Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from Pneuma Church in Houston, Texas.
Thank you for listening to the message today.
I hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with.
God bless you.
Alright Pneuma, before you take your seat, I'm going to invite you to open up your Bibles
to Jeremiah 33.3.
You'll be reading out of that book to start and then we'll be skipping back to Genesis.
So Jeremiah chapter 33 verse 3, if you can, standing in reverence to the word.
Alright, it's on the screen.
Let's go ahead.
Jeremiah 33 verse 3 and it says, call to me and I will answer you.
This is God speaking.
Call to me and I will answer you and I will tell you great and unsearchable things, things
that you do not know.
Let's go ahead and pray.
Lord Heavenly Father, at this time we come up to your presence.
We thank you for all that you've done and all that you're going to do.
Father God, we thank you for allowing us to worship you, for allowing us to gather here
and one same mindset, Father God, to worship you and that you would speak to us, Father.
I pray that you would open up every heart, that every heart be open to you and what you
have for us this afternoon, Father.
Open up our minds to receive and that this word would fall on fertile ground.
I come against all distractions, all mind-binding spirits be gone in the name of Jesus, that
this word will bring fruit and every family represented in this place in the name of Jesus.
We pray.
Amen.
Alright, y'all may be seated.
So Jeremiah 33.3, this is a prophet Jeremiah speaking through the Lord and he is saying
that, call to me and I will answer you.
It is that simple.
I know sometimes we make it seem a little bit, you know, you have to do these certain
steps to get to God, but no, it is that simple.
Call to me and I will answer you.
So today I'm going to be speaking about the Father's voice and our pastor is out.
He is ministering at another pastor appreciation service at another church, but I want to thank
him for the opportunity to preach, to give this word to you guys.
I sing that comes a little bit more natural to me when they ask me to preach.
I got a fast.
I'm just kidding.
I'm usually fasting and praying, but when I preach it's difficult.
It doesn't come as natural, but I asked God, God, what do you want me to bring to Numa?
For this day and he told me, you know, he guided me to this and this was even speaking to me.
I feel like every time I preach, I'm preaching to the choir, preaching to me, but I'm going
to be speaking about the Father's voice.
And so as a child, we grow up, right?
And we know our Father's voice, right?
Everybody here recognize your Father's voice.
We know the different tones.
We know when he's just calling us to call our attention and then it gets to another level
and that's like, oh, you better pay attention now or you're going to be disciplined, right?
Everybody you know what I'm talking about?
Okay.
My father was an usher at our church.
He still is.
And so my father didn't only have a voice.
He had a look, right?
And you knew that he gave you that look.
It was like, oh my gosh.
Okay.
I'm not going to talk anymore.
I'm going to stop chewing my gum.
Let me swallow it.
We came from an old school Pentecostal church.
So no chewing gum, no water in the church.
Yes, but thank you Jesus.
In the sanctuary.
There it is.
So we recognize our Father's voice, our mother's voice, our spouse's voice, our best friend's
voice.
If they would call you, if your wife would call you on the phone or your, your husband
calling on the phone, your best friend calling on the phone, would you recognize them without
caller ID?
Yes.
Right.
So we recognize those that we are close to.
So question today is, do you know your heavenly Father's voice that well?
Right.
So last week, Pastor Melissa was talking to us about Peter and she talked about how Peter
stepped into the water on the word that Jesus had spoke.
But the moment that he allowed himself to be distracted by what was going on around him,
he began to drown.
What you listen to, Numa, who you listen to is important.
It is very important in your walk, daily walk, not just your walk with Christ, but your walk
out there in the world.
It is important to pay attention to what you were listening to.
And so today I'm going to share three consequences of not knowing or not following the Father's
voice.
Number one, it'll be, you step out of his will when you don't know his voice.
You live a life that leads to destruction.
And number three, it can bring death.
All right.
So I know that sounds a little grave, but bear with me.
We'll get there.
Okay.
So we're going to start with the story of Lot.
If you want to go with me to Genesis 13, we're going to be reading out a few verses.
