This message is one of the Times Square
Church Pulpit series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
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Hearing the voice of the Lord.
Hearing and knowing the voice of the Lord.
Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word
and I thank you for the power of
the Holy Spirit who makes it real to
our hearts.
And I pray, Lord Jesus, that everyone that
you brought to your house today will have
new insight and knowledge and wisdom about hearing
and understanding and knowing your voice.
We're living in a day when we have
to know your voice.
We must know your voice or we can't
survive.
We can't listen to other voices.
Oh God, make your word so powerful and
real to us.
I hide behind the cross and I pray
for the unction, the anointing of God's Holy
Spirit in every word that I speak.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Go to John 10, if you will, please.
John chapter 10.
I'm reading from King James chapter 10, verses
1 through 5.
John 10, verse 1, And verily, verily, I
say unto you, he that entereth not by
the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up
some other way, the same as a thief
and a robber, but he that entereth in
by the door is the shepherd of the
sheep.
To him the porter openeth, and the sheep
hear his voice, and he calleth his own
sheep by name, and he leadeth them out.
And when he putteth forth his own sheep,
he goeth before them, and the sheep follow
him, for they know his voice.
And a stranger will they not follow, but
will flee from him, for they know not
the voice of strangers.
They know his voice.
As you may know, we've been sending out
my latest book, America's Last Call, about America
being on the brink of a financial holocaust.
And the first 100,000 went out in
two weeks, and we had to order another
100,000, and letters are coming in from
all of the United States in response.
Let me read to you a letter that
came to us this past week.
Pastor David, I'm so thankful that we have
someone who hears from God and is willing
to warn people of things to come.
Will you use one newsletter, or at least
part of one, to explain some of the
things that you say about the coming judgments?
A lot of us need questions answered, such
as, exactly what do we pray for?
Do we ask for the whole country to
repent?
Do we pray for food when all the
food is disappearing from the shelves, or will
they disappear?
For critical medications that we use, will we
be protected physically when the wicked are suffering
in whatever will be done to them, or
will we suffer the same way they are,
or are we going to be saved from
all this suffering?
Also, Brother Dave, how much of our total
time should we spend in prayer?
Do we repeat the same request over and
over, or do we pray for everything?
Please give us guidelines.
You are advanced in the Christian life, and
you know how to apply the things you
teach, but lots of us have no idea
how to put it in practice in day
-to-day activity.
I'm frustrated so many times by wondering what
you mean by certain things that you preach.
Please explain it as if you were teaching
a child.
Lots of people would appreciate a more detailed
explanation.
They may be too embarrassed to admit they
don't understand.
Here's a note to Gwen.
She says, thanks for reading all this and
bringing it to David's attention.
Some of his predictions terrify me.
Maybe if I understood what he means, I
might feel better.
Now, what do you think is wrong with
that letter?
Now, I thank God she feels that I
hear from God, but let me tell you
what's wrong with this letter.
There are nine questions in this letter that
I can't answer, that no man can answer.
In fact, the Bible makes it clear that
time comes when God said, when I strike
the staff of bread, means when I strike
the economy, and he says, when I send
famine or hard times to the land, he
said, even though Noah and Job and Daniel
were in it, they would but save their
own flesh.
In other words, if they were here in
this day, they couldn't advise you.
They couldn't tell you.
What did I just read to you?
Here's what the scripture says.
We ought to know his voice.
And here's what's wrong.
This lady is sincere, a loving woman, loves
Jesus, and very, very sincere.
But the Lord is her shepherd.
The Lord said she's to know his voice,
that he leads out, and we're to follow,
and we're not to look to man.
We're not to look to man's voice, that
she is to know the voice of the
Lord.
I can't be her voice.
I can't answer all of these questions.
I can preach the truth, thank God for
preachers, evangelists, teachers, thank God for five-fold
ministry.
But, folks, when it all comes down to
understanding where we are in Christ in these
last days, you have to get it not
from a preacher, but from your own walk
with God.
You've got to hear and know his voice.
Scripture said, I just read it to you,
they, they, the body of Christ, everybody, they
know his voice.
His sheep will flee from every other voice.
Paul said there are many voices in the
land, none without significance.
There's the voice of the flesh.
There's the voice of the world.
There's the voice of Satan.
Other than the voice of God, there are
other voices that are striving to get our
attention at all times.
Some very serious things today that I want
to talk to you about regarding knowing the
right voice.
When you say, I hear from God, I
know the voice of the Lord, how do
you make sure it's God's voice that you've
heard and not one of these strange voices?
The Bible says, you know his voice and
a stranger they will flee from.
Let me ask you another question.
Can a godly, righteous, praying, victorious Christian be
seduced by a wrong voice?
Did you hear me?
Can a praying, righteous, godly, victorious Christian be
seduced by the voice of Satan?
I'm not talking about being demon-possessed.
I'm talking about being under delusion by mistaking
the wrong voice, mistaking a voice of Satan
as the voice of God.
