Key #1 – Gods voice in our hearts sounds like a flow of spontaneous thoughts. Therefore, when I tune to God, I tune to spontaneity.
I.
My sheep hear My voice.
Jesus promised us in John 10:27 that “My sheep hear My voice.” Yet, we would have to ask, “How do we hear the voice of God. From where does He speak?” Let’s break this down
Spirit – The eternal part of man. It is what connects him to and allows him to communicate with God.
Soul – The mind, the will and emotions of man.
Body – The physical shell in which the spirit and soul of man resides.
Heart – The connection between the spirit and soul of man
When man was created by God in the garden, man’s spirit was in direct fellow ship with God.
When man fell, his spirit was darkened and he lost that fellowship. After the fall man began to respond to things through his soul (mind, will and emotions) rather than his spirit.
In our western culture, we have stressed the cognitive processes of man rather than the intuitive processes. This overemphasis on the soul has made it quite difficult to hear from God. God does not speak through our souls, but rather from our spirit, which has been restored into full fellowship with God through the finished work of Jesus at Calvary.
Therefore, for God to speak to us, it must originate from our spirit and then be carried to our soul through our heart. When God speaks to us in this way, it will be intuitive and there will be a flow of spontaneous ideas coming into our souls from our hearts.
II.
Three voices Learning to sort it out.
In learning to hear the voice of God through our hearts, we need to relize that three different voices can proceed from the heart. The are:
a. The voice of our own heart.
b. The voice of Satan.
c. The voice of God.
Although we will deal with this in depth in an upcoming lesson, let’s look at it, briefly here. In our last lesson, we learned to bind Satan from our conversation with God. He has no right there, if he tries to come back in, refuse cast him out bind him up. With this done, we only have two sources deal with, our own hearts and God’s voice.
We can start a better understanding in recognizing Gods voice through understanding the Hebrew word translated “Intercession.” It is the word paga. According to Dr Jack Hayford, this word means “chance encounter” or “an accidental intersecting.” This definition makes sense when we understand intersession. Many times we will be minding our own business when someone will come to mind and we feel that we need to pray for him or her. We were not thinking of them before. It was like a chance encounter in our hearts. In fact, many times will refer to it as the Lord laying someone on our hearts.
A. They are like our own thoughts, except they come from our hearts\ and not our mind. They are not cognitive but rather intuitive and spontaneous. (They are usually more insightful than we are capable of.)
B. God’s voice is often light and gentle and easily cut off by any exertion of self.
C. God’s voice will easily come as God is speaking in the first person.
D. God’s voice often has an unusual content, meaning it is better and somewhat different than our own thoughts.
E. God’s voice often causes a special reaction in me.
F. God’s spoken word carries with it the anointing to carry out what he tells us.
IV.
Praying with an idol in your heart.
Ezekiel 14:4
When we go to God about something, we need to learn to put aside our own desires and ideas about the thing.
They will try to intrude and take over the conversation. Too many have allowed what they wanted to become an idol in their hearts and simply went with it in prayer and allowed the desire to confirm them what they wanted to do in the first place.
We need to learn to be a living sacrifice and lay all on the alter. There have been things I really wanted to do that God told me to lay down and not do. There also have been things that I really didn’t want to do that God required of me to do.
We need to learn to keep the eyes of our hearts fixed on Jesus to hear Him and Him alone.
V.
The Difference between Logos and Rhema
Definitions, simplified for this study:
Logos: The “said” (past tense) or written word of God. (Can not be altered or changed.)
Rhema: The “saying” (present tense) or speaking word of God. It is used to refer to God speaking to our hearts. (God using the word to come alive.)
Seeing the difference in simple Bible study.
There are many things that we have learned from the Word of God through study, many facts, figures, histories, and concepts. This is from a cognitive study of the word. We can refer to this as the “Logos” of the Word.
When we are reading along and a spontaneous revelation of scripture leaps and burns in our hearts, this can be referred to as a “Rhema” of the Word. This makes the Word of God come alive to us because the Holy Spirit spoke it afresh with insight to our individual lives.
In the same way, God speaks to our hearts through “Rhema.” It springs forth into our minds (souls) from our hearts. It is not something studied out or taught out, but rather was “dropped in”.
Assignment:
1. In our western culture, why do many have trouble hearing from God?
2. What is the difference between the spirit, the soul and the heart?
3. Why is the definition for the Hebrew word paga relevant to us understanding how to hear God’s voice?
4. What do we mean by praying with an idol in our hearts?
Mark and Patti Virkler have granted permission to draw this information from
their book, “Communion With God Study Guide”.
You can get more information at their website www.cwgministries.org