As we traverse the winding path of faith, the resonance of God's voice becomes both a compass and a mystery. Our latest conversation meanders through the enigmatic narrative of Jesus with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, inviting you to discover the subtle yet profound ways God communicates with us. Whether you're standing amidst the cacophony of daily life or treading through the silent stretches of spiritual seeking, this episode promises to guide you toward tuning into that divine frequency.
Embarking on this journey, we acknowledge the emotional turmoil and doubts that can cloud our spiritual discernment, creating a space free from shame where all experiences are honored. With these insights, we explore the myriad of ways we might encounter God, from the emotional connections forged in our darkest hours to the intellectual revelations within the sacred texts. This dialogue is not merely about learning to listen; it's about recognizing that the voice of the Almighty may already be a whisper in your story.
In the quiet corners of your routine, where divinity and the mundane dance together, lies the potential for revelation. We offer a simple, yet profound exercise designed to draw out the voice of the Holy Spirit in the ordinariness of your day-to-day life. And as we close, we confront the inner critics and doubts, only to be met with the reassuring whisper of the Spirit that confirms our cherished place in the family of God. Let your heart be open and your spirit receptive as we embark on this transformative exploration of divine dialogue. ------ This sermon was recorded at a Sunday morning gathering at Church of the Lookout in Longmont, Colorado.
Speaker — Luke Humbrecht
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As we traverse the winding path of faith, the resonance of God's voice becomes both a compass and a mystery. Our latest conversation meanders through the enigmatic narrative of Jesus with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, inviting you to discover the subtle yet profound ways God communicates with us. Whether you're standing amidst the cacophony of daily life or treading through the silent stretches of spiritual seeking, this episode promises to guide you toward tuning into that divine frequency.
Embarking on this journey, we acknowledge the emotional turmoil and doubts that can cloud our spiritual discernment, creating a space free from shame where all experiences are honored. With these insights, we explore the myriad of ways we might encounter God, from the emotional connections forged in our darkest hours to the intellectual revelations within the sacred texts. This dialogue is not merely about learning to listen; it's about recognizing that the voice of the Almighty may already be a whisper in your story.
In the quiet corners of your routine, where divinity and the mundane dance together, lies the potential for revelation. We offer a simple, yet profound exercise designed to draw out the voice of the Holy Spirit in the ordinariness of your day-to-day life. And as we close, we confront the inner critics and doubts, only to be met with the reassuring whisper of the Spirit that confirms our cherished place in the family of God. Let your heart be open and your spirit receptive as we embark on this transformative exploration of divine dialogue. ------ This sermon was recorded at a Sunday morning gathering at Church of the Lookout in Longmont, Colorado.
Speaker — Luke Humbrecht
Visit Our Website — https://thelookout.church
Take Your Next Step--- https://thelookout.church/connect
Connect with Us --- https://thelookout.church/new
Give to Support the Ministry --- https://thelookout.church/give
Visit our website
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Instagram
Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast. Church of the Lookout is in Boulder, colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in His presence, growing in His family and living on His mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love. Visit us online at thelookoutchurch. So, if you have your Bibles this morning, open up to Luke, chapter 24. Open up to Luke, chapter 24. Today I'm going to pick up a little bit on the thread that our guest speaker last week, christine Westhoff, started on hearing God's voice, and that's what we're going to be for the next few weeks. It's a kind of a very pivotal topic, and especially in a year like this and a time like we live the clarity of needing to hear God's voice. And I'm going to pick up in a story of two unsuspecting men, we presume, who encounter Jesus. This is Luke, chapter 24. We're going to start in verse 13. You can read with me on the screen or from your Bible today it says this that very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were walking and discussing together, jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him and he said to them what is the conversation that you're holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know? The things have happened there in these days. And he said to them what things and they said to him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty, indeed in a word, before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things have happened.
Speaker 1:Moreover, some women of our company in Emmaus. They were at the tomb early this morning and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it, just as the woman had said, but him they did not see. And he said to them oh, foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory.
Speaker 1:In beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going, he acted as if you were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent. So he went to say with them. When he was at the table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them and their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened up to us the scriptures?
Speaker 1:Let's pray, father, we thank you today that, just as this passage indicates what God we thank you to open up your scriptures to us. We thank you to speak, god. We thank you that your words are life. So we bless your name, jesus. We invite you, holy Spirit, speak to your people today, your church. In Jesus name. We pray Amen.
