[Thanks]

IACFC would like to thank the following for these dynamic studies:

 - VCF

 - Mary Youtz

Acts 1:4 - 8 (NKJV) ⁴And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father,  “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me;  ⁵for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”  ⁶Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. ⁸But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

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Living an Empowered Life

HEARING GOD’S VOICE

“Jesus gave them this answer: ‘I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does….’”

John 5:19-20a

“From all I have said about our worried, over-filled lives, it is clear that we are usually surrounded by so much outer noise that it is hard to truly hear God when he is speaking to us. We have often become deaf, unable to know when God calls us and unable to understand in which direction he calls.

Thus our lives have become absurd. In the word absurd we find the Latin word surdus, which means “deaf.” …When, however we learn to listen, our lives become obedient lives. The word obedient comes from the Latin word audire, which means “listening.”

…Jesus’ life was a life of obedience. He was always listening to the Father, always attentive to his voice, always alert for his directions. Jesus was “all ear.” That is true prayer: being all ear for God. The core of all prayer is indeed listening, obediently standing in the presence of God.”

Henri J. M. Nouwen

“While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ ”

Acts 13:2

A friend described her experience of learning to hear God’s voice:

Have you ever been desperate for God to speak to or guide you? As a very inexperienced campus staff member for a national ministry, I was leading a small group of college students through a month-long training program. Our group had not clicked, and I felt frustrated by the conflict between strong personalities, including my own. One day during lunch, I stayed back at my cabin in order to fast and pray. I didn’t have a habit of doing this, so I felt unsure of the outcome. I wasn’t confident that I would actually “hear God” but fasting and praying seemed like a spiritual thing to do.

I tried everything I knew to do at that time. I read Scripture, praised, confessed, remained silent, and even talked to God out loud. I recall pacing around the outside of my cabin telling [yes, telling] God I needed Him to do something.

The normal lunch period ended and our group gathered at my staff cabin, but I didn’t have any new ideas. However, as we prayed quietly together, I got the strong impression in my mind of a Scripture reference. I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t recognize the passage right then [I did mention I was inexperienced], but when we were finished praying, I told the group that I thought we should turn to Revelation 3:20 . A mature student in the group, who had a good command of Scripture and the Christian life, responded that he agreed with me. That was surprising to say the least.

When we read the verse aloud, which pictures Jesus knocking at the door of the church in Laodicea , one of the girls in the group broke down and confessed that she was not really a follower of Jesus. She admitted that she liked hanging out with Christians on her campus but was doing so for social reasons. I was shocked, if no one else was, but the group affirmed her and lovingly led her to receive Jesus as her Lord and Savior.

God had not only “spoken” to me in a very simple way—a Scripture reference, but more importantly He had spoken with deep conviction to this student which led to her salvation. I am still humbled when I recall my doubt and my surprise at the mercy of God to reveal Himself that day.

Hearing from God is something we often talk about in the church today, but how it actually happens is somewhat mysterious. God speaks in many ways and He often speaks differently to different people. There isn’t a formula for hearing from God; each of us needs to learn how to discern when God is revealing something to us. Being with other Christians in a small group can help, because we can discuss what God seems to be saying and test it against Scripture and with what others hear. This study examines two passages in the New Testament, which exemplify how God may direct people and suggest some principles that can help us discern if God is speaking to us.

Pray and invite the Holy Spirit to come and teach you through this study. Pray also that He will speak during your worship and ministry time so you and those you fellowship can grow in their abilities to hear God.

Acts 13:1 - 5 (NKJV) ¹Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger , Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. ²As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”  ³Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away. ⁴So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. ⁵And when they arrived in Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant.

1. Let’s read Acts 13:1-5. 

Looking at verses 1-2, try to imagine the scene described here. Whom do you see? What were they doing? How did this help them hear God speak?

The first churches were in Jerusalem and Judea , places where the population was mostly Jewish. In contrast, Antioch was to the north, outside the Jewish homeland. There, the population was less uniform, a mixture of Jews, Greeks, Romans, and others. The list of names given in verse 1 reflects this, indicating that the church at Antioch was a multi-cultural, multi-racial church. Barnabas, formerly a leader in the Jerusalem church was from the Island of Cyprus . Simeon, another Jewish name, was called “Niger” which is Latin for “dark-complexioned” (Marshall, pp. 214-215). Lucius was from Cyrene , the capital of Libya in North Africa. Manaen was a foster brother to Herod Antipas (L. Foster, p. 1669), who had put John the Baptist to death (Earle, p. 1463). Finally, Saul/Paul was a Roman citizen from western Turkey but educated in Jerusalem. Although these differences undoubtedly led to conflict at certain times, here we see the church united in worship and prayer.

The text doesn’t indicate if this group of gifted leaders or the entire church was gathered (Marshall, p.215), but the believers were worshiping and fasting. Worship turns our attention towards God. While there is more to fasting than can be covered here, we fast by giving up something, typically food, in order to focus more attention on God. The passage does not specify that they were praying until after the Holy Spirit had spoken, so we don’t know if they were praying and asking God for various things before the Spirit spoke. Although Luke does not say that they were listening for God’s voice, it is likely that since they were fasting they also were quiet at times, waiting for God to speak. While gathered in God’s presence to praise, worship, and draw near to Him, they were able to hear the Holy Spirit speak.

