Life in The Spirit - Discernment - Luke Kennedy

Learning to discern the Voice of God over the voices of the enemy and the ego is a foundational practice for Christians. But it is also a spiritual gift from God. 

--------------------------------
Future Church Brisbane  Website // https://www.futurechurch.io
Future Church Brisbane INSTAGRAM // https://www.instagram.com/futurechurchbrisbane

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Let's jump in. We're talking about the Holy Spirit. Has this been encouraging for you? As we move towards Shape Week, where we're getting to jump into a real deep and dive into experiencing God, we're doing some preparation, we're laying some foundation. Because I I know that this is new for a lot of people. Um, no matter what background you've come from, a to to learn to trust the spirit is to learn to trust the unknown, the unseen. And it's a little bit under the surface, and um to learn the language of God and the spirit is new for a lot of people. And I think this is going to be a great encouragement to you. So I want to talk to you today about hearing God's whisper, discernment in a loud world. Discernment is a spiritual gift or a spiritual result of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Being filled with God means that you will become more discerning. And in a world where we're getting so many notifications, I think it's like 3,000 a day, we're getting notifications, if you haven't turned them off, which I recommend. Um you're getting so many voices come at your life. If we don't learn how to discern what is God and what is not God, we're going to be very confused. Is that right? So this is about um if if God could speak um in all caps to you or with a megaphone, that would be amazing. But until then, we're gonna have to learn how many Christians for thousands of years have listened to God's voice, and that is through God's whisper. God will speak to you very quietly, not because he's timid or scared, or it's because he's close to you. God is so close to you that he will whisper to you. So discernment is both a gift and a practice that you can learn to do. Learning how to attune to God's voice amongst other counterfeits of God. Um, so in Cambodia last this last week, I I had a$100 bill, American bill in cash. And I took it to the bank because nowhere could exchange my money, nowhere would take my$100 bill, and so I had to take it to the bank to get smaller notes. And so I took it to the bank and I gave them this hundred dollar bill, and it took them about honestly about 15 minutes, they were just rubbing it, and then they would pass it on to someone else, and they were just rubbing it and kind of looking at it and rubbing it and smelling it a little bit and rubbing it. I'm like, why are they rubbing this? Just just give me the notes, like what's going on here? And they kept they passed it around to like four or five people who were like just rubbing it and feeling it. And I'm like, why are you guys doing that? And I found out that they actually train them in what real notes feel like, and they they train them by giving them notes over and over and over, real notes, and they they learn what it feels like. And then they said, basically, after they do this for a long, long time, when they get a counterfeit note, they can feel it. They can they it feels different, they can feel that something is off, even though it looks perfect, something feels different. And this is kind of like the work of the spirit of discernment in our lives. Things can look good on the outside, but something feels off, something feels different. And the more that I learn to hear God's voice, the more I can see what is from God and what is a counterfeit, what is not the voice of God. So let's do a bit of a walkthrough of the scripture, and then we're gonna get very practical and respond in the end. Is this okay? Ready? Okay, 1 John 4, verse 3. 1 John, so not the Gospel of John, but 1 John 4, verse 1 to 3, it says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. And by this you know that the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist or against Christ, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. So John assumes here that there are counterfeits to God's voice. There are counterfeits that will pose as God's voice, but they're not. And that a Christian can tell the difference between God's voice and what is not God's voice. And this is very important for Christians to know. Hebrews 5 verse 14 goes on to say, but solid food is for the mature, those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish what is good from evil. So let me say it this way: if you are a mature Christian, a mature Christian to the writer of Hebrews means someone who can distinguish between good and evil. Someone who can look at something and say, that is not good. Or that is good. That sounds very simple, doesn't it? But in a world that's full of marketing and full of sales to help you confuse you into believing the latest narrative of whatever agenda that I have for your life, we need discernment to say that is not right. Or yes, this is from God and we should do that. Is this making sense? We need this gift to really work in our lives. So why a whisper? Why is God whispering? This is God's chosen volume for so many things in um in the scripture. We read this story in in 1 Kings chapter 19. 