The part of the chapter I want to look at there first was in verse 16 where the Bible reads,
And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever,
even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not.
Neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him. For He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
And then skip to verse 25, the Bible says, These things have I spoken unto you,
being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to
your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. The title of my sermon tonight is Hearing the Holy
Ghost. Now this is a topic where there's a lot of confusion. There's a lot of strange doctrines.
There's a lot of weird ideas that people have. Let's go to, I want to go to this chapter. Go
to Psalms 46, if you would. We'll go back to John 14 after a little while. Let's go to Psalms 46,
because there's all these people who come up with all these strange doctrines,
and it seems to be that from this one verse, they just make up all these weird doctrines.
Let's look in Psalms 46, verse 10. The Bible says, Be still, and know that I am God.
And they don't even quote the whole verse. They just kind of quote that one phrase.
And from this one phrase, there's so many churches today that will say, you know what you need to do?
You need to get yourself locked in a closet, or go hide yourself, or get real quiet,
and just let the voices come into your head and hear God, or hear the Holy Ghost, or let God
speak to you. And you've got to discern which voice is the voice of God, and which voice is you,
and you've got to play this game of trying to figure out what God's trying to say to you.
But the ridiculousness part of this is this verse has nothing to do with that.
Let's go one verse back, and let's just get a little context. It says here, He maketh wars
deceased unto the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear and sunder. He
burneth the chariot and the fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among
the heathen. I will be exalted and the earth. Now this is actually talking about prophetically
in the millennial reign of Christ, in the thousand year reign of Christ, how there's not going to be
any wars. There's nobody going to be fighting. God's going to break the bow. He's going to break
the spear. God's going to be ruling the earth with a rod of iron. There's not going to be all
this warfare and all this strife. So what is He saying? He's saying the earth is going to be still
and they're all going to know that God's the Lord. He's going to be reigning from Jerusalem
on the earth. So what's the context? He's saying, look, no more war. Why? And He's talking about
the millennial reign of Christ. That has nothing to do with you going in your bedroom by yourself
and trying to listen to strange voices. That's not what this Bible verse is talking about,
but there's so many churches today. There's, you know, the Pentecostals, the assembly of God,
these charismatic churches, all these mega churches trying to teach you got to get yourself
quiet and just start listening to voices. That's Hinduism. That's paganism. That's demonic false
doctrine. And we're going to see what it actually means to hear the Holy Ghost. But as I was thinking
about this, all they're doing is they're just having a figment of their own imagination.
It's just all their own imagination. Go to Genesis chapter six if you would.
You know, you sitting there and being quiet and this thought comes in your mind,
ooh a Starbucks sounds good. Ooh, I should go to Chick-fil-A. Ooh, I should get a blue car. Ooh,
I should go, you know, buy this house. That's not God talking to you. That's just your own
imagination. That's just your mind wandering. And if you go somewhere privately and you're just
letting your mind wander, you're going to think a bunch of weird thoughts. You're going to think
of a bunch of weird imaginations. Look at Genesis six verse five. The Bible says,
and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. We see God destroyed all of mankind
because their imaginations were filthy, because they could constantly just thinking about evil
and wickedness. And if you just let your mind wander, it's usually not going to think of the
things of God. It's usually not going to be on good things. It's going to be things on the world.
It's going to be strange, weird stuff. I mean, Walt Disney wants you to believe that imagination
is so important. We need to encourage children to have a great imagination and have all this
make-believe. It's junk. Let's look at what the Bible says about imagination. Go to Genesis eight.
Just flip a couple chapters over. They'll say, I saw this slogan. It says, imagination is the
door to possibilities. No, it's the door to wickedness. It's the door to sin. It's the
door to all kinds of filth and evil. The Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin and the
scorn is the abomination of men. When you have all these weird thoughts, it's a sin. And look
at Genesis chapter eight. He said, well, that was just those people. That was just the first
generation. They were really evil. I'm not like that. Let's look at verse 21 in Genesis eight.
And the Lord smelled the sweet savior. And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse
the ground anymore for man's sake. For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.
Neither will I against mine anymore every living thing as I have done. But God said,
not just those people, even all the rest of men that I'm not going to destroy the flood.
Their imaginations wicked from their youth, from a kid. It's important that we don't foster that
and encourage that. But what does Hollywood do? What is the movies and the TV? They're just,
oh, you gotta have a great imagination. You gotta have all this make believe. And they're just
encouraging children to have wicked thoughts and evil thoughts and not think of anything real.
Go to Deuteronomy chapter 29. Now don't get completely confused. I mean, the Bible says
where there is no vision, the people perish. There's a difference between having a vision
and having an imagination. A vision is based on reality. A vision is saying, I want to be married
one day. So this is what I got to do to get there. I want to be a pastor one day. This is what I got
to do to get there. I want to go to church today. So I better think about what time I need to be
ready and get out the door and go. That's having a vision. That's deciding, Hey, I'm going to
practically think about what I need to do to accomplish my future. Imagination is when you're
wondering, oh, wouldn't it be great if I had a red Ferrari? Wouldn't it be great if I was just
driving around town? Wouldn't it be great if I had another husband or another wife? Wouldn't it be
great if I went to, I mean, that's just filthy. That's just wicked. But that's what the mind will
do. That's what the carnal fleshy heart wants to do. It just wants to imagine all this wicked,
evil sin. And so if you're just sitting there quiet and they're trying to tell you, Hey,
you're going to hear the Holy Spirit. You're going to hear the Holy Ghost. Usually you're
just going to hear a bunch of weird filth when you're just trying to quiet your mind because
they're trying to tell you, don't think of anything. Don't be thinking about the Bible.
