Creflo Dollar - Five Hindrances to Hearing From God
If you have your Bibles, go with me to the book of Proverbs chapter 20, and verse 27. Of course, we are continuing another segment of this message and teaching on how to hear from God. It's important that we know that it is God's will to speak to us, and it is God's will for us to be able to hear him. Well, tonight I want to carry on some things here, but I want to talk about the hindrances to hearing from God. A lot of times people, they want to hear from God, but they don't recognize those things that challenge their hearing, those things that may even clog up their hearing, those things that might hinder the voice of God from being heard.
Now, the problem is never going to be with God speaking. God's always speaking. The issue is whether or not we pick up the transmission, whether or not there's something that's blocking our hearing. And so, tonight I want to deal with the five hindrances to hearing from God. And I want to start in Proverbs 20, verse 27. And he says this, Proverbs 20, and 27 he says, "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly". Now, that really got me years ago when I began to look at this, the spirit of man. Now, please understand, and I'll repeat this again, that man is a three-part being. Man is a spirit, he doesn't have a spirit, he is a spirit. He possesses a soul, that's his mind, will, and his emotions. That's your thinker, your chooser, and your feeler. And he lives in a physical body. That is the three parts of a man. He is a spirit, he possesses a soul, he lives in a physical body. Now, according to this Scripture, he says that the spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord.
Now, think about it, when the power goes off in your house and you go grab a candle, you light that candle, that candle provides guidance. It allows you to move around without hurting yourself or injuring yourself. It allows you to see the pathway. It allows you to see, you know, where you're going. And so, he says that he's gonna use the spirit of man like a candle. So, we use a candle, what? To enlighten us in the midst of darkness. The spirit of a man, the Bible says, is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly. Now, what are some things that can hinder that process? God wants to lead you by your spirit. God wants to show you some things by your spirit. God wants to say to you, "Mmm, not a good time". God wants to say to you, "Mmm, back up, hold up". God wants to lead you by your spirit. In other words, guidance. That candle will help you to be led and to help guide you when you can't see certain things with your natural, with your natural eye.
So number one, here's the first hindrance to hearing from God, unbelief, unbelief. Now, you gotta understand, everything in the kingdom of God operates by faith. Everything in God's kingdom operates and is gonna be successful because believers are believing. But when you walk in unbelief, there are lots of things that won't work, including your ability to pick up the transmission. Now, like I said, the problem's not gonna be with God. The problem is, is when unbelief is there in your heart. You know, the Bible refers to a heart filled with unbelief as an evil heart, an evil heart, why is it evil? Because it's filled with unbelief. Look at this Scripture, I want to show these two Scriptures to you in the Amplified. Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 12 in the Amplified Bible, and then in that same chapter, we'll just go down to verse 19. Hebrews chapter 3, and verse 12. Now, now check this out, now. This area of unbelief can be so, so wicked, twisted. Hebrews 3, verse 12 says, "[Therefore beware] brethren, take care, lest there be in any one of you a wicked, unbelieving heart [which refuses to cleave to, refuses to trust in, and rely on Him], and it leads you to turn away and desert or stand aloof from the living God".
Now notice, that last part of that Scripture, it leads you to stand apart, or to stand away, from the living God. So notice, you're not receiving the transmission because that wicked, evil heart of unbelief is leading you to stand apart, stand aloof from God. So, unbelief can't be present and you pick up the transmission from God. Now, look at verse 19 in that same chapter in the Amplified. He says this, Hebrews 3:19, "So we see that they were not able to enter [into His rest]," why? "Because of their unwillingness to adhere to and trust in and to rely on God [unbelief had shut them out]". Unbelief had shut them out. And I'm telling you, the Word of the Lord, the guidance that God wants to provide with your spirit, he says your unbelief cuts you out. You're cut out. Man, that's just, one word from God that you pick the transmission up can change your life. But unbelief will shut you out, will shut you out of a Word that could save your life, a Word that could prosper you, a Word that can make the difference in your business, a difference in your relationship, but you're being shut out because of unbelief.