1 Kings 19 is a great story. It's basically one of the greatest um prophets in the Old Testament, Elijah, who's just had a massive showdown fight where he's basically just showed up for God, and God has just done an incredible miracle defeating his enemies in a just a in a huge way. And the queen basically puts out a uh a hit on his life, um and he runs away. He runs away, and he's desperate, he's scared, he's running, he's scared, and then God speaks to him in this powerful way. Okay, let's read the story. It says he um and he said, Go out and stand in the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke it in pieces and the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. So get this picture. He's trying to hear from God. There's this big earthquake, there's this big sound. It would seem like that's God, right? Is that you, Lord? Uh earthquake. But it says God that was not God. And then after the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. It was not in the big flashy thing. And after the fire, and the sound of a there was a sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak, and he went out and he stood at the entrance of the cave, and behold, there came a voice that said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah? What are you doing here? The voice he expected, he expected God to come to him in this big, flashy voice, this big wind and earthquakes and fire, but really God came to him in this small, small, gentle whisper. We see this continued in Luke chapter 24. I had to get a verse from Luke in here somewhere. And Luke chapter 24, we see a similar thing where this Jesus has just risen from the dead, and these two men are walking along the road to Emmaus with Jesus, but they don't realize that it's Jesus. And Jesus is speaking to them humbly, and they don't really get that it's him. They're too familiar with it. It says that that very day, two of them were walking into a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and were talking to each other about all the things that were happening. They were disappointed, they were just confused. As you imagine, their Savior had just been murdered. And while they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near to them and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. They said to each other after they had realized and woken up later in verse 32, they said, Didn't you didn't you realize that our hearts were burning within us while he spoke to us on the road? While he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven who were who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord is risen indeed. He has appeared to Simon. And he told them what happened on the road and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread. Here's what's happening here. It says, We're our hearts not burning within us. It's only in hindsight that they recognize the voice of God. Have you ever had that experience? Where God's speaking to you, but you don't realize it in the moment, and then looking back, you realize, oh, that was God. But it's with the help of hindsight that we can learn the skills of learning God in the present, learning to hear his voice. Here's the point is that spectacles, big things, often don't form us the way that we think they will form us. Often it's this small whisper from God that where he's inviting us to come closer to him, not just as an event, but come deeper into relationship with him. I often hear this voice of God in my own life. Luke, come closer. Luke, come closer, come closer. I often hear that voice. When I'm drifting, when I'm busy, when I'm stressed, and when I'm maybe grabbing at things, I often hear the voice, come closer, Luke, come closer. And it's a still little whisper. So kind, but drawing me in to come closer to him. I often say to my children, um, I ask my children, do you hear from God? And I'll say, No. And I will say, I'm sure you do. I'm sure you do. But it's so familiar that you didn't know it was God. It's so close to you that you just assumed it was because God is so big out there, right? God is so far away and so so grand and so big, and that's all that's God is big and grand, that's true. But when he speaks so so closely and so intimately to you, it's very easy to miss the voice of God. Oh, that's just me. That's just a different thought. That's just that's just my own thinking. And and to brush over how close God is to you. God doesn't whisper because he's scared, he whispers because he's close. He is close to you right now. You can look straight over him. So not every big spiritual thing is healthy, not every loud thing is evil, but the way that you judge God's voice is the fruit that it bears. That's the discernment. Fruit over time is how you learn what is the voice of God. But you need to take notice. That's why I always encourage young people to start writing down what God's saying to you. When you read the scripture, write