I was really blessed by some of the comments I received from the first part of this series, and I encourage you to read it, if you have not – A BOOK THAT CHANGED MY LIFE – PART I.
Now, let’s get back to today’s business – Access to the Voice of God. Hmmm! I would be telling you nearly verbatim what Bishop David Oyedepo said in this inspiring book – Understanding Divine Direction.
One key thing I learnt about accessing God’s voice is that it does not come cheaply. It requires diligence and a businesslike approach. You have to consciously programme yourself to hear His voice. Just as you need to be tuned to a particular frequency in order to pick radio signals, you need to be correctly tuned to heaven’s frequency to hear God’s voice of direction; and this requires a definite determination on your part.
God is committed and ever ready to offer direction to as many as are willing to be led, just like Isaiah 30:21 says
“And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.”
So, how does a man/woman access God’s voice; let us look at some vital requirements for gaining access to God’s voice of direction:
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“Come Up Hither…”
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Joy
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Be Free From Cares, Worries And Anxiety
1. “Come Up Hither…”
“After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter” (Revelation 4:1)
A climbing up is needed to hear from God. It is an uphill task, though the joy it brings outweighs the price that is paid. “Come up hither…” That is, come away from all those things keeping you on the ground. A separation is needed to hear from God or to receive instruction and direction either from His Word or voice. Though Moses had to go up to the mountain to receive the pattern for the temple, you don’t necessarily have to go to a physical mountain. What is actually required is a separation unto God, in which you create a conducive environment for your spirit-man to be able to communicate with God. This can be done even in your room or house, where you have a quiet place and time to talk with God, with no interference or disturbance.
Hear the Bishop once again “Before our ministry took off, I went to God for final instructions. I told myself that the disciples stayed ten days in the upper room waiting for the explosion that came on the day of Pentecost. I believed that likewise, God would deliver to me the final instructions for the work He had called me to do. So, I separated myself to a room in Jos, determined that before the end of ten days, I would receive His instructions. And on the fourth day, the heavens opened unto me and God’s voice came! I came out of that encounter with a powerful insight. It was there that God said to me, “I have sent you forth as a prophet to nations.”
You need to be ready to pay the price of separation, if you want to hear His voice. When God called Paul, he spent three years in Arabia, receiving insight and revelations from God (Galatians. 1:15-18). “Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”
A separation unto God is to your own advantage. You can’t hear the voice of God when you spend all your time roaming about in “earthly places.”
People go up to get it, they don’t walk about all over town to get it. So, come out of tradition and camp with God. Take grace from Him, to be able to separate yourself and go up to the mountain of voices.
2. Joy
“Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.”
Isaiah 12:3
You need joy to hear God’s voice of direction. If you’re not joyful, your access to Him will be blocked. It takes joy to gain access into the mysteries of the kingdom of God. It is a great secret for triumph. Joy must be in place before you can understand the things of God, for it is with joy that you draw revelations and instructions from God.
“Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the mighty One of Israel. And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard…” (Isaiah 30:29-30)
When will He cause His glorious voice to be heard? Only when you come to Him with a song and with gladness of heart! If there’s no gladness of heart, you become deaf to the voice of God. But when there’s gladness in your heart and a song in your mouth, then the Lord causes His glorious voice of direction to be heard. Let nothing take your joy from you. Hold fast unto it. Somebody once said, “Happiness is not found, it is created.” If you’re not a happy son of God, you will never be a winning son (Deuteronomy 28:47-48). It is compulsory to be happy. In fact, it is dangerous to be sad or gloomy! If you must win in life, you must be joyful.
Every time you’re broken, you lose very precious things such as divine direction. Satan steals it from you.
Hear this again: until there’s a song in your heart, you never hear the sound from heaven. Nothing is more colourful than divine guidance. So, destroy whatever causes sorrow around you; they are out to destroy your destiny.
Sorrow won’t let you be joyful or allow your song to rise up to Him; and until your song rises, His voice of direction will not come down.
One of the things that generates sorrow is remembering the irreparable past. Paul said, “Forgetting the things that are behind.” Isaiah said, “Remember not the former things.” Moses said, “Tell them to go forward.”
If you don’t free yourself from a failed examination, you’ll never pass it.
Get up and hit back at it. Allow the irreparable past to be past or you will pass away with it. If you have lost your job, look for another one. Your car had an accident and it can’t be repaired; believe God, work for your money and buy another one. Receive the kind of joy that buries the past and looks forward to the future right now, in Jesus mighty name! Nothing makes life more colourful than the voice of God. I don’t care how much you pray, but the voice of God is what gives colour to living. Don’t miss it! Don’t let any devil suppress, oppress or depress your soul. It takes a song to hear a sound from heaven. He said, “Blessed are they that hear the joyful sound.”
Stop running about like the horse and the mule that have no understanding. Your destiny is tied to your ability to hear God’s voice of direction from heaven. He said, “Lo, I’m with you always.” How can He be there and you can’t hear Him? It is because you have not created a suitable environment for hearing His voice. Make it suitable right now by being joyful always!
