So you see, there’s a process by which faith comes. Lay hold of this. There are three stages in the process. First of all, God’s Word, God’s rhema, God speaks. Secondly, your response, hearing; you’re open to the Word of God. Later I’ll explain more about hearing. Thirdly, out of hearing faith comes.

Now usually there’s an element of time in hearing. Hearing isn’t usually something instantaneous. We have to get into a certain attitude. We have to come to a certain frame of mind. We can sit reading the Bible or maybe listening to a sermon and it’s just words flying past us. But then we settle down into a kind of inner stillness. Our mind is at rest. Our busy mental processes are suspended from them. We’re hearing. And out of that hearing, faith comes. Let me advise you, cultivate this ability to hear. Be open to what God says to you personally. It will be in line with Scripture. It will never be out of line with Scripture, but it will be Scripture quickened, made alive, made personal by the Holy Spirit. That’s how faith comes, that way, by hearing the voice of God.

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Yesterday, we saw that we’re completely dependent on the Holy Spirit. He makes His Word come alive for us, and, through Him, we are related to God. Paul says in Romans 8:14:

“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”

So, what makes us sons of God? Being led by the Spirit of God. There are many different ways in which the Holy Spirit works in our lives. But I want to distinguish two. First of all, we are born of the Holy Spirit and that makes each of us a new-born child, a baby. Peter said in his first Epistle, “As new born babies desire the pure milk of the Word.” But that doesn’t make us mature grown up sons of God. How can we become mature, grown up sons? Only by being led by the Holy Spirit. And all who are being led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God, not children, not babies, but mature sons. And notice, that’s a continuing, ongoing present: 'all who are being continually led by the Spirit of God'. It’s not something that just happens once or even once a week, not just in church on Sunday or whatever day you may go to church, but it’s something that’s going on all the time in our daily life. It’s our daily bread. It’s hearing the voice of the Lord through the Holy Spirit and as we hear the voice of the Lord, we’re directed.

My wife and I have a prayer that we regularly pray whenever we go about any kind of business. Our prayer is that we may always be in the right place at the right time. We’ve discovered it makes a lot of difference. We spend a good deal of our time in Jerusalem, and in Jerusalem many means of communication we’re used to here in the States are not so accessible. A lot of people don’t have phones. A lot of people don’t have cars. The mail system is extraordinary. I remember we once posted a letter from one address in Jerusalem to another. It took seventeen days to arrive. So, how can you communicate with people? Well, one of our solutions is we pray to be always in the right place at the right time. It’s amazing how often, without planning it, we meet the very person we need to meet at the very moment we need to speak to them because we’re in the right place at the right time. Who organizes that? The Holy Spirit. He prompts us. He says, “Today’s the day to go to the bank.” You go to the bank and there’s the very person standing in front of you in the line waiting to cash his check. Or, “Don’t catch that bus, catch another bus.” That’s the rhema. That’s the spoken word. It’s the ongoing direction o

Hearing God’s Voice

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