Take Time To Listen To God He Is Already Speaking To You

Hello and welcome to Social Media Ministries, my name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you for being here today. This is going to be a great message that will hopefully help you out in life, help you to excel and do more, and really connect and communicate with God.

If this is your first time here, hit that subscribe button, follow us on social media, and stay tuned for weekly sermons to come. Also, take some time, navigate back through our old messages. There’s gonna be one, the title is gonna jump out at you and you’re gonna say, “I need to watch it and allow it to change and help you change your life.”

If you’re a returning visitor, hey, start using those share icons. You never know when someone on your social media needs one of these messages to speak into their life. That’s the beauty of the Bible, it’s timeless.

You can have 10 people speak a message on the same verses and you’re going to get 10 different messages. Why? Because the Word is alive and active. It is alive. You can read it each and every day, you could read the same verse and get something different.

It can touch you in a different way, because it’s living and active. It’s not dead. It’s alive, it’s living and it has this power to be able to communicate with your spirit, the Holy Spirit, and change your life. You need to be making that connection, you need to be growing your spirit. You need to be connecting with God.

The Bible tells us that the spirit of God longs for God. It calls out “Father, Father,” and He wants to be in communication with it. How do you do that? Well, you need to take time to listen to God. You have to listen to God. Allow God to speak to you. How does this happen? Well mainly God speaks to you while you’re reading His Word, the Bible. That’s the main way that God will talk to you.

Another great way God talks to you is through other people, through your teachers, your leaders, your pastors, through these sermons. When you’re scrolling through all our videos, there’s going to be one and it pops out to you and you see that that’s God speaking to you. Watch it and take it in and learn.

Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing the soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

That’s the Word of God, living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. There’s a reason why when you speak the Bible or when you share the Bible, people don’t know what to do. Some people tremble, others rejoice, some get energy. Because it’s alive, sharper than any two-edged sword. It can penetrate, it can cut you deep.

How does it cut you deep? It might convict you of your sin. It can cut you deep. God speaks to you. His Word is alive and active. This is the best way to learn and hear from God, read what He wrote, the Bible. Sometimes God also talks to you in your thoughts and ideas. He can guide you through your thoughts, through your ideas, the Holy Spirit that is within you can speak to you.

This is why it’s important that you have to set aside some time every day, some quiet time to be with God. Now you might say, “Hey my life is so busy, I got six kids, they are all under the age of ten, I got a wife but we have got this. I’ve got this. I’m taking care of my in-laws. They live here.” All this stuff you might say. “My life is too busy.”

Hey, guess what, you still have time for God. When you’re driving to work in the morning alone in your car, that could be time for God. Some people say “I don’t even have that, I have to drop my kids” or “I don’t even have a commute to work.” Guess what, when you’re taking a shower, time with God. “Well, my showers are limited to five minutes.” Five minutes is better than nothing.

There’s time that you have alone each day and this time with God doesn’t need to be all at once, it could be times when you’re by yourself on a lunch break from work or you’re in the shower or you’re in the bathroom or whatever in your car driving. Wherever you have time by yourself, you can start taking that alone time and dedicating it as time with God. Clear your mind, speak to God. Let Him talk to you.

However the best time would be if you really can dedicate some time to truly be alone, I don’t care if it’s you, go in your closet and shut the door, and sit there, that’s your business. If you want to do that, that could be your time with God.

My uncle once told me a story of a co-worker of his, who was worried about, I don’t know what other people would think of what I was doing. He said, “Hey listen, if you choose to go home after work and sit in the closet for an hour and meditate, that’s your business, you can do it.” He said this probably in 1970. There’s importance of being alone, meditating, and spending time with God. You have to dedicate time to Him however you can do it.

A great time to dedicate time to Him though is after you’ve been reading the Bible. Why? Because the Bible is living and active so it will get your spirit stirred up reading these words. When you’re done reading, don’t simply close the Bible and go about your day. Close the Bible and sit there, allow yourself some time to process what was read. Meditate on it. Listen to God.

We’re all guilty of not giving God enough time after we read the Bible. Now it’s not that we have to, but it’s so much better if we do even five minutes. You read the Bible, you’re done, you close it, you set it down, you shut your eyes, and just, sit there in silence for five minutes and let God speak to you. Doing it after you’ve read the Bible, you’re already in the right frame of mind.

During that time you got to be quiet though, you cannot be thinking about, “All right I got to do this and then I am going to do this. I got to pick up so and so, got to go to this, I got to do this.”

No, you got to kind of shut all that out and just focus on what you read. Think about it. You start actively thinking about the words and verses you read. All that other stuff will stay out. You gotta actively think about it. Think about the words you read, say them in your mind.

You don’t say them like you memorized them, but say the ones you remember in your head and guess what, God is going to speak to you through all of that. Because you’re focused on what is alive and active. You’re communicating in another area.

We live in this world, we’re not of this world. So if you’re sitting there quietly and you’re thinking about all the things you have to do in this world, you are of the world. No, we’re not of the world.

So when you’re sitting there quietly, think about the things that aren’t of this world. The Bible, the Scriptures, what you read, and your soul and your spirit will be not of this world and you will get that insight.

