How to Hear and Recognize the Holy Spirit | Season 03, Episode 08 | Simple Truth Podcast

Have you ever asked yourself, "Why can't I hear God?" You pray. You want direction, but when it comes time to make decisions, you're left wondering, "Is this God I'm hearing, or is it just my own thoughts?" Too many Christians live in this tension. But here's the truth. God speaks to all Christians. And hearing God changes everything. It moves you from confusion to clarity, from anxiety to peace, from hesitation to confidence. And this matters because the Christian life was never meant to be self-led. It was meant to be spirit-led. In this episode, we're going to break this down simply and biblically. You'll learn how to recognize God's voice in your daily life. You'll learn how to discern whether it's truly him and how the Holy Spirit speaks through prompings, inner witness, and scripture. If you've ever wondered how to hear God clearly, this episode will give you the clarity and confidence you're looking for. So, let's get into it in this episode of the Simple Truth. Welcome to the Simple Truth podcast, where we open the Bible to uncover simple, biblical, and essential truths that can transform your life. And now, here's your host, Ted Ross. >> Hi, my name is Ted Ross and this is the Simple Truth Podcast, your home for biblical truth clearly taught and freely given. This is season 3, episode 8. This is number five of the five disciplines for Christian growth. This is where we talk about how to hear and recognize the Holy Spirit. So, let's get into it. Why does this episode matter? Well, a lot of Christians, they quietly wonder, "Why can't I hear God?" They know the Bible shows people hearing God all through it. And they're committed to their faith, but they feel stuck in making life's decisions. They pray, but they don't know how to hear or recognize God's answers. They expect something dramatic, an earthquake or a lightning strike, or they assume they're doing something wrong. If you're not following the spirit, you end up defaulting to your flesh, right? You start relying on your logic. you know, a brain, maybe I have a strong education, so I'll start thinking and deducting, but that's not God's spirit. Or they'll rely on emotions. They have strong emotions or emotional intelligence, and they get very emotional because they feel like this must be God, but it's not. Or they're reacting to pressures around them. It could be fear or pressure to make certain decisions, and that's not God. Instead, you should be led by God in those decisions. Hearing God changes how you live. You can move from an anxiety to a peace, from a confusion to a clarity, from hesitation to confidence. Hearing and following the spirit, it's not for a few people. It's for everyone. And we're going to see that in the Bible. But what exactly does it mean to hear and be led by the Holy Spirit? Okay. So, let's talk about this path to a spirit-led life. To hear and follow the Holy Spirit means this. First of all, you can recognize God's voice when you hear it. Secondly, you can discern his guidance so that you're discerning and this is something we're going to look later. It's examining. It's proving this is God and it's not either my own thoughts or my own voice or some other voice. You also third learn how to trust and obey in daily direction with him. Okay? So, you can recognize his voice. you can discern it is his voice and then you start to trust and obey the direction that comes from his voice. The spirit-led life in practice, this is what it means and this is going to be the heart of this episode and next episode. Number one, you need to recognize God's voice in daily life. Number two, you need to discern that that is God's voice as opposed to your own voice or other voices. Number three, you're going to learn to trust his direction. Even if you don't have full clarity, you're going to start to learn to rely on that voice, and that voice will steer you correctly. Fourth, you're going to learn to obey what God says. You're going to start to learn with time how to hear it, recognize it, discern it, trust, and then move quickly and consistently to do the will of God in your life. And fifth, you're going to learn how to review your response. So, you're going to, as you do this, as you hear this prompting, as you hear this inner movement, you're going to then say, "Okay, I'm going to step out and do it." And then you're going to look for confirmation. You're going to look to see if you heard God or if you missed it. All of us, by the way, have missed it at some point in our lives. And then you could repent if needed. The beautiful thing about it is God is not sitting there with the ruler waiting for you to make a mistake. And then you do, he hits your knuckles with the ruler. That's not God. God wants you to try him, to learn him, to have a relationship with him, to experience him. And if you make a mistake, if you miss it, you say, "Dear God, I missed it. It's not you, it's me. I ask for forgiveness. I do so in Jesus' name, and I'm going to do it better the next time. I'm going to be clear. I'm going to be focused, and I'm going to go ahead and do it the way you want me to do it." That is how God wants to have a relationship with us. Remember in our previous episodes, he wants to have a relationship like a father with a child. And any good father and he is a great father. Any good father would care for that child, love that child, instruct that child and lead that child. If that child makes a mistake and that child says, "Father, I am sorry." He will always forgive that child. Amen. So, how would you summarize it? You recognize, you discern, you trust, you obey, and you review. That is how you have a spirit-led life in practice. Which brings us to our first simple truth of the episode. every Christian can hear and recognize God's voice. Let's take a look at John 10. We're going to look at verses 1-4, verse 14 and verse 27. I apologize we have to keep concise on this recording, so we can't read through all these verses as much as I'd like to, but we're going to cover a lot of scripture today, so we're going to move quickly and consistently through it. As a note, all Bible verses are from the New King James Version of the Bible, so feel free to follow along. So let's start off with John 10:1. And in this verse, we're going to see that recognizing God's voice. It starts with rejecting voices that lead you away from him. Okay? John 10:1, quote, most assuredly Jesus says, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfolds by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. Okay. Okay. We're getting right into it here. Jesus says most assuredly he says that the person who does not enter the sheepfold by the door sheepfold is an enclosed place for sheep. So imagine