Is it God or Just a Good Idea: Discerning God’s Voice When Opportunity Knocks

Welcome to the podcast. Let me start off today just by asking us a question to kick this off. Have you ever been faced with a choice in life or maybe an opportunity and you just weren't sure what God wanted you to do? Maybe you have a seemingly good opportunity before you right now and you're just not a hundred percent convinced that it's God's best or his plan for you to act on this thing. You know, maybe it's a job, a job opportunity. Maybe it's a house purchase. Maybe it's a relationship of some kind or a ministry opportunity. And man, you feel like you're wrestling with God on this thing. Have you ever wrestled with God trying to figure out if it's him opening a door for you or is this a potential disaster? Of course you've wrestled with that. All of us have. All of us have faced these moments when we are searching for clarity, haven't we? I mean, it's a given. All of us as believers, we face these moments in time when we're asking God, what should I do here? What should I do? And that leads to our next question and the topic really of our podcast today. How do you know what God wants you to do? How do you know? How do you know if you should act on this opportunity that's before you or if you should just let it pass by? Is there a way? Is it possible to know for sure what God wants you to do? Is it possible to hear clearly from him? Yes. Amen. Thank God it is. There definitely is a way to know. And that's what we're gonna be talking about in today's episode here on the podcast. So we're just gonna kind of get right into the guts of this thing. I want to start out by giving you three things that you and I, we can practice these. If you will do this, I want to give you three things that will help you know for sure what God's leading you to do. We're gonna talk about how to hear from heaven. How to hear from God. And so I'm just gonna list these three things and then we're gonna backtrack and we'll start doing some teaching on them. So number one, if we're gonna hear from heaven, I mean you want to know what to do in this situation, right? If you're gonna hear, if you're gonna get answers, the first thing you must do is believe that you can hear clearly from the Lord. That's number one. We've got to stir our faith up. We must be in faith that we can hear from God. That's number one. Number two, we want to spend time with him. Now once we believe we can hear from God, we want to take the time to spend with him asking questions. We want to inquire, as the Bible tells us. We want to ask for details. Amen. So that's number two. Once you believe, number one, you believe that you can hear from heaven. Number two, we're gonna, if you really believe that, you're gonna spend time with God asking questions, inquiring. And then number three is you can follow the spirit of peace. Follow the spirit of peace. When God is leading you to do something, there will be a spirit of peace about it. If it's his best, even if it's hard, even if it's a difficult situation, if it's his best, there will be a spirit of peace about it. If you can't move forward without peace, don't go. Don't take the opportunity. Don't go until you know. Cease if you don't have peace. Amen. Cease. I mean, remember that. Cease if you don't have peace. And if you'll do these three things, if you'll start to practice these three things, you will grow in your confidence and in your ability to hear clearly from heaven. You will start to hear clear. Amen. All right. Now, let's back up and let's take some time to develop these three different points. Number one, remember, was believe that you can hear. Friends, this is all over the Scripture. God tells us that we can hear his voice. In John chapter 10, Jesus tells us that as his sheep, we are to hear and recognize his voice. It also tells us that we won't be following the voice of a stranger. If you're a born-again believer, you are not to follow the voice of a stranger, which means you should clearly be recognizing the voice of your Master, of your Good Shepherd. A loyal sheep, even in the natural, this is true in the natural, but in the spiritual realm, as a born-again believer, a loyal sheep knows the voice of his Master, and he or she isn't interested in being led or following the voice of somebody else. We're not interested in that, because we know our Good Shepherd has our best at his heart, in his interest. Our best interest is his best interest. He's looking out for us. He's a Good Shepherd. Psalms 23 makes that very clear to us. You know, some years ago, I was studying this, and I remember thinking, the thought came to me, I wonder if this is true in the natural. You know, are sheep in the natural? Do they follow the voice of their shepherd? And if you'll go on YouTube, there's a video on there. It's called, My Sheep Hear My Voice. And this is such a great picture for you to visualize and see. And what happens in this video, there's this shepherd, and he has some other people try to call his sheep. His sheep are out there in the pasture. They're eating some good grass. They're healthy. They're happy. They're content. And some of these other people try to call his sheep, and they don't pay any attention to them at all. I mean, they're just focusing on getting fat and happy out there. But then, the shepherd, their Good Shepherd, their master, starts to call. And all of a sudden, these sheep, man, their head pops up. They start to baa, and they come running towards the shepherd. And when he moves, they follow him. Why? Why did that happen? Well, because