So what does the voice of God sound like? What does God's voice sound like, when He is speaking to us? And of course it raises other questions; what if God isn't speaking? What if I've been praying and asking for something for a long time, and He hasn't spoken? That is a real horrible one. How many know what I'm talking about there? You've got an issue in your life, and in that issue in your life, heaven is silent! In the midst of that silence, there's stress, because I need a reply from heaven, and no reply is forthcoming. It's like God's got the pip, and He's not talking, shut down; and so, how many know that experience? Right, we all have it; so when I say that the Bible says: My sheep hear My voice, and follow Me, we also have to take into account, there are times when God remains silent for a season. In that season, your heart is tested, what you will do; and in that season, He requires that we just trust Him, and do the last thing He told us to do. That's probably as simple as I can get it.
Now I hate those times when He's not telling me, but I've learned in them trust Him, and relax. He's got an answer. It is coming, and in due time, He'll tell me. He will tell me. He will show the way. He's promised to show the way; so if you're stuck in that place now, and it feels like you've got an issue in your life - maybe it's an issue with a child, an issue with a spouse, an issue with finances, an issue with a job - there's so many of them in life, and it's like God speaks on lots of trivial things, but on the big thing He's not saying anything. That is horrible, and it happens to all of us, and it happens more often than we'd like to say - it happens. And in those times remain confident, trust in the Lord with all your heart, don't lean on your own understanding and try and find your way. Walk with God, humbly dependent, confessing His word over your life, and trusting Him - and acting on the last thing you were given.
Now having put that aside, now we'll look at hearing the voice of God okay? So if you hear the voice of God, what will it sound like? Very, very simple - Jesus spoke in 1 Corinthians 6:17, Paul wrote: he that's joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. So we have to be very, very clear that when God speaks, He is speaking to our spirit; and here's the amazing thing. When the disciples were on the earth, they literally had to physically follow Jesus, and walk after a person; but now Jesus said: there's a whole new deal; and so He says: I want you to abide in Me. I'm going to put my spirit inside you. My spirit and your spirit will be joined, and because of that you will be able to have free access to the realm of heaven, but you will be on the earth. You'll be living here, but you'll have access to the realm of heaven, the realm of the spirit. My spirit will always be with you, so you won't need to physically be in Israel. You can be with Me. I will be with you. I'll never leave you, not forsake you; so notice it's he that's joined the Lord, is one spirit - and therein is the key. If we're going to hear from God, it will be in our spirit. Now I'm not going to downplay the word of God in this. The word of God is vital to all guidance and direction, and moving from the word of God creates disasters. However, God wants us to learn how to recognise when He's speaking to us, so it will be from our spirit. So He wants us to learn how to be aware of the movements of His spirit within us.
Now worship is one great way you can learn how to flow with what God is doing.Have you noticed in a worship meeting, or at the beginning, and there's a flow begins to build, and as the musicians began to lead you actually can feel yourself shifting, and things begin to move, your spirit becomes stirred inside you, you start to arise within. You are starting to arise in your spirit, so all movements of God are movements in our spirit, so He leads you from within your spirit. That means - here's the interesting thing - that you are one spirit with the spirit of God - now get this - so therefore, His thoughts will come into your thoughts, His feelings will come into your feelings, His visions or pictures will come into yours, the impressions He has will, come into yours. In fact everything that He is like, He's a person, the Holy Spirit's a person - He will implant into your spirit, His own very thoughts and ideas. That's a very, very simple concept. God is joined to me. I'm one spirit with the Lord. He's never far from me. I don't have to come to a service, to actually hear the voice of God. It's wonderful to come, and to be inspired in corporate worship. There's a place for that, and hear what God's saying to the church; but I also need to be stirred in my own spiritual life. I need to grow and develop spirit awareness, spirit sensitivity. Everyone can develop it. It's not automatic, it's something you develop. For example, a mother can quickly pick the voice of her child in a room of yelling children - huh, that's my one! You just hear noise, she hears her child. She has tuned her ear to the voice of her child. We have to tune our ear to the voice of our spirit, because that's where we'll hear the Holy Spirit. You won't necessarily have some great big picture and revelation. You may not have some great big open dream, or thing like that; but you can, within your spirit, hear and receive impressions of the Holy Spirit.