something down. Why is that? Because you can look back and you can start building a case of how God speaks to you. It's hard to see it in the moment, but if I look back over a month and I've got 20 things that I've written down over a month, I can say, Oh, God is speaking to me. I can see that now. There is a pattern, there is a theme, there is a something that God is saying over and over. No matter where I read, it's like the same thing God is saying to me constantly. That's the voice of God trying to get your attention. But he doesn't scream and shout at you, he whispers to you. So if we're going to hear God's voice, we better know what the counterfeits are. We better know what the other voices are. There is a devil, you understand that, right? The Bible calls him the Satan. He there is a Satan. He may not be the Satan that you imagine with the pitchfork and the tail. That may not be that devil that you imagine from the cartoons, but there certainly is in the scripture a force of evil. That the Bible describes him, he has a motivation, and his motivation is clear in John 10 10. It says that the thief has come to steal, to kill and destroy. He has an agenda for your life. It is to kill, steal, and destroy. Have you experienced any of that in your life? Any anything wanting to kill, steal, and just destroy you? I I I've talked to people regularly and they just feel they say, I feel like something is just trying to destroy me. There is a reality of that. Walking through um the Cambodian genocides um uh you know prisons this this last week. And the only way you could explain that is that there is some evil that is motivating that behind it. Um torture and murder of a couple of million people without explaining the concept of evil and a motivated evil, not evil as an abstract object, but evil as a personal motivated force. The Bible says there is a devil and he hates you. And if you're doing anything significant for God in your life, you better realize not just that God hates what you're doing, but uh sorry, that the God loves what you're doing. Let's back up. Scratch that from the tape. Not just that the devil hates what you're doing, but the devil hates you, hates your family, hates that you're an image bearer of God, and that you're a presence carrier of God, hates it. And don't be surprised when the enemy comes against you. You gotta know his voice. That voice, some of us have become so attuned to the devil's voice. We can hear the vo devil's voice so clearly. Why should you even be here? All these people, they're great. You're a phony here, you don't belong here. That's the voice of the enemy, and we've come so attuned to it. And you will notice the patterns of the enemy's voice because they will they're almost like clockwork, it will almost come exactly at the same time. Some of you get into worship, and as soon as you try to enter worship, it's like boom, the devil's voice just starts going. Those same voices you hear every week when you get into worship. It's the same things. And now that I'm saying it, maybe you'll recognize it. That's not the voice of God, that's the voice of the enemy who hates you. And instead of entertaining that or thinking deeply about it, what you need to do is get stronger and get tougher and say, Devil, chuff off. I don't need that voice. You go in Jesus' name, you go. I don't need to play with that voice, I don't need to negotiate with that voice, I don't need to explain to that voice. What I need to say is, devil, no part of, I don't want any part of that. You need to go. This is okay. This is reality. You go to bed at night. Every time that you try to go to sleep, you hear that voice again. That same memory comes back again and again. That it's almost like the devil has it ready for you. Oh, you want to go to sleep? Here it is. Remember this again? Remember how you failed again? Remember that fight that you had with that person three months ago? I'm gonna remind you of that and replay that again. Is this making sense to anyone? You need to get tougher with that voice. Don't entertain it. That's the voice of the enemy, and kick it in the butt. You're allowed to get angry at the devil. Okay? Give your permission. Get after it. Then there's the voice of the ego, right? This is the ego versus the spirit. There's the voice of ego in my life. Romans 8 talks about this. It says, For those who live according to the flesh, according to the ego, you could say, set their minds on things of the ego, the flesh. But those who live according to the spirit, set their minds on things of the spirit. For to set your mind, this is this is powerful, so I'll read it slow. For to set your mind on the flesh is death. But to set your mind on the spirit is life and peace. That's the promise of God to us, guys. Life and peace. The other part of John 10, the enemy's come to kill, steal, and destroy. But I have come to give you life and life to the full. That's the life that God wants to give you. If you're feeling condemnation and fear and anxiety and jealousy and greed and always wanting more, that's not God's voice. Come back to God's voice. Even as I talk about these words, it's like death in