I want you to go to 1 Chronicles.
I'm going to show some incredible things this
morning from the Scripture.
1 Chronicles 21.
1 Chronicles 21st chapter.
I hear the rustling of leaves.
I'll wait till the leaves stop rustling.
I hope you're there.
All right, verse 1.
And Satan, who?
Stood up against Israel and provoked David to
number Israel.
I'm going to read on.
And David said to Joab and to the
rulers of the people, Go number Israel from
Beersheba even to Dan and bring the number
of them to me that I may know
it.
And Joab answered, The Lord make his people
a hundred times as many as they be.
But my Lord King, are they not all
my Lord's servants?
Why then does my Lord require this thing?
Why will you be a cause of trespass
to Israel?
Nevertheless, the King's word prevailed against Joab.
Wherefore, Joab departed and went throughout all Israel
and came to Jerusalem.
Joab gave the sum of the number of
the people under David.
And all they of Israel were a thousand,
thousand, and a hundred, two thousand.
That's a million, two hundred that drew sword.
And Judah was four hundred, three score, and
ten thousand that drew sword.
But Levi and Benjamin counted not among them,
for the King's word was abominable to Joab.
And God was displeased with this thing.
Therefore, he smote Israel.
Look at me, please.
David takes a census.
He wants to know how powerful his army
is.
Was it pride?
Or was he wanting to boast like all
the other kings around him?
We don't know.
The Scripture doesn't say.
But the real issue this morning, when you
read that, is not whether it's pride or
not.
The issue is that David was seduced by
a voice of Satan at the peak of
his victories and his success in God.
Now, up to this time, if you read
the previous six, seven chapters, you find it
was the most successful time in David's lifetime.
He had brought the ark back to its
proper place.
He had put worship in divine order.
The Bible says he set his heart and
face to seek the Lord continually.
He made covenant with God to deal with
sin wherever he found it.
He was victorious over all the giants that
came against him, even Goliath's brother.
He inquired of the Lord before going to
battle.
He inquired of the Lord before all the
affairs of state.
Here was a man who prayed three times
a day.
Here was a man that was promised that
God was going to build him a sure
house that would last for eternity.
God was pleased with him.
Here's a man who's in total communion with
the Lord.
Here's a man at the peak of his
power, his blessing, his happiness.
And the Bible says in the peak of
his happiness and the peak of his power,
he heard a wrong voice and was stook
it for God's voice.
Satan provoked David and in Hebrew it means
planted a seduction.
The devil planted a seduction in the heart
of a godly righteous man at the peak
of his blessings.
And the whispered voice said, Take a census,
David.
See how big an army you can muster.
See how strong you are against your enemies.
The same thing is told us in 2
Samuel 24 1, but in a different view.
And again, the anger of the Lord was
kindled against Israel.
And he moved David against them to say,
Go number Israel and Judah.
There it says God moved him.
Now, God never deceives anybody.
It's impossible for God to deceive anybody.
What the Scripture means that God took down
the wall and allowed the enemy access to
David.
And there's a reason for it.
Now, here's a godly man at his peak
of usefulness and holiness.
And he's convinced that the voice he has
heard is the voice of God.
Joab had better discernment.
Joab said, David, why are you insisting on
this act of disobedience?
Why are you persistent in this?
Don't you know it's a trespass?
Don't you know it's sinful?
David had access to the same Scriptures that
you and I read today in Exodus.
Now, there's no way David could know this
because he said he delighted himself in the
Word of God night and day.
How can a man who's delighting in the
Word, who knows the Word, studies at night
and day, miss this?
It's in Exodus.
Don't turn there.
But it's in Exodus, I believe the 20th
chapter.
There was to be a census according to
the law.
But it was a census that had to
do with the great spiritual truth.
It had to do with atonement.
And everyone, every male that was in the
census had to pay half a shekel.
There were guidelines.
It was to be only to the glory
of God, and there were rules.
David ignored it all.
He knew the Scripture, but he totally ignored
it.
Some would say, Pastor, this is scary, what
you're suggesting this morning, that I consider myself
a righteous person.
I've known the Lord, I pray, I seek
the face of God.
Are you trying to tell me that I
can be deceived at the height of my
walk with God when I'm overcoming?
And I'm praying, I'm seeking God, I'm fasting,
I'm in intercession.
And it's possible you're saying that I can
be deceived by another voice?
Oh, yes.
Yes.
And I'll show you the grounds for it.
You say, well, Brother Wilkerson, doesn't the Bible
say that God couldn't touch Job unless the
wall was down?
That's true, but God took the wall down.
You say, doesn't God promise to keep us
from falling from the snares of Satan?
How can God allow Satan to deceive a
praying, godly, holy Christian?
First Peter 5.8, Be sober, be vigilant,
because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring
lion, walks about seeking who he may devour.
And that word devour in Greek is to
gulp down in one swallow.
