I Wonder If That Was Really God?

The Las Vegas Faith Center
Message from Sunday, May 2, 1999

“I Wonder If That Was Really God?”
by Tiger Todd - Sr. Pastor
(EDITED VERSION)

Please turn to Deuteronomy Chapter 28. I’ll read this slowly so you can get what I’m aiming at here. Verse 1 says, And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.

Today’s message is called, “I Wonder If That Was Really God?” I’ve been in numerous conversations where people have wondered if they’ve really heard from God. I’ve been in other conversations where people have said, “The Lord told me this, The Lord told me that”. I had one woman, in a five minute phone call, tell me twenty times, The Lord told her to do “this”. Actually, she was saying, “The Lord told me to go to another church”. That’s fine. But unfortunately, she also mentioned some man’s name about 20 different times, too. People tend to blame many things on God, or sometimes they’ll say, “Well, I haven’t heard from God. If God would just send me somebody”, and all the while, I’m standing right in front of them telling them what God said.

How do we know the voice of God? Is this a 1999 problem, or is this something people have wondered about throughout the ages. How do we really know it’s the voice of the Lord, your God. There was a time at my store when I answered the phone, and this woman started talking to me in a very familiar, very comfortable way… “Hi Tiger, How are you”, and I’m wondering, Who is this? Who IS this??? I first flashed on, An old girlfriend, maybe? Help me Lord! All these things go through your mind, and it took about five minutes before it finally dawned on me that it was my sister who was talking to me.

Why didn’t I recognize my sister’s voice? That’s simple. I hadn’t heard it enough. Eli has been calling a lot, so I know his voice. But if he doesn’t call me for two months, I might have to ask, Who is this? And Eli might get offended…It’s ME, man! It’s your boy! What happened? I hadn’t heard his voice for awhile. Anyway, here is the short form on how to hear the voice of God. I could preach on this for six weeks, but this is the 45 minute quick course. I’ll give you lots of examples of times past when people were wondering if it was God they were hearing from.

And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. There is some importance to hearing His voice and in knowing if it’s really Him, because the blessings of God will not come upon you, they will not overtake you if you do not recognize His voice. If you have committed your life to the Bible, and to what we know as Christianity for the sake of the precious promises, then you won’t be a partaker of those promises if you aren’t able to understand His voice. If you can’t discern His voice from last night’s pizza, then you’ll only partake of the pizza.

How about the devil’s voice? We understand that voice. If all of a sudden you have a pain in your body, there is a voice to that pain. Do you understand what a voice is? It’s not like your Caller ID suddenly says: Heaven. God doesn’t just dial up and say, Hello, I finally found your number. I’ve been trying to reach you.

Inanimate objects can speak to you with a voice. Around the 28th of the month, a lot of your bills are speaking to you. “You’d better pay me…I’m gonna be attached with late charges very soon if you don’t pay me…How much money do you have in your account? Can you pay me?” There’s a voice to things. If you have a pain, you might say, “Was that my gallbladder speaking to me?” You don’t even know what a gallbladder is, but you heard someone else talking about their gallbladder, and apparently, their’s spoke to them. Once your friend spoke to you, all of a sudden, you’ve got this other voice to listen to.

How do you know what voice to listen to? It’s critical that we learn. By the time we leave here, we’ll know how to know if it’s God, or at least, what to do. We’ll know how to run a “check-list”. It’s kind of like being the co-pilot in an aircraft. They have this checklist of flaps down, landing gear up, check, check, check, even though they already know how to fly that plane.

You’ve heard people say, “Well, I’ve read the Bible!” It’s open season for me when I hear that. They’re thinking, “I can quote the Bible. I know it!” Well, the co-pilot went to flight school, he read the textbooks, but they make him go down that checklist every single time before he takes off. He’s got a pre-flight check-list that he has to complete. And he has to call it out to somebody else. So we need to be just as effective, because lives are on the line; not just ours, but others. So this is critical.

