The Heart That Hears

Well, we’re going to get into the Word this morning. And so if you guys have your Bibles, I’m going to invite you to turn with me to Proverbs chapter 2 and Isaiah 55. Proverbs chapter 2, and then a little later we’re going to get to Isaiah 55.

Last week we talked a little bit about hearing God’s voice, and we’re going to continue to talk about that today. I just feel like there’s some more that the Lord wants to say regarding hearing God’s voice. You know, I’ve heard a lot of people say, “I just can’t hear God speak,” or, “I don’t know how to tap into that, and I want to hear Him speak.” But how many of you know Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me”? And so this is something that is available not just to the super religious, or those that are leaders within the church, or the hyper-spiritual. This is actually meant for every believer: that we can be people who are led by the voice of God.

How many of you know that’s really more important than ever before, right? Because there’s so much confusion. There are so many conflicting truths out there. There’s so much advice, and people saying, “This is okay,” and, “This is the way you should go,” and, “This is what’s right for your life.” But how many of you know only God knows what’s really right for your life? Amen. And He wants to lead us. Jeremiah 29 says, “I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord.” And so we want to tap into His plan for our life. Amen.

And so we’re going to start here, and we’re going to continue talking about hearing God’s voice. And the title of the message today is “The Heart That Hears.” Everybody say that: “The heart that hears.” It takes a heart that is prepared to be able to hear the voice of God, right? We have to have a heart that is prepared.

If you receive My words

And so we’re going to look at Proverbs chapter 2, starting at verse 1, and I’m going to read this out loud, but you can follow along on screen as well. Verse 1 says, “My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly.”

Now, this is a proverb that probably many of you have read before. And I always say, “A proverb a day keeps the devil away.” That’s what I tell my kids. And so something that we like to do is make sure that we’re reading a proverb every day. There are 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs, and so we usually will correlate whatever day it is with that chapter. So today is the 23rd, so we would read Proverbs chapter 23. But there’s so much wisdom here. And we discover that the person of wisdom is Jesus, and that Jesus is the one who will speak to us and impart something called wisdom for our life.

And so we see here that wisdom is speaking, and it says in verse 1, “My son, if you receive my words.” My son, if you receive my words. This verse is telling us a couple of things. Number one, we either have the ability to receive what God is saying, or we don’t receive what God is saying. This is an “if” statement. But I want us to notice that this is really saying God is actually speaking words. The question is, will you receive them? God is speaking.

You know, some people might be like, “Well, I don’t even know if God is speaking to me.” Let me tell you, He is speaking. The question is, are you listening? Do you have ears to hear what God is saying?

And so it says, “My son, if you receive my words,” and he continues to say how we are to receive His words. He says, “If you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you.” How many of you know you can hear words but not treasure them? And because you don’t treasure them, they’re not very valuable to you. They’re not effective for your life.

I know this was true when I was growing up: if you didn’t like what was on the TV, you could just change the channel, right? There were other options. And I would say that’s even more true today, right? With social media — if you’re on TikTok or YouTube and you’re watching these videos, and you don’t like what you’re seeing, you just kind of scroll to the next one, right? And sometimes you’ll watch for two seconds. I watch my kids sometimes; they’re just flipping right through all these videos until they find one that they really want to watch. And when you find something that you really want to watch, you might tell the people around you, “Shh, shh, I want to hear what they’re going to say,” right? Why? Because you’re treasuring what is being said. You’re treasuring what is being spoken.

How many of you know we can have two approaches when God speaks? We can either hear the Word of God and not treasure it, so it’s not effective, or we can hear in such a way where we are tuning out all the other noise, and we are treasuring the Word. How many of you know a heart that hears is a heart that treasures God’s Word? We have to treasure it. We have to look for it, to anticipate it, and say, “God, I know You have something for me. God, would You speak to me? I’m ready. You have my attention.”

How many of you know that’s a whole different approach than just showing up on a Sunday and saying, “All right, well, it’s Sunday. All right, now we’re going to do this, and now we’re going to do that, and, well, if God says something”? How many of you know that’s not the heart that receives? A heart that receives is someone who treasures His commands. Amen. We must treasure what God is saying.

Incline your ear

He says, “If you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear.” What does “incline” mean? I get that picture of kind of doing one of these, right? I’m putting my ear to what is being said. And this is important, because how many of you know your natural ears will not have a tendency to hear the things of God? You won’t have the desire. You won’t have the want-to. Your flesh is going to want to do everything else but incline your ear to God. You’re going to want to incline your ear to what your friends are saying. You’re going to want to incline your ear to what the news is saying, or what the current trend on social media is, what is going to entertain me.

