When I have told someone that God spoke to me about something, every now and then I get a quizzical look, followed by the question, "How do you know it was God who spoke to you? How do you know that the voice you heard wasn't just your conscience or some kind of intuition?

There are many things that trouble me about our society and culture, one of those things is our ability to minimise truth. We break things down into logic and what is seen. Sadly this minimisation has somehow entrenched itself into the Christian Church to the point that many Christians say, "How do I know I can hear God speak?"

Let me confess to you that I too used to ask this question - why? Because I made myself so busy achieving things for God that I forgot to wait and see where God was working. Once the breakthrough came though my relationship with the Lord changed from an 'achieving for Him' mentality to a 'being in Him mentality." Subsequently, rather than minimising what I limited to some voice in my head or imagination of my mind, I started to take action upon what God spoke.

Let me give you an example so you can understand what I am saying.

Some years ago something would tell me to do something or see someone. I would think about what I thought I heard, minimise it by telling myself I was just imagining things and get on with my own business. I have since learned that what I was probably ignoring wasn't my thoughts, but God's voice.

Two years ago I was quietly having some time with the Lord praying for various people. I asked the Lord to lead me to pray for those most in need. A friend of mines name came to mind who I hadn't seen or spoken to for about 6 months. He lived some 600 km away from me at the time. I asked the Lord what I needed to pray for that person and while I was praying the Lord said clearly to me, phone Brad now and encourage him. In the past I would have ignored this suggestion, but I had learned my lesson. I called Brad straight away and his wife answered the phone. She said to me, "thank goodness you called, Brad needs to talk to you." We talked for about 45 minutes. Brad had become disillusioned with many things. A week later we met together and Brad said to me, "Scott, of all the days in my whole life you could have called me, last Thursday was the best day as it was the worst day of my life."

You see, I didn't know before I called what Brad was going through - but God did. As a result He urged a servant of His to make the contact and get beside a child of His who was suffering.

The point is - God speaks and when He speaks we need to listen and put into action what He says.

Now we have already spoken about how God does not operate by formulas. Therefore, we need to remember that God speaks in many different ways.

1. GOD SPEAKS IN DIFFERENT WAYS

Hebrews 1:1 says, "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways." So we find in the Old Testament that God spoke through:

• Angels (Gen 16)
• Visions (Gen 15)
• Dreams (Gen 28:10-19)
• Symbolic actions (Jer 18:1-10
• A Gentle whisper (1 Kings 19:12)
• Miraculous signs (Ex. 8:20-25)

Now, we can look at a list of things like these, and no doubt there are many more, and say - well, how do I identify how God speaks in various situations in my life. If that is our thinking, then we are looking at it with the wrong perspective. You see, the more important issue is that God does speak to us, how He speaks only comes after this.

There are 4 important factors come into play here as we look at the Old Testament.

Firstly, when God spoke, it was usually unique to that individual. For example, Moses had no precedent for his burning bush experience. He couldn't say, "Well, obviously this is my burning bush experience, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had theirs, now it must be my turn." Up to this point of time, there was no other incident that Moses could base his encounter with God upon where God spoke from a burning bush. If he based his listening to god on some sought of formula that was handed down, then he could very well have said, "Well, this burning bush is obviously a sign I've had too much sun that is causing me to hallucinate. Can you imagine if Moses was around today - would he be tempted to write a book entitled "How to hear God - my burning bush experience". And if he had, how many well meaning Christians would go and buy the book thinking, "Finally something that will teach me how to hear God."

So the key here isn't how God spoke, but that He spoke. And this is one point that has not changed - God speaks to His people today.

Secondly, when God spoke, the person was sure God was speaking. The very fact that God spoke to Moses in a unique way, I think, helped Moses identify that God was speaking. Moses could not doubt it, Ex. 3:14 records God identifying Himself saying "I am who I am." Moses trusted God, obeyed Him, and experienced God in a special way.

Previously I spoke about my concern that as Christians we have mimicked our society and culture by minimising the truth. Can you imagine the questions Moses would have received in our society today?

"Moses, prove to me by logic that it was God who spoke to you."

"Moses did you actually see God?"

"Moses, I'm afraid we cannot accept your version of the story that you heard God speak because we can only trust in cause and effect. Unless you can replicate this so called meeting you had with God, then we cannot accept your evidence as concrete truth."