Diligently hearken. Turn to Exodus Chapter 3 while we’re here in the Old Testament. In chapters 3 and 4, Moses has his first encounter with the voice of the Lord his God. We know the story. He follows the sheep, and climbs up into the mountains. If you don’t read the Bible, just remember the movie, “The Ten Commandments”. For the sake of this message, that will be accurate enough. Moses sees the burning bush, and then hears a voice that says, “Take off thy shoes, Moses, for the place where thou standest is holy ground”. Moses obeys the voice, and takes off his shoes. But then God says, “Go to Egypt. You are going to deliver the people. Moses, YOU are going to deliver the two million Jews out of the hands of the three million Egyptians”. And all of a sudden, Moses has got some trouble with the voice. He’s wondering if this is still God.

We tend to do this, but that creates a problem. It’s like those game shows where the longer you take to answer the question, the value of the points goes down. Let’s say I’m up here preaching about what the Bible says regarding healing. If someone comes up to me and says, “I want to be healed”, and I hesitate in the least, their faith for healing is going to plummet. But if we immediately go about doing some healing, there is no hesitation. Here is where the problem occurs. You will not recognize His voice first off if anything causes you to hesitate. So be aware that as we start negotiating within ourselves whether the voice is really God’s, right away, there’s going to have to be a stand of your faith. God’s not going to give you all the information to prove that he’s God.

So, Moses sees this burning bush that’s not being consumed, and a voice comes out from it telling him to take off his shoes. He obeys. But then the voice says, “Go to Egypt.” And Moses says, “if it’s really you, God, show me a sign.” Maybe this guy has never seen a burning bush that talks! Moses asks to see another sign. God says, “Grab the rod.” Moses throws down the rod, and it turns into a serpent. Moses takes off. Yuck! Snakes!!! God says, “Come back, Moses.” You can follow the story…I’m getting over to Exodus Chapter 4. Moses answered and said, But behold they will not believe me nor hearken unto my voice for they will say the Lord has not appeared unto thee. How many times have you said something like, “God told me to”....and someone says, Yeah, right.

I really enjoyed the part in the animated movie, “The Prince of Egypt”, where Moses comes down off the mountain and tells his wife all that God had said to him at the burning bush. She’s listening, and then says, “But Moses, you’re only one man.” If you really know you’ve heard the voice of God, it doesn’t matter if you’re half a man. It doesn’t matter how many you’re going against, because you and God are a majority in any situation. This should help you see the weight of hearing the voice. God is expecting you to walk in the fullness of his instructions. If He says, “Do this”, He doesn’t want, “Well, I’ve got some reasons why I can’t do that, God.” You’ve got to eliminate the reasons and the hesitation, because it affects YOU, not God. God will just go and gets somebody else. “These guys don’t want to go into the promised land? OK, we’ll send Joshua and Caleb in 40 years. If Peter wants to preach the wrong message on the Day of Pentecost, then I’ll get this guy Saul of Tarses. He’ll go.” It only affects your blessings and your promises. It affects you being the head, not the tail. If affects you being above only, not beneath. If affects you having your barns filled with plenty and your presses bursting forth with new wine.


Turn to the Book of Numbers Chapter 12. They’ve been out in the wilderness a long time. Miriam, Moses’ natural sister, and Aaron, Moses’ natural brother, and the priest God ordained to go with Moses, are just tired of taking instructions from Moses. After seeing the Red Sea parted, after all the fire and stuff falling down, after being delivered from bondage in Egypt. and after all the gold and silver they got out of Egypt, would you think they could actually say, “I wonder if he’s really hearing from God?” Well, that’s what they did. I’m not sure that it had to do with doubt and hesitancy, I’m not sure it had to do so much to do with the miraculous at someone’s hands, as it did with the fact that they actually wanted to be the ones hearing from God. I don’t think they had any trouble with Moses hearing from God. They had trouble that they weren’t the ones hearing from God.