But this is saying, “My son, if you treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear.” How many of you know we have to incline our ear? We have to give attention to what God is saying. You guys with me? He says, “Incline your ears.” We need to tell our ears what to do. “Ears, it is time to listen to the Lord. Ears, it is time to hear the voice of the Lord.” And whether that’s on a Sunday morning, or in your devotional time or quiet time in the morning, or you’re reading God’s Word, right — we have to tell ourselves, “No, this is a time that I am giving to the Lord, and I am opening myself to hear what God is saying.”

And it says in verse 3, “Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding.” Let me ask you this: when is the last time you’ve lifted your voice — “Oh, Lord” — and you’ve asked the Lord and said, “Lord, I need Your help. I need Your understanding. I need wisdom from You”? Because the Bible’s saying that’s the type of heart that receives from the Lord. When’s the last time you’ve lifted your voice?

And I’ve heard people say, “Well, that’s not really my style, right? I’m just going to kind of close my eyes and bow my head, and I’m just going to think.” But there is something that happens when we stop what we’re doing and we take a physical posture of humility and humbleness. Whether we’re on our knees or we’re on our feet, we lift our hands to the Lord and we begin to cry out. We begin to speak out: “Lord, would You speak? Lord, I don’t know what to do in this situation. I don’t know how to get out of this situation. Lord, I need wisdom from heaven. I need wisdom from You. Would You speak to me?”

How many of you know that takes humility? That takes something called humility. And I said this last week: a heart that walks in humility, a lifestyle of humility, is a life of hearing God’s voice. Oh, this is so key — that we would be people who are so humble that we would admit, “I don’t have all the answers. What comes naturally to me is probably not what’s best for my life. And so I must regularly pause, stop what I’m doing, come to the Lord, and begin to call on Him.” You see, this is the kind of heart that hears.

But notice this next verse. In verse 4 it says, “If you seek her” — talking about wisdom and understanding — “if you seek her as silver.” Now, this is a monetary reference. But in other words, this is the Lord saying, “Listen, if you would seek My voice like you work your job, surely you will find it.” In other words, if you would get up early when you don’t want to — how many of you don’t always want to go to work, right? You don’t always want to get up in the morning. You don’t want to go through the routine. But you do it anyway. Why? Because your life is dependent on it. You need income. You need resources.

And so you will set time out of your schedule. In fact, most of our time will go to it. We will go out of our way and we will work, because it is important to us. Why? Because we need that provision in our lives. We’ll even decline other opportunities. Things will come up, and we’ll say things like, “Well, I have to work,” right? And what is the Lord saying here? He’s saying, “Listen, if you would seek My voice as silver, you will hear My voice.”

You see, this is talking about the heart that hears. He’s saying, “If you would do that with Me — if you would set things aside, if you would set time in your schedule and say, ‘This is my time to be with the Lord’ — and all of a sudden one of your best friends calls up and says, ‘Hey, let’s go do this. Let’s go to this place. Let’s go get some food,’ and you say, ‘I can’t, because I need to be with the Lord’ — if you would do that,” God is saying, “I will speak to you.” Amen.

He stores up sound wisdom

Notice what happens when we have a heart like this that’s prepared to hear. Verses 5 and 6 say “then” — everybody say that. Notice it started with an “if.” If you do these things, if this is your heart, if you would just seek Me this way — notice verse 5 says, “then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.”

How many of you would say, “I need to know a little bit more. I need to know what’s true. I need to understand what’s actually true”? Because there are a lot of things in this world right now that are saying, “This is truth,” and it is not. It is deceiving, and it will destroy your life. We need to tap into what God is speaking. Amen. “Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.”

Verse 7 says, “He stores up” — everybody say “stores up” — “He stores up sound wisdom for the upright.” In other words, God is in the habit of storing up wisdom for your life. When you are in need and you are seeking wisdom, you are crying out to the Lord — how many of you know He’s already got an inventory of wisdom for your life? In fact, in anticipation that you’re going to seek Him, He stores up wisdom so that when you call on Him, He can give it out. How many of you know God has an inventory of wisdom for your life specifically? And it is unnecessary for us to go through life not knowing: “God, what are You saying? What are You doing?”

This is so important, because I believe — I mentioned this last week — that in the church and in the life of believers there is this pandemic called spiritual deafness. In the church, people are not hearing God. They are not being led by His voice. And as a result, many in the church, many who once believed, are so confused that they would even deny Jesus Himself. Why? Because they’re being taken advantage of. They’re hearing all the other voices, but they’re not hearing the voice of God. But Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice. I know them, and they follow.”

How many of you know God’s ways are better than our ways? God’s ways are better than the ways of the world. God’s strategies are better than the world’s strategies. God’s path to success and blessing for your life is better than the world’s path to success and blessing for your life. Oh, there are so many empty promises that this world will make you, and you will be robbed of time, you will be robbed of resources, because you put your trust in the wrong thing.

I just saw a video of this worker who had worked for a company for over thirty years, and he lost all of his pension because the company couldn’t afford to pay it anymore. Everything that he had worked for — can you imagine? “I dedicated my life to this.” How many of you know there’s great — what is the word I want to say — disappointment ahead for those who would put their trust in anything but the Lord? Because He will never fail, and His promises are sure. Every promise is yes and amen. He does not go back on His word, because He’s not a God that would lie. He cannot lie. So if He has said it, it is true. The question is, are you hearing what He’s saying?

Are you with me? This is so important, because there are many believers that are being taken advantage of unnecessarily, and it’s gotten worse. I’m telling you, it has gotten worse. The church is distracted. The church is so distracted, and they’re not hearing God, and they’re tapping into all these other things — even things that would seem godly, even things that would seem Christian. They are putting more weight and merit on that rather than on what God has said. How many of you know we need to be hearing what God is saying straight from the source? We can’t just be hearing it through other people. God has a word for you. He wants to speak to you. And He might do that through people, but He also will do that through His Word. Amen.

I’m going to give a quick side note, because I think this is important for right now. When I read my Bible every day, before I read I ask the Lord, “Lord, would You teach me, and would You speak to me Your truth?” You see, I have to incline my ear. Sometimes I’ll be done preaching on a Sunday and people will be like, “Man, I’ve never read that verse that way. How did you understand it? Why did you put the emphasis there?” And I’ll just tell them, “Well, that’s the Lord. He spoke to me as I came into His Word.”

How many of you know one of the primary ways God speaks to us is through His Word? Amen. But you can have a heart that just reads the words, but you didn’t incline your ears, so you get nothing out of it. But if you would start your reading and say, “Holy Spirit, would You teach me? Would You speak to me?” — how many of you know that’s His heart’s desire?

And oftentimes I’ll have a reading plan. Who has a reading plan here? Come on. Yeah, I should see every hand go up, because we have something called the Solid Life reading plan. And you might do something like that, and maybe you have three chapters for the day that you’re going to read. Let’s say today’s the 23rd: I’m going to read Proverbs 23, I’m going to read a chapter out of the Gospels, out of John, and I’m going to read one of the Epistles — I’ll read chapter one of Ephesians, some of the best chapters in the Bible, by the way. But before I do that — I’m not just reading it to read the Word. I’m reading it to hear the voice of God. Do you guys get me? There’s a difference that happens when I set my intentionality: “I am here because I want to hear the voice of God.”

And there will be times where I have scheduled three chapters to read for that day, but maybe I only get through a few verses, because all of a sudden, as I’m reading, something will jump out to me, and I know that the Holy Spirit is saying, “I’ve got something for you right here.” And I may not know what it is right away. I may come to verse 3 and all of a sudden I’m stuck, and I’m like, “The Lord wants to say something here. There’s something for me.” And so what do I do? I sit there and I say, “Lord, show me what it is.” And it could be a single word. It could be a phrase. It could be the verse. It could be whatever. But how many of you know God speaks through His Word, and His Word is true?

Scripture says that all Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for your life. In other words, every word of God, everything in this book, is not just words. It’s actually God’s Word. It is what has been breathed out by God, and it is eternal, and it is true. And so when we come to it, and all of a sudden I’m hanging on this verse, I’m hanging on these words, and as I’m sitting there, because I’ve inclined my ear, the Lord begins to speak to me or highlight things to me. And I start saying, “Oh Lord, I thank You.” “My son, my son” — so He’s speaking to me — “if you will incline your ear.” Okay, I’ve got to give my attention to this. You guys understand? And the Holy Spirit starts to teach me and show me things.