The first principle, then, is that we are more likely to hear God speak when we are consciously in His presence. Worship brings us into God’s presence, and worshiping in a group can foster our awareness of God and help us focus on Him.

2. Whom did the Holy Spirit speak to and how did He speak?

Note: this is a trick question in a way since there is no clear answer! For those of us new to hearing from the Holy Spirit, it may be frustrating how little the Bible actually tells us about how the Holy Spirit communicates. However, we must constantly remind ourselves that we hear God in terms of our relationship with Him, not by following a formula. So, we should not read every story or event in the Bible looking for the “only way” to listen to God speak.

This passage does not specify which person or persons heard the Spirit speak, nor does it tell us whether the words were audible or were received some other way. One reason for this may be that the Holy Spirit speaks in various ways. Often, different people will typically hear from the Spirit differently. Sometimes the Spirit communicates by giving people mental impressions or thoughts; other times the Spirit speaks with an audible voice. Sometimes the Spirit communicates through pictures, dreams, or visions and at other times through pains or feelings in certain parts of a person’s body.

In this case, we can only speculate about the details of what happened. It is possible that one of the prophets mentioned heard the Holy Spirit and announced it to the others. However, since no specific individual is mentioned, perhaps several people heard or felt some kind of communication from the Holy Spirit. By sharing what each of them had received, they concluded together what the Holy Spirit had spoken. This is an important principle on hearing from God. While one person can hear from God, it is easier for an individual to misinterpret God’s message or be deceived than it is for a group of Biblically trained believers. If more than one person hears the same message from God and if it lines up with Scripture, then the group can more easily confirm that they have heard from God. This certainly provides more confidence that we are hearing from God and not just projecting our own ideas or feelings onto God.

3. In verses 2-5, what did the Holy Spirit say? How did the church respond?

The message from the Holy Spirit directed the church to “set apart” two people, Barnabas and Saul, for work He was calling them to. But Luke does not give more specifics, so it’s no surprise that the first thing the church did in response to this message was to fast and pray more. Most likely, they were asking God to reveal specifics about where and how Barnabas and Saul would minister.

Next the church laid their hands on Barnabas and Saul. In the Vineyard, we often lay hands on people when we pray for them following Jesus’ example when He healed or blessed others. This laying on of hands by the church probably carried the additional meaning of consecrating the men for the work to which God had called them. Today, we might see this kind of laying on of hands when someone is ordained as a minister in the church, when people are being sent out to plant a church, or when a mission team departs for some kingdom work.

Finally, the church sent Barnabas and Saul off. Verse 4 says that the Holy Spirit sent them on their way. This might indicate the church’s obedience to the Spirit, i.e. the Spirit directed the church to send Barnabas and Saul, the church sent them off, and therefore, one could say that the Spirit sent them off. However, it also might mean that the Holy Spirit did not reveal to Barnabas and Saul where they were going until after they started their journey.

The church must have concluded that the work to which the Holy Spirit had called Barnabas and Saul (v. 2) required them to go somewhere else. If they had been called to a work in Antioch, the church would not have sent them off (v.3). Since their destination is not mentioned until verses 4 and 5 , after the Holy Spirit had sent them on their way, this might mean that the Holy Spirit revealed to them where they should go after they started on their journey. Marshall points out that Barnabas was from Cyprus (Acts 4:36) and had family ties there (p. 216). Foster points out that many Jews lived on the island and that the gospel had been spread there during early persecution of the Jerusalem church (p.1666). However, the passage does not directly relate these reasons while it does say the Holy Spirit was directing this whole endeavor, so we probably should conclude that God made the plans clear once the men departed Antioch .

This illustrates another principle about hearing from God: God does not always reveal everything at once and usually requires us to trust Him. John Wimber, former leader of the Vineyard movement, used to ask, “How do you spell faith? R-I-S-K!” God often reveals each step of the journey as we obey what He has shown us. In John 7:17, Jesus says “If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.” Sometimes the only way to find out whether a revelation has come from God is to ask God to stop you if you are going astray, and then step out in obedience to what you think He has said. As you demonstrate that you are willing to obey God, He will re-direct you if you veer off course or give you more direction if you are on the right path.

4. Let’s look at another example in Paul’s life. Read Acts 16:6-0

[Wisdom]

“For the first twelve years of my Christian life, I gave little thought to the kingdom of God . My pastors and Bible teachers had taught that the kingdom would come at the second coming of Christ and, therefore, had little significance in our lives today…I find my neglect of the kingdom remarkable because it is so clearly at the center of Jesus’ teaching…I [now realize] that at the very heart of the gospel lies the kingdom of God, and that power for effective evangelism and discipleship relates directly to our understanding and experiencing the kingdom today.”

John Wimber

Luke 24:46 - 49 (NKJV) ⁴⁶Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, ⁴⁷and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. ⁴⁸And you are witnesses of these things.  ⁴⁹Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”