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SCRIPTURE 1Ki 19:11-12                                                                                                                                          June, 2008

And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

SUBJECT ? BE STILL, THEN YOU CAN HEAR !!!!![Part 1]

This month's message has to deal with a subject, that is all too often looked at, if at all, as being something that is, depending on who you ask, part of a bygone era. That being, does God still speak to man today, as He did, in the past?

The answer to that question is, yes He does.

However, there is a difference between how He used to do it, and the way He does it now.

Starting with Adam and Eve, He audibly spoke to them, just as you and I would speak to each other.

After the fall, He still spoke to men, but only on a limited basis. That basis was selective. Only those that He anointed to be His spokesmen, such as Noah, Moses, Joshua, the prophets, and priests, and others that played an important part in furthering His plan for mankind's salvation, did He speak to.

It is no secret that, in order to get things done, He had to speak to them, to let them know what He wanted them to do, and that they had to 'be obedient' to His direction, so that things would go as He planned.

Only on very rare occasions, were there times where He did not speak to His people, and that was when He was displeased with them. During those times, He allowed them to suffer for their disobedience, by letting them stumble around in the 'wilderness', or under the slave master's of different kingdoms.

But even then, there were a few that still heard from Him, but that message was one of giving those particular individuals the strength to persevere, under the stress of their situations.

It is absolutely foolish to believe that any one of us, can be pleasing to God, without Him directing us, in what we should do.

Before Christ, God spoke to specific individuals, and if necessary, He would tell them to relay that information to others, that needed His direction.

After Christ, things changed.

We saw that Christ ushered in, a 'new dispensation', where God, was about to open up the communication 'flood gates', where anyone could ask, and hear from God, about their personal situations. [Mat 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:]

During the 'old testament', people had to go to the prophets, or priests to get direction for their lives, where as now, we can go directly to Him, for direction. He has made Himself available to whosoever wants to hear from Him.

So, why then, are people going around saying and believing that God either doesn't speak to us anymore?? Or if He does, it is only to specific people??

Let me address the last part first.

Many of those individuals believe what they believe, only when what is being said, in the name of the Lord, agrees with what they want to hear.

It is no strange thing, to hear people, especially those that are popular in their communities, whether they are black, white, red, yellow, male, female, American, other, Christian, or you name it, saying that God has told them, that 'this is the way to go', getting a rousing show of support, from their constituents, even though what is being spoken as coming from the Lord, is not from Him at all, but are the delusions of misguided individuals, who are nothing more than false prophets, sent among us, by Satan, to lead us to destruction. Then, when someone that has truly heard from the Lord, confronts these individuals, they are rebuffed, vilified, and rebuked, for being divisive, and having ulterior motives, as well as not really having heard from the Lord.

Well, how is one to know just who is speaking for the Lord, and who isn't??

The only real way, is to ask God, Himself. Mat 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

God has given us His Word, that He will hear, and answer us, when we seek His direction. So why are so many people of the opinion that God doesn't speak to us anymore??

The answer is in the subject verses..

Read the whole thing, then look carefully at the underlined part.

What you will see, is that, most people that say God doesn't speak to us like He used to, tend to believe that if He wants to speak to us, He would do so, in a strong, loud audible way. Something that will get their attention.

Have you ever said, or heard some one say, 'If God wants to get our attention, He will slap us up side the head, or send lightening bolts down from Heaven, or whatever it takes.'

Well, the scriptures tell us a drastically different story. They say that the Lord, does not speak in the strong wind, or the earthquake, or the fire, all of which, would really get our attention, were they to occur, no matter what we were doing, but rather in a still small voice (whisper). Many would believe that if they are doing something wrong, and God doesn't want them to do it, He would take some great action to stop them.

But, that is not how He does it now. At one time, in the old testament times, He used to do it. What this did, was instill fear in to most people, where they obeyed Him, out of fear.

Now, He wants us to obey Him, out of our love for Him.

So, He speaks to us, as a loving parent, to their child. Not hollering, or throwing things.

And it is because of this, that most of us, never hear Him speaking to us.

