David Diga Hernandez - The Prophetic: How to Hear God

So, let’s begin by going to First Samuel, chapter number three. Here we see an interesting story about when God called Samuel into the prophetic ministry. Again, First Samuel, chapter three, and as usual, I’m reading from the New Living Translation. First Samuel, chapter three, beginning at verse number one. The scripture says, «Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli.» Now, in those days, messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon. One night, Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed. Now, let’s stop there for a second. I want you to notice something here: Samuel was assisting Eli, who was also prophetic. We read a lot about Eli in the scripture, and we know that Eli was by no means a perfect person. In fact, he had a very flawed character. There were many things he allowed in his life and in the lives of those around him that were very displeasing to the Lord. But still, we see this prophet of God, Samuel, serving his leader, serving the man whom God had placed over him, serving his spiritual covering. In other words, he was serving his soul. It doesn’t matter how flawed your spiritual covering is; you have to honor what God has placed in your life. This is one of the first keys to the prophetic. We also see that Samuel is serving. So, continuing with verse three, the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the tabernacle near the Ark of God. Suddenly, the Lord called out to Samuel. So, first of all, we see that he is serving his spiritual covering; he is serving in general. God will not call the lazy. Whenever He calls a man or a woman, He calls someone who is doing something. He calls someone who is active, not someone who is apathetically waiting around for things to change. These are the people God uses; they are people who put their hands to the plow. These are people who are busy with the Lord’s work. So we see him serving a spiritual covering, serving in general, and we see him sleeping in the tabernacle. He is actually near the Ark of God. Samuel stood near to the presence of God. A great problem we see in the prophetic is that many people want the power but not the presence. They want the gifts but not the glory. They want to demonstrate what they can do in their spiritual gifting, but they don’t demonstrate how Christ wants them to be in their everyday character as believers. So, Samuel hears the voice of God. «Yes,» Samuel replied, «What is it?» He got up and ran to Eli. «Here I am. Did you call me?» «I didn’t call you,» Eli replied. «Go back to bed.» So he did. Now, Eli right then and there should have recognized that it was the voice of God calling out to Samuel, but again, the scripture tells us that the Word of God was rare in those days, so Eli failed to recognize the voice of God. He wasn’t necessarily the best mentor, but we go on reading. Verse six: «Then the Lord called out again, 'Samuel! '» And again, Samuel got up and went to Eli. «Here I am. Did you call me?» «I didn’t call you, my son,» Eli said. «Go back to bed.» Samuel did not yet know the Lord because he had never had a message from the Lord before. So the Lord called out a third time, and once more, Samuel got up and went to Eli. «Here I am. Did you call me?» Then Eli realized it was the Lord who was calling the boy. Finally, the spiritual covering recognizes him; his mentor recognizes that God is calling the boy. What’s interesting to me is that Samuel heard the voice of God, and it sounded a lot like the voice of his spiritual covering. Now, you notice I’m emphasizing spiritual covering because, generally speaking—and yes, I’m using a generalization since generalizations generally work—not all the time, but generally speaking, prophetic people don’t necessarily like to be under a spiritual covering, which is a biblical idea. I know we don’t hear much thought about that in our generation, especially nowadays, but it’s the biblical truth. God has given each of us a spiritual covering, not to lord over us but to guide us in holiness and in the Word of God, to teach us. But Samuel heard the voice of God and mistook it for the voice of his mentor. So Eli finally recognizes, «Okay, this is God.» So the Lord called out to Samuel a third time. We see Eli recognizes it. Continuing to read in verse nine, so he said to Samuel, «Go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, 'Speak, Lord; your servant is listening.'» So Samuel went back to bed, and the Lord came and called as before, «Samuel! Samuel!» And Samuel replied, «Speak; your servant is listening.» Now, what’s interesting to me here is that Samuel heard the voice of God before he recognized the voice of God. In John chapter 10, verse 27, Jesus said, «My sheep hear my voice.» So the question when it comes to the prophetic is not, «Can I hear the voice of God?» The question is, «Are you His sheep? Do you belong to Him?» And if you belong to Him, then you will most certainly hear the voice of God. In fact, the most powerful truth I can give you concerning the voice of God, if you’re a believer, is that you already hear the voice of God; it’s just a matter of recognizing Him. Generally speaking, there are three categories of voices that speak to us, everything that we…