What happens when you’re in that situation? You automatically start accusing the person that IS hearing from God and saying they really aren’t hearing. They’re thinking, If He’s not talking to ME, then why is He talking to Him? Well, that’s what seems to have happened here, and it says, And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; They found an excuse - he was married to a black woman. They didn’t like that, so they found an excuse, even though I don’t think that was the root of the problem. But I think that’s what they picked on. How can HE hear from God? He’s in an interracial marriage. How can HE hear from God. He’s from the stereo store. He didn’t go to Bible school. How can SHE hear from God? I remember what she used to do. The disciples picked on Mary Magdalene for this all the time. What are you doing hanging out with those sinners? Well, Mary Magdalene heard from God, or she wouldn’t have brought that alabaster box of stuff and washed Jesus’ feet with her hair for his burial. She must have heard from God.

We’ve heard about people that have heard from God, and they’re not necessarily the likely candidate the church world today expects. Verse 2 And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. And the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And the three came out.

Important note: The voice of God is discernible, and He does what it takes for you to discern it. Jesus said in Mark 4, If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. How many people hanging out by the seashore at Galilee didn’t have ears on their head? They had ears, but Jesus was saying, Is anyone here capable of discerning the words I say, the voice within my voice? God had spoken to Moses from the time of the burning bush, but no one else had heard Him. But all of a sudden, two other people, and only two other people, heard His voice. Something happened.

And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth. And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? What were you thinking talking to this guy who I even treat above the other prophets? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them; and he departed. And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow; and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold, she was leprous.

Just to bring that down a note… If you’re not hearing the voice of God, maybe it’s because you are not supposed to hear the voice of God. I know there are people in this room that God talks to. But God will say something different to Vicki than He will to Millie. If Millie thinks that everything God told her is all that God knows, then she’s going to be mistaken when she talks to Vicki, and Vicki says, “and this much more”. And they’re both going to be mistaken when Ron says, “and even this much more”. Not only is there selected discernment with the message of God, it’s actually like that “need to know basis”. What I’m getting at is this: if you’re not hearing from God, don’t worry about it. What you need to do, as in this example, is find a prophet. Find a man of God that does hear from God. Find a teacher who might be able to teach you how to hear the voice of God. But don’t worry about it. And don’t say that you don’t believe that someone else hears from God just because God doesn’t talk to you.

Turn to Matthew Chapter 14 for another example. The disciples are out on a boat in the sea of Galilee. Jesus didn’t catch the boat, so he walked out to them. Verse 25 And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. Peter STILL wasn’t convinced it was Jesus. But read on… Verse 28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? If you doubt you can hear from God, if you doubt that someone else can hear from God, if you doubt that it really was God, you’ll either not hear from God, or His words will not help you. If you’re asking your auto mechanic about this rattling sound in your engine, and he tells you what he thinks it is, don’t respond with, Well, I think it’s this. Why would you ask the auto mechanic if you’re already convinced you know more than he does? God has put men of God in the world, just as there are men of TV’s, men of autos, men of electricity. They are the professionals in that area.

Why would someone go to an auto mechanic for expert advice and then say, “Well, I don’t believe you”. It’s because they don’t trust him. This even pertains to Jesus’ words to Peter there on the water, Jesus said, It’s me, Come on! Peter initially did trust, but then started looking at the circumstances. Somehow, that robbed him of the initial trust he did have. We have to realize that if the man of God speaks just like the man of auto mechanics speaks, you’ll have to follow through with the whole thing in order to get the running car without all the noises. You’ll have to listen to the TV repairman and follow through with the TV repair process to get rid of all the wavy lines. There needs to be a continual trust; not just on day one, and then again on day three when things are looking better. It doesn’t affect the man of God. His plan worked.

We wonder why it doesn’t work. And I hate it when God gets the blame. When we crash and burn and we are called Christians, God gets the blame. I’ve been doing some marriage counseling using all my new little tricks. I like to fix marriages in thirty minutes, not thirty years. Many of those people did a lot of the right things, but then they stopped. As soon as things started to turn around, they figured things were fixed; not realizing that it was the things they did that fixed it. The fix is not permanent, any more than you can go to church once and be full of faith. The Bible says faith comes by hearing and hearing. Continuing your faith will keep you from doubt and from focusing on your circumstances. You can choose to worry, or you can do like I did and just believe that everything is going to be all right in Yugoslavia. You could choose to watch TV every single day and let the circumstances rob you of the faith, because one day it looks like the soldiers will be released, the next day, it looks like they’re going to die. If you focus on the circumstances, you’ve robbed yourself of any kind of ability to help those soldiers with your faith. We need to sustain the plan, and get our eyes off the circumstances, as in this example.