Speaker 1:So it's one of the the most profound and sobering mysteries of walking with God is the fact that we can be in his presence and not realize it Isn't that wild. We can hear his voice and not know that it is God himself that is talking to us. But the thing is, the Christian life, the reason that we're here, the reason that we move forward and walk with Jesus every day, the whole Christian life is predicated on the ability to hear the voice of Jesus and being able to respond. It's the basis of everything we do and we see this from start to finish in scriptures, one of the first things we learn about God at the beginning of the Bible. Before that, we find that he's loving. Before that we find that he's compassionate or merciful or kind. We find that he is a God who speaks. And when he speaks, it's not just neutral. When he speaks, things happen. In fact. He he created the whole world through the raw material of his voice and his words. That was his preference for how the world would be created. He would open his mouth and somehow, the word of God upon the word of God, everything took shape. And when he speaks, things are created right and life is made. And it's the same with us. When nothing has changed, anytime, god does something new. He speaks this thread, just we just follow it through the scriptures, where he would teach his people to heed his voice, to listen to his voice.
Speaker 1:Now, the disciple, the Apostle John, that he picked up on this theme and he doubled down on this theme when we get to the New Testament, in fact, when John would open up his gospel, his biography of Jesus, he chose to lean into this theme as well, that we see in Genesis, john began his entire biography of Jesus by saying that in the beginning was the word and the word was God, and the word was with God and the word was God. And he makes reference that the word that God had prepared from the very beginning could actually be summed up into this man, this person, jesus Christ. That Jesus was everything that God was wanting to say to humanity, everything that God was wanting to speak. It was summed up in the person of Jesus. And Jesus himself would say this to his disciples and to those listening on. He said listen, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.
Speaker 1:And so, according to Jesus, there's something about the ones who were attracted to him are ones that actually have the ability to hear his voice, and so if you're a follower of Jesus here today, that means you've heard him at least once. You've heard him at least once. Maybe you haven't heard him since then, or maybe you're in a season where you feel like it's been quiet, but I'm telling you you've heard him at least once, because no one comes to the Father unless you hear the voice of Jesus calling your heart forward to come and to respond to him. So you know how to hear the voice of God. You are one with him now when you follow him. And to even take this further and to emphasize this to a greater degree, jesus said that he was going to send his Holy Spirit who would be our helper, advocate.
Speaker 1:And the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's role is to lead us into all truth is actually take everything that we read about Jesus, everything that Jesus taught us, and to bring it to memory In times we weren't even expecting it. He actually brings it back to memory and and the Holy Spirit's job is to show us everything that has been that Jesus is speaking and Jesus job is to listen to everything the Father is speaking and so the Father speaks to Jesus. Jesus speaks to the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit can't stop talking about the Father. It's just one big love fest. The Trinity is pretty amazing. They're pretty infatuated with each other. The Godhead is one and they brought us into this conversation, this dialogue, right.
Speaker 1:So when you hear God speak, there is nothing like it. There is nothing like the voice of God, there is nothing like the word of the Lord. It's life and peace and liberty. It's truth. The word of God breaks heavy yokes off our shoulders. It breaks shame, it breaks sin. It breaks addiction. It breaks darkness. The word of the Lord calls us into His image and His likeness. Is anybody with me to testify that there's nothing like the word of the Lord? This is what we're made for. We're made to live from His voice and we know that. And sometimes hearing is very problematic. This would all be great if we all heard perfectly. Hearing is very problematic and sometimes, for many of us, this very topic is the source of either extreme wounding or extreme disappointment. We have to work really hard. We have to work really hard sometimes to hear from God, and I know that, based on my conversations, based on my experiences, even the topic of the voice of God can take us back to an experience of either wounding or disappointment Now wounding, because many of us in the room have been on the wrong side of others hearing from God incorrectly. We've been on the wrong side of those who have a word from the Lord which it was clear afterwards that was from somewhere. It wasn't, probably from the Lord.
Speaker 1:And I remember before I moved out to Colorado, when I was like 18 or 19, I was in Indiana. I was a youth leader at the church and there was another youth leader who was about twice my age, which seemed really old at the time but probably wasn't. But at the time it really did. And I told this other woman youth leader. I said, hey, I am going, I feel like God's calling me to Colorado. I'm about to leave, and I could see her face just drop. And the conversation ended there.
