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HEARING
GOD’S VOICE SERIES
THREE BLOCKAGES TO
HEARING
I Kings 17:7 And
after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land. Then
the word of the Lord came to him, “Arise go to Zarephath,
which belongs to Sidom, and dwell there. Behold, I
have commanded a widow there to feed you. so he arose
and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate
of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her
and said, ”Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” And as she
was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread
in your hand. And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked,
only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a cruse; and now, I am
gathering a couple of sticks, that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my
son, that we may eat it, and die.
Elijah just went there in time for her
funeral. Isn’t that good that God send a man there to interrupt a funeral that
was going to take place?
Verse 13 And Elijah said to her, “Fear
not; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and
bring it to me, and afterward make for yourself and your son. For thus says the
Lord the Go of
How does this apply to what we are talking
about hearing God’s voice? Although this is in the Old Testament there are some
principles that are similar that are applicable to us today. Elijah had just
pronounced some time back to Ahab that there would be no rain except according
to his word. And God told him to go to the brook and the crows brought his
breakfast and his dinner. And he ate of it every day but the brook dried up.
Some times we become so established and so
familiar with certain things that God does that when God changes you don’t
change with Him. You are in a state of panic. God is a creative God. He keeps
changing and moving in creative ways continually. There are some things that
are the same yesterday, today and forever. But there are some things that will
keep changing so that you don’t get too comfortable and trust in your own
strength and don’t lean on God. It’s what God demands that we be willing to
change when He moves in a new way.
Some of the songs that we sing carry an
anointing. I think last year’s top tune was “I Worship You” and everybody were
worshiping “When I look into your loveliness” This morning that song was sung
in the Spirit and it was wonderful. But have you notice that when you sing a
song of God after some time you found it joyous to love Him? You sing it as you
get into your car or your motorbike “I worship you.” You are just caught up
with that song. After for about a month do you realize that you still sing it
but some thing changed. Because you are so used to
that song that you are singing it for the sake of singing it not like when you
first learned it. So you lost your anointing although you can still remember
that song. Those of you who learn new songs you notice it at first you like to
sing that song. But after several months it seems to get dull but the song
never changed, the tune was the same and as lovely as can be. But you changed.
God never wants us to be comfortable in an
area where we are not willing to change and where we are depending on our own
strength. Whenever you reached that point even if you are an Abraham God will
ask you to sacrifice your Isaac to Him. God always demands our surrender. And
so there are songs that we learned in the Lord. Some times after a long time we
didn’t sing it then we bring it forth O it’s beautiful. That has to do with how
God wanted us to be fresh in Him. The bible says in Psalms sing a new song onto
Him. Sing it fresh onto Him. There are always new dimension we can enter into.
And Elijah had seen the power of God
working. It is a miracle for the crow to bring him his breakfast and his
dinner. You might not have realize what sort of
miracle it is. But how many of you have ever had your breakfast and dinner
served by crows. Those are the most stingy birds in
the world. You know how stingy those crows are. And yet God performed a
miracle. I tell you if you think you are hard to change and hard in life, if
God can change a crow He can change you. If God can use a donkey He can use
you. If God can change that crow and make it useful He can change you. God’s
methods changed.
The brook had dried up. At that point most
people would give up. That is why the people of God must learn a certain tenacity like a bull dog. You know how a bulldog bite. When a bull dog grabs you, you can shake all
you want and he won’t let you go. When we grab hold of the promises of God we
have to have the tenacity of a bull dog and you don’t let it go. You put your
trust and your faith and grow your roots into God and hanging onto God. Be as
tenacious as a bull dog but don’t look like one. Have that strength of that dog
to hold on persistently.
So when Elijah saw the change his trust in
God was unfailing. He listened to God. If you can hear God’s voice all the time
you never panic. You may lose your job. As long as you hear God’s voice, you
can say, “O fear where are thou, O death where is thy sting.” You can say, “O fear where is your torment.” There is none because you hear
from God. In every situation we face in life if we can only hear God we would
have the most perfect peace. The most secure position in the whole world is to
be in the secret place to hear God. Take time to pray and hear Him. As long as
you can hear God there will be nothing that will shake you up. It’s a firm
foundation to hear God’s voice.
So God said to Elijah, “Go to Zarephath,” but notice God said some thing else, “I have
commanded a widow to feed you.” So Elijah goes and meet
the widow and what a welcome he received. When he went in the widow was all
ready not to feed Elijah and the tears were running down her cheeks with a long
face. And her son was also so sad. Her whole household was sad. Because all
they had was this little flour and this little oil.
