“When God Speaks to You” By Brother Kenneth Ray September 23rd,
2012 As we take a look at our topic this
morning, we take a glance at ‘speech,’ or, having the ability to speak. First of all (we have an apprentice
where I work—he’s retired military and he’s older than me, but now he’s an apprentice—he’s
from Minnesota and every time he speaks, he starts out, “First of all…”), but,
first of all, you should realize that God does, in fact, speak to you. We may not always be in tune with the Spirit
of God to hear Him, but He is speaking. Maybe
there is something in your life that is not right. Maybe you are feeling rebellious because God
made you mad. Maybe you’re just going
through a hard time. This morning God is
saying something to you. He probably has
been trying to talk to you from last Sunday until this Sunday. God is not coming to tell you a knock-knock
joke (well, He can, maybe if that is what you need). When God speaks to you, it is because He has
something to say. God did not speak to Noah for the sake
of hearing Himself speak. Time and words
have value. When God speaks to you, it
is on His time. In the story of Joseph,
Pharaoh had two dreams: one where there were seven fat ears of corn, and seven
lean; one where there were seven fat kine (cattle) and seven lean, and the
seven lean ate up the seen fat, and you couldn’t even tell that they had eaten
anything, they were so lean. When Joseph
interpreted the dreams, he told Pharaoh that they were the same, but that God
had shown it to him twice so that he could know that it was God. God spoke to Abraham, and promised him
the land of Canaan. Abraham took his
nephew Lot with him, and when they got to the point that Abraham’s herdsmen
couldn’t deal peaceably with Lot’s, Abraham showed Lot the land, and let Lot
choose which part he wanted. Lot said, oh,
that looks good over there, let me take that land. Lot wound up getting into trouble. See, God spoke to Abraham; He didn’t speak to
Lot. Abraham spoke to Lot. That’s not the same thing, and they didn’t
get the same result. We don’t have to
worry about that, here, though, there is room enough for all of us. I have heard it said that the Lord will
speak to you when you are ready. Translation: God will speak to you when you make yourself
ready to hear and to receive His words. I can’t just wake up on Sunday morning
and pray that God would speak to me, and then, by the time I get to church, He’s
speaking to me. I have to start sooner
than that. I have to work harder at it,
because my tuner is not as good as others, sometimes I have a hard time tuning
in the Holy Ghost. Your tuner may not be
as good as you think. Is that you, God?
send me. Remember Jonah? He wasn’t ready at first. It took three days in a great fish’s belly
before he was ready. When he was ready to
listen to God, the fish vomited him up on dry land. I don’t rad where Jonah stopped to take a
shower and then went to Nineveh he just went.
After he was angry, too; it said he was angry unto death. Your suffering was of great benefit to the
people of Nineveh. You know, if you’d have
just listened to God in the first place, then you would have gotten blessed,
too. What was Jesus doing before that? He was
teaching out of the boat. I’m sure Peter
was tired; he probably rolled his eyes a little bit, but he said, “Master…Nevertheless,
at Thy word…” Sometimes you’re trying to
do something your way and it just isn’t working out. You get tired. Have you ever been woken out of your
sleep? Have you ever had trouble
sleeping? God may have been trying to
get through to you. He holds your time
valuable; He isn’t going to wake you up unless He has something to say. He doesn’t sleep. Do you count your sleep as more valuable than
His time? Have you ever just remembered
a Bible verse at some odd hour of the day?
That was God. God does not work on our time-frame,
and, often times you’ll find God may not care about our schedule when He speaks
to you. God doesn’t care about softball
games our basketball, or the PGA, but He does care about you. There’s no softball, basketball, or PGA in
Heaven. When God
speaks to you, it is not without purpose.
God has a perfect understanding of each of us and our lives. He may tell you something to encourage you
when you need it; He may tell you something to humble you when you need it… God resisteth the proud (James 4:6). We Americans are proud (we sing a song about
it), but when we come before our Maker, we need to be humble. He may tell you something to use to help
someone else. What He tells you may not
even be for your benefit, it may be to benefit someone else. This is accomplished by His Word, Sermon, Bible
study (that you have or that you give),
conversations that you overhear or have, or a book magazine article that you
read. The Word is not just for us. Psalms 119:104 Through Thy precept I get understanding,
therefore I hate every false way. God’s purpose (in part) is to help make
our spiritual man strong and our flesh to have less of an impact. Ford used to have a slogan, “Have you driven
a Ford lately?” Let me ask you this, “Have
you heard from God lately?” If yes, then listen carefully; if no, then I will
encourage you, you can, maybe for the first time, maybe for the first time all
over again. When God speaks to you, it is
because He loves you. If you are already
His, or if you are seeking Him out, He loves you. Through good, bad, ugly, for better, for
worse, in sickness, in health, richer, poorer… Hear His voice. Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
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