a stone wall in a circle and all the sheep are placed inside of there for safety and allows the sheep to have a place to belong to be cared for and to rest. Okay, imagine this entrance is this door only the door is not a door that we're familiar with. It's not some big wood or steel door. The door is just an entryway in which a shepherd or a gatekeeper stands there to keep the sheep in or allow others to come in. So he says the sheepold if they don't enter it by the door, if they don't go through the entry point, if they don't go through the authorized way, but they climb up over the wall some other way, an improper or unlawful way, that person is not the shepherd. That person's a thief. A thief is someone who steals secretly, someone who's deceptive, or they're a robber. That's a person who takes it by force. They're destructive. So, a thief is deceptive and hiding and lying and operating in the shadows and a robber tries to take it by force. So, this is how Jesus opens up this conversation. In John 10:2, we see that God's voice, it doesn't force its way in. It actually comes in the right way. Okay? John 10:2. But he who enters by the door of the sheepfold is the shepherd of the sheep. Okay? the door. It's that's the entry point, the authorized way to enter. And it says the person who comes through the door is the shepherd. That's one who leads, feeds, cares for the sheep. What are sheep? Most of us are probably familiar with it, right? It's a small flock animal. It's sheep. And really what it does is it implies a creature that is dependent, that is vulnerable, that's guided by the shepherd. This animal is meant to follow a shepherd to survive. Sheep are not self-led. Sheep require protection. Sheep require care. Sheep look very closely to their shepherd and follow them. That's you and me, folks. You can see what we're setting up here. Jesus is setting us up when he talks about a sheepfold and a door and a shepherd and sheep. Clearly, we're getting into a parable that we will explain. Spoiler alert, Jesus is the shepherd and we are the sheep, which we're going to see in verse 14 later. John 10:3 Christians we belong to Jesus so we recognize and respond to his voice as our shepherd. Okay. John 10:3 to him this is the shepherd Jesus the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and he leads them those are the sheep out. Okay. So the doorkeeper, if it's a larger sheepfold, some kind of communal sheepfold, they'll hire a doorkeeper. This is the person hired to guard the entrance. Okay, multiple sheep would be in there, multiple flocks. Okay, this is the other interesting aspect. So when a shepherd calls the voice of their sheep, they often are very faithful to separate from the other sheep and they come out because they know what part of the flock that they're with. Okay, there's a lot of meaning in these verses. It says the sheep hear. That is they listen attentively. They understand. They respond to the shepherd's voice. The voice is a spoken message. It's sound. Okay? And it says that this shepherd calls his own sheep by name. He summons them. He calls them out. He invites them. And he leads them out by name. I've got to emphasize on that. That's by personal identity. For a shepherd to call the sheep by name means they have a personal and close relationship. It's close, folks. And he leads them out. He brings them out. He guides them. He leads them in a direction. Do you see where we're already starting to get to with this verse? We see Jesus a good shepherd. We see ourselves as sheep. And we see that we're able to hear Jesus's voice and that he can call us out by name because we have a personal relationship. and he will bring us out and guide us in our life. Amen. Christians are designed to recognize God's voice and to follow his lead. John 10:4. And here we're going to see that God's leadership, it's not distant. He's not some distant God sending distant messages that somehow make their way like electricity over some course of time or whatever it may be. God before his people and leads us step by step because we recognize his voice and we obey his voice. Okay. John 10:4. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them. This is the shepherd. And the sheep follow him for they know his voice. Brings out, that means leads, guides from one place to another. Do you see the shepherd Jesus guides his sheep from one place to another? That's us. We are to be guided. We are to be led by his spirit. We are to follow his voice. That is the life we are to lead. And it says the shepherd goes before us. He goes in front of us. He actually leads ahead as a guide. This implies both in our daily life as well as what we discussed in season two of the simple podcast how Jesus is actually our example. So not only did he show us the pathway and show us a model that we saw on how to live a life as a Christian, but he actually guides us in our daily life through his Holy Spirit. Okay. So feel free to check out season 2, episode 3, what it really means to follow Jesus and follow. So the sheep follow him. That means to follow closely, to walk in the same direction. For they, the sheep, know his voice. To know is to know intuitively. It's to recognize and to be familiar with God's voice. And voice, again, it's sound or spoken message. Spiritual direction, folks, is not random. It's a familiar voice of your shepherd guiding you in your daily life, which is what the relationship God wants with all of his sheep as in all of his Christians. Let's skip ahead to John 10:14. And here we're going to see that the five disciplines, they draw us into a closer walk with God where our relationship deepens and we come to know God and be known by God. Okay? John 10:14, Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd." Right? Jesus is the good shepherd. And I know my sheep. Those are his people, his flock, and am known by my own. Okay? He says, "I am the good shepherd. To be good is to be noble. To be excellent, to be perfect in character." Thank you, Jesus. And he's a shepherd. He's one who leads, feeds, cares for his sheep. That is us. And it says, "I know my sheep." Jesus said, "I know them through experience. I have a close relationship." That's what that Greek word means. And the sheep, that implies Christians. It implies followers of Christ who again are not self-led but must be spiritled because sheep cannot care for themselves. He says and am known by my own. To be known is to be recognized through relationship through familiarity. Hearing God's voice, it's not mystical and it's not rare. As you've been seeing in these verses in John 10, it's rooted in a relationship. having a relationship with God through reading your scriptures out loud, meditating, through prayer, through fasting, through seeking to be led by the spirit, through the five