Listening

In the Old Testament, God spoke to people through various means, the most common and the most powerful, being the prophets. In the New Testament God still fulfills a large role in the prophet.

The prophet still hears the voice of God and speaks it forth. How does he hear from God though? Are there specific ways that He speaks, and can a prophet develop a greater capacity to hear the voice of God?

In this book I want to deal with how to hear the voice of God. I will be showing how the prophet hears the voice of God and how God speaks. I will also show you how it is possible for us to hear, take heed and receive from Him.

This applies especially to the prophets of God, who speak forth His words into the earth. But most believers can also hear God for themselves without being prophets. We first have to hear, and before we can hear we have to learn how to listen.

Seven Ways of Listening

I will be looking at seven ways that God speaks. I will show you seven ways that a person or prophet can hear the voice of God, to know what it is that He is saying, and receive instructions from the Holy Spirit.

Seven is the number of perfection or completion. I did not plan it that way, but as I waited on the Lord He gave me seven different ways of hearing from Him. It is so vitally important that we learn to hear well.

The Urim and Thummim

The first method that God used to speak in the Old Testament was the method called the Urim and Thummim. In the first verse we quoted it said,

God did not answer Saul by Urim

Urim was one of the ways that Saul tried to hear from God. The Scripture says that God did not answer him by Urim. So we need to understand what the Urim is, and we need to go back into the Old Testament and look at a few Scriptures.

The Urim and Thummim are very vague items and they are not very well described. The Scriptures do not tell us in absolute detail what they were, but the general consensus amongst those who have studied this, is that the Urim and the Thummim were two stones.

These stones were either the stones that were embedded in the breastplate of the ephod worn by the priest. Or they were two stones that were contained in a pouch that was on the side of the ephod where he could place his hand. Somehow the stones would give a person direction from God.

It was not the kind of direction that says,

"What must I do? Where must I go?"

Rather it was the kind of direction that says,

"Should I do this, or should I not do that?"

The answer would come either as a 'yes' or a 'no'. So when they used the Urim and the Thummim to obtain direction from God in those times, they would know which direction they were planning to go in.

What they would do is to present the Lord with a question. They would say,

"Lord, should I do this?"

And God would answer back by Urim or Thummim; yes or no. It seems that if you had a Urim the answer was yes, and if you had a Thummim the answer was no.

How did the answer come? That depends on exactly what the Urim and Thummim were. One of the thoughts was, the Urim and Thummim being two stones in the breastplate, that when the person prayed one of those stones would light up and glow.

If the Urim glowed, God was saying yes, but if it was the Thummim that glowed, God was saying no. If neither of them glowed, God was saying,

"It's none of your business. I am not talking to you!"

That is what happened to Saul. God would not answer him.

I want to show you a Scripture now that indicates how David used it. In 1 Samuel 23:9 to 11 it says:

And David knew that Saul secretly had planned evil against him; and he said to Abiathar the priest, Bring the ephod here.

Then said David, O LORD [Yahweh] God of Israel, your servant has certainly heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city because of me.

Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O LORD [Yahweh] God of Israel, I beg of you, tell your servant. And the LORD [Yahweh] said, He will come down.

God answered him with a Urim. And so in the Old Testament there was this means of hearing from God, and a means of receiving a yes or no answer from God.

You say, "Well we don't have that anymore in the New Testament. We don't have the priesthood or the priestly garments, nor do we have the Temple and all those old things."

Yes, but all of those things have become spiritual in the New Covenant and we still have a Urim and a Thummim. You might ask,

"Where is it then?"

It is in your heart, in your soul and in your spirit. It is within you. God has placed within you a spiritual Urim and Thummim. He has placed within you a sign; a revelation that will cause you to receive a yes answer or a no answer.

You can still come to God in prayer with that kind of question and say,

"Lord, must I do this?"

And the answer will come up from within your spirit as a,

"Yes, yes."

Or an, "Uh uh, no way."

You will sense it in your spirit. You will feel it as a surge which says,

"Yes, it is good; do it!"

Or you will feel a check in your spirit. It is a gut feel; an inner thing. It is a very deep thing, and what is actually taking place is that God is speaking to you out of your spirit.

Influence on Spirit, Soul and Body

In much of the teaching that we have presented we have been sharing on the spirit, soul and body. God has made man so that He imparts things into his spirit, and God is speaking in your spirit all the time.

The Spirit of God and your spirit are in communication. They are in touch all the time. In order for you to receive what God is saying to your spirit, that revelation or word from God, has to be communicated outwards from your spirit. As it is communicated outwards it comes out via the soul and the body.

So what comes out of your spirit has to rise up. And the first thing that it is going to be affected is your soul. We all know that the soul contains the mind, emotions and will.

That means the influence from your spirit has to create an effect or an influence on your mind, your emotions and your will. The Urim and the Thummim that I am speaking about causes this influence from the Spirit within you to affect your emotions. It is primarily a feeling.

You say, "Well brother, we don't go by our feelings."