This afternoon, but Genesis 13, we'll start there versus seven through 17.
And so Lot, for those of y'all that don't know, Lot is Abraham's nephew.
Abraham was called out of his land, called out of his comfort zone.
And God said to the land that I will show you.
He didn't say you're going to go 500 miles that way, then to the left.
No, he said to the land that I will show you.
So that always spoke to me because it shows that Abraham had to be continually in conversation
with the Lord, right?
To know whether or not do I pitch a tent here or do I keep going?
He had to be sensitive to the voice of the Father.
And so that's Abraham.
But now we're speaking about Lot, Abraham's nephew.
Lot decided to take this journey with his uncle.
And so he hangs out with Abraham.
He's heard Abram stories about how God has spoken to him.
I'm sure he's heard Abram preach a word there, here and there.
And also he's witnessed Abraham praying to God.
But how many of y'all know there's a saying, right?
It says it's not about knowing of God, but if we really know God, right?
There's a difference.
There's a difference between one who knows of God and one who really knows God.
You follow me, right?
Someone's sitting over here.
You might see someone over there and you're like, I know of her, but I don't know her, right?
Or vice versa.
There's a difference.
So Abraham knew God.
He knew of God, but did Lot?
Lot knew of God, but did he know God the way Abram did?
Well, let's see.
Genesis 3, 7 through 17, if you'll go with me.
It says, and so they've already been traveling for a while.
Abram and Lot, now they have their own, I guess, their herdsmen, their own animals.
And so it says, the quarreling arose between Abram's herdsmen and the herdsmen a lot.
The Canaanites and the parasites were also living in the land at that time.
So Abram said to Lot, let's not have any quarrel between you and me or between our herdsmen and your herdsmen in mind,
for we are brothers.
It is not the whole land before you.
Let's part company.
If you go to the left, I'll go to the right.
If you go to the right, I'll go to the left.
So it says, verse 10, Lot looked up and he saw the whole plains of the Jordan were well watered,
like the gardens of the Lord, like the lands of Egypt towards Zor.
So Lot chose for himself the whole plains of the Jordan and set out towards the east.
The two men parted company.
Abram lived in the land of Canaan while Lot lived in the cities of the plains and pitched his tent near Sodom.
Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord.
Verse 14, And the Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him,
Lift up your eyes from where you are, look to the north and the south and the east and the west.
All the land that you see, I will give to you in your offspring forever.
I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth so that if anyone can count the dust,
then your offspring could be counted.
Go walk through the length of the depths of the land for I am giving it to you.
So we see two very distinct stories here, right?
We see Lot, verse 10, it says Lot looked and saw.
So he was led by what he saw.
And then verse 14 says that the Lord said to Abram, right?
So Abram, like I said, was a continual communication with the Father.
Lot, on the other hand, this was a big decision.
He had to decide whether to go to the left or to the right.
And Abram, in his wisdom and in his humility in a way, gave him the right to make this decision.
Knowing that Lot might have chosen the better land, he was like,
I put my trust in God, you make the decision.
And Lot, instead of asking the Father's advice, not once in those verses does it say,
And Lot took this request up to the Lord and asked him to guide him.
Did it say that? Did I miss it?
Isn't it another translation?
No, Lot didn't do that.
Lot was guided by what he saw.
How many of us today, Neuma, are guilty of that.
We allow ourselves to be led by what we see.
That job looks good because of the paycheck that comes along with it.
That education, that major, that minor looks great,
or that university looks great, young people, because of the prestige that comes
when my diploma says my name on it with that university on the top.
That relationship looks good because, well, he looks good.
You know, whatever it may be, how many of us are guilty of that today?
We are led by what we see. We are in a job, in a location, in a marriage,
or in a relationship because we were basing it off of what we saw.
Once did we ask God for his guidance.
The Father's voice is there.
Like you said, Jeremiah 23.3, when we started, call on me and I will answer you.
He is readily available, but are we calling?