Just just calm your mind and just let thoughts enter in. You're never going to hear the Holy
Spirit that way. You're not going to hear the Holy Ghost that way. The Bible says,
for out of the heart proceeded evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts,
false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man. Deuteronomy 31,
I'll read for you another verse. It said, and it shall come to pass when many evils and troubles
are befallen them that this song shall testify against them as a witness. For it shall not be
forgotten out of the mouths of their seed. For I know the imagination which they go about,
even now before I brought them into the land which I swear. God was constantly rebuking the
children of Israel because in their heart, in their imaginations, they kept imagining like a
golden calf or imagining serving the gods of Balaam or imagining all these wicked sins and
abominations. And they were setting their hearts on those things and not on God. When we look at
Deuteronomy 29, we're going to see the same thing. Look at verse 19. The Bible says, and it come to
pass when he heard the words of this curse that he blessed himself in his heart saying,
I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart, to add drunkenness
to thirst. We see what happens when they just get their own imaginations, all kinds of wicked sin.
Look at verse 20 of that same part. It says, the Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the
Lord in his jealousy shall smoke against that man. And all the curses that are written in this book
shall lie upon him. And the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven. We see what happens
today is people, they have all these excuses for their sin. They have excuses for going out and
getting drunk, for drinking wine, for committing fornication, for doing all kinds of wicked sins.
Why? Because they get quiet and in the magic of their heart, they say, well, I don't think it's
that bad. I don't think it's a big deal. I'm just going to add drunkenness to my thirst. I'm going
to have peace. God's not going to judge me. Have you heard the person say, well, I have peace
about that. You say, drunkenness is a sin. Oh, I have peace to that. Because they got it from
their own imagination. They were going somewhere and they were just letting their mind wander.
They're like, it's not a big deal to drink. It's not that bad. God wouldn't condemn me. I have peace
about that. But we see that's just what people have always been like. It's not today. It's not
just the world that we live in now. There's no new thing under the sun. All men want to just
walk in the imagination of their own heart. They want to justify themselves. And they're going to
add drunkenness to their thirst. That's why they have so much drunkenness in the churches today.
Why? Because the imagination of their heart. They're not hearing the Holy Ghost. We'll get there.
I'm trying to lay down a foundation real quick. Go to Jeremiah 13, if you would. I'm going to read
for you a slew of verses real quick. The Bible says in Proverbs 6, says, these six things that
the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him. A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that
shed innocent blood, and heart that deviseth wicked imaginations. Look, God hates it. It's
an abomination when you're just letting your mind wander and it's just thinking a bunch of filthy
thoughts. It's thinking all this abominable, wicked imaginations. The Bible says in Jeremiah
3, verse 17, in that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord and all the nations shall
be gathered unto it. To the name of the Lord Jerusalem, neither shall they walk anymore after
the imagination of their evil heart. Jeremiah 7 24 in the Bible says, but they hearken not,
nor incline their ear, but walked in the councils and in the imagination of their evil heart
and went backward and not forward. Jeremiah 9, verse 14, but have walked up the imagination
of their own heart and after bailing them, which their fathers taught them. Jeremiah 11, verse 8,
yea, they have bade not, nor incline their ear, but walked every one in the imagination
of their evil heart. Therefore, I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant,
which I commanded them to do, but they did them not. Look at Jeremiah 13, verse 10,
where I had to turn. This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the
imagination of their heart and walked after other gods to serve them and to worship them,
shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing. We see the epidemic in these churches
today as they refuse what the Bible says, and when they're in their quiet time, when they're
hearing these voices in their head, they give more credence to that because they just want to
walk in the imagination of their evil heart. We can't trust in ourselves. We're supposed to trust
in the Lord with all my heart. We're not supposed to lean on our own understanding, our own wisdom,
our own thoughts. If you just sit and you just think, I mean, evil stuff can proceed out of your
heart. We need to go to the Bible. We need to actually hear the Holy Ghost, the real Holy Ghost,
to know what's right, to know how we should live our lives, how we should walk. And we notice these
people, they don't really like God's word. They refuse His words, but they embrace their own.
