Acts | Part 28 | Divine Guidance: How to Hear When God Speaks to You

·46 min·4 clips

A pastor uses a Magic 8-Ball to ask if his sermon will be lengthy, then reveals how Christians can actually hear God's voice.

The episode is a sermon from the 'Acts' series at Real Life Community Church, titled 'Divine Guidance: How to Hear When God Speaks to You.' Pastor Chris begins by reading Acts 16:1-10, which describes Paul's missionary journey with Silas, Timothy, and Luke. He uses a Magic 8-Ball to humorously contrast random answers with the certainty of God's guidance. The core message is that God's children are led by the Holy Spirit. The pastor argues that God primarily speaks through the Bible, using examples from Acts where scripture guided decisions. He warns that without scripture, believers may confuse God's voice with their own or even demonic influences. The sermon then explores how God guides through closed doors, as seen when the Holy Spirit forbade Paul from preaching in Asia. Pastor Chris shares a personal anecdote about an open door from a church in Arizona that he ultimately declined after prayer. He discusses dreams and visions, citing Hudson Taylor's dream about China and biblical prophecies. The pastor recounts a story where an evangelist gave him a prophetic warning about a move to Tucson, which he ignored, leading to health problems. He lists spiritual gifts like prophecy and words of knowledge as ways God speaks. The pastor emphasizes that God most often speaks internally through the Holy Spirit's nudges. He provides four questions to discern God's voice: alignment with scripture, Christlikeness, peace versus confusion, and confirmation by the church. To hear God more clearly, he advises being in the word, persistent prayer, total surrender to God, and removing distractions like smartphones. He cites statistics on phone usage, noting it averages 4.5 hours daily, and challenges listeners to spend five minutes daily without devices to listen for God's voice. The sermon closes with a story of a boy in the London Blitz finding peace upon hearing his father's voice, paralleling how hearing God brings peace amid chaos.

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