God Speaks Through Others

All right. Well, let’s go ahead and get into the Word this morning. If you have your Bibles, can we hold these up together? How many of you know His Word is life, and His Word is truth? Amen.

Let’s pray. Father, we open our hearts, Lord, to receive from Your Word. Lord, I thank You that You are already speaking in this place — that You are already bringing revelation of truth. And Holy Spirit, we thank You that You teach us; You guide us into all truth. So Lord, we open our hearts today to hear You speak a word that will change our lives forever. In Jesus’ name, amen.

My sheep hear My voice

Well, if you have your Bibles, turn with me to the Book of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 1. We’re going to be in Proverbs quite a bit today. We’re continuing this series; we’ve been talking about hearing God’s voice. Everybody say, “Hearing God’s voice.” How many of you know it is important for believers to hear God’s voice? Because there is a lot of confusion. There are a lot of other voices in this world. And there’s an adversary that wants nothing more than to get into your ear and into your heart with lies, with deceit, to get you off track and utterly destroy your life. And it seems like there’s more confusion today than ever. It seems like there are more questions. There are more “truths” that are not truths. And we need to be able to hear God’s voice.

How many of you remember Jesus said in John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me”? My sheep hear My voice. How many of you know, if you are a believer in Christ Jesus — if you are born again — Jesus wants you to hear Him speak? He wants you to know what He has said. He wants you to know what He is saying. He says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” Listen to verse 28. He says, “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” So Jesus is saying, “Listen, I have done a strong work in you.” Somebody say amen. What God has done in you through Jesus is a strong work. And He’s saying, “Because of what I have done, you will not be snatched out.”

But how many of you know we need to be able to hear His voice — to be led by Him? And so the Bible talks about how God speaks to us all the time, but many people are deaf to the voice of God. There is a spiritual deafness on many believers, because number one, maybe they don’t know how to hear God. They don’t know the different ways that God speaks. Or potentially their heart is not in the right place to hear God speak. How many of you know to hear God, you have to have a heart that hears? Amen.

It is a shame that oftentimes Jesus Himself will come into the room and people will miss Him because their heart is not in the right place — because they’re too concerned about everything going on around them. Maybe it’s not their worship style, or maybe the speaker isn’t very eloquent. But how many of you know Jesus can be right there, and we can miss it if our heart’s not in the right place? And so we’ve talked about how to have hearts that can hear, hearts that are prepared to hear. We’ve talked about how God speaks through His Word, how God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit, how God speaks to us through the voice of our spirit. And I want to talk today about how God speaks through others.

God speaks through others. Aren’t you thankful that sometimes, when we’re not hearing so well, God is so gracious and so merciful that He will send people into our lives to deliver truth, to speak truth? I don’t know about you, but have any of you ever been in a funk? Like you’re just off — “I don’t know, I don’t feel like I’ve heard God, I feel like I am in a bad place.” And you have that moment where a brother or sister in the Lord comes to you and delivers a timely word, and all of a sudden it brings you right back to Him. Amen. God is so good. He uses others to speak to us.

And so I want to share five ways that God speaks through others. Man, I’m so thankful. It is a wonder and it is a mystery that the almighty God, who created us, who formed us, who created the whole universe, would speak to us personally. He doesn’t just speak to the spiritually elite. He doesn’t just speak to pastors. He doesn’t just speak to prophets. Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice.” My sheep hear My voice. I want to be someone who is in a position to hear the things of God. Amen.

And if you’ve made Jesus the Lord of your life — if you’re here today and maybe there’s some sin in your life — how many of you know when Jesus gave His life, He took that sin, He took that iniquity, and it was nailed to the cross? And He defeated death. He rose from the grave so that you could be born again. Your spirit that was dead inside is now reborn. And Jesus is saying, “You will hear My voice, and you will not be snatched away.” Listen, some of you need to hear that. If you’ve made Jesus the Lord of your life, you are born again. You are alive on the inside. You have been made right with God. And Jesus is saying, “You will hear My voice, and you will not be snatched away.” Amen. God is good. That is humbling to think of.

Through wise people

Five ways that God speaks to us through others. Number one: God speaks through wise people. God speaks through wise people. Listen to Proverbs chapter 1 — I had you turn there — verse 5. It says, “A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel.” Let me read that again: “A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel.” And so we see two things here. A wise man, number one, hears. But a wise man also goes out to attain counsel.

