How to Hear from the Holy Spirit
Session One Notes , Journal, and Exercise
There are many believers who think if they read the Bible
they are connecting with God however there is a difference between connecting
with the scriptures which is the Word of God and connecting with Jesus who is
the God of the Word. The scriptures are given to us to help us understand who
He is and what He expects of us. But, knowing and connecting with Him goes
beyond the scriptures and into the mystery of a deep communication of the one
who created you to not only know and obey what the scriptures teach us; but to
know His voice and obey what He wants to tell us beyond what the scriptures
tell us.
When I was 22 years old I sat down alone on my college
campus between classes and I asked my self this deep and serious question.
“Am I going to follow this God my parents have taught me
about? Do I desire to know who He really is and what He has for me to do here?
Or am I going to go my own way and just live the life I want?”
I made the deliberate and conscious decision to know and
follow God. Thus, January 1, 1988, I went on my first fast. I lasted until
dinner. The fried chicken, black eyed peas, and greens were shouting my name!
LOL. But, during that afternoon I said something I will never forget. I held up
the Bible and I said, I love this book, but this book is not you it only points
to you. If I am going to take this journey it has to be me and you together. I
am not willing to go on this journey alone.
I know for sure it is this which has made the difference in
my walk. I know the Holy Spirit intimately. I do not just know about Him
because I read about Him in the scriptures. I know Him as a person. Someone who
laughs, teases, instructs, is kind, and firm. There are many who say He is a
gentleman and He is but, He is also the person who knocked Paul off his horse.
Which is not exactly a gentlemanly thing to do.
He hovers over the Earth and in the hearts of men, and He is
the one who will bring the wrath of God down on the disobedient in the last of
all days.
The Holy Spirit is part of the great and awesome Godhead. He
is loving, kind, fierce, and terrible. Yet, in all things He is my best friend
and tells me all I need to know and gives to me everything pertaining to life
and godliness; all I need to do is ask.
He wants you to know Him in the same way. In fact, He longs
for you to know Him in the same way. I never have to wonder what He is thinking
He tells me. I do not mean He gives me a sense of calm and peace. I do not mean
He speaks in in still small voice; which I sense deep inside. And I do not mean
in a dream or vision although He does still use those from time to time. I mean
He uses English and flat out tells me what He thinks. It is not always easy to
hear, it is not always fun. But, it is always straight up and straight out in
English and clear as a bell.
This is only true because I speak English, if your native
tongue is something other than that He will speak to you in your language.
Remember the Tower of Babel it was He who confused the languages and separated
people out into people groups based on the fact they could understand one
another. So, you can be sure that He knows what to say and how to speak
directly to you in a clear way.
Each day is a new learning experience. Sometimes, I need t
step back and think about how He deals wiith me before I can understand what He
is saying. The other day I lost my credit card I knew it was in the house
somewhere but, I could not remember where. He told me look on the table. I
looked on the table and it was not there. Then I thought wait, many times when
He says on He wants me to look under, I moved the chair and found it. I think
He does this to show me that I am hearing from Him but, to think about the fact
that I am hearing from Him. He does not want me to ever take Him for granted,
ever keeping in mind who I am talking to and that He is God and I am human. He
loves me but, He is Holy and wants me to ever be reverent and humble as I walk
with Him.
Journal
Each of these lessons I am going to ask you a question I
want you to think about and journal on each day. The purpose of this journal
assignment is to get you thinking about this session each day and writing out
what you think so you can see it on paper.
As you think about this question I want you to practice a
form of prayer called Soaking. Soaking is where you put on instrumental worship
music and sit quietly and focus on the Holy Spirit and what He may want to say
to you. Here is a Ir’s Supernatural show by Sid Roth regarding this form of
prayer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kMX-5nWLfs
Question for Week One:
Do you believe God is always talking, and that He wants to
talk to you?
Everyday for the next six days I want you to write in a
journal for at least 15 minutes. Explore your thoughts about this question.
Write other questions and then write your answers as you go throughout the
week. The session before our next class. Write a post about what you have
thought about the last few days. So we
can have a discussion about it. Extra
Credit: Begin to ask the Holy Spirit
questions you would like answers to, writeh them in yor journal. When
you sit down to write look at each of these questions. Have they been answered?