Speaker 1:A week later, in church, she hands me a letter. She says I want you to open this after church, and so of course, the first thing I did was find a quiet spot and open it right away. And so I'm sitting there in church. I opened this letter and this letter, this whole like little, like love, confession. She says like listen, when you told me you were going to Colorado, my heart sank. I feel like God's told us we're supposed to be together and we're supposed to spend the rest of our lives together and God's given me this love for you and I can't get it out and I just want you to. I'm just bringing some submitting this to you and, of course, again, the first thing I did was I threw open my mouth a little and then I took the letter and he hid it to my pastor. I'm like you've got to deal with this and I laugh now, but at the time it was one of those things where it's when somebody is like that emphatic that they're hearing from God and it's so clearly that they're not, it feels kind of violating, doesn't it? Okay, if you've ever been in that situation not all of you have been in that situation but sometimes in church world the topic of hearing God's voice can get a little dicey when we talk about like kind of a zealousness and just kind of everybody on their own just throwing out random things in the name of God.
Speaker 1:In our church we believe in prophecy, we're not ashamed about that, and we believe that God wants a strong church, eager to prophesy, eager in the prophetic, to eagerly desire the gift of prophecy. We believe that here we believe it for every single one of us. It doesn't look the same for all of us, as we'll find even in this series. It doesn't look the same for all of us, but because of the many abuses of those who are self-identified prophets speaking in the name of the Lord with zero accountability, it's left so many in the church very cautious and skeptical and even disillusioned. All right, can anybody just kind of nod your head, just let you know. That's probably some of our experience here.
Speaker 1:We don't know what to do, especially like in an election year. A lot of people you know that are zealous for God will start their own YouTube channel and start saying things in the name of God, and we don't know where they're going or what they're saying, and so it can kind of leave us a little bit on edge of who do we trust? How do we know if a word is from God? Okay, so that's. I'm just kind of posing that question. We're not going to totally answer that question today, but I just want to acknowledge that this whole topic leaves some of us a little triggered when we start talking about hearing from God. So some of us are wounded and triggered. Others are disappointed and frustrated.
Speaker 1:Somebody that I love very dearly in my life, who was once a believer in Jesus, ended up walking away from Jesus, and when he told me why, he said growing up, he said everybody always talked about hearing God's voice, but I never felt like God talked to me. So either A everybody in my life is lying to me or, b God hates me, and it was clearly from such a deep both desire to want to hear God like everybody else, but then also an interpretation of that experience, as that means either something's wrong with me or God has ruled me out of this thing that he's doing for everybody else but me, and you can probably feel that with me. There's kind of a pain. There's a lot of pain in a story like that and a telling like that, but that's where a lot of people are, especially in church world.
Speaker 1:We talk about hearing God's voice. We have people come up to the stage and say I'm sensing this, god is saying this, and you're thinking I don't even think like that. What are you talking about? How do you even do that? How do you hear God's voice? And so sometimes in even a room like this, there's a little bit of this kind of low level shame, that kind of permeates of like. Am I the only one that's not quite understanding what's going on or how to do that? And so I just want to call. I just want to name that before we get into the rest of this, because, listen to me, this is a no shame zone. Pressure is off. All right, jesus loves you. He has wired you. I believe he's wired all of us to know how to hear him. Some of us hear him completely different, but the entire point of the series is not. That is not necessarily how to hear the voice of the Lord, but the whole point of it is more. We all hear the voice of the Lord, but sometimes we don't recognize it. Okay, I Believe that we're in a season where this is even more prominent with the level of volume in our lives, the level of input into our lives. We must be a church driven by the voice of God, not the opinions of man. We must be a church driven by the voice of God, not the opinions of man.
Speaker 1:So sound comes, as you know, the way we hear physically, sound comes in frequencies and decibels. Frequencies and decibels now the way that we're wired, humans can hear about between 20 Hertz and 20,000 Hertz. That probably means absolutely nothing to you, but between 20 Hertz and 20,000 Hertz, okay, now we can hear up to about 185 185 decibels of anything. That's when we like, get like our hearing just gets blown out and we we lose our shearing. Okay, now a couple things Familiar sounds. Jackhammers are about a hundred decibels. Okay, if you ever heard it, just just for a reference point jackhammers about hundred decibels. A whispers about it's gonna be clocking around 30 decibels. Okay, thunder claps are gonna come in at about 120 decibels. So if you heard a thunder clap, that can kind of like that's starting to get into that realm of wow, that was loud.