disciplines that are described in the Bible. It builds relationship. And as you build relationship, you build familiarity, which means you know the shepherd's voice. Get to know God. Get to know him through the five disciplines. So his voice becomes familiar and recognizable through ongoing interactions. Okay. John 10:27. And here we're going to see that Christians are followers of Christ. They hear God's voice and they follow him. Okay. My sheep hear my voice. Jesus said, "And I know them and they follow me." Sheep, followers of Christ, Christians hear, they listen attentively. They understand. They respond to God's voice. Voice is God's sound, his spoken message to us. And they and I know them. Jesus said as to know through experience to know through a close relationship and they follow me. They follow closely. They walk in the same direction. Jesus is repeating over and over again in John 10 the relationship between him as our shepherd and us as his sheep. Every Christian can recognize God's voice because he is close to them. And as Christians spend time with God through the spiritual disciplines, they know God and his voice becomes familiar. It becomes discernable and it becomes recognized. If you know God, you will recognize his voice without even having to see him. So what is a sheepfold? Okay, for those of you on YouTube, you see this image. And for those of you listening on the audio podcast, I'll describe it. Imagine a field, then maybe imagine a a circle. And maybe it's about 50 feet in diameter, right? Maybe 20, 30 meters in diameter. And it's built with a stone wall that's maybe five feet high, maybe 2 meters high. Okay? And so you've got this stone wall. And you know, you have a nice entryway, right? A door. This door is maybe 2 m wide, 3 m wide, 6, 7, 8 wide. And this door doesn't have a physical doorway. It's just an opening into this enclosure. And that's usually where a shepherd or a gatekeeper stood. So it says here that God enters through the door. He calls his sheep or who are in the sheepfold. Those sheep recognize him and they follow him out to be guided by him. Thieves don't come through the door. Thieves try to climb up over the wall. Right? We don't follow every voice. This is the message that I think is worth mentioning here. And we're going to now make a pivot here on this episode. We don't follow every voice. Only the good shepherd has the right to lead us. Let's take a look at Hebrews 8:es 10 and 11. In Hebrews 8:10, we see that every Christian can hear God because his word, his spirit, and his instructions, they now live within us as opposed to outside of us. Okay, what do I mean by that? Hebrews 8:10. Quote, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. This is God talking. After those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. It says, for this is the covenant. A covenant is a binding agreement initiated by God, like a binding contract. Okay? And he says,"I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws, my instructions, my will in their mind." As opposed to writing it on stone tablets, he's going to put it in our understanding and in our thoughts. And I will write it on their hearts. That's the inner self. That's the soul and spirit of you and I. God no longer commands us through these external laws written on parchment written on tablets of stone but he now gives us direction directly in our hearts and minds through the Holy Spirit. This is the new covenant folks. This is the huge difference between the covenant we found in the Old Testament and in the covenant established through Jesus Christ through his death, burial, and resurrection. We no longer follow God based on rules written on pages. We are now to have God's laws and his instructions written in our minds and written directly into our hearts. That is spiritual. Hebrews 8:11, it describes how knowing God is not limited to a few people. Every Christian can personally know God. I'll repeat that again. Every Christian personally knows God, hears God, and can follow God. Hebrews 8:11 quote none of them none of them this is in the h the nation of Israel this is among Christians among believers none of them shall teach his neighbor and none his brother saying know the Lord for all shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them wow none of them shall teach his neighbor none of them shall instruct or impart knowledge to his neighbor or to his brother to family members to people around them. None of them will teach and say know the Lord as in know God through experience or have a close relationship. Why will none of them say that? It says because all shall know me. All of them. Every one of them without exception. All Christians shall know God from the least to the greatest. All of them will have an experience with God and a close relationship with God. And that goes all the way from the least in status, the least in position to the greatest. the greatest in status or influence. By the way, there really are no least and great. You and I clearly land somewhere inside the middle of this, right? And so whether they're on the bottom of the totem pole, whatever that means, they're on the very top. All of them shall know God from the least to the greatest. And no one will need to be taught by his neighbor, by his brother, or by his sister. Amen. Knowing God in the new covenant is no longer mediated through some special group of people and priests. Instead, every Christian has a high priest in Jesus Christ and can know God personally and follow his direction because remember God is writing his instructions, his words, his will in our minds and in our hearts and he does so through the Holy Spirit. Okay, so let's take a moment. There's many examples in the Bible of God's people hearing and following him. We have a lot to cover in this episode, so I didn't go through all these verses, but feel free to take a look at it. In 1st Samuel 3:es 1-10, God repeatedly calls Samuel's name, but he has to learn to recognize God's voice and respond, right? And the prophet Eli instructs Samuel how to do it. In Genesis 12:es 1-4, God tells Abraham to get up and leave his country. and he obeys going to unknown lands based on God's direction. That is a clear example of someone in the Bible hearing God. And he's called the father of faith, right? He's somebody who's renowned for hearing, recognizing, and obeying God. Exodus 3:es 1-10, God speaks to Moses, and he tells him to deliver Israel. And Moses responds by obeying God's plans for him. In Acts 8:es 26-4, the Holy Spirit leads Philillip to meet an Ethiopian government official who becomes born again reading the book of Isaiah and it actually leads to the gospel going to Africa in Acts 10:es 9-20 and 28 and 29. God speaks to Peter through a vision and the spirit's prompting and it leads Peter to preach to the Gentiles, which was a big deal back then. For a Jew to spend time with and preach to and bring the Gentiles into the faith was huge. And God had to move on someone like Peter who was very well respected in the Jerusalem church to do that. And that was yet another example of someone hearing and obeying God. Acts 16 6-10, the Holy Spirit actually prevents Paul and directs him to Macedonia, leading to the spread of the gospel in Europe, which we'll take a look at later. Of course, you too can hear God and you could follow the Holy Spirit in your life, which brings us to our next simple truth. Now that we know this, let's move to this next step. Christians, they discern God, right? They hear God through prompting, through an inner witness, and through scripture. 