And I'm gonna tell you right now, in the earth today, there's more unbelief in this earth today than I have ever seen before, and people are being shut out. They're hearing everything except the nourishing, loving Word from God. And so, unbelief is a hindrance to hearing from God. Here's the second hindrance from hearing from God, an undeveloped spirit, an undeveloped spirit. Go to 1 Thessalonians 5:23. I want to reemphasize this triune man. An undeveloped spirit, now please understand something. That the Holy Spirit is going to speak to you through your spirit, and you're gonna understand a little later that your conscience is the voice of your spirit. So, what happened is you got born again, and he moved in you, you got in him. And where's that taking place? That's taking place in the area of your spirit man. In him, we move. In him, we breathe. In him, we have our very being. So, the Holy Spirit, we are sealed, we are sealed in the Holy Spirit, well, what part of that? It's your spirit man, that part of you.
Now, look what he says here, he says, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly," all one piece, "and that I pray God your whole spirit, your whole soul, your whole body will be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord". Here again, it's making it very clear of the triune being of man of the tripart, or man, three parts of man, spirit, soul, body, that you are a spirit, you have to understand that. You are a spirit being, and if you are undeveloped in that area... in other words, that new creation in you, it needs to be trained to work with the Holy Spirit, trained to commune and operate with the Holy Spirit. And when you do that, when your spirit man is trained in the Word of God, then your conscience now will be the voice of that, praise God. And if you begin to train your spirit in that, then all of a sudden, your consciousness becomes a reliable lead. In other words, you can trust it to lead and guide you in this physical world.
Now, now, look at this in Romans 8, verse 14, Romans 8, verse 14 and 16. So, we must develop our spirit. We must develop our spirit. I used to get a little mixed up with this because I thought, "Well, you know, I'm born again, I'm perfect". Yeah, absolutely, but the perfect part of me is my attachment to the Spirit of God. I'm sealed with him. Praise God. And not that I'm flawed in my new creation, but I need to begin to develop my new creation to work alongside and in concert with the Holy Spirit. And so, he says here in verse 14, Romans 8:14, he says, "For as many as are led," there it is, "by the Spirit of God," the Holy Spirit of God. So, your spirit being led by the Holy Spirit of God. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God". Your spirit, your new creation, being led by the Spirit of God. That's a powerful thing. That's something that we want people to get a hold of that my spirit man, my new creation, is gonna be led by the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost moved on the inside. Somebody is thinking, well, he's on the inside of your body. No, he moved on the inside of the real you, and the real you is a spirit man.
Now see, some of you think, "Well, I don't know if I get this," see, that's why I'm saying we, you got to get into the Word. Hopefully, I'll have some time to show you that the Word will tune your hearing. And the more you hear the Word you recognize, "I'm a spirit being. I possess a soul. I live in the body. And the Holy Spirit is going to lead my spirit. That's why he moved into my spirit, so he can lead and guide me through my spirit man. And from my spirit man, the dictates from the Holy Ghost begin to move into my consciousness, and my conscious mind becomes the voice of my spirit". Praise God, hallelujah. Now, look at verse 16. He says, "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit," that's what's going on there. The Holy Spirit now is bearing witness with your spirit that we're the children of God.
And so, the Holy Spirit's bearing witness to your spirit man, and there's an agreement now with your spirit. There's gonna be an agreement which your born-again spirit and the Holy Spirit, they're gonna be together. And so, what they've got to do is they've got to transfer that oneness into your soul. And then your soul, because it's being renewed with the Word of God, is now lining up with the Spirit and the Holy Ghost, glory to God. And now your body will just do what it's told to do. Oh, my goodness, that's when we become powerful beings. You know, I asked the Lord the other day, I said, "Lord, I want people to believe.
And I read in the Bible where there are signs and wonders and people being raised from the dead. Oh, Father, I just thank you, show me what I need to do so we can see those signs and wonders". And you know how God is. I got quiet. He said, "Son, I already told you," I said, "What"? He said, he said, "You know what you need for signs and wonders and miracles so people might believe"? And I thought, "Yeah, Lord, you told me. It's you, it's your presence, it's you". It's not doing something to try to deserve something. "It's just abiding in me. It's just abiding in me, and me abiding in you. And you when you show up somewhere, you show up with me," praise God. "You show up with my influence, that's influenced your spirit, that's influenced your soul, that's influenced your consciousness," praise God. "And you'll hear me clearly to what needs to be done and signs and wonders and", he says, "So what you focus on is your relationship with me, not on what you need to do in order to get something to happen so you can deserve it," praise God. I said, "I got you. I got you".
