“MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE”

There’re two things we need to know about the voice of God.

Firstly, Hearing from God is not difficult. It is the Father’s good pleasure that we do His will, so He’s not going to obfuscate and mystify His ways. God is always talking to His children. You have more to worry about not hearing correctly than about not hearing AT ALL.

Secondly, Obeying God’s voice isn’t hard. This may sound contrary to our religious thinking, but 1Jn 5:3 says, “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.”

The word, “grievous” there means burdensome, hard to follow or irksome. It is misleading for us to teach that doing God’s will is going to be demanding. If you’re a child of God, doing your Father’s will should not come across to you as ‘difficult’. The Psalmist declares, “I will delight myself in your commandments, which I have loved.” (Ps 119:47) And our Lord said, “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” (Mt 11:30).

Many young Believers are afraid of praying to God about marriage because they’re afraid He’ll ask them to marry “that smelly brother that sleeps in Church”, or “that ‘spiritual’ sister that doesn’t talk to anybody”. Men are afraid to ask God to use them because they’re afraid He’ll tell them to “sell all you have and move your family to Zheng'anpu, northern China for missionary work.”

Again, this perception of God’s will is quite misleading.

Jesus told His disciples, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you... For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.” (Jn 16:23,27)

The Father loves you and has your interest in mind. He’s not out to harm or cause you pain for the sake of it. Ask Him for His will in your life today, and be rest assured that He’ll answer. The heavens may not immediately split open while a bodiless hand spells out the instructions for you; you may not fall into a vision and see the woman you are meant to marry; But as long as you stay in faith, keep studying the word and stay around with God’s people, you’ll surely get to know what to do. It could be from a sermon, a conversation, a revelational insight... or even from next week’s “The Word For Today”. J

Whatever it is, “Fear not; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Lk 12:32)

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

SOUND CHECK

Test all things; hold fast that which is good. – 1Th 5:21

The Christian life is a led life. The whole concept of having Jesus as our ‘Lord’ is meaningless if He is not in charge of the day-to-day running of our lives. Rom 8:14 tell us that the index of our salvation is whether we are being led by the Spirit or not (see also Gal 5:18).

But as we discussed earlier this week, not every ‘voice’ in our head is the Holy Spirit. To paraphrase 1Jn 4:1, we are to “Believe not every voice, but test the voices whether they are of God.”

Before any public event, the sound engineers carry out a ‘sound check’ to see if the sound systems are in good order.

And we’re also about to have ours now on the “sound system’ in our heart: the Voices within. So, TESTING, TESTING- 1,2...

Is It of Faith? “Whatever is not of faith is sin”, (Rom 14:23). Without faith it is impossible to please God, (Heb 11:6).

Does It Magnify Christ’s Finished Work? Be wary of voices that give you weird  commandments or else you won’t receive a blessing. Be wary of voices that tell you the reason for your predicament is this or that sin. Condemnation is a signature of the devil. Remember, Jesus said the Holy Spirit comes to convict us of “righteousness” (Jn 16:7-10).

Does It Threaten Harm If Not Obeyed Immediately? The Holy Spirit is not afraid of you questioning His instructions. He’s not going to knock you to the floor if you pause to ponder! From the first pages of Genesis, we can see that God’s not interested in robots! When Jesus lingered at Gethsemane, God sent an angel to help Him (Lk 22:43). Demonic spirits, on the other hand, are known to be very impatient and proud and cannot stand insolence.

Does It Contradict Scripture?

Does It Seek To Separate You From Other Believers?

Does It Ask You To Disrespect Your Leaders?

This list is not exhaustive, but here’s a final important one:

Does It Disturb Your Spirit? There’s a difference between a difficult instruction and a disturbing one. The Believer is “born of the Spirit” (Jn 3:6); therefore, though you may not know Genesis to Revelation, but when your Lord speaks, it’ll come naturally to you. Remember, “My sheep hear my voice,” Jn 10:27.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

LOOK WHO'S TALKING

An image was before my eyes... and I heard a voice, saying, – Job 4:16

We often use the phrase, “look who’s talking” to point out hypocrisy in people who are commenting on issues that they’re also guilty of. However, in a rather literal sense, we really need to look at who’s talking at every moment of our lives.