My husband and I, when we started talking, I've shared the story before,
and there was just some confirmation earlier in the Spanish service.
So you all, Matt, listen to that after I said the story.
So we were talking, and my husband from Houston, I'm from the Rio Grande Valley.
Anybody from the Valley? Thank you.
Yay, Jason, I got my Valley 956.
So those of you all that don't know, the Valley is the tip of Texas, the very, very, very tip.
And so my husband, having gone further south of Rosenberg,
so he's never heard of the Valley. When they told him I was from the Valley,
he thought the California Valley, and he was like, yeah, no girl, too far.
No, but so we were talking, and I knew at some point one of us was going to have to make a decision.
If we were going to get married, either he was moving down south, or I was moving up north, right?
And so instead of allowing ourselves to be led by motion, which it could have easily been done,
me and my mom, she's here today, visiting from the Valley.
We were very close. She was like my best friend.
And I told her everything, we talked about everything, and so that was a very hard decision to make.
But we perryfully considered, we prayfully considered this decision.
We prayed, we were like, God, you lead us.
Because we knew that wherever God planted us, that's where we were going to bear fruit.
Wherever God took us, that's where we were going to raise our children.
And so the Lord led us to Houston. This is why I'm here. Hi.
And so what I'm trying to say is that, like I said, we could have easily been led by motion with that decision.
That decision, I could have been like, well, my husband's a truck driver, there's more work over there.
Let's move to Houston. I'll find a job. Or vice versa.
I could have been like, I've got a stable job. You're a truck driver. You can drive anywhere in the United States.
Come over here. But we prayed, God led us to Houston.
And so his voice, his word, his instruction was what we walked on.
And it's what we continue to walk on today. Because life is not easy.
And whether it's in Houston, in the Valley, wherever you may be, life is not easy.
But with God, all things are possible.
John 1633, you don't have to go there, but I'm going to read it really quick.
It says, Jesus speaking, these are red letters. It says, I have told you these things so that in me, you will have peace.
In this world, you will. Not you might. You possibly could.
No, you will have trouble. But take heart. I have overcome the world.
Jesus is talking to his disciples, but how many all know that the Bible is our instruction manual today?
And so Jesus, Numa is telling you in this world, you will have trouble.
It's going to be difficult. You're going to encounter giants and tribulations and storms here and there.
But take heart. I, Jesus, have overcome the world.
And if he is with you, who can be against you?
But, but are you paying attention to his voice?
Are you paying attention to where he's leading?
The decisions we make don't only affect us.
The decisions we make affect our generations and the generations after our generations.
Right? Like I said, my husband and I, we made this decision.
We're in Houston now. God has blessed us with a child.
At some point he's going to be involved in the ISDs around here.
But that decision to move here, it affects him and it affects our marriage in a positive or negative way.
And so we've got to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
We've got to yield our requests to him.
Bring it to him before you sign that contract with that job.
Ask God first. It might look good on paper, but if it is not his will, tell him to shut that door.
Ask God for it. Ask for his guidance because if not, it's number one, we will be stepping out of his will.
That leads me to my second point.
Point number two, we'll be reading in Genesis 19 verses one through 13.
And this is, if we do not know the voice of the Father, we don't follow the voice of the Father.
We will live a life that leads to destruction.
19, one through 13, it says, still speaking with lot.
Now it says, two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening and lot was sitting in the gateways of the city.
He saw them again with his eyes.
He got up to meet them, bow down with his face to the ground.
He says, my lords, he said, please turn aside to your servant's house.
You can wash your feet, spend the night, and then go your way early in the morning.
No, they answered, we will spend the night in the square.
But he insisted so strongly that they go with him and enter into his house.
He prepared a meal for them, baked bread without yeast, and they ate.
Before they had gone to bed, all the men of every part of the city of Sodom, both young and old, surrounded the house.
So time out here.
Lot has already lived amongst these people for more than 13 years because a few chapters earlier it gives us a time frame.
So Lot has already been with these people.
If he is there at the city gate, like it said in verse one, right, he said that he saw them while he was sitting at the city gate.