So, my communication time has now moved to a communion time to now has moved to a time where I am just fellowshipping with him, and I ain't looking for nothing but him, glory to God. I ain't looking for nothing but him. So, when I show up, and I've been noticing that people have been kind of weirded out. I'm like, you know, I wonder what's going on. And then they 'bout to cry. And I was doing an interview with this woman one time, and she was sitting down and she just started shaking and started trembling. I look around and I'm thinking, she fittin' to fall out if they don't hurry up and we was on air. I just think, in the name of Jesus, if we will just spend time in his presence and as we spend time in his presence, man, when you show up, signs will show up, miracles will show up, why? Because he showed up. You gotta let him show up in your life every day, and you gotta show up, and that's what you do.
You focus on your relationship with him. And you start looking at everything, you quit asking for stuff because you're like, "I got the most vital person in the world on the inside of me, the Holy Spirit. My relationship with a Christian is not about how much I know, it's not about how much I got. My relationship with the Holy Spirit is that I know him, I know him, and he knows me," hallelujah. Glory be, hallelujah. Glory to God. So, we must develop our spirits. And then Proverbs 20:27 again confirms that, that the spirit of the man is a candle of the Lord. So, whatever the Holy Ghost is going to do, he's gonna do it through that spirit man. And if you're undeveloped in your spirit and you're not practicing the things of God, which is where I'm getting ready to go next, then, you know, you're gonna miss it.
So, I guess the obvious question here, before we move to the third one, the obvious question is, how do you develop your spirit? All right, if undeveloped spirit is gonna be a hindrance to me hearing from God, how do I develop my spirit? Well, very simple, reading and meditating on the Word of God. I mean, the supernatural is attached to the Word. If you're not attached to the Word, you're not attached to the supernatural. So, what happens is by getting in that Word, and reading that Word, and meditating on that Word. Now, there's a little difference, you can read the Word, but you're not meditating the Word until you're pondering that Word, until you're rolling it around in your mind, until you're thinking about it over and over and over again. There's something about meditating that Word that will make you successful, that'll make you strong, and that'll lead you in some mighty ways.
So, that's one way to develop your spirit. Another way is submitting to God's Word. You know, why would God continue to tell somebody something that never will do it? Think about that, would you continue to talk to somebody and they don't ever do it? And so, likewise, I wouldn't do the same thing. So, we gotta bow the knee to the Word of God that we're hearing and that we're meditating on. There's another way to develop your spirit, prayer. I mean, spend time talking to God, spend time talking to God. Somebody says, "Well, how long you do that"? Well, I mean, you know, half the morning, I'm just, like, singing in tongues. I'm singing in tongues, I'm just walking around just singing in tongues. I didn't realize I had reached the level of joy. And you start doing that kind of stuff, what's going on in the world don't bother you, what's happening with people, dramas and all that kind of stuff. You realize you've been blessed with peace and prayer helps to develop your spirit.
Now, here's another way to develop your spirit, worship and spending time in his presence. A lot of people just don't understand worship. Worship is an intentional move to go before God without expecting anything from it. In other words, it's like I'm making you big, I'm building you up. I'm not here for you to do nothing for me. If you don't never do nothing else for me, you've already done enough. I am here to just give you praise and honor and tell you how awesome you are and just, kind of in a sense, just brag on you and talk about the awesomeness of your work. You know, people, most the time people go to God, they go to God asking for something and needing something. But when you're worshiping God, it's like that's something that can go on all day. Every time you look around you're like, "Lord, I just thank you for that, and Lord, look at what you did here, who but you could do something like that. Lord, look at what you did there. Look at what you did for... look at that. You asked me to go sleep last night. I woke up this morning, I feel so good, and I give you praise".