Exercise
Read John 16:7 in the following translations and write it
down three times in each one.
English Standard Version
New American Standard
The Message
New International Version
The Amplified
The Tree of Life
Look up the words
Teacher and Advocate and write down the definitions
Ask the Holy Spirit to show you how this scripture applies
specifically to you and in your life.
Share an independent post on what you hear.
Things to take from
this lesson:
1.The Holy Spirit is a person. He is not an it. He
is our teacher,counselor and friend whose job it is to teach us to know God
and to live according to the standards of our home the Kingdome of God.
2.He wants us to not only know His voice, but to
obey what He says to us.
3.He loves us so much and longs to connect with us
regularly.
Session 2
I am assuming if you are reading this you have decided on two things. One the Holy Spirit does speak often and two that He wants to speak to you specifically. Great! Now one thing people often ask me is how do you get the Holy Spirit to talk to you? I often laugh at this question because it implies that you have to coax Him into it. When in fact it is the opposite. He is so eager to talk to you it would make your head spin if you could see how much!
He created you for this very purpose! He wants you to know Him as deeply as He already knows you. The Holy Spirit is about love, servanthood, and righteousness. The Holy Spirit is the most tender and at the same time the most terrifying of the Godhead. He is kind, loving, and always there to help those who obey the scriptures and do the three things required.
Micah 6:8
What has God required of you oh, man? But, to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.
To do this is as easy as loving God, yourself, and your neighbor.
Staying focused on these things will put you in a great position to hear from Him. He at the core is a servant He wants to help you hit the target for every area of your life and He cares deeply for the things you care about.
One evening I wanted to go out I was going to dinner with a group of singles from my church. There was one guy I wanted to impress. I was hemming, and hawing and I just could not decide what to wear. I heard the Spirit say, where this skirt with this top and that jacket. I had never thought to put those particular pieces together before and I loved the way I looked. When I got to the restaurant the guy I liked was there. He stood up and held out a chair for me and as I sat down he said you look very nice tonight. In the long run we decided we were better off as friends. But, I will never forget that God cared about how I looked that night because I did. That night He served me by telling me what to wear. Over the years He has counseled me in so many things they are to numerous to count. He wants to do the same for you.
However, He is God. And as loving as He is; He is also demanding and is straight up not happy about our putting anything before Him. He wants our love and focus to be on Him and His purpose for us. He will cause blessings to chase us down and overtake us when we do. However, He created our world where everything has an opposite, so if blessings chase you down if you are willing and obedient. Then curses will chase you down if you are not. However, He is also gracious and merciful, so it is not always as bad as it could be in our lives. Yet, make no mistake this is the same God who had an archangel thrown out of heaven, caused the Earth to be flooded, confused languages at the Tower of Babel, rained down fire and brimstone on Sodom. He had the people of Israel backing away from Mount Moriah in fear, caused Israel to be overtaken again and again, and knocked Paul of his horse and blinded The Holy Spirit is King and things are His way period. He is kind and gracious enough to teach us His ways through the scriptures and He shows great mercy and kindness in holding off judgement as long as possible. But, make now mistake judgment is doming.
I am telling you this because many people who speak of the Holy Spirit fail to tell you all of who He is. Yet, you need to know exactly who you are dealing with and approach Him with the awe and reverence due Him as the one true God King and Master of the Universe. He expects awe and respect from you. Because you want to hear from Him and know Him we all need to start by focusing on the love God has for us. The gospel of John is the book in the scriptures which gives the clearest picture of the love God has for us. I encourage you to listen to it this week. I encourage listening because something happens to us as we listen to the word and not just read it. I find it interesting that faith comes by hearing the word and not by reading the word. (Romans 10:17)
Question for Week Two
How do you feel and what do you think about the Holy Spirit being both loving and terrible?
Journaling
Write and consider how you feel about the Holy Spirit being both loving and terrible. Explore your feelings about this. Talk to Him about it and as you Soak this week take time to let Him minister to you in this aspect of who He is.
Listen to the gospel of John again this week. . As you listen take time to journal what jumps out at you that is God loving an individual or a group of people.
