The Debbie Taylor Williams Podcast

Debbie Taylor Williams: Hi, this is Debbie Taylor Williams. Thank you for tuning in to my podcast. I'm so glad you're here and pray the Lord will speak to you through this message.

A passenger was on a cruise ship going along and saw a man that was over on an island who was just waving and waving, jumping up and down, and waving. The passenger turned to the captain and said, "Why is that man just over on that island yelling and waving?" The captain said, "I don't know, but every time we pass here, he does that."

The reason that I thought that joke was applicable to us is because, is God waving in your life? Is he saying, "Hey, hey, I'm trying to get your attention through this illness"? "Hey, I'm trying to get your attention through this financial situation." "Hey, I'm trying to get your attention through what that person said about you or to you." "Hey, I'm trying to get your attention about a ministry opportunity." "Hey, I'm trying to get your attention that you don't have to commit to doing anything big, just meet with me every morning."

"Hey, I'm trying to get your attention." As we use this acronym that I mentioned in the prior session, LISTEN, L-I-S-T-E-N, let's use each of those letters to help plant in our minds some ways that we can, in a very practical way, listen up, listen to those promptings.

The L stands for "Learn God's voice." I don't see my daughter in here right now, but Lauren Spaulding knows my voice so well that if she reads something that's been done by someone else, she knows it. Well, that probably makes sense to you, but let me give you an example.

We hired a social media coordinator because we have a huge ability to reach people beyond our walls and beyond this city through Facebook. So, we use Facebook as a venue to put scriptures, to put messages, to put blog posts, God's attributes, to invite people to come to conferences and events, but we use it as a ministry. It had become a little overwhelming for me trying to keep up with everything.

I'm going to show you how God speaks again here. I was in Dallas having coffee with my old college roommate, JoAnn Deely. Simply coffee. I said, "JoAnn, I'm just getting overwhelmed. I need help so bad." She said, "Well, why don't you just mention it on Facebook?" I thought, "Oh, you've got to be kidding me. On Facebook? Who all would reply? How would I know somebody on Facebook that replied that I might not even know?" I thought it was the stupidest idea I'd ever heard in my life, to put on Facebook that I wanted somebody to coordinate my social media.

After about another two weeks of me dog-paddling with my responsibility, I thought, "Well, I guess I'll put it on Facebook and see what happens." Do you know that a woman in Florida, Chris Whitman, immediately messaged me and said, "I would love to do your social media"? Ordinarily, I wouldn't have known Chris Whitman in Florida, except she had been the social media coordinator for the Mom Initiative, which is a ministry that I'm involved with, and had done a wonderful job. She is now doing our social media, posting quotes, posting inspiration, and posting praise music on our Facebook page. You can go there and find daily encouragement.

When she started doing it, some of the things she would put were from my books, book quotes, my blog posts, but every once in a while, she would just put something herself encouraging. My daughter Lauren could tell it wasn't my voice. Just the way it was said, just the slant. When I was asked to write the book, "Pray with Purpose, Live with Passion," I told you I cried. I really did. I'd written the Bible study, "Discovering His Passion," but it suited my gifts. It was, "Open your Bibles to Luke. What is Christ's passion? Luke 19:10. Fill in the blank."

The participant would put, "Christ's passion was to seek and to save the lost." It was more of a guide to write a Bible study, but to just have to write a book on the subject of prayer was overwhelming to me. I began writing. I sent the first chapter and the editor sent it back and said, "No, you need to write like you're writing to a fifth grader."

I switched and I sent something back, and she sent it back and it had more red markings than a fifth grader's paper would have had if they were flunking. I looked at it and I was just like, "I can't do this. I don't want to do this. I can't do this." Have you ever had God call you to do something and you're like, "I can't. I don't even want to." You know, "But Lord, I'm willing, but I don't want to."

We did this kind of back and forth for a while, and the editor would send it back, something I'd written, and it would sound so nice and so professional and so whoop-dee-doo. But y'all know me. I am not whoop-dee-doo. I am just saying like it is. I called my publisher, Phyllis Boltinghouse, who had asked me to write it, and I was crying. I was driving down Sidney Baker going back home to work on it some more. Let me say this. Many times, the things that God calls us to do are not fun.