They embrace their own imaginations, their own thoughts. We see it's popular. I mean,
and this thing is popular today. It used to just be, you know, a few Pentecostals,
used to be just a few Assembly of God. I mean, that big charismatic movement didn't even start
until I could get the day wrong. I think it's like 1908. It's called Azusa Street. It was in
California. This one guy just brought this new doctrine of all these charismatic gifts and
hearing, you know, the special revelation and all this junk. And just from one little spark,
now we have so much false doctrine spreading in all kinds of churches. I mean, even the
Calvinist Baptist will get up and say, well, yeah, there's some charismatic gifts and yeah,
we can hear God and His special revelation. I mean, it's crazy today. I mean, it's affecting
so many people. They refuse God's word, but they love their own thoughts. They love their own
imagine. It's a popular thing. People are so arrogant and prideful today. They love to think
that, oh yeah, what I'm hearing is, you know, God's word. It's a big elephant in the room that
none of them know what God really said though. They all realize, they're all kind of wondering
secretly like, is that really God talking to me? Or was that just me making it up? Or they don't
really know, but they all pretend like they do. It's like the emperor's new clothes. They're all,
you know, he's just butt naked, but they're all like, look at that suit. It looks so good. Oh,
God told me this. And God told me that. Well, where did the Holy Ghost really say?
I'm just kind of building a foundation. We see the Bible is really consistent about the word
imagination. It's not a good thing. It's not a positive thing mentioned here. Go to 2 Corinthians
10. The Bible says in Jeremiah 16, 12, I'll read for you a couple more places. It says,
And ye have done worse than your fathers, for behold, ye walk every one after the imagination
of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me. The Bible says in Jeremiah 17, 9,
the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?
The carnal heart, the carnal fleshly desires is going to deceive you. It's going to trick you.
You may not even realize that your fleshly carnal desires are pulling you away from God.
That's why we need to be in God's word. We need to be hearing the true Holy Ghost
so we can have the right mind. Our minds can be renewed by God's word.
Bible says in Romans 1, 21, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God,
neither were faithful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened.
Look there in 2 Corinthians 10 verse 5, the Bible says, casting down imaginations
and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ. How many parents teach their kids that? How many parents
say, hey, when you're having a filthy thought, hey, when you're having a wicked thought, children,
you're supposed to cast down that imagination and bring it into God's word.
Say, maybe I shouldn't have that thought. Maybe I shouldn't continue to think this way. Maybe I
shouldn't have that kind of imagination. I should go back to the Bible and bring into captivity
every thought under the obedience of Christ. But we see parents today, they want to foster
their children and let them just do all kinds of weird stuff. We have little boys dressing up like
little girls today. That's not an imagination that you should have with the Bible. That's an
abomination. But we see parents today, they just want to foster all their kids, you know, strange
whims and sinful imaginations that they have. The Bible says foolishness is bound in the heart
of a child. And we shouldn't just let our children just go aimlessly, you know, after their own
imagination, after their own thoughts. They need to be cast down and brought into obedience to the
word of God. Why? Because your imaginations are going to affect you. Your heart's deceitful. It's
going to pull you away from God. It's going to lead you into bigger sins. We see that sin starts
with the thought. It starts with the mind. It has to start somewhere. It's with that first, you know,
lustful thought, that first idea, that first imagination. And then we see people go after
their sin. So if we can get it at the root, if we can stop it before, then we can save people from
a lot of sin. We can save people, we can save our children from going down a lot of weird,
wicked ways. Because the ways of this world, their minds are filthy, they're disgusting,
they're vile. You tell anything, you know, under the pure, all things are pure. But the
Bible says them that are, I can't quote it for you, it's like them that are unbelieving is the
fire. And the Bible makes it clear that, you know, if you're thinking of things of God,
if you're casting down imaginations, when somebody says something that's kind of borderline,
they're not gonna have, you know, they call it like an innuendo. Or they have this thing where
they're saying something and it could mean two different things. To the pure, they're gonna look
at it as pure. To someone that's, you know, has the mind of the world, they're gonna look at it
being filthy or disgusting or vile. I think of an example like the Catholics today, when Jesus
Christ was talking about, you know, eating his flesh and drinking his blood, the Catholics
literally think that's what they're supposed to do. Because they have a defiled mind, they have
a wicked mind. The Bible says not to drink blood, so they have transubstantiation. When they think
when they're going to the priest, they're literally drinking blood and literally eating the body of
Christ. That's a weird imagination. That's a weird thought. We soon need to bring every thought and
imagination into captivity, bringing the obedience of Christ. So what does that have to do with
hearing the Holy Ghost? Well, I think we need to make the clear separation that so many churches
are teaching today that it's not just these random thoughts that are coming into your head.
It's not just whatever you're thinking. No, the Holy Ghost is something that's very clear,
according to the Bible, how he speaks to us. So how do you even get the Holy Ghost? Go to John
chapter 7, if you will. Because we need to cast down the imaginations through the Holy Ghost. You
say it's hard to bring every thought into captivity to Christ. I mean, I'm being honest with you today.
That's a hard thing. It's a hard thing to cast down every imagination, every foolish thought
to get even your thought life. That's a big, that's a tall order, right? That's not something
that everybody can just do automatically. We need the power of the Holy Ghost to help us.
Let's go to John 7, look at verse 39. But this spanky of the Spirit, which they that believe on
him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified.
So they didn't have the Holy Ghost yet when Jesus was, you know, with the disciples.
We read in John chapter 14, how when he would leave, the comforter would come.