And they were all ready to make a little cake and then die. But God said, “I
have commanded her.” I would have thought anyone who had heard from God would
say, “Halleluiah, glory to God.” When Elijah came she should have said,
“Welcome glory to God.”
If you are not used to shouting amen and
glory to God we got good news for you. You better learn it here because in
heaven its quite noisy. The bible says here the angels
all sing glory, glory to God. Heaven is filled with the praises to the Lord.
John Osteen when he was first new in the Pentecostal area he was a Baptist
minister. So he went to this Pentecostal meeting he always asks, “Why must they
sing glory to God?” Why can’t they just say like the Baptists’ way. Anyway after several tongue talking sessions John was
speaking glory to God. He was in. When you have the joy of the Lord it comes
out.
You would have expected that widow at Zarephath would have said to Elijah, “Glory to God.”
Instead there she was in a long face. And her problem was God had spoken to her
and she didn’t hear it. What did God told Elijah? “I have commanded her” but
she never heard it. She never knew that salvation, deliverance, was on the way
in the form of the man of God Elijah. God commanded but she never hear.
I tell you God is speaking to many people
today and they are not hearing. And if you don’t hear God you may even die in
your situation without coming out of it. To hear God is deliverance. Some
people live and die and they die early because they don’t hear God.
Thank God Elijah heard God. What happen if Elijah
didn’t hear God? He would have died too. Instead of having one funeral there
would have been two funerals, including Elijah’s. Elijah heard God and he went
there. And this woman didn’t
hear God. Praise the Lord for people here today seeking the Lord
in prayer and hearing from God. If in the
She didn’t hear God. That would be our text why she didn’t hear God. And there are several reasons behind the statement. And it had to do with some areas that knowing them would help us to renew our mind. We have concluded definitely that she did not hear the Lord. And within that statement that she made, it tells us why she didn’t hear God. She said to Elijah when Elijah went there. I Kg.17:12 And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a cruse; and now, I am gathering a couple of stick, that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
Have you noticed how many “I” and how many “my” and how many “we” were there? I, I, I, we, we, we, my, my, myself. Her problem was she was self-centered. If you are self-centered, centered on yourself you can never hear from God. Some people think that they can please God and get what they want by being self-centered, selfish and greedy and covetous, no way. Self-centeredness will prevent you from hearing when God speaks to you. And the blessings come only when you hear and obey.
She was so absorbed in her life, her son’s
life, her own situation, my problem, my lack of food, my
this, my that, in the end my funeral too. Self-centeredness
will kill you. Christians do not realize it but to be born again is to be born
out of self into Christ, where it’s no longer you who live but Christ who lives
in you. In the world they would define the opposite of love as hate. The opposite
of love will be hate. But in the bible in I Cor. 13
the opposite of love is self for love seek not her own. So the world
doesn’t understand what the bible talks about love.
You want to know what love is like you have
a perfect demonstration in Jesus. He didn’t think about Himself when He was
down here. All He cared for was for our salvation even to the
extend of laying Himself down on the cross. And when He hung on to the
cross, it was not the nails that hung Him there because the bible tells us that
Jesus answered His disciples when Peter took the sword to protect Him. He said,
“Put the sword down for I can call the Father and He will give me 12 legions of angels.”
One legion is nearly six thousand. He could have come down from the cross. The
people were calling onto Him, “If you are the Son of God come down.” He could
have come down. But He did not think about Himself or His suffering. When He
was dying on the cross He saw you and me. I can prove to you that in John 17
when Jesus was in the
The opposite of love is self. Love means
pouring out yourself. That’s the bible definition of
love. So God wants us to be absolutely Christ like without self-centeredness.
Self-centeredness will hinder us from hearing from God. Get rid of
self-centeredness and you will have one block less that prevents you from
hearing from God.
Look very carefully the same statement
that she said in verse 12 she said I do not have bread only a handful of flour
and a little oil. And see I am gathering a couple of sticks. Her eyes only saw
what she has. Her eyes were on the natural. She saw the flour, she saw the oil.
She saw her situation. When we are self-centered we will begin to look at our
circumstances. And incidentally if you ever get hurt in your life, it is due to
something within you that has not died yet. Because a dead man doesn’t feel any
hurt. Rom. 6 tells us if you are dead in Christ that you are dead and buried in
Christ. If a person is dead and crucified with Christ you can curse him, you
can spit at him, that person doesn’t feel any thing. Remember any hurt that you
feel in your life is your pride being pricked. If your name gets run down why are
you concerned about your name? You are dead in Christ. Be concerned about
Christ’s name. If you are dead in Christ you wouldn’t be bothered.