I remember one time a child said to me, "Well, this just isn't fun." I'm like, "I know. Work is work." Sometimes ministry is fun. Sometimes ministry is work. Being a mom is work. Being a dad is work. Being a grandmother is work. My sweet friend in a wheelchair, work, right? You work harder than I do getting up and down stairs and this kind of thing. She has a beautiful smile on her face.

But the thing is, I called my publisher and I said, "I just don't think I can do this." She said, "Just write your editor back and tell her it's not your voice." I didn't even know that term. I told y'all I had not been educated in writing. I learned people have different voices. You can read Max Lucado, that's his voice. You can read Beth Moore, that's her voice. You can read Charles Stanley, that's his voice. We all have different voices. Learn God's. That's the number one tip I can give you. Learn God's voice so that even though you're not with him, it's just like we use cell phones and you probably don't have to identify yourself when you call a family member and say, "Hi, this is mom" or "This is Suzy Q." What do they know? They know your voice.

Jesus said in John 10:27, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." How can you learn God's voice? I would suggest this: lean in. Everybody just do that. Lean in. There was a cute movie, "While You Were Sleeping." Sandra Bullock played one of the roles and Bill, I can't remember his last name, Pullman, I believe his name was, played Jack, a character. Jack was explaining that he didn't like the way that another man was leaning into her. She said, "What are you talking about, leaning in?" He goes, "You know, you get closer to the person."

Jack was saying he was leaning into you, getting close. He said it implies moving in, receiving. Friends, there is nothing our good Lord, Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit would love more than for us to move in, move closer, go into that prayer time, open our Bibles, lean in, have something to write down what he puts on our hearts. Lean in. Lean in. Join a Bible study. Pray. Ask God, "Teach me to discern your voice." I began praying that years ago.

If you write that simple thing down, "Teach me to discern your voice." Ask him. He's not going to give you a scorpion, a serpent if you ask for a fish, Jesus said. Ask him. Listen to sermons. Listen to praise music. Gather with others for prayer and study and fellowship. Heed godly advice and warnings. I want to mention this: heed godly advice and warnings. That is also moving in, leaning in, learning God's voice, because sometimes somebody may tell you something and it may not be your thought, but it may be God's voice speaking through that person. Lean in.

James 4:8 says, "Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you." Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you. Take steps to be closer. Is that what the Holy Spirit is saying to you today? Take steps to be closer. The I in LISTEN stands for "Inquire if it's God speaking." Do you recall in 1 Samuel 3 where God spoke to Samuel and Samuel ran to Eli? He thought it was him speaking. That happened three times. Finally, Samuel learned God's voice.

Do you recall when Peter said by the Holy Spirit, and Jesus said when he was asking, "Who do people say that I am?" and Peter said, "Thou art the Christ, son of the living God." Jesus said to Peter, he affirmed it, he confirmed it, and he said, "Flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but my Heavenly Father." The Spirit spoke to him and Jesus was helping him identify that. He was helping him identify what you just said didn't come of your own self, Peter. It was a divine revelation given to you by my Father.

There are going to be times in our lives where we have a thought and we wonder, "Lord, is this you?" There was another time later that Peter, even after being warned by Jesus that he would deny Jesus three times, Peter ignored that voice. He didn't heed it. There may be somebody telling you, "You better write your will. You better take stock of your finances. You better have some cash on hand because we could get where a line's cut and you can't get in the bank. You better not be dependent on that cell phone or that laptop. Our world is extremely controlled by things outside of ourselves. You better watch out for your health. You keep eating like that, drinking like that, not exercising."

God sometimes speaks to us. When we hear voices, when we hear advice, when we hear this or that, we can go and we can inquire to God, "Lord, is this of you, or is this of the enemy, or is this just somebody else's opinion?" But be willing to change course from a direction that you might have thought you were going to go on. In Acts 9, we see the conversion of Saul where the Lord called to him, Jesus called to him. But then in Acts 9:10, while Saul, who is now converted to Paul, he does not have sight, he's not eating, he's not drinking, it tells us in verse 10 there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him.