1 John 4:1 through3. In 1 John 4:1, we're going to see that God speaks, but so do other spirits. So discernment, aka examination, is required. Discernment is to recognize what is from God and reject what is not from God. Okay. 1 John 4:1, quote, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." It says, "Beloved, do not believe, do not trust in, do not rely on, do not accept as true every spirit." When we describe every spirit, we're describing spirit beings, but we're also describing any spiritual source of influence or inspiration. So, don't believe every spirit. Don't believe everything that influences you or tries to inspire you, but instead test the spirits. Examine them, prove them, discern the authenticity of those spirits. Amen. It says whether they are of God, whether they belong to or originate from God. Amen. It says because many false prophets, a false prophet is one who falsely claims to speak to God. Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, there are people in this world who claim to speak to and hear God, who get out and they preach a word and they say, "God said this, and the word they're speaking is not from God." So if I could stress anything to you, it is this. Test the spirits to prove whether they are of God or not. Your salvation, your success, your prosperity in this life, your salvation is so important that it is important for you to do your due diligence to ensure that you are examining, you are testing, and you having a relationship with Almighty God and you're not falling prey to ministry or speaking from people who are false prophets. Not every spiritual impression, voice, or prompting is from God. Hearing God is not just about receiving, right? It's about evaluating, confirming if it's truly from God as opposed to from yourself or from other voices. 1 John 4:2. And here we're going to see that any prompting, thought or teaching that aligns with the gospel of Jesus Christ, sound doctrine, it can be recognized as coming from God. This is what John instructs us here. So, 1 John 4:2, quote, "By this you know the spirit of God." Remember what we're looking for is to be led by the spirit of God to hear and to recognize the spirit of God. And so he says, "By this you know the spirit of God." Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. What does that mean? It says by this you know but you know through experience the spirit of God. that spirit being that source of influence or inspiration that you know it's the Holy Spirit and not some other spirit. It says every spirit that confesses that agrees with that declares openly as true that Jesus Christ has come that he arrived that he appeared in the flesh in a physical body and human nature that is of God. It belongs to or it originates from God. So what does that mean? The Holy Spirit speaks in perfect alignment with who Jesus is and what Jesus accomplished as in the gospel and its benefits. For Jesus to have come in the flesh, where he took on this physical nature, where he grew up, where he went into ministry, where he obeyed the will of the father, and then he went to die, be buried, and rise again on the third day. That spirit is attributing to God, right? It's originating from God because a foul and a wicked spirit would not declare the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, a foul spirit will push unsound doctrine while the Holy Spirit will always testify of Christ and of his death, burial, and resurrection. And that is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes. So, a basic understanding of scripture is of course very useful for you to be able to try and test spirits out because unclean spirits are pushing unound doctrine. 1 John 4:3. And here we see that any spirit or any message that denies the truth about Jesus is not from God. 1 John 4:3, quote, "And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this spirit is of the antichrist which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world. Okay. Every spirit that does not confess, does not agree with, does not declare openly as true that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that he took on a physical body, human nature, right? He took on this physical body and human nature so that he could die for our sins, be buried, and rise again on the third day. That spirit is not of God, right? It's not belonging to God. It's not originating from God. And this is the spirit of Antichrist. This is an influence of something that's against Christ. It's in the place of Christ. That's what Antichrist means. And is now already in the world. It's already in this worldly system. It's already opposing God. We see it in the news. We see it in a variety of different places. So, not every voice is from God. Then, how do we recognize what is from God? The Holy Spirit guides Christians in three primary ways. First, prompings. Second, inner witness. And third, God's word, the Bible, the scriptures. We're going to take a look at these in just a moment. Let's start with number one. The Holy Spirit speaks in prompting and conviction. What does that mean? Okay, let's take a moment here. Let's look at what it means to be prompted by the Holy Spirit. prompting. It simply means inner leadings or nudges from the Holy Spirit that guide your thoughts, your decisions, or your actions according to God's will. What are some of the characteristics of a prompting from the Holy Spirit? Well, first of all, they're internal. They're felt in the heart or the mind. They're not usually audible when it's a prompting. Second, they're directional. They point you toward or or away from something. Third, they're actionoriented. They lead you to respond or to change. Okay, so this prompting is going to lead you to respond or to change something. Fourth, they're often gentle. It can be a nudge. It could be an impression. It could be a sense rather than something forceful. That's why it's important to be perceptive to discern, to be sensitive to the voice of God. It's aligned with scripture. These