When the spirit of God speaks to us, He'll never speak contrary to the word of God. It'll always align with the word of God. It'll always be very, very simply - it'll be aligned with what God's word said, and never violate the written word; so if you're getting things that aren't in the word of God, then beware, be cautious; because if it's contrary to the word of God, why would the spirit of God give you something, that He wrote something different about? It makes Him a liar; so if anything you receive by revelation is contrary to the Bible, then it's contrary to the spirit of God. You're getting it from somewhere else. Just shut it down, stop listening to that stuff.
The second thing it would do, is it always brings a fruit in your life of peace. When God gives you something, there's a witness in your spirit, there's a peace in your heart. It's always like that. The third thing is, that when God gives us something, it usually: comforts, edifies and exalts us. It lifts us up, it builds us up. It never condemns, and puts you down. He just doesn't do that. He says: I do not condemn you, I come to save, not condemn, not to judge. He does never condemn us; so if you're hearing condemning thoughts, they're not from God. Someone prophesies a condemning prophesy, that's not from God either - bless you brother, but I don't receive any word of it. You know, it's as simple as that. Why should you receive something that's contrary to scripture? Someone says things that are condemning and putting down, that's not God. He's not going to treat you that way. He'll talk with you with love, encouragement, and He'll tell you the truth, and He'll show you what to do to move forward; so things that come from God are very, very clear. Very simply, they're in line with the word of God, and the character of God; they produce a fruit of peace, and good results in our life. They witness with our spirit, they tend to edify and to build us up. They tend to strengthen us.
If someone prophesies, or there's some word you get about something in the future; if it comes to pass, it most likely was God. There are many reasons that things don't come to pass, and one of them is that we don't respond to them; so here's the thing then, very, very simple. It's not hard to hear the voice of God, not hard to move and to listen to God, but you've got to go quiet, and still your heart, and listen. Free your spirit, focus your attention, faith, expect God to speak to you and give you something; feel or identify what you have; and then respond and act on it. It really helps if you're identifying things to journal them, write them down. What did God say to you?
So let's just close our eyes right now. Father, I just thank You that You are speaking to us, even today, as again in every Sunday, you have been speaking to us. I want you just to close your eyes for just a moment. I want to ask you two questions. What impression, what impressed you in today's service? What impression came into your heart? You may have not thought of it as being God speaking to you. It could have been during the worship, during something someone said, or did, during the meeting, or during this message. But what did God speak to you? What impression did you get that touched you? What impressed you today? Think about that. The second question is, what will you do about that?
So I want you just to think about that. What did God say that impressed your heart? What impression did you get? It could be totally unrelated to anything I have said, but nevertheless there was an impression you got, so have a think about it. If you can't answer that, then slow down and say: I wonder why I didn't feel anything, or sense anything? So just talk with the person next to you, and share what impressed you, what impressed you. My sheep hear My voice - what impressed you? Secondly, say what you're going to do about it. Have a think about that. You may not even know Jesus. You may not be a Christian yet, but God can still have spoken to your heart.