your mind. Even if as I'm saying it, you can feel the difference between the voice of the ego, the stress of the voice of the ego, versus the lightness and the peace of the voice of God. Can you feel the difference? I know this is like, I know you maybe want concrete things. Can you feel the difference in your heart? Because there is a Spirit of God that's is whispering to you, is telling you you're a child of God. That's what Romans 8 says. He testifies and tells you you're a child of God. You are loved deeply. I want you. Come closer to me. I'm with you. This is the voice of God. This is the voice that I hear over and over and over in my life, especially when I feel afraid. God's voice is right there to match it. And learning how to set your mind. I think about concrete setting, right? So you know, you see, have you ever seen someone setting concrete? Think about setting your mind. Setting your mind on God is one of the most important disciplines that you will ever learn in your life. It will keep you healthy. It really will. It will keep you strong and healthy. James chapter 3, verse 16. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, peaceful, gentle. Here's a good one. Facebook comments, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits. Impartial, meaning not polarizing, sincere, and a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Can you hear the difference? The stress of ego being led and being led and dominated by the voice of ego and life versus the gentle, pure voice of the Spirit of God. And discernment is really helps me when I'm discerning whether this is my ego or this is God. And and the results are very different. I can see the fruit is very different. Okay, let's continue. Community and scripture. These are the things that keep us safe. Let me just give you a little framework that I found to be helpful. Um four tests, okay? If you want to know is this God's voice? How do I discern God's voice? Here's four tests that could be helpful to you. Is this okay? All right. Okay. Number one, scripture. Is it consistent with the Bible's teaching in context? Not randomly can I find a voice verse to say what I want to say. We've all done that. But is this consistent with the teaching of scripture in context? God is not schizophrenic in that he says different things to different people, a different He's not that, okay? He has one voice. The same voice that inspired the scripture is the same voice that is full of us, that is, that is, is filling my life today. Okay? Number two is the Jesus test, you could say. Does it look like Jesus? Does this voice look like Jesus' character? Now this isn't a perfect test, okay? So I encourage you to put all this together because you may have a distorted version of Jesus in your mind. But no number three, the fruit test. Over weeks and months, does it produce the fruit of the spirit in my life? If the voice that you're listening to is making you more and more anxious, it's not God that's making you anxious. The fruit of the Spirit of God is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control. That's the fruit of the Spirit of God. That's the fruit of the voice of God. Okay? What's that voice? And and the fruit test, here's what I found is like my spouse is the best judge of this in my life. And some of us men need to give permission to our wives to save us from our own selfish ambitions. Hello. Meaning, with love and honor, a good, a, a really amazing wife can say to my wife can say to me, Luke, um, you sound driven. You sound that sounds like that sounds like you're grabbing at things. It sounds hurried, sounds, it sounds stressed. It sounds driven, not led. What's going on? Come back. Umbe the results of what I'm doing is good, but the fruit is not good. My spouse can see that and can say it. Can you imagine what an amazing resource a spouse is like that in your life? If you would be open to it? Come on, guys. Men here? I just say to the men. You've got to empower your wife to speak to you like that. You have to say, I need your voice in my life. I'm trying to do something great. I'm going after God, I'm going to miss it, and I need you to help me. I need you to be not a judgmental person because I've got so many judgmental people in my life. That's not what I need. What I need is a fruit inspector. The fruit's not good. This fruit, that looks rotten. Let's get that, let's get rid of that. Oh, this is good. This is good. Well done, husband. This is great fruit. That's looking good. Yeah. Good shepherd means healthy sheep. Yeah? The result of a life led by the Spirit is the people around them flourishing. That's true. We see that with church leadership. We can see that with families. Um. So does your spouse have permission to be a resource to you? Um, that would be a good discussion to have. Okay, and here's the last one is the body test. Do mature believers who know me and love God sense that yes, this is the Spirit of God. Yes, this is a good thing. Most people, by the way, don't ask for this. Have you ever asked someone, oh, can you pray for me about this? How about you ask someone, could you please listen to God about this for