YWAM’s 8 Steps for Hearing God’s Voice
I.Clean Heart principle. Make sure your heart is clean before God by giving the Holy Spirit time to convict you about any un-confessed sin in your life. Confess that of which He speaks.
A.Psalm 66.18 If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
B.Hosea 5.4 "Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God ... they do not acknowledge the LORD."
C.Ps 51:10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
D.Heb 10:22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
II.Acknowledge our dependence on the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us. Ask God to completely control us by His Spirit.
A.Eph 5.18 - Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
B.John 14:16,17 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you for ever - the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
C.Joh 16:13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
D.Acts 16:6-10 - 6 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
III.Die to our own reasoning, imaginations, desires, and burdens of what you feel you should pray for.
A.Prov.3:5-6 - 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
B.Is.55:8 - 8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.
1.3 voices: The voice of God, our own voice and voice of the enemy.
IV.Deal aggressively with the enemy. Silence his voice.
A.James 4.7 - Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
B.2Cor.10:4-5 - The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
V.Ask God for the fear of the Lord
A.Prov 1.7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
1.Read from Joy Dawson pp 24-28
B.Hos 5.4 "Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. A spirit of prostitution is in their heart; they do not acknowledge the LORD.
VI.Praise Him by faith for the exciting time He is going to give us. God will do something that is consistent with His character.
A.Nu 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
B.Ps 103:17 But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children--
C.Ps 95.1-2 1 Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.
1.This is all about faith. It is about us declaring to our own spirits that the Scriptures are true.
2.It is about declaring that God’s ability and desire to speak to us are greater than our level of sin and inability to hear.
VII.Wait before God in silent expectancy. Listen for His direction.
A.Psalm 62.5 - Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.
B.Psalm 46.10 -"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
1.God speaks different ways. Each of us has to spend the time to now how God will speak to us.
VIII.In faith and obedience, take action on what God brings to your mind, believing He has spoken to you.
A.2 Chron 20.21-22 - After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army ... As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.