Go to John 16, if you will. John chapter 16, just a few chapters forward. I'll read you a few other
verses. The Bible says in Matthew 3, verse 11, I indeed baptize you with water and repentance,
but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I'm not worthy to bear. He shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. And in John 20, I'll read for you verse 22 says,
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and saith unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost.
So when Jesus Christ was resurrected, the Bible says he breathed on his disciples
and they received the Holy Ghost. Look at John 16, verse 13. The Bible says,
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth,
for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak,
and he will show you things to come. So the Bible says that the Holy Spirit,
this is a key phrase, shall not speak of himself. Meaning what? Those cardinal thoughts that you're
having about going to Starbucks and which house to buy and which car to buy, that's not the Holy
Ghost speaking to you. He doesn't speak of himself. He doesn't just speak private, you know,
little goofy thoughts. No, he only speaks what the Bible says. He only speaks that what the
Father has said. He speaks the Word. He speaks of Jesus Christ. So if you want to hear the Holy
Ghost, you have to get it from the Bible. There's only one source for the Holy Ghost. That's the
Bible. And you get the Holy Ghost by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. When you trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ, as it says in Ephesians, you're sealed with that Holy Spirit promise. You receive
the Holy Ghost by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the disciples, they didn't get the
indwelling until Jesus Christ, you know, is risen again from the dead and he breathed on them. They
received it. And then as they went out to spread their word by a special miracle, when they would
lay hands on someone, they received the Holy Ghost. But now if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Holy Spirit comes in and dwells you in that moment when Christ quickens your spirit.
Go to Jude chapter 1. I want to look at one other place. Jude chapter 1. And as I was growing up,
I went to these churches that were really weird on this doctrine. I grew up in a non-denominational
charismatic church. They taught all kinds of weird junk. It was never really that consistent. It was
goofy. And my mom would always say that the most important thing to her was that her children would
hear the Holy Spirit, would hear the Holy Ghost, would hear God. She kept telling me, she's like,
I just want you to hear God. I just want you to hear his voice. And as like a 12 or 13 or 14-year-old
boy, I was so nervous by this thought because I knew every time I would go and I would pray
and I would like try to be quiet and try to hear voices. I was like, God's not speaking to me. I
know this is just imagination. This is just a foolish thought. I was like, how in the world
are they getting it? And I thought all kinds of weird stuff. I thought because maybe I was too
sinful, God wouldn't talk to me. Or I thought maybe I wasn't doing it quite right. Or maybe
I wasn't praying enough. Or maybe I wasn't reading my Bible enough. I didn't know what to think. But
I knew every time I would sit down, I just had all these weird foolish thoughts. And I was like,
that's not God. At least I was smart enough to know then that that was not the Holy Ghost.
But I was still confused as to how to hear God exactly or what she meant by that. And she was
messed up. Look at Jude chapter 1 verse 19. The Bible says, these be they who separate themselves
sensual, having not the Spirit, but ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith,
praying in the Holy Ghost. Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord
Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Now some people twist this verse, and they think that it's like
speaking in tongues here. That it's speaking all this gibberish. That their praying is not with,
you know, the wisdom of their own mind. That they actually have the understanding of what they're
saying, but it's some garbage. Now praying in the Holy Ghost would be praying a prayer that matches
up with what this book says. And using these words to pray. When you're using the words of God to
form a prayer. Now I'm not saying you just repeat the Lord's prayer or repeat just exactly the same.
It's coming from the heart, but using the words of God. That's praying in the Holy Ghost.
That's one part of it. The other part is the fact that when He's dwelling inside you,
the Bible says we know not how we should pray for ourselves, but the Holy Ghost will make
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, the Bible says in Romans. So go to
Luke chapter 1. I have four ways that we can definitively hear the Holy Ghost. This is a very
important thing. This is the thing that we need to be solid on, we need to be grounded on. There's
so much confusion out there today, and if we understand how to hear the Holy Ghost, it's going
to help us in our daily lives. It's going to help us grow. It's going to help us cast down those
imaginations when we learn the difference between our own imagination and the Holy Ghost. How to get
that right in our mind. Look at Luke chapter 1 verse 67. We're going to read quite a bit here.
The Bible says, And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied, saying,
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people,
and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began, that we
should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us, to inform the mercy
promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he sware to our father
Abraham, that he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might
serve him without fear, and holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our
life. And thou, child, shall be called the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before the face
of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of
their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on high hath visit us,
to give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the
way of peace. Now we read quite a bit there, but there's a reason why. Why? Because we just heard
the holy ghost speak to us. You just heard the holy ghost preach on you. But there's so many
people today, there's so many churches today, they're saying, God, I just want to hear the
holy ghost. God, I want to hear your voice. God, please talk to me. But they won't read these
verses. They wouldn't get up in church and read this many verses. They'd be like, let's just read
one, everybody's getting bored. But they'll sit there and scream and cry, I want to hear the holy
ghost. I want to hear God talk. It's right here. If you really want to hear God's word, you can
hear it so easy. It's free. It's available to everybody. You can hear the holy ghost speak to
you right now. But it's not just in this one passage. That was just a clear example. We're
saying this is what the holy ghost said. Go to Acts chapter two. The Bible makes it clear that
the Bible is written by the holy ghost. It came through the mouth of the prophets by the holy
ghost. Mark chapter 12 verse 36 of the Bible says, for David himself said by the holy ghost,
the Lord said to my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I make thy enemies thy footstool.