I pray that we are hearing from God this morning. The Lord speaks, the Lord speaks, the Lord speaks. Just try going through your Bible and writing down every, circling every time the Lord said, the Lord said, the Lord said. The Lord is speaking, the Lord is speaking, the Lord is speaking. He's wired us spiritual beings to hear his voice.

The Lord said to him, "Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying." God sees what's going over here, so he says to Ananias over here, "Get up and go over there." He may say to you, "Get up and go call on your neighbor. Get up and go visit that person in the hospital. Get up and invite somebody to church this Sunday. Get up." However he's prompting, that's the best place to be, immediate obedience.

He said in verse 12, "He has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight." Ananias is going to check out that voice. Where's that voice coming from? Ananias answered the Lord. This is a conversation. Have conversations with God. There's nothing he loves more. Have conversations with him. "Lord, is this you telling me to do this?" and then be quiet and let him speak.

Ananias said, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to your saints at Jerusalem, and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name." This was like telling Ananias to walk into a death trap. Verse 15, "But the Lord said to him, 'Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine.'" Ladies and gentlemen, do you know that the scriptures say that we are the instruments of God? We are the servants of God. We are his ambassadors, every single one. That's why he wants us to get the plugs out of our spiritual ears so we can do whatever he's telling us, big or small.

He said, "He is a chosen instrument of mine, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel." Verse 17, "So Ananias departed and entered the house and laid hands on him." Now, Ananias had to check it out. "Is this you, Lord?" So, if you're not sure, the I stands for "Inquire." We see this also of Peter, when he was praying, and the Lord spoke to him and said to go down and eat that which he considered to be unclean. This was in Acts 10. We're not going to go over all these, but I hope you'll write them down or look at your handout so you can go and pore over them because the scripture was written for our edification to learn.

We are learning by watching Ananias and Peter how to discern God's voice. These are in here so we can ponder it and pore over it. Peter went up to the housetop at the sixth hour to pray. Purposeful, intentional prayer. He was desiring to make preparations to eat, but he saw the sky opened up and a voice came to him, "Get up Peter, kill and eat." It was four-footed animals and crawling creatures and birds of the air. Peter said, "By no means." He was being a good Christian. "By no means. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to go there. I'm not going to visit with those people. I don't want to go on that mission with those people or hunt with... I don't want to go eat lunch with her. She's a gossip and she's a nag."

If the Lord tells you to go, go. He says, "No, I'm not going to do that." A voice came to him a second time. Three times it happened. Verse 17, "Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind." So, we are going to have perplexing times where we don't know, "Do I take that job? Do I move here? Do I move there?" Inquire.

So what does the L stand for? Learn and lean in. What does the I stand for? Inquire. Ask God. Always have your pen and paper, your Bible handy because he may want to answer you through the Bible. He may want to speak to your heart something to write down. The S in LISTEN stands for "Sit." Sit in God's presence, offering yourself as his servant. You may not be able to kneel but friends, if I could send you home with anything, it would be this: sit with God, sit in his presence.

It is a beautiful thing. It is a lovely thing. But it is sometimes a hard thing to do to just go with your pen and paper because you're thinking of how you want to check the news, and you want to check the weather, and you need to call so-and-so, and you need to email so-and-so. But think, think, think. You will be having such a horrible tradeoff during your day if you rush into it without just sitting in God's presence. Sit. Just say the word sit.

You know how we teach dogs and we say, "Sit." I think God might, through the spirit, just say to us today, "Sit. Sit. Sit with me. I will talk to you if you will sit down." There have been times that I've been running from the kitchen, running to the bedroom, running, and Keith will be telling me something. I'll say, "What did you say?" and he'll say, "Well, never mind. You're going in there." We have to be attentive, do we not?

Sit in God's presence. Psalm 4:4 tells us how valuable it is for us to sit in God's presence. Psalm 4:4 says, "Tremble, and do not sin; Meditate in your heart upon your bed." I can't tell you how many different promptings and impressions the Lord has given me in preparation for this conference. I've been teaching this material since before 2000, I can't even remember. It's so long. But God is constantly changing and molding and preparing this message for you. This is a fresh message for you.

This material's the first time I've presented it in just this way, in just this order for you. I would be lying in my bed and wake up four or five or whatever with the Holy Spirit telling me something he wanted me to guide me, to say, "You put in there with Ted Ellmore. You didn't get to be taking this conference all over the United States by that single event. It started by my spirit way back there in Dallas. I used Michelle Bowles, I used..." Do you see how he's saying the spirit told me to bring that visual so we could see this, how he works?

As I'm lying in my meditating in my bed, I can't tell you how many times in preparation the spirit would speak and I would think to myself, "I need to hurry up and get up and go write this down or go add this to that PowerPoint or do this." The scripture says, "Meditate in your heart upon your bed." I know if you've got a baby screaming, you can't meditate in your heart on your bed. But I do know that I was a young mommy with kids, and I do know I had to make a choice to set my alarm at least 20 minutes earlier before those kids woke up so I could sit in God's presence.

Is God speaking to you? You may say, "Oh, well my husband's retired now and I just can't do anything. He's up before I am and then we go for a walk and we get coffee or I'm out the door, I can't." Yes, you can. Yes, you can. I do not believe that God would have you bear children, I do not believe that he would have you go into a marriage and it would deny him. If it's denying him, that doesn't make sense. These excuses are excuses. Sit in God's presence.

While we're sitting, what are we doing? We're silently waiting. We're silently waiting. Let's look at some more visuals. In Acts 1:4, what was it that Jesus said that they were to do in Jerusalem? Wait. Thank you very much. In Acts 1:14, while they are waiting, they were continually devoting themselves to prayer and it was at this time that the day of Pentecost came.

Sometimes friends, we pray and we wait. We read and we pray and we wait. In Acts 10:19, we see that sometimes we need to reflect on the scriptures instead of just going through and saying, "Boy, I did my daily Bible reading" or "I did my little reading from this devotional book" or whatever. Acts 10:19 explains to us when Peter had that vision that the voice was telling him to go and do something that was uncomfortable for him. Verse 19 says, "While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him..." Write down that verse. Please.

Peter's in a quandary. He's doing the right thing, he's up on the housetop praying, but then he has a voice in his head. "Do I call her and apologize, do I not? Do I file for divorce, do I not? Do I mention this to the worship team that I'd like to be on there or not? Do I volunteer for the TV ministry or not?" I've got all these voices in my head, Lord. What do I do about my health? What do I do about my finances? What do I do about this child, Lord?

When did the spirit speak to Peter telling him and affirming? It says, "While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the spirit said to him." If you want the spirit to say something to you, we have to be in that position. We see in Acts 13, when did the spirit speak? When did the spirit speak? Because this is going to be when the spirit speaks to us also. In Acts 13, Barnabas and Simeon and different ones were ministering. It says in Acts 13:2, "While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said."

When did the spirit speak? While they were ministering. Friends, it happens while we're in the midst of ministry that the spirit speaks. It happened to Mark Ross to suggest doing the live streaming while we were in the midst of planning the Pray with Passion conference. It happens when you're in the midst. Be in ministry. All of us are called to be ministers of God. We are, by fact. It's not a you say yes or no, I won't be a minister of God. Yes or no, I won't be a servant of God. You are a servant, you are a minister. You're either a good one or a bad one. You're either functioning or non-functioning.

So do it well, we are encouraged here. "While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.'" The Spirit called. Jesus is in heaven and now the spirit is operating just like Jesus said. Then when they had fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away. So listen, verse four, "Being sent out by the Holy Spirit." Being sent out. I hope you're just so excited.

