The Spirit's Voice

As I promised this Sunday, I will be sharing a second sermon to you this week through the blog. This message correlates to the Small Group chapter titled, "The Spirit's Voice."

There are five ways the Holy Spirit speaks to people and we are going to look one each day this week. Four your own personal study I encourage you to look up the Scriptures that are mentioned in this set of blog entries.

The first way the Lord speaks is through the Word of God, the Bible. 1 Peter 1:21-22 tells us that the Word of God was written through the working of the Holy Spirit. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that, "all Scripture is God breathed." The Bible was written by human hands which were guided very specifically by the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 4:12 tells us that the Word of God is alive! The Bible is not just an old book with timeless truths. It is God speaking to each one of us today. His Word never changes and it stands secure for all eternity (Matthew 24:35).

The Word of God, the Bible, has been given to us by God so that we will know Him. We get easily confused about God and his thoughts about us. The best way to know His thoughts is to know his everlasting and unchanging Word. Someone may argue that the small still voice of the Holy Spirit is a more sure way to hear God's voice. If it were the final authority we would test the Bible with what we think we hear in our hearts. Instead the Bible says we must test what we think we hear in our hearts with the Word of God (1 John 4:1). The final authority is the Word of God.

People constantly asking about situations for which they seem to have no answer. Most of the time the answer is in the Scriptures, they just have not found it, or failed to look. If you will learn the Scriptures then you will know the will of God for most of life's situations. Rather than praying only for an answer from God we must learn to search the Word of God for his answers.

I am convinced that the Word of God has an answer for every situation we face in life. To show you, let me tell you tow stories. A few years ago I was driving a youth group through the absolute middle of nowhere on a trip. One of the students pointed to a house and said, "Why in the world would a person decide put put a house out here in the middle of nowhere?" I immediately told them to look up Acts 17:26 and she had her answer.

Another time I had a difficulty finding direction from God regarding two building project options that our church could begin. Both were desperately needed, a flooring job and a parking lot. I had asked God for wisdom several times and then in my daily reading the Lord showed me that the floor of David's temple was covered with pure gold. I was disturbed and thought that was a human error in the temple project. That gold should have been used for the poor. The next day when I prayed for an answer about our building God reminded me of what I had read. The parking lot would facilitate growth. The floor would simply honor God's house rather than increase capacity. To honor God's house we did the floor first and God blessed. Both projects are now complete.

Check in tomorrow for the second point.

Paul