How To Get into God’s Presence and Hear from Him
Psalm 95: 1 -7
Psalm 95
1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
3 For the Lord is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
7 for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
Today, if only you would hear his voice,
What to do
1) Approach God the appointed way: Let us shout joyfully to the lord.
Let us enter His gates with thanksgiving.
Let us enter his court with praise.
Gain access to God’s presence with thanksgiving and praise
2) Importance of thanksgiving and praise
We thank God for his goodness.
We praise him for his greatness.
We worship him for his holiness.
Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. Praise is our response to God’s greatness. By loud jubilant singing we come into the presence of God. This changes the mood completely.
3) Now we can enter God’s place of worship. Here we involve your whole body.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
This is not praise. It is not thanksgiving. It is worship which involves the use of the body, bending knees, bowing, prostrating yourself before God, kneeling, using parts of the upper body, bowing etc.
Worship is an attitude not an utterance. Praise is utterance, worship is an attitude. Praise leads us into the place of worship where we can be intimate with God.
4) We acknowledge him as God, and we can gain intimacy with him. When we worship him, we are declaring his is our God. Whatever we worship becomes our God. He is our God who we worship.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
7 for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
5) Now we have acknowledged God as our God we can hear his voice.
7b Today, if only you would hear his voice,
We can only hear the voice of God when we have been worshipping him.
Prophecy, tongues, and their interpretation only come from God in the moment of hearing his voice after we have been worshipping him.
If prophecy, tongues, and their interpretation come in a period of worship we can be pretty sure it is from God. That is our safeguard from God.
How to hear from God
Spend time in the presence of God morning and evening. At these times you will hear from God. You will get words of encouragement, words of direction, words of warning.
90% of the time they come when we are in an attitude of worship. Generally, you won’t get them if you give God 30 minutes. It is in the open-ended time that God moves in. God does not let us set the time limit. He is sovereign. You can’t set the time limit for him If you plan to spend the whole day with him you could hear from him very quickly, but you can’t say to him, ‘God I am here to give you 30 minutes or one hour.’ Just spend time with him and he will speak to you.
The pattern for hearing from God is in Acts 13:2 – 3
2 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.”
3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
The apostles did not set a time limit, they had no programme, they did not know what would happen next and God moved in. Missionary work was birthed from ministering to the Lord and fasting. Acts 13 the most decisive chapter in the New Testament.
The pattern is:
Making Jesus head and letting him take the initiative.
Psalm 95: 1 -7
Psalm 95
1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
3 For the Lord is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
7 for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
Today, if only you would hear his voice,
What to do
1) Approach God the appointed way: Let us shout joyfully to the lord.
Let us enter His gates with thanksgiving.
Let us enter his court with praise.
Gain access to God’s presence with thanksgiving and praise
2) Importance of thanksgiving and praise
We thank God for his goodness.
We praise him for his greatness.
We worship him for his holiness.
Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. Praise is our response to God’s greatness. By loud jubilant singing we come into the presence of God. This changes the mood completely.
3) Now we can enter God’s place of worship. Here we involve your whole body.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
This is not praise. It is not thanksgiving. It is worship which involves the use of the body, bending knees, bowing, prostrating yourself before God, kneeling, using parts of the upper body, bowing etc.
Worship is an attitude not an utterance. Praise is utterance, worship is an attitude. Praise leads us into the place of worship where we can be intimate with God.
4) We acknowledge him as God, and we can gain intimacy with him. When we worship him, we are declaring his is our God. Whatever we worship becomes our God. He is our God who we worship.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
7 for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
5) Now we have acknowledged God as our God we can hear his voice.
7b Today, if only you would hear his voice,
We can only hear the voice of God when we have been worshipping him.
Prophecy, tongues, and their interpretation only come from God in the moment of hearing his voice after we have been worshipping him.
If prophecy, tongues, and their interpretation come in a period of worship we can be pretty sure it is from God. That is our safeguard from God.
How to hear from God
Spend time in the presence of God morning and evening. At these times you will hear from God. You will get words of encouragement, words of direction, words of warning.
90% of the time they come when we are in an attitude of worship. Generally, you won’t get them if you give God 30 minutes. It is in the open-ended time that God moves in. God does not let us set the time limit. He is sovereign. You can’t set the time limit for him If you plan to spend the whole day with him you could hear from him very quickly, but you can’t say to him, ‘God I am here to give you 30 minutes or one hour.’ Just spend time with him and he will speak to you.
The pattern for hearing from God is in Acts 13:2 – 3
2 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.”
3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
The apostles did not set a time limit, they had no programme, they did not know what would happen next and God moved in. Missionary work was birthed from ministering to the Lord and fasting. Acts 13 the most decisive chapter in the New Testament.
The pattern is:
Making Jesus head and letting him take the initiative.