One great seduction.
Vigilance means to rise up from your apathy
and your drowsiness.
This is to saints.
And this implies the possibility of the roaring
lion coming to plant a seduction in your
heart and your mind.
He said, be sober.
That word sober is discreet.
And that word discreet means careful about your
conduct and everything.
He said, if you are not careful in
your conduct, if you're not discreet, if you're
not sober, if you're not vigilant, if you
don't rise up and guard what God's done
for you, if you don't guard it tenaciously,
he said, watch out.
You've got a roaring lion following every step,
and because you're holy, you're marked.
Because you have set your heart on God,
he set his heart on you.
Now David had been very sober and discreet
up to this time.
You know how watchful David was up to
this time.
Remember how careful he was not to touch
Saul, God's anointed.
How careful he was never to gossip.
Careful to set no wicked thing before his
eyes.
He was careful to keep his heart, out
of which came the issues of life, the
scripture says.
He was careful to never sit in the
seat of the scornful.
Careful to close his ears to every lying
lip.
For most of his walk, David was careful.
But there were seasons in his life, just
like in every Christian's life, there are seasons
of carelessness.
Psalms 119, how shall a young man cleanse
his ways?
By taking heed thereto according to thy word.
And that word heed means to guard, protect,
and watch out.
God said, and this scripture says, how are
you going to stay clean in this day?
He said, be careful, be on guard, watch.
King Jehu, according to the scripture, took a
fall, because he took no heed to walk
in the law of the Lord his God
with all his heart.
He departed not from the sins of Jeroboam.
He let down his watch, and at the
very peak of his youthfulness, he was seduced
by the enemy and turned back to the
sins of Jeroboam, his grandfather.
Now, Satan perceived something in David that he
recognized.
But let me talk to you about what
I believe was the beginning of the grounds
that...
See, Satan can't come in unless he has
grounds to come in.
And I don't care how advanced you believe
you are in Christ today.
I don't care how intimate you believe you
are.
And perhaps are.
I don't care what joy you have in
Christ.
Let me tell you that it is possible,
and I have seen some of my most
godly, useful, faithful men, friends, ministers, evangelists, fall
at the peak of their blessings, because they
were seduced by a wrong voice, by the
voice of Satan.
I believe David became casual toward God and
the things of God.
That word casual means a lack of seriousness,
indifference, a cool off-handed attitude, relaxed, not
too serious about God and the things of
God.
God confirms what I've just told you.
God confirms that David became casual.
He became just loose about his service to
God.
After David sinned with Bathsheba, Nathan the prophet
warned him, the sword shall never depart from
your house because you have despised me.
And the word despise there means you didn't
take me seriously, God's saying.
You didn't honor me as a holy God,
as one hating sin.
And you thought you could sin without dire
consequences.
You made me one just like yourself.
The devil watches us.
He goes about.
Now, folks, I'm not glorifying the devil, but
the Bible says we're not to be ignorant
of his wiles and his devices.
And the wiles mean his treachery, his way
of seducing, his method of seducing believers.
He said don't be ignorant of it.
He said you're in a fight against principalities
and powers and spiritual wickedness and high places.
And that word high places means an elevated
place of usefulness and happiness.
Has nothing to do with devils out there
fighting somewhere.
It means when you reach a high place
in God.
God has revealed himself to you.
The spirit of the Lord has opened his
word.
You can say I've been delivered from sin.
And you're riding along.
And in the height of that blessing, just
like the children of Israel, God said I
blessed you.
I gave you houses that you didn't build.
I gave you vineyards that you didn't plant.
And I blessed you.
And you got casual toward me and you
forgot.
You weren't watchful.
Folks, when I know that I have touched
something in God.
And I've seen God my word.
And I've seen people get saved wherever I
go throughout the world.
And God's blessed me.
I run to my room and I pray
God hold me.
God watch over me.
Because that's when the devil wants to come
in.
When you've just conquered your bosom sin.
When you've just made a decision to walk
with God and walk away from your sins.
Then the enemy comes in like a flood.
Trying to destroy you.
Satan watched David.
He saw something that opened the door.
He saw a good man preaching against sin.
Writing and singing about his pure walk.
Here's a sweet psalmist.
Who wrote wonderful music and songs and praises
about his victorious life.
The peacefulness of his soul.
How he had such peace and joy in
his God.
But Satan heard a sound that was familiar
to him.
It was spiritual pride.
The sin that cost him heaven and paradise.
And he recognizes it immediately.
Folks, I want to tell you.
The sin.
The seduction.
Of the righteous.
Is always beginning.
It always begins with this sin of spiritual
pride.
Boy, I remember when I was.
A number of years ago.
God had set me aside for a whole
year to fast.
Before I canceled everything.
I prayed and I spent.
I spent months in the word.
Studying the Puritans and I came out on
fire, man.
But I remember.
Walking into ministers.
Meeting and sitting there.
I don't.
You know, you don't.