As Believers, it is ill-advised, even dangerous, for us to go to sinners for counsel. The Psalmist categorically declares, “Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,” (Ps 1:1).

However, we need to know that the “ungodly” here does not necessarily have to refer to some wicked, lecherous, foul-mouthed, pot-smoking shaman somewhere. But “ungodly” simply means “not of God”; and I dare say you will find ‘ungodly’ counsel coming from the least expected places.

A secular psychologist/counsellor is a good example of a sane, educated and well-intended “ungodly” person. As long as they do not share the same Bible-based worldview with you, all of their counsel must be taken with a pinch of salt.

Ungodly counsel can even come from a godly person! After all, who’s best qualified to help the Devil mislead a Believer than one who he or she trusts implicitly? All it takes is a little bit of misinformation, a slice of miscommunication and a little sprinkling of carnality and you have the basic recipe for erroneous counsel. That a counsel is not patently evil or immoral does not automatically make it ‘godly’.

This is why we need always to LOOK WHO’S TALKING.

The incident in Mat 16:13-23 where Simon Peter was inspired by God and Satan almost simultaneously is enough to caution us about counsel we receive from others. Because Jesus was familiar with the voice/tone of the Father He was able to “see” who was talking per time.

Please note that ‘ungodly’ counsel from godly people does not mean they mean you harm or are actually trying to deceive you. We are all finite in our wisdom and even in our inspiration. 1Co 13:9 says, “We know in part, and we prophesy in part”.

Let the word of God and the indwelling Holy Spirit be your voice-checker. And may the Lord keep you and preserve you in all of your decision-making in Jesus’ Name.

AMEN.

GREG ELKAN

HELP! I HEAR VOICES

There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without meaning. – 1Co 14:10

We’re already familiar with the multitude of voices without, but let’s go deeper today, and talk about the voices within.

When psychotic serial killers and perpetrators of brutal murders are brought before trial, they often claim the reason they carried out those gruesome acts was because some “voices” in their head told them to. This fact has become so clichéd that I once saw a guy with a T-Shirt that read, “I hear voices...and they don’t like you!” It was humorously inferring I could be butchered at any moment without warning if I got close. 

Though it’s well-established that psychologically disturbed persons hear “voices”, the truth is, WE ALL hear voices in our heads too! If you’ve been tempted before, then you’re well acquainted with the crazy reality of conflicting voices screaming in your head.

What distinguishes us from the man in the straitjacket in the padded cell is that we do not simply do ‘everything that comes into our heads’.

But they DO come into our heads: voices hinting on the right way to flaunt “it”, offering various false alibi’s on why we were late for work, providing several choice cusswords for that woman who stepped on our shoe without apologizing, proffering various explanations of “how she could buy a brand new car on that slim salary of hers”... VOICES.

Let’s be honest, we all hear them in our heads, and clearly they are not all from the Holy Spirit.

Does that then make us schizophrenic, conflicted, possessed by some foul sprite even?  No, on the contrary, if anything, it proves our spiritual sanity. People under the bondage of sin blindly follow the orders of Satan, their master; but we Believers who are free from his direct control and influence would necessarily have to be constantly tempted to sin. Hence, the ‘voices’.

Sometimes they are loud (sexual temptations, anyone?), other times they are subtle (fibs, for example), and some are so craftily constructed, that we’re not even aware that it’s an external voice speaking.

This is why we need to be always in tune with the indwelling Spirit. If we have the habit of always running our thoughts by the Holy Spirit before acting, we would spare ourselves a whole lot of struggle and baggage down the line.