The T in LISTEN, the T is so important. I know I'm telling you I think every one is so important, but this is it. Take the first step. Just go right out there and take the first step. None of us know if we're going to have the breath to take the second step. We may be in a car accident. Take the first step. Take the first step. Put yourself out there.

Last year after our Pray with Passion conference here at the church, Sandy said, "Oh, we've just got to do this again." The spirit pricked my heart, "Well, you have an 'again-er', the other side of prayer, the Listen Up conference." But I thought, "Well, I don't want to impose myself." But the spirit was prompting me. He just said, "Well, just offer that if they want to do the Listen Up conference, you're available. Just put your foot out there, put your toe in the water." So I told Sandy, I said, "I have another conference on prayer that's the other side of prayer, it's us listening to God." Put yourself out there. Take that step. Because it's when we take that first step, then God opens the door to the second step. When we take that second step, then he opens the door to the third step, and all of a sudden, we're walking in the spirit.

We see this in 1 Samuel 3:1, Acts 13:2, Acts 8:26, and I love Acts 8 that talks about Philip. I have to get to Philip just very quickly with y'all and you know we don't have much further to go because we just have E and N. You know the story of Philip in Acts 8. The Spirit said to Philip, "Go up and join..." I'm sorry let me back up, I jumped ahead. In Acts 8:26, an angel of the Lord, and we will find out it is the spirit, spoke to Philip.

An angel of the Lord, the Spirit speaking. The spirit is speaking to people who are in the position to hear and listen. So if you're praying, if you're reading your Bible, if you're sitting quietly in his presence, if you take that first step that he told you to do, then he's able to speak to you again. If we do not take that first step, why in the world... he can't even tell us where to go next. My GPS doesn't tell me the 15th direction to go in Dallas if I haven't even pulled out on Highway 16.

So many times we're just like, "But Lord, I just can't see the end of the road." No, we see this day, we see this step. That's what we see. The Spirit said to Philip, "Go up and join this chariot." So Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah. We go on down and we see that Philip was continually responding step by step by step and the Ethiopian eunuch became a believer, a follower of Christ.

I'm going to do one more show because this has you in it, Leon and Kaye Miller. This has you in it, Pastor. The man who worked for Howard Publishing in West Monroe, Louisiana moved to a different publisher, ACU Press. God put on his heart, the spirit spoke to him, that women and moms were down and discouraged because their life didn't go according to their plan and they were discouraged and depressed. Y'all know how huge an issue depression is today. God doesn't want us to live in depression.

Sometimes we may need medication. We definitely need exercise and eating the right foods and getting sleep. But there is also a spiritual aspect that God wants to minister to. And so he called me and asked me if I would write "The Plan A Woman in a Plan B World: What to do When Life Does Not Go According to Plan." After prayer, the spirit prompted me on how to do that, and while I was writing that, he asked me to write "The Plan A Mom in a Plan B World."

I developed landmines that we can have in our minds as moms, as women, if we don't diffuse them. Christ has already won the victory on the cross, but the enemy has landmines, maybe from the way we were raised, maybe from the voices in our heads, maybe just our own carnal nature. We need to take those landmines out. We need to diffuse them so Christ's kingdom can flourish in our minds and our hearts and we not live in darkness and depression.

In an effort to minister through social media, I was posting some Plan A Mom tips on Facebook. The lady that you see right there, Stephanie Schott, that second lady, she is the founder of the Mom Initiative. She saw one of my posts. She called me, told me who she was and asked me if I would be on the team of leaders for the Mom Initiative. After praying about it, I told her yes and so I became ministering also through the Mom Initiative. She's based in Florida.

I was asked to be one of the keynote speakers for their Better Together conference in Florida. While I was there, Tracy Easter, who is the next woman to the Florida map, she was there and during the break time between teaching sessions, she started visiting with me and I started sharing with her about my wonderful husband, Keith Williams, and how much I loved him and what a godly man he was. The spirit pricked her heart and she said, "Oh, I think I'm going to see if my husband Bill would send an invitation to Keith and you to come to the Fatherhood Commission in Georgia."

