How to Think like Jesus Christ - Lesson 7 "My Sheep Hear My Voice"

Let’s have a BIG dose of Psychology in this Lesson because there is such a rare animal as Christian Psychology!

If you and I really are going to think like Jesus Christ in what I’d call, “Real Time,” you and I are going to have to learn to recognise His Voice.

We are commanded in Scripture to ‘test the spirits’ and thus, not to believe everything we think, nor everything we think we hear from God.

1 John 4

Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Prophesy in Church should be judged!  1 Corinthians 14 gives so much practical guidance for how a church meeting should be structured including…

“Let the prophets speak, two or three, and let the others discern.”

God did not stop speaking at the end of the Book of Revelation!

Jesus says,

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”  

[John 10:27-28]

We should desire to get ‘real-time’ updates from The Spirit of Jesus – The Holy Spirit – The Spirit of Truth Who will,

“guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you things that are coming.”  

[John 16:13]

By the way, the whole ‘real-time’ reference comes from the digital display on our local Bus Stop.  It frequently says, “No real-time information available,” and that speaks to me every time I see it!  How many of us live our lives before God like that?  For most Christians, day-to-day Christianity is guesswork… though well-informed guesswork.

Lesson 7 is very easy at one level: read the Word – that is how to recognise God’s voice.  If what you ‘hear’ or think contradicts the Word, what you are hearing isn’t of God.

But here’s the challenging part: if what you hear is in line with the Word of God, it still might not be God speaking to you!  Remember Lesson 6, “In Temptation”!  

There is a right time for every Scripture to come to pass.  (Remember Lesson 3?  God’s timing is not always our timing – in fact, it rarely is!)

The more challenging part of this Lesson is to discuss the ‘tone’ of God’s personal Rhema to us.  Just because the Word says others have walked on water, that doesn’t mean we should give it a bash.  That’s testing God (see Lesson 6!)

We need to be able to recognise ‘real-time’ revelation to us for application in each specific situation.  Mother doesn’t help.

What do I mean?

My mum had a very weird theology.

I was a pretty compliant kid, but when I was very small, she’d upset me so I stuck my tongue out at her behind her back – thinking she couldn’t see.

I was standing on the steps leading up to the kitchen from the Garden.

I stuck out my tongue, stepped back, put my foot inadvertently in my toy wheelbarrow, and went flying.  The landing wasn’t a good one.  I was in tears.

What happened next scarred my relationship with God for decades.

The voice of our parents should be like the Voice of God – each word a vessel containing Truth.  Mother said to me, “That’s God’s punishment.”

I don’t know where my mother’s theology came from, but I knew I had done wrong, and I knew I was hurting, and it sure felt like God’s punishment!

Here’s where the Christian Psychology comes in.  It’s called “Projection” – the phenomenon of projecting the characteristics of one person or situation onto another.

Most Christians project the image of their parents (and their experience of the love and upbringing their parents put them through) onto God.  This is why so many people have an issue with the Fatherhood of God.  Their model is flawed.

When I became Born Again, I carried over a projection of my mother’s theological model of a vindictive and spiteful God who gives or at least lets children die of starvation, cancer, and get abused by monsters like (Sir) Jimmy Saville.

That is NOT my current model.

We are at War.

Innocent children will continue to be casualties until the Children of God are properly trained to manifest their Divine destiny to be like Christ.  Our mission is to put the ‘Christ’ part back into each Christian.  When that happens the blind will see again, the lame will leap and dance for joy, the sick will be healed, the dead will be raised, the unclean will be made clean, the unholy will be made holy, and those who are imprisoned by anything will be set free!  Oh, how the power in those words excited me as I typed them this morning!

Let’s talk about the ‘Tone’ of God’s voice.

The voice of god through my mother had the wrong tone.  I don’t know what ‘god’ it was but it wasn’t the Father of Lights Who gives every good and perfect gift.

Our key to interpreting the tone of the Holy Spirit is as powerful at the Rosetta Stone in unlocking our understanding of hieroglyphics.

The key is the Fruit of the Spirit.  This is in Galatians chapter 5 and the fact that it begins with ‘but’ means that it would be good for you to go and study the whole chapter.