It's no.
Blatant thought.
It's just a feeling.
I wish they knew what I knew.
You know.
I just wish they knew Christ like I
knew him.
I just.
I just wish I could convey.
To these men.
The walk that I've.
Arrived at.
I wish they could know.
Boy, did God bring me down?
I didn't sin other than.
In my thought life, but that's where the
sin is.
That's where God looks at the heart.
Man looks at the outward appearance, but God
looks where.
Mm hmm.
Mark 1322.
Jesus warns us false Christ and false prophets
shall arise.
And show signs and wonders to seduce.
If it were possible, even the elect.
It's all.
I'm so glad it says there.
If it were possible, it's not possible.
Oh, yes, it is.
If you look at the Greek in this,
you'll find the inference that it's within the
realm of possibility.
The real meaning of that, that it is
in the realm of possibility.
In fact, that's what the Greek brings out
in the root word.
I'll tell you what.
It happened to David, who was God's elect.
It happened to Peter, who was God's elect.
Tell me.
What better describes this church generation and many
Christians as this word casualness.
Very little seriousness about the things of God
in many churches today.
Indifference to the majesty and holiness of God.
There are churches today all over the United
States that are absolutely.
The word is casual.
Look at the way they dress.
They come to church in shorts, tank tops,
T-shirts.
It's like a lawn party cookout attitude.
God is my buddy.
He's the sky man in the sky pad.
He's my dude.
He's my big guy.
Folks, there's no dignity to it.
There's no awe.
There's no reverence.
God's just another good guy.
He's just another one like us.
Casual dress, casual worship by casual people serving
God casually.
There's no fire.
There's no anointing.
There's no awe.
There's no reverence.
Now, some of you are here today maybe
in shorts.
Some of you have T-shirts and you're
visiting and you're traveling casually.
That's a different thing.
But I'm talking about those, for example, who
make this church home.
You wouldn't walk into the mayor's office the
way some of you come to the house
of God.
It's a matter of respect.
I don't care if all you have in
your closet are T-shirts.
Wear the cleanest, best one you have.
Wear the best you have for Jesus.
I'm against dressing up like a doll.
I mean, some women look like a fashion
plate and come just parading down the...
And why do they always want the front
seats?
No, you in the front seats forget.
I'm not talking about you.
Put on the whole armor of God that
you may be able to stand against the
wiles of the devil, the treachery, the seduction
of the devil, because Paul said you're in
a fight against principalities and powers, against the
rulers of darkness of the world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places.
Now, David was fooled by the wrong voice
because he failed to immediately test it and
judge it by the revealed Word of God.
Did you hear me?
The moment that voice came, David, take a
census.
See how strong you are.
He should have immediately taken it to the
Word of God.
Exodus 30, 12 to 16.
He said, no, no, no, no.
And Joab knew it.
Israel knew it.
It was an abominable thing to them and
to Joab.
In fact, Joab cheated on the census.
He left out whole tribes.
An abominable thing to him.
A very sinful wicked thing in the eyes
of God because there is a spiritual pride
behind it all.
David knew it.
But David refused to judge and killed that
voice with the sword of the Word and
the power of the Holy Ghost.
And it proves to me that the suggestion
of Satan was something David lusted after.
He heard exactly what he wanted to hear.
Now, I'm going to make a strong statement.
I want you to listen closely.
I don't care how righteous you are.
I don't care how holy you may be.
God makes it very clear in His Word
that if you continue in a sinful path,
in a sinful deed or a sinful act,
it's impossible for you to hear the voice
of God.
Impossible.
Let me say it again.
If you're hiding a secret sin, if you're
living in sin, something is attached to you
and God has spoken to you time and
time again, you cannot hear His voice.
I'm going to prove it to you from
Scripture here.
Absolutely impossible.
David couldn't hear at this time because he'd
allowed this thing...
He heard what he wanted to hear.
Oh, you can hear voices all right.
You'll hear the flesh.
Still small voice.
Sweet voice.
Telling you exactly what you want to hear
because when there's sin in your life, you're
going to hear voices.
And they're all going to flatter you.
Young Wall Street businessman used to come to
this church.
Used to meet him backstage.
This young man, beautiful wife, so on fire
for God.
We'd go out to eat and he'd tell
me how he was growing in the Lord.
He said, this is fantastic.
He would even take...
He'd hear the sermon and take tapes and
go listen to them again.
Never missed a service.
He was afraid someday I might leave New
York.
He said, oh brother, stay with us because
so many of us are being changed.
He was so on fire for God.
But there was a sin in his life.
Another lady associate.
And he had hinted it to me about
it.
And I watched him go down to the
very height of the blessing of God.
He started first missing Tuesday night.
Then he'd miss Sunday night.
Became a Sunday morning Christian.
I get very scared.
I get very concerned and even frightened for
Christians who stop going to the house of
God.
And I'm wondering if this wasn't what the
devil saw in David.
He used to just love to go to
the house of God.
I wonder if David got just a little
lazy about the spiritual things in his life.
This is the end of side one.
You may now turn the tape over to
side two.
And left his wife and took off with
his associate.
I'm telling you now.
If there's something that has your heart.
You say, well, well, sinners hear the voice
of God.
Saul heard the voice of God.
Yes, he'll call you out of your sins.
He'll speak to you.
And he's patient.
He's loving.
But I'm talking about Christians who've walked with
God.
Who have known His ways.
Who have been filled with His Spirit.
Who felt so secure.
Oh, how many there are been listening to
me.
Before you heard my word this morning, you
thought there was no way the devil could
ever get to me.
No way could I ever be deceived.
Oh, he says, take heed when you think
you stand.
Take heed.
That word heed.
Be on guard.
Watch.
You have got to judge everything you hear
by the revealed word of God.
And that's why I'm saying you need to
know the Scripture to know His voice.
So that you can judge it.
In Malachi, it's called profaning the holiness of
the Lord.
The priests of that time were backslidden in
their heart.
They were still coming to the house of
God.
They were going through the motions.
They were doing everything they'd been doing before.
They were covering the altar with their tears.
Weeping before the Lord.
And the Lord was not speaking to them.
They heard nothing.
In fact, when they said, Lord, why are
you speaking against us?
They were absolutely void of any word from
God.
And God said, I'll tell you why I'm
not speaking to you.
Because you're cheating on your wives.
He says, you go back and make things
right.
You repent and you change and then I'll
talk to you.
He said, but you cover the altar with
tears.
You cry and you weep.
Folks, you can do that.
You can go in the secret closet.
You can cry and weep all you want
to.
You say, oh God, talk to me.
Tell me.
Lord, is this right or is this wrong?
When you know all along that you've heard
the wrong voice.
It was like the woman came to me
a number of years ago and she'd left
her husband and she's taken up with another
man.
She's going to be a missionary.
I think it was in Africa.
She said, we were praying together.
This is the new man that she married
after she divorced her husband after a number
of years.
I think she's in about her 60s.
She said, God told us it's all right.
We got together.
We had prayer meetings.
We fasted.
We prayed.
We're one in the Spirit.
They heard a voice, but it wasn't God's
voice.
They were profaning the holiness of God.
If you're in disobedience, you'll hear a voice.
But listen to Ezekiel 14.
Therefore, speak unto them and say, thus saith
the Lord God, every man that seeketh, that
setteth up idols in his heart and puts
the stumbling block of his iniquity before his
face.
In other words, here's something that's grabbed to
heart.
It's taken root.
It's set up there.
It's set in the heart.
And it's right before their face.
And they know it's wrong.
They know God's convicted them.
They know it's contrary to the Scripture.
And they set up this idol of iniquity,
stumbling block of iniquity before their face.
Then they come to the prophet.
See, they want to hear a word from
God.
I, the Lord, will answer him that cometh
according to the multitude of his idols.
Son of man, these men that have set
up idols in their heart, they put the
stumbling block of their iniquity before their face.
Should I be inquired at all of them?
In other words, the Lord says they're hiding
sin.
They know it's wrong.
The stumbling block's right there before their eyes.
They know it.
They see it.
They know my word.
It's contrary to my word.
It's contrary to Scripture.
And yet they come to me, said, should
I talk to them at all?
God says, no.
I'll not speak to them.
You'll hear a voice.
God said, I'll allow the enemy.
That's what he's saying.
I'll allow the enemy access.
And the voice you hear will be the
voice of Satan.
Because of your idolatry, you won't let it
down.
You won't let it go when all the
power has been promised to you to give
you the victory and the power to prevail.
God said to the elders, you have an
evil thing that you've taken into your heart,
and it's evident that you know it can
destroy you.
You know you're deceived.
You're walking in delusion.
So I cannot give you my word.
I cannot speak to you at all.
The voice you hear will be someone speaking
idol talk to you.
It will be for your idol.
And I'll tell you, folks, if you have
sin in your heart, you see, we preach
a strong message here at Times Square Church
because we have to stand before God one
day and answer.
I want no blood on my hands.
And that's why we talk so straight.
But I'm telling you, we've had people walk
out of this church because when the Holy
Ghost came and dealt with sin like he's
doing right now by his power and his
word, they got scared.
They didn't want to let go of their
sins, so they walked out of this church
and they went to another church because there
are idol churches with idol shepherds that minister
to idolatry.
They minister to idolatry.
That's what it is in the gay community,
in the metropolitan community churches.
You've got a gay preacher preaching to a
gay congregation, flattering them in their sins.
There are churches all over this city that
you can go to in sin and not
be rebuked and be comfortable.
In fact, the businessman that I told you
about is in one of the churches in
this city, very comfortable.
Delusion begins at the point that you reject
the revealed word of God against your sin.
That's where the delusion begins.