Speaker 1:Okay, now an air horn, if you're, if you're Unfortunate enough to be next to somebody blowing an air horn. The reason why that's unfortunate is because that's a hundred and twenty nine decibels, okay, and that's pretty loud, but that comes in lower than a jet engine, which we know is gonna be. One of the louder things we experienced was 150 decibels. But beating that. This is crazy. Don't put this on the screen yet but beating that 150 decibels. Jet engine is the loudest animal on earth. Loudest animal on earth I want you to take a guess. Loudest animal on earth, lying whale, somebody said whale, and that person wins, wins the prize. You get a ribbon after the service, the humpback whale clocked into 200 decibels 200 decibels. So I Would caution you not to get too close to a whale because you might lose your hearing.
Speaker 1:Now, some Whales are so loud, underwater whales are so loud. Some researchers believe that whale songs can be heard up to 10,000 miles underwater. Okay, now, humans here's the thing humans can't always hear. With whales we can hear really like the top range of their frequency Because, again, we can only hear like 20 Hertz and above. Whales Come in a little bit lower than that and kind of, the top of the range is about what we hear. So you can technically hear whales, but it's just a fraction of what of the rate, the range, a whale song now. So so they're very loud, but you can't, can? You can't entirely hear how loud they are because it's not within our range of frequency.
Speaker 1:Okay, so no, there is one particular whale this is interesting. There's one particular whale in the North Pacific who's been tracked for over 30 years. This is the whale on the screen. He calls out and Other whales don't reply, because this whale, for some reason, has a voice that is at a different frequency.
Speaker 1:Okay, there's an article that came out, I think it was in the 90s, that called this the loneliest whale on earth. It's so sad, guys, it's so sad. The loneliest whale on earth. There's several, you can Google it. So he's the loneliest whale on earth and the reason is because for some reason, his voice is a little higher than the other whales. All right, and so in whale world it would be the equivalent of Mickey Mouse, all right, talking underwater, you know. And so they it's some of them, some of the researchers say they can't, the other was can't actually even hear them, they can't even hear the frequency he's coming in at others say they just, they're just kind of weirded out by it. You know, there's like this voice in the ocean it's like, hey, guys, you know, and they're like who are you weirdo? And so they don't. Even so, he just roams the North Pacific by himself, all right, he's calling out and nobody's responding, and it's it's.
Speaker 1:It's both sad, you know, but it also started this whole movement. All these like singer, songwriter artists started, you know, creating albums dedicated to the loneliest whale on earth and this kind of stuff. It's perfect like songwriting material and people like across the globe have, like, really just resonated with this. This whale Like that feels like me, but can you imagine being one of the loudest animals on earth and yet others can't hear you because they aren't tuned into your frequency? So you can kind of see where I'm going is throughout is Like the man on the road to Emmaus, walking away from Jerusalem.
Speaker 1:Oftentimes God is speaking to us, but we're unable to hear him because he comes differently than expected. Sometimes God is coming to us at a frequency that we have not yet learned to listen to, and so again, this, this, this, this series in this time is Not as much a how-to, but it's more a recognition that God's voice is everywhere and in some ways it's quite loud. Our work is to learn how to recognize when he is speaking. You guys with me today. So let's go back to the story the disciples on the road to Emmaus. They were walking away from Jerusalem. This is as we see in this story. They're walking. This is just after Jesus was crucified. They had not yet got word that a resurrection had happened, and so they're walking away in disappointment. They're going from what they thought would be a monumental week and they were confused, sad Disillusion. They're walking away From the side of the resurrection until somebody catches up with them on the road. For some reason, unbeknownst to us, jesus doesn't start the conversation by taking off his cloak and saying hey guys, it's me, jesus, remember. Good to see you. What are you guys talking about? Like that didn't happen and it's.
Speaker 1:It's really interesting reading a story like this. Like wouldn't that be a lot easier, jesus? Jesus, let me help you out here. If you want to reveal yourself, if you want them to understand what you're doing, why don't you just kind of just reveal it to them? Just boom, right, that's how we pray most of the time. It's like God, just we just need some booms and flash and bang moments. Why didn't he show up like that? And what's wild is in this story?