prompting will be consistent with God's word. Now let's take a look at what it means to be convicted by the Holy Spirit. Okay? So that's what prompings are. Conviction. Well, where prompting is do this, conviction is this is wrong or right. Okay? So prompting is like go do this from the Holy Spirit. Whereas conviction is this is wrong or that is right. And then allows you to pursue God to say why is this wrong or this is right. I should continue in it. Okay. So conviction, it's an inner work of the Holy Spirit that clearly shows what is wrong or right in a thought, in something said or a situation with a strong leading to respond according to God's truth. Okay. So what are some of the characteristics of conviction? Well, first of all, it's clear. It's not vague. You recognize what is right or wrong. That's why again it's important to pray, to fast, to read God's word so you could be sensitive to what God is trying to say to you. Remember the parable of the sewer, the different conditions of the heart. You want to be good soil so that the seed is thrown onto your heart and it bears fruit. You don't want to be a hard heart who's disconnected and hard of hearing and can't hear what God is trying to say to you. Second, conviction is specific. It targets a thought, an attitude, or an action. Third, conviction is truth revealing. It can expose sin. It can confirm righteousness or right actions, right behavior. Fourth, conviction is actionoriented. It leads to obedience or it leads to repentance. Okay? Don't run from repentance, folks. Turning away from something that's wrong is a very good thing. It's a good thing to repent. And after you repent, you believe, you trust, and you rely on, and you adhere to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Don't run from repentance. If you need to repent, get to repenting. It's the best thing you can do. God's forgiving, and he's good, and he wants us to repent because it's really bad for us. Fifth, restorative. Conviction is restorative. It often draws you back to God. It doesn't draw you away from God. Conviction is not meant to have you run away from God because you feel bad. Conviction is meant to correct, meant to draw you back to God, to restore that relationship with him. And sixth, it's aligned with scripture. Conviction, much like prompting, it's consistent with God's word. Let's see. Jesus described the Holy Spirit convicting and guiding, aka prompting us. Okay? John 16 7 and 8. We're also going to look at verses 12 and 13. So John 16:7. And here we're going to see that Jesus said leaving is better because it makes way for the Holy Spirit. Jesus leaving us and ascending is better because actually makes way for the Holy Spirit in our lives. John 16:7 quote, "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth." This is Jesus talking. It is to your advantage that I, Jesus, go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you. Amen. It says it is to your advantage. It's better for you. It's beneficial that I Jesus go away because if I do not go away the helper that is that means one who's called alongside to help to guide to comfort. That is that word pariclete or paricletos. That is a word that is associated with the Holy Spirit. And that means a helper, a guide, a comfort, an advocate, right? The helper, the Holy Spirit will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you. To send is to send with a purpose or a commission. The Holy Spirit was sent with a purpose when Jesus ascended and he came at the day of Pentecost. Right? Instead of Jesus being with Christians externally, which is what the disciples had before his ascension, we and the disciples after his ascension, after Pentecost, we get the Holy Spirit. We get a helper. We get a guide who is now with us and is in us. Okay? He guides us. He convicts us and he leads us from within. So instead of Jesus on the outside speaking to us, we get the Holy Spirit on the inside. Thank God for that. John 16:8, it says here, "The role of the Holy Spirit is to convince us of what is true and to expose what is wrong." This is why we're talking about being led by God's spirit through conviction. John 16:8, quote, "And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment." To convict, that's to expose, to correct, to convince of truth or error. He's not just convincing the world or convicting the world, folks. He's convicting us. He's exposing, correcting, and convincing us of truth or error. He also convicts the world of sin, missing the mark, rebellion against God, of righteousness, right behavior, of right standing with God, what is right and what is wrong. The Holy Spirit convinces, expose or corrects that, and of judgment, God's final verdict, God's final decision. The Holy Spirit comes to expose, to correct, and convince of people who missing the mark of what is right with God. and that there's a final verdict coming, a final decision that everyone will stand before God's great white throne of judgment. The Holy Spirit will convict. It says here, he'll correct. He'll convince. He'll expose. He'll do it inside of you to get you to hear and recognize God's direction for you. Okay? John 16:12. And here we're going to see the Holy Spirit lead you step by step and not all at once. John 16:12. quote, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." Wow. Jesus said, "I have many things, a large amount of things to say to you, to communicate, to express, but you cannot bear them." He said this to the disciples. You cannot handle, you cannot endure, you cannot carry the things that I have to say. And he couldn't do it at that present time. God prompts or convinced in ways we can handle gradually and personally. Do you see what Jesus is saying to the disciples? The same could be said to us. God does not drop everything on us. He convinces us and handles us in a gradual and a personal way. God's voice is typically not overwhelming. It's typically timely and it's tailored to us and where we are at. John 16 verse 13. And here we're going to see that God's voice is reliable and the Holy Spirit only speaks what he hears from the father and the son Jesus Christ. Okay. John 16:13. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak of his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will tell you things to come. Amen. When the Spirit of truth has come after Pentecost, right? He will guide you. That's you and me into all truth. He's going to lead us. He's going to direct us along a path. He's going to prompt us and he's going to guide us into all truth. That's reality. That's what is true. Remember what we were seeing before about spirits who do not affirm or declare that Jesus came in the flesh that do not confirm sound doctrine. The Holy Spirit comes and he will guide us into reality, into what is true. He will not guide us into lies. He will not guide us into falsehoods. He will guide us into God's truth and he will direct us. And he will not speak on his own authority. He will not speak independently or as his own source. But whatever he hears, he will speak. And he will tell you things to come. Whatever he hears from the father and the son. Because those three are one. They are completely on the same page, completely rowing in the same direction. As they say, he will tell you things to come. That spirit will announce, report, and make known to you things to come. Prompting are the Holy Spirit leading you into truth today and for things to come. Now, let's see the Holy Spirit actually forbidding someone. Another example of the Holy Spirit prompting and convicting. Acts 16:6. And here we're going to see the Holy Spirit doesn't just guide you forward. The Holy Spirit also says no. Acts 16:6. Now when they had gone through Friia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. That word Asia that we're talking about is Asia Minor. It's like modern day Turkey. They were forbidden. That means the Holy Spirit hindered, prevented, restrained them to preach the word there. The Holy Spirit, the spirit of God, God's active presence guiding Christians to Asia. That is the Roman province in Asia Minor, the modern-day nation of Turkey, that region. So Paul and his company, they were actively doing the work of the ministry. You'd think that God would say, "Go wherever and do whatever." But God doesn't say that because God has a purpose and a mission for Paul and those who are with him as well as he has a purpose and a mission for you and me. But the Holy Spirit stopped them from going in their original direction. So guidance from God, conviction, it includes restraint. So God's no is as important as God's go. Acts 16:7, the Holy Spirit shuts them down again. Paul and his team, they're not guessing, folks. God is actively guiding their steps dayto day. And this is normal for the Christian life. This isn't, "Well, that's just Paul. Paul was so great. Paul was so wonderful." This is throughout the Bible. The Holy Spirit is there. It's a part of the new covenant. All shall know God from the least to the greatest. We, his sheep, hear his voice. We are led by the Holy Spirit of God. Acts 16:7 after they had come to my tried to go to Bthnia, but the spirit did not permit them. Okay? They tried, they attempted, they made an effort to go into Bthnia, but the spirit did not allow or give them permission. Amen. God could lead you through circumstances, through a lack of peace, uh through blocked opportunities. We didn't see exactly how they were led in this, but we know that they are forbidden. They could have lost their peace through conviction. They could have had a prompting. They could have had a word of prophecy or through prayer. Whatever the method was, you need to keep connected to God. You need to listen for God and you need to discern his direction for your life. God's spirit leads by both prompting you as well as preventing or convicting you. Learning to follow him means recognizing both. Prompting could also be simple, right? Obedience ends up unlocking bigger purposes. So here in Acts 8:29, we see that God speaks in practical prompings that require immediate obedience even when the full purpose is not yet clear. So here in Acts 8:29, it says, "Then the spirit said to Philillip, go near and overtake this chariot. The spirit of the Lord led him into the desert." He sees an Ethiopian government official in a chariot reading the book of Isaiah. And the spirit says, "Go near to that chariot." Philip doesn't know this person. Philip doesn't even understand why he's in the desert. But Philip could hear the voice of God, Philip obeyed the voice of God. And when the spirit of the Lord told him to approach, to draw near that chariot and to overtake it, to get closely, to attach himself, then the Ethiopian, he could see him reading the book of Isaiah. And he says, "Do you know what you're reading?" And the Ethiopian says, "No, how could I fully understand that? Someone shows me." And then Philip uses the book of Isaiah to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, the death, burial, and resurrection. And the Ethiopian receives it with gladness. and he sees a body of water and says, "What would prevent me from being baptized?" Amen. That simple prompting, it leads to the Ethiopian hearing the gospel and the gospel reaching Africa. Go get them, Africa. It's home to some of the earliest Christian churches. God bless you, Africa. But the spirit doesn't only guide by leading us forward. He also corrects. He convicts us when we're off track. And that correction, it's not a rejection from God. It's actually a sign that God loves us. Hebrews 12:6. And here we see that God's conviction and his correction. It's not a rejection. It's proof of his love. Hebrews 12:6, quote, "For whom the Lord loves, he chastens. And he scourges every son whom he receives. For whom the Lord loves," that's that unconditional agape love. That's unconditional love that seeks our benefit. This is not love that makes it's about making God feel good. It's about love that is good for us. God loves us and so he chasens us. That means to discipline us, to correct us, to train us, to instruct us, to convict us when we were doing wrong. Right? And he scourges every son, every daughter, every child of God who he receives. To scourge is to correct severely, to deal firmly. In some parts of America, we'd say that God whips us, right? It implies discipline that's so intense and it's so uncomfortable. But it is beneficial. It is good for us, folks. He disciplines and scourges everyone who he receives, who he accepts, who he welcomes into a relationship. You may remember us saying this in season two and season 1 where we talked about the idea that when you become born again, when you become born from above, you become connected with God. That's a wonderful thing. But your soul has need for sanctification, for deliverance. There's a bunch of bad habits, a bunch of bad behaviors, a bunch of old man behaviors in your soul that God needs to purge out of you. and he will teach you. But sometimes to get you to really understand and to get you to really repent of something and get away from it, he may need to discipline you firmly. And when God disciplines you firmly, it doesn't feel good. And it is the best thing in your life. Thank God. It is not about chasing feelings, folks. It is about righteousness. And it is so much better to have weeping for a night, but for joy to come in the morning because God has transformed who you are. And he is conforming you into the image of his son. That'll be so much life and peace down the road for a short-term discipline and for short-term discomfort. Thank