Learning To Hear God's Voice - Part 1

Jesus told the story in Luke 8, a parable, in which He says, Let me explain to you that it's all about mental attitude. There are four kinds of attitudes that will depend whether you get the message clearly from God or whether you don't. This is so important. Obviously, if you can tune into God He can direct you, He can save you a lot of time from making wrong mistakes, He can comfort you when you need comfort, He can guide you, and so on.
So He says, Let me tell you a story. There was a farmer who goes out to sow seed and as he went out to sow seed, his seed scattered all over in different types of soil. Back in the Middle East in the old days they didn't plant one seed per spot and cover it up with dirt. They did what was called broadcasting. A farmer would have a pouch on his side filled with seed and, as he'd walk through the field which he had already tilled, he would toss it out, scattering it. That's where we get the term broadcasting from. Obviously some of the seed falls on good soil and some of it doesn't. He says these four soils represent four mental attitudes. They're not four kinds of people, but actually all of us have been all four of these types. We vary from them from time to time. Sometimes we're very open to God to what He wants to say to us. Sometimes we're very closed.

How do I hear God speak to me?

1. I MUST CULTIVATE AN OPEN MIND.
I've got to want to hear from God, be eager, be receptive. I've got to be ready and willing to hear God. Some of you today are not believers. You're seekers. You're checking out Christ. We welcome you here. We're glad you're here. Others of you are new believers. Others have been believers for many years. But if I were to ask you, Have you ever heard God speak to you? there are many of you who would say, "I can't think of a time in my life where I ever actually heard God speak to me." I'm not talking about an audible voice, but an impression in your mind that you knew that is from God.
Why is that? One of the possible reasons is that you've never been open to the possibility of it. Maybe you didn't even know it was possible that God does want to speak to you directly. You've thought maybe God doesn't speak to you and maybe you don't even believe in that. When you've got a closed mind, obviously, God is not going to get through.
This is the first type of soil. v. 5 "Some seed fell on the path and it was trampled on and the birds of the air came and ate it up....[v. 12] Those along the path are like people who hear and then the devil comes along and takes away the word from their hearts so they cannot believe and be saved."
On every farm, in every field there's a footpath that the farmer would walk down. As he went he would sow the seed out onto the land that was tilled. There are two characteristics of a footpath. One, they're hardened because of the constant traffic of people walking. The soil is compacted and it's not fertile and tilled like the field. It's hard. The other thing about a path is it's narrow.
Do you know anybody like that? They're closed minded, narrow minded, hard hearted. They're not even open to the possibility that God might speak to them. As a result, Jesus says the farmer sows seed but it can't penetrate because it's hard and compacted. It can't take route, it can't sprout, it just lays on the surface of the ground and the birds come along and eat it. It never even gets a chance.
This is true with us many of the times. God wants to speak to us, but He doesn't even get a chance because our minds are closed, our hearts are hardened, we've made up our mind, we're unwilling to listen, we've already decided what we're going to do so we don't want to hear from God. We've already decided what we're going to do in the situation.
What causes us to have a closed mind?

1. Pride. Pride causes us to have a closed mind. When I think, "I don't need God. I don't need to hear from God. I can make this business decision on my own. I don't need God. I know what to say to my children.... I don't need God. I know how to handle this date.... I don't need God. I can ace this test without praying." Anytime you fail to pray about something, you're basically saying, "I don't need God in this. I can handle it on my own. I can resolve it. I can solve it. I can handle this mess. I can correct this error. I can resolve this conflict. I don't need God." That's called pride. When I'm full of pride, I close my mind to God and He can't get in and say anything to me because I think I've got it all figured out. So I don't pray.

2. Fear. Sometimes we're just afraid of what God might say to us. What if I pray or open my mind to God and God tells me to do something I don't want to do? He might tell me something hard. He might tell me to do something unpopular. He might tell me to do something I think I can't do or I don't want to do. So I'm afraid. If I let God speak to me, I might become a religious fanatic. I'll become like one of those nuts on TV and have to wear a bouffant hairdo! Or wear s shiny leisure suit. And say all kinds of weird stuff. Maybe God will make me some kind of loony religious nut. So I'm afraid. I'm afraid I'll loose my freedom. I'm afraid I'll lose my fun. I'm afraid I'll loose my fulfillment in life. No thanks, God. So I close my mind. Some people close their mind to God simply out of fear.

