So if we claim to be hearing the voice of God today, how can we test to see it's really from Him? It's time for the Line of Fire with your host, biblical scholar and cultural commentator, Dr. Michael Brown.
Your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. Call 866-34-TRUTH to get on the Line of Fire. And now, here's your host, Dr. Michael Brown.
Welcome to the Line of Fire. This is Michael Brown. You know, a survey that I did on X, formerly Twitter, indicated that among followers of Jesus who responded, 80%, actually slightly over 80% said that either sometimes or often they hear God speaking outside of the Bible itself. Less than one in six said they only hear God speaking through the Bible itself. The question is, how can we discern and be sure that we're hearing the voice of God?
This is Michael Brown. You are listening to the Line of Fire. We pray over this in secret. I get on my face before God and cry out that every day we'd infuse you with faith and truth and courage to help you stand strong on the front lines. This week we've got some urgent matters we want to talk about in the culture wars with politics getting so much of our attention. We want to talk about what's happening with Israel in the world.
A lot of important and controversial subjects we'll talk about this week. We'll take your calls, questions, but today I want to focus on something more personal, more practical, more spiritual, and that is how to know that we're hearing the voice of God and is there scripture that indicates that we should be hearing God's voice outside of the Bible itself. Now, the great thing with talk radio and talk internet is that you get to call in and if you have a question for me about this in your own life, trying to figure out how to discern, or if you say it's not for today, God only speaks to us through the Bible.
He can give us insight into what the Bible means, but he only speaks to us through the Bible. Feel free to call in and tell me why you think I'm wrong on the subject 866-348-7884. 866-344-TRUTH. Now, before we get into this, I want to mention a little later in the broadcast that we are doing something we've never done before with my newest book that will be out next month, Hearts of Compassion, Backbones of Steel, how to discuss controversial topics with love and kindness. I think you're going to find it to be a must read, super edifying, helpful, encouraging, life-giving, one that you want to distribute to others. I'm going to tell you in a little while how you can get a signed copy.
We're doing something we've never done before, but it's a critical moment, so we'll let you know about that in a little while. Again, number to call and Truth will take any call that comes in as long as it's, well, even random Bible questions, maybe we'll get to later in the show. 866-348-7884.
That's number to call to talk with me. First question, scripturally speaking, according to the Bible, should we be hearing the voice of God today as believers? Maybe an audible voice, perhaps. I've never heard the audible voice of God.
In other words, like I'm talking to you in an audible voice, I've never heard that. But is God speaking to us more regularly through an internal voice, something that we hear with our inner ear, in our spirit? Is He speaking to us through dreams, through visions, through giving us a clear sense of something? Is He speaking in those ways? Well, scripture makes clear that yes, of course He is.
And He's in harmony with His nature. And in no way does it impugn on the authority of scripture. In no way does it compete with the Bible. There are two separate categories. I know cessation is sometimes different here, but the Bible's really quite clear in terms of its function and what it's here for and what it does that is unique. And we don't add to it.
We don't take away from it. But very, very clearly, if the Lord speaks to you, I'm calling you to Ghana. You are to serve me in Ghana. I'm calling you to Mexico.
You are to serve me in Mexico. That's not adding to the Bible. The Bible is God's universal word for all people. It gives us the definitive revelation of who He is and how we are to live. If He leads you in a specific way, or if I'm ministering, I say, there's somebody here. You're going through this particular situation and it's very specific. And God has a message for you.
That's not adding to the Bible. Now, first, a general statement. And folks have shared this, and it's a very true concept. A general statement. Namely, the nature of God is to fellowship with us. The nature of God is to communicate with us. The nature of God is to be an intimate relationship with us.
That's His desire. As we get right with Him through the blood of His Son, we have fellowship with Him. And Jesus says in John 14 that He and His Father, obviously by the Spirit, will come and dwell with us.
They'll make their home with us. Now, those you live in the home with, you communicate with. Those you live in the home with, you have relationship with. And it's a very odd idea to say that throughout history, up and through the time of the apostles, that God communicated in many, many different ways with people on the earth. He communicated in many, many different ways with human beings. He spoke to them in dreams. He spoke to them in visions. He spoke to prophets in certain ways. He spoke by the inner voice.
He spoke by an audible voice. He did that and loved to have this communication with us read part of our hearts to Him. And He communicate with us in select ways and in His will at certain times. He communicate with us. And now it stops because the canon of Scripture is complete.