God will speak to you. No distractions, clear mind, focus only on God, close your eyes, great time to pray to Him. Ask Him to speak to you. Ask Him to fill you up. Ask Him to reveal that. Pray and wait, don’t let anything enter your head, just focus on that stuff. Focus on the Bible, ask God to enter your mind.

Jeremiah 33 Verse 3, this is an excellent verse. We have read it in a number of sermons. Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” He wants to tell you stuff. He wants you to call on Him.

After you’re done reading the Bible, sit there, meditate on it a little bit, be quiet, and think about it. Think about what you read and call to God. Say, “God, give me something, give me some answers, give me some guidance.”

He says call to me and He will give you great and unsearchable things. He will tell you stuff you don’t know. How great is this? I want to know more. Just say that, “God I want to know more.” Just sit there quietly, focus, and listen to God.

It’s the Holy Spirit that will speak with you, to you, communicating with you. Your spirit longs for God. John 14:26 says, “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

The Holy Spirit will remind you. This is Jesus speaking. He’s saying right now at this time when Jesus was here, everyone didn’t have that yet. Jesus died, ascended, rose again, all that, and then now when we become a Christian, we believe in Jesus, we get the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will tell us and remind us of everything that Jesus told us.

That means as you’re going through life, you might think “Oh I have a little angel and a devil on my shoulder.” No, you have the Holy Spirit within you that’s convincing you and convicting you of certain things, that’s reminding you of Scripture, that’s speaking through you, that’s flowing through or shining out of you. Be a light. It’s shining in the darkness through you. You are the vessel.

Romans 8 Verse 9, “You, however, are not controlled by the sinful nature, but by the Holy Spirit, of the Holy Spirit of God lives in you and if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” You say, “Wow that’s kind of confusing.”

Well, the Apostle Paul wrote it, so it’s very educated. You are not controlled by this world anymore. The old is gone, the new has come. You are a new creation in Christ. That means you have the Holy Spirit so you don’t live by the sinful desires of this world, but by the spirit, and if the spirit of God lives in you, you belong to Christ.

Those other people that don’t have the spirit yet, yeah they might think you’re weird or different or you are too bright or you are too salty as we’ve talked about before or you’re too hot. You’ve got to be hot. They might think that, but it’s your job to bring them into the light, bring them into the heat, bring them into saltiness, allow them to have the spirit by bringing them to Christ.

If you haven’t made that decision, it’s a great time, comment below, reach out to us, ask Jesus into your heart, ask Him to forgive you of your sins. Say, “Lord, be the Lord of my life. I want to live for you.” It’s important. You can do it when you’re silent and you’re spending that time with God.

At first 10 minutes might seem like forever, it might be really difficult, but later on, 10 minutes will hardly be enough. Romans 8:26 says, “In the same way, the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Holy Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”

Now sometimes this might mean you get a prayer language and you’re speaking gibberish really that you don’t understand, you don’t interpret, it’s not really speaking in a tongue but that’s what it’s called. It’s in tongues. But it’s just in groans that words cannot express. The words cannot express.

In other ways, you might just be praying in your native language to God, on and on and on, and maybe saying the same thing. People may be like “Whatever man.” But you’re speaking, the spirit is speaking within you. You can allow that to happen by connecting. The Bible connects with your spirit. Your spirit connects with God.

It’s a circle, God gave us the Bible, He gave you the spirit, He wants us to connect. Our spirit longs for God. You have got to feed that spirit, grow spiritually. Read your Bible. Read God’s Word, meditate on it, pray and be quiet, and listen.

Joshua 1:8, excellent verse, we have used it many many times throughout our sermons. “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

That’s huge. That means that God says, “Hey, feed your spirit, meditate on this Word. Be careful, learn what it says, grow, nourish, listen to me.” Then guess what, not only by taking care of your spirit that’s not of this world, He will take care of that, but He will also make you prosperous and successful in this world here on Earth.

That’s incredible. That’s so incredible. That means that everything is taken care of here. So what is our focus? Our focus needs to be on God and on enriching His Kingdom and everything else will be provided for us.

There’s another verse in the Bible that Jesus is saying this, focus on these things, on Him and all the other things will be given to you as well. Everything of this world. So focus first on His Kingdom and His righteousness and then you will get everything else. Riches, honor, glory, that’s what He is saying. You’ll get it all.

So when you’re listening to God, when you’re taking that time, you have to be quiet. Why do we have to be quiet? Well, because you need to listen. When you’re talking or reading, you can’t be listening. Yes of course you might be able to understand a little, but God doesn’t want a little, He wants all of you.

We had a sermon about two eyes, two ears, and one mouth. God wants you to listen and see more than you speak. Listen to Him, understand it. You might be able to listen a little bit, like when you’re talking you can kind of hear what someone’s saying. Or when you’re reading you can listen and hear what they’re saying and still understand what you’re reading, but your attention is divided. You’re not fully attentive.

God doesn’t want you to be divided. He doesn’t want half of your attention. He wants all of your attention. He doesn’t want you to be committed one hour a week or two hours a week. He wants you to be fully committed, 24/7/365.