Speaker 1:We read in verse 16. It says that their eyes were kept from recognizing him, which is a very kind of like Suspicious statement. It's very intriguing. Their eyes were kept from recognizing them. So the scholars kind of go back and forth on what is what exactly is happening here? Did God literally just put a veil over their eyes to keep them from even understanding this? Was Jesus?
Speaker 1:Possibly that may be what's happening. It could be that his resurrected body we know that the resurrected body for some reason look different and so in in the gospel narratives, like towards the end, sometimes they didn't recognize it was Jesus, because there's something about his glory or just the way his body was put together, even though he still had scars in his hands and his side. There was something majestic or glorious about him that maybe it was hard for them to recognize this was the same Jesus. So maybe that's part of it. It could be, could very well be, that they were in a moment of trauma, they're in a motion in emotional despair and, as you know, like when we're walking through seasons of trauma or intense, you know, like emotional rollercoaster, it's hard for us to even perceive reality Correctly. We don't know what's going on because something inside of us is kind of directing the, our mental maps really at the end of the day. So we don't entirely know why that we're kept there, kept from seeing, seeing him or recognizing him.
Speaker 1:But I would, I would propose that possibly what was happening is they couldn't recognize him because he did not come as they expected. He came, he did. He did not come as they expected. He came as they needed. He did not come as they expected. He came as they needed. Jesus needed a longer journey with them Instead of simply showing up in awe and wonder.
Speaker 1:Okay, sometimes Jesus shows up in our life to the scripture, opens up, something happens, he speaks, and some of you, I've had that experience not an audible voice, but just times which feels like the veil between heaven and earth is thin and you can just hear his heartbeat, right. But there's other times he comes to me different than it's expected. He comes to me through catching up with me on a long journey away from where I thought I was going to meet with him. So it's really interesting because when people say God isn't speaking to me, that doesn't necessarily mean that God is not speaking to them. Sometimes it actually means God isn't saying what I want him to say in the way that I want him to say it. He goes with me. God isn't saying what I want him to say or what I think he should be saying in the way that I want him to say it, but the thing is, one of the things we have to remember about God is that he comes to us not always as we expect, but as we need, but as we need.
Speaker 1:So, in this particular case, what's really fascinating here this is really important that we all know this these two men walking away from Jerusalem. He draw nears them in a way that their hearts needed to be tended to. Now the first way that we see is that he opens up a space for them to process their emotions. He could have just fixed it in an instant, right, so we think he could have. Just, I mean, that's kind of the way that our minds work, is, we think that God can just snap us out of something, and he can. You know, there's times that God can just show up and snap us out of a moment, but in this particular way, he didn't reveal himself. He asked a lot of questions. He asked them what they were talking about and he let them process out loud with him on probably a three or four hour walk. He let them process how that experience this previous week affected them.
Speaker 1:So they got to talk about their confusion. They got to talk about their sadness, they got to talk about their grief. They needed their grief to unfold in order for their hearts to expand, in order to even hear him in the first place. And this is really important for us as we, as we learn to listen to God. He sometimes catches up with us on our journey somewhere else and in a relational context with God. He's not just a genie or a psychic hotline that gives us answers to life's most pressing questions. He catches up with us on the road to help us locate ourselves and help him low, help us locate his presence in the midst of our deepest pain and suffering, and that's what he does in this particular thing.
Speaker 1:He catches up with disciples who are in grief and in mourning, and instead of convincing them to not be what she could have done just through just one little snap of the finger or however that works, he decided to stay with them in the process. They needed to experience God not just on the surface, but in the depths of their souls. And you do too, you do too, I do too. You need to experience God in the depth of your soul. So he opened up a space for them to process their emotions, but he also opened up the scriptures to explain what was happening. So it's really interesting, because Jesus he actually for these two disciples had to meet them in their emotions, but then also their intellect. They actually needed a new way of understanding the scriptures, so they could see him. So we know that a relationship with God isn't just our mind thinking about things, but our mind is a part of it. Our intellect is God given, and so Jesus knew that they needed to see the whole story of the scriptures, how the prophets could be trusted and how God was working all things out together, and so he opened up their minds to even be able to understand what was going on. And in doing so he met them in their confusion, and so this is really important, that he knew that at that point in time they needed to be about emotionally and intellectually until they could hear him relationally and see him relationally.