What does one have to do with the other? What is the idea of God having intimate fellowship with us, communing with us, interacting with us? What in the world does that have to do with the Bible being complete? Yeah, we have the fullness of the revelation of who God is and how we are to live in Scripture.
But what about relationship? So, I want to give you specific verses that speak to this because the Bible's our God. Not my opinion, not your opinion, but Scripture is our authority for followers of Jesus. He says in John chapter 10, verse 27, my sheep listen to my voice. That is present active in Greek.
It's not a one-time event. They hear my voice of salvation and that's all that's it. My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me.
Again, active present tense in the Greek. In an ongoing way, they hear my voice. They recognize my voice.
They listen to my voice and they follow me. That is characteristic of Jesus sheep. We recognize his voice through the Bible. He didn't say that. He didn't say that. He didn't hint on that.
He didn't intimate that in any way. John chapter 14, I just alluded to a moment ago. Jesus said this, John 14, 23, anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My father will love them and we will come to them and make our home with them. Earlier in John 14, he said in my father's house there are many rooms, King James mansions, there are many rooms.
Here it's the same Greek word. The only time it's used in the New Testament that we will come to them, father and son, obviously by the spirit and make our home with them. He wants to make his home with you and that speaks of fellowship and intimacy and communion. Then what's the benediction that Paul gives in second Corinthians chapter 13 verse 14? What is he invoking that will be with us?
What is it? The love of God, the grace of the Lord Jesus, and the koinonia, the fellowship, the communion of the Holy Spirit. We have the communion of the Holy Spirit. We have intimacy with God by his spirit. Romans 8 14, as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are children of God. Romans 8 16, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. We experience our walk with him. We experience salvation. We walk by faith, not by sight, but in that, Peter speaks of the inexpressible and glorious joy that we experienced.
Paul speaks of the love that is beyond knowledge and the peace that passes understanding. This is part of our walk with God, our experience with God, and we hear his voice and he leads us and guides us. The Lord is my shepherd.
I like no good thing. He causes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. Now she who shall be restores my soul. As we walk with our shepherd, he speaks to us. He communes with us.
He leads us. And then Acts, the second chapter, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, what does Peter say explicitly? And notice this is for the period of the last days, from the death and resurrection of Jesus until his return. In the last days, God says, Acts 2, beginning verse 17, I will pour up my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions.
Your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and children will pour up my spirit. Both men and women, I will pour up my spirit in those days and they will prophesy. So during this period of the last days, sons and daughters, just your average person, not just the prophets, are prophesied, which means we're hearing God's voice.
We can't speak what he's saying unless we're hearing his voice. And as to Paul's ongoing exhortation after laying out the better way of love so that it's not just gifts, it's not just power, it's all operating through say in 1 Corinthians 14. This is an exhortation from the Lord through Paul to you and me. Follow the way of love and earnestly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. So he's telling us to earnestly desire these gifts because they're to the glory of God and for our good and the good of others, especially prophecy. And then when you get to the end of the chapter, what does he say?
What does he say? After he gives further teaching about proper order, he gives this final command. Therefore, verse 39 of chapter 14, my brothers and sisters be eager to prophesy and do not forbid speaking in tongues, but everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way. I've heard the voice of God many, many, many times since I've been saved, indisputably in my own life and confirmed by circumstances over and over. Does it take the place of the Bible?
Why would it take the place of the Bible? To say it again, the Bible is the definitive revelation of who he is and how we are to live. And everything is tested by the word of God. But believers I talk to all around the world, it's just, it's a common thing.
It's a normal thing that he leads us. We know it's his leading, that we have a distinct witness in our spirit that we're to go in a certain direction, that we hear his internal voice. It speaks through a dream or prophecy.
If, if, if cessationists were trying to disprove this, they would have to disprove billions of accounts because you've got hundreds of millions of people, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions saying this is normative. And you give example after example, after example, after example from our own lives. And it's beautiful and it's wonderful and it's part of our intimate fellowship with him. The Lord's corrected me, the Lord's rebuked me, the Lord's encouraged me, the Lord's given me information, the Lord's directed my path in the 53 years that I've known him over and over and over again in beautiful, distinct, wonderful ways that just draw me closer to him. As I said of the word, I said of the word for what it is, the unique revelation of God once and for all, the one and only Bible. And that one and only Bible tells me that we can expect prophecy, we can expect gifts, that we hear the Savior's voice, that you can tell us what you've got through the spirit. It's a beautiful relationship God's offering. And viewers around the world wonder, what's the cessationist talking about? They talk about it.