I didn't know what the Fatherhood Commission was. But I said, "Well, if he sends it, I'll let Keith know and give him a heads up." Her husband, Bill Easter, was the president, I believe at that time, of FamilyLife. I can't remember if he was CEO or president but what position he was in. Soon I go home and I tell Keith and I don't have a clue if Keith is going to be interested. He really doesn't like just hopping on airplanes and going to meetings, especially with people he doesn't know. But I shared with him about their vision and how they were calling Christian men leaders together who had a heart for fatherhood and Christian fatherhood.

Keith received the invitation for us to come, and he not knowing where we were going, all of a sudden we end up in Georgia. See that little yellow map there? We're in Georgia. That's my cute husband by the way, in case y'all didn't see him earlier right by that other lady. All of a sudden we are in Georgia at the Fatherhood Commission and guess who was there? The Kendrick Brothers, the producers of the movie "War Room."

We had no idea what we were doing at the Fatherhood Commission. But the Kendrick Brothers gave a preview of "War Room" the year before it came out. We were overwhelmed, loved what it did, and were so excited for when it would come to Kerrville. You probably know the rest of the story. I found out by checking our movie theaters that it wasn't coming here. And the spirit prompted me and said, "Well, you need to find out how y'all can get it here."

Well, I don't do that kind of thing. But the spirit said, "You need to see how you can get it here." I said, "Well, I don't do that kind of thing." And the spirit said, "Well, you need to see how you can get it here." Finally, I replied to some form email about how you could get "War Room" to this city and found out that we would have to pre-sell 750 tickets, which my ministry does not sell movie tickets or buy 750 movie tickets.

Through a series of events, God prompted my heart that Dell Way at his church had hosted events at the theater for Christian viewings. The spirit prompted "Check with your pastor." The spirit prompted individuals who have the gift of giving in our church who are sitting here and he prompted and said, "See if they would want to buy some tickets that could be used and then given." I had intended to do those things but let it go by because I was so busy. One morning, I was in my prayer time and I was like, "Oh Lord, I let it slip by the deadline. It can't happen." The spirit said to me, as audible as you hear my voice right now, he said, "Bring War Room."

I wrote it down in my journal. Those of you who have been to the prayer journal workshop, I shared it with you because I've got it great big yellow highlights. He said, "Bring War Room." I wrote it down. "Bring War Room." That's why I said when he speaks to you, I think it's a good idea to write it down so you don't forget. Also, you're able to go back then and celebrate the answered prayers. I quickly got on the horse trying to make that happen. That's when I made some phone calls and said, "Can you help, can you help, can you help?"

And that is why you is right there great big on the War Room movie getting to come to Kerrville and how it has impacted so many lives. It was you, it was you, it was you donating money, sharing with your friends, calling your church, doing this. How many of you saw the movie "War Room"? How many of you enjoyed it? How many of you were impacted by it in any way? How many of you encouraged somebody else to see it? All because... do you see the spirit trail? I shouldn't call it a bunny trail. I'm sorry. Really, Spirit's leading. Let me retract that. Do you see the Spirit's leading? Gary Meyers in Abilene seeing women and moms discouraged, wanting a book written to minister to them.

The S: sit silently in God's presence. Stay in prayerful communion. Stay there. Stay in prayerful communion and turn aside when the spirit prompts. There have been times that I have been the biggest mess in the whole world. I have been wandering in sin, I have been deceived by the spirit, I mean deceived by the evil spirit, deceived by my own carnal nature, refuse the spirit's voice so that I was listening to my own little tapes, my own little wants what I wanted to do and there have been people whether it was my husband or my sister Linda that would say, "Debbie." It would be the spirit speaking through their voice to me.

How many of you have ever had that happen? When somebody else says something, it may not be something you like hearing. Maybe you've just gotten a foul mouth or maybe you have a foul temperament or maybe you're just grumpy or maybe you need to be going to Sunday school and church and you don't or maybe you need to be plugged in somewhere and you're not. If somebody says something to us, we need to stay in prayerful communion and we need to turn aside as the spirit prompts. Why? Because there are few warnings about my relationship with the Holy Spirit. We don't have time to go over all these scriptures but you can do your own research. The Holy Spirit can be obeyed, but he can also be lied to, Acts 5:3. He can be put to the test, Acts 5:9. He can be resisted, Acts 7:51. He can be grieved.