And as a result being self-centered she
was surrounded by her circumstances. If you look at the natural circumstances
you would never be able to hear from God. If your eyes and your perception are
only on what you see physically you are not able to hear God because the things
you see will hinder you. Even if you have heard from God once upon a time it
might even hinder you from performing what God spoke to you. Like Peter walking
on the water. When his eyes were turned on the waves he started sinking. When
our vision began to go into the natural, disaster is the next one to come. We
do know that all of us have natural circumstances to content with as we reign
in life with Christ Jesus. But our inward eyes must not be affected we must
look towards God.
She didn’t see God. Her ears were not
towards God. Her eyes were not towards God. Remember this was the Old Testament
where the bible said in Deut. 28 there will be no poor among you. Wasn’t this
promise for her since was also a daughter of Abraham? Wasn’t she an Israelite?
The covenant of God belongs to her. But she didn’t appropriate that covenant.
Even in the old covenant not everybody appropriated it. Same way in the new
covenant many people don’t appropriate of the new covenant, which is a greater
and better one. All prosperity belong to her. When
Moses said you shall be the head and not the tail, wasn’t it meant for her? She
was an Israelite. Moses never testify just for a few
people. He testified for all the Israelites. It’s for her but her eyes were not
towards the God of Israel. Her eyes were not there. If you turn and look at God
no matter how big your problems are they become small. Your circumstances may be as tiny as a mole
hill but that mole hill will look like
She did not see God. Her eyes were not
towards God. She saw the circumstances. She didn’t see the Lord. If there is
any situation any one of you right now is facing that seems to press you down,
whether it be for healing or finances or any area in
your life, if you see God those problems become very small. And every problem
and temptation you ever face on this earth somebody somewhere has faced it
before. And somebody somewhere has conquered it before. And those who did it sees God and conquered their problem.
See God in your situation. See God in your
finances. See God in your family life. See God there and then you say it is not
there any more. When the doctor comes up to you and say, “This medical sickness
is incurable,” and you let those words keep ringing in your heart and in your
mind, you lose your hope. The negative words will prevent you from having God
work in your life. But we are giving you the good news Jesus is alive. He still
lives today. He still cares for you. His love is still reaching to you. And He
is saying, “Nothing, nothing is impossible to Me.” If
you can see Jesus then you can hear God’s answer for you. And you will not be
like Moses when he faced the
The third problem that the widow has is
when she says that they may eat it and die. When you become self-centered you
will come a person affected by your circumstances
looking to the natural. When that happens you will lose your
hope. This woman has lost her hope. She don’t
even have any hope left. The fragile hope that was burning bright has been
quenched by the fires of self-centeredness. So extinguished that she said we
are ready to die. You have hope for and then you have
faith. Faith is the substance of things you hoped for. If you don’t have any
hope there will be no faith. She don’t even have any
hope left. She has lost her hope.
Faith comes from substantiating your hope.
Even if your faith is not that strong to conquer that situation, but if you
will let your hope be maintained, let your hope remain high in God, your hope
will develop into strength in God. When there is a God there is a hope. When
there is no God there is no hope. The epistle of Peter says once we were people
without God, without hope, but now we are the people of God with a new hope in
God. If you have God you have hope. If you have hope faith will develop and
come. If you keep that hope up without failing you will see the fruits one day.
Through the years build on the Word. Get the Word. Faith come
by hearing and hearing the Word of God. Get the Word. The Word will build the
faith up to get the hope into the present for you to taste your victory today.
So these were the things that prevented
her from hearing from God. What is the key? What is the solution? Look at the
words that Elijah delivered by the word of the Lord to her. Elijah says, “Do
not fear go do as you have said but make me a small cake for me first. Bring it
to me and afterwards make some for yourself and your son.” Most people when
they read these words they cannot understand why Elijah is so selfish. How dare
he tell that widow that way? Here is a widow so sad, so destitute, so poverty
stricken, so hopeless, and Elijah said, “Go and make a cake for me.” How rude.
But you don’t understand the ways of God.
The woman was self-centered. God has to make her act against her
self-centeredness, serve others first before yourself.
God was dealing with her self-centeredness. God was causing her to be concerned
for another person’s need before her. Brethren some of the greatest miracles
have taken place when people have forgotten about their problem. They begin to
be concerned for others and give their lives to others.