So you see David, when he was preaching, he was preaching the words of the holy ghost.
If you want to hear the holy ghost, the first one I have is you can come through preaching,
through a man of God preaching or prophesying the word of God. If he's preaching the word of God,
you're hearing the holy ghost speak unto you. It's one of the most powerful ways to hear the
holy ghost because a lot of times a preacher will get up and compare spiritual to spiritual.
It would carry comparing a lot of different verses together and you can hear the holy
ghost come together. Acts chapter one verse eight, the Bible says, but he shall receive
power after that the holy ghost has come upon you and he shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem
and all Judea and Samaria and under the uttermost part of the earth. Look at Acts chapter two verse
four, the Bible says, and they were all filled with the holy ghost and began to speak with other tongues
as the spirit gave them utterance. We see through preaching, through preaching the gospel,
through telling people how to be saved, they were speaking the words of the holy ghost. How can you
hear the holy ghost? Some guy coming up and preaching the word of God. These people that
want to hear the ghost just start preaching the word of God. Then they can hear the holy ghost.
You know there's this weird kind of perversion of what people will use in believing in the King
James Bible. Now I believe the King James Bible is God's perfect word. It's inerrant. It's infallible.
We have all that God said. Jesus said in Luke chapter four, man does not live by bread alone
but by every word of God. And I believe God gave us every word. But there are some people
that will take this to such an extreme that they'll say God's word is only in the English
King James Bible. Like it couldn't be in any other language, which is really strange because
this was translated from the Greek and Hebrew. So to say that you couldn't even read those and
get the word of God doesn't make any sense. But this passage right here proves that God's word
can be spoken in all languages. Because we first understand that the whole Bible is written by the
Holy Ghost. It was spoken by the Holy Ghost and we see they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.
And they began to speak with other tongues as what? The spirit gave them utterance. So who was
giving them utterance? The Holy Spirit. Let me flip over there one quick second and look at those
other languages. Acts chapter two. Let's look at verse I believe eight. How here we every man in
our own tongue wherein we were born. Parthenians and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers of
Mesopotamia and Judea and Cappadocia and Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia and Egypt and other
parts of Libya about Cyrene and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Creeds and Arabians.
We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. So right here we have clear evidence
the Holy Ghost can speak in any language. He can speak in all of these languages. So it's not that
the King James Bible is the only way somebody could ever get the word of God. No. You can hear
the Holy Ghost in any length. Because he was giving them the word of God. He was speaking
through these men. He gave them utterance to speak the word of God. So they shouldn't take
you know the Bible to an unhealthy level and say well you know all the Hispanic people they
got to learn English and get the King James Bible. And all the people in the Philippines,
they need to get the English Bible only. And those in Russia, those in China, those in Africa,
they have to know English in order to be saved to get God's word. I don't believe that the Bible
makes it clear that the Holy Ghost was able to speak in all these other languages. Now maybe
some of these languages don't have a good translation of the Bible or they don't have a
clear thing. I think the King James Bible is probably the best book. I think it's probably
the best translation that we have today. It's the most popular book on the planet.
We shouldn't go into a weird, unhealthy extreme to say well it's only English. God only cares
about English. The Holy Ghost can only speak in English. That's not true. The Bible says we shall
not speak of himself. And we know that God's word just came from the Lord Jesus Christ. So
Jesus Christ is the word. If the Holy Ghost is speaking in other languages, then we know the
whole Bible can be spoken in other languages. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12 if you would.
So we see through preaching, through soul winners, through prophets, through men of God,
through a pastor, through a bishop, when they're preaching the word of God you can hear the Holy
Ghost. Look at 1 Corinthians 12 verse 3. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by
the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord
but by the Holy Ghost. Now I don't think this is necessarily the primary application of this verse,
but I think one of the ways that you could look at this verse is the fact that if you're only
reading the King James Bible out loud or you're only preaching the words of the King James Bible,
you would never ever call Jesus Christ accursed because God's word is infallible. It's perfect.
There's no problems in it. So if you pick up the NIV today and you read how Jesus Christ is a liar
in John chapter 7, you know that's not the word of God. You know that's not the Holy Spirit. Why?
Because by the power of the Holy Ghost, no man called Jesus Christ accursed. Now again,
I'm not saying that's the primary application of the verse, but that's one way we could look at it.
We could look at it and realize that God's word, the Holy Ghost, would never say anything bad about
Jesus Christ. So if you're reading a Bible that says something wrong about Jesus Christ that's
blaspheming him, taking away his deity, you know that's not the word since the Holy Ghost speaks.
You know that it's somebody else's voice. It's the voice of a stranger. It's not the voice of Jesus
Christ. That's one way to say, how do you know the Apocrypha is not the Bible? Because it blasphemes
Jesus Christ. Because it calls him accursed. Because it says all this weird junk about him.