“My sheep hear my voice... and a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.” (Joh 10:27; 10:5 )

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

VOICES

The voice of the LORD is upon the waters... – Ps 29:3

We are definitely in the last days, and it means that we need God’s guidance now more than ever. Our Lord prophesied that deception would be a hallmark of the End Times, (Mk 13:22), therefore, if there has been any time that we need sound counsel, it is now.

In the classrooms, in our homes, on our pulpits, in our businesses, we need light. Nevertheless, shortage of counsel is hardly a problem for us in this age; indeed, it is the plethoric cacophony of voices around us that we need to worry about.

In the library, you’ll find journal after journal on every field imaginable. Turning to Cyberspace, the internet is awash with pages upon pages of information that presume to tell you what to do; and the hazy maze of Social media can be relied upon to furnish us with unverifiable “life hacks”.

What can a mere mortal do with all this information? As at 2013, there were over 1 trillion SEARCHABLE webpages! (a lot more exist on the non-indexed “Dark Web”). How does one start reading all that? With the advent of digital television we now have access to literally hundreds of channels all competing for our ears, eyes and hearts: News, Documentaries, Shows, Soaps, ... each one vying to influence our worldview.

Then of course, there’s the information we get from Meat-space – real life people around us: friends, colleagues, neighbours, leaders...

 With competing and conflicting voices like these out there, how can one be safe from being misled and misinformed about the key issues of life?

This is why we need to always be in tune and in step with the Holy Spirit.

Many Believers are more familiar with the Google Search Engine than they are with the Holy Spirit. But despite its name (from ‘googol’ – 1 followed by 100 zeros), the information available on Google is nothing compared to the infinitude of wisdom and knowledge that can be found in the Spirit.

In this day and age, let’s learn to train our ears to the voice within: the voice of the Spirit.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

DOES THE HOLY SPIRIT LEAVE?

Christians have traditionally opined that when a Believer sins, the indwelling Spirit is grieved and departs until there’s full repentance. While this sounds theological, it’s not backed by scripture; and we need to be glad for that.

Eph 1:13 tells us that immediately we got Born Again, we were “sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise”. That means that the indwelling Spirit in us is the seal (our Guarantor) for the Day of Judgement.

Understanding this critical role of the Holy Spirit in our life is vital. Because though we can “Grieve” and “Quench” the Holy Spirit (Eph 4:30; 1Thes. 5:19), scriptures do not say He will leave us when we do such things. The concept of the Spirit leaving a person because He’s grieved is an Old Testament paradigm.

In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit never indwelled people, He only came UPON them occasionally. Whether it be Bezalel, Samson, Saul, David, etc. He was never permanently resident in any of them. But all that changed after the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Because now we are Washed, we are Sanctified and we are Justified in God’s sight. (1Co 6:11).

The Holy Spirit is God Almighty: united in holy trinity with the Father and the Son. He never acts in dissonance to the other members of the Godhead.

To the New Testament Believer, the Father says, “I will NEVER leave you, nor forsake you” (Heb 13:5), and the Son says, “Lo, I am with you ALWAYS, even unto the end of the world”. (Mat 28:20). And of the Spirit, our Lord said, “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you FOREVER;” (Joh 14:16).

This permanence of the Spirit in us is obviously not a licence to the Believer to live in sin. There’re always consequences for sin (Rom. 6:23; Jas 1:15). Sin deadens the Believer and corrupts their fellowship with God.

But the knowledge of the constant presence of the Holy Spirit in us is a reminder of the Father’s utmost love for us and His willingness to stick with us in our low times as He patiently works us up to full Christ-like maturity.

And on a more practical note, it’d be presumptuous of us to think a sinning Believer would turn round and repent if the Holy Spirit has left them. It is the Spirit that does the conviction (Jn 16:8), AND the cleansing (1Co 6:11) AND is the source of our hope for said righteousness in faith (Gal 5:5).  

