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Hearing God

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Hearing God

What if God asks me to do something bizarre?

August 09, 2026 • Gary & Jane Berry • Season 4 • Episode 121

0:00 | 24:32

How would you respond if God asked you to do something bizarre? Do you have a ‘grid’ for how you would make your decision? Join us as we give both Biblical and personal examples and share guidelines and a caution to keep in mind if, and when, you hear God ask you to do something bizarre.

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Episode Description:

Episode Notes:

Previous episodes:

· Episode 57 -Ezekiel

God asked Ezekiel to do prophetic acts – physical acts that have implications and change things in the spiritual world. A prophetic act is something done (at God's direction) in the natural (physical) realm that supports God's work in the spiritual realm and brings forth results manifested in the natural realm. It opens a channel for God's presence, power, and victory to affect the physical realm and change outcomes. Examples of Ezekiel doing this include eating the scroll, taking a block of clay and building siege works, lying on his left side for 390 days to bear the sin for the number of days that represent the years of Israel's sin and then lying on his right side for 40 days – the number of years of Judah's sin. He took wheat to bake barley bread over human excrement for fuel – symbolising Israelites eating defiled food among the nations. Ezekiel said he would not defile himself that way, so God allowed him to bake it over cow dung instead. Shaving head, burning 1/3 of the hair, scatter 1/3, cut 1/3 with the sword, representing 1/3 die by plague/famine, 1/3 scattered to the wind and 1/3 fall to the sword.

· Episode 34 - Hosea to marry a prostitute

· Episode 39 - Esther – go before the King uninvited – beheaded if not accepted

· Episode 40 – Noah in Genesis 6-9 when God asks him to build this 3-storey boat. He built this huge boat when there was no rain. Even more bizarre when you realise they were tent dwellers and had no grid for rain and floods.

· Episode 51 – Mary in Luke 1:26-56 – angel said you will conceive supernaturally

· Episode 53 – Jonah – to go to the most depraved city and tell them God is bringing judgment. 7th Century BC, Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. No love between Israel and the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrians would conquer cities and rape and take captive the women and kill the men and children. The Assyrians would tear off the lips and hands of their victims and skin them alive. Nahum 3:1-4 tells us what Nineveh was like – a city of blood, full of lies and plunder, war, fighting, corpses in the middle of the street, prostitution, and witchcraft. Jonah thought they would kill him. Likened to a Jew during World War 2, hearing God say to go to Hitler and tell Nazi Germany to repent.

First Principle: Check if it is from God

· Ask wise, trusted people. Does it align with Biblical principles?

· Mark 3:21 – Jesus’ family saying, ‘He’s out of his mind’. Jesus had broken the law by healing on the Sabbath, attracted great crowds, picked his disciples, and then his family came along to ‘save’ him.

· Our view of how and what God expects of us is not always right.

· Examples of Gary & Jane hearing bizarre things from God and how they obeyed.

Second Principle: Will it bring good or harm?

· Will it harm someone or harm God’s witness?

· Acts 8:26-40 – An angel told Phillip to leave the crowded area where he was having great success sharing the Gospel and instead go to a deserted road running through the desert. A chariot with a Eunuch from Ethiopia (in charge of the Treasury of the Ethiopian Queen) came along, reading the book of Isaiah. Phillip explained the Gospel, the Ethiopian Eunuch believed and was baptised in a bit of water on the side of the road, and Philip was taken away in the spirit. The Eunuch went on his way and started a huge expansion of the Coptic church in Africa.

· A word of caution: Our thinking and other people’s reactions can limit what we perceive God may be saying, and that can impact on us never reaching our full potential in God.

Third Principle: You have a choice

· We’re in charge of our obedience to God.

· Our expectations or our limitations don’t limit God.

· 2 Corinthians 5:10-15 – when we appear before the judgment seat of Christ, we will each be called to give an account for how we lived our lives.

· Genesis 6:22 “Noah did everything just as God commanded him.” Wouldn’t it be great to be able to say that at the end of your life.

· If God asks impossible things of us, He plans to do the impossible for us.

· You still have a choice whether you obey God, but you don’t really have a choice because you are a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Summary:

1. Check if it is from God.

2. Will it bring good or harm?

3. You have a choice.

Prophetic activation: