Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt

There is a powerful and exciting experience within a Christian’s life that so very many Christians are not aware of and know too little about. I am confident that many have probably experienced what I will share with you but don’t even realize that it’s a God experience and something God expected you to experience regularly. It’s hearing His voice. I don’t mean in the way that you usually hear everyone else’s voice. I mean more like an impression of the heart—a feeling about something you should pay attention to—a deep knowing of something you have no way of knowing—a still small voice from within that is the voice of God. It actually sounds like your own voice since everything we hear that is not audible is heard from within. But, it’s not your voice, it’s the still small voice of God speaking to you. It’s not like when you’re reasoning with yourself or talking to yourself about something. It’s different. It’s the voice of God—Him speaking through the Holy Spirit to your spirit. It’s communication from God that only Christians can experience. And God usually brings scripture to your remembrance and then speaks to you through them.

Hearing from God is one of the glorious benefits that comes to anyone who has renounced and repented from their life of sin and received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. From that moment on, God makes His benefits available to you—one of them being hearing His voice through the Holy Spirit!

In John 10:27 TLB, we read Jesus saying these words… “My sheep recognize my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” What would be the point of needing to recognize Jesus’ voice if He didn’t speak to us? He does speak to us! And the Holy Spirit helps us recognize His voice!

Jesus had been with His disciples for three years, teaching them what He could. He taught them His love, His purpose, about Heaven, about the Earth, about His Father, and His Father’s will, about life and man’s purpose on this Earth, and so much more. He taught them the power of God to heal and cast out demons. He taught them everything vital for them to carry on His work in preaching the gospel. The time was approaching for Him to complete God’s plan for Him and redeem mankind from sin.

Jesus knew He would die on the cross to take the sins of mankind upon Himself. He knew he would go to the belly of Hell and pay the punishment we deserved for our sins. He would die a sinner’s death, though He never sinned. He knew that Hell could not hold an innocent man any more than our jail system holds a person in jail who is proven innocent. Jesus knew that His Father would raise Him from the dead and the pit of Hell. He knew that He’d return to Heaven, having paved and paid for the way for all who would believe in Him to follow. Because He knew these things, He knew He would no longer be on earth once He ascended into Heaven. Jesus wanted His disciples to know He had a plan—that He would not desert them and leave them alone to figure out everything on their own. On that note, He spoke to them to tell them of the change that was coming. His plan included a way He would speak to them, even after He had ascended to Heaven.

In John 14:16-20 TLB, Jesus said, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth. The world at large cannot receive Him, because it isn’t looking for Him and doesn’t recognize Him. But you do, because He lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. In just a little while the world will not see me again, but you will. For I will live again, and you will, too. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. “

Jesus said He’d send them “another Counselor.” He was referring to Himself as the first one. But, when He’d ascended to Heaven, He would send them another—the Holy Spirit. He revealed that the world wouldn’t understand this ability of His followers to talk with Him, but we would.

We read more in John 16:5-7 & 12-14 TLB. Jesus explained to them, “Now I am going to Him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you…”

He continued in verse 12, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears and tell you what is yet to come.”

Jesus said the Holy Spirit would come, and He would “speak.” He called the Holy Spirit the Counselor and said that the Holy Spirit would guide them. Counselors speak. They help expose lies and confusion and help make the truth clearer so that we can see it for ourselves and own it. They share wisdom. They give direction. Guides know where they are going and help you get there. They tell you about the places you are going to. In other words, God has much to say to us through the Holy Spirit as the Counselor and Guide living with a Christian’s heart. 

God speaks to the spirit of man by His Holy Spirit. You wouldn’t know it was happening if you didn’t know that.

There are two voices beyond our own —God’s and Satan’s. We need to know that. We need to be able to tell them apart. And for sure, we want to understand how to hear the voice of God as it makes for the most exciting Christian life possible. We’ll talk more about this next time, but until then, remember that God is your Heavenly Father. He sent the Holy Spirit to comfort you! If what you are hearing does not align with God’s word nor bring guidance and comfort from Him, that is not the voice to listen to! More next time! 

Psalm 29:4 NKJV “The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.”

In His love,
Pastor Tim Burt

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