3. Bitterness. Whenever we've been hurt and we hold on to those hurtful memories, it causes us to close our minds to God. We start saying things like "God, why did You allow this? Why is this happening to me? If You're such a great loving and powerful God, why did this happen?" You're going to be hurt in life. You will have pain in life. This is not heaven, this is earth. God has given us a free choice and so people are free to do wrong things and the result is innocent people suffer. Not everything that happens in this world is God's will. He's given us the freedom to choose. So people get hurt. You're going to be hurt in life. What you do with that hurt will determine whether you become a better person or a bitter person. A bitter life is a wasted life. When we become bitter and when we hold on to our hurts, it only prolongs the pain. What we tend to do is ... "They hurt me so I'm going to close myself off, build up walls, hide in my shell, and I'm not going to let anybody get close to me. Not even God, because God let it happen." We start blaming God for things other people did to us. As a result, we close our mind. People who have been deeply hurt often have a hard time opening up their minds and their hearts to God. They've held in so much and they hurt.

2. I MUST ALLOCATE TIME TO LISTEN
I've got to make time to hear Him. I've got to slow down, be quiet, plan it in my schedule. We schedule everything else in life -- vacations, dentist appointments, dates, homework, everything else. Do you schedule time for God in your schedule? Or does God just get the leftovers. The second reason a lot of people never hear God speak is we're in too much in a hurry. We're in such a rat race society that we're always in a hurry. We're always in a hurry. This is nothing new. When we live in a hurried lifestyle, God gets shortchanged, shuffled to the back of the deck. He gets the leftovers of our time. We want to hear God speak, yes, but what we say is, "God, I'm in a hurry, so do it quick! I only have a minute!" As I'm running out the door to my next project or assignment or job I'm saying "OK God, speak to me, but do it right now!" As a result, we miss what God wants to say to us.
v. 6 "Other seed fell on shallow soil with rock beneath. This seed began to grow but soon withered and died for lack of moisture." v. 13 "Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe it for a while, but in the time of testing, they fall away."
Just as the hardened path represents the closed mind, the shallow soil represents a superficial mind. It's shallow. When He talks about rocky soil here He's not talking about soil with a bunch of rocks in it. In much of the middle east and particularly in Israel, much of Israel is built on a bedrock of limestone with about 3-4 inches of topsoil on top of it. That means plants can grow down 2-3 inches but that's about it. So when summer comes and the heat is on, the plants wither. They die because they don't have any roots because there's a bedrock underneath that does not allow them to develop deep roots.
He's saying this represents the superficial type of hearer who hears the word of God. It sprouts up and they're all excited about it but it doesn't last. When the heat is on and when the problems come they will wither and fall away. Likewise we do this. Sometimes we hear God and we get all excited about it and we're superficially moved and we react emotionally and we're moved impulsively. But we never give it the time to sink in to our bodies, to sink in to our minds. I can't tell you how many people have told me, "I was so moved by that message! I was really touched. I was moved to tears!" But a month later there is still no perceivable life change or behavioral difference in their life. They're still living the same way. They got excited about the message but they didn't do anything about it. As a result they are just shallow, superficial. They have no roots. When the heat is on, they're not going to last.
The verse says the second kind of person -- v. 13 -- "They received the word with joy [circle that] but when they hear it they don't have any root." In other words, they don't retain it. He's saying you can be thrilled without being transformed. You need to write it down in a journal, or a binder of sermon notes, when you're in a Bible study, you take notes. Then you regularly review those things so you don't have to learn the same lesson over and over.
Some of you say, "I've been a Christian for 27 years..." No, you've been a believer for 27 years but you haven't had 27 years of experience. You've had one year of experience, 27 times. You have to keep relearning because you're not retaining it. You've got to take time to let it sink in. You need to schedule time every day where you set down with your Bible and read, think about your life, maybe review some of the lessons you've learned, write things down and keep growing by reviewing.
I've seen many people who have started off great. When they first became believers they were excited and enthusiastic and full of joy. Today you can't find them anywhere. They had enthusiasm but that is not enough to make it in the Christian life. It takes commitment. It takes the commitment to say, "I'm going to set down and regularly review what I'm being taught." Why should God teach me new things if I haven't put into practice what He taught me last week? or yesterday? or last night? Why do people have no roots? Because they don't take the time. How do you get roots? Allocate time to listen. Say, God, I'm going to spend 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes every day. It's not the amount of time. Just get started so that everyday you get alone with God and say, "OK God, what's next? What's the next step in my career? What's the next step in my marriage? What's the next step in my family? ..." God can't talk to you unless you slow down.
Cultivate an open mind and allocate time to listen.

To be continue........ Visit www.gracemediaoutreach.

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