Study Notes

I.      Your spirit is the tool/instrument through which the Holy Spirit communicates with you and therefore the condition of your spirit will play a huge role in your ability to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and be led by him-Romans 8:14-16

A.    The Holy Spirit is going to communicate with my spirit and if there are problems with my spirit, the I won’t be able to hear the Holy Spirit

1.      You can call me on my phone, but if my phone is broken I want hear you

B.     People do things that negatively effect their own spirit and it keeps them from being sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit

1.      If my spirit is means by which the I contact the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit contacts me, then it is something that is to be treated very preciously

C.    You need to keep your spirit clean, clear, strong so that you can hear the voice of God

1.      You can’t have things between you and God expect to hear the voice of God

II.     Hebrews 3:8-Don’t harden your heart-The hardening of the heart is the desensitizing of your spirit to the Holy Spirit’s voice and leading

A.    If you will hear His voice-You have 2 make a decision that u will hear the Spirit’s leading

1.      Many people will to not hear his voice

a.    They say, “God doesn’t speak to me” or “I can’t hear from him” or “I can’t distinguish what’s him and what’s not him”

b.    Others won’t do the things necessary to position themselves to hear his voice

1)       They won’t release their faith that He speaks to me and I hear

2)       They won’t take the time to get quiet before him

2.      Exodus 19:9, 20:19-The Children of Israel willed not to hear from God directly

3.      It’s God’s will that He speak and you hear, but you have to will it-John 10:27

a.    You have to will it by releasing your faith and by engaging what’s necessary to hear His voice

B.     Hardening takes place when you are unyielding to a voice that speaks in an attempt to move you  

1.      When you harden yourself to something you are unyielding to it

a.    You harden you’re heart to God’s voice when you are unyielding towards it

2.      Hebrews 3:13-One of the main ways people’s hearts get hardened to the Spirit’s leading is through disobedience to the Spirit’s leading

a.    You hear from God, you know what’s right, but you do something else; This is the process that will desensitize you to His voice

3.      When you harden yourself to something you are being insensitive to it; it’s trying to move you but you harden yourself to it and don’t allow it to

a.    We need to harden ourselves to the enemies voice and harden ourselves to pressure; it’s trying to move us, but we don’t let it

b.    We need to be unyielding to feelings of fear and discouragement

C.    When we are continually unyielding to the Spirit’s leading our heart will get callused

1.      If something speaks and you don’t yield and something speaks and you don’t yield and something speaks you don’t yield you can get yourself to a place where that thing speaks and you are so insensitive to it that you don’t even hear it and it doesn’t move you

2.      1 Timothy 4:2-You can sere your conscience

a.    Sear-To burn to dryness and hardness the surface of any thing; to cauterize; to expose to a degree of heat that makes something hard; To wither; to dry; To make callous or insensible.

1)       A callus is an especially toughened area of skin that has become relatively thick and hard in response to repeated friction, pressure, or other irritation

2)       If we were to cut that callus off and go too deep and get to the life of the skin tomorrow when you walked around you’d feel it

b.    Romans 2:14-15-The conscience is the voice of your spirit

1)       Romans 9:2-Your conscience/your spirit gets it from the Holy Spirit

2)       You can sear your conscience to the place where it what the Holy Spirits speaks has no effect on you

D.    When it comes to the leading of the Holy Spirit we need to be soft, sensitive, yielding

1.      We will be most sensitive to what we yield to the most

2.      The more the Holy Spirit speaks and the more I yield to his voice, the more sensitive to his voice I will become

a.    That’s why it is so vital that I acknowledge in all of my ways so that he can direct my paths and every time he directs my path and I yield I’ve just become more sensitive to him-Proverbs 3:5-6

3.      It’s vital that you yield to the Holy Spirit’s leading in the small things as well as the big

a.    Big or small, if you don’t yield to His voice, you’ve begun the process of desensitizing yourself to the voice that’s been sent to get you into victory

E.     Hebrews 3:12-Pay attention so that you don’t turn away from the Spirit’s leading/the voice of God and allow your heart to get hardened

1.      You’re going to have to make an effort

2.      When God speaks to you write it down so that you can run with it-Habakkuk 2:4

F.     So many times people get a check in the spirit, a witness in their spirit, they perceive the Spirit’s leading and then suppress, push it down, and ignore it-1 Thessalonians 5;19

III.   People don’t yield to the Spirit’s leading often times because they don’t understand the leading and they don’t trust God (Proverbs 3:5,6)

A.    Hebrews 3:12,15-They didn’t yield to voice of God because they didn’t understand and didn’t trust; don’t be like them

1.      They hardened their heart b/c they couldn’t see how this was going to work out for them; it didn’t make sense

a.    It might not make sense to your head, but if it’s from Him yield to it

b.    Don’t lean to what you think you know, b/c you don’t know it all and He does

2.      They knew they heard from God, they knew it was God, but they didn’t trust if they yielded to His voice that they would be taken care of

a.    The heart of unbelief will lead to departing from the Spirit’s leading

b.    Deuteronomy 1:27-Lack of revelation of God’s love will result in a lack of trust

c.     Trust His leading even when it looks like if you do that it won’t turn out good

B.     You do the acknowledging, He’ll do the directing

1.      Acknowledge His reality (He’s really here)

2.      Acknowledge His authority (He’s higher than me in rank)

3.      Acknowledge His superiority (He knows everything)

C.    Recognize that you’re not smart enough to run your own life

1.      Looking to Him is something I have to do

2.      People don’t look to Him b/c they think they don’t need Him; if you believed you needed Him and you believed you couldn’t do it without Him you’d look to Him

3.      Recognizing you’re inadequacy apart from Him will lead to you looking to Him

4.      Look, trust, yield

IV.   Another reason why people don’t yield to the Spirit’s leading is because they don’t recognize it has being Him

A.    We need to able to perceive & recognize what is God & what is not God-John 10:4-5

1.      I have the promise of perception & discernment when it comes to the Spirit’s leading

2.      Was it me? Was it God? Was it the devil? – First off there is not three voices

a.    What do you mean was it you? God’s going to deal with your spirit

B.     What do I do if I don’t know if it’s God?

1.      You have to get quiet before Him-(Are you making any effort)

2.      Be open-(Are you genuinely open)

3.      Is it in line with His written Word-(Both choices might be)

4.      Make the decision our of the Integrity of heart-Genesis 20:6

a.    It guarantees your safety

V.    You can’t harden yourself to Spirit’s leading & enter into God’s best-Heb 3:19, Ps 86:11