they know they can trust him. He's a good shepherd. He takes good care of them. And they're not interested in paying attention to anybody else. They don't need to follow anybody else, because they know they're well taken care of where they are. And that's so true for you and I, isn't it? We've got a great shepherd. He paid the highest price for you. I would encourage you to read Psalm 23. Spend some time in there. And there's no reason for you to be looking for somebody else to lead you. You have a good shepherd. Let me give you some scripture here to kind of back this up. Remember, point number one is we can hear the voice of our shepherd. We can recognize it. So if you're in a situation and you're trying to figure out what to do, you're trying to discern whether God's giving you this opportunity or not, believe that you can hear clearly from him. That's point number one. Let me give you some verses here. Psalms 32 8 says, the Lord says, I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and I will watch over you. Amen. That's good news. Proverbs 3, 5 through 6 says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do and he will, he will show you which path to take. We're building our faith here that we can hear clear from heaven. We can hear the voice of the master. Isaiah chapter 30 verse 21 says, your teacher will be with you. Your own ears. We're talking about your ears. Everybody say, my ears will hear him. Right behind you, a voice will say, this is the way you should go. Hmm, that's good. Right behind you. And actually for us as born-again believers, it'll come right up out of your spirit. You will have a knowing this is the way you should go. Of course, Romans chapter 8 verse 14 tells us that as children of God, we are led by the Spirit of God. So you can be in faith for that. That you can be led. That you can hear clear from heaven and that he will guide you in which way to go. So spend some time meditating on those verses. So that was point one. If you're in the valley of decision right now, you're trying to decide and discern what to do. The first thing that you can put into practice right now, is you can start believing that you can hear clearly from the master. From heaven. You're one of his sheep. You're in his sheepfold. It is your right to hear from him. He promises us that he will lead us. And so we want to be in faith for that. Point number two, is once we believe that we can hear from heaven, we want to start spending some time inquiring. We want to ask questions. We want to ask details. We want to ask God to reveal details to us. What should I do? Should I take that job? Should I move to this place? Should I go to that church? Should I pursue this ministry? Should I date this person or marry this person? We want details. Psalms 37 23 tells us that God delights in the details of your life. That he directs the steps of the godly. And friends, so often the answers that you're searching for in life, they will be found in the scripture. So often that's where you're gonna find your answer, is in the Word. Psalms 119 105 says that God's Word is a lamp to guide your feet. It's like a lamp on the path. It's a light to my path, is what it says in Psalms. And that's so true. That's so true. In so many instances you're gonna get answers when studying and reading scripture. The Holy Spirit will just bear witness with your spirit when you're reading. You'll just, verses will come alive and you'll know what to do. You'll have a witness. But you also need to understand that as a New Covenant believer, you have a personal relationship with God. And it's vital for you to inquire about the specific details for your journey. Stuff that's not covered specifically in the Bible. You want to be inquiring and asking the Lord about these details. In fact, this I'm telling you, this is so important. It can be the difference between life and death for you. That's how important it is to get clarity on the details. You want to be asking. You want to be inquiring. And let me give you some scriptural example of some good examples in the Word of this. Turn with me if you would to 1st Samuel chapter 23. If you've got your Bible or if you're writing these down, you can study them later. 1st Samuel chapter 23 verse 1. I want to look at an example of how David would ask God what to do. He would inquire. He would ask. Okay. 1st Psalms 23 verse 1. And I'm just going to paraphrase this and tell you what happened here. David, he had been anointed to be the next king of Israel. But at this point, Saul was still king. And remember when David was running from Saul, he was hiding from him. But David had been a mighty warrior in Saul's army. We all know this. David started off by killing Goliath. Actually, before that, he killed a lion and a bear when he was protecting his father's sheep. And that trained him to fight Goliath. And then after that, it just blew up from there, man. David was, he was a mighty warrior. We know this. But when he was on the run from Saul, the Philistines came and started to oppress some people in a town of Keliah. And they were stealing all their grain. They were causing a bunch of problems for them. And David asked the Lord in verse 2. He said, should I go up and attack the Philistines? Should I go up and fight the Philistines and help deliver this town that's being oppressed? Now remember, David's a mighty warrior, right? But he didn't just assume because he was a mighty warrior, and he had these other mighty warriors with him, that he could go up there and fight the Philistine army. He inquired. He asked God, should