Yes you do! You do all the time. Every decision you make in life you make by your feelings. In fact most of the time you do what you feel like doing.

Of course your feelings are involved! Of course your emotions are involved!

But if you will learn to submit your soul to your spirit, and submit your emotions to your spirit, then your emotions will come under the influence and be affected by your spirit within. When that happens and the influence of the spirit begins to rise up, it causes either a positive or a negative emotion, and that is your Urim and Thummim.

A positive emotion that creates a surge, an excitement or a yes, is your Urim. Watch out for an emotion that comes out negatively, that causes fear, a check, care or concern. It is a Thummim. Your spirit is saying,

"No, not a good idea. Do not go that way."

All you need to do is to submit to the spirit within and hear in your emotions. Some people call it 'The Peace of God'. Some have called it 'The Umpire of God'.

It is an effect deep within you; a deep feeling in your spirit and your soul. It goes deeper even than your emotions. This is because it is coming down deep within your spirit, and coming out from your innermost being out of your belly somewhere. It comes with this feeling from within.

Using the Urim in Prayer

Sometimes you feel the Urim and the Thummim when you are praying as a prophet. Someone may give you a request and say,

"Please can you pray for so and so. They are sick and they need healing."

You open your mouth and begin to pray and you say,

"Father, in the name of Jesus I ask you to reach out and..."

But you feel like there is something in your mouth. It does not want to come out. You are stumbling over the words and you feel like you are chewing on cotton wool. Something inside of you says,

"Uh oh, no, you are praying wrong."

That is your Thummim. It is saying,

"No, just hold it; you just wait. It is not time yet, you are praying wrong."

Stop it right there! At other times you think of a person and you begin to pray and say,

"Oh Father, I am just thinking about so and so. I pray that you will bless them..."

And suddenly something bursts out and it starts to pour out of you. It is your Urim saying,

"Go get 'em! Yes pray; pour it out. Send forth the Word into the earth. You are doing it right. You have it!"

Do you know what I am talking about? If you are a prophet you know what I am talking about. Your spiritual Urim and Thummim is the ability to hear from the spirit within whether you are flowing in the right direction or not.

Receiving in the Mind

We come then to the effects that are created from the spirit within that come to the mind. The problem with your mind is that it is being filled all the time by what you are doing; by the circumstances you are in, and by the environment, surroundings and activities that you are involved in.

All the time while you are conscious and awake, your body is pushing input in. It is sending it inwards into your soul and into your spirit. Influences are coming from your five senses ‐ your seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and feeling.

Those senses are picking up impulses in the world around you all the time while you are awake. Then the impulses are fed inwards from your body into your soul. They occupy your mind, so that it is filled with what you see and hear.

If you are sitting at the dinner table it is filled with what you smell and taste and feel. All of these things affect us all the time. But you will find that your mind is a one‐way street. You cannot feed inwards and outwards at the same time.

It just does not happen. It cannot work. It is a one‐way flow. You have to change the direction. And the only way that you can do that is to stop the flow in one direction before the flow can take place in the other direction.

Practical Project To Develop Urim and Thummim

Here are some things that you can do to help you develop your spiritual Urim and Thummim.

Before you make any decisions this week, try to see if you can identify your inner Urim and Thummim before making your decision.

Start using it with the simplest of decisions in life. If you think about it, we all make decisions every day. Try to see if you can figure out why you make the choices that you do.

a. What to have for your next meal?

How do you decide? There is an inner motivation in you that helps you decide this.

i. Perhaps you choose the foods you enjoy most.

ii. You might choose foods that are more healthy for you.

iii. You might be forced to eat the only food you have available or can afford.

iv. A picture comes to your mind as you feel the hunger rise up, and suddenly you think, "Hey I could really use a …. right now".

It doesn't matter what the situation. There is usually something inside of you that helps you choose.

b. Which shop to buy from when you do your regular shopping?

i. You might go to the one you are used to using because it is just around the corner.

ii. Perhaps it is the cheapest one you know.

iii. Maybe you like the people who work there.

iv. It could be that everyone else shops there and you like to go with the crowd.

What inner conviction makes you shop there? See if you can decide.

c. Which book to read or buy next?

If you are a reader, this is a decision you might make often. What makes you decide which book you want to read?

i. The one that is advertised the most?

ii. The one everyone else is reading?

iv. The one that is cheaper?

v. The one that includes your favorite subject?

vi. The one that you feel inside might be best for you right now?

See if you can identify the strongest influence that causes you to make a decision like this.

These are just a few suggestions of the kinds of things we have to decide on a regular basis. You will no doubt have your own choices to make each day.

Try this week to write down some of the choices that you made. See if you can recognize what helps you to make decisions. Then see if you can stop being influenced by others and make your choices based by what you sense deep inside.

You might be surprised to find that future decisions will be made with greater wisdom. You will stop wasting money and doing the wrong things. And you will learn to listen to your spirit within.

You will learn to use your Urim and Thummim.

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