THANK YOU HOLY SPIRIT.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

THE HOLY SPIRIT DOES NOT TALK ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT

I once heard a preacher complain, “the Church is always talking about Jesus; it’s ‘Jesus’, ‘Jesus’ all the time, but we need to talk about the Holy Spirit, too”.

Well, isn’t that odd? How can the Church be accused of not talking enough about the Holy Spirit when the Holy Spirit’ Himself – the One who’s the main teacher of the Church – doesn’t talk about ‘the Holy Spirit’?

Jn 15:26, (GNB) states, “The Helper will come – the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God... I will send him to you from the Father, AND HE WILL SPEAK ABOUT ME”. And Jn 16:14 reads, “HE SHALL GLORIFY ME: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.”

The commission of the Spirit, therefore, is to talk about – and glorify – Jesus!

This is a very important test of any ‘spirit’, regardless of the source. Any spirit that does not draw attention to Christ and His finished work is suspect.

Every aspect of Man’s Salvation Plan is resided in Christ. Whether it be forgiveness of sins, healing, power, authority, wisdom... EVERYTHING is resident in the Son (Col 2:3). Therefore, no true Spirit from God will scold you for ‘overemphasising’ the Son: in your life, teaching or ministry.

“For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell;” (Col 1:19)

It’s not a question of ministerial emphasis or “calling”; every ministry in the Church must be centred on Christ.

A much-accomplished music Preacher here in Nigeria once declared that God told him that his ministry is going to be centred on the “Holy Ghost”. I found his statement somewhat confusing because I was very familiar with his songs, and all that this man sings about is ‘Jesus’; (indeed, his most popular album is titled “Son Talk”).

Then it occurred to me that that IS the ministry of the Holy Ghost: to draw attention and bring glory to the Son!

“For it is in Christ that the fullness of God’s nature dwells embodied, and in Him you are made complete,” – Col 2:9 (WNT).

May you receive a fresh revelation of Christ today by His Spirit in Jesus’ Name.

AMEN.

GREG ELKAN

LET THE HOLY SPIRIT BE THEIR TEACHER

But the Comforter, who is the Holy Spirit... shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance. – Jn 14:26

There is a place for godly counsel in the body of Christ. Eph 4:11,12 says Christ gave the so-called 5-fold ministries “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”

However, the purpose of ministry is not to keep a perpetual nursery of spiritual babies, but to bring all Believers to “mature adulthood and the full standard of development in Christ;” Eph 4:13 (ISV).

When it comes to the nitty-gritties of the Christian walk, the Holy Spirit should be the Believer’s primary teacher. It’s unfortunate when leaders groom their followers to be perpetually dependent on them.

A leader who, in the name of ‘prophetic insight’, does not encourage their followers to learn to hear God for themselves but wants to tell them who to marry, which course to take, which dress to wear for that interview, etc. has left his or her scripturally assigned role and has arrogated to his or herself the function of the Holy Spirit.

Indeed, through this (what I call) ‘helicopter pastoring’, some mentors have become tormentors.

Someone once told me that the best teacher is one who gradually makes himself unnecessary. In the same vein, the best prophet (apostle, teacher, pastor, ‘discipler’, mentor, etc.) is the one whose entire ministry goal, is to make themselves ‘unnecessary’ as their members grow to full maturity and are empowered to tackle greater and greater challenges by themselves.

No one can teach a person better than the Holy Spirit can. He’s omniscient and all-compassionate. He doesn’t just know the exact unique provisions that each Believer has in Christ; He’s also intimate with their peculiarities and is the One making all things work together for their good future.

Let us, therefore, as leaders lead the flock to the Chief Shepherd, and let’s grant Him greater and greater influence in their lives, knowing whom we have believed, and being persuaded that He is able to keep that which we have committed unto Him against that day. (2Ti 1:12)

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN 

THE HOLY SPIRIT: GOD AT HIS BEST FOR MANKIND

But I tell you that I am going to do what is best for you. That is why I am going away... – John 16:7 (CEV)

Have you ever wished Jesus were still around? I know I have. As a kid, I thought, “He’s alive forever; why couldn’t He just wait around?”