It's like saying there's no range in the midst of a thunderstorm. Thank God. He's moving.
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Call 800-771-5584 or go online to TriVita.com. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the line of fire by calling 866-344-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks for joining us on the line of fire.
Michael Brown delighted to be here. We've got one line open. I'm going to get to calls in a few minutes, so be patient. I'll get you. I want you to weigh in on the subject or ask questions if you like.
866-348-7884. Before I address the issue of how can we test whether something is really the voice of God, whether it's really the Lord, how we can, is it our own thoughts? I mean, how many kids say, Mommy, are those my thoughts or is that the devil or is that Jesus talking to me?
They're fair questions to ask. We're doing something we've never done with my brand new book, so let me give you context and background for this. We are friends at the line of fire on the front lines of some of the most critical issues of the hour. Many of you who listen, you know that's the case. I mean, front lines, the major issues. We are standing against the ugly rising tide of anti-Semitism, an increasing measure. We are raising our voices. We are getting flak for it. We are getting hatred for it. I'm sure the threats will come as well. It's just part of the territory for our stand on Israel.
Increasing hatred coming away. At the same time, we never back up from sharing the good news of the Messiah, sharing the good news of Jesus, day and night, day and night with our Jewish people. We need to get more of our materials out in Hebrew, in Israel, for further distribution. We have many, but we need to get many more out, especially some of my key books. We want to take major steps in doing this, but this is a joint effort together. This month is a sacred month. We're leading up to the horrific one year anniversary of the October 7th massacre with Israel still in the midst of a horrific war with Hamas and Gaza with so much suffering for all people involved. Here's what we're doing.
My brand new book coming out in October, Hearts of Compassion, Backbones of Steel, how to discuss controversial topics with love and kindness. Normally you pay a little extra, you get a signed numbered copy. It's kind of a tradition we have.
Our team said, let's do something different. It's yours for your gift of any size. Now this is only within the States and by phone. Yours for your gift of any size as we're on the front lines, reaching the lost sheep of the house of Israel and standing against antisemitism. Be as generous as you can because these are critical days, but your gift of any size, we're going to send you a signed copy.
So it's going to have a scripture. I'm going to sign it so you can edit your collection, but we want to make it available for your gift of any size. Here's how you get it.
This month only we're doing this. 800-538-5275. That's the number to call exclusively for this book within the States. 800-538-5275. Your gift of any size that will automatically go to our Israel related work.
800-538-5275. Let's make a difference together. And by all means, when you get this book, I believe you're going to want to get other copies for Friends once it comes out next month. But we want to get into your hand to start. Okay, let me give you an example of hearing the voice of God. In April of 1983, deep in prayer, overwhelmed with a burden from the Lord, the Spirit of God said to me, you will serve in a revival that will touch the whole world. My initial thought was, you're crazy that you are deceived. People that think you're off, they're right.
You're off. At this point, I was finishing my PhD work at New York University in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures. I had preached in some local churches in previous years, but I was not a known figure and not on the national landscape at all.
Zero, zero footprint there or platform or anything. I was not known as a revivalist. God had used me to help bring an outpouring to our church in previous months, but that outpouring got rejected.
I was not on the outside. But the more I prayed, the deeper the burden got, the more intense it got. When I asked other leaders for their input to kind of test what I was hearing, they both rebuked me.
One who was on my side, one who was against me. They both rebuked me and said, all that matters is what God's saying and affirming that he was speaking to me. Well, 13 years later, I was serving as one of the key leaders in the Browns revival, which according to church historian Vincent Sinon, was the longest running local church revival in American history, cumulative attendance of about 3 million people from 130 nations with more than 300,000 different people responding to the altar calls to get right with God. That's just the church services there, let alone all those multiplied numbers outside as an offshoot of that. To this day, as I travel around the world, people come up to me and say, Dr. Brown, you prayed for me in the Browns revival.
