In this series I would like to take you through the Word of God to show you how we can all clearly hear the voice of God. I would also like to show you how to train yourself in hearing and being led by the voice of God. Determine in your heart to allow the Word of God to be your guide and have an open mind as you are reading this book with your Bible. The Holy Spirit will witness with your spirit and reveal the truth, and the truth will set you free.
ROMANS 8:4, 13, 14 AMP
So that the righteous and just requirement of the Law might be fully met in us who live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit [our lives governed not by the standards and according to the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Holy Spirit].
For if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will surely die. But if through the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.
I was reading this scripture here in Romans 8:4 one day and the section that said, "who live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit [our lives governed not by the standards and according to the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Holy Spirit]". This made me think about my life as it may make you think about your life in Christ. I am very simple in my approach in God; I thought that Paul was implying that God expected me now as a born again recreated being in God to live different to the way I was living before Christ became the centre of my life and, if this was true, then I have not been fulfilling or living the way God expects His child to live. By reading verse 13 and 14 of Romans 4, I realised I needed to find out more, so that I may live pleasing to God. All because verse 14 tells me that the sons of God were led by the Spirit of God and I wanted to be led by the Spirit of God.
If you are anything like me, we were saved but still very much controlled by our flesh. So with that thought in mind and what this Scripture had opened my eyes to see, I said to myself, "Trevor, you need to search out the Scriptures on how to be led and controlled by the Spirit of God." Because I wanted to be as pleasing to my God and Saviour as I possibly could. As we all do! So I am presenting to you today the results of my study notes for you to see what I found out. I hope you have as much enjoyment and excitement about this subject as I did in preparing it.
GALATIANS 5:16 AMP
But I say, walk and live [habitually] in the [Holy] Spirit [Responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit], then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God).
This Scripture here in Galatians tells us that we have to be led by the Holy Spirit, controlled and guided by Him as believers. So that means we need to be able to hear and be led by the Holy Spirit .
Is that not true?
The Spiritual things of God are only understood by the children of God, so that means we have to be born of God to understand and to discern and appreciate the voice of God.
1 Corinthians 2:14 AMP
But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him, and he is incapable of knowing them (of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them) because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated.
The natural man does not have the ability to recognise or understand the Spirit of God, but this Scripture is saying that the born again person has the ability to not only recognise the voice of God but to discern and appreciate His voice.
So then let's become more discerning and appreciate and understand the method that God has established for us to communicate with Him by hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
The problem we have today is that very few people know how this communication is set up or what method is used.
Are you able to recognise and understand the voice of God, as a believer?
When we do hear the voice of God and we are guided by it, we get excited (overjoyed), because we have recognised that it was God and we heard correctly. It is meant to be a common thing for us to hear God's voice the same way we hear anyone who is speaking to us, not a surprise to hear God's voice.
People find it very hard to tell the difference between the Holy Spirit and their own spirit or mind, because we have never been told what the voice of the Holy Spirit really sounds like or how to hear it. We have only been told that it is a soft gentle voice, an unction from your belly, a knowledge not from your head, just a knowing. Have you heard it explained that way?
If you're anything like me, all that information didn't help me at all to understand the voice of God that I wanted to find out here. I wanted to know how to experience the voice of God all the time, not the knowledge of how I should know.
I now know that there are two ways to hear the voice of God, by His Word and by His Holy Spirit. The Word shows me that there are different parts to my being. To hear the voice of God I need to understand the make up of my whole being.
HEBREWS 4:12 AMP
For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energising and effective], it's sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analysing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.
There are three parts to the natural way we're made up!
Body - Physical conscious
Soul - Self conscious ( I , ME , MY )
Spirit - God conscious
When you are born again the (super) natural way we are made up is reversed, you are to be first, spirit controlled then soulish and last of all body (or flesh) controlled. A natural man is flesh controlled but as a born again believer, now dead-to-self, we are to be predominantly spirit controlled.
This shows me that being led by God is something to do with my spirit. A natural man works out of his mind, so a spiritual man works out of his spirit.
Zechariah 4:6
It's not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.
Let us now have a look at Romans 9:1, to help us find this secret (silent) voice. Establishing how to hear the voice of God clearly, to have God recognised more in our lives, to know Him as a close and dear friend.
