How God Guides

Messages for February 2017: Our Month of Divine Guidance

Message for Sunday the 19th of February 2017

Theme: Understanding Divine Guidance for the fulfilment of Destiny

Topic: How God Guides

Introduction: From the beginning of time, God has always sought to lead His people. It was a constant experience for Adam to hear God leading him before his fall through sin in Genesis. When man fell, God began to device many different ways of speaking to man but after Jesus Christ came in the flesh and took our place in redemption, man through the new birth experience now became qualified to have God reside in him and receive divine guidance through the inward witness which I consider the most authentic means by which God leads and guides his own. See Gen.3:8-13; Jn.4:21-24; Acts 2:1-4; Rm.8:14, 16. Let us see ten ways God has sought to speak to man here.

TEN WAYS GOD SPEAKS AND GUIDES

1.     Through the audible voice – 1Sam.3:1-10; Acts9:1-7

2.     Through the inward witness or inner perception – Rm.8:16; Acts27:10.

3.     Through dreams or visions of the night – Dan.2:19; Job33:14-16

4.     Through trance – Acts10:1-6; 22:17-19.

5.     Through open visions – Acts10:10; Lk.1:8-12

6.     Through the bible which is the written word of God – Isa.8:20; 1Jn.5:7-8.

7.     Through circumstances - 1Sam.14:6-15;

8.     Through preaching and teaching the word - Isa.30:20-21

9.     Through prophecies - 2Chron.20:13-17; Acts 11:28; 21:10-11

10.   Through angels - Mat.1:20; Judges 6:11-21

Sampling with the inward witness:

We are told of the inward witness by Apostle Paul confirming the desire of God to    be worshipped in Spirit and in truth. Also, for us to understand how to apply the inward witness, we have to visit prophet Habakkuk in the Old Testament. Let us see four steps we can take to hearing the voice of God from Hab.2:1-3:

1.     Stillness - This means to be quiet in your heart and allow God's voice to come in through your spirit because the bible says in Rm.8:14 & 16 that the Holy Spirit will communicate to us through our spirits. God is Spirit and man is also spirit so Spirit communicates with spirit. See Jn.4:23-24. 

2.     Vision: Each time God speaks to you, you can easily envision what he says as his words would paint a picture in the canvass of your mind. Vision enhances your faith because you can only receive what you can see with the eyes of faith. The importance of vision cannot be overemphasised. In fact, in Gen.15, God had to cause Abraham to come out of his tent to count the stars in the sky to enable him visualize the multitude of children he was going to give him before Abraham then Abram could beleive and could be regarded as righteous. In fact, to emphasize this, God also told him to envision the sand on the sea shore and of course we all know that they are uncountable and he told him that his children would be that many. I dont know what you have believed God for this year, but if you can just envision it, it would be yours. Remember, that in Gen.11:1-10, God had to confuse the language of men because of this same principle that nothing shall be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Note that vision is the same as imagination. 

3.     Spontaneity: When the Holy Spirit communicates with your spirit, you become aware of this through a spontaneous flow of thoughts that come into your mind beyond your control. Remember the bible makes us understand that thoughts are not original with us. You take thoughts. Jesus said in Matt.6:25 & 31 that thoughts are taken. This is why mind renewal is very important. When you renew your mind by replacing your carnal thinking with Godly thinking through the word of God, then you can easily tell when a thought from the Spirit of God is flowing into your mind. Note that these thoughts will never contradict the principles of scriptures.  

4.     Journaling: As you receive this flow from the Spirit of God, take a pen and paper and just write what you receive. This is the means by which David wrote many of the Psalms that we still enjoy till today. In fact, he gave some very powerful word of wisdom about the Messiah which came to pass hundreds of years later. See 1Chron.28:19 where David said that the plan for the Temple of God was delivered to him by writing by the hand of God that was upon him. Also, the prophet Jerimiah had to also employ journaling to compile the word of the Lord for others to be able to read. See Jer.36:1-32. In Hab.2:2 we are told to write the vision and make it plain on tables that he may run that reads it. So it is important that we write what God tells us especially when it has to do with the future because it will surely come to pass.

HOW TO KNOW THE VOICE IS GOD’S.

1.   The voice of God carries peace with it – Phil. 4:6-7, Ps.85:8.

2.   The voice of God agrees with the principles of the Bible – Isa.8:20; Jer.23:25-26.

3.   The voice of the Lord does not encourage hastiness – Isa.28:16; Heb.6:12

4.   The voice of the Lord does not release fear but faith in your heart – Rm.10:17; 1Jn.4:18.

5. The words he speaks eventually come to pass. If it is conditional, once the condition or conditions is/are met, it would eventually come to pass. Deu.18:22; Jos.23:14; 1Kings 8:56 and 1Cor.15:3-4.

6   The word He speaks draws you closer to Him. If it moves you to serve another god, it is not of God but a deceit of the devil. Ez.2:2 and Deu.13:1-5.
7. The voice releases joy in our heats which eventually energizes you for whatever action is required for its accomplishment. See Jn.15:11; Ps.15:11 and 1Pet.1:8.
8God autheticates it with signs and wonders where necessary. see Acts 2:22; Jn.5:36; Jn.9:29-33 and Ex.3:18-20.

In summation today, let us understand from this account that this level of leading by the Holy Spirit was truncated by sin but restored through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary. It is therefore not accessible to the unredeemed. For any man to begin to operate at this level, he or she must first be initiated into the family of God through the New Birth experience. If you are yet to be initiated, you can do so right away by saying the following prayer out loud in faith and you will be born again into the family of God: 

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.

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