I went there, my life was changed. And they're still shouting, they're still excited with their breakdown, crying in gratitude to what God did around the world. He spoke it to me and it happened. Or something more recent, in January of 2005, with a pro-life march standing in front of the Supreme Court building in DC with life tape on our mouths, so the red tape with life written on it and silent prayer for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, I heard the spirit say to me, reach out and resist, reach out and resist, meaning reach out to the gay and lesbian community with compassion, resist the agenda with courage. This all crystallized in my mind. And I heard in my inner ear, reach out and resist, reach out and resist, reach out to the people with compassion, resist the agenda with courage. That's been our mantra now for the last 19 years. That ties in with hearts of compassion, backbones of steel.
We tell that whole story in the book. It's been something that's guided our ministry and helped shape what we do and how we reach out. And it's been an example. Whenever I say it, leaders meetings, preaching, everybody takes out, not everybody, almost everybody just take out, they write it down, reach out and resist. The spirit spoke to my heart. It wasn't just my own mind. How do we discern? Well, first thing, everything's tested by scripture. If it's against the Bible, you feel the Lord's telling you something, it's against the Bible, you throw it out. It's not God.
It's either your own mind or it's demonic. If it's against the Bible, period. You say, well, the Bible says God doesn't know.
It doesn't say that. It doesn't say he doesn't speak today. So you say, well, the very fact you think he's speaking, no, that's a wrong theological deduction by an extreme cessationism. It's not Bible. And there are plenty of Christians through the centuries who didn't believe in tongues or prophecy today and still believed in hearing the voice of the spirit in their own lives. And it was a normal thing.
It's a normal thing. It's an extreme hardline cessationism today that denies that, which is heartbreaking to me because it's cutting off such a beautiful part of our relationship with God. But first you test it by the Bible. Well, I felt the Lord told me I'm to rob this bank. No, he didn't tell you to rob a bank. No, he didn't tell you to rob a bank.
Absolutely not. So if it's contrary to scripture, if the scripture's against it, you throw it out. Let's say it's in harmony with the Bible.
You know, which job to take and both jobs are, you know, good jobs. And should I work with this Christian ministry or that Christian ministry? I felt the Lord saying this Christian ministry.
Okay, how do you test it? So another thing is, where's it coming from? We know that the Holy Spirit, Romans 8 16, bears witness with our spirit that we're the children of God. Where is that knowing inside that you know that you know that you know? Often you can locate, ah boy, it's in my inner being. I sense it. I understand it. Okay, but that's very subjective, you'd say.
Agreed. So now you develop a track record. You learn to recognize whether you were hearing God or not, whether it's really the Holy Spirit or not.
And I don't mean trial and error. I'm going to announce God told me this to 10 million people next day. No, actually it wasn't God.
I'm learning. No, in your own life. I really feel the Lord's been telling me that this is going to happen. This is going to be a breakthrough with with our kid we've been praying for for years. I really feel the Lord saying this month they're going to have an encounter with God and it's going to be a surprise. And I feel it's going to happen like this. And then it happens like, I did hear the voice of God.
So you develop a track record. And then as you walk with Him more, you'll see you'll see that that you sense things more deeply. You sense things more clearly. And for me, when something keeps coming up and coming up and coming up as I pray, it rises in my spirit. As I pray, I hear those same words in my inner ear. And it's over and over for some, it's having the same dream, prophetic dream over and over that God can make things clear. I tell them all the time when I'm praying, God, I'm just an ignorant sheep.
I don't know anything. You're the shepherd. And it's up to the shepherd to find a way to communicate with the sheep. I'm here. I'm listening.
I'm before you. But I don't just like close my eyes and close my eyes to see what happens. And the next voice that I hear is the voice of God.
You're probably a homeschooling mom. The next voice you hear is Mommy. It's one of your kids calling you. And a lot of times just my thoughts running.
No, no. As I pray, as I worship the Lord, as I'm in fellowship and communion with Him, I have that sense of His nearness, just like I know I'm saved. Right? I have that sense of His nearness. And I begin to hear something and it stays with me and it deepens and it stays with me. I journal those things. And I've seen for years, years, years now, that the things that God promises, the things He leads, they're real.
They're beautiful. Hey, friends, Michael Brown here. My delight to serve as your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. We are living in such urgent times today, friends, that all of us are in the line of fire. There's a target on your back.
There's a target on my back. If you simply seek to live by biblical values or just conservative moral values, you could be canceled. You could be cast out. You could be put down. You could be silenced. I'm here to say, friends, that I am not about to be silenced.