Matthew 16. Now this is the same Peter, and Jesus has asked, Who do you think I am, verse 16, And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered and said unto him, You are blessed. Remember what we found in Deuteronomy 28? If you hear the voice of the Lord thy God, you are going to be blessed. If you don’t hear the voice of God, you can’t be blessed unless you go to someone who does hears the voice. Then, just follow his instructions. Or, like Miriam, if you go against the voice of the Lord thy God, or against the person that hears the voice, a curse will come on you. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. The voice of the Lord thy God.

Please drop down to Verse 21, From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and ...This is how it worked. Peter is in front of the disciples, and he’s the only one who’s gotten the right answer…. “Thou art the Christ”, so he’s looking pretty good here. The faith worked, and he was blessed. Jesus is speaking, and Peter says, Now don’t talk about this death thing. The ministry is going well, you’re getting good offerings, you’re becoming famous, and we’ve got that book deal with Barnes and Noble…He took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.

All of a sudden, Peter is thinking he’s hearing the voice again. I noticed, even in the Old Testament, that if God did something one way one day, He might not do it the same way the next day. I think He does this on purpose to keep us attentive to hearing His voice.

I want everyone to move to the very edge of your seat, because I’m going to tell you something incredibly important. Get on the very edge of your seat…........This is exactly the way God wants us to listen to Him all the time. He wants us on listening on the edge of our seat, as if we’re gonna hear the answer to the million dollar question, the winning lottery numbers. Peter is saying, “Thou art the Christ”, but the next minute, he’s saying, No Jesus, you’re being crucified? No way! How could that be, unless there was a slackness in his hearer?

When it says “diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God”, then diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God. First Kings Chapter 19. Verse 9, dealing with Elijah, says, And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? For all those people who think God knows everything, what would God be saying this to Elijah for? What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be over there. Elijah was feeling sorry for himself, because he didn’t think he was hearing the voice of God. And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?

I’ve heard a number of messages on God speaking in that still small voice. And it’s true. God has spoken to me in a still small voice, but do not think that God only speaks in that still small voice. You can see that He doesn’t simply speak that way even in this passage with Elijah…O.K. Let’s blow some wind and shake the mountains for Elijah’s benefit. We’ll have a fire, we’ll do all this stuff to get him to a place where he’ll be trying to hear something. The message was not to find out that God speaks in a still small voice. It was to get us into a position to be listening. He might be speaking in the wind. He might be speaking in the fire. A rock may have opened with a message on it. He’s trying to get us to where we’re listening for his voice at all times. When we get to that point, I’ll guarantee that you’ll easily recognize it. If we don’t hear it for awhile it’s because we don’t diligently hearken. We don’t push ourselves to hear it as often as we could.

Turn to John Chapter 12 verse 28, Jesus says Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people therefore… At least two people heard that voice: Jesus and the gospel writer, John. They heard a voice from heaven saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: That wasn’t a still small voice. They heard thunder! Others said, An angel spake to him. Now, we’ve got one message, but three hearings. Are you with me? During a recent storm, when the thunder started, I went outside to see if I could hear a message, just for the sake of “practicing”.

I heard Jerry Savelle say this about “practicing” when going fishing. Someone asked him if he liked to fish. He said, Well, I like to catch fish. I’m not just going out there to drown worms. He’s a man of faith, and he’s avoiding those idle words. He says exactly what he means. He said, Call me a fanatic, but with the first fish I catch, I always look in its mouth to see if there’s money in there. Do you remember Jesus telling Peter, The first fish that comes up, pay your tax money with it. People might think Jerry’s crazy for looking in a fish’s mouth, but the tax money could be in there.

