..
......keeping in mind that there are different gifts for different people (maybe at different times and circumstances as well, sometimes). Some He may lead through hearing His voice in their spirit, others may be led by an unction/impulse, or the Lord may just decide to "take over"..... etc. Yes, signs follow the preaching of the gospel...this is to help open people's hearts to it I believe.
The conclusion that different gifts means that some Christians hear His voice and other do not is simply wrong and opposite of what is written in the Bible, and what He says, if you listen to Him!
Jn 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
Note that is does not read that His sheep might hear HIs voice, or His sheep hear His voice if they are gifted to do so - but rather it reads "My sheep hear my voice"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And there is some other (many other) scriptures that talk about those not hearing His voice!! Indeed it should be obvious to anyone who has ever read their Bible that this not hearing Him is a huge problem!!!
Jn 8:47 “He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.”
So for us Christians (His sheep who do hear His voice) to tell people that hearing His voice is a gift and perhaps not all Christians have that gift, is just misleading them - which as can been seen above is not what Jesus was boldly telling them!!!
Now He does give us different gifts and He does use us in different ways. And lets take a quick look at some of the gifts of the Spirit and consider:
1 Cor 12:7,8 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit;
In the above two verses we see that indeed we are all given different manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. So one person may get a word of wisdom, but that means they hear His voice and get some little bit of wisdom from Him, right?
He gives me little says, many of which I took the time to write down - hear are a couple of them:
YOU DIDN’T MAKE ME AN AWESOME GOD, BUT YOU CAN MAKE ME AN AWESOME GOD.
THE BEST LISTENERS MAKE THE BEST TEACHERS.
MY PEOPLE WORKING TOGETHER IS LIKE PUTTING MAKE UP ON THE BRIDE.
I heard those little sayings from Him, and so He gifted them to me to share with the church.
Yet He might and has given me words of knowledge at times. He had me working in a Christian healing ministry for 5 years and while there He would tell me about issues that people had that needed prayer. It is amazing how Christians would come to a Christian healing ministry and not think to tell us about a physical issue they had so we might pray over it. So they would come in and tell us that they wanted prayer for a friend of theirs who had an issue, and then I would hear the Lord tell me something like, 'Karl, that person has a problem with their stomach (or something like that)', and so I would ask them if perhaps they were having a problem with their stomach. And they would come back and tell me they did. So I would ask them if they were having pain, and if so on a scale of 1 -10 with 10 being the most pain, how would they rate the pain. And they would tell me something amazing, like they were experiencing a level 8 or 9. So we would pray and we would see God do healing in their lives.
Indeed, it happened so often in that ministry that towards the end the group I lead was seeing more healings from words of knowledge than we did from people coming in and asking for a certain issue. So we need to harken to His voice, right?
Ex 15:16 and said, “If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”
1 Cor 12:9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit,
So the gifts of the Spirit ALL depend on us His sheep hearing what He has to say to us personally!!!!!
So indeed, "preaching of the gospel" is proclaiming that Jesus Christ is there wanting to talk to us, so we need to open up to Him and listen!!
Below is the gospel (Good News)
Rev 3:20 ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.
People - the GOOD NEWS is that ANYONE can simple open up to Jesus Christ and hear His voice!! That is to say that ANYONE can come to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ!!!!!!!!!!!!
Of course if the don't believe in Him, that He is always there knocking with His voice and hoping to talk back and forth with us, then what hope is there for them??? Did He not say that many would tell Him how they did things in His name, only to be told by Him that He never knew them??? He is not a liar. If you have been dining with him and Him with you, then He knows you and He will not tell you that. But if you are just pretending to know Him, but are in fact making excuses for not listening to Him - excuses like hearing His voice is a gift and so is not you just rejecting Him in your life - then the future looks poor for you indeed!!
Mat 7:22-24 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.
So there indeed are MANY, who are going around who prophesy in His name, cast our demons in His name, and even perform many miracles in His name - but they don't actually hear Him and know Him!! Therefore we, His sheep hear His voice and act on them, not on our own understanding, but on what He tells us. We His sheep do hear His voice, but ANYONE can hear His voice and get to know Him, which is the Good News!!
So how writes: "Some He may lead through hearing His voice in their spirit, others may be led by an unction/impulse,"
Is that the "Word of God" we are preaching???
Rom 10:8 But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching,
It does not say "an unction/impulse" - does it???
So we are not preaching ""an unction/impulse", are we?? But we are preaching "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU".
Ok - there are some new Christians who are not yet very good at picking up His voice, but even with them we are encouraging them to hear "THE WORD", are we not?
And yes sometimes, even many times a day, I get busy and pick up Him speaking to me more like "an unction/impulse", but when I realize that I go back and ask, "Lord, did you say ....?" and I listen!!
This making an excuse for us not taking the time to intently listen to the words He has to tell us needs to change, doesn't it?
We are not told to preach "unction/impulse", are we??
Why will there be many on that day hear Him tell them that He never knew them? It is not our fault, because we didn't actually preach the Word of God like He told us, is it?
His church, we His sheep who hear His voice have a responsibility, even a task to perform, and it is preaching The Word of God, meaning proclaiming that He is there to speak to us the words of God via His Holy Spirit!!!
Are we how do know Him doing that, or are we making excuses for others, and even ourselves, for not listening to Him??
Lizbeth - I can see that you know Him. I have read where you have brought up that His sheep hear His voice. And don't get me wrong - I appreciate that you intend to help others get to know Him, yet I have also seem this 'unction/impulse' preach around the church that I go to so much that it has made that whole church be fill with people who are just dull of hearing. The miracles and healing happen the back rooms, where a few people that do understand about really hearing His voice, tend to hang out in ministries like the healing ministry I was in, or the prophetic ministry that others were in. And that was not good, it was bad!! The church is supposed to edify (teach in religious matters) and that means we need to encourage His people to listen to Him Today - all of them!!
Encouragement does always mean saying, 'oh that is ok and good enough', is it? What will you think if you get to heaven and then look down and see that someone you knew never actually got to know the Lord so hear "I never knew you" from the Lord on that day?
The Lord one told me a story about a priest of long ago, even at the time of the Christian Crusades, which He said was a true story. The priest had come to know Him, but was a bit embarrass about actually hearing the Lord. So he did His priestly duties as per tradition. And the priest wound up being good friends with a knight who wound up getting killed in the Crusades. When the priest, got to heaven he looked around and saw his friend was not there. He had never come to know the Lord, though his friend killed in the Lord's name. Indeed, all those knights had killed in the Lord's name and not come to know Him, and it had been the priest responsibility to help them get to know the Lord. It was a sad story, but I was told a true story.
We are like a nation of priests, and supposed to be helping the Lord with His work. The work of God is that all should come to know the Son, is it not?? So how are we doing with that work?