Now, the interesting thing is, when God speaks to me, sometimes I know how that applies to my life right then and right there. But there are times where the Lord will speak to me and I’m like, “Oh, that’s good,” but I don’t necessarily know what that means for today. But there will be a time a couple months down the road where all of a sudden I’m going through something, and the Lord reminds me of those verses. How many of you know He knows what’s ahead of you, and He will equip you through His Word for the things to come? Are you guys with me? We don’t just read God’s Word to be more Christian. We read God’s Word to be more like Him. Jesus heard the voice of the Father. We can too. “My sheep hear My voice.”

A heart that values Him

So listen to this: a heart that hears is a heart that values Him. A heart that hears is a heart that values Him. How many of you know sometimes we need to get our values back in order? Anybody have certain things where maybe you grew up a certain way, and you just kind of went through life, and all of a sudden you weren’t living according to some of those values, and you’re like, “I’ve got to get back to my roots, right? I’ve got to get back to the way things were and get things back in order”?

How many of you know a heart that hears is a heart that values Him? How many of you know God wants to be chased? He wants to be loved. How many of you know it honors God when you show up on a Sunday to worship and to hear Him? That moves Him. How many of you know it honors God when you close the door to your bedroom, you get on your knees, and you begin to pray? That moves Him. He wants to be with us.

And this love relationship didn’t start with us. We weren’t the initiators of this. First John 4:19 says, “We love Him because He first loved us.” He is the initiator of this relationship. Amen. Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” So we did not initiate this relationship with God. God initiated it, and He’s saying, “Will you come after Me?” God’s saying, “I’ve done everything. I’ve removed every obstacle for you to be with Me. Will you choose Me?” God wants you to choose Him. God wants you to choose Him when you’re just not feeling it.

The Bible says to lift up a sacrifice of praise. Why is it a sacrifice? Shouldn’t we just want to praise the Lord? How many of you know you’re not always going to want to do that? You’re going to want to come in on a Sunday and just sit on the pew and kind of zone out, or be on your phone. That’s what your flesh wants. But why would David say, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits”? Why would he tell himself that? Because he didn’t feel like it. David is like, “I’m going through stuff. People are after my life, right? I’m being hunted. I’m being accused,” all of these things. “I don’t want to praise the Lord, because things aren’t going very good in my life right now.” But how many of you know, when we move ourselves and value who He is, and we rise up and begin to do these things, He begins to show up? Amen. You see, God is looking for people that will value Him.

Esau’s stew

So when we talk about hearing God’s voice, it takes a heart that chooses to value Him. How many of you remember Esau, right? Esau was Jacob’s older brother. And God says this about him — listen to this, this is really strong language. God says this: “Jacob I have loved, and Esau I have hated.” I mean, I read that and I’m like, “That doesn’t sound like God, right? He’s a God of love.” But there’s something that is being said: “Jacob I have loved, and Esau I have hated.”

Well, how many of you know God made a covenant with Abraham, and God had promised blessing on Abraham’s life and on his descendants? And that blessing was passed from Abraham to his son Isaac, and then it was supposed to go from Isaac to Esau, because he was his firstborn son. And so there is this blessing that was promised for Esau’s life. Well, Esau was out, and he was hunting, and he was going to get food, and he worked so hard that he had worked up such an appetite that he was literally on the brink of death. He was literally going to starve to death.

And so he comes to Jacob, and Jacob offers him stew, some food. Let me put it this way: Jacob offers him immediate gratification. Hello? That’ll preach. Jacob offers him something in exchange for his birthright — in other words, in exchange for God’s promise for Esau’s life. “If you give me God’s promise, then I’ll give you this stew.” And so Esau ate his meal. Listen — Esau said, “What good is a birthright if I’m going to die of starvation?” How many of you know the Lord hears those things?

How many of you know that is a heart that does not value what God has for your life? That’s a heart that will settle for all the immediate gratification that this world has to offer rather than the things of God, and that is a heart that does not receive from the Lord. You see, Esau was like, “Give it to me. I need it. I want it. Give it to me.” Esau ate his meal. His stomach was filled, but he lost his blessing. You see, how many of you know the blessing went to the one who valued it? The blessing went to the one who valued it.

God speaks, but so oftentimes we’re not hearing because we just don’t value what He has to say. We think, “Well, no, God, that’s just not important to me right now.” That’s really what we’re saying. God speaks, and “that’s just not that important to me,” or, “I’m doing pretty good. I don’t really need God right now.” And that’s the heart that is hard and is spiritually deaf to the things of God. And I’m telling you, it is unnecessary. We must value it.