Romans 9:1
I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit.
Can you see it here? The secret has been revealed, if you look and read closely it's here in this Scripture as plain as day.
To help, let's look at this verse in the amplified Bible.
Romans 9:1 AMP
I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying; my conscience [enlightened and prompted] by the Holy Spirit bearing witness with me.
HOW'S THAT! Are you able to see how to hear the voice of God?
Yes you're right - it's our CONSCIENCE.
Let's look at what the Vine's Dictionary has to say about the word conscience.
Conscience:
"The witness born to one's conduct by Conscience, that faculty by which we apprehend the will of God."
We as Christians have six senses not five!!!
The Conscience is the voice of our spirit. It's our God-given ability to have communication with our Heavenly Father via the Holy Spirit. You could say that our Conscience is the channel tuned into God when we are born again. So I can guess by your facial expression that the penny just dropped, I can hear you saying to yourself, "So I have been hearing the voice of God more than I have given myself credit for." You sure have! Let's go on and let me open your eyes of understanding even further.
We are the only beings to have a Conscience. Because we live under the age of Grace, we are the only people on the earth who will be controlled and have our lives governed by the way we have used the special tool of conduct given to us.
If you have a look in the Old Testament you'll find that they were not governed (controlled) by their Conscience because they were spiritually dead to God. They were people of the sense realm. The people of the Old Testament did not have the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. The Holy Spirit fell upon certain chosen men of God. For the people of the Old Testament to hear from God they had to go to the man anointed of God for that day (age).
So we see here that we need to pay more attention to the affairs of our Conscience. We need to admonish, uphold and not sear our Conscience.
1 Timothy 4:1, 2
Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.
We need to train ourselves in the art of following the thought and instruction of our Conscience (the voice of God).
The Conscience deals with us in sin and righteousness, we can train ourselves to allow our Conscience to have more control of our whole being.
Let's look at the Scriptures that deal with our Conscience.
1 Timothy 1:5, 19 AMP
Whereas the object and purpose of our instruction and charge is love, which springs from a pure heart and a good (clear) CONSCIENCE and sincere (unfeigned) faith. Hold fast to faith (that leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence) and having a good (clear) CONSCIENCE. By rejecting and thrusting from them [their CONSCIENCE], some individuals have made shipwreck of their faith.
Notice that by rejecting your Conscience you can lose your faith?
Or your faith will become shipwrecked.
1 Timothy 3:9
Holding the mystery of the faith with a pure CONSCIENCE.
We need to always keep a pure and undefiled Conscience. Yes you can defile and corrupt your Conscience. Let's look at Titus,
Titus 1:15 AMP
To the pure [in heart and conscience] all things are pure, but to the defiled and corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and CONSCIENCE are defiled and polluted.
1 Timothy 4: 2 AMP
Through the hypocrisy and pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared or (cauterized).
You can easily quench or sear and simply ignore the voice of your Conscience (the voice of God) and go the way of your soul or flesh. We have done this and every time we will say to ourselves, "I know I should not have done that." When you hear yourself say that, you then can say, "I just ignored the voice of God." Repent and you will then be on the road to allow the Conscience to be your guide in life. Before we were born again we allowed our body and soul to rule our existence, sometimes listening to our Conscience. Now the reverse should be the norm, that is allowing the Conscience or Spirit of God to rule our existence and only sometimes listening to our body and soul.
Galatians 5:16 AMP
But I say, walk and live [habitually] in the [Holy] Spirit [responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit]; then you will not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God).
Now the difference between Christians receiving from God or not will be based on how they use the Word and listen to their Conscience.
Your Conscience (Holy Spirit) will deal with you and instruct your life to become more like Christ based on the amount of Word you insert into your heart and mind. This is how the Holy Spirit works in your life concerning the things of God. We cannot expect to just become better acquainted with our Conscience and expect God to fill us with all wisdom. Wisdom is obtained by hearing and hearing the Word of God.
We can develop our Conscience once we are born again, the same as we could develop our body and soul when we weren't born again. Through more information and exercising of the Word, we can become what God created us to be, Spirit-ruled and not self-ruled.