If he's at the city gate, it means that he holds a position of prestige.
Because in the olden days, in these times, when you would sit at the city gate, it meant that you were either a politician or that you were a businessman.
So Sodom, I mean Sodom, Lot in Sodom holds a place of prestige.
He's been amongst these people. He's dwelt with them.
But we read in the previous chapter that these people were sinful against the Lord.
So let's see how sinful they were.
All right, you follow me? We don't need a novella. Right here. All the novella you want.
It says, okay, verse five. Thank you.
They called to Lot and they said, where are the men who came with you tonight?
Bring them out so that we can have sex with them.
Lot went outside to meet with them, shut the door behind him and said, no, my friends, don't do this wicked thing.
Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with the man. Let me bring them to you.
You can do with them. You can do as you like with them.
But don't do anything to these men for they have come under the protection of my roof.
They said, get out of our way.
Then they followed. This fellow came here as an alien and now he wants to play judge.
We'll treat him worse than them.
They kept persisting and putting pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.
But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house, shut the door.
Then they stuck the men who was, who struck the men who were outside the door of the house, young and old,
with blindness so they could not find the door.
The two men said to Lot, do you have anyone else, son-in-law, sons or daughters,
anyone else in the city who belongs to you, get them out of here because we are going to destroy this place.
The outcry of the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.
A total city was going to be destroyed.
Meanwhile, they had someone there who was supposed to be the light in the darkness.
Y'all remember that little nursery rhyme in church?
It says, this little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.
Amen.
And then it says, hide it under a bush.
Oh no, I'm going to let it shine.
So Lot was supposed to be that light, but he decided to hide himself under a bush.
Instead of allowing himself to impact the environment around him, he was allowing himself to be shaped by that environment.
And so on a side note, this is just a little side note here.
Where has God planted you that you're supposed to be a light but you're hiding under a bush?
That's hitting anybody? That's for another preaching, another day.
But Romans 12, 12 tells us, do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be renewed by your, yes, be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
So how do we allow our minds to be renewed?
God's voice, his word, allowing us, opening up our ears to hear him, spending time in prayer so that we can hear him.
Right? That's how we allow ourselves to be transformed.
Lot, he could have impacted Sodom. He could have saved these people and their generations, but he didn't.
He lived a life that was so far from the voice of God that instead of him being the light, destruction came to these people.
So again, I ask you, Numa, are you allowing yourself to allow the voice of God to speak to you?
Because if not, like this, you're not, like I said previously, you're not only affecting yourself or your generations, but the people around you.
I tell this a lot to people I encounter, but there are people that you will meet that I will never meet.
There are people that you will meet that Pastor Ryan will never meet in his life.
Are you being the light to those people?
Are you allowing the voice of the Father to minister through you the way Pastor Bobby just said,
you don't have to be eloquent in your words, well read. All you got to do is give your testimony.
All you got to do is just speak to them about what you're going through, and that might speak to their lives and change them and keep them from destruction.
Where are you supposed to be the light in the darkness? Who is God calling you to speak to to keep from destruction?
And point number three, jeez, I'm blowing through this.
Point number three, if we do not listen to the voice of the Lord, or if we don't know the voice of the Father, it can bring death.
This brings me to Genesis 19. We will be reading 15 through 17 and then skipping to verse 26.
And so here in 19 as well, so this is all happening. The angels have already said what they're going to do to the city, get everybody out, is gathering his daughters.
He even went to go tell his son-in-laws and his son-in-laws. So these are the men that were going to marry his daughters.
How many fathers do we have here? All right, you all have daughters? Some of you guys? Yes.
So the men that you are going to entrust your daughters to, you're going to hold them to high esteem, hopefully, right?
Right, there's a certain level. I mean, you, David's going to punch them.
I mean, there's a certain, right, your daughters have free will, so they make their own decisions, but you would assume that the men that are going to marry my daughters, me being lot, I would have at a high esteem.
He goes and tells his son-in-laws what the angels said, like, let's get out, they're going to kill everybody.