You don’t need to be a prophet to be able to hear His voice. He said, “I know My sheep and they know My voice.” Do you need any prayer to hear and understand your mother tongue? Many today are thirty years old in the Lord but are still lambs! There is need for spiritual maturity, if you must know His voice and not be misled by the voice of the stranger. David never missed God’s guidance. As a conqueror, he never had a scar on his body. Why? He would always go to the Lord, “Shall I go up? Shall I not go?” And the Lord would say, “Go” or “Thou shalt not go; but when you hear the sound of the mulberry tree, thou shalt compass them from the other side; and I will give them to your hands.” David was ever joyful. When you become a psalmist unto God, you won’t miss direction. When you are at a cross-road and you want to know which way to go, there is a very good prescription in Isaiah 30:29-30.
“Ye shall have a song…with gladness of heart… and the Lord shall cause His glorious voice
to be heard…”
Many of you are on the verge of making very serious decisions in your life and then you say, “I’m going to fast.” That’s not what He said. He said, “You shall have a song.” If you will obey Him, you won’t have any problem. You need to become a psalmist before the Lord; then will you always hear His voice. When Elisha needed direction, he said, “But now bring me a
minstrel…” (2 Kings. 3:15). The psalmist always heard God’s voice. He said, “Seven times do I praise thee.”
He was addicted to praises, so the voice of God was always there for him.
You won’t miss your way anymore. Heaven’s telephone line is never through to you without melody in your heart. So, be ever joyful!
3. Be Free From Cares, Worries and Anxiety
To gain access to His voice, you need to be free from whatever causes you to fear or bring sorrow and anxiety. Fight them as though you were fighting against sin! You must deal with worries and anxieties as if you were dealing with adultery. Why? They rob you of your access to the voice of God, which is your secret for sweatless triumph. Sorrow of heart has very devastating effects on your spiritual destiny. When Dr. Frederick K.C. Price visited Kaduna in the late 1980s, he said he had never been bowed down once in the last twenty
years! That is, he had not been cast down or burdened for twenty years!
Nothing in the world has ever succeeded in destabilizing or casting me down. I also don’t allow unhappy people around me, because I can’t stand them looking cast down. I feel it will drive away God’s presence. Heaviness is a spirit (Isaiah 61:3). It is one of Satan’s strategies for stripping God’s people naked. He knows that God is absent wherever heaviness of heart is; and when God is absent, you become a cheap prey in his hands. The devil steals people’s joy so he can make victims of them. But you have the gift of joy from the Most High God. Heaviness takes you out of your Father’s house (like the prodigal son), and places you where the enemy can flog you.
If you can see a glorious tomorrow, no devil can cast you down. If you can see what is ahead of you, you can afford to insult the devil and slap him in the face! No reason is strong enough to cast you down. Whatever casts you down has made you a failure. It’s time to wake up and take positive steps to enjoy the values of redemption. Concerns, burdens and anxieties deafen the ears. Jesus said something very serious in Matthew 6:25: Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on… Jesus knows the things people worry themselves over. People think on the wrong things, that’s why Jesus told us what we should concern ourselves with instead.
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33)
Nature abhors vacuum. Your mind is never on break; it is either charged with concerns of things of this life or overtaken with affection for the kingdom. If your mind is not charged with the concerns of life (which makes you a concern in the world), it will then be overtaken with the thoughts of the kingdom. So, rather than be a concern to the world by being anxious and concerned with the things of this world, be concerned with the things of God and of His kingdom, so every other thing can be added to you. People don’t know how to be free from anxiety, that’s why they’re held down by it. I made my choice a long time ago on what to think on. In 1976, I said to myself, “Let Him be Lord of all or not Lord at all!” The way out of anxiety is to be addicted to God and His kingdom. Be hooked to God and His kingdom. It
doesn’t make you irresponsible; on the contrary, it makes you very responsible. You can’t be hooked to God and fail. No! His Word becomes a lamp to your feet and a light unto your path, guiding you in the way to go. Understand that nature does not permit vacuum. The brain is always engaged, either positively or negatively. All you need to do is to make your choice on what occupies your mind.
Praying to be free from anxiety is an exercise in futility. Rather, take the steps He has told you would free you from anxiety “Take no thought for your life…” In charging Timothy, Paul said: Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. 1 Timothy 4:15
“Meditate upon these things night and day.” If you don’t, something else will take over your mind. May you be free from anxiety! Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:6 Your access to God in prayer begins with “Be anxious for nothing…”
Your prayers will not be answered when it is said in anxiety. Don’t allow little, little foxes such as concerns for what to eat, drink, where to sleep, and all that, make the Word of God of no effect in your life. When you continue worrying about them day and night, it becomes impossible to walk in the Spirit.
John the beloved said in Revelation 1:10: I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Jesus said something in Matthew 6:27, that will help you overcome anxiety. He said: Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his
stature?
That means it is madness to be anxious. Anxiety has never provided solution for any man. It is a destroyer, not a builder. Jesus went on further to say you shouldn’t allow tomorrow to bug you down. The challenges of a day are enough for the day (Matthew. 6:34).
Many are so bothered about tomorrow, that their today has no meaning.
When you bug yourself down with unnecessary fears, worries and anxiety, you tune yourself off from hearing God’s voice of direction. Be free right now, in Jesus name!