You see, all Moses could do was to testify to his own personal encounter with God. That poses many doubts in a societies mind that bases its beliefs only on what is based on logic and what can be seen. You see, it is only God Himself who could cause people to know that the word given to Moses was a word from God - and we see later in the records of Moses that this is precisely what happened.

Thirdly, when God spoke the person knew precisely what God said. It wasn't some kind of mixed up mumbo jumbo that people could not understand. If the people opened their ears and hearts, then they knew precisely what God was saying and doing. Moses knew what God was telling him to do - that's why he argued so hard not to do it because in Moses' mind he didn't have the natural abilities to fulfil what God was asking. But he learned that the Lord was asking for his availability not ability as the Lord would fulfil His work personally through Moses, therefore, it was God who would provide the ability, Moses just had to provide the availability.

Fourthly, when God spoke, that was the encounter with God. Moses would have been silly to say, "Well, that has been a wonderful experience with the burning bush. I hope this leads me to an encounter with God." The fact is, the burning bush was his encounter with God. When God told me to phone Brad, that was my encounter with God. You see, when God reveals truth to you, by whatever means, that is an encounter with God. An encounter with God is simply an experience of His presence in our lives.

Have you experienced God's presence in your life - if so, then you have encountered God. You see, God is the only one who can cause you to experience His presence.

Folks, to know God's voice and His will means that we must give the time and effort to cultivate a love relationship with him. You see, as our love relationship with Him grows, then we become more astute to the Holy Spirit's guidance and the guidance that comes from God's word.

Some of the questions people ask most about God speaking are:

• How does God speak to me?
• How can I know when God is speaking?
• How can God be more real and personal to me?

The fact is, as we have seen, God speaks to individually, and He can do it in any way that He pleases. The important thing for us to remember, though, and I have said this before, is that as we walk in an intimate love relationship with God, we will then come to recognise His voice. You will know when God is speaking to you.

I want to quote Blackaby and King here. They write, "God speaks through a variety of means. In the present God primarily speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church. These four means are difficult to separate. God uses prayer and the Bible together. Often circumstances and the church, or other believers will help confirm what God is saying to you. Frequently, God uses circumstances and the church to help you know His timing."

You see, all these components come together as parts of us knowing God's voice and confirming that we have heard properly. The one we are concentrating on here though is the Bible, the others we will look at next week.

The Bible is God's complete revelation of Himself to humanity. God speaks to us through the Bible, but as we saw earlier, the Holy Spirit reveals the truth of God's Word to us. Without His input we will not understand the spiritual truths found in God's Word.

Let's look at a diagram of this for a moment.

This diagram is a diagram of an encounter with God. When the Holy Spirit reveals spiritual truth from the word of God, He is personally relating to your life. That is an encounter with God. So the sequence is this:

• You read the Word of God - Bible
• The Spirit of truth takes God's Word and reveals its truth to you.
• You adjust your life to the truth of God.
• You obey Him.
• God works in and through you to accomplish His purposes

So today we have seen a few things.

First is that God speaks to His children. The very fact that He speaks to us is of more importance then how He speaks to us.

Secondly, when God speaks to us, that is an encounter with God. As we grow in our love relationship with Him we will become more astute to His voice.

Thirdly, an encounter with the Holy Spirit is an encounter with God. We can only know spiritual truth because it is the Holy Spirit Himself who reveals that truth to us.

Fourthly, God speaks uniquely to individuals. He doesn't follow one set formula as He speaks to us in any way he pleases. The important thing to remember is that when God speaks to us, we will recognise His voice and need to follow Him. Remember though, that God is more interested in what you become then what you do for Him.

Finally I want to leave you with this.

In terms of hearing God, remember that He will never lead you in opposition to His written Word - the Bible. If what you sense ion prayer runs contrary to Scripture, then it is wrong. So, watch for God to use His written Word to confirm what you are sensing in prayer. Remember, though, don't play games with God. Don’t just look for a verse of Scripture that seems to say what you may selfishly want to do and then claim it as God's will. If we do this, then we are taking ourselves out of God's will.

This sermon has been created and adapted from the book 'Experiencing God' by H.T.Blackaby and C.V.King by Pastor Scott Douglas for teaching in the Burdekin Baptist Church on 16^th May, 1999.