me? Don't just pray for me. Listen for me. Um, Dr. Vanshaw, who's who's who's come in to shape week with us, he is someone like this for me in my life. He talks about prayer as talking to God behind your back. Talking to God about you behind your back. That's what prayer is, he says. And he says, look, if there's anything that you want me to listen to God about, not pray, but just if there's anything you want me to listen about, just let me know. I'd love to listen. It's a beautiful thing. You know, that's what the that's what the church is. You have to have people that you trust around your life who can listen to God, who are safe enough to listen to God. Um, okay. Pass all four of those things is probably a great, it's probably yes, that's probably the voice of God. Um missing on those things, maybe wait and listen some more. Here's a couple of applications for us. Okay. Um, two levels. Discernment in our community. Yes, we need to normalize in our church this phrase that the apostles used. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. You hear this a lot in the book of Acts. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. We need to discern together what the Holy Spirit is saying to us and normalize that. Maybe that means for you, getting a couple of trusted friends that you can be open with and say, I need, I've got to make big decisions and I need to hear God's voice. Would you pray with me? Would you listen with me? Um, hurry is loud, but the spirit is patient. It takes a little bit more time to ask people. I know that. And many times it would be easier to rush ahead. But waiting could save you a lot of pain in your life. So, how could we do this personally this week? Okay. Um this is what it could look like. Discernment personally. Maybe a morning prayer could sound something like this. Jesus, I want your will more than my will. Speak. I'm listening. And stop. Just stop and listen. It doesn't have to be a big thing. Maybe God's not going to give you fireworks and earthquakes and fire. Maybe it's going to be a small, still whisper that God wants to speak to you about. It's good. When you're making decisions, breathe. Ask, is this your voice, God? Maybe think through those four kind of filters we talked about before. Maybe an evening practice could be pray this prayer of examine. Have you heard of this prayer of examine before? It's basically these five things. Okay, they're gonna be on the screen. Gratitude. Asking, Holy Spirit, show me, reviewing, walk back through the day, through moments of times when you felt close to God, and maybe times when you felt like you were drifting away. Confess where you've missed God and resolve. What's something that you're making a commitment to with God right now? Pretty simple process. Take a few minutes. Rather than just Netflix before bed or in bed as you drift away to sleep. What about five minutes of just listening to God? Just a few minutes of listening. Um, I've been recommending um that app, Lectio 365. Amazing. It's an incredible app. It basically walks you through this process three times a day. You could listen to it before you go to bed. I listened to it last night before I went to sleep. Beautiful, um, very well produced, but also just the content is amazing. Um, Lectio 365. It's wonderful. I would suggest that if you're struggling with reading the Bible. Okay. Um here's a pro tip. Recognition of God's voice grows with hindsight, just like the guys in Emmaus. But as you start practicing the examination of what God has been saying to you, you'll start noticing the whisper of God in real time more and more. Okay. Um I was doing that this this week. I was I was in Cambodia and I was just praying through some things in my own life, and I was I was literally just praying, come, Holy Spirit, speak to me, and waiting, just sitting there outside my hotel. And I felt God say to me, um, go to this scripture. And I went to the scripture, and as I was reading it, it just broke me. It was like exactly the thing that I needed the guidance in. It was like, it was like the whole thing was just written exactly to me. Now it wasn't written to me, but it was like the Spirit of God had taken that part, breathed on it, and was just exactly what I needed to hear. That that conversation with God may have saved me months of staggering through something. Hearing God's voice was so powerful for me this week. So I want to just take a moment right now, we're gonna finish, but I just want to take a couple of minutes to just await on God. This is okay? Would you stand with me? Actually, no, don't stand, sit. That's good. I should say. Sorry. I'm gonna sit too. I'm gonna do this a little more over the next number of weeks. Okay. Maybe even want to grab something to write something down? Because I'm gonna ask that God would speak to us now. If you grab something just to write something down. Why don't we just take 60 seconds now and just say, Come, Holy Spirit, speak. And then we'll just practice listening. Okay? Don't worry about the children making noise, it doesn't matter. Whatever's happening around us, God will speak to you. Okay, come, Holy Spirit, speak to us now.