And I don't believe you are either. It is time for us to stand up. It is time for us to say enough is enough. It is time for us to push back in Jesus' name. Not fighting the way the world fights.
No. Overcoming evil with good. Overcoming hatred with love. Overcoming the flesh with the power of the Spirit. Overcoming lies with truth. And that's what we're here to do on the Line of Fire broadcast.
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Donate monthly support. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on The Line of Fire by calling 866-342. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome back, friends, to The Line of Fire. I'm going to the phones momentarily.
866-348-7884. These were the results of a survey I did on X, formerly Twitter. I asked this question. If you are a follower of Jesus, would you say that God speaks to you both through the Bible and outside the Bible, meaning by an internal leading or an internal voice or dream or visions, et cetera, or only through the Bible? 25% said often outside the Bible. 55.2% said sometimes outside the Bible. So that's over 80% said often or sometimes out of the Bible, over 8 in 10. Only through the Bible, it's 15.7%, so that's less than 1 in 6. Only through the Bible, and they're not really sure, 4.1%. So even when you add up those other two totals, it is less than 1 in 5, if you look at the overall totals, who said either not really sure or only sure or only through the Bible.
And that's just those who responded, got over 1,000 votes, so it's representative of those on X. Again, the circles in which I've traveled for decades is normal. I don't mean every day we're like, I'm staggered with this incredible revelation, this prophetic myth. No, I mean just in your general life, being led by God, being directed by God.
Is it day and night? No, not for me. Is it every situation in life? No, you make decisions based on wisdom. Some things I pray about for months, trying to get God's mind and understand, and I don't get an answer, and I use whatever wisdom I have and take counsel with others and whatever scriptural principles I can base things on. But I've documented so many things over the decades where He's spoken, where He's led, where He's guided, and it's been wonderful, it's been beautiful, it's been amazing to see, and it's just, it's normal. I hear from friends, colleagues all the time, it's just way of life, and there are ways that we can test this against scripture. We can test it by track record, by journaling, by observing over previous years, by getting to know God better, communing with Him more deeply, and it's just beautiful to know His voice. And Jesus said, my sheep recognize my voice in an ongoing way. They hear my voice and they follow me. All right, again, if you'd like to weigh in or challenge me on this or get a question just to probe, 866-348-7884.
Let's start in Chicago. Mark, welcome to the line of fire. Hey, what's up, Dr. Brough? Hey, man. This time caller. Well, great, thank you.
Yes, thank you again. I've been blessed by your broadcast, and I do have a question on this. So I used to hear God for other people, you know, it's either through word of knowledge, but the question from here is, is when it came to personal prayer and just praying about my own personal life or decisions, et cetera, it always felt like very empty. I didn't really hear anything. Probably, I would say the last time that noticeably that I knew the Lord spoke to me was 2015, which was like clear because I heard it very clearly.
But since I really haven't really heard anything. So I just want to kind of get your input how, you know, I can personally just seek God because, you know, everything you described, you know, previously, you know, seeking earnestly, you know, desiring, but still, it seems like I hit a brick wall. Like, it's, it's, it's like, when I pray, it's like, I'm just feels like I'm just talking. But it's just not being transmitted. No sense of communion.
Got it. Give me a quick example of God showing you something about someone else you were praying for. Yeah, I mean, for example, when I was, you know, let me just talk about a time I was in a restaurant, and the Lord spoke to me about pain in some of the back. And so say, so I said, Hey, silly question, but, you know, is your back really bothering you right now? Yeah.
And then we prayed for him in the Lord Salem. So that's an example. All right, so you had a sense.
And you just came with information, right? In your inner ear, or your inner, your inner being your spirit. So yeah, it's come through thoughts, or it's come through impressions.
Very rarely, but it's happened, but it came through like a vision. So got it. Okay.
Yeah. So you see something in your mind's eye, or maybe openly in front of you. So yeah, as I encourage you to do is, I don't pursue hearing God's voice. In this in that sense, I pursue knowing Him more intimately, walking with Him more closely. And then, then praying that He'd be glorified through me in the maximum possible way that people would be drawn to Jesus through my life, that God would be glorified. And, and then I seek to spend more quality time with Him and develop a deeper relationship with Him, pouring my heart out to Him, whether I feel anything or not. And then what happens is, it seems there's something reciprocal. First, the deepening of that sense of communion. And then secondly, Him leading and speaking.
