Bill Johnson - It's in Your Nature to Hear God's Voice
So right now in this room, there’s music, there are pictures, there are videos, and there’s all kinds of stuff right here. You just have to have the right receiver. Remember in the old days when they had radios? You could take your dial and go across the band of your AM station, going slowly to pick up every possible station. No matter how much you claim it, no matter how much you bind and loose, and no matter how much you prophesy, you will not pick up something on the FM band. The carnal man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God; it is already written into your nature as a born-again believer to hear and to know the voice of God.
In verse 9, it says, «Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.» This verse is often read at funerals because we need something to comfort us when we’re facing what we can’t explain and don’t understand. That’s not really a good verse for funerals; «eye has not seen, ear has not heard.» The very next verse says, «But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.» It’s never entered the mind of a person before, but guess what? You’re now part of a tribe where it’s your norm to receive things that eyes have never seen, ears have never heard, and it’s now filling your heart with stuff that could never be anticipated. For all of history, this is now your responsibility. He goes on to say we have received not the spirit of the world.
Verse 12 states we haven’t received the spirit of the world; we’ve received the Spirit who is from God that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. We haven’t received the spirit of the world; we’ve received the Spirit of God so that we might know what no eye has ever seen, where no ear has ever heard, and what no heart has ever delighted in, embraced, or enjoyed. The Spirit of God was given to you and me because we are to know these things. He teaches in this chapter that the Holy Spirit searches the deep things of God. The Holy Spirit is the greatest search engine to ever exist, and He searches the biggest hard drive to ever exist—that’s the mind of God. He searches through all this stuff called the mind of God to find the gems, the treasures, the pieces of information, the insight, and the imagination.
All these things He searches to give to you, to make you more complete as a person, and to be part of a tribe that experiences what no eye has seen and no ear has heard. In other words, the Holy Spirit actually has the responsibility to find that which makes you more complete in expressing a full and complete Gospel of power. Create a context for this: Psalms 139 says that God’s thoughts about us outnumber the sands of the seashore. I don’t know if you’ve been to a beach recently, but there’s a whole bunch of sand—those little tiny grains of sand. This is one of the most mind-boggling thoughts in all of Scripture. He said, «My thoughts about you are more in number than every grain of sand on every beach on the planet,» and they’re all thoughts for your welfare, not for your calamity.
So when the Holy Spirit does a search, He’s looking for one of those that will make your day. But in verse 14, He says the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. Right now in this room, there are pictures, there’s music, there are sporting events, and there’s even country music. I mean, I don’t know, but Eric, when he was a teenager, said, «Dad, I love country music.» I said, «Son, you’ll want to consider when your ears are healed.» It was a joke. Lighten up! Leah told me, «Dad, I’m going to do a country album.» I said, «Honey, I’ll pretend to like it.» I’m sorry, but that’s enough; I’ve got to stop. All right, it’s one way to offend at least half the crowd right there.
Yeah, so right now in this room, there’s music, there are pictures, there are videos, and there’s all kinds of stuff right here. You just have to have the right receiver. You put a TV receiver in here, and you can watch a movie; you can watch a sporting event, and it’s actually right here. The music is right here; you just have to have the right receiver. Remember in the old days when they had radios? Some of you young people don’t know what I’m talking about. It’s a strange little box that sound came through. I don’t know; I don’t get it. But there was AM and FM, and you could take your dial and go across the band of your AM station, going slowly to pick up every possible station. You could go from one end to the other, and no matter how much you claim it, no matter how much you bind and loose, and no matter how much you prophesy, you will not pick up something on the FM band.
The carnal man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. We do not need a well-trained carnal man; we need a surrendered vessel where the Spirit of God filling the individual enables us to hear from God. It has already been given to us; Scripture says it has been given to us to know the mysteries of the kingdom. It is written in stone; this is your assignment—to know the mysteries of another world, because you will live from the reality of that world. As you do, you will inspire a generation to hunger and crave what you’re carrying. I don’t believe we have the assignment to blend into a world system. Our responsibility isn’t to become like everybody else to be accepted; our responsibility is to demonstrate the reality of a world they all hunger for and don’t know. To put on display that which actually satisfies the craving cries of their hearts, it has been given to us to know the kingdom, the mysteries of the kingdom.
Jesus said, «My sheep know My voice.» It is already written into your nature as a born-again believer to hear and to know the voice of God. You can become anxious, you can become fearful, bitter, whatever, and pile a bunch of junk on your capacity to hear, but the ability to hear is still in you. It is the nature of the believer to hear from God. Sometimes it’s a weakness; sometimes it’s just stripping the stuff off and getting down to the most basic level of who we are as followers of Jesus that reactivates that capacity for hearing. The carnal man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God; they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them.