That's when the enemy comes in and plants
a seduction into your heart.
God was displeased with this thing, therefore he
smote Israel.
And I'll tell you something, when God's displeased
with this, folks, he has a way of
showing it.
There'll be some error in your life that
God will smite.
Yes, he will.
He will chasten.
He's so loving.
First, he'll just speak to you through the
word, like he is this morning right now,
and speak to you about your sin.
And then he'll come and slap your wrist.
And if you won't listen to that, then
he gets his rod.
And then if you won't listen to the
rod, he said he has to turn you
over to your sin for a season, hoping
that chastening, that awful, the worst thing God
can do, the most judging thing God can
do is to turn us over to our
sins for a season.
You see, people were dying left and right.
These soldiers that he was counting as fighting
men are dying, 70,000 of them.
And David's heart smote him.
After that, he had numbered the people.
He was smitten.
He was stricken by conviction.
And he cries out, oh God, I've sinned.
And David repented before the Lord.
David repented and said, oh God, what I've
done is an abominable thing in your eyes.
God, I don't want this.
And David restored the altar.
He built an altar before the Lord.
He came back.
He left his casual, careless ways.
And he came back and said, oh God,
I was careless.
And, folks, I want to tell you something.
If you're in the ministry, in the choir,
or anyone that's working in this church, or
there's going to be some ministers sitting here,
those who have walked with God for years,
and you took a fall, something happened in
your life, look back, and you'll remember how
careless you were about the Word of God,
about prayer, about watching your relationships, where your
eyes were looking.
Just before your sin, were you just sitting
around like a couch potato watching foolish, ungodly
garbage on television or videos?
Did the devil see you compromising here and
there?
Oh, yes, you're praying, seeking God.
You see, David went right through.
It had to take at least nine months
or ten months, maybe even a whole year
before the census was done.
That whole year, David, you wouldn't have known
any difference.
He was praying.
He was going to the house of God.
He was going about his business.
He was still praying.
He was probably weeping.
But he was walking in delusion.
He was under a delusion.
Oh, but when he repented, the delusion was
chased.
The voice of the devil, the voice of
the flesh, the voice of the world was
drowned out, and God sent the prophet Nathan
to him.
Hallelujah.
Then came the Word of God.
If you follow the next chapter, you'll find
God speaking to David.
Clearly, he was hearing the voice of God
everywhere he turned.
Now, in closing, I want to give you
a few lessons God has taught me about
knowing his voice.
All right?
I didn't get it from a book.
I'm somewhere in my 60s.
You don't need to know where I'm at
in my 60s.
But I've learned some things.
May I share them with you?
Let me give you just three things that
I've learned about knowing and hearing the voice
of God.
Number one, the moment you're ready to obey
God at any cost and do whatever he
asks of you, his voice will come through
loud and clear.
When you are ready to put down your
will, your ways, and say, God, I don't
care how it hurts.
I don't care what it costs me.
I am going to obey you.
Not like the remnant that came to the
prophet.
Jeremiah said, get a word from us.
And then when he got the word, they
said that wasn't God.
See, when a lot of people do that,
they'll go to the Lord and ask for
his voice.
When God speaks to them, well, that's not
you, Lord.
That's not you.
That can't be you because it doesn't rhyme
with what we want.
When you're committed to do the will of
God at any cost, he's committed to speak
to you.
I found that out in my life.
Before I ask God for anything, I first
deal with my will.
I deal with my obedience.
Lord, I am bringing myself under subjection to
your will now.
I am ready to do.
I know I may hear something that I
don't want to do against my will, but,
oh, God, I'm committed to do your will.
His voice will come loud and clear.
That's, of course, if you're not living in
sin.
Number two, when God speaks under new covenant,
he never introduces himself when he speaks.
He never says, this is God speaking.
Now, under the old covenant, because there were
so few that were intimate with God, only
the prophets and a few priests and a
few of the saints of God were intimate
with God, the Lord always had to say,
thus saith the Lord, because they didn't believe
God.
There was no intimacy.
God had to say, this is God talking
to you.
But under the new covenant, you won't find
it in the New Testament.
You won't find, thus saith the Lord, anywhere
in the New Testament.
Can you imagine me calling my wife?
I'm coming home from New York, and I'm
on the car phone, and I said, Gwen,
this is David speaking.
She'd say, you've been taking too much barley
green.
I pick up the phone.
I just start talking, because she knows my
voice.
The first word I speak, she knows who
I am.
I get very suspicious when a still small
voice says, David, this is the Lord speaking.
Because there's something that rises up in me
saying, well, if this is the Lord, why
are you introducing yourself?
I would know you.
I know you.
We have people get up in church and
give words, and they use the old covenant
terms, thus saith the Lord.
I'm not saying that what they said was
not of God.
But I'm saying if you want to know
the voice of God, that still small voice,
he never introduces himself.
He just starts talking naturally.
It's called being at ease with the Father.