And it's, it's at His time, not mine. But if I wasn't experiencing that, what I would do, let's say in your shoes, what I'd recommend, one is to really meditate on passages like John 14, 15, and 16. To get on your knees, to read them out loud, to bring them to the Lord, or just a beautiful psalm like Psalm 23 about the Lord being your shepherd. Other passages that might be beautiful to you, meaningful to you in terms of relationship with God.
And I would go to Him and I'd say, Lord, it says in your word that you've put the Spirit of your Son in our hearts, by which we cry Abba, Father, in Romans 8 and Galatians 4. And you said that you come and commune with us by your Spirit, and you lead us and guide us. And Lord, I, I, it feels like you're distant. It feels like a theological truth. It feels like a theological truth that I'm following as opposed to a personal God. And I'm asking you to bring me into a deeper relationship, deeper fellowship.
You could ask Him, are there any things in your life displeasing? Maybe He wants to draw you closer. Sometimes the, the lack of relationship that we feel is not God pushing us away. It's God inviting us to go deeper and saying, listen, maybe others can live a certain way, but you can't. You need to go deeper. You need to consecrate yourself more deeply.
It's not a works righteousness thing. It's just like, you know, I'm home with Nancy. It's like, put the phone down. We're talking, we're talking now, you know, so it's not being distracted by other things because she's the love of my life and, and we need, I need to focus. So I would, I would take this as an invitation to go deeper. And as you do, a natural by-product will be that you'll feel a greater intimacy. You may go through a wilderness on the way.
You might feel further from Him than you ever have. It's like, okay, I know what you're, I know you're true. I believe you no matter what I feel or experience, but I'm going to trust you. I'm going to draw near to you. I'm going to thank you that you're with me, that you lead me, that you speak to me, that you guide me, even though I don't feel any of it now.
And then something will happen. You, you, you will start to commune with Him more because He's faithful to His word and He doesn't discriminate. It's not like, well, I'll do it for Mike. I won't do it for Mark.
I'll do it for Sally, but I won't do it for Sandra. No, He's, He's the same. He may communicate to us differently, but He wants us to have that intimate relationship with Him. Jesus, you said to your disciples that you call them friends. Lord, how can I be your friend unless I have greater communion with you?
And He will draw you in. And again, it's not, it's not for abstract information. That's not what you're after.
I want to know who's going to win the Super Bowl a year in advance so I can place a bet, you know, or I need to know who's going to win the presidential election so I can post it on social media. No, it's not that. It's, it's, it's relationship. It's fellowship.
It's intimacy. So I would, I would pray over those passages, especially like John 14, 15, 16, and say, Lord, you said it, and it's your, it's your nature to communicate with us. And I'm your son.
I'm part of your family. Lead me, God me more deeply. And I'm going to, I'm going to take it by faith. I'm not going to expect it to come. I'm going to take it from faith.
I believe you'll have some breakthroughs. I genuinely do. Yeah. Yeah.
Well then I guess the follow-up question is, you know, I love the answer by the way. Um, what would you do in a circumstance maybe of fatigue of, you know, because it's probably been about roughly four years of that for myself, you know, actively, probably not to the extent that you think, but I've been, or that you explained, but it's been, you know, I've been pursuing, been, been open, been honest, you know, about it with the Lord. Um, you know, it's frustrating. It's difficult. It's challenging.
Yeah. But the follow-up is he rewards those who diligently seek him. The people that I know that went through the greatest dry seasons and got the most desperate had breakthroughs in God afterwards that changed their lives forever. You know, Oswald Chambers talked about just asking God for the Holy Spirit, realizing there was more and Oswald Chambers said after that, the next five years, the only thing that kept him out of an insane asylum was the kindness, the grace of God and the kindness of his friends. He said for five years, he experienced nothing, none of the conscious presence of God, not only not hearing his voice, he experienced none of the conscious presence of God for five years. And he finally got to the point, he stood up at a meeting and he was known as a soul winner and a Christian leader and a teacher. He got, and he used to enjoy communing with the Lord. He got up at a meeting and he said, either I've got this thing by the wrong end of the stick, or if what I have is all the Christianity there is, the thing is a fraud. And that's the day he was touched by the Holy Spirit and radically transformed.