Maybe you’ve observed this over the years — maybe it’s in your workplace — but there are people that just don’t like to listen to other people. They don’t want to hear advice. They don’t want to receive correction. But how many of you know if what you knew was enough, then you would already be where you need to be? We have to have hearts that are able to hear. And as we said, sometimes when our hearts aren’t in a place to receive from God, God is so merciful, and in His grace He still sends people to speak to us. Now, we may not like what we hear. Correction isn’t fun. Our flesh will oftentimes be like, “Well, I don’t like that. I don’t like to be corrected.” We may not want to receive it. But how many of you know a wise man seeks counsel? A wise man looks for advice. A wise man will look for correction. And so God will send people to speak wisdom. It’s one of the ways that God’s chosen to speak to us.

How many of you remember last week we looked at Acts 15, and we were talking about how the early church was making a big decision? The apostles and the elders had to make a big decision about whether or not Gentiles needed to keep the law. And we talked about how they were led by an inward witness. But how many of you know that started when Peter and James stood up and spoke wisdom, and that wisdom resonated in their spirits because of the Holy Spirit? They were led by an inward witness, but it began when Peter and James spoke wisdom.

And so other people will come to you — and because you’re born again, because you have the Holy Spirit inside of you, because you have a born-again spirit — people will come to you and they will speak truth. They will speak wisdom. And because you are one with God, because you have a born-again spirit, how many of you know it will affirm on the inside that this is from the Lord? You may not like it. How many of you know you may not always like the things that God speaks — the adjustments that you need to make in life, the things that He’ll say? “I need you to stop listening to this type of music. I need you to stop watching this show. I need you to get off of social media. I need you to stop hanging out with certain friends.” And your flesh will say, “Well, I want to do what I want to do. I want to be with the people I want to be with. Those are my friends. I don’t want to be a bad friend.” But how many of you know we need to be obedient to the voice of the Lord? And so the Lord will speak through people. And when it is spoken in truth, when it is spoken in love, when it is led by God, how many of you know it will resonate on the inside? Amen. And you know it’s the Lord.

Through correction

So, number one: God will speak through wise people. But number two, another way God speaks through others is that God speaks through correction. Tell somebody next to you, “This one’s for you.” God speaks through correction.

Now listen to Proverbs 13:18. It says, “Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction, but he who regards a rebuke will be honored.” In other words, you will literally lose money and lose reputation — oh, the batteries. Thank you. Thank you. He’s making it so our online folks can still hear. Let me read this again: “Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction, but he who regards a rebuke will be honored.” Oh, we’re good, we’re good. All right, I’m going to read it a third time, because apparently the Lord really wants you all to hear this. That was funnier than you all gave me credit for. All right: “Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction, but he who regards a rebuke will be honored.” Literally, you will lose money and reputation if you refuse to be corrected.

And sometimes people are so awful at receiving correction that they’ll punish the person who’s giving the correction. How many of you can relate to this? Maybe you’ve been in a place and you notice that one of your bros — maybe his zipper was down — and you go under your breath and give him a little nudge, and you’re like, “Hey, bro, your zipper’s down.” Now, that can be received one of two ways. Sometimes they’ll be like, “Oh, thank you,” and they’ll just politely turn and fix themselves. But sometimes you can say, “Hey, bro, your zipper’s down,” and they’ll say something like, “Yeah, well, look at your face.” Or maybe you’re doing fantasy football — I just had a draft last night with some of my friends — and you can be like, “Hey, bro, what do you think about my team?” “Yeah, that’s okay.” And then the response can be like, “Man, that’s better than anything you could ever do.” There are times where we don’t like correction, and we will come against the person that is delivering the correction. It can be difficult for people to receive correction.

I remember one time — I was younger, and I was a new driver — my dad asked me as I was about to leave, “Where are you going?” And I go, “Oh, I’m heading over to this town. I’m going to go to a friend’s house.” And he said, “Oh, yeah, be careful. Just watch out — there are cops out. Be careful, don’t speed or anything like that.” And I think I even said, “Yeah, yeah, it’ll be fine.” And I hadn’t gotten a ticket yet. So I go off, I’m going to my friend’s, I’m just doing my thing, jamming out to the radio, and all of a sudden I see the lights behind me, and I get a ticket. Listen, God will speak through others. And some people don’t want correction, but poverty and shame come when we don’t allow it in our lives.

Listen to Proverbs 15:31. It says, “The ear that hears the rebukes of life will abide among the wise.” How many of you know some of the smartest, most talented, most gifted people will remain in the same position simply because they cannot be corrected? Simply because there’s too much pride, they never reach their potential, because pride keeps them from being able to receive correction. And so the better you receive correction, the faster you can get to where God wants you to be.