That kind of worship puts you outside of the drama and the crazy stuff of this world. And so, you train your spirit. Your spirit is being developed through worship, man. It's being developed through worship. And then, you know, here's another way to train your spirit, praying in the spirit, praying in tongues, and then listening to God's Word to you. Praying in tongues and listen to God's Word for you. I don't go around evaluating who's still praying in tongues and not. I do, I'm gonna keep doing it. I ain't gonna stop. I'm gonna keep praying in tongues. But I like to pray in tongues and then, you know, I like to just shut up and let God, give him an opportunity to talk to me. You'll know if it's you and you'll know if it's God. 'Cause sometimes, see, when God talk to you, he's saying stuff that you ain't even smart enough to say. And so, you gotta understand that, wait a minute, man, I'm praying in the Holy Ghost. What I like to do is, "Father, I thank you that I believe I receive what I just prayed in the Holy Ghost. I release most holy faith forward to come to pass".
Oh, and I just start worshiping and praising him. And then sometime I just sit there, and sometimes I just worship and praising him. And whether I'm sitting there quiet or just worshiping and praising and thanking him, I hear, I hear it, but it's not coming from the outside in. It's coming from the inside up. And there's this word that comes, and I'm like that's God. I don't even know where that came from. That's just so awesome what he said. And so now, I'm tuning in all the time to what he might be saying to me. And, you know, folks think, well, "Oh, that's just a wise man of God". No, that's a listening man of God. Just keep paying attention to him, and he starts showing you stuff and giving you the right side of the issue, and not the wrong side of the issue. So, if you'll do those things, reading and meditating in the Word, submitting to God's Word, spending that time in prayer, worshiping and spending time in his presence, I call it practicing the presence of God. Practicing the presence of God is being aware that you have God on your mind throughout the day. And when other things invade it, you want to kind of catch it 'cause you're practicing the presence of God. And that's a powerful thing, man. And then also praying in the spirit.
Now, let's look at this third one. Unbelievable how the time goes by, look at the third one. The third hindrance to hearing from God is a spirit of deafness. You know, a deaf person, in the natural, can't hear. You know, there's a spirit of deafness, that spirit that says, "You can't hear God. You can't hear from God". All right now, how does that work? How does a person become deaf and they can't hear from God? Well, number one, listen to this, and I believe this is a huge, huge deal. Having unforgiveness will open you up to the tormentors. In other words, if you walk in unforgiveness, eventually the tormentors, those evil, wicked, demonic forces, will begin to bring torturing thoughts to your life. They will begin to bring up painful memories in your life. They will begin to release oppressing spirits and spirits of darkness into your life. There's a such thing as torment. People think that, "No, this is just happening to me". No, when you walk in unforgiveness and refuse to get rid of that darkness in your life, then you're gonna go through torture. You're gonna have tormenting thoughts. You're gonna have these horrible memories. You've got to deal with the unforgiveness.
Some people think it's all right that I don't deal with it. If you don't deal with it, it will deal with you. And then you're trying to figure out, "How come I can't hear from God"? You're too cluttered. You're too cluttered with the bad memories. You're too cluttered with the torturing thoughts. You're too cluttered with all of that stuff that comes by maintaining unforgiveness. And it's just clogging your hearing up. So, the heart of the spirit man grows when you're in unforgiveness. It grows hard and it grows insensitive to the voice of God. In fact, Paul tried to warn us. If you'll go to Ephesians chapter 4, and verse 26 and 27, Ephesians 4:26 and 27. Paul tried to warn us of some of these things that would happen. He said, "Be angry," but he said, "sin not". And he says, "Don't let the sun go down upon your wrath". Go to the next verse, verse 27. He said, "Neither give place to the devil".
All right, when you continue in unforgiveness, you give place to the devil. Watch this. Because when you're operating that kind of way and, you know, you don't do anything about it, you've given place to the devil. And the devil's gonna come with everything he possibly can, anger, unforgiveness, jealousy. Those things cause deafness. When you're walking in those fleshy, it cause you not to be able to hear from God. What it means is you're so cluttered with anger, jealousy, unforgiveness, you're not gonna be able to hear. So, we must get rid of the bitterness. We gotta get rid of the resentment. We gotta get rid of the unforgiveness out of our spirit. Those things will hinder you from hearing from God. And listen, you can't afford to go days without being open to hear what God wants to say.