And that's why to this day, his devotionals are read by millions of people because he encountered God in a deeper way. So again, take this more as an invitation from God that he's calling you deeper and determine, okay, I'm going to break through. If it means shutting off TV, getting offline, putting aside other things, I am going to break through and you, God, you said it, you are a rewarder of those who diligently seek you and I am going to diligently seek you. You'll break through more. Lord, get him through and it'll be rich and it'll be beautiful.
I know people that agonized for many, many years until they broke through and the breakthrough, I'm a witness to it, literally, literally changed their lives. So grace and favor to your mark. Hey, a quick note, thank you for the call. We're going to get to other calls on the other side of the break. I discovered the other day that the vast majority of you who subscribe to us on YouTube never rung the bell, which means you don't get notifications. You don't get notifications for us. So if you're one of our YouTube subscribers, take a moment right now and go back to the page where you click to subscribe, our homepage on YouTube, Line of Fire, and ring the bell. Click the bell and this way you'll get notifications because we're going to be doing more live broadcast at different times in the days ahead. If you're not a subscriber, what? What are you waiting for? Click subscribe and then ring the bell. Ring the bell.
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Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome friends to the Line of Fire, 866-34-TRUTH. Shout out to our friends at Triveda. Yeah, Nopalea, my friend James Robinson, actually told me the same thing you just heard on the radio earlier or watching on YouTube here. Told me the exact same thing, Michael, you won't believe.
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Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hi there. Good afternoon, brother. Can you hear me okay? I can. Thank you. Okay. All right. Because I don't know, I'm debating on whether to tell this. It's very telling, but oh well.
If it'll help somebody. My mother passed in 2005. It was, okay. And it was the first year that I'd ever heard the song I can only imagine.
Okay. And just really touching. It was also when I first really felt that the Lord had come across, had accepted me. It accepted me. I felt his spirit.
Anyway, that same year. Anyway, so nine years later, fast forward nine years later, I know he was living in a place where people threw out a violin, a organ that still worked. I rescued it. It was in a sleet.
I brought it inside, I wiped it off, dried it off, and I plugged the organ in, and it made beautiful music. And I went, wow, it was out there in the sleet, in the cold, just like I was. That's how the spirit talked to me.
But it still played beautiful music. Beauty from ashes or recovered treasures. Anyway, so I also found, accidentally on purpose, anyway, just come home from church, and I went across the street, and the same place they had thrown out a violin, things that you don't throw away. Anyway, and I looked in, and it was very fine on my side. Well, there's nothing in here, so.
But wait a minute, what is that? And I pulled, I reached down with my grabber, and along the inside of the dumpster, and I pulled it up, and it was, I can only imagine tape. It was the only thing in the dumpster. I don't know, you know, I mean, it was just like it was there. Someone had chunked it in the garbage.
I have it framed, and it's on my wall now. I can only imagine. So that was definitely, and I was feeling so sad missing my mom, you know, so it was just like. You know, it is amazing little things that can happen at certain times. You feel, well, that was really the Lord, or a scripture verse that someone happens to quote at the very time you need it, or just running into someone you've just been praying for, you know, in God's burden. There are all kinds of things that can happen that are interesting, and someone asks just coincidence, and then they say, no, no, no, you don't know what I needed at that moment. That was really the Lord. But what's so interesting to me is when it comes with a sense of His presence. In other words, and thanks for the call, what we've been talking about is that knowing that you've heard the voice of God, knowing that internal presence, or those that He speaks to with dreams. How about this one? How are you going to explain this one?
I know these people very well. A congregational leader, when we lived in Maryland, his wife has a dream. In the dream, she sees a man who is performing publicly, but she recognizes in the dream that he is what we've been called then a transvestite. He was wearing women's underwear, so he was living part male, part female, and she knew he was going to be at the service that day. She saw his face. Had no knowledge of this person before, and she had many prophetic dreams. So she's looking all over the service, but can't find him in the building.
A few hundred people going there. So she goes outside in the parking lot and finds him sitting in his car in the parking lot. It's another believer. They talk to him, and he says, yes, this is true, and exactly what you saw where I was performing, and it's all true. And he comes into the congregation and makes public confession of the life he's been living.
It's absolutely wonderful. That's not coincidence. These things happen. It doesn't just happen.