Others have wished they were able to walk and talk with God the way Enoch, Abraham and Moses did. Or what about that wonderful scenario of God visiting Adam in the cool of the evening? Awesome! Right?

The truth is, even though we have the Holy Spirit today, we feel that the men of old had it better. But though the Holy Spirit did many mighty things through the Old Testament saints, He was never permanently on any one of them. That is why we see the phrase, “And the spirit of the LORD came upon him” often in the Old Testament.

But the bottom-line in all this is that, the spirit of the LORD would come and the Spirit of God would leave. He was never permanently on them. We living in the New Covenant, however, have the Holy Spirit living permanently inside of us; every day, every night, when we sleep, when we wake up... the Spirit is right there in us, with us and for us. Even Adam did not have it this good!

This has been God’s wish from the very earliest. He has always wanted to tabernacle among men. That is why the Bible makes a big deal about “The Word” becoming flesh and dwelling among us (Jn 1:14), that is why Jesus was called “Emmanuel” – God with Us!

2Cor 3:17 says, “The Lord and the Spirit are one and the same,” (CEV). Recall that  Jesus’ unique term for the Holy Spirit is “Parakletos” (traditionally translated as “Comforter”). But Jesus IS our “Parakletos”! 1Jn 2:1 says “My little children... if any man sin, we have a Parakletos (KJV “advocate”) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

So just as Jesus once said to Philip, “He that has seen me has seen the Father;  (Jn 14:9), He is essentially saying to us “He that has the Holy Spirit has me!” Yes, that’s the Jesus of Nazareth right there in your heart right now. Awesome, innit?

As you meditate on this reality, may you enjoy a richer experience with the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name.

AMEN.

GREG ELKAN

THE HOLY SPIRIT

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. – Rev 22:17

What is your understanding of the Holy Spirit? How you see the Holy Spirit will go a long way in determining how much you enjoy from Him.

For many Christians, He’s identified with ‘POWER!’. Whenever you mention the Holy Spirit, they think of anointing, of speaking in tongues, of demons screaming out of the possessed, of prophesyings and of ‘slayings in the Spirit’.

Others see Him as their in-built faultfinder. To them, the Holy Spirit is that judging, condemning voice inside of them telling them “what you did is wrong” (curiously, that voice tends to remain quiet when what they did is right). These set of Believers have been told that the Holy Spirit is “easily offended” and will even leave you if you ‘grieve’ him.

These views of the 3^rd Person of the Trinity, apart from being narrow also border on being unscriptural.

While the average Believer today does acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is God, they only mentally assent to the doctrine of the Trinity and fail to grasp its implication. Just as Jesus and the Father are one (Jn 10:30), the Holy Spirit and the Father are also one, ( Mt 1:20; Lk 1:35). In the same vein, the Holy Spirit and Jesus are also one (2Co 3:17; Rom 8:9; 1Pe 1:11, etc.).

Whatever character the Father and Son have, the Spirit also has. If the Father is Love, then He is Love, if Jesus cares for you, then He too cares for you. If the Father says He will never leave you nor forsake you, then it would be incongruous for the Holy Spirit to do what the Father would not.

Beloved, the Godhead is not schizophrenic, we serve one God (Dt 6:4), yet for some reason we’ve compartmentalised the Holy Spirit in our minds and attributed to Him things we can’t legitimately attribute to the Father or Son.

Jesus says, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,” (Mt 18:20). Yet when we gather at church, we say “come Holy Spirit”, or “The Spirit is not here”.

The Father says, “Without faith, it’s impossible to please me” (see Heb 11:6). Yet when it comes to the Holy Spirit, if we don’t see evidence (goose pimples, warm feeling, falling under the anointing, etc.) we’ll not believe He’s there.  

Beloved, in what other way have you separated the Holy Spirit from the Godhead? Think about it, and repent (change your mind/thinking today).

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN