Here's the second thing you can do. You can examine your relationship with the Lord, to see if there's things in there you need to face. Sometimes there are things to face. Sometimes there are issues to face. Sometimes, if God hasn't been speaking to you, God's silent, maybe there's compromise; maybe there's an area that God had spoken to you, you've done nothing about it, and so it's all gone quiet, on the God front, in that area. Maybe there's an area where you actually are violating God's principles in some way? You know, you're sleeping with someone, and then you're wondering why you're not hearing from God. I know what you're going to hear from God, I'll tell you it right now. So if you are, if you're in sexual sin, or sexual immorality, this is what the word of God is: STOP IT! Simple. Stop it, because you're grieving the spirit of God. It's as simple as that. Don't grieve the spirit of God. Don't quench the spirit of God. Don't grieve Him, just stop the sin, turn from the sin, quickly get back into God. Why? Because then you'll hear about it. Who knows what you've got in, already got such a mess, it's unlikely the thing's ever going to work out properly; so stop it, that's it. You don't need lots of words. We need to hear what God says, so if there's compromise, sin, there's something in our life we know is wrong; and in the time when you get in that atmosphere of worshipping God, that's when you start to remember it.
When you remember it, deal with it quite quick. Did God say something to you? What did He last say? Did you do it? What was the last thing God said? If you can't remember, you're in trouble. See, you're in trouble, in your relationship. Now the problem is, we substitute activities, for authentic heart relationship. Authentic heart relationship requires communication. So remember this, that we can be going to church, I could be giving, I could be serving, I could go in in the prison, I'd be going down the community, all kinds of things. But if I'm not hearing God, or I haven't heard Him for a long time, it's very easy for everything to reduce down to just church, and Christian busyness; and we don't carry a presence of God around our life. We're just doing good things. Now we need to be more than that. Don't stop doing the good things; but just re-engage with God again, so the good things you're doing carry His presence into them.
So when did you last hear God speak? Keep a journal, keep a diary, write down what God is saying; because if you don't write it down, you forget it. Oh it's getting very quiet. [Laughs] These are really, really important things, aren't they? So we don't know what to do, we haven't heard God for a little while. Now I believe you need to be proactive. You have to be proactive in seeking God, not just a victim, and passive: oh well, God's not talking to me, He talks to someone else, doesn't talk to me. Don't be a victim, be proactive! Seek for answers, seek for answers. You've got to be proactive, so we need to seek answers. So how am I going to seek answers when I'm not hearing God? The Bible tells us very clearly, to seek wisdom. Wisdom is the principle thing. Wisdom is knowing what to do. I don't know what to do, God, show me what to do, so how would I go about seeking that wisdom, if I'm not hearing much from God, and I'm overwhelmed by the problem? Well there's a number of ways you can go doing it. Start to search the Bible for some principles that might apply. For example, if you were choosing someone to marry, there's no verse that says: marry this person; so now you've got to look at the principles that would be appropriate for that. Is the person one spirit with me? Are they joined to the Lord? Are they a believer? That would be a good thing to ask them, because if they're not a believer, you've got some big problems, division right at the beginning. Principles - have we got similar values? Can we walk in unity? Well they'll be principles in the Bible; so you can start to look for principles in the Bible to help you with those decisions. You can seek wisdom.