Speaker 1:And God does the same thing with us, and it's important to understand that. If you're in a season where it just feels like God is silent, let me just propose to you that maybe he's trying to encounter you in a different way than you have been used to. Some of us want him to speak through signs and wonders, when he's trying to come to us through whispers. Some of us want him to speak through the wisdom of a sage, and yet he comes through the playfulness and the squeal of a child in the back of a room and I'm serious, we want him to speak in a prayer closet. But he comes to us. In a community of people.
Speaker 1:There's things that we become used to ways of relating to God and God wants to reveal himself in other ways and we could say, like why would he do that? Why would he make this so complicated? It's really not complicated. It's just that God is more playful than we think he is. Did you see in the scripture how he was going to walk by them? He was going to keep going until they invited him over for dinner and he did that before when he was walking across the Sea of Galilee. He was walking in the Sea of Galilee and it said he was going to pass them by on the boat as if he was going somewhere else. And it's like why would he do things like that? I think it's because there's a whole side of God that's more playful than we give room for and he likes the treasure hunt and he knows that's actually what we need. We don't need just cut and dry. You do this, I do this transactional relationship. There's a life of discovery and adventure and playfulness, which is what we're made for, and we're going to talk a little bit about this in the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 1:There's two ways, historically, that the church has put language to the voice of God. One is vox interna, which means the internal voice, and this is when we talk about Jesus coming to us in prayer and dreams and emotions and whispers and promptings and desires and even pain. These are the languages of God that come from the inside out, internal voice, but sometimes he comes from the outside in the vox externa, which he comes to us through the scriptures and community and conversations and artwork and music and culture and prophecy and doors that are open in our lives, and even in the scriptures we read a lot about angels, things that happen on the outside, that we are to receive as his voice and discern his voice in, and so there's all these different ways that God comes to us, and he's inviting us to be with him. What's really interesting, though, for these two disciples is that they didn't actually recognize him until they sat down for a meal, and it was upon the breaking of bread that something happened and their eyes were open, and in a single moment he vanished Again. There's nothing more playful than just vanishing after somebody realizes it's you, if you don't think that's just fun. I mean, how else are you going to read that? He's just going to disappear as soon as they figure it out. He probably is laughing the entire time wherever he went. I think it's awesome. But it's really interesting when you look in the biblical narrative.
Speaker 1:The first meal of creation, the first meal in the scriptures, was a meal that when Adam and Eve were to eat of this fruit, their eyes were open, but they were opened to distance and separation and a sense of sin. The first meal of new creation. Their eyes were opened to the nearness of God and the resurrected Christ who is making all things new. This is what Jesus is doing. There's a way of having your eyes open to everything wrong and how far you away from God, but in the new creation, through the work of Jesus, through the work of the cross, through His resurrection, he opens our eyes to find that he was with us the entire time and we didn't even know it. Are you guys hearing me today? And so it's this beautiful thing.
Speaker 1:This is what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit. Jesus says having your spiritual radar up and constant anticipation of His presence, even in the midst of the joyful chaos and regular rhythms of your everyday living is paramount in hearing God, because sometimes the place and manner you find Him is the least spectacular you'd expect. And so you are going to hear today that God is actually speaking to you already and your job is just to let the Holy Spirit open your eyes to see that he's been with you the entire time. It's not that you don't have anything figured out, and it's not that he hasn't stopped talking to you.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we go through seasons where God is quieter than other seasons, but even in those seasons he's teaching us to trust His presence and not just the feeling of being talked to. Sometimes, when he takes us to the wilderness, it's to trust that His presence is enough. Some of us spend all of our time praying for clarity in next steps, and he's not as concerned about clarity in next steps. He's concerned about being with us. He is much more okay with mystery than we are. Sometimes, when God seems quiet, it's just he wants to talk about other things or come into us in a way that we didn't expect. And it's not because he's trying to make it hard on us or he's teasing us. It's because he wants to teach us to see and to know the mysteries of His heart in a new way.
Speaker 1:I think some of us here. I just want that to unlock for you and I believe the Lord wants to unlock that for you today. And what we're going to do here as we end, once you're going to walk to just a brief listening exercise and then we'll get out of here. We're going to just have longer than normal. Just hang with me for a couple more minutes. We're going to practice hearing here for a moment.
