Scott Hogle
December 27, 2020 - W2052

God’s Guidance 2021

Scott Hogle, Guest Speaker

December 26 & 27, 2020

[Video]

PASTOR WAYNE CORDEIRO:  Uncertain times like these will reveal where our trust really is--everything else will not be reliable in the end. We may not know what the future holds, but we better know who holds the future--that alone brings me the greatest peace and comfort!  Let's make this season one that when the storm has passed, we will have drawn closer to God, grown in our faith, and became more balanced with a solid trust in the one who is Lord--in Christ alone! 

[End video] 

SCOTT HOGLE:  Aloha, Church Family!  So good to be with you this last week to close out 2020.  Are you glad 2020 is about over?  Today, I'm excited to talk to you about what I would consider to be one of the most important topics in a Christian's walk: Hearing the voice of God to get a specific word for a situation that you may be facing in 2021, such as, Do I take this job or that one?  Do I move to the mainland or stay in Hawaii?  Should I marry her; should I marry him?  Lord, what do I do about this crisis?  Answers from God aren't necessarily just a simple yes or no--some answers will require a conversation with Him, so we must be able to not just talk to Him, but also to be able to receive from Him. Here are ten practical ways that God could speak to you:  

Decisions and Destiny: How to Discern the Hand of the Lord in Our Lives? 

1. Must Believe that God Wants to Talk to You

Prior to accepting Christ into your heart, you didn't have the ability to hear God; but once you have accepted Him into your heart, you're reconciled to God and the hearing in your spirit is restored. You now have the ability to commune with God anytime--even when walking, talking, or working. Did you know that you can hear the voice of the Lord giving you a specific answer to a situation that you are facing? So, during your quiet times, seek the will of God about all your problems, questions, and opportunities--write them down and talk to Him about them. There is nothing that is important to you that won't be important to God! You can set your heart dial at night and go to bed in the presence of God and drift off to sleep, and you'll actually wake up some mornings and realize that God had deposited things in your heart while you slept! King David experienced intimate times with the Lord and wrote in Psalm 32:8 NKJV:

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye." 

Pastor Wayne Cordeiro says: "Prayer is simply thinking deeply in the presence of God."  It's not supposed to be complicated--it's not a foreign language.  God knows what you need before you even ask, but He wants a conversation with you every day. He lives in your heart and talks with you there.  Do you have a crisis in your life right now?  He has the answers and wants to communicate them to you! 

My story begins in February of this year when the lockdown started: in March, businesses were closing--everybody is working from home, and a crisis enters my life!  I wondered what can I do to feed my people? So, I asked, "Lord, what do I do? We're in the advertising business, but businesses are closing, and nobody wants to advertise!" I knew there's not a problem that we take to God that He doesn't already have a solution!  

2. God Speaks Through Invisible Instruction

An invisible instruction is when God gives you an idea into your heart. I remember asking, "Lord, how do we fix this problem?  What do we do?  This is impossible."  The scripture says, "Nothing is impossible with God."  So, I said, "Lord, what should we do?"  And God brought to my mind Luke 6:38, "Give, and it shall be given..."  But I said, "Lord, what do I have to give?  I don't have anything to give." "Scott, what business are you in?"  "We're in airtime business.  We help companies advertise for business. Are you suggesting that we give away airtime?  That's insane!  I could get fired for that!"  

3. Strange Instructions 

When an idea comes into your mind from the Lord, it won't always make sense--sometimes God gives strangeinstructions. Listen to what Paul says in...

1 Corinthians 2:14 NASB says: "But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."

Some of the craziest ideas you'll ever get may come from the Lord, and your mind may reject them at first.  Be careful what you reject because it could be God's solution to your problem!  "Outrageous," I thought.  "How could I possibly give airtime away?"  But as I began to press into the Lord, He said, "Scott, that's exactly what I want you to do because if you need to receive something, you need to give something.  You can trade something you have for something you don't have."  I met with my managers the next day after my conversation with the Lord.  Within 48 hours, we launched a website called, "support808.com."  Over the next three months, we gave away millions of dollars in advertising! Some of those businesses that we helped for free returned and become clients!  How is it possible?  Through a crazy idea from God!

4. Peace Versus Anxiety  

What problem are you facing?  I promise you that God has a solution and will even give you an idea for it--but an untrained mind might say: "Dismiss, dismiss, dismiss!" What will you be facing in 2021?  Remember this concept as you go through the year.  As the year progressed, Kate and I would have other decisions that we had to make as a couple.  Kate owns her own business in the advertising business, as well.  It became very apparent that we had a lease that we had to either renew or let go.  In questioning God for an answer, we used a picture of a traffic light:  Green is peace, Go! Yellow is caution/anxiety, Wait! Red is danger, Stop!  

