YOU CANNOT GO HIGHER IF YOU CANNOT HEAR THE STILL SMALL VOICE.
IT IS POSSIBLE FOR A CROWD TO GATHER AND GOD WILL BE SPEAKING AND ONLY ONE FELLOW WILL BE HEARING.
HEARING THE STILL SMALL VOICE WILL HELP YOU NOT TO GO ASTRAY.
- Pastor E.A. Adeboye at RCCG Special Sunday Service || GOING HIGHER PART 51
Father we bless your holy name, what a mighty man of valour are you oh Lord. You are the one who can do all things, you can reverse the irreversible. Father accept our thanks in Jesus name. Today, even as your word will be going forth, please save souls, heal the sick, open blind eyes, let the deaf hear, let the dead rise, let the lame walk, let miracles galore happen to your children in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
GOING HIGHER 51.
1 Kings 19:9-12
Today I just want to talk to you about the still small voice. We could spend weeks on these but I will allow the Holy Spirit to teach you whatever I jump over. Elijah travelled forty days and forty nights to keep an appointment with God and He arrived at Mount Horeb. You will see that God is a God of humour, He is the one who asked him to come but God said to him “ Elijah what are you doing there?”. Funny question. What about us His children we also ask some very unnecessary questions. Church Gist. You take the microphone to pray and you say “shall we pray?”. Suppose somebody stands up and says “we are not going to pray” what are you going to do? Shall we pray? Of course. God said Alright if you want to keep an appointment with me, I want you to move out of the cave and go out there so we can talk. Then, all of a sudden a wind began to blow, after the wind the earthquake, after the earthquake there was fire and yet God was not in any of them.
First the wind, I have told you before in this series that the wind is just coming as an advance guard. Acts 2:1-4. On the day of Pentecost there was a sound of a mighty rushing wind just as an advance guard. Then the quake, quake is just to announce ‘Okay! I am here.” Remember Acts 16:25-26 when God arrived after Paul and Silas began to praise him, the earth shook. The Bible says Heaven is his throne and the earth is His footstool (Isaiah 66:1). Church Gist. If God is sitting in heaven and His legs are touching the earth, then you know how big the legs must be. So when He gets up to begin to move, the earth is bound to shake. Psalm 114:7. Then the fire, according to Psalm 97:3, the Bible says a fire goes before Him when God is going somewhere to burn off His enemies round about. That tells you what happens when there is a true divine appointment. First, the wind will blow, the earth will quake etc.
What we are interested in today is not the quaking of the earth, the fire burning or the wind blowing, we are only interested in the small still voice of God. Divine voice can be in categories. There is that majestic voice of God, powerful, thunderous that the Bible says in Psalm 29:3-9, that the word of God is powerful, full of majesty. The voice can break cedars of Lebanon, His voice can divide flames of fire, His voice can shake wilderness, His voice can even make animals deliver. I am sure that was the kind of voice He used in Genesis 1:3. Church Gist. For example in John 12:28-30, when Jesus Christ was praying and saying “Father glorify thy name” the Father roared back “Son I have both glorified it and will glorify it again”. How do I know that He spoke with that majestic voice, because the people who were there said “He thunders”. So the voice of God can be powerful and thunderous. The same voice can be loud and urgent, not quite as thunderous but loud enough for the dead to hear. That must be very loud indeed.
John 11:39-44. When He stood by the tomb of Lazarus, He cried “Lazarus come forth” even the dead heard. That must be pretty loud. In John 7:37-39, the Bible tells us that people were in a feast, Jesus cried out “if any man thirst, come to me and drink”. It was loud enough to cause a crowd in a celebration mood to keep quiet and pay attention. The voice of God can be loud but friendly, loud and reassuring like in Matthew 14:22-27, the disciples were in a boat, there was a storm and they saw Jesus walking towards them on water, they thought it was a ghost so they cried out in fear. Twelve mighty boys were crying out in fear, so His own voice had to be loud enough to subdue the voice of twelve men but it was a reassuring voice “hey! Fear not, it is I”. Church Gist. His voice can then be softer than that, it could be loud enough for you to hear but it could be invitational like in the same Matthew 14:28-29, when Peter said “Lord if it is you bid me come”, he said “Come” surely it must have been loud for Peter to hear but it was not the same as “Lazarus come forth”.