There has been
many people in Kathryn Kuhlman’s meeting. Many people come who are incurable.
And they have a whole section for people who are in wheel chairs. Some of the
people have been coming over and over again. Something was being done in their
life. And when the Spirit of God began moving all over the auditorium and the
healings were being called out the power of God was flowing. Some people were
healed some were not. But some of those who were not when they saw some other
sicknesses besides them they say, “This is worse than mine.” And they began to
be concerned for the others and pray for the others. Suddenly the power of God
came upon them and suddenly they were healed. When you began to turn away from
your self-centeredness, when you stop being concerned for yourself, began to
pour your life to others you put yourself in a position to receive the power of
God. You put yourself in a position to be blessed by God. You put yourself in a
position to be a blessing to others. You put yourself in a position to be
healed by the power of God.
The woman had a self-centeredness to be
dealt with. Serve others before you serve yourself. Every
thing within her cried no because her whole life has been struggling for a
living. This is beyond her. God will sometimes ask you to do things that
your whole natural man says no. But if you will be obedient and willing and go
ahead you put yourself in a position for blessing. The self-centeredness has to
be dealt with. And in the same situation the bible tells us verse 15 she went
away and did according to the word of Elijah. How did she deal with her natural
circumstances? Remember the second problem was she looked to the natural. She
acted contrary to the natural. Faith is a fact, faith is an act. Sometimes when
we are in that situation God requires our faith to act out. You say, “Why
should it be that hard for me?” It’s not because of that but if you could
conquer it you would be able to help others too. Why can’t God just heal me?
Why can’t some prophet just pick me out from the
congregation and say, “Thus says the Lord you are healed?” God has many ways to
deal with each one, as many ways as we all have different fingers on our hands.
Remember this God is concerned for your whole life not just for your immediate
needs. Sometimes God knows that you must get your healing in a certain way so
that your whole life will be changed. But we are just concerned for the
immediate blessings. God is interested in changing our life not just in giving
us a blessing. Because if He can change our life we will not only have
blessings, se will be the blessed.
And so this woman took the flour, took the
oil, I can imagine when she saw it she said, “This is all I have.” She had to
act against the situation. Some people don’t have it easy but if you can go
through it you will be a blessing. Kenneth Hagin was
a young teenager about 16 years old lying down. Doctor pronounced him with
three incurable sicknesses. And they called a pastor. The pastor came and said
the last prayer. When the pastor came and prayed, “O Lord let your will be
done. Give the mother’s strength to take it, to bear the circumstances that
will be coming.” His spirit man awaken and said, “No,
no, I want to live.” And in the end he read God’s Word, he saw in Mark 11:23-24
that if I believe I receive. And so everyday he was thanking God, “I believe I
am healed, I believe I am healed.” One day he heard from God. If you are healed, “What are you doing on the
bed?” So he pulled himself up and he struggled. When he pulled himself up he
saw for the first time he stood after nearly a year. The
whole room spinned around him. He could hardly
keep himself p. But he said, “I am healed.” And then everyday he just walked a
little bit round the room. Brethren he is a mighty man of God today. The day he
got healed when he was about 16 years old, Jesus was interested not only in his
healing. Jesus saw the many years of ministry and that many people will be
blessed by his life.
You see God is interested in changing our lives
and developing our lives to be a blessing not just in healing you. He wants to heal you,
yes. But He wants a change of your whole life. And today many have been blessed
by his life. But he had it the hard way. There were no angels singing, no choir
singing, no lightning striking, no glory clouds when he got healed. He was
healed by faith. Sheer faith with a tenacity of a bull dog.
And everyday he walked a little bit. And he timed that one day he is going to
walk right down to the breakfast table. And one day he walked right down sat at
the breakfast table and his grandpa looked up and saw him and said, “Has
Lazarus been raised?” He said, “Yes, he has been raised.” God wants us to act
against the circumstances, to act in faith. God demands that we give Him an act
of faith to demonstrate our faith before He moves on our behalf. There has been many times that God has moved me. If you want
financial prosperity I can tell you one simple thing. If you are down right to
your last dollar don’t spend it. Give it away. Then you will see the miracle of
God. God has moved me many times in situation that way. And I had seen the hand
of God. Act against the natural like Peter walking on the water. It’s not
natural to do that. But when you act against it with the word of God you will
come up victorious.
And
lastly when she had no hope. You know where she got her
faith and hope from? Elijah came and said verse 14 thus says the Lord God of Israel
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