What did God say? “Jacob I have loved, and Esau I have hated.” Why? Because he rejected it. He rejected Me. He did not value Me. How many of you know hearing God is much more about your heart than anything else? Are you guys picking that up? This is not a physical capability. This is not something you can learn and then you just know how to do it. No, this is something you walk in. This is something you do. This is who you are.

And so let me ask you this: what’s more important to you than what God has for you? What things would you rather be doing? What success would you rather have? What titles would you rather accomplish than the things God has for your life? Because we all have time for things, right? We all have time for things, but we don’t always have time for certain things.

I was — one of my friends had a post, and he was talking about how he had this encounter with his child. He said he was going to make them a meal. But he’s a pastor, and he was praying in his room, and he got so caught up in prayer that he forgot to make the meal. And so his kids, with their friends, sheepishly knock on the door, and they’re like, “Hey Dad, are you going to make us dinner?” And his response I found very interesting, because his response was, “What good is it if you are fed in the natural but you are spiritually starving?” I was like, “Well, that’s your kids, man. Take it easy.” But that sounds a little bit like Jesus, doesn’t it? Who would say to His disciples, “I have food that you know not of.” Man does not live on bread alone, but by the very word of God.

And it’s interesting how sometimes we have time to eat. We have time to satisfy ourselves. In fact, some of us have time to eat four meals, five meals, six meals, right? We have all this time. But the question is, what will you actually choose to spend it on? What good is it to be physically full but spiritually — just a thought — because it really shows what we value. We have to have humility that admits, “Lord, I need You. Lord, I’m valuing You above all things. I’m choosing You before I choose myself. I’m choosing You before I choose to just gratify myself.” Amen.

A heart that is prepared

Listen to this: a heart that hears is a heart that is prepared to hear. A heart that hears is a heart that is prepared to hear. I have two quick scriptures. Second Chronicles 12:14. Solomon had a son named Rehoboam. He didn’t have a heart that was after God. Listen to this. Second Chronicles 12:14 says Rehoboam “did evil, because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord.” How many of you know you have to prepare your heart? You don’t naturally want to seek the Lord. You want to fix it — especially if you’re a dude. Have we got any guys in here that like to fix things, right? “I just want to fix it, and I want to fix it now. Okay? I just want to move on. I want to get things done. I want to accomplish things.” But you have to prepare your heart to seek the Lord.

So Rehoboam didn’t prepare his heart. But listen, just a few chapters later — listen to this next king. Second Chronicles 19, verse 3: King Jehoshaphat. And it says, “Nevertheless good things are found in you, in that you have removed the wooden images” — talking about idols — “from the land, and have prepared your heart to seek the Lord.” How many of you know the reason Jehoshaphat was a good king, and the reason the land was blessed, was because he prepared his heart to hear the Lord? He had prepared his heart.

Proverbs 16:1 — listen to this, this is one of the best verses. Proverbs 16:1 says, “The preparations of the heart belong to” — who? This is an open-screen test. The preparation of the heart belongs to who? Man. The preparation of the heart belongs to who? Come on, one voice, let’s say this out loud: man. Whose job is it to prepare their heart?

It is a lie from the devil that would say, “If God wants to speak to me, He’ll speak to me. Just show up, God.” Listen, that can happen. But the reason God shows up is because I prepared my heart to receive from Him. The preparation of the heart belongs to man, but notice — but the answer — everybody say “the answer” — “the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.” It’s your job to prepare your heart. It’s God’s job to bring the answer. Are we picking that up?

So many believers right now are on autopilot, you guys. We’re like those Tesla cars that just drive themselves. We are hands-off: “Whatever God wants to do, He’ll just do it.” No. The preparation of the heart belongs to you. God’s saying, “Chase Me. Come after Me, because I’ve given everything for you. Would you choose Me today? Would you prepare your heart, and would you come to Me and allow Me to speak to you?” Jeremiah 29:13 says, “You will seek Me and you will find Me when you search for Me with” — what? — “with all your heart.”

What is the key to hearing God’s voice? A heart that’s prepared. A heart that walks in humility. A heart that says, “I don’t have all the answers. I don’t know all things. God, would You speak to me?” A heart that lifts up their voice and cries out to God, rather than going to Google, or going to their husband, or going to their wife, or going to their friends or their parents. We’re talking about that heart that hears.

