Priscilla Shirer Session 2: "Discerning the Voice of God"

Welcome to Session 2 of Discerning the Voice of God.  Priscilla's teaching: The Holy Spirit, was captivating and challenging to all of us on this great adventure in God's Holy Word.

Her opening statement was "make sure you're doing what God has called you to do. Look for that 'well-done.'"

She talked about our front line, our assignment or mission. For each of us, it will look different than someone else. Priscilla said "to know what the front line is for your life, you must hear the voice of God."

Our example, Jesus Christ, only did the will of His Father and nothing else.  

For us, we spend too much time "doing the good thing that when the God thing comes, we don't have enough energy left for it."

Jesus spent time with the Father to know His will, so must we.

Matthew 17:5 talks about the transfiguration.  The Father spoke from Heaven saying "this is my beloved Son....listen to Him."  The key word here is listen.

A personal relationship with Him includes a two-way conversation. "He gave all to have a personal, one-on-one relationship with us."

• Six different trials
• Brutal whippings
• Beatings
• Mockings
• Crown of thorns driven into His skull
• Hung Him high, stretched Him wide, hung His head, died

He didn't just give us salvation, but also gave us the Holy Spirit, a gift given to us.

The Holy Spirit is the primary way that we hear from God, Priscilla said.  We looked at Ephesians 1:13-14a (ESV) where it says "when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee".....

Sealed means:

• to mark
• to certify
• to enclose with a seal
• to authenticate

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity with glory, grandeur and the power of the Father.  Since he lives in us as well, we have the glory, grandeur and power of the Father.

The Holy Spirit is our down payment.  With the Holy Spirit's seal in our life, He is our pledge.  Priscilla said "everything He has promised He will do."  The Holy Spirit gives us"the privilege to tune in to divine frequencies."

Every human being - saved or unsaved - is made up of three parts, Priscilla shared: Body. Soul. Spirit.

Body: physical world, 5 senses.

Soul:  mind, will, emotions.

Spirit: the real you - designed for connection with God.

It's the Holy Spirit that regenerates us. "He becomes the cable, the network, so we can have relationship with God and hear from God."

"If the Holy Spirit lives in you, you haven't changed, you have been exchanged."

Priscilla encouraged us that "relationship is the prerequisite for recognition of God's voice."

We then looked at Ephesians 1:17-20 (ESV).  The main words in these verses are:

• spiritual wisdom (v.17)
• revelation (v.17)
• knowledge (v.17)
• know (v.18)

Paul is asking God to give the Ephesian believers a revelation of the gift that they have.  

Cooperating with the Holy Spirit is essential.  We cooperate by yielding and surrendering.

Priscilla also said that "external signs will not be the primary way we hear from God, but will confirm the leading of the Holy Spirit."

Our soul is also comprised of our conscience as well.  It is not the voice of God.  "Our conscience is shaped upon the way we were raised, and the environment we were raised in."

The goal of the Holy Spirit is to sanctify us; mold us to look more like Christ.  The Holy Spirit will seep out into areas of our life and our unregenerate conscience the moment we are saved, Priscilla shares.  "He shakes our conscience awake to be more aligned to God."

"When we feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit, take note of the conviction."

Priscilla gave us the red light, yellow light, green light conviction analogy:

• Red light. His way of saying STOP.
• Yellow light of dis-ease means WAIT.
• Green light of ease and peace is His way of saying GO.

The apostle Paul confirms this connection with our conscience and the Holy Spirit in:

• Romans 9:11 "my conscience bears witness with the Holy Spirit.
• Acts 23:1 "I have lived my life with a good conscience before God."
• 2 Timoty 1:3 "I thank God whom I served with a clean conscience."

Priscilla also stated that the way we can distinguish God's leading through our conscience in our life is this: "your own voice, your own thoughts, your own subconscience will try to convince you, argue with you, rationalize, work to try and get your mind and your heart to cooperate, but God's voice has authority."

He will never say anything to us that is outside the boundaries of His word.

In conclusion, "we yield to the Holy Spirit because He knows the mind and thoughts of God.  As we yield, we experience the abundance He has come to give."

Practice hearing God!

Next: Session 3: The Holy Spirit's Voice