Hindrances to Hearing God's Guidance
00:00 We Need God to Guide Us
2:17 God Wants to Guide You
3:19 6 Common Reasons We Don’t Hear God’s Guidance
3:30 #1 We don’t believe God will talk to us
5:09 #2 Sin
6:21 #3 Intentional Disobedience – Doing What we Want to Do
7:44 #4 You Don’t Have Because You Don’t Ask
8:31 #5 Confusion
9:27 # 6 Discouragement And giving up
10:55 Activation
*We Need God to Guide Us
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
Proverbs 16:1, Jeremiah 17:9-10 NIV
Do not lean on your own understanding. Ask God.
God Wants to Guide You
Jeremiah 29:11
God’s plans are specific and personal to you.
Ephesians 2:10 NIV
God's Plan is for You to Walk with Him – guided step by step
Psalm 37:23, Jeremiah 10:23, Proverbs 20:24, Proverbs 16:9
6 Common Reasons We Don’t Hear God’s Guidance
#1 We don’t believe God will talk to us.
I’ve taught courses about hearing God 3 times – online twice, and to a group of university students. There were Christians in each of those classes who said they had never heard from God. By the end of each course, every single person had heard God multiple times.
God is speaking to you.
Isaiah 65:24 NLT, Jeremiah 33:3 NIV,
You can hear God.
Jesus said: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27.
Faith comes from the experience of hearing Jesus.
Romans 10:17 NKJV, Hebrews 11:6 NIV, Romans 8:14
#2 Sin
When we approach God with sin in our lives, we have no confidence. It affects our faith. Our consciences bother us. We need to get rid of our sin to boldly (with great faith) approach God for help.
1 John 3:21-22, James 4:7-10 NIV, Hebrews 4:16 NIV
It is Our faith that gives us victory. 1 John 5:4
#3 Intentional Disobedience – Doing What we Want to Do
James 4:2-3
#4 You Don’t Have Because You Don’t Ask
Psalm 105:4, Jeremiah 29:13
Matthew 7:7-8
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”
#5 Confusion
1 Corinthians 14:33 NKJV
For God is not the author of confusion but of peace…
See Philippians 4:7 NIV
Don’t do anything when you are confused. Wait on God and Pray through to peace.
# 6 Discouragement And giving up.
God promised Abraham he would become the father of many nations. Abraham was 75 at the time. 9,125 days later, God fulfilled that promise when Sarah bore him a son. She was 90. Abraham was 100.
Hebrews 10:35 NASB
Hebrews 6:12 NIV
… imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.
There are other reason you may not hear God, but these are 6 common reasons.
Activation:
Use this as a checklist. If you need guidance from God and aren’t hearing him clearly, ask these questions:
1. Do I have faith to believe God will talk to me about this?
2. Father, is there sin in my life?
3. Am I intentionally disobeying God? Am I doing what I want to do, not what God wants me to do?
4. Am my passive or indifferent about this or am I actively pursuing God and his answer in this area?
5. Am I confused here? If so, pray through to peace.
6. Am I waiting with faith and endurance? Biblical patience means that your faith is actually getting stronger as you wait. By faith and endurance you will receive God’s promise.
7. Have I done the last thing that God showed me to do in this area? In my life overall?
8 Finally, father, is something else keeping me from hearing you? Please reveal it to me and remove it. Thank you, father. I surrender to your will, knowi