And his son-in-laws laughed in his face, thought he was joking. That's the kind of people he was associated with, just so we get the picture.
So here we are, Genesis 19, 15 through 17, and then skipping to verse 26, it says,
With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, hurry, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.
When he hesitated, verse 16, when he hesitated, the men grasped his hands, and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters led them safely out of the city,
for the Lord was merciful unto them. As soon as they had brought them out, one said to them, flee for your lives and don't look back.
Don't stop anywhere in the plains, flee for the mountains, or you will be swept away.
Verse 26 says, But Lot's wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.
Lot's wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.
So verse 16 says Lot hesitated.
He was on his way out. The angels had already told him everything is going to be destroyed. He knew what was going to happen, but yet he hesitated.
Can you imagine that?
Like, you know, I don't know, the apartment complex you're living in, or the place you're working at, they're about to come and shoot it up.
You know it, it's coming. Are you going to hesitate and be like, let me get my laptop? I want to get the pictures of my baby before I leave.
Well, we don't print out pictures anymore, right? Throw it on our phone. I don't know. Hesitate. Can you imagine hesitating?
I've never been in that position, but I would assume I'd be like, no, I'm out of here. I'm taking everybody I love. Let's go get on your feet. Let's run.
But he hesitated. Why? Because he was so attached to what he had. He didn't want to abandon the wealth that he had collected in Sodom.
He didn't want to abandon the position that he had had in Sodom. He didn't want to abandon the comfort of Sodom.
Sometimes, Numa, our lack of obedience towards God stems from the false attractions of this world.
I'll repeat that. Our lack of obedience towards God stems from the false attractions of this world.
This world has a lot of shiny things. They look nice on the surface, but once you get into them, you are stuck.
We just sang a song, the enemy thought he had me, but Jesus said you are mine.
And Pastor Lamati has highlighted certain things.
Pornography looks beautiful on the outside, but when you entertain that and you introduce that to your life,
the repercussion that it has on your relationships and your marriage, what God created to be holy between man and wife,
when you introduce that into your lives, men and even women, we are guilty of it too.
It brings horrible repercussions. It affects what God made holy.
When we introduce drugs or alcoholism, whatever it may be, it looks so shiny and beautiful on the outside.
But does it give you the peace like Jesus gives? Does it give you the joy?
Does it give you the ultimate satisfaction? No. That pleasure is just for a moment.
It is fleeting. That pleasure is fleeting. Here today, gone tomorrow.
And you know what? I'll take that back. It's not even here today for a whole day.
Sometimes it's here for a split second and gone.
Once the high is over, what comes? The low.
Right? Okay. Everybody's so holy here.
It is here today, gone tomorrow.
But because we constantly are choosing that over listening to our Heavenly Father's voice,
over calling for our Heavenly Father, we are welcoming death into our lives.
And listen, I'm not saying death physically, although some of those addictions can lead to that kind of death, but spiritually.
And you know, maybe you're sitting there and be like, well, I don't have problem with drugs. I don't have problem with alcohol.
I don't have problem with pornography. It doesn't even have to be that big or that bad.
Let me share with you something personally. I suffer with laziness.
I'm not going to say it too loud. With laziness.
Oh my gosh. There are so many times that I would choose sleep over the voice of God.
I'm guilty of it. God comes knocking at three o'clock in the morning.
Something happens that I know it's God asking me to pray and I'm just like, God, I got to get up at six.
I don't want to tomorrow or I'll do it after I come home from work or XYZ.
We make all kinds of excuses.
Laziness. And if I allow that to be my lifestyle, if I allow that to be my routine,
then when I come up here and sing or when I'm invited to preach, I'm pouring out of an empty cup.
And none of it is going to edify you guys. And I'm not saying that I'm here and God's filling my cup and I'm so holy and anointed.
No. But if I don't spend that time with God, then what am I, how am I benefiting you?
How am I helping you? And that goes for all the praise and worship team and anybody that steps on this altar.