That's how I know that it's not the Holy Ghost. I don't know the King James. It doesn't say
anything negative about Jesus Christ. Cover to cover. This is God's word. Go to Acts chapter 7,
if you would. Read for you a couple other places. It says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 5,
For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men were among you for my sake.
John chapter 3 verse 34, the Bible says, For he whom God has sent speaketh the words of God,
for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. Why were all the words that were coming out
of Jesus Christ God's word? Because he didn't have the Spirit by measure. When you're just
filled with the Holy Ghost, you're filled with God's words, those are the things that are going
to come out of your mouth. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
That's what the Bible says. If you're filled with the Holy Ghost, filled with God's word,
that's going to come out of your mouth. 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 21, I'll read for you one other
place. It says, For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. It's talking about the Bible, saying when Moses spake,
he spake by the mouth of the Holy Ghost. When David spake, he spake by the mouth of the Holy
Ghost. When all the prophets spake, they were moved by the Holy Ghost. God put his words into
the man, into the prophets, by the Holy Ghost, and they spoke God's word. Look at Acts chapter
7, why did you turn? So the second way we can get it is by reading the Bible, by getting with
the words that the Holy Ghost gave us through the Bible. Acts chapter 7, look at verse 51,
Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised and hardened ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost.
As your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?
And they have slain them, which show before of the coming of the just one,
of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the
disposition of angels, and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the
heart, and gnashed on them with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up
steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of
God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens open, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.
Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stomped their ears, and ran upon it with one accord,
and cast them out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at
the young man's feet, whose name was Saul. So we see, back all the way up to verse 51,
he says they were resisting the Holy Ghost. And look at verse 52, which of the prophets
have not your fathers persecuted? They had the prophets preaching them the Holy Ghost,
preaching them the words of the Holy Ghost, and they resisted that. They didn't believe the Bible.
When Jesus was talking to the Pharisees, he said, You don't believe Moses. You don't believe the
words he gave. They were resisting God's word. Because when you read the Bible, you're reading
the words of the Holy Ghost. You say, I want to hear the Holy Ghost today. It's right here.
It's the Bible. Open it up and read it. The prophets were not speaking of themselves.
They were moved by the Holy Ghost. So you want to hear Holy Ghost speak to you?
Reading your Bible is one of the most key ways to do this. Go to 1st Corinthians chapter 2.
1st Corinthians chapter 2. In Acts chapter 28 verse 25, the Bible says,
And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed. After that, Paul had spoken one word,
Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers.
A really well worded phrase here to give us the understanding that when Isaiah was speaking,
he wasn't speaking of himself. It says the Holy Ghost spake by his ends.
It's more the Holy Ghost than it is the God. It's like saying, Well, was it the red pen that
wrote it down? Or was it the green pen? It doesn't matter. It was the God. It was the Holy Ghost
using Isaiah at that time, or David, or whoever. It doesn't matter. If you want to hear the Holy
Ghost, it's through God's word. Acts chapter 1 verse 16, I'll read for you.
It says, Men and brethren, the scripture must needs have been fulfilled,
which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas,
which was to guide to them that took Jesus. It says over and over, these guys were not
speaking by themselves. The Holy Ghost spake through that guy. He gave them the utterance.
He gave them the words. Look at 1st Corinthians chapter 2 verse 13,
Which things also we speak, not of the words which man's wisdom teacheth,
but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
So this is really key. How are you going to compare spiritual things with spiritual?
By reading the whole Bible. By reading the New Testament and the Old Testament.
By comparing other verses with others. That's how you're going to get that understanding.
How do you get the Holy Ghost to teach you? If you read your Bible, there's so many times when
you're reading the Bible and you'll see one place say something and maybe it's repeated in the Old
Testament or you go back. That's when the Holy Ghost is saying, Hey, I want to teach you something
right now. I want to show you what this means. When you're reading your Bible, you can have the
Holy Ghost speak to you, but it's going to be God's words. It's not going to be your words.
It's not going to be some man's words. No, it's the words that the Holy Ghost teaches the Bible.
It's the words that he gave us. Go to Romans 15 if you would. So my first point is that we
can hear the Holy Ghost when a man of God preaches the word of God. When he preaches the things that
the Bible says. The second way is when we read our Bible. You say, I want to hear the Holy Ghost
speak to me. I don't have a guy just 24-7 that's preaching me the word of God. How do I hear the
Holy Ghost? You got to get your Bible open. You got to read it. It's not being still and just
thinking of whatever you want or your own imaginations. No, it's being with the Bible
and reading the Bible. That's when the Holy Ghost is going to start speaking to you. It's not quieting
your mind or letting your mind wander. No, it's being profitable with your mind. Being fruitful
with your mind by putting the things on God. By putting your mind on the words of God. By
meditating on his word day and night. Ephesians chapter 5. Look at my third point. The Bible says,
And be not drunk with wine, where in his excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking yourselves
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
You want to hear the Holy Ghost? Sing. Sing the Bible. Sing the songs. Sing God's word. Then you
can hear God's word. You can hear the Holy Ghost speaking to you through song and that'll fill you
with the Spirit. Why? Because you're getting more of God's word in your heart. Singing is one of the
best ways to get words into your heart. I mean, there's so many songs that I listened to growing
up. Just secular garbage songs that I hate. And I could sing the whole chorus. I could sing the
whole melody. Why? Because my wife's saying no because I do struggle with lyrics sometimes.
