy Ghost?

          That is exactly what happened to Isaiah! The prophet
          volunteered, "Send me, Lord." And God sent him on a
          hard, difficult mission!

          "And He said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed,
          but under stand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive
          not, Make the heart of this people fat, and make their
          ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with
          their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand
          with their heart" (verses 9-10).

          The word Isaiah heard was not flattering! On the
          contrary, it would make him hated, unpopular. The Lord
          told him, "Go, harden those who refuse to hear Me
          speak! Close their eyes and ears - finish the hardening
          of their hearts!"

          Dear saint, if you want to know God's voice, then you
          have to do willing to hear anything He says! God will
          never say, "Go!" until He first asks you "Who will go?"
          He comes to you, asking, are you willing to do anything
          I tell you - to do it My way? Are you willing to lay
          down your life?"

          When I prayed for direction a few short years ago the
          Lord told me clearly, "Go back to New York." That was a
          most uncomfortable word for me! I had been ready to
          retire. I had planned to write books and preach at
          selected places. I thought, "Lord I've already spent my
          best years there. Give me a break!"

          Yes, we want to hear the voice of God, but we want to
          hear it comfortably! We don't want it to shake us. Yet
          why should God give us His voice of direction if He is
          not sure we will obey Him?

          Abraham learned to hear God's voice by first obeying
          what he heard - at the time he heard it! God's word to
          him was a hard word: "Sacrifice your son, Isaac!"
          Abraham acted on that word and his obedience became a
          sweet-smelling aroma that touched the whole world: "And
          in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed,
          because thou hast obeyed my voice" (Genesis 22:18).

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                      There is One Major Cause of Why
                      So Many Believers Cannot Know or
                       Understand the Voice of God!

                      -------------------------------

          The teachers of Israel came to Moses and said: "Now
          therefore why should we die? For, if we hear the voice
          of the Lord our God any more, then we shall die. For
          who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the voice of
          the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire,
          as we have, and lived? "Go thou near, and hear all that
          the Lord our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all
          that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee; and we
          will hear it, and do it" (Deuteronomy 5:25-27).

          These men were saying to Moses, "You go to God! You
          hear His voice and tell us what He says, and we will do
          it."

          But Moses reminded these leaders that at one time they
          had heard the Lord's voice for themselves: "The Lord
          talked with you face to face in the mount out of the
          midst of the fire" (Deuteronomy 5:4). God had talked to
          them personally - and they had lived! In fact, that
          very night, before retiring, they had agreed: "We have
          heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have
          seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he
          liveth" (verse 24).

          No, these Israelites were not afraid of hearing God's
          voice - they were afraid of what He was going to tell
          them! It was because they still clung to idols - golden
          mice they had carried with them from Egypt!

          God already had commanded them:

          "Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt
          not make unto thee any graven image. Thou shalt not bow
          down thyself to them" (Exodus 20:35). And now He was
          saying to them, "I want all of your heart. Lay down
          your idols!"

          Amos spoke for God, saying: "Have ye offered unto me
          sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years,
          O house of Israel? But ye have borne the tabernacle of
          your Molech and Chiun your images, the star of your
          god, which ye made to yourselves" (Amos 5:25-26).

          The writer of Hebrews says Israel begged "that the word
          should not be spoken to them any more: (For they could
          not endure that which was commanded...)" (Hebrew
          12:19-20).

          Here is the key! The Israelites could not endure what
          God had commanded of them because they not bear the
          thought of giving up their hidden idols and secret
          sins!

          They thought, "Moses is meek. We'll let him talk to God
          and then we'll listen to him. He's led us all these
          years, and he still hasn't caught onto our hidden
          idols. He won't be as hard on us as God!"

          No! God is not an entertainer who plays parlor games
          with idolatrous Christians! He seeks intimacy - He
          wants to speak to the smallest details of our lives.
          And He speaks with one purpose in mind - to possess all
          of our heart! He wants to destroy all idols and purge
          all sin so He can bless, favor and reward!