God for that. God convicts and he corrects. And he doesn't do it to condemn. He does it to guide Christians back into alignment with God's will. Are you being convicted? It's proof you're God's child. So take it seriously and thank him for it. So number two, we talked about prompings and conviction. Number two is the Holy Spirit speaks through inner witness. Okay, what does that mean? Let's look at what we mean by inner witness of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit brings clarity, peace, and confirmation within a Christian spirit. That's what we mean by inner witness. It's internal. It's experienced in the heart. You could say it's experienced in your gut. Okay? We'll talk about that in a second. It's peacegiving. It brings settled assurance when it's right. So, you're you have peace in something. I know as a personal testimony that I've had times in my life, times of great pressure, great tribulation, even persecution of people pursuing me, wanting to do me harm. And I I'm like, "Dear God, what's happening here? this is so difficult. And I felt pushed to pray and to read my Bible and to seek God's face and to worship him and to fast. And I would pursue God to get the pressure off to deal with the persecution for God to arise and to to scatter this spiritual resistance. And I would find myself doing things that I strongly believed were the will of God. And when I started to doubt, I would seek God and I'd pray. And I found tremendous peace. And it didn't change the situation immediately. I was still in this uncomfortable place. But while I was in it, I had peace. And I thank God for that. That peace was a confirmation that I was doing the will of God. Even though the situation and the circumstances around me, they weren't where I wanted them to be. I had peace. And when I continued to pursue and believe and trust God in it, the circumstances changed. Thank God. And I knew it was God from top to bottom. And the person that I was after the circumstances was completely different than the person I was before the circumstances. And God allowed those things to happen for me to be converted because God wasn't he didn't call me out of darkness to sit me in a very posh comfortable place where I could just sit and eat grapes and enjoy luxury for the rest of my life. He called me to be a Christian, to be a follower of Jesus Christ. And when he called me out of darkness into that, he had to convert me. and he's still converting me. But thank God, what he's converting me in today is nothing like what he was converting me in the past. And if you are in a place where God is working in your heart, where he is converting you and transforming you, keep the faith, brother or sister. Stay at it, brother or sister. Seek God's face. Seek his peace. Commit yourself to the five disciplines. Commit yourself into prayer and meditating and being led by God's spirit and fasting and praying and all that good stuff. Have a close entire relationship with God and God will bring you out of all things. As the scripture says, I was young and am now old and I have never, I'll say it again, never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. God is faithful and God is trustworthy and he's been faithful and trustworthy throughout the world way beyond even just this person's life. Okay, back to the topic at hand. So inner witness, it's peacegiving. So it's a settled assurance inside of what's right. confirming. It reinforces revelation of God's word, right? It it confirms. So maybe you've read a scripture or something's been revealed to you and that inner witness inside of you will confirm that this indeed is God. Here's a scripture from Proverbs 20:27 I think you'll find interesting. It says, "The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord searching all the inner depths of his heart." That word is actually belly or stomach. Your spirit is not in your head. When we talk about an inner witness, you'll often find that that is not so much in your brain per se, but you're finding it in your inner self, in your heart. And I think it's interesting that in this book of Proverbs, the same word is belly or stomach. And that might be why people say that they had a gut feeling. Okay, I don't want to get presumptuous. I want to speak outside of scripture, but it may be why people say that they had a gut feeling. That's because they felt their intuition or their inner witness and they may have felt it actually in the center of their body in their stomach area. Again, not trying to to get a certain way, but I thought that was a very interesting note that I thought was worth adding and something that I've experienced in my own personal life. So, let's take a look at John 15:2. And here we're going to see that Jesus spoke God's words while on the earth and now the Holy Spirit is speaking it to us. John 14:25 quote these things I have spoken to you while being present with you things those are the words those are the teachings that Jesus taught and he said I've spoken I've communicated I've declared it to you the disciples right while I was present while face to face with you so Jesus is creating a contrast between his external words that he interacts with the disciples and the inner witness of the Holy Spirit John 14 26 says here that basically The Holy Spirit, it teaches from within and it provides an inner witness to the truth. John 14:26, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, in Jesus' name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. It says, "The Holy Spirit, who the Father will send in Jesus's name, will teach, he'll explain, he'll instruct, he'll impart truth in all things and will bring to remembrance." that's reminding you, you and me, bring back to mind to recall all the things that Jesus says, a reminder by Jesus that God's voice may be experienced as a spirit-led remembrance or an inner confirmation of his word. And the Holy Spirit can provide that inner witness through a provision of God's peace or by withholding God's peace to which you say, I am just not at peace with this. And that's conviction by the Holy Spirit for you to say, I better pray. I may need to fast. I need to seek God because I am so not at peace with what's happening right now. John 14 verse 27. And here we're going to see that the Holy Spirit confirms God's direction through deep steady peace within. John 14:27, quote, "Peace I leave with you." Jesus said, "My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I, Jesus, give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." Amen. He says, "Peace I leave with you." That's inner calm. That's rest. That's harmony. That's what God brings. When you pray and you meditate and you read God's word and you fast and you seek to be led by the spirit, it builds peace. It builds an inner calm, a