But I'm just saying you have those songs that you don't like or you don't even want to hear
and you have the thing memorized not because you tried hard but just by singing. When you
sing the word of God, when you sing the songs, when you're singing his words, it just imprints
it in your mind in a completely different way than when you're just reading it or when you're
hearing it preached. I think it's probably the most powerful way to get words just memorized.
Just something that you would never forget. Maybe the music or the sound will just bring
words unto your remembrance. And it'll be God's word. Look at Romans 15. Look at verse 9.
And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy as it is written, for this cause
I'll confess to thee among the Gentiles and sing unto thy name. And again he saith,
rejoice ye Gentiles with this people. And again, praise the Lord all ye Gentiles,
in laud him all ye people. And again Isaiah saith, there shall be a root of Jesse,
and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles trust. Now the God of
hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing that he may abound in hope through the power of
the Holy Ghost. He's saying, look, do you want the power of the Holy Ghost? Sing unto his name.
He said very clearly in verse 9, singing is going to give you the power of the Holy Ghost.
I love it when I'm about to go soul winning or before I go soul winning to just sing a couple
of hymns or get some of the music, you know, and it lifts me up. It gets the words of God,
you know, the Holy Ghost. It'll give me more power when I go out, more boldness, you know,
the right attitude, the right spirit, the joy of God. When you praise the Lord,
it just changes everything about your attitude. It changes your mind. It casts out those wicked
imaginations and puts your mind on the things of God. It helps you hear the words of God,
the Holy Ghost. It prepares your heart. It renews your mind. Singing is so powerful. We need to be
praising the Lord. That's how you can hear the Holy Ghost. That's how you can have the power.
That's how you can change. You say, it's so hard to get all these wicked imaginations out of my
mind. Well, why don't you start trying to sing more songs to God? Praise God more. Get the Holy
Ghost speaking through you. That will help you cast down these wicked imaginations. Go to
Colossians chapter three, if you will. At first Corinthians 14, the Bible says in verse 15,
what is it then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also.
I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the understanding also. He wants us to not just,
read the Bible with understanding. He doesn't want us just to pray with the understanding.
He wants us to sing with the understanding, sing with the spirit, sing the words of God
and sing with the understanding. It's not this weird. I mean, I went to so many church services
where they're getting up and they're just sounding like garbage. They're just,
or they're having songs that just sing like a note. I mean, that's not singing with the
understanding. That's the wicked imagination. No, we should be singing with the spirit of God.
God's words. Praising the Lord with his words, the words of the Holy Ghost and getting those
in our heart. Not some five year old or four year old's toddler just, that's not praising God. God
doesn't like that. No, he loves it when you're singing his words. He loves when you're singing
with the spirit, singing through the Holy Ghost. Colossians three verse 16, the Bible says,
let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Look,
the Bible says over and over, we're supposed to sing. We're supposed to praise the Lord. Why?
So you can get that Holy Ghost just dwelling in you richly. You can get the words of God
dwelling in you richly. If you're not singing at all, you're missing out on the big part of
getting Christ to dwell in you richly. You say, oh, I'm reading my Bible for hours and I'm going
soloing for hours. You're missing a part of the Bible if you're not singing, if you're not
praising him, if you're not lifting up your voice, you're not getting filled with the Holy Ghost if
you're not singing at all. If you're not singing and praising God, you're not getting the fullness
of the spirit. We get the Bible, we get the word of Christ to dwell in us richly by singing,
by the songs, by the hymns, by spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
That's going to help you cast down all the wicked imaginations.
So we'll go to my fourth point. We saw that through preaching, through reading, through
singing. The last point I have, go to John chapter 14. Go back to the chapter we had
we started with. I'll read for you a couple of verses. My fourth point is memorizing.
Mark chapter 13 verse 11, the Bible says, but when they shall lead you and deliver you up,
take no thought beforehand what he shall speak. Neither do you premeditate, but whatsoever shall
be given you in that hour, that speaking for it is not you that speak, but the Holy Ghost.
Luke chapter 12 verse 12, the Bible says for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour.
We got to say a parallel passage. And I think when I used to read this passage,
I didn't really understand what it meant, but I think in order, I think with this verse to really
come true, you have to have the words of God in your heart. You have to have memorized the word
of God because how is the Holy Ghost going to speak through you if you've never heard the word
of God, if you don't have anything memorized, if you've never read it, if you've never sung it.