The reason for this is because, today, our lives are so filled with things to do, places to go, fun, entertainment, pursuing wealth, paying bills, raising kids, attending seminars, and such, that we would need a tornado, earthquake, or fire, to stop us in our tracks and get our attention.

What this boils down to, is that we are too busy, to hear His voice.

The way things usually go for most of us, our everyday lives usually start out early in the morning. We wake up early, either to get to work, or to get the kids up to get them ready for school. We have to get them cleaned up, as well as get ourselves ready for work.

Then, it's fixing breakfast, and rushing out the door.

We then have to deal with rush hour traffic, or dealing with passengers on the bus, or other mass transit system. On the job, it's usually a mad house, depending on whether it is an office, factory, or store.

There isn't much time for yourself, as you get through the trials and tribulations of the job.

After work, it's rush home to either pick up the kids, or getting home, to fix the family some dinner, or go out to pick up something from the restaurant. If the kids have after school activities, then you have to get them to and from there.

On the weekends, you are out to the malls to shop. Later to the movies or some other entertainment venue.

Day in and day out, it is rush, rush, rush. There is little time for you to hardly catch your breath.

With all of these, and other things, pulling, and screaming at you, hearing God, is the last thing on your mind. Oh sure, you want to hear from Him, when you face problems, but He is usually drowned out, by those that have opinions on how to handle your life's difficulties. You have, family, friends, psychics, talk shows, and you name it. All screaming at you, about how to deal with your problems. But God, speaks to you in that still small voice, that is drowned out by all this interference.

It's called the 'rat race.'

I used to be in it, at one time. But, I began to realize several things. On the job I had, at Chrysler, I usually had a lot of time to myself. I was isolated, to a large degree from outside interference. As a result, I spent a lot of time reading my bible. My mind was open to God, through the Holy Spirit.

God had an open mind to work with, and because of this, I saw things in a totally different light, than many other Christians saw them. Not saying that I am better than them, but, my mind was less crowded with distractions, so His voice came through loud and clear.

Some of the things I spoke on,, were at first, looked at as being too far out, by many of my Christian brothers and sisters, let alone, the world. But, as time went on, they began to see, that what I was saying, had to come from God, because they too, began to see the same things. Only now, they were being openly revealed.

What was happening, is that God was using me in the gift of 'the word of knowledge' [1Cor 12:8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;]. And with that Knowledge, comes Wisdom. God's Wisdom.

This is why we are told to, walk in the Spirit, and not in the flesh. All of these distractions that we face everyday, are getting us to walk, and think in, the flesh [Gal 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.]

God wants all of us to put our faith and trust, in Him, and He is consistently telling us what to do, and what not to do. But the problem is, if, on rare occasions, many do hear His voice, they don't really believe it is Him.

Have you ever been faced with a situation, where you were trying to figure out what to do, and a thought popped in to your mind, and you said to yourself, or told someone, 'You know, I was thinking about how to deal with this problem I had, and the silliest thought came in to my mind, and I thought I was losing my mind for a minute.'?? Well, depending on the circumstances, that might have been God speaking to you, but because you didn't recognize His voice, you thought it was silly.

Look at these two scriptures, [1Cor 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;] and [John 10:4-5 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 will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

The first scripture gives us the revelation that God's Word only seems foolish to those of us, that are wise, in our own eyes, or flesh. The second says that those of us that know God, should know His voice, so we can follow Him. And therefore, if we don't know the voice, we should flee from it.

And here is the conundrum. If we don't know God's voice, we will run from His voice, because He is a stranger, to us.

Well, I will have to close this message, and pick it up next month, showing some 'real life' situations that most of us, unsaved, and saved alike, face everyday that are literally destroying us, but we just can't seem to see what is wrong.

Everything is going to pot. People are suffering the loss of their jobs, the loss of their homes, they can't seem to make ends meet. Everything they try as a solution, fails.

Is God out there?? Does He hear me?? Yes He does. But, do you hear Him??

Part 2Next month. *****************************************************************************************

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