I do it? And God said, yeah, you should. Go. Go and I will deliver the Philistines into your hands. Well, David went back and told his warrior buddies, hey, this is what God's told us to do. And his buddies said, man, we don't want to do this. I mean, we don't want to fight the Philistines. That's a big army. We don't want to do that. We're afraid. And so David goes back to the Lord. He goes back to God. He says, God, are you sure? Is this what you want us to do? And God said, yes, go and I will help you conquer the Philistines. And so they did. You know, when God tells you to do something, when you hear clear that this is what I'm supposed to do, at that point you're authorized, you're anointed, you're empowered to carry out the mission, no matter how impossible it may seem. Once you get clarity from heaven, it's go time. It's go time because the time for asking questions is over then. God's told you to do it. Go do it. He's empowered you to do it, and he'll be with you and help you. And so we know that he did. They went down there to help those people, that village, and they delivered them from the oppression of the Philistines. And this is why God said that David was a man after his own heart. Because he would ask. He would inquire of the Lord. Now we know, you and I know, he didn't do it perfectly, right? He made some mistakes. We all know that. But it was his heart. It was his intention to ask the Lord. And that's why God says in the Bible, he said, he was a man after my own heart. He would inquire of me. Okay? So let's look at some more scripture on this to support this. Turn with me to First Chronicles chapter 14. Let's go there. I want you to see how important it is to ask, to inquire. You know, pride assumes. Humility ask. If you're prideful, you will assume you know what to do. Humility will ask and inquire of God. And let's think about that. If you really believe God will speak to you, he will give you direction like we talked about in point one. If you really believe that, why wouldn't you ask? Why wouldn't you inquire? I mean, if the creator of the heavens and earth, the creator of the universe, the giver of life, if you believe that he will answer you, that he cares about the details of your life, why wouldn't you ask him? If you're not asking, it shows you really don't believe he would answer you. And that's why it's prideful. And that's why God says that David, his heart pleased him. He was a man after his own heart because he would ask. He was humble enough to ask. So again, let's look at First Chronicles chapter 14. And this time, kind of a similar situation. The Philistines were causing problems again. Now David had already defeated them. He had already slayed their giant, Goliath. We just read a while ago in First Samuel that he had defeated them when they were oppressing that village. And so he knew he could beat the Philistines. I mean, he had done it multiple times. But here in First Chronicles chapter 14, he asked again. The Philistines were causing problems. And he says in verse 10, David asked God, should I go out to fight the Philistines? Will you hand them over to me? So again, he asked. He inquires. Humility asked. Pride assumes. He could have said, look, I'm just gonna go out and beat them like I always do. But he didn't do that. And the Lord said, yes, go and I will hand them over to you. And God did it. God did it. It tells us in verse 11. God did it. He says, David says, he used me to burst through the enemies like a raging flood. But then in verse 13, listen to this. After a while, the Philistines returned and raided the valley again. Verse 14. Once again, David asked God what to do. He's already ran them off. But again, he goes back and says, Lord, what do you want me to do? This time God says, don't attack them straight on, God replied. Instead, circle around behind and attack them near the poplar trees. Verse 16 says, so David did what God commanded and they struck down the Philistine army all the way from Gibeon to Gezer. So again, not only did he ask God what to do, but he actually did it. God said, listen, this time don't face them head-on like you have before. This time go around behind them and attack them this direction and I'll deliver them into your hand. Well, David could have said, you know what, I don't want to do it that way. I want to attack them head-on. I want to, I want them to know I'm coming for them. But he didn't. He humbled himself and he listened and he obeyed. I mean, that's so key to you. You and I, if we're in these valleys of decision, we want to ask and we want to obey. The word says, the willing and obedient eat the good of the land. Hallelujah. And then I want to give you one more example. In 1 Chronicles chapter 15, it's just the next chapter over there. This is a great example of David again. They had moved, once he became king, they moved the Ark of the Covenant to his city, to the city of Bethlehem. And when they were carrying this Ark originally, I don't know if you'll remember this story, but the Ark tipped over and one of the guys walking beside it reached out to grab it and it killed him. The power of God struck this guy down and killed him instantly. And David was upset about this. He was upset. He was frustrated at the whole situation. And he said, God, how am I supposed to even get this Ark back to my town if this is what's going to happen? You know, it's just too powerful. We can't even carry this thing. But what happened, we see what happened here in 1 Chronicles chapter 15, verse 12. This time they're going to move the the Ark back into the city