Listen to Proverbs 6:23: “Reproofs of instruction are the way of life.” Reproofs of instruction. How many of you know if you’re not being corrected, there’s probably some cause for concern? If there is not someone speaking into your life, if there’s not someone bringing correction in love — of course, we need to have the right attitude, we need to have the right heart — but if there is not someone bringing correction to your life, you’d better start calling out to the Lord. Because maybe it’s because you’ve resisted correction for so long. Maybe you’ve been functioning in pride for so long. We need to call out to the Lord, and we need His grace to come.

I remember early on, I was an intern at a church, and I was sitting with a pastor during worship. There were multiple services, and during the first service he noticed that there was a piece of equipment on stage that was out of place. And he’s like, “Hey, after this service, I want you to go and fix that. It looks a little sloppy.” And I was like, “Oh, yeah, okay.” So I go between services and I’m trying to fix it, and because of the tension, it just kept going back to its original spot. And I remember during the second service, I was worshiping, and all of a sudden I feel the pastor give me a little nudge, and he goes, “I thought I asked you to fix that.” And I began to go through the list of why I couldn’t do it, why it wouldn’t work. I was like, “Well, you see, what happened was…” and I gave him this long list. And he didn’t respond. He just looked at me. And I recognized in that moment, oh — I’m not here to just tell you what I know. I’m here to learn from you.

There were things that were being instilled, things that were being taught to me, but I needed to be in a place of humility. And there was that initial reaction. How many of you know when there’s correction, sometimes there’s that reaction: “Well, you don’t understand. There’s a reason I couldn’t do it. There was a reason I couldn’t be in obedience. There was a reason I couldn’t get the job done.” But how many of you know when we’re able to step down in humility, we are actually stepping up? Amen. There are things that God wants to speak. And so God speaks through correction. Amen.

Through godly friends

Number three: God speaks through godly friends. God speaks through godly friends. There’s a key word there: godly friends. Maybe some of you have heard this before: “Show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future.” That is a common statement. God speaks through godly friends. Everybody say, “Godly friends.”

Listen to Proverbs 13:20. It says, “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.” All right, if we’ve got some highlighters in here, we should start seeing some highlighting going on right here. Notice: “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.” Listen to Proverbs 12:1: “Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.” I know — the Bible just kind of drops it right there.

I remember I was in a workplace — and maybe you’ve been in a workplace like this — where the whole vibe was a little south. Everybody from the top down just had a bad attitude. There was sarcasm. There was making fun of people. Everybody was doing this. And I remember being there, and I noticed after some time I started doing the same thing. I started talking like that. I started thinking about people the way that they thought about people. I started making fun of people. Well, how many of you know that started carrying into the different places of my life? And I started to notice that when I would talk like that in those other places, it would cause a separation in relationships — that people didn’t want to be around me.

And what we think so often is that we can be around people but we don’t necessarily need to become like them. But the Bible says no — you become like who you surround yourself with. And notice it doesn’t say that just the fool is destroyed. What does it say? “The companion of fools will be destroyed.” It’s not just the fool; it’s the companion of fools. Sometimes we think we can be around them and not become them. But it says, “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.”

How many of you know it is important to surround yourself with godly friends? I’m not saying perfect friends or perfect people — there’s nobody perfect. But there are people who genuinely love the Lord, who are walking with the Lord, who are seeking to be led by His Spirit. Amen. And we need those kinds of people in our lives. Some of you know that’s why church is so important — to do life with people who are not just like-minded, but are serving the same King, who have submitted themselves to someone greater, who are abandoning themselves and giving their life and their all to the Lord. And when we surround ourselves with people like that, how many of you know God will use those friends and those relationships to bring correction, to speak life, to bring change? Amen.

So God speaks through godly friends. How many of you know sometimes God will say, “You need to change the people that you’re around,” and the enemy will say, “Well, that makes you a bad friend”? But how many of you know it is not worth your eternity to just be around people that really have no intention to change? Amen. God speaks through godly friends.

Through godly parents

Here’s one for the younger people, but it’s for everybody. Number four: God speaks through godly parents. God speaks through godly parents. Listen to Ephesians 6, verse 1: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother,’ which is the first commandment with promise: ‘that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.’”

Notice, this is a promise from God Himself: honor your father and mother, that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. If you will live in a place where you honor your mother and father, God is saying, “I will promise you a long life.” Isn’t that so interesting? How many people unnecessarily cut their life short because they simply will not honor their parents? Now, how many of you know you can disagree with your parents but not be disagreeable? Parents get it wrong too. But how many of you know there’s a way to still honor them in those times? You can still honor and respect people when you don’t agree with them.