The Bible is just saying in that moment, the Holy Ghost is going to use all the arsenal you've been
given. And when you memorize God's word, when you put to memory all the words of the Holy Ghost,
He has a lot more to bring your remembrance. That's a keyword, remember. Can you remember
something that you never learned? No, He doesn't say, I'm going to teach you something you never
learned. I'm going to show you something brand new. No, He's going to bring something into
remembrance. Look at John chapter 14 verse 26, but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your
remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. He's saying, look, the power of the Holy Ghost
is to help you remember God's word. He's saying it may be hard to memorize God's word. That's why
you need the power of the Holy Ghost. You need to be filled with the Spirit so the Spirit can help
you remember God's words. He can help bring a verse to your mind. Maybe you've been out soul
winning or maybe you've been talking to somebody about the word of God and a verse just pops in
your mind that you didn't even necessarily try really hard. That's the Holy Ghost helping bring
in remembrance, that word of God. Bringing help in remembrance the things that you've memorized.
Bringing in remembrance the things that you've sung. Bringing in remembrance the things that
you heard somebody preach. I mean, there's verses that I haven't tried to memorize,
that I just heard a preacher say over and over, and I got it in my heart. Why? Because the Holy
Ghost wants to bring in remembrance the words that are in this book. He wants to bring them
in remembrance. But if you never hear preaching, you're never reading your Bible, you're never
singing any songs, the Holy Ghost doesn't have anything to bring in remembrance. Even if you're
saved. I mean, what are you going to remember? Maybe the one or two verses you heard to get saved.
John 3 16. Everybody, every unsaved person can grow that verse. Maybe you should grow up a little
bit. Get a little strong meat. Grow in the Lord. I'll read for you another verse. It says in 1 John
2, but the anointing which he received and abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you,
but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth and is no lie, and even
as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. So the Bible is saying, you don't need another guy
to teach you the Bible. You just need the Holy Ghost. Now it's good to hear preaching, God
ordained preaching. We should hear men of God preach the word. That's going to help fill us
with the Spirit. It's going to motivate us, help exhort us. But there's nothing that that guy can
get up and preach to you that you couldn't just read from the Bible on your own. That the Holy
Ghost couldn't show you from comparing spiritual to spiritual. So if somebody's teaching you a doctrine
that you can't find in the Bible, it's not from the Holy Ghost. That's why I know that speaking
in tongues is a fraud because every single person that does this ecclesiastical speech,
does this glossolalia, does this speaking in tongues, they got to talk to them by a man.
They did not get to talk to them by the Holy Ghost from the words of the Bible. Why? There's
no clear verse that shows you how to do this junk. This says do all this babbling and do all this
stupid speaking. No, they have to have a man come and show you how to do it. A man teach you how to
do that. But we know that the words of the Holy Ghost, it'll teach you all the doctrine of the
Bible. If you can't prove it in the clear statements of the Bible, it's not a doctrine
the Holy Ghost teaches because he'll teach you all things from the Bible. You know, I guess my
thought for all mothers is the thought that my mom had. It's a good thought to have your kids to
want to hear the words of the Holy Ghost, to hear God's voice. But you know what my mom should have
been doing? She should have been preaching me the Bible. She should have been reading to me the
Bible. She should have been singing to me the Bible. She should have been making me memorize
the Bible. If she really wanted me to hear God's word, if she really wanted me to hear the Holy
Ghost, she would have been preaching me the Bible. Every day, every morning, all the time she'd been
teaching me the Bible. She would have been making me read the Bible. She said, you need to go and
read your Bible. Read this many chapters, read the Bible. Showing me how to read, just teaching me
how to read. She would have been singing me songs all day, singing me the songs and hymns and
spiritual songs, helping me learn the words of God. She would have been making me memorize God's
word. You know, our church always has a Bible memory passage. I think it's awesome. There's
so many kids in our church that memorize the Bible, that have been memorizing. How would it
be great if someday, you know, an 18 year old guy decided he wanted to be a pastor or 20 year old
man decided he wanted to be a pastor and he already had 100 chapters of the Bible memorized
or something. I mean, what a great tool, what a great arsenal to have that mothers should teach
their children. And even if they don't want to be a pastor, even if they're not going to serve God,
you know, as a full-time evangelist or something, it's going to help you in your daily life. It's
going to help you as a soul winner. It's going to help you fulfill the calling of God in your life,
to have the words of God in your heart. That's how you can hear the word of God. And the Bible
said this at the end of that verse, it says, ye shall abide in him. If you want to abide in Christ,
which is so important, you got to hear the words of the Holy Ghost. You got to get them in your
mind through the preaching, through the reading, through the singing, through the memorization.
It's not the imagination is your own heart. No, it's God's word. And there's a lot of different
ways that we can get that in our heart. We need to employ all ways. The world's a full-scale attack
on your mind today. So you need to take a full-scale attack from the Bible. So fill yourself
with the Holy Ghost. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, God, for giving us your word. Thank you for
the words that the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of the prophets. That we can hear the Holy Ghost
every day. That we live in a country where we can go get a King James Bible anywhere. And we can
hear good preaching. That we can come to a church. That we can hear good preaching. That we can read
your word. That we can sing praises unto you from the Psalms, from the hymns, from the spiritual
songs. And not only that, that we have a church that encourages us to memorize the Bible so that
we can get all of your words deep into our heart so that we can abide in you. And then as we abide
in you, we can bring forth much fruit. I pray that every single person in this room would see the
importance of casting down imaginations and filling themselves with the words of the Holy
Ghost. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.