harmony inside of you. And he says, "Not as the world gives do I give it to you." And he says, "Let not your heart be troubled. Don't let your heart be stirred up, disturbed, agitated within. And don't be afraid. Don't be fearful. Don't lack courage." Okay? God's peace doesn't come through circumstances. Instead, it comes from an inner witness by the Holy Spirit. So, this is not peace because you went and got a massage. This is not peace because you went and had a nice meal. This is not peace because you watched your favorite movie. This is not from circumstances or from desires of the flesh. This is a peace deep inside of your heart that comes as an inner witness by the Holy Spirit that you are on the right track. And if you are lacking peace, you should clearly seek God. Right? God offers this inner peace as an inner witness to confirm that you're doing something that aligns with his will. A lack of peace, I would say, is a warning. Peace doesn't mean it's easy. It means it's right. Okay? So, if you are not at peace, then you need to get right with God. This peace, it doesn't make life around you easy, as I told you in my own testimonial, but it does mean that it is right. Psalm 34:14, here we see it. We should actively seek God and pursue peace as an inner witness of God's direction. So Psalm 34:14, quote, "Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it." So depart, turn aside from evil. Remove yourself from evil. Evil is harm. It's wrong. Right? Instead, do good. Actively perform what is right or beneficial in the eyes of God. Seek after peace. Search it out. Desire it. Pursue peace intentionally. Peace, as we said before, it's wholeness. its harmony, its well-being, its rest, and pursue it, chase after it, actively follow after it. Why? God often guides Christians into peace as an inner witness that they are obeying God. And if there's no peace, then you should seriously consider using the five disciplines. Reading God's word, meditating, fasting, praying, seeking to be led by God's spirit to find out why you have no peace. God will speak to you. He will tell you. There may be an area that needs to change. There may be an area of evil or harm that you need to do something differently in. And God who has a close relationship or wants to have a closer relationship with you. He as a good shepherd will instruct his sheep you through his voice where to go, what to do, and how to get away from that evil. Amen. Number three, the Holy Spirit speaks through God's word. Let's take a look at 2 Timothy 3:16. The Bible is God's word and we're going to see it. The Holy Spirit often speaks through it. We're not going to cover this topic in great detail because we've been covering it in great detail throughout this season. But let's remind ourselves of an important verse related to it. 2 Timothy 3:16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. All scripture, this is sacred writings of the New and the Old Testament. It's given by inspiration of God. It's God breathed. It's given by divine inspiration. And it's profitable. It's useful. It's beneficial. It produces good results. For doctrine, that's teaching or instruction. For reproof, that's for exposing issues. Amen. For correction, that's improvement or straightening things out. And for instruction, that's training. So scripture is good for all these things and for instruction in righteousness. That's right behavior. How to act right before God. The spirit often speaks through the Bible. So read your scriptures and God's spirit will often speak to you through a scripture and he'll do it to guide you, to convict you, and to transform you. Ephesians 6:17. We'll see here that God's word, it becomes powerful, becomes alive when the spirit activates it. Ephesians 6:17. This is a verse that many of us are familiar with because it was talking about taking on the whole armor of God. But in verse 17 of Ephesians 6, it says, "And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God." The helmet of salvation, that's deliverance. That's safety from God. It implies a confidence in Christ's victory both now and to come in the second coming. But let's get to the second part of this verse. and take up the sword of the spirit. The sword, it's a short sword. A short sword used by the Romans. It's used both for offense on the attack and for defense to block, which is the word of God. This word is rama. It's a specific word for the moment or for the situation. Okay? Notice how the spirit of God and scripture are connected. Take up the sword of the spirit, which is God's word. The Holy Spirit actively uses God's word as his instrument. He speaks and he works through scripture. So when we're talking about confirmation, we're talking about hearing and recognizing the voice of God. Yes, there's prompings. Yes, there's conviction. Yes, there's inner peace, right? And then there's also scripture where God will work through that by his spirit. God's word, it even becomes a living weapon for spiritual warfare. As the spirit will apply his word, those verses, that scripture, that word for the moment of the situation, he'll apply it with power and precision into your life. We've covered a lot, folks, but I've got to say, there are few topics more important than being able to hear and recognize God's voice so you can fulfill your purpose. You can obey God in your life. So, let's talk about the next episode of The Simple Truth. We've talked about hearing and recognizing God's voice. Now, let's learn how to follow his voice for direction and for success. Join us next episode as we explore practical tips on how to trust and obey God's Holy Spirit. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Simple Truth Podcast. Today we've seen that hearing God, it's not reserved for a few people. It's something every Christian was designed to do. As you grow in your relationship with God, his voice, it becomes familiar, recognizable, and entrustworthy. So this week, take time to slow down. Pay attention to those spiritual prompting. Check in with your inner self. See what God is showing you through his word by his spirit. Don't just recognize his voice, respond to it. And if this episode helped you, please be sure to like, to subscribe, and to share it with someone who also wants to hear God's voice clearly in their life. Next episode, we're going to get into how to trust and obey the Holy Spirit. Because recognizing God's voice, it's only the beginning. Learning how to follow it will transform how you live every day. It's been a sincere pleasure talking about the Bible with you. I pray God bless you and keep you and help you clearly hear and recognize his voice in your daily life. Until next time, thank you for listening to the Simple Truth Podcast. For additional episodes, visit us at www.simpletruth.org.