          The Lord said of Israel: "O that there were such an
          heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my
          commandments always, that it might be well with them,
          and with their children for ever!" (Deuteronomy 5:29).

                      -------------------------------

                      God's Voice Cannot be Heard When
                    You Are Depending On A Man's Voice!

                      -------------------------------

          Israel could not hear God's voice because they
          preferred hearing the voice of a man. I ask you: Could
          this be the reason you are not able to hear His voice?

          Perhaps you have an idol - a certain minister, teacher
          or evangelist. He speaks to you of good things - of
          healing, prosperity, faith and blessings. But he does
          not dig into your heart about sin! You don't want to be
          searched; you want only to be blessed - so you listen
          to his tapes for hours, devouring his messages. But you
          are feeding on a man instead of on Christ!

          Beloved, the reason why many Christians today cannot
          hear the voice of God is because they have been
          indoctrinated by a man! The Bible speaks of this as the
          worst idolatry of these last days - addiction to false
          doctrine, false teachers, indoctrination by men who do
          not speak for God.

          I do not speak against these men, but against heresy
          and error - against false doctrines that are coming
          forth and ruining men's souls. Those who run to such
          doctrines end up halfhearted, confused, shipwrecked.
          They miss the true blessing and favor of God!

          It is time for every believer to go directly to the
          Lord and hear His voice without a man in the middle!
          You have to learn to hear God's voice for yourself.
          Yes, His Spirit will be digging, searching, convicting,
          dealing. But you will never know His voice until He has
          all your heart!

          I want to speak now to those repentant, remnant
          believers who truly want to hear and know their Lord's
          voice:

                      -------------------------------

                        God's Desire Is for His Holy
                    People to Enjoy a Daily, Consistent,
                   Conversational Hearing Of His Voice!

                      -------------------------------

          God desires to speak to you as if you were sitting down
          to dinner with Him. He wants to converse with you,
          heart to heart, on any and all matters! The Bible says:
          "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man
          hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to
          him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Reve1ation
          3:20).

          This verse often has been misapplied to the unsaved. We
          speak of Jesus standing at the door of the sinner's
          heart, seeking entrance. No - it is to the believer
          that Christ is speaking!

          The context shows that Christ is talking to those who
          are clothed in white raiment (righteousness), who have
          bought gold tried in the fire, whose eyes are anointed
          (having revelation), who are loved, reproved and
          chastened (see verses 15-19). These are repentant, holy
          people who want to know the voice of God!

          As I read and reread verse 20 in this passage, three
          words kept leaping out at me: "Open the door! Open the
          door!" And the Spirit of God spoke clearly to my heart:
          "David, the reason you have not heard Me as I want to
          be heard is because you are not wholly open in your
          spirit to hear!"

          Now, we know theologically that Jesus abides in our
          heart. Yet most of us keep a little place in our heart
          that we never open up to the Lord. This is the seat of
          our soul, the very core of our being - it makes us the
          person we are. And out of it springs all of our
          emotions.

          This is the room Jesus comes to, knocking, calling. He
          is saying there is a closed door between you and
          Himself - something that is blocking Him from coming
          in.

          This door as I see it represents a commitment - one
          that many Christians have not yet fully made. Most
          believers pray, "Lord, all I need is a little advice, a
          few words of direction - a reminder that You love me.
          Just let me know whether I'm doing right or wrong. Go
          before me and open the doors!"

          But Jesus answers us: "If all you want from Me is
          direction, I can send a prophet to give it to you. If
          you only want to know where to go and what to do, I can
          send someone and you can filter it all through him. But
          you're missing Me!"

          The truth is, Jesus wants more! He wants your
          closeness, your deepest emotions your locked-up room.
          He wants to sit down with you and share all that is in
          His heart - to talk to you face to face. He wants to be
          intimate with you! He is calling for dinner for two!

          Revelation 3 is a wonderful picture of this. It speaks
          of love and intimacy, of sharing secrets, of tender
          voices. Christ is saying here, "I want to share My
          heart with you. I want you to know My ways, so that the
          very thoughts you think are My thoughts. I want My
          voice to emerge more and more in your heart - until
          your very mind is the mind of Christ!"