We’ve got to get just as fanatical about diligently hearkening unto the voice, because the voice could be giving us all kinds of guidance. I’d hate to be there with any of you on the day of judgment (because you know that your Pastor stands with you), and God asks politely, Did you have a good life? Did you enjoy it? And the guy says, Yeah, but I just wish I could have done more. God says, Well why didn’t you do it when I gave you the money for it. And the guy says, You didn’t give me that! And God says, Do you remember that rainstorm when I gave you specific instructions on where to find a billion dollars? Remember when I told you?.....But God gets the blame for these things. We think that He didn’t do it, and all the while, we’ve got three different groups of listeners, and just one message. Two people understood it, once. John and Jesus.

Turn to Mark Chapter 4. I’ve just about beaten the “diligently hearkening” into the ground. We’ll get into the"hearing” part in a moment. Verse 33, With many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it. By show of hands, how many of you believe you can hear at least 20% of the word of God? 30%? 40%? 50%? 60%? 70%? 80%...boy you guys are faithful, aren’t you. Have you ever started thinking about how many things we may have let slip, or things we didn’t quite hear. I know my life would be better if I had heard everything. I know other people’s lives would be better if I had heard everything. Certainly I would have had the provision the Bible said I had. And I don’t blame God for it; I blame myself for it. So, hearing the voice seems to be Step One.

Well, how did you find me? I remember when Joseph came to me. We had that show at the Mall for the stereo store, and I told Ron, I’d watch the stand for a couple of hours on Sunday. I showed up at about 2:00, on the last day of a four day show. I’m standing at the top of the escalator with the stereo stuff thinking, I just can’t sell stereos any more. And this long haired guy comes up to me and says, “God has rewarded my faithfulness by sending me to you. I am your humble servant.” I asked him, “How did you find me?” He said, “Five people today told me that there is a guy upstairs at the Mall that I should meet.” Someone heard a voice, didn’t they? Well, how do any of you get to where you need to be? There’s a voice, and you respond to it. What I want you to do is encourage yourself just like the day you knew you heard from God. It might not always come in the same way, but what you did is the same way.

Turn to Hebrews Chapter 11 verse 6 But without faith, it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet…How did God warn Noah? With his voice! Noah followed instructions to build a boat because God said rain was coming, and it had never rained. That would be like telling people to leave the stock market because nothing is going to work anymore and all the money is going to be sucked up into the tenth dimension of the universe. Still, people could say, Well that’s never happened before, so why would I believe that? But one man, Noah, believed it and began a 60+ years project building the ark. Being warned by God, he listened. If you read down the list of this Faith Hall of Fame, it’s really the “diligently hearkening to the voice” Hall of Fame. He spoke to Abram and said, Get thee out of Ur. Abram was not looking at someone coming up to him saying, Leave your family, your kindred, your business, and get out of Ur. There was a voice. And God counts this as faith. Faith is hearing, and heeding the voice. This is the kind of faith that God accounts as righteousness.

Some people might say, I’m righteous because of Jesus. Are you? How did you get to be so special? Did you here a pastor tell you that? You had better know for certain how you were made righteous before you put your life in the hands of some pastor’s 20-minute sermon. Well, the Bible says that not all are blessed who are the children of God. In fact, I read in Deuteronomy Chapter 27, just before the scripture we read, where Moses tells the children of Israel that this day are you the children of God. We’re not the children of God just because of the privilege. You are children of God, and you are blessed and you have a righteousness which is of faith, when you hear and heed His voice. You can’t ignore God all along and then just expect to be blessed. Those that are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Well, isn’t that what happened to Peter? Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto you, but my Father which is in heaven.

Look here…by faith, Isaac, by faith Jacob, by faith Sara, by faith Moses, verse 24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharoah’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt…

Here’s the real short form, verse 32, And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions.

