Full text of Bible teacher Derek Prince’s teaching on ‘How To Hear The Voice of God’.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Derek Prince – Bible Teacher
It’s good to be with you again at the beginning of a new week, sharing with you keys to successful living which God has placed in my hand through many years of personal experience and Christian ministry.
My theme for this week is: Hearing God’s Voice. I believe you’ll find it exciting and inspiring.
DISPENSATIONS
The Bible reveals that God has dealt with the human race in different ways in different periods of human history. God’s different ways of dealing with the human race in different periods. Theologically the title for them is Dispensations.
So what I’m saying is over the recorded history of the human race in the Bible, we find various different dispensations; that is different periods in which God dealt in a specific way with the human race. Then later in some respects He changed His way of dealing; we would call that changing from one dispensation to another; that’s the technical theological word.
Now I’m saying this because I want to point out certain facts about the dispensations, ways in which they differ, and then one important way in which they do not differ.
Let’s take THREE MAIN DISPENSATIONS that are generally recognized in the Bible.
The first is the Dispensation Of The Patriarchs. That means the fathers of families, a people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, even before them people like Enoch and Noah. In that period, in that dispensation God dealt primarily with individuals and with their families, and they related directly to God.
Then there came the dispensation which is often called the Dispensation Of The Law, when God began to deal with Israel specifically as a collective nation, and He put them under a special law which was special for Israel and a law that did not apply entirely to other nations. And during this period, this dispensation for most of the time, Israel had a temple and a priesthood. So the outstanding features of that dispensation were: the law, the temple, and the priesthood.
And then there came what we usually called the Dispensation Of The Gospel, which is really a proclamation to the whole human race, irrespective of their race or their nationality. And this proclamation of the gospel requires from each person an individual response.
So you see we can discern three major dispensations: the patriarchs; Israel under the law; and then the dispensation of the gospel in which we are still living today.
GOD’S UNVARYING REQUIREMENT
And as I’ve already said God’s requirements in these different dispensations were somewhat different. However in the midst of all the differences they remained one unvarying requirement, one thing that God always required. I wonder if you know what that was, I wonder if you can guess what I have in mind. I believe it’s very very important that we see this.
I believe the one unvarying requirement which never changed from dispensation to dispensation: was the requirement to hear God’s voice. I believe that was what always marked out those who belonged to God and made them different from all other people. It was that they had learned to hear God’s voice.
I’d like to give you now some examples from the Pentateuch, from the first five books of Moses, all of which show the unique importance of hearing God’s voice.
The first is found in Exodus 15: 26. Israel had come to a stage in their journey through the wilderness where they were very thirsty; there was a pool of water, they’re called Marah, but when they wanted to drink the water, they couldn’t because it was bitter.
And Moses prayed to the LORD; the LORD showed him a certain tree; when he cast the tree into the water, the waters were healed and the people could drink. And in the context of this, the LORD said this to Moses:
Exodus 15: 26: ‘If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.’
What is the primary requirement? If thou will diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God. The Hebrew says: if you will listen listening. I interpret that to mean that we have to listen to God’s voice with both our ears, the right and the left. That is to listen listening.
God said to Israel: if you’ll do that you’ll never be sick. I’ll keep you healthy; I’ll be your doctor, I’ll accept responsibility for your physical well-being.
Now there was a time in my life when I was sick in hospital, and doctors couldn’t heal me. And at that time I had to seek God for how I could receive healing from Him.
And as I studied the Scriptures in that context, I discovered that almost every place where God speaks about being healed, the emphasis is on what we listen to, just as it is here: if thou will diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, I will put none of these diseases upon thee.
I believe that’s true today. I believe that those of us who learn to listen to God with both ears to listen to God’s voice and obey Him can lead a life that’s free from sickness and many other plagues and problems.
And then a little further on in the book of Exodus… in Exodus 19 when Israel came to the foot of Mount Sinai, Moses went up and the LORD spoke to him and gave him a message to the children of Israel. And this is what the LORD told Moses to tell Israel.
Exodus 19:3-6: ‘Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for all the earth is Mine: And ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.’
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