Exercise
Look up the words from Micah 6:8 Just, mercy, humility. How so these words apply to you in your life?
Things to Take From this Lesson:
1. The Holy Spirit is full of lovingkindness.
2. He is God and as such is is both Great and Terrible
3. He has some things He expects of us. He is willing to not only help us to meet the expectations He empowers us to meet them.
4. He wants us to understand His love for us and then to live in it.
SSession 3
How to Hear from the Holy Spirit Session Three
Once we learn to hear and listen to the Holy Spirit our next job is to learn to cultivate the nine fruits He has given to us as believers. This means we need to make a conscious effort to not only cultivate these in our lives but to keep studying them as we mature in the faith.
I have studied these characteristics several times over the years. One thing I learned early on is that these fruits build on one another. The more love you have the more joy you have. The more joy you have the more peace you have and so on. So, the fruit of self-control is built upon the strong cultivation of the others. The Holy Spirit is the teacher and the counselor there is no human way to truly and deeply cultivate these fruits without His leadership and guidance. This is not something we do it is something we are given when the Holy Spirit resides in us and helps us to learn how to cultivate them and live in them every day.
I believe holiness is the living and walking consistently in these gifts and being able to consistently be able to walk in them.
God told us to be holy as He is holy.
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action,[a] and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
1 Peter 1:12 ESV
As this verse tells us that being holy is about how we conduct our lives. The fruit of the Spirit are the nine ways we are called to conduct ourselves in our interactions with other human beings.
Over the course of my life I have often struggled with a competitive spirit. This is different from being competitive in a healthy way. Instead this is a fear or a dread of being less than to the point you do things which are contrary to he word. When I was in my twenties there was a young lady who was dating my cousin and another friend of mine at the same time. Now, I was offended mostly because I was jealous to be honest. So, I told both men about the other. Of course, I justified my actions by saying she was sleeping with them both and the new disease AIDS was on the scene. But, really I was jealous. I behaved ominously. There was no reason for me to shout her out to these guys. When I say the Holy Spirit was not pleased with me, I am telling you there is no way to convey to you the seriousness of His displeasure. However, even with this He corrected me within the bounds of the fruits He was attempting to help me build in my life. I was ashamed of my behavior and apologized to all involved at the time. I also learned how to pray and give and seek forgiveness. It was a tough lesson to learn. But, I did learn it and never bore witness against someone based on my high mindedness again.
Maturity calls for us to grow up and put way childish behavior. Acting with love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness and self-control requires we develop a mature walk with God. It is not easy, it not always fun. But, it is worth it and makes it easier to live life.
Question for this Session and Beyond:
This question is to help you move beyond these sessions and to use the information to improve your lives from here on out!
Things to take away from this lesson:
1. The fruits of the Spirit are as much about behavior as they are about feelings.
2. These fruits are given to us by the Holy Spirt because He wants to teach us how to cultivate them.
3. The frits and holiness go together.
4. The level to which we act and govern our lied by these nine characteristics shows forth our maturity level in spiritual things.
5. Our lives are best lived by communing with the Holy Spirit and knowing exactly what He is telling us about every aspect of our lives.
Would you like to expand your learning?
Teaching our children to hear from the Holy Spirit is the number on thing we need to do to protect them from the things the world would try to do to influence them. It is our ability to hear directly from God which allows us to resist the suggestions the word throws our way. We need to teach our childen to har from God Himself. PT&A is offering a six-week series called:
Teaching your Children to Hear from the Holy Spirit!
Teach about the real Spirit of Christmas!
This classes focuses parent on taking deeper steps into soaking and hearing from the Holy Spirt themselves and becoming a living example for their children.
Gives parents tips, ideas, and discussion starters for young children, older kids, and teens.
And much more!!
You have until February 3 to join the class at the introductory rate of 2 payments of $49 2/3 and 3/3.
or one payment of $98. After 2/3 the class goes to two payments of $122. This class could keep your child from enter in into the wrong crowd or taking that one hit of crack because the Holy Spirit is talking to them and giving the courage to resist!
Our next class starts February 13, 2018.
Believe in Parenting
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