Seek the Lord while He may be found

Listen to this: a heart that hears is a heart that humbly obeys. Humility is key, you guys. We’ve got to humble ourselves. We’ve got to humble ourselves and come to the Lord and be with Him. It is unnecessary for us to be led astray or to be taken advantage of by the adversary.

I had you turn to Isaiah 55. Verse 6 says, “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him.” How many of you know God is merciful? Amen. I mean, aren’t you thankful that His grace covers us? There are so many times and so many things I get wrong, you guys. I get so many things wrong, and I’m like, “Lord, I missed it.” And listen, I have a heart that wants to honor the Lord, and I miss it. But how many of you know His mercy endures and His grace is strong? Amen. His grace is sufficient for you.

But what is required? Call out to the Lord. Come back to Him. Call on Him and say, “Lord, I’m sorry. I missed it.” You guys good? He is merciful. “He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” In other words, you can’t mess it up enough for Him not to have mercy on you, if you will call on Him. That’s good. I’m thankful for that.

But notice: “Seek the Lord while He may be found.” This is very clearly talking about salvation, right? And how you can wait too long and miss the salvation that God has for your life, to take you from death and bring you to life with Him forever. There are many people who will say, “I’ll give my life to Jesus eventually. Oh, I’ll get to that when I’m older.” And they miss it, and the opportunity is stolen from them, and they can even die apart from salvation itself.

But how many of you know this isn’t just for eternity? This is also talking about life, too. This is talking about our situations in our day-to-day, where something will come up in life and you may be struggling with something, but you’re not seeking the Lord on it. Anybody been there? You just wait, and you’re like, “Oh man, I’ve really run into this dilemma with someone, and I should really pray about that.” But then you never do. How many of you know praying isn’t thinking about or considering praying? Praying is actually praying. It’s bringing it to the Lord.

And so oftentimes we say, “Well, I should do this,” or, “I should do that,” but we don’t. And the Bible says, “Seek the Lord while He may be found.” In other words, we can wait so long that the situation could be over, and we miss our opportunity to hear God and see the victory He has for our life.

It says, “Call upon Him while He is near.” Let me ask you this: when is God near? “Always.” No — but listen, when is God near? God can be near you. He can be right there speaking to you, but you’re not engaging Him. Listen, God is near as soon as you recognize you need Him. As soon as you recognize, “I need God’s direction on this. I need an answer from the Lord on this. I don’t know what to do. God, I need an answer” — the Lord is near. Seek the Lord while He may be found. When is He near? When you realize that you need Him. God is good. Amen.

In fact, I would even say this: when you realize you need Him, that’s actually God provoking you and speaking to you, saying, “You need to call on Me. You need what I have for you.” Some of you are like, “I need to go to church more.” That’s God speaking and saying, “You need to be in My presence more.” Some of you are like, “I need to start reading my Bible.” How many of you know that’s not the devil? Who is that? That’s the Lord saying, “I want you to be with Me.” The question is, will you respond? Seek the Lord while He may be found.

Don’t miss the opportunity. Don’t miss the opportunity. Too many believers are saying, “Well, I’ll get to that later,” or, “I don’t need it right now.” And we wait till this crisis moment, where all of a sudden, when we’re in crisis, we call on the Lord. But how many of you know our crisis isn’t really His crisis? He can answer all that. He’s after our heart. Amen.

Delayed obedience

A heart that hears is a heart that humbly obeys. This is so important. I remember growing up, there were times where my parents would ask me to do something, right? They would say, “Hey, I want you to do this.” And I didn’t really want to do it. It could have been a chore or a task. And I knew that I had to, because they were my parents. But I would sometimes delay. Why? Because I was really saying, “I know I need to do what you say, but I want you to know that you’re not in full control of what I do.” You know what I mean?

Because we don’t really like to be told what to do, right? Sometimes we’ll even get offended when people say things like, “Hey, you should do this.” And we actually get offended to the point where it’s like, “I’ll never do that, only because you said it.” Well, what is that? That’s called pride.

How many of you know the Bible says He resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble? He resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. You see, sometimes the Lord will speak things to us, and rather than say, “Yes, Lord,” we might say, “Yes, Lord, I’ll do that — just not right now.” But how many of you know delayed obedience is disobedience?

Transcribed from the message recording and lightly edited for reading.