          He stands at the door, knocking, asking for a
          commitment - a step of faith that says you will open up
          your heart, soul and mind to Him. This can't happen
          through emotions or feelings. Rather, it must be
          through a commitment of faith that says, "Jesus, I
          commit to you, not to answers, not to direction. I open
          the door of my all to You!"

          When Jesus comes in, He brings food, bread - in other
          words, Himself. And when you feed on Him, you will be
          satisfied completely!

                      -------------------------------

                   The Song of Solomon Offers a Beautiful
                  Picture of Christ Wanting in the Door!

                      -------------------------------

          The bride portrayed in the Song of Solomon says:

          "I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my
          beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister,
          my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled
          with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night"
          (Song of Solomon 5:2).

          The bridegroom in this scene represents Jesus. He is
          knocking on his bride's door, saying "Open to Me My
          beloved, My head is filled with dew [meaning, I have
          suffered for our love]." The bride hears Him knock, but
          she is in bed. She loves the bridegroom, but she is too
          tired to get up and open the door to him.

          Then something happens. She says, "My beloved put his
          hand in the hole of the door, and my [heart was] moved
          for him" (verse 4). In oriental times, doors were built
          with an opening in them. Here, the bridegroom wants so
          badly to be with his bride that He puts His hand in the
          opening and tries to undo the lock from inside. But for
          some reason he is hindered. So he looks through the
          opening at his bride - and he sees her sleepy-eyed and
          half-awake.

          He wonders: "Does she truly love me? "Why does she not
          open to me with anxious jubilation? Why am I so anxious
          to be with her - and yet she is so unconcerned about
          being with me?"

          Dear saint, this is exactly what the Lord is wanting
          from His church! He wants us waiting at the door, full
          of love - not slighting Him as if He were not the
          altogether lovely One of our hearts!

          People who are in love want to be alone together. And
          this picture shows Christ's heart toward us: He wants
          intimacy with us so badly that He literally reaches
          inside and tries to unlock the door! Yet, I ask you -
          how many times has Jesus wanted intimacy with you, but
          you've shut Him out?

          At this point, the bride rouses herself and smells her
          beloved's fragrance (the myrrh) on the lock of the
          door: "I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands
          dripped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling
          myrrh, upon the handles of the lock" (verse 5).

          Finally, she says: "I opened to my beloved; but my
          beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul
          failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not
          find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer" (Song
          of Solomon 5:3-5).

          The bridegroom was gone! He still loved her - but his
          actions said, "She has no intense love for me - she's
          taking me for granted! I've got to withdraw until she
          learns to appreciate who I am"

          Beloved, sometimes the Lord has to withdraw from us for
          the same reason! When He does so, He is saying to us,
          "I want you to come to Me with all your heart. I want
          you to love Me - to yearn after Me with everything
          that's in you!"

          Suddenly, the bride realizes she has slighted her
          bridegroom! So she runs into the streets, crying, "I
          charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my
          beloved, that ye tell him, that I am [faint with
          desire]" (5:8). She tells everyone, "He is altogether
          lovely" (verse 16).

          This is a picture of an awakened church - awakened to
          her need for Christ! Those who hunger for the
          Bridegroom are already standing at the door when Jesus
          knocks. They're ready, with their hand on the door, to
          open up to intimacy with Him!

          Like the bride in this passage, we must wake up to who
          Jesus is to us! We have to say, as the bride does,
          "That's my love, my life, I can't do without Him!"

          Have you not yet opened up to loving intimacy with
          Jesus? Have you not yet let the Bridegroom in? Open up
          your soul and spirit to Christ, and trust He will
          enter, Let Him be your source, your everything and
          believe what He said: "I will come in - I will dine
          with you!" (see Revelation 3:20).

          In His presence, shut in with Him alone, you will get
          to know Him - His fragrance, His ways, His heart. And
          you will learn to know His voice - the voice of the One
          who loves you enough to keep knocking and begging for
          your intimacy.

          Get close to Him - and you will know His voice!

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