David Diga Hernandez - How to Hear the Voice of the Holy Spirit: 3 Keys

Let me start by saying that when I tell you I’m going to give you three biblical keys to hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit, it’s important that you understand I’m not giving you a man-made formula; I’m pulling truths from Scripture. Now, no one can know the voice of the Holy Spirit except by the Holy Spirit, so I can’t just teach you how to hear the voice of God. However, these three keys I’m providing are based on biblical truths; they are biblical realities, and these three keys will position you to be one who can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit for yourself. We must come to the place where we no longer accept the lie of the enemy—the lie of the enemy is this: the voice of God is difficult to hear. It has almost become the norm; Christians in general accept this idea, this notion, that the voice of the Holy Spirit is difficult to hear. They live a life struggling to hear God, never confident that He is speaking to them, never really clear about the direction for their lives. We want to avoid this at all costs because if you look in the Bible, the way believers moved—though they made mistakes, had downfalls, and days where they disobeyed God—they knew the voice of the Holy Spirit. So as we move through these truths, I want you to begin to let your faith be stirred, and I want you to reject that idea, reject that notion that the voice of the Holy Spirit is difficult to hear. Now, it’s important that you learn the voice of God because really there’s a lot of noise out there; just check social media—a lot of chatter. The devil speaks, demons speak, politicians speak, Hollywood speaks, the music industry speaks. I could go on: your emotions speak, your family speaks, your friends speak, your situation speaks. There are many foreign messages, many different ideas coming at you from all sorts of directions, and we must, as believers, rise above the noise lest we fall into the traps of not hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit. Here are some of the traps: number one, spiritual deafness. This is something we saw with Samson in Judges 16:20. The Bible says, «Then she cried out, ‘Samson, the Philistines have come to capture you! ’ When he woke up, he thought, ‘I will do as before and shake myself free, ’ but he didn’t realize the Lord had left him.» Now, we know, of course, that the Holy Spirit does not leave the believer—that’s John 14:16—but here, the Scripture tells of a consequence; really, it was the power of the Holy Spirit that was no longer active in him. I believe God was still with him in the sense that He’s omnipresent; God was still aware of his situation, but that active power in his life was diminished. Why? Because he did not heed the word of God; he did not heed the voice of God. He continued down the path of temptation, never once stopping, and incrementally, he gave up his strength. Why? Because he never listened to the voice that was speaking to him very clearly. He saw the Philistines coming to try to capture him several times, and I’m sure the Holy Spirit tried to speak to him about that situation, but never once did he pause. Instead, he remained plagued by spiritual deafness. Number two, His voice will help us avoid the sin of presumption. Now, I don’t believe Christians should live a paranoid lifestyle, constantly wondering if they’re stepping ahead of God. In fact, many Christians use the voice of God as an excuse to do nothing for Him. They’re waiting for the heavens to open for God to speak something very clearly and audibly even before they go out and do any ministry. This is not really the way God intended for us to do ministry. In fact, Paul the Apostle, when he was on his way to Asia, didn’t even pray about whether or not God wanted him to go there. You know how I know he didn’t pray about God’s will concerning Asia? I know he didn’t pray about Asia because, well, he was on his way there. The Holy Spirit stopped him. Why would the Holy Spirit stop him? Because it wasn’t His will. Clearly, Paul never prayed about it; he never said, «Lord, do You want me to go to Asia?» He just went because that’s where the gospel was needed, and the Lord stopped him because it wasn’t His will. So you can trust that the voice of God will guide you as you go. Here’s where danger comes in: danger comes in when you are so confident in your own ability that you forget to stop and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. You’re not going to get to heaven and find that God is going to send you to hell, or you’re not going to stand before God, I should say, and find that God is going to send you to hell because of, «Oh, I never called you to preach to those people; I never told you to share the gospel with that individual.» No, these are things God expects us to do based upon what His Word says. Don’t wait to hear in the Spirit what God has already commanded you to do in His Word, which is to go. So I’m not talking about paranoia; I’m talking about presumption—this stubborn motion forward where you just continue down that path regardless of any of the signs God is giving you. This is the sin of presumption.