It doesn't just happen. I give you other examples of very specific words that people have received, very specific dreams. The biggest thing to me is communion with God. You say, well, I'll just stay with the Bible. I stay with the Bible, and God in the Bible says he continues to speak to his people. Plus, we have the infallible, absolute, authoritative revelation of God in scripture, and yet we still debate about what certain verses mean, and my exegetical study of it comes through different clues, and you're in the exegetical study. So ultimately, we have to still trust that God is leading us and giving us insight. In any case, the word of God tells me Jesus, she peers voice in an ongoing way. The word of God tells me he's our shepherd and leads us. The word of God tells me that the father and son by the spirit will dwell with us and have communion with us, which speaks of intimacy. The word of God tells us that in these last days in which we live, sons and daughters will prophesy. Old men will have dreams. Young men will have visions. This is going to be part of the world in which we live in God. It's ongoing.
It's beautiful. It's happening all around the world, from the people to whom the Lord revealed himself in salvation to the way he's led and guided over the years, to insights he gives us, to directives he gives us. When he spoke to me in the summer of 1983 to quit my job and go teach at a Bible college on Long Island, didn't even know I existed at that point.
They didn't know me at all. God called me to do it, ended up teaching there for four beautiful years. I've seen God do it time and time again. Many a time I've gone to preach somewhere and I have no idea what's going on in the church. I don't know anything about them except that we felt it was right that I go and speak and God gives me a very specific word. The elders sit me down afterwards and say, Dr. Bryan, you have no idea. That verse that you used was the verse that we agreed God was speaking to us and that message, it's as if you were sitting in our in our back room meetings listening to us talk and you address the very things we've been talking about.
It had to happen over and over again. Many of you preached the administrative had it happen and I don't mean if you've got 20,000 people in your congregation that someone's going to say, yeah, that's relevant for me, of course. No, I mean leaders sitting you down saying it's as if you were listening to our conversation. I've even spoken and after I spoke the pastor had to get up and tell everyone, Dr. Brown didn't know anything about this.
Mike didn't know anything about what we're going through here. I didn't tell him a syllable because as I'm preaching I'm seeing eyes getting big and they're thinking the pastor must have filled me in. It's like I didn't say a word. I was just speaking with the Holy Spirit. It's beautiful.
It's part of our relationship with him. Let's go over to Aiden in Minnesota. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Brown. First time caller, short time listener. Well, great.
Great for both. Go ahead. I had a question about obedience and the Holy Spirit and God talks about how those who are obedient to him will hear the Holy Spirit and I feel I've had a lack of obedience in my life to God recently and I've just wondered at what point do I rely on others giving me advice who I feel are more obedient than I feel like what is God is telling me because I feel like my heart might be deceiving me. Yeah, well I appreciate your humility and your honesty in saying that because many times we think hey we can just live however we want to live and God is somehow obligated to just do his part no matter what and in point of fact obedience brings us in harmony with him and helps helps cleanse us from from junk. Disobedience pollutes us. Disobedience gets us caught up with sin the flesh the world even even Satan himself at times if we cross certain lines so it's good to question what we're hearing and in other words if someone is is say having an affair and they feel this the Lord telling them go ahead with this they're going to bless you know you better believe that's not the voice of God so it's it's not that we earn it but it comes in it comes in relationship and as we're in closer relationship we have a clear conscience we have all the more confidence that we're hearing from him so for sure if you know other people really walking with the Lord in a solid way in general the principle is that there's safety in the multitude of counselors so I would say that as you're walking on working on personal repentance in your own life as you're you're walking working on really receiving that that forgiveness and knowing that you're in right relationship with a loving father as you're seeking to to get your life in order with him by all means it's good to take counsel with others who you know to be more mature or godly and the key thing is though that if you've really said Lord I want you to be my Lord I want to serve you I want to honor you and I'm sorry I've been double-minded recently or not been fully obedient forgive me if that's your heart before him and you're not persisting in rebellion you're not persisting in disobedience the the counsel this give you can bear witness in other words you can know okay that's the right that's the right choice it was really difficult to hear but now you're saying it I feel that grace I would still even in a state of as you're walking working to be closer to the Lord and walk in greater obedience we all we all fall short none of us are perfect we understand that but even in that state say Lord bear witness with my spirit that these friends are giving me the right counsel if this is for me obviously examine it first by scripture but if they are if they are Lord give me insight let it bear witness with my spirit and then I can act with confidence may the Lord bless you keep listening to him drawing close and he will lead in God bless your friends we've got some critically important topics we'll be taking up