Check out a playlist, “Being Fully Committed to God” on the YouTube channel or website. You can find it. It’s fully committed to God. There are a bunch of sermons in there that will help you become more committed to Him because that is the goal. You have to be fully committed to God.

I challenge you, if you’re not already reading your Bible every day, then you need to be reading your Bible every day. Get a plan. We have had a sermon on using and understanding your Bible, it’s a great playlist. You can check out those two messages, a two-part sermon series. Once you do that, you’re reading, you’re understanding, now I challenge you to take 10 minutes, that’s it, 10 minutes.

If you want to set a timer with an alarm, 10 minutes, once you’re done reading your Bible, so you spend 10 minutes reading your Bible, however long your devotional. You close the book, you set it down, spend 10 minutes sitting in silence. Don’t fall asleep, but sit there in silence and listen to God. Yes, it might be really hard for 10 minutes.

There are some movies and cartoons and drawings of the people who go to monasteries and such overseas and in the temple areas and they sit in silence in the meditation rooms and they’re like “Oh man it feels like forever” and they look and they’re like, “Ah it’s only been one minute.”

So yes, it might seem like a long time at first, 10 minutes really isn’t that long. After a while, after a few days, after a week, 10 minutes will hardly seem like enough. You’re going to be spending your 10 minutes there and you’re going to be like, the alarm will go off and hopefully, you’ll be like, “Oh man,” and then you’ll have to go about your day.

Or you’ll be like, oh it would be like the little kid watching cartoons, “Mom, five more minutes.” You’ll say “God, Father, five more minutes” and you’ll pray that your kids stay sleeping five more minutes because you want more time with God. Seriously.

Listen to God. He is speaking to you all the time, every minute of every day He’s talking to you. He’s trying to fill your head with great and unsearchable things that you don’t know. How else are you going to learn them and know them unless you listen? How do you listen unless you read and understand and get the living and active words that are speaking to your spirit? How do you get those words and understand them unless you pray and ask for more?

It’s almost like what Paul wrote, how can they preach unless they are sent and how can they be sent and this and this? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news? How can you listen unless you read? How can you understand what you have read unless you have the spirit? How can you get the spirit unless you have communicated with God?

What do you need to do then? You need to be a Christian. You need to ask Jesus into your heart because when you have Him in your heart, you have the spirit. Now all of a sudden you can read the Bible and you can understand what is in there.

Before you were a Christian you could read the Bible and you could have no clue about what’s going on. When I was a little kid, we went to my extended family, my grandparents, they were Catholics so we went to a catholic mass out of respect. When I was a little kid, we would go with them once in a while on a Sunday and their preacher or priest was up there speaking.

Now, first of all, they shouldn’t call him “Father.” We have another message on that. You have one father, He’s in Heaven. So they shouldn’t do that, but they do. So their priest was up there giving a message and he was giving it on the light of the world and he read from the, “Your word is a lamp and a light” and then he read the in New Testament how no one puts a light under a bowl and hides it but instead they put it up for all to see.

You and me, Christians with the Holy Spirit, we know that that means God is speaking in a metaphorical manner. Saying, “Hey you guys are the light of the world, get out there, use the Word to be your light.” But then get out there like the lamp on the stand and be a light to the world, a light in the darkness and shine for others to see, sharing the Word that you have read.

But this guy didn’t have the Holy Spirit, so he was saying how God has given us a light and it’s this Bible. He’s saying it’s a great light for the world and just like how when they lit a candle they put it so that they could see in the darkness, today we have a flashlight to be able to see and we can use that flashlight and we have electricity to be able to see.

He’s saying we have light in the dark, when you’re in the dark and the light of your alarm clock is on or your VCR, this was a long time ago, is blinking 12 12 12. He was saying that it lights up the room, but if you cover it, the room is dark. He was going on and on about these earthly worldly lights, he didn’t have the Holy Spirit within him and he didn’t understand what the Bible was saying.

If that’s you, if you read this and you say, “I don’t understand it,” you need the Holy Spirit. You need to say, “Dear Jesus, come into my life, forgive me of my sins, I want to live for you every minute of every day, fill me up with your spirit. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

You gotta know He died for you. Make Him the Lord of your life. Live for Him then start reading, start praying, start spending time listening to God. He will speak to you.

Let’s pray. Lord Jesus thank you for this day, this message, this time together. I ask that you would use these sermons to speak to people. That they would be getting words from the Bible. That they were reading the Bible. That they are alive and active.

That they would take the time to go through other sermons, other messages, and that those would speak to them as well. That they would take the time to read the Bible for themselves and that they would be able to understand and interpret it. If they need help, that they would be courageous and comment below for some help.

Lord that they would spend time in silence and listen to you and God that you would fill them up. That you would communicate to them. That your voice would be heard. Allow them to hear you. Give them the motivation and the desire to want to hear from you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

I challenge you, when you’re done reading your Bible, you’re done doing your devotion, give it 10 more minutes and listen to God and if you need prayer or you want to make the choice to follow Jesus, comment below or reach out to us. We would be happy to be there for you. God bless.