Romans 6:6, 7
Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Through becoming more Spirit-ruled we can become men and women of integrity.
ACTS 24:16 AMP
Therefore I always exercise and discipline myself [mortifying my body, deadening my carnal affections, bodily appetites and worldly desires, endeavoring in all respects] to have a clear (unshaken, blameless) conscience, void of offense towards God and toward man.
1 JOHN 3:21, 22
Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence towards God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.
What is your heart?
It's the centre of your being , which is what?
Your spirit is the centre of your being and your Conscience is the voice of your spirit. Yes your spirit has a voice.
To help with understanding the Scripture better, let's look at the same Scripture in the Amplified Bible.
1 JOHN 3:21, 22 AMP
Beloved, if our consciences (our hearts) do not accuse us [if they do not make us feel guilty and condemn us], we have confidence (complete assurance and boldness) before God, and we receive from Him whatever we ask, because we [watchfully] obey His orders [observe His suggestion and injunctions, follow His plan for us] and [HABITUALLY] practice what is pleasing to Him.
To wage a good warfare, we must have faith and a good Conscience; without a good Conscience you will not obtain the rewards of faith. You will be a soldier with no armour. If you can imagine someone going to war with nothing but hope that he will win, you and I would call that man a complete idiot or fool. Too many Christians are trying to pull down strongholds with nothing but hope that it will work, and they end up falling flat on their face.
They then say that faith and hearing God is too hard, and the devil walks all over them until they see how to use their whole armour. To become an overcomer, the basics are allowing God to help you train your Conscience.
HEBREWS 9:14
How much more shall the blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse (purify) your conscience from dead works (lifeless observance) to serve the living God.
HEBREWS 10:21-24 AMP
Since we have [such] a great and wonderful and noble Priest [Who rules] over the house of God, let us all come forward and draw near with true (honest and sincere) hearts in unqualified assurance and absolute conviction engendered by faith (by that leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom and goodness), having our hearts sprinkled and purified from a guilty (evil) conscience and our bodies cleansed with pure water. So let us seize and hold fast and retain without wavering the hope we cherish and confess and our acknowledgment of it, for He Who promised is reliable (sure) and faithful to His word. And let us consider and give attentive, continuous care to watching over one another, studying how we may stir up (stimulate, incite) to love and helpful deeds and noble activities.
1 PETER 3:15-17 AMP
But in your hearts set Christ apart as holy [and acknowledge Him] as lord. Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that is in you, but do it courteously and respectfully. [And see to it that] your CONSCIENCE is entirely clear (unimpaired), so that, when you are falsely accused as evildoers, those who threaten you abusively and revile your right behavior in Christ may come to be ashamed [of slandering your good lives]. For [it is] better to suffer [unjustly] for doing right, if that should be God's will, than to suffer [justly] for doing wrong.
Our Conscience was purged and purified at salvation. We must have a pure conscience to witness. To witness courteously and respectfully is based upon the state of our conscience being right with God. Having an unimpaired conscience will also stop false accusations from having any outcome in our lives, so the reverse is also true. If your conscience is impaired or not right, false accusations will unfortunately stick and mar your life.
When you were water baptized you started your life in Christ with a clean conscience. One of the spiritual symbols of water baptism is the cleaning of your dead Conscience being made alive to God.
Copyright 1997 by Trevor Bartley
About Trevor Bartley:
Trevor Bartley is a Pastor from Perth, Western Australia. He heads up FAITH WORKS WA Itinerant ministry. He also heads up a online bible college called "Lifestyle Training School" This college programme is being taught live by Trevor and is also available as a correspondence online course or can be set up in your local church, taught there by your church team.
Trevor's own ministry, Faith Works Itinerant Ministries, is available for seminars, training programmes and teaching on a variety of topics; one that he specialises in is the Ministry of Helps seminars, discovering your gifts and talents. For further information regarding any of the above courses or for Trevor's own ministry, please feel free to contact him direct at:
FAITH WORKS WA
PO Box 2702 Nerang BC
Queensland AUSTRALIA 4211
0412 380 444
E-mail : lifestylets@optusnet.com.au
He has ministry CD's available and has written the following books:
Ministry of Helps
How to have Guaranteed Success
Leadership & group facilitation
Where have we Robbed God?
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