Listen to Proverbs chapter 1, verse 8. It says, “My son, hear the instruction of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother; for they will be a graceful ornament on your head, and chains about your neck.” Listen, honoring your mother and father will literally decorate your life with good things. Honoring your parents will decorate your life with good things. God makes a significant promise when we live in a place of honor to our parents.

And sometimes we can get so caught up, especially when we’re younger. I remember those young years where I thought I knew everything. I thought, “You know what? My parents just don’t understand. They didn’t have to go through the things that I’m going through. They’re outdated. They don’t really get my situation. They don’t know what it’s like to be in today’s world.” But how many of you know if you will listen to their instruction and you will honor them, your life will be blessed by God? Amen.

Proverbs 23:22 says, “Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old.” Now, this is interesting, because it’s not just when you’re young. How many of you know we’re supposed to always be doing this — to respect them and to honor them, always? The way that we honor is the means by which God blesses our lives. So God speaks through godly parents.

Through godly leaders

Now, number five: God speaks through godly leaders. Everybody say, “Godly leaders.” How many of you are thankful for godly leaders? Oh, man, I have been so blessed by people that God has put in my life to lead me through difficult things. And by the grace of God, He will surround you and plant you in places where there are godly people that will pray with you, that will care for you, and that will speak life and correction into your life. Amen.

Hebrews 13:17 says, “Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief.” In other words, what is it saying here? Be easy to lead. Be easy, because there is so much on a spiritual leader’s plate. There is so much that he is being held accountable for. Amen. There is a weight. There is a difficulty. That’s why the Bible says do not rush to teach the Word of God. Why? Because there’s a higher level of accountability on your life. When you start preaching the Word, your life will get immediately more difficult. When you start speaking into the lives of others, how many of you know the weight gets bigger? The spiritual weight is not a bad thing; this is the right thing. But the Bible’s saying, don’t make it difficult. Be easy. Be easy to lead.

“Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable” — for who? — “for you.” Sometimes we like to think, “Well, if I can make it difficult for them, then I’m going to get back at them. If I don’t like the way that I’m being led, I can be stubborn, I can have an attitude, and that will make them pay.” But who is it unprofitable for? It’s unprofitable for you. Amen. Be easy to be led. God will put people in our lives that will give us wisdom that we don’t already have — people who have learned from God’s Word, who have learned from the Holy Spirit, who have learned from experience and from the lives of other people. Amen. And the Bible says, “Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.”

The parking lot ministry

You can tell those early years of ministry were pretty formative for me. I remember I was being mentored. I was in a program while I was in Bible college, and I was leading worship in the youth group. And man, that’s what I loved. I loved leading worship. I loved leading people into the presence of the Lord. And it was good. The youth were worshiping. The worship pastor was like, “Man, that was so anointed and good.”

And I remember the next day I get called in by the senior pastor, and he goes, “Hey, we have a need. I would like for you to lead the parking lot ministry.” And I looked at him and I’m like, “What?” He’s like, “Yeah. There are so many people coming right now with multiple services. There are traffic jams. We’ve had an accident. We need some order brought to the parking lot, and I need you to help facilitate that.” And I remember saying, “You know, Pastor, I don’t think I’m called to the parking lot ministry. I don’t feel like that’s my anointing. I’m really tuned in right now, and things are happening in the worship ministry with the youth. I would really love to just do that. I just don’t think I’m called to that.” And then I remember he said, “Yeah, but I’m asking you to do the parking lot ministry.” And I was like, “Didn’t you just hear what I just said? Does he not realize what God is doing — how God is moving?”

And I had already been worked on quite a bit, so I remember I very reluctantly agreed, and I began to do the parking ministry. I have stories to tell about this. But I also remember all the things that I learned during that time — about leading other people, about coming from a place of humility. It was humbling, going from being on stage, leading people into the presence of the Lord, to now being in an orange vest with orange wands, directing traffic. And it was exactly what God wanted for me — where I was serving people, where I was helping people. I was greeting people in the parking lot before they stepped foot in the building. I was helping people learn to serve and walk in humility. Because how many of you know it’s really hard to get volunteers for the parking ministry? It is really hard. Nobody’s called to the parking ministry. I didn’t think so.

But I’m telling you, there are things that I learned from that that have shaped everything that I do today — how I see people, how I serve people. How many of you know it equipped me better than what I could have come up with on my own? God’s path and God’s plan — He spoke through my leader, and He placed me in a place that was better than what I could have come up with on my own. Amen. You see, if I had listened to my leader, I would have missed it — if I would have had my way, I would have missed it. Oh, and there was such a work that the Lord did in my heart. He needed to, because it was the parking ministry.