Here’s the segment we are going to focus on in this Lesson.

But the fruit of the Spirit is…

·      love, 

·      joy, 

·      peace, 

·      patience, 

·      kindness, 

·      goodness, 

·      faith, 

·      gentleness, and 

·      self-control. 

Against such things there is no law.

[End Quote]

Hear me carefully… What the Spirit of Truth says to you should bring you Joy – as an element of the Fruit of the Spirit… but not always so.

I have committed adultery – and that as a professing Christian Minister.

That's a disgrace.

King David did the same and repented as I have.

However, that didn’t stop the consequences – in David’s case the death of an innocent baby – in my case, years of suffering for my children (and for myself).  The wages of sin is death, so says Paul.  Sin brings misery.  God can mitigate many of the consequences, but sin will never bring you joy and putting matters right is unlikely to be a joyful process as we clear up and clean up the mess.

God’s prophet came to David and delivered the truth: the child would die.

Nothing David could do would stop that.

Thus you need to take what I say as general guidelines - not absolute truth.

If you break the covenant of marriage, or sin in any other way, God’s Word of correction may not be a joy-bringer!

That said, the tone of the Holy Spirit is always one of love.

It usually brings joy.  And both David and I have known joy after repentance.

God’s Word – His Voice - brings peace.

In fact, The Way of Peace, is a technique I teach to discover the Divine Guidance for your path ahead.

The Holy Spirit’s tone is always patient – and never like an irritated or tired parent.

The Holy Spirit’s tone is always kind and gentle.  He is The Comforter.

The Holy Spirit’s guidance is good for you – full of goodness.

This does not mean He is weak and wishy-washy.

God still permits sinners to be slain.

Ananias and Saphira tested God (remember Lesson 6 – do not put the Lord your God to the test!) and they died.  It does not say that God killed them, but the wages of sin are death, testing God is a sin, and they died.  It is only by the grace and mercy of God (AND by the blood of Jesus) that I am not dead.

So that you know the truth of what I am saying, hear Acts 5:1-11

But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, his wife also being aware of it, then brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the price of the land? While you kept it, didn’t it remain your own? After it was sold, wasn’t it in your power? How is it that you have conceived this thing in your heart? You haven’t lied to men, but to God.”

Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and died. Great fear came on all who heard these things. The young men arose and wrapped him up, and they carried him out and buried him. About three hours later, his wife, not knowing what had happened, came in. Peter answered her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.”

She said, “Yes, for so much.”

But Peter asked her, “How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.”

She fell down immediately at his feet and died. The young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her by her husband. Great fear came on the whole assembly, and on all who heard these things.

[End Quote]

The Holy Spirit is The Spirit of Truth.

All breakthroughs begin with telling the truth.

Get this – Ananias and Sapphira were doing good!!!

They sold a possession – some land - and gave part of it to God.

There is nothing wrong with this – in fact, it is praiseworthy.

The sin was in the pretence.

If they’d said, “Here are some of the profits from the sale of the land,” God would have been pleased with their sacrifice, their gift, their offering.  But for some unknown reason, they opened their hearts to be filled with the deceptive practices of satan… the father of all lies.

Don’t lie to God.

Tell the truth – especially the uncomfortable truth.

God isn’t interested in your ego.

Humble yourself…

…then He will exalt you in due season, and you will shine like the star you are!

Finally, a word to parents.

If you are a parent reading this, watching the video, or listening to the podcast, you are supposed to be the Voice of God to your children.  The last element of the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit is ‘self-control’.  God never loses His temper.  His patience may be tried but He never loses control.  When Jesus cleansed the Temple, He was in control of His emotions.  Some anger is good anger (though not much!)

Thus, parents, you and I know the shame we feel when we lose control and say things we can’t take back.

All of us know this in our relationships.

When we lose it, we lose.

Let’s pray for the Holy Spirit to continue His amazing training programme with us until we are ‘like’ our Teacher.  We are all a ‘work in progress’.

Now to him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy, to God our Saviour, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.

[Jude 24-25]