again. Some time has passed. And in verse 12, David says this, he says to the Levites, he says, you are the leaders of the Levite family. You must purify yourselves and all your fellow Levites so you can bring the Ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place I've prepared for it. Listen to this. Because you Levites did not carry the Ark the first time, the anger of the Lord our God burst out against us. We failed to ask God how to move it properly. So, you know, when you hear that story about the Ark tipping over and that guy dying instantly, you might hear that and assume, well, man, that's harsh. Why did that happen? The reason it happened is only the Levites were supposed to carry that Ark. And David says here, the reason that happened is we failed to ask God how to carry it the first time. And his anger burst out towards them because they were carrying something so holy and so powerful, but they weren't in obedience on how to do it. Again, that goes back to being obedient, doing what God tells you to do the way he tells you to do it. When he empowers you to go, go. Do it his way. Amen. And then the last one here, I know we've kind of stretched this out, but I think this is so, so important to understand. We need to ask and inquire. I want you to see the difference between David and Saul. Remember, Saul was anointed to be the king of Israel and David ended up taking his place. Remember that? And in First Chronicles chapter 10 verse 13, it's just back a couple pages in your Bible, verse 13 says this. Remember, Saul was, God removed his anointing from him and gave it to David. And here's why. Listen to this. In verse 13, it says, so Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord. He failed to obey the Lord's command and he even consulted a medium or a psychic instead of asking the Lord for guidance. So the Lord killed him and turned the kingdom over to David, son of Jesse. Man, it angered God that Saul refused to ask. He refused to inquire. He went instead to a psychic. And really, like I said, we saw this throughout Saul's life. What it really rooted down to, it was a lack of trust. It was a lack of humility and a lack of honor. And that will disqualify us. It's so important for us to believe that we can hear from heaven. That was point one. And then number two is to ask. I had a, my sister, I've got a sister that's a year younger than me and I remember several years ago we were talking and I was just sharing with her, you know, that God's a good God, that he cares about the details of your life. And she told me, she asked this question, she said, did you hear about the pastor and his wife and his kids that got killed in this car accident? And I said, no, I haven't heard about it. And she told me, you know, there's this young family, they had moved to a certain town and he was a pastor. I can't remember if he was the senior pastor or if he was a youth pastor. I can't remember exactly the detail, but the people loved him. Things were going good. He had this beautiful young family and they were all killed instantly in a car wreck. And she asked me, she said, if God's a good God, why did that happen? How did that happen? And friends, it bothered me. I just told her, I said, I don't know. I don't know how that happened, but I know God didn't do it. That wasn't God's doing. That wasn't his best plan. I don't know what happened. And for some days after that, for several days, I mean, it did bother me and I prayed and asked and inquired of the Lord. I said, Lord, how did that happen to this family? And after some prayer, I heard in my spirit, I got some direction. I got some answers as to how it happened. And the Lord brought it up to me and showed me. He said, Aaron, that family should have never been in that town. They should have never even been there. That wasn't my best for them. They left their place of protection. They left the place that I had for them and moved to this new city. And it was never my plan for them to be there. And I gave them a witness. There was a check in their spirit not to go and they didn't listen. And friends, a lot of times, you know, in ministry especially, you know, let's say you're at a little small church or maybe you're a youth pastor and you have an opportunity to be a head pastor and, you know, in the natural, it looks great. You know, you could go from teaching 10 kids out here at a country church to maybe pastoring a church of 250 or 300 people. It means more money for you. It means maybe a nicer house for your family or a bigger town that you like. But the question is, are you inquiring? Are you asking God if that's where he wants you to be? Now, if he does, you go. But do you ask? Again, pride assumes. Humility asks. And the Lord was showing me that this family, this young man, he had a check in his spirit that he shouldn't take that job. But he overrode that witness and moved anyway. And when he did that, it put him in a position where he was outside of that umbrella of protection, even though he was doing a good thing in ministry and people liked him and it was going well, he failed to ask and yield to the Spirit. And so, again, it's so important to inquire. And then the third point, so number one, again, is you want to believe that you can hear from God. Number two is you want to inquire. You want to ask for details and then obey, be willing and obedient to do what the Lord tells you. And then number three is you want to be led by the spirit of peace. We've talked about this in a previous episode. You can go back and listen to it. It was called Red Light, Green Light.