Bill Johnson - Hearing God's Voice Is Easier Than You Think
Have you ever thought of someone you wanted to call or maybe stop by and visit? It wasn’t a thundering voice from God; it’s just that moment when you think, «Oh, I should call them.» You call them, and you find out it was a miraculous moment that God actually directed you. You see, Jesus made a statement: He said, «My sheep know my voice.» What does He mean by that? There is a familiarity in the voice of God to the life of a believer, so much so that there are times I would have thought it was simply my desire, only to find out afterward it was actually the voice of God. Living immersed in Christ places us in a position where we are constantly hearing that familiar voice. Everyone in this room who is born again is born again because He spoke, and you listened and responded.
None of us found God; He found us. Yes, it’s like running from God through a forest and tripping over a rock, looking up, and seeing Him there, and then saying, «I’m so glad I found you.» That’s basically how all of us got saved. We realized that there was only one reasonable option: to give ourselves to Him. Anyway, all of us are alive because we heard Him speak and responded. The Holy Spirit is the central person in our life, and every triumph, every victory, every enablement, every bit of grace we experience in this life and in following Jesus is active because the Holy Spirit is in our life. The Holy Spirit is God on Earth. Everything about our life either succeeds or fails because of our relationship with Him. I’m not referring to an emotion, although emotions are included; I’m not talking about feelings, although feelings are included. It is a relationship with a person. This Christian life is a relational journey, and it is a relationship with God on Earth, who is the Holy Spirit, who perfectly represents Jesus and completely manifests the will of the Father.
I’ve been searching for an adequate illustration, and I’ve not yet come up with one—maybe I will by next week when I won’t need it—but right now, have you ever gone through life, and somebody says, «Oh, what a beautiful song»? You didn’t even know a song was playing, but as soon as they mentioned that song, you could hear it, right? I mean, it wasn’t made up in your mind; you could actually hear it, but you weren’t aware of it. Your awareness heightened to that sound when someone mentioned it. Maybe you were just going through life not thinking of anything, and someone says, «Why do you smell that?» You weren’t smelling it before, but as soon as they mentioned it, you thought, «Yeah, meat» or other things—but for me, primarily, «Yeah, barbecue! Thank you, Jesus!» And when someone mentions it, suddenly you realize, «Yes, I do smell that.» You become aware.
What I’m looking for is for us to have a heightened awareness of the presence of God. I’ve had certain experiences over the years when I became unusually aware of Him, and it’s terrifying and wonderful all at the same time, and I don’t want to live any other way. Heightened awareness—it’s not imaginary. It’s not that it’s a figment of the imagination; it’s like Jacob said when he woke up from that dream: «God is here, and I didn’t even know it.» A sudden heightened awareness of a reality that existed before he was aware. The Holy Spirit lives in you; He is also called «Paraclete,» the one called alongside to help. So the whole point is that I would like today to help with a heightened awareness of God on Earth, whom I have actually received as a down payment of an inheritance.
Now, I don’t understand; there was never a more mind-boggling thought than the fact that God gave us Himself as our inheritance, and the initial payment is the Holy Spirit Himself—the down payment. He is called the down payment in Ephesians, the down payment of our inheritance. Lara Randolph made a comment years ago: «If God is as big as He says He is, He shouldn’t be that hard to find.» With someone that large in my life, it should not be so difficult to discern Him. If it is, I must have my heart and mind anchored in things that are very inferior, which have deadened what He has created in me as a capacity to recognize Him. All right, amen, Bill. Good point.
Hebrews, Ephesians—let’s just go through the books. About Romans; Romans chapter 8—I meant it the first time, Romans 8. I’m going to bounce around the chapter, so we’re not going to read the whole thing. I actually thought this morning, as I was reading over this, «Oh my goodness, we could easily spend three or four weeks in this chapter because it is so rich,» but we’ll just skim over maybe seven, eight, nine verses, something of that nature.
All right, verse 1 of chapter 8: «There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.» Verse 14: «As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.» Now, go back to verse 1: «There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.» Those who are in Christ walk according to the Spirit; that is the testimony of Scripture. Those who are in Christ—the evidence of my conversion is that I don’t live according to carnal values or fleshly expressions but instead by the Holy Spirit Himself. My life with Christ is illustrated because of a partnership with God on Earth, the Holy Spirit. It’s illustrated; it is measurable. He goes on to say that those who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God.
The reason I want to touch on this for just a moment— we’re actually going to spend more time later in the chapter—but the reason I wanted to hit on this is that there are certain subjects in the gospel that sometimes feel so elevated that they seem unreachable, and being led by the Spirit is one of those. It is not; it is your nature to be led by the Spirit. Have you ever thought of someone you wanted to call or maybe stop by and visit? It wasn’t a thundering voice from God; it’s just that thought, «Oh, I should call them.» You call them and find out it was a miraculous moment that God actually directed you. You see, Jesus made a statement: «My sheep know my voice.»
What does He mean by that? There is a familiarity to the voice of God in the life of a believer, so much so that there are times I would have thought it was merely my desire, only to find out afterward it was actually the voice of God. There is such a similarity; living immersed in Christ places us in a position where we hear that familiar voice. I don’t mean overly familiar in a wrong sense, but that familiar voice. It’s not a thundering voice from the outside; it’s that cry from the inside. The beautiful part is that the more we learn to yield ourselves to this work of the Holy Spirit, the more walking in the Spirit becomes normal and natural. It’s the typical reaction to a given situation.
One of the conversations I’ve had with people lately is, «How do you know what to do in a given situation?» Sometimes there’s a biblical principle for generosity, and sometimes there’s a biblical principle for helping someone earn what they have—there’s biblical basis for both. How do you know what to do? The only way you can know is to recognize the mood of the Holy Spirit. It’s His voice, His mood—it’s how He is leading you to express life. It’s this relational journey where it is our nature to illustrate faith; it is our nature to illustrate this life with Christ. Faith is another one of those exalted subjects where people think they cannot live by faith, when it is actually in your nature to do so. It’s our nature in Christ.