Speaker 1:So oftentimes we look for God on the outside of our actual lives. Here's my life and I want God to speak something over here in my spiritual life. That's not what, that's not how God thinks. There's no such thing as your life and your spiritual life. There's just your life before God. And so sometimes we want God to speak to us on the outside of our actual lives. But I just believe that even in this moment he wants to show you in your life where he's wanting to get your attention. We're going to do a little exercise here. We're going to trust that the Holy Spirit actually wants to speak to us.
Speaker 1:So, across the room, I just want you to know if you're a follower of Jesus, you can hear His voice and the Holy Spirit wants to speak to you. Okay, is? Everybody thumbs up? We good, you are a temple of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes God's voice sounds awful lot like your own voice. That's okay, because sometimes Jesus comes to skies as your actual life. So here's what I want you to do Close your eyes with me Across the room and I want you to visualize your last 24 hours. Okay, the last 24 hours of your life. It's going to take you a moment, because some of us live at such a fast pace that we don't even remember what we did in the last day. I just want you to think about the last 24 hours, and what we're going to do is we're going to invite the Holy Spirit to bring to mind one memory from the last day.
Speaker 1:So we say come, holy Spirit, across the room. Would you bring to mind one thing you want us to remember Now, just as an extra prompt? That might be a conversation that you had. That might be an attitude that you remember in your own heart. That might be a TV show that you watched. It can be ordinary or extraordinary. It can be a moment of joy or a moment of grief, or just something that you did. You don't have to make it sound spiritual, I'm just saying just any moment from this last day. See if there's one moment that surfaces to the top of your awareness, and I want you just to take a moment to yourself. Just remember what that was like, describe it, remember what was happening, what started that moment, how the moment ended.
Speaker 1:Okay, now there's a few questions I want you to ask for the Lord. Everybody has their moment. I'm just trusting that you have your moment Now. We're just going to ask a few questions of the Lord. Holy Spirit, can you show each of us why you're bringing to mind this one moment out of all the moments in our last 24 hours? Why are you bringing this to mind? I want you to listen to what comes up. God, where were you in this moment? Jesus, how did you feel about this experience, this activity, this conversation? Last question here, jesus, is there anything you want me to know right now? Okay, I'll just let it sit there for the moment, so maybe the conversation needs to continue.
Speaker 1:Just a quick show of hands. Who feels like you heard some sense of God in a moment from the last day? Just kind of put your hand up just a little bit around the room, okay, if you didn't, there's no, it's fine, it's okay, but that's at least half of this room did. Okay. That means that half of this room we will reflect on our actual life. And then we heard God give another interpretation or another narrative where he spoke something about our actual life. We didn't need something to come from the outside and he actually showed us where he was present in the moment. I want that to encourage you.
Speaker 1:Our lives with God, or about learning to perceive a God who is closer than we think. That is so much of what we're doing together. So it takes practice and it takes the ability to live one life before Him. Now listen some of us across the room, you heard three different voices in an exercise like that. I did the same thing when I did this exercise yesterday. I heard three voices. One was my voice and the voice was is this just me? Is this stupid? Am I hearing like? Is the voice of kind of self-consciousness, kind of self-protection? Okay? There's a second voice and it sounds a lot like this you think you can hear from God. You are out of your element.
Speaker 1:God doesn't talk to people who are stuck in sin like you are. God doesn't talk to people who don't prioritize them, like you. And there's a voice that maybe comes at you to disqualify you. I'm telling you that's the voice of the evil one, that's the voice of the enemy. He does not deserve to be listened to. He's the father of lies.
Speaker 1:But there's a voice of the spirit. There's a voice of your spirit and of the Holy Spirit. As you're listening, there's a longing and there's a sense of thank you, god, for showing me what's real and what's true and what's good. There's a spirit inside of you that calls you beloved and it says listen, you don't have to be concerned about being qualified enough. I qualified you through my blood and through the shedding of my blood. There's no experts in the kingdom. We're all disciples and listen. That's the voice of God, that's leading you on and calling you on. That's the voice you want to be listening to. It's the voice of invitation, saying there's more here than you ever thought was possible, and I love you and you're mine. You're my sheep and you can't hear my voice. You guys with me today. You can't hear my voice. No-transcript.