Thanks for rejoining our discussion tonight as we continue on the special subject of learning to live under the New Covenant. Some of the recurring questions connected to this series include these: why is it so difficult for Christians to just follow scriptural instructions and come out from under the LAW? And, since we can't impress God with our own demonstrations of holiness, why do we keep trying to? Why do we continue trying to attract more of God's FAVOR to our lives by showing Him how righteous we can be? And why do we compare ourselves to other Christians to reassure ourselves about our own righteousness and standing in the Kingdom of God?

 

The answers to these questions are more complex than at first you might think. For one thing, when we're born again we bring with us into the Kingdom a lot of worldly habits and ideas that have to be unlearned and transformed into Truth. We even bring in detailed ideas about Christianity and how we think it works and about how God operates, etc. that are totally in error but have become traditional ways of thinking within the secular culture of non-believers. And after that, we run into a myriad of Church traditions as well that go back centuries but also don't agree with the Word or they incorporate manmade conclusions that are beyond the intent of the Word and can't be easily documented.

 

Maybe for example, it doesn't seem quite right that the Bible clearly says that the LAW is NOT for believers but for leading non-believers to Christ (Galatians 3:24). Or, that it clearly says that absolutely nothing we've done on our own qualifies us for salvation (Titus 3:5) and that Jesus has ALREADY taken care of that by paying for all sin for all time for all people (Hebrews 9:12, 10:12). It seems like we ought to have to DO righteous things once we get saved in order to stay qualified for salvation even though the Bible clearly contradicts that idea. And it gets more complicated when our churches continue teaching those traditions and we have to go dig out the Truth for ourselves.

 

Living under the New Covenant is about having our minds transformed by the Word (Romans 12:1-2) and about learning to be led by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14). It's about a personal commitment to the pursuit of Truth and the things of God. And so, last week I started a discussion on the subject of how we should be LISTENING for the voice of the Holy Spirit because He's a speaking Spirit and He leads primarily by SPEAKING. Yes, He leads by the written Word as well, but there's always speaking involved even though most of us are ignoring the Holy Spirit as we go about our "important, busy" lives.

 

 

Last week we reviewed some of the evidence in Scripture that the Holy Spirit leads by SPEAKING. There are many, many examples of His speaking in both the Old and New Testaments. And yet, many current-day believers have concluded that because they personally haven't heard His voice, He must at some point have stopped speaking. Some folks, in an effort to make a theology out of not hearing Him, teach that He stopped speaking after the written Bible was assembled or when the last Apostle died or when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD. But there's not a single verse in the Bible that says the Holy Spirit ever stopped speaking for these or any other reasons. In its essence then, the idea that the Holy Spirit has stopped speaking is a rationalization to try to explain why most believers haven't been "able to hear" His words of leading.

 

Actually, the Bible clearly says in red letters that the Shepherd speaks to His sheep and they HEAR Him. He even calls them by name and they know His voice. Indeed, by His voice He LEADS and they follow; and they won't follow a strange voice (John 10:1-5). Jesus goes on to sum that up a few verses later by saying: "My sheep hear My voice and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of My hand" (John 10:27-28). Believers are the Shepherd's sheep, I am His sheep and so are you if you're born again. If the Word of God says that believers are able to hear and recognize His voice and be led by that voice, then it has to be true: if we believe the Word, you and I according to Scripture are ABLE to HEAR and be led by the voice of the Holy Spirit.

 

Once I see this in Scripture, I have to cast down my doubts and allow it to become the standard for my life. I need to come into agreement with it because it's clearly reported in the Word and has to be true. I am His sheep and I know His voice because the Word says so, and I will no longer speak contrary to this saying of the Word. I WILL do the right thing: He's ALREADY speaking to me and I need to learn how to LISTEN, how to RECEIVE what He's speaking. Certainly, the enemy is working against me to hear the voice of my Shepherd and I have to RESIST the enemy (James 4:7). The enemy wants me to be led by my flesh and by the World instead of by the voice of the Shepherd and it's my job to vigorously PURSUE the voice of my Shepherd so I won't be led astray into places and choices and decisions where I don't belong, where I've strayed because I wasn't making the effort and taking the time to HEAR the voice of my Shepherd. The Holy Spirit is SPEAKING 24/7; it's my job as a sheep to HEAR what He's saying and follow along obediently, fully submitted to His leading.