If we're not filling ourselves up, anybody that serves, even on this altar, serves in one way or another.
If you're not filling your cup, what are you pouring out to the congregation?
And congregation, you have an audience too. Like I just finished saying, the coworkers or the friends that'll never meet your pastor.
If you're not filling yourself up with the Father's voice, His guidance, His word, what are you pouring out into their lives?
If I allow laziness to keep me in my bed and keep me from speaking to the Father, it won't only affect me here in my ministry.
It'll affect my marriage because how many of y'all know when you're not speaking to God that peace that passes all understanding isn't over you.
And you need that peace that passes all understanding when you're married. Amen. Amen.
That's for everybody. He needs it too, just as much as I need it. Maybe He needs it more.
Are we both, I don't know. But if you're married, you're two imperfect people that God has brought together, you need that peace of God to hold your tongue.
But if you're in laziness, not reading your word, not praying, you are easily irritable, your mouth speaks what it wants, you're angry all the time.
My husband says, what's wrong with you? And I'll be like, what do you mean what's wrong with that? You bark back for no reason.
That's what happens. So it affects your marriage. It can affect your children and it can affect your ministry.
It affects several aspects of your life. This is not something to take lightly.
The voice of the Father is not something you should only hear on Sunday or when you play a podcast or a YouTube sermon.
The voice of the Father should be something that you seek every day. The Bible says, take up your cross daily and follow Me, not just on Sundays, not just on Wednesdays, daily.
The enemy comes. John 10, 10 says, the enemy comes to still, kill and destroy.
But I have come that you would have life and have it in abundance. That is the tactic of the enemy.
It's been his game since day one, Adam and Eve. He came to still, kill and destroy their life.
But Jesus came and brought redemption.
If we live a life without listening to the voice of the Father, without invoking the voice of the Father, without seeking His words,
then we bring death not only over us, but over those around us.
Verse 26 says that she looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. She looked back because she was clinging to her past.
Numa, we will not make any forward progress with God as long as we are holding on to pieces of our old life.
If you're wondering why you're stagnant and you walk with Christ, why nothing is changing, the preacher earlier today, Omar,
he spoke a word in Spanish. If you know Spanish, go back and listen to it. It was really powerful.
But he said, the enemy is not worried about what's been spoken over you.
What worries him is what you do to get there.
He said in Spanish, he's not worried about the cosecha, about your harvest.
He's worried about what you're going to sow.
Because what you sow is what will get you to that harvest.
So words have been spoken over Numa, over this church.
Maybe words have been spoken over you in the past or here lately.
But the enemy is not worried about that. He's not worried about your calling.
He's not worried about what he's worried about is when you get up at three in the morning and pray.
He's worried about when you open up your Bible and actually read the Word of God.
What worries him and shakes him to his core is when you call on the name of Jesus.
And like verse 33, Jeremiah 33 said, call on me and I will answer you and I will show you things you don't know.
He's worried because when you call on the Lord, he knows that the Lord is faithful to show you things that you didn't know before.
To reveal things to you that you don't understand but will understand because you are asking for his guidance for his words.
She looked back because she was clinging to the past.
My husband, he had told me when we were getting to know each other, and I don't think he minds that I share this.
But when he was, he took a time away from the things that he grew up in church.
Father is a pastor, still is, father-in-law.
And he stepped out of the things of God for about ten years.
And then his mother never ceased to pray over him.
How many prayer warriors are in this place? Do not cease to pray for what you don't see in your carnal eyes.
Believe it in the spiritual, another side piece.
He comes back to the things of God, his sister persisted about this wonderful church called Primera Iglesia.
He's here but he was used to his old lifestyle.
He thought it would be cool, let me go out on a Saturday, party hard, I'll be the designated driver, I don't got a drink.
But I want to be back on Sunday at the crack-a-down here at church ready to listen to what God had for me.
And so he did that for a few couple Sundays, I don't know how long, and then finally he was like, no, I need to stop.
I can't do what I used to do and still come to church and expect God to speak to me.