It's called knowing his voice.
My sheep know my voice.
They will flee from out there.
As soon as he opens his mouth, they'll
flee.
That's not my Father.
I don't care what he says he is.
Because the devil will always come saying, this
is God.
Are you hearing it?
God never has to introduce himself.
He always speaks naturally.
Still small voice.
And he always operates on the premise of
peace.
You will know it.
There'll be a peace that passes.
Not a false peace, but a genuine peace.
Thirdly, his voice is heard only when the
heart is fully surrendered to truth.
The scriptures, Jesus said, everyone that is of
the truth heareth my voice.
Now, let me talk to you about that
for just a minute before I close.
Everyone that is of the truth hears my
voice.
Who is the truth?
I am the way, the truth, and the
life.
It is Jesus.
What that means is that everyone that is
of the truth.
Now, this is a Christian, this is a
believer who is totally submitted to the all
-sufficiency of Christ.
In other words, Christ has become his whole
or her whole life.
And well, you know what that means for
me over the years?
I had somebody tell me recently, Dave, in
the last few years it seems to be
so peaceful.
And all the storm around you, there's a
calm right there.
What's happened?
What is it?
I came to this very truth.
Everyone that is of the truth heareth my
voice.
And I began to know his voice.
First of all, because he became my all
-sufficiency.
You know what that means to me?
I'm not waiting for anything to happen.
I'm not waiting for my ship to come
in.
My ship has arrived.
It's Jesus.
I'm not waiting for some good thing out
there that I've been wanting and longing for.
You know, some people, if I just had
the right job, if I just had the
right condition, if God would only send this
guy into my life or this woman in
my life.
I'm lonely.
Always waiting.
I'm not waiting for anything.
I am happy right here with Jesus where
I am with what I have.
What are you waiting for?
I know a woman's been waiting for 25
years for a man to wake up to
find out that he's in love with her
according to her.
She's getting gray and decrepit and she's still
waiting for the guy who doesn't give a
hoot about her.
Live all these years in misery waiting.
Give up your waiting, folks.
It's all right here in Jesus.
It's right here now in Christ.
And number two, I'm not expecting anything from
this life except my joy in Jesus.
I'm not expecting any human being around me
to meet my needs.
I love my wife, but she can't meet
that need in me and I can't meet
the need in her.
So I'm not about to try to put
demands on her, to try to expect her
to give me what I need to be
fulfilled in this life.
So quit looking.
I'm not looking to anybody.
You can't make me happy.
You love me.
Thank God for the love.
Thank God for all of that.
But Christ is my all-sufficiency.
He gives me my joy.
That means no matter what happens to my
family, no matter what happens to the economy,
no matter what happens around me, I have
a peace in me because he is all
in all.
Some of you are so miserable because you
say, my wife made me miserable.
My husband makes me miserable.
We don't get along.
Well, you get along with Jesus.
You quit expecting.
Stop trying to change somebody.
That's number three.
Listen, that's number three.
I'm not trying to change anybody except from
sin to Christ just to get people converted.
But nobody around me am I trying to
change.
I'm accepting them as they are.
I don't expect to change anybody around me
except by the word that is preached.
But I'm going to accept them just as
they are.
Why can't you accept your husband?
You've been married 25, 30 years.
You're not going to change him.
You're not going to change your wife.
Jesus has to do that.
That's the work of the Holy Ghost.
Why don't you take all the pressure off
and get so blessed with Jesus, so in
love with Jesus, so happy in Christ, your
husband's going to say, Who's making you happy?
Your wife, your husband, your wife.
It's Jesus, honey.
I'm so happy in Jesus.
And underneath your breath, you can say, I
don't care what you say to me.
You're not going to get my goat.
You can't bother me because I have my
all sufficiency in Christ.
You see, that's the person who's free.
Absolutely free.
Not waiting for anybody.
Not waiting for anything.
Not expecting something to happen in their life,
something to change.
But right now, today, I get up in
the morning.
Jesus, you're my joy.
You're my strength.
You're my hope.
Hallelujah.
Glory to God.
Will you stand?
Folks, my closing word to you is this.
The message I preached this morning is not
meant to cause you to fear in a
fleshly way, but to fear in a godly
way.
Godly fear.
I thank God that he's put his fear
in my heart.
Oh, yes.
I know.
I know that if I don't watch, if
I don't put on the whole armor of
God.
Why would Jesus say put on the whole
armor of God that you can withstand the
wiles of the devil?
If he wasn't trying to tell us that
we're vulnerable to his arrows, if we don't,
put on the armor.
Be careful.
Be watchful.
And some of you here this morning have
to admit that you're not hearing God's voice
clearly.
That one day you think you have, the
next day you don't know.
There's questions and you don't have peace.
People still bother you.
You've not come into the all-sufficiency of
Jesus Christ.
That's called his lordship.
And if you're here this morning in the
annex, balcony on the main floor here, if
there's something in your life and you've been
walking with the Lord and you've been walking
with the Spirit, the Spirit's told you.