There may be some of us sitting in here and the reason that we're so downcast in spirit is because the spirit in us is grieved by the sin in our life. Friends, we are so spiritually connected to God, we're like this. So we're grieving the spirit, of course we're going to be downcast in spirit. If there's some sin in our lives, we need to go back and we need to look at that sin and ask if it's really worth it to entertain that sin and walk in a downcast spirit. Is it really worth it to hang onto that sin, hang onto that unforgiveness, hang onto that rebellion because it's causing us to be downcast in spirit?

The Holy Spirit can be quenched. I remember when Taylor and Lauren were little and I don't know if you remember, Lauren, but I got a little votive candle. I was trying to explain to them the scripture, "Quench not the spirit." We were at Q in our kids' time, daily devotional, and I brought in some logs and put them on the kitchen floor with the little votive and lit the little votive and talked about if we put sand on that votive of candle, it would put out the fire, we would quench it. The Holy Spirit won't leave us if we're a believer, but we can sure put him out in the sense of, "Shh, I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it."

I've used this illustration before but I have seen where a very vibrant woman went into a marriage, full of personality, but her husband put her down, put her down, put her down. She would try to speak up, put her down. She got quieter, she decided that if he didn't want to hear what she said, she might as well stop trying to offer. She started becoming more and more and more withdrawn. She was still in the home, she was still in the marriage but she was grieved, quenched, silent. Not even the same vibrant personality, not the joy, not the "out there."

The Holy Spirit is an "out there," in case you hadn't noticed. The Holy Spirit can be insulted, Hebrews 10:29. He can be provoked, Hebrews 3:7. And for an unbeliever... Christians, we cannot blaspheme the Holy Spirit because we've already received him but non-believers, if they just keep saying, "No, nope, no, no, reject," then he's blasphemed.

The E in LISTEN stands for "Engage wholeheartedly." Matthew 22:37, the greatest command says what's the greatest command? It's to love the Lord your God with what? All your heart. We've got those passages there that you can look at, wholehearted servants and they were constantly being led by the spirit because they were out there wholeheartedly serving even in times of trial and death, shipwreck, whatever it might be.

The N in LISTEN stands for "Now." Do it now. Get her done. Act promptly. When the spirit speaks, write it down and then do it as we saw Philip and Ananias in the examples that we gave.

Say them with me, please. The L stands for Learn. The I: Inquire. S: Sit. T: Take the first step. E: Engage wholeheartedly. N: Now. And so we see that we will either walk by the spirit or we will walk by the flesh. Today, which is it for you? From the beginning of Genesis 1 where the spirit was hovering over the surface of the deep to the last book in the Bible, Revelation, think with me. The spirit is moving and the spirit is speaking.

In Ephesians 2, the angel of the church of Ephesus is write, said, "Write: I know your deeds but I have this against you. You've left your first love. He who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches." The message to Smyrna: "The devil is about to cast some of you into prison. Be faithful. He who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the church." To the church at Pergamum, the one who has a sharp two-edged sword says this: "I know where you dwell, but I have a few things against you. Repent, or else I am coming to you quickly. He who has an ear let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches."

To the church of Thyatira, "I know your deeds, your love, your sacrifice, your perseverance, but I have this against you." Friends, do we hear the spirit speaking to the churches? He's speaking to us. Read Revelation 2 through 3. Find out what the spirit is saying to you because he is saying it is the spirit speaking and he is speaking to the churches. He is speaking to the people claiming his name, saying they're his followers. He is saying the spirit is speaking. Hear.

Thank you for listening to this podcast. To learn more about how to grow in Christ or to be saved, visit www.debbietaylorwilliams.com. Connect with me on Instagram at debbietaylorwilliams. God bless you.