But listen, there is something about following leaders even when they don’t know. He did not know everything I would get out of that. He didn’t know how the Lord would minister to me, how He would shape my heart. He didn’t know those things. There was a need, and he asked me to fill it. But because I positioned my heart just enough — oh, the Lord spoke. He used me. And I will tell you, by the end of that time, I didn’t want to leave the parking ministry. When that opportunity to lead worship came back up, I was like, “I can’t. I’ve got to help people park.” There were things happening in that time.

God is good, and He knows how to lead us. And He will put people in our lives to lead us in ways that maybe we never would have expected — maybe asking us to do things that we don’t necessarily want to do. But listen, if we will humble ourselves and allow God to minister to us through those times, I am telling you, He will grow you, He will shape you, and He will equip you better than you could ever do on your own. There are things that we oftentimes think we need, but how many of you know God knows what we really need? And honestly, most of the time, it’s not the fun stuff. It’s usually hard work. God’s after your heart. Amen. And a lot of times we need a lot of work.

God speaks through others. He leads us through others. If we would just have hearts that are humble enough to receive correction, to allow others to speak into our lives and really, sincerely receive it, and allow the Lord to make it resonate or not. How many of you know, though, there are times where people will speak and you know it’s not the Lord? Sometimes people will say things and it’s a lie. You know it doesn’t resonate. But God speaks through others, and we need to have hearts that are open to be led by Him through other people. Amen.

Let’s do this. We’re going to stand together, and I’m just going to ask that we lift our hands to the Lord. I believe every person here wants to hear the Lord speak to them. And we’ve been talking about the different ways that God speaks. This is just one of the ways. But how many of you know God loves you and He has a plan for your life? Amen. Listen, I’m going to say it again, because some of you think God doesn’t care, or that you’re a lost cause. Listen, that is a lie. God loves you. He has a plan for your life.

And so I’m going to ask that we bow our heads, close our eyes, and that we just surrender to Him. Maybe lift your hands to the Lord. I believe that the Lord is speaking with such a simple message, but that there are just some simple adjustments that the Lord is asking some of us to make, because He is looking to unlock the life He’s already prepared for you. And you’ve been going in the wrong direction. You’ve been thinking the wrong things are what’s needed. But He knows exactly what you need. And so I believe God is speaking to you today. He’s saying, “I love you. I want to lead you, and I want to be in relationship with you — to free you from bondage, to bring healing to your life, to bring healing from sickness, to provide for needs.” But sometimes it takes someone to help you get into a position to receive those things. We serve a real God who really loves us. And so let’s just commit ourselves to open up to God speaking.

Father, we open our hearts. We open up our lives, Lord. I thank You, Lord, that in Your grace You do whatever it takes to speak to us, to lead us. And God, I know that You are able to help us be more than what maybe some of us are being right now. But we need You to help. We need You to lead us. And so, Lord, I ask that You would forgive us of our sins. I thank You, Jesus, that You paid for every sin — past, present, and future. And, Lord, You are asking us just to release pride, to release fear, and say, “God, I’m opening up. Take charge of my life right now,” in Jesus’ name.

Lord, we rebuke every lie of the adversary that would say, “You’re not going to get it. You’re not good enough for God to speak.” Lord, I thank You that in Your grace You say, “My sheep hear My voice” — that we will hear Your voice, and we will not be snatched away. We will not be a lost cause. We will not be broken. But, Lord, You are leading us by Your Spirit. You are speaking to us through Your Word and through Your Spirit, and You are helping us to become the people You’ve called us to be.

And so, Lord, I release in Jesus’ name a special ability, Lord, that deaf ears — spiritually deaf ears — would be opened, in Jesus’ name. Lord, that You would bring healing to our hearts. Lord, that You would cause us to hear again, to see again, in Jesus’ name. Lord, that we would make the adjustments — that when we hear those simple adjustments, about maybe changing some of the people we hang around with, maybe some of the things we watch, some of the things we listen to — Lord, as we make those adjustments, it is like turning up our spiritual ears to hear You more clearly. Lord, that we would be people who are obedient to You, who are led by You, who are strengthened by Your Spirit to do the things that You have purposed for us to do. And let it be all for Your glory, in Jesus’ name. In Jesus’ name we receive what You have for us. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Amen. Well, how many of you know God is speaking? God is speaking, and He has a good life prepared for you. We just need to yield to Him. Amen.

Transcribed from the message recording and lightly edited for reading.