 

But the truth is, most of us aren't hearing very much. One of the reasons is that when we get together with Him, we do all the talking instead of listening to Him speak. Another reason is that we aren't willing to take the time to just sit and listen until we hear the Shepherd say something. The fact is, most of the time we're going about our lives IGNORING the Holy Spirit, neglecting to consult with Him BEFORE we make our choices and decisions. But all the while, He's SPEAKING and desiring to get through to us and provide direction.

 

Normally He doesn't speak audibly from some external location but from within where His temple is (1 Corinthians 6:19). He's usually not speaking from up in the air somewhere but from inside you, Spirit to spirit, a spontaneous bubbling up of words only you can HEAR if you're listening, and listening in FAITH. The fact is you have to HEAR Him by FAITH and your FAITH has to become strong enough to HEAR by your renewed spirit connecting to His Holy Spirit.

 

Many times in the New Testament Jesus said something like this: "He who has ears, let him hear" (example, Matthew 13:9) which meant that most of the people who were listening to Him with their natural ears weren't HEARING with understanding. To HEAR with understanding means to actually UNDERSTAND by faith what the Spirit of God is SAYING about the things of the Kingdom, to hear with our spiritual ears instead of our natural flesh ears. The obvious question then is: why are most of us so hard of hearing?

 

Jesus the Shepherd also says in several places in your Bible that the main reason we're unable to HEAR with understanding is that our hearts (MINDS) have become DULL (example, Matthew 13:15). I want to submit to you tonight that the biggest problem around the Body of Christ here in the U.S. is that the MINDS of Believers have become DULL. We're DULL because we ignore the Holy Spirit and we're DULL because we give more attention to World systems than we do to the Word of God. In Scripture, to be DULL is the same as having HARDNESS OF HEART and both are mentioned there numbers of times. We cry out for REVIVAL but the problem is that too most of our MINDS are HARDENED (DULL) to the things of God, closed to the Holy Spirit whose active presence and involvement is essential for REVIVAL to ever take place.

 

Dullness of heart comes from focusing on the wrong things in life. If we're constantly worrying about our problems or seeking after the things of the World or continually walking carnally by the flesh, we're NOT focusing on God. We're not seeking the leading of the Holy Spirit to get us out of our problems and we're not living lives of FAITH under the New Covenant. And if we're not magnifying (enlarging, glorifying, esteeming) God, we're creating for ourselves increasing dullness of heart (Romans 1:21). Another way to look at it is that our problems are visible in the natural and are therefore temporal, but the real solutions to those problems come from an eternal resource and must be seen and heard with spiritual perception. If we walk in the flesh all the time, limited to our five physical senses (carnality), we're going to develop dullness of heart unable to access the real solutions to our problems.

 

In sum, the ability to perceive by the spirit is essential for successful Christian life under the New Covenant. By focusing on HEARING the Holy Spirit and aggressively seeking His leading in our lives (Romans 8:14), we rearrange our priorities and allow our MINDS to be transformed by His leading. With transformation comes perception including the ability to HEAR with spiritual ears. And with HEARING by the Spirit comes UNDERSTANDING. How's your hearing tonight? A little DULL maybe? If so, rededicate yourself to focusing on the LEADING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT and watch things change!

Thanks for joining our discussion tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on February 14. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), pushing you to VICTORY in every area of life!

 

 

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If you were sincere as you prayed, God has already come into your life and you're a new creation, a totally new species recreated in His image. Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith-based, bible-teaching church where you can be equipped to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God.

 

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