What was supposed to happen to Noah when the flood came? He was supposed to drown along with everybody else. But because he discerned, because he listened for the voice, he was delivered. Not only that, he became the property manager for the entire earth when the water subsided. What was supposed to happen to an ancient Sarai and Abram? They were supposed to die and not have children. But instead, they have kids as the sands of the sea and the stars of the sky. What was supposed to happen to Daniel in the lion’s den? He was supposed to get eaten. But because he heard the voice of God, he was delivered. The usual thing is, when you get thrown in the lions den, you get eaten. But something unusual happened. The usual response when an angel comes to a virgin Mary and says, “You are going to be the mother of the Son of God”, is “Thanks, but no thanks. Don’t call us, we’ll call you. They stone virgins in Jerusalem for doing this.” But the unusual response is, “OK, be it according to thy word.” Noah, build an ark. What’s an ark? But the unusual response got it done. God told each one of them something different. We have to listen for the voice speaking only to us. We can’t just take the messages for someone else. That might be your message. But that might not be, either. That’s where the edge-of-your-seat-diligently-hearkening kind of listening is so important.

I was reading about Thomas Aquinas, St. Thomas who, I believe, lived from 1227 to 1274 AD. When he was 10 years old, they sent him to college because he had an incredible ability to discern the scriptures. We’re reading how he excelled in understanding, and how he opened and broke through many truths because of his theses where the Roman Catholic church was concerned. But unfortunately, what tends to happen is, everyone simply adopts the new views of someone like Thomas Aquinas who breaks through the last religious barriers, and they don’t continue to get more daily bread. A few hundred years later, we have a Martin Luther. Martin Luther translates the word into a language that both he can read and so can the rest of the people, and simply tries to help all Christianity of his day to move forward in God. First, there is a period of time where everyone wants to kill him, including the Pope, but then there is the breakthrough. The problem is, everyone just accepts his views and doesn’t keep moving on to the next glory. We’re supposed to go from glory unto glory into his marvelous image, not just create Lutherans and Catholics and Presbyterians, and build doctrines which anyone can call a cult by definition. Cults aren’t bad. Bad cults are bad.

But why would we build a whole culture around this one thing, when tomorrow we can learn something new and keep moving? Let’s just be the people of God, and stay on the move. Moses was probably thinking, “I know he told me to hit the rock with my staff the other day, but today, I’m supposed to speak to the rock. I don’t know why, but I’m just going to diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord, my God.” Where do we stop hearing? I think we have a way of listening when we have heard, and then we just keep doing it that way. We are to diligently hearken every day the same way, but the instructions on how to do the task may change. We mustn’t just model the way we do it after how the last guy did it, build our whole doctrine around last years instructions.

Here are a couple of other examples you can look at. In First Kings Chapter 17, God says to Elijah, go to Zarephath where there is a widow woman I have commanded to save thee. She will feed you and keep you alive. Two people heard from God, right? Elijah and the widow woman. And if God said he had commanded somebody; then they heard. This wasn’t one of those things where they just thought it thundered. Elijah gets to Zarephath and there’s the widow. She says, I’m gathering these few sticks to build a fire and cook something for my boy, and then we’re going eat it and die. And Elijah said, No, you’re gonna feed me first. Then you can die. Now, the usual response is, Who do you think you are?

Recently I’ve had to hearken to the voice of God by telling people things that two or three months ago, I was too gutless to say to anybody. It was regarding dealing with people over what God was supposed to give me, or do for me, and I took so long to obey, I had to repent for stalling. When God tells me to tell you something…I mean, if he wants you to give me your bicycle, or whatever, now, I’m gonna tell you. Then you’ll have the choice whether to obey God or not, or whether or not you think I heard from God. Any one of you in here would give me the bicycle because you trust me. Do you see where that trust thing comes in?

Anyone else would say, What are you talking about, man? Find another widow. This is the problem with the disobedience… with the not doing. Remember the story in First Kings? The widow woman did, indeed, feed the prophet. And it said, the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail. It lasted all through the famine, and she and her boy were left alive. So you say, That’s nice. But in Luke Chapter 4 verse 24 it says, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.