He can lower His voice still and talk just like you and I talk normally, you know friend talking to friend. No need to really shout, at least loud enough for all of us to hear like in John 15:14-17, just conversational “you are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you”. That kind of tone, you don’t shout at your friends. If a friend is shouting at another friend then maybe there is something wrong. Then there is the small still voice, what you will probably call a whisper. Something that says this is for your ears only. John 13:21-26, you know the story at the Last Supper, there were eating, 13 of them on the table and suddenly the Lord said one of you is going to betray me. Everybody was saying who can that be, how can that be? Jesus didn’t answer and Peter beckoned on John the beloved and said if he won’t tell anybody else, He will tell you so ask Him. So John moved closer and said Lord, who is it? Jesus said don’t let me mention his name but I take bread and put it in the stew and put it in the mouth of the traitor, for your ears only.
Isaiah 30:21
Still, small voice. The kind that the Bible refers to in Revelation 2:7, “he that has ears to hear, let him hear”. Do you know it is possible for a crowd to gather and God will be speaking and only one fellow will be hearing. Many years ago, we went for a program in Kenya, a Word Conference of Pentecostals, I think that was 1976. There was a big crowd in the hall and we were having a session of the program that they called ‘Meditation Time’. The musician was playing the organ and singing a song and we were there. If I remember well, Papa (then Brother) Kumuyi was sitting by my right, I can’t remember who was sitting by my left. Right there with that crowd was the first time I saw a vision of heaven. Church Gist. I saw what I saw, went and came back and everybody was still where they were. That fellow was still singing, everybody was praying so there was a lot of noise but right there in the crowd, somebody was seeing what God wanted him to see. I pray in the name that is above every other name that no matter the crowd you will from today begin to hear the small still voice.
Proverbs 20:12 talks about the hearing ear. What does he mean by “the hearing ear”, there are ears that are just sitting there and are not hearing anything. It is not talking about dead people now, he is talking about those who are deaf spiritually. I remember the first time I attended a fellowship when I was just born again at the University of Lagos and then somebody took me there. We were worshipping God. Church Gist. I liked the worship even though I didn’t know many of the songs then. I was just making a joyful noise. All of a sudden as if someone was coordinating the thing but nobody was, everybody became silent. One fellow began to prophesy Thus saith this, this this. I said to the fellow who took me there when did God say that, he said keep quiet God is talking, I said I can’t hear anything. Only one fellow was hearing, after that day I prayed to God I must hear you. Thank God I have been hearing him since.
In Matthew 13:16, the Bible says blessed are your ears for they can hear, there are ears that cannot hear anything. Some people have asked me “Daddy you are preaching at the Holy Ghost Service and suddenly you stop, there is someone here and right on target you mentioned my case. How come you heard that, why can’t I hear the same thing”. You can but there is something called the ministry of the Prophet. We are talking about going higher, the Prophets hear what others don’t hear. In 1 Kings 18:41 only Elijah heard the sound of abundance of rain. Nobody else heard it except the prophet. In 2 Kings 2:19-22, up till today we do not know how Elisha could turn to the men of Jericho and say go and bring me salt in a new vessel and then he went to the source of the river and poured the salt and decreed. Church Gist. How did he know what to do? Whoever told him, I am sure it is not Elijah. I know a prophet who has built a ministry on bringing your salt, by salt he means money. Where was it in the Bible that Elisha read? It’s not there but God spoke to him in a still small voice. That is what makes a prophet special. I am mentioning this because as we are growing higher many of you will begin to hear God in a still small voice.
How can I hear this voice? Psalm 95:7-8 says if you want to hear His voice harden not your heart. God has been talking about certain things you must stop doing but you will say ‘God knows I am a human being and human beings can not be perfect’ you know you are wrong, God says confess, God says restitute and you become stubborn. You can’t hear his voice like that, harden not your heart. How can I hear from Him? Jesus Christ said in John 10:27 “my sheep hear my voice”. You can’t hear Him if you are not one of His sheep. You can’t hear Him until first and foremost you surrender your life to Him and then you begin to hear His voice.
My Father and my God, I want to thank you once again for your word, thank you for your voice that can come in a conversational tone like I have been talking to your people telling them what to do. I am asking that as many of them that have responded to the altar call, please receive them into the fold of your sheep and save their souls. Lord grant us the grace to be hearing your still small voice so that we will never go astray in Jesus mighty name I pray
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