The Voice Of God by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Kingdom Life Depends on Hearing God

The Kingdom life was so designed that the advancement and progress of the believer largely, principally, depends on his ability to be led of God, of the Spirit. The Faith Life was designed by God such that there is no possibility for meaningful progress outside of the voice of God. The believer was designed to continually depend on the voice of God for leadership and for direction.

Even Jesus, when he came in the flesh, was very vocal as to his need for the leadership of the Spirit. After his baptism, the Spirit drove him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, then he returned in the power of the Spirit.

Probably one of the greatest Psalms — Psalm 23 — is a very profound Psalm of David because it captures the leadership of the Holy Spirit. The Lord is my shepherd, he says, I shall not want. He makes me. He leads me. He restores. He guides me. There is leadership, there is guidance, there is making — all by this great Shepherd.

It therefore means that if you do not understand the voice of God and the nature of his leadership, you may be stunted in a position spiritually, and it will affect every other aspect of your life. There are many believers today who have not been able to walk in the fullness of their prophetic destinies — not because of rebellion, but the inability to hear and to understand the speakings of God.

The Bible tells us in Romans 8:14 that one of the seals of our sonship is that we have the ability to be led — for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

What Is the Voice of God?

The voice of God is not limited to the speakings of God alone. The Bible generically uses the expression "voice," but it is not limited to the vocal communications or the speakings of God. The voice of God represents all the spiritual channels and pathways that God uses to communicate his will and his intent.

The entire scope of the dealings of God with man centers around these two words: his will and his intent. The purpose of spiritual communication from God to man is to make accessible to man the will and the intent of God.

The power of God is the principal sponsor for every result that we enjoy in this Kingdom, but the power of God has jurisdictions for operation — it does not operate arbitrarily. The power of God was mandated by God to only function within the jurisdiction of his will and his intent. That means outside of the will and the intent of God, the power of God does not have any assignment. The assignment of the power of God is to make the will and the intent of the Father come to pass.

That means you only call for the attention of the power of God to the degree to which you are consistent with the will of God. The administration of the power of God finds expression within the jurisdiction of his will. When you pray, you pray that your kingdom come — by your will being done in earth as it is in heaven.

This is why the voice of God is so important: because his power follows his voice.

If you cannot discern, perceive, or receive the will and the intent of God, you may never be able to experience the possibilities of God.

Channels Through Which God Speaks

The Bible reveals several channels that God uses to communicate his will and intent — what we generically call the voice of God. Hebrews 1:1 says God, who in sundry times and in diverse manners spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us through his Son.

• The Holy Scripture — The scripture is the primary channel for God's communication as far as his intent is concerned. The scripture represents the voice of God.
• Dreams, Visions, and Supernatural Encounters — God uses these to communicate his intent, as we see throughout Scripture — in Abraham, Joseph, Pharaoh, and many others.
• The Prophetic — Hosea 12:10 says: I have spoken to you by the prophet. God speaks by the prophet. The prophetic is a channel for his communication: I have multiplied visions, I have used similitudes, even by the ministry of the prophets.
• The Knowing of the Spirit — The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God. There is a knowing — the Spirit can bear witness with your spirit.

The Language of God Is Light

The language of God is not Greek, not Hebrew, not English, not Yoruba. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:1 there are tongues of men and tongues of angels — so we know there are languages even in the realm of the spirit. But none of these is the language of God. It does not mean he cannot communicate through these channels, but that is not the language of God.

The language of God is light.

1 John 1:5 tells us that God is light — not God has light. God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If it is true that he is light, then everything that emanates from him must be light.

Psalm 119:130 — The entrance of thy words giveth light. The first thing his word gives is light. Once that light does not arrive, there is no possibility of understanding.

At the Transfiguration — Matthew 17:5 — while he yet spoke, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold a voice out of the cloud which said: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased — hear ye him. The same thing in Revelation: he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.

How Light Becomes Understanding: The Role of the Mind

To understand the dynamics of spiritual communication, you need to understand the spiritual composition of man. The Bible very clearly tells us that man is spirit — man does not have a spirit, man is spirit, because God is Spirit. That spirit is hosted in a body. The body and the spirit are incompatible because of the realms they come from — the spirit is from above, the body was made from the dust. The mind — that soulical component made up of the will, the emotions, the intellect — is what creates the bridge between the spirit and the body.

So God communicates his intent, captured in his light. That light is received by your spirit man. But as light, it cannot minister to your mind and your body — there still has to be a technology of conversion so that understanding can come. It is at the point of understanding that faith can be engaged.

There are times you know your spirit has received something from God — you know by the witness of the spirit — and yet it cannot profit you because you do not even know what to obey. All the components that accompany the speakings of God are there — joy, peace — I know that I have received something, but what exactly have I received?

This is where your mind comes in.

In the body of Christ, we have taught people how to grow their spirits, but we have ignored the place of the mind. We have ignored the fact that the mind has a vital role to play in interpreting the speakings of God. As robust as your spirit man is, receiving the light that comes from the communications of God will not give you the basis to manifest faith properly if there is something wrong with your mind.

The mind consists of the will, the emotions, and the intellect. Through learning and through environmental conditioning, your mind has associated certain words and expressions with certain feelings. The healthier your mind is, the more it can create the vocabulary expressions that interpret the light you have received.

Ephesians 5:17 — Be not unwise, but understanding what the will of God is. There is no basis for manifesting faith until and unless there is understanding. Faith in one word is obedience. If Peter had not understood what Jesus said — if thou bid me come — he would not have been able to walk on the water. Their obedience was almost effortless because their understanding was fruitful.

The laxity in obedience is not necessarily rebellion — it is that you do not even understand what God is saying.

The assignment of your mind is to give the light of God that captures his will and his intent vocabulary expressions, so that understanding can be established.

Your transformation puts you in a position where you have an array of scriptural options to accurately interpret the light you receive from your spirit. That is why the Bible says to be transformed — Philippians 2:5: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Even though Jesus was the Word incarnate, he paid the price to equip his mind with the requisite vocabulary that interprets the speakings of God with accuracy.

This is the same technology used in how a phone receives a signal. When I press send on an image, it does not leave as a flower — it leaves as waves. By the time those waves come into your phone, the quality of your phone can misrepresent what I sent. The phone will do its best to use whatever tools are within its reach to interpret what it thinks I sent. When you upgrade that phone to a better phone, you will be surprised that you now see that MMS clearly — oh, this is what you wanted to say.

For as long as we ignore the supremacy of the Word, for as long as we do not contend for transformation, there will be gaps in our perceiving the will of God. The more you immerse yourself in the Word, the more you are giving your mind healthy scriptural tools with which to interpret the speakings — the light — of God.

I get concerned when people who do not respect the Word claim they are hearing God and even claim they are hearing for others. The margin of error — I will not trust that hearing. Because the Word of God is not the basis of their vocabulary composition, chances are excellent that there will be gaps in their interpretation. This is the reason why respectfully speaking, the prophetic has both blessed and cursed people — because the light comes in the place of prayer, but because there is no adequate transformation, the interpretation of the speakings of God ends up deviating people from the ways of God.

I believe in the prophetic. But our generation — especially those who are called into the apostolic and the prophetic ministry — press into the dimension of prayer that exposes you to the realm of the spirit, and also contend for the transformation of the Word. There are many voices — as Paul said, there is as it were many voices, and none of them is without signification. We need to verify whether what you heard is God.

Satan can appear as an angel of light. We are living in very perilous times where there is a heightened need for discernment — and discernment is not by superstition. Discernment happens at the instance of your stability through the Word. You are grounded through the Word, and on the basis of that stability you can decipher by the character of scripture what is of God and what is not. The Spirit speaks it expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith and shall give heed to seducing spirits and the doctrine of demons. The character of seduction is that you must desire what it is bringing for it to be called seduction.

There are many people who went to the place of prayer and returned back with speakings that were not of God when judged from the lens of the authority of scripture. And they took steps based on their interpretations of what they felt God was saying — and the result was not the glory of God.

The Authority of Scripture as the Sieve

The Bible calls the Word the more sure word of prophecy — it has been tried seven times. I respect your administering spiritual gifts to the degree to which you respect the authority of scripture.

For younger ministers that are coming up — the deception of gifts can abort a great destiny overnight. Settle with the Word. Obtain grace from God to settle with the Word. Let the Word dwell in you richly.

Acts 20:32 — I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified.

Ephesians 4:18 — Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their mind.

The voice of God represents every spiritual channel that God is able to use to communicate his will and his intent. The most important component is not the speakings of God but the safe transference of his intent from his heart to your heart. If that arrives safely, all the channels that midwife that process are only enhanced by the health of your mind.

No matter how much you claim to hear God — if we do not see his will being done as you obey what you perceive that you heard — we have a right from the authority of scripture to vet it. The voice of God will always birth the will of God.

The power of God is not mandated to function outside the will of God. If ever it functions outside of the will of God, it is to bring that person or that situation into the will of God. The end of the speakings of God is that the will of God be established in the life of the believer.

Four Ways We Know God

• Through Scripture — Scripture reveals the character of God, so that by the study of scripture we are able to learn how God operates.
• Through His Names — The names of God are a capture of the various dimensions that are contained in God — as we learn his names, we learn him.
• Through Studying Jesus — The Bible calls him the express image of the invisible God. Everything that is attributed to God — if we did not see it in the life of Jesus, we have a scriptural basis to say there was error or human limitation. For instance, when the Bible says a lying spirit came out from God — we do not see any darkness in Jesus, full of grace and truth. That means we have a right to say either the interpreters were wrong or the prophet was limited.
• Through Experience — Job said: I have heard of you with the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see.

Hearing and the Sieve of the Word

Every spiritual operation that God speaks to you through must pass through the sieve of the Word for its accurate understanding. Whether it comes through the witness of the spirit, through dreams, through visions — it must pass through the sieve.

If I were Joseph and Pharaoh came to me with a dream of seven fat cows and seven lean ones, my mind would go straight to witchcraft — not farming. How do cows represent years? Because he had a scriptural framework, Joseph could interpret accurately. Many people have given things wrong interpretations because they used brain work, not scripture.

If you see someone naked in the spirit, nakedness does not only mean shame — nakedness also means intimacy. If you see a chain in the spirit, it does not mean bondage — ornaments are also made of chains.

Whether you are called into the apostolic, the prophetic, the evangelical, or the pastoral — if you do not contend for transformation, you are at the risk of aborting longevity, whether in life and ministry. Gift will come and go. Celebrity ministry will come and go. What will keep you? The rains came, the floods came, all kinds of things came — but it was the house built on the Rock that stood. The problem is not the building. The problem is what it is built on.

If I never hear the voice of God in my spirit and yet I can respect the authority of the Word of God, it is accurate enough to lead me with precision — prophetic precision.

The degree to which the Word of God has dwelt in you richly determines the accuracy of your interpretation of his communications.

Father, I obtain grace in the name of Jesus to contend for transformation by the Word. I submit all my spiritual experiences — no matter how great they are, no matter how spectacular they are — I submit them to the authority of scripture for proper interpretation, for proper vetting, so that I do not walk in error.

Father, grant me the grace to be a student of scripture. Plant a hunger in my heart for the Word so that I contend for transformation, giving you the tools to accurately interpret the light that comes upon my spirit — so that we can receive your communication with balance, exactitude, and precision, in Jesus' name.