Numa, we can't do and cling to our past, hang out with people we used to hang out with, do what we used to do and expect to have forward progress in our relationship with God.
Matthew 624 says, you cannot serve two masters.
Alright, so I'm going to get the band to come up.
And in closing, I ask you today, Numa, do you know your Heavenly Father's voice?
And if yes, are you following Him at His word?
There's some of you that are like, okay, but how do I know it is the voice of the Lord?
How do I know it's His voice speaking to me?
And like I said when I opened up, there's no magical phrase, there's no formula.
All you do is ask God to speak to you in a way that you will understand.
It's different for everybody.
Some people say they hear His voice audibly.
My husband just said on the drive over here, I don't hear His voice audibly, but I feel it in my spirit.
Other people say they have dreams and visions.
Some people just rely on what other believers speak into their lives.
But it's as simple as opening up the word of God.
This is His breathing, living word.
But are we opening up?
Are we opening it up besides on Sundays?
And after we ask Him, so one, ask the way Jeremiah 3 said, call on me.
So ask Him, but step number two is make yourself available to listen.
A lot of times, again, guilty of it, preaching to the choir, I'm not just throwing stones, right?
I'm here speaking to myself.
On Sunday, we pour out our heart, we do the altar call, but that's the last time we speak to God.
Are we making ourselves available to listen?
It's not just about an altar call on Sunday, but we fill up our day with TV, with work, with activities, or we sleep in, whatever it may be.
We got to make time to listen to the voice of God, make ourselves available that He speak into our lives.
How do we expect to hear from Him without setting time apart?
Back to my relationship with my husband.
How did I expect to get to know Him if I didn't spend time with Him?
I always make that comparison because I grew up always preaching to the youth.
That's where my church would send me to preach to them.
And I would always tell them because that's how they can connect, they can understand, they can accept it.
When you get to know how many of y'all are married, when you got to know your spouse, you spent time with them, right?
You would text them, or back in the day you would be on the phone with them, or how many of y'all are back from the time when you would send letters to each other.
Send letters, drop it in your little locker, whatever it may be, you got to know them.
Our Heavenly Father, He didn't need us, but He created us because He desired us.
And He desires to know you and for you to know Him intimately.
But in order to get there, Neuma, we've got to spend time in His presence.
We've got to wake up early or go to sleep late, whichever works best for you, but cut in some time.
And I'm not talking about hours upon hours upon hours, if you do that, praise God.
But I think sometimes we feel like, oh my gosh, I'm not going to, God, I only have 15 minutes, that's not enough, so let me just run to work.
No, God will take your 15 minutes.
If that's all you've got, and you're coming to Him with your heart, He will speak to you.
Make yourselves available.
Go ahead and stand, I'm going to ask the prayer team if they want to come up.
So it's, I mean, I mean, as clear as could be the Father's voice.
And you know, Pastor Ryan had asked me to preach and he had said this date a couple months ago, because that's how he is, he's a planner.
And I was like, oh, it's not till November, not till November.
And when I finally started praying and asking God, what do you want me to speak?
It didn't come easily.
And it was like, God was nudging at my heart too.
You want, I want you to speak on the Father's voice, because I need you to listen to my voice.
Neua, we've got to be familiar with our Father's voice.
So last week, Pastor Melissa Alvaro asked us to cross to the other side in faith.
But in order to remain on that other side, in order to get to the other side, we've got to remain in His Word.
Remain in His, allowing His voice to remain in us, not just on Sundays, like I've said, not just on Wednesdays, but every day.
Allowing His Holy Spirit to be what leads you, what guides your every decision.
And so I welcome you this morning.
The altars are open.
We've got our prayer team up here to make that invitation open to God.
That He would speak to you.
That He would guide your every decision, big and small.
That He would be the voice that leads you from this day forward.
Thanks for listening.
If you'd like some more information on Pneuma Church, visit us on our website at mypneumachurch.org.
If you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe or share it with your friends on social media and tag us at myneumachurch.
Thanks again and God bless.
.