Do you know what that just said? Many widows and children died because they didn’t hearken to the voice of God. More accurately, they probably weren’t listening for God. They weren’t thinking that God would speak to them. But especially in these times, we can’t make those mistakes. We need to be thinking that God is ready and willing to talk to us, and give us instructions. I’m looking for instructions from God. I don’t want to figure this out myself. I don’t want to react the way I did when I was in the business world. I want to react the way God wants me to react today, for today. It might seem to be an unusual response.

The danger comes when you live in a famine, and you don’t hear God. Many widows died. It says, And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. There were a bunch of people sick; but they all died save for one. If you remember the story, Naaman had trouble believing what the prophet said to do. He found out that the man of God could heal someone of leprosy, and he went to him. The prophet said, Just go dip seven times in the River Jordan. Naaman was saying, Hey, I’ve seen David Copperfield. You’re supposed to take something and wave it over my head for me to be free from leprosy. He had trouble wanting to hear the instructions. Finally, Naaman’s servant said, Now if he’d told you something difficult, if he told you to tithe to his church for the next 30 years, I could understand you not wanting to do it, but…

Well, think about where we are in the 20th century. Think about what really stalls our acting on God’s words, or make us wonder if we heard from God at all. if you don’t know what the voice is, it can’t help you. But if you recognize it, even if you don’t like what it said, you just need to obey it. It might be the word from God that saves you and your kids’ lives when you hear, “Call your mother and apologize” for something that you didn’t even do. It might be the hardest thing for you to do, but if it is the voice of God…

Turn to Second Chronicles 20:12. The king Jehoshaphat has made league with Ahab. Ahab had a bunch of enemies. Jehoshaphat did not. But now, because he made league with Ahab, he has enemies and has to deal with those enemies. They don’t have anywhere near the fire power, the provision, or the people to get this thing fixed, but…read with me in verse 12 O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee. And all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children. Then upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation; And he said, Hearken ye…The man of God had a word and a plan. He said, Do this, and it became a statute. It’s written here in verse 20, They rose early in the morning, to follow the plan. and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. It turns out, the Lord had put out an ambush. All they had to do was be obedient to the voice, and follow instructions. All the armies that were coming against Jehoshaphat besieged each other, killed each other, and they just collected the spoils. They collected the reward. Believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.

You have to trust your man of God when he tells you what God is speaking to him about. Isn’t that sort of like that $l0,000 Pyramid game show? You hear one contestant saying, Build an ark, Get thee out of Ur, Be strong and of good courage, and the category is “Things God Would Say”. If you know that, you get the money. Where we’d really hear the voice is if it said something like, You’ve robbed me by not tithing, Give the preacher $l00,000, Cast out the devil, Pray for your boss, Go to church three nights a week People could say, That’s the things the devil would say! But no, it’s the voice saying that.

What is God saying to you today? We have to diligently hearken. We can’t get by with simply following a pattern that was passed down to us, because that pattern was for before us. We’re after the voice within the voice, the still small voice that was within the rain, the wind, the thunder; not just hearing the rain, the wind, and the thunder. We can listen to something that the Catholics do, and find the voice of God in it. The longer time goes by in our age, the more I’m finding a lot of truths in the Catholic church. They might not know what they’re doing in some areas, but I can see that there are some truths there. Our group of believers actually holds the keys to the power in their truths. We probably ought to get closer together.

Say this out loud with me:
I must trust my man of God.
I need to hear God’s voice.
I will hear God’s voice.
Good!

Let’s close in prayer.
Heavenly Father, I’m going to ask, as a favor, that today you personally speak to every person in this room. Personally speak to them, and give them an opportunity to act on your words immediately. You said if we’d be faithful over little, that you would make us master over much, and whether it’s a little voice, or a little thing, or just a little act of disobedience, whatever it is God, I expect this congregation, today, to heed that voice. I expect them to do what that thing says, and then you can continue to increase the instruction, increase the things in their lives, increase the blessing that goes along with their diligently hearkening unto you. God, if there is any place where I have missed it, I repent. Show me what I need to do to turn off or turn up, so that I can stay with you. We ask all these things, and we expect to receive them this minute, in Jesus’ name. Amen