You know it.
There's no question.
And I'm not here to try to pound
you into surrender or anything else, but I'm
here to tell you that you need to
repent.
Listen to me, please.
I know, as sure as I know my
name, that the Spirit of God was working
all through my preaching this morning.
And you know at what point the Spirit
of God touched you.
You knew exactly.
The Holy Ghost was saying, are you listening?
I brought you here this morning.
You're here.
This message is for you.
You know it.
The Spirit's confirmed it to you.
Now you have to do something about it.
I want you to ask the Lord to
give you a spirit of grace to repent.
Say, Lord, I'm sorry.
Maybe you've been watching things.
You've given your eyes to something, and the
enemy's been watching.
But you're not clear with the Lord.
You don't have that clear channel.
Something's blocking it.
I want you to get out of your
seat.
In the annex, go to the back doors,
the back of the auditorium, into the hall.
And the ushers will show you how to
come through the door into this auditorium and
come right down to the aisles here.
And let me pray with you.
And up in the balcony, go to the
stairs on either side.
Come down any aisle.
Please don't come unless the Spirit's drawing you.
If you feel the Spirit laying hold of
you, it's all, Brother Dave, I want to
hear God's voice.
But I've been walking in some confusion.
I want you to get out of your
seat.
Move in close, please.
There'll be a lot of people coming to
make room.
Move in close, if you will, please, as
close as you can.
Move in tight.
Listen to me, please.
Listen closely.
While I was standing here now, the Holy
Spirit whispered in my heart that I was
to bring you encouragement right now.
To speak a good word to you.
And here's the good word.
He says, the moment you are ready to
open your heart, He's ready to come in
with all that you need.
He's waiting.
He stands at the door and knocks.
He said, if you'll open to me, I'll
come in.
But see, He won't come in until you
open.
What that means, you open up to His
will.
You open up your heart to say, Jesus,
I'll do what you ask of me.
Jesus, I know that there's sin in my
life and I want victory over this.
Jesus, send the Holy Spirit with power to
help me because I can't do it myself.
You see, when you repent, repent.
Begin to seek the face of God.
You don't have to fear the devil.
You don't have to be afraid.
Now listen to me, please.
He cannot deceive, listen, He cannot deceive a
Christian who walks in repentance, who uses the
word of God to smite sin at the
first onslaught, who sets a guard in his
heart, who lives in an awareness.
Listen to me, please.
There's an awareness.
I'm not invincible.
I can fail God if I continue to
allow my eyes to look at evil things.
If I allow the devil to get a
ground in me, he has access to my
mind.
You sit and watch a filthy movie, the
devil sees it, he's going to, you've opened
up your mind.
He's going to come in and seduce you.
You say, Lord Jesus, help me to set
no evil thing before my eyes.
Set a guard in my heart.
And that's the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit, when you're about to
do something, He'll whisper to you, no, don't
go, don't do it.
Thank God, He's called the inner cop, the
inner policeman.
And He's there all the time.
He's faithful.
That's if you want Him to be.
I want you to pray this prayer with
me right now.
Jesus, thank you for your faithfulness, for loving
me, and speaking so strongly to my heart.
I receive your word now.
Let the word set me free.
For it's truth that sets free.
I repent, Lord Jesus.
I tell you I'm sorry for my sin,
all my sin.
I lay it down.
Lord Jesus, you know my heart.
You know the enemy's power.
But your power is greater.
Come now, Lord Jesus.
Keep me from the wicked one.
Set a guard in my heart by your
Holy Spirit.
Lord Jesus, cause me to tremble at your
word.
Help me to believe that you mean what
you say.
To honor this word and to obey it.
Now let me pray for you.
Heavenly Father, the prayer that I prayed became
theirs.
But it only works, Lord, if their heart
was in it.
Only if they were saying it from their
heart.
Lord Jesus, there's nothing hidden from your eyes.
And I thank you, Lord, that when we
bring those hidden things to the light.
We bring it to the word and we
bring it to you and we repent.
You said your faithfulness is just to forgive
us.
And to cleanse us from all.
All unrighteousness.
And Lord Jesus, at that very moment.
You said you can mark it down.
I'll begin to bless you.
I'll begin to honor you.
I'll begin to move in your heart.
And I will speak my love into your
heart.
You'll know my voice.
You'll follow me as I lead you to
green pastures and still waters.
Hallelujah.
I want you to raise your hands and
just thank God in your own words for
what he's doing in your life right now.
Just give him thanks.
Lord, I give you thanks.
I give you praise.
I thank you for moving in my heart.
You've heard my prayer.
You've cleansed me.
You've forgiven me.
Now, Lord, put in my heart to follow
you all the way.
All the way with you, Jesus.
Not halfway, but all the way with Christ.
My Lord.
Hallelujah.
Glory be to God.
This is the conclusion of the tape.