If you're praying about something and God gives you peace, that's a green light; but if you're feeling anxiety, that's God saying wait, don't do anything yet!  But if the stoplight in your heart starts flashing red, it means, "Stop! It's not good!"  Colossians 3:15 NIV says: "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts..." 

5. Check in Your Spirit 

Do we renew Kate's office lease, or do we leave?  Over a three?month period, we didn't get anything from the Lord, except a yellow light, a check in our spirit to pause.  In the absence of a new instruction, we paused and waited for the Lord.  A couple of months later, we still hadn't received a word from the Lord, and I'm praying, "Lord, I think you're running out of time." I did get a little frustrated because I'm not a patient person.  In the past, Kate and I would sometimes walk the grounds or pray circles around a decision we had to make.  Geographically, we would go to her old office; and to the new offices we were looking at and circle and pray, "Lord, is this your will?"  We didn't know.  But we had a check in our spirit which meant pause, don't make a decision yet!  One day after meeting with our last landlord, we realized it was time as we had peace about moving.  The next morning, we woke up and had...

6. A Sudden Prompting or Unction  

Psalm 37:4 NIV says: "Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." This is a big one in God's heart when pointing us in the right path. We already had an answer from God to wait, but the next morning we felt a prompting to do it now!  It didn't make sense because we had two months left on the lease--why do we need to go now?  I can't tell you the reason but if God is prompting you to do something, it's because He sees something in your future that He's either preparing you for or protecting you from.  God wants to make it simple for you to hear His voice.  When Jesus came into your heart, He came to live with you every day; and any decision you bring to Him, He'll talk to you about it!

7. A Recurring Persistent Word 

Recently, Kate and I traveled to see one of her childhood friend in Northern California, and she told us, "I just found out I'm speaking tomorrow and don't have a lot of time to prepare." I asked, "What are you speaking on?"  She says, "On pruning." I said, "That's great!  I know something about pruning: Pruning is when, a vintner takes very sharp shears and cuts down a vine because a vine can't reach its full potential growth cycle unless the vinedresser cuts it down.  The golden years of a vine are 30 to 60 years, but this special pruning technique will cause more sap to flow out of the vine during its lifetime--not just extending the golden years beyond 30 to 60 years, but also producing more sap, creating more fruitfulness!"

Pruning is important in a Christian's life, too; Jesus talked about it. "Pruning is about letting go and taking hold; crossing into one country and leaving the other; and cutting away to reach your full potential in the Lord!" In this analogy, the Lord is the vinedresser and tells us what to cut away. A week later we're watching a Christian concert online and one of the hosts is talking about pruning!  It still didn't register! Then I'm reading a devotional by Pastor Wayne on pruning--still didn't register! God has to knock me upside the head a few times--I'm slow to learn sometimes.  Then we're visiting Kate's friend in Northern California, and her friend says, "Hey, we're going to a wine country in Sonoma to a vineyard called Repris."  While we're standing in the vineyard, all at once it hits me, and I say, "Okay, okay, I got it!  You're trying to tell me something!"  That's a Recurring Persistent Word, when you get the same word or a similar impression frequently over a short period of time!  That should be a clue that God is trying to get your attention about something! 

God desires to hear from you, but He also wants you to hear from Him! Usually, a crisis will drive us to our knees as our ears are more attuned to God when we're desperate!  God wants to give you the idea that you need!  What has He been trying to get you to give up?  A habit, behavior, relationship, mindset, stubbornness--God may be talking to you about pruning! 

8. A Change of Heart  

God will allow His heart to become your heart--a change of heart!  Wherever Jesus went and saw people in need, He would be moved with compassion and began to heal them!  Have you ever had an experience when you felt strongly about something then suddenly realized, "I've had a change of heart!  It's the exact opposite of how I had felt!" You now have the mind of Christ and are able to distinguish between your heart and His! So, start making decisions for 2021 and get God's wisdom to guide you through it! 

9. Your Imagination  

God will sometimes use your imagination to speak to you and show you something you've never seen before. God destroyed the earth in Noah's day to start over because "every thought in the imagination of man was inclined towards evil."  That's how important your imagination is to the Lord. The Holy Spirit paints on the canvas of our mind what He has for you from time to time, so keep it clean! Jesus said, "I only do what I see the Father doing."  What do you see the Father doing?  What do you see yourself doing?  If I want to be a preacher, I'll get my message together, and see myself preaching from the stage, making this point and that.    

10. Through Scriptures  

God's favorite way to talk to us is through scriptures. In 2018 I released a book, Persuade, that became a best seller. I didn't pick the title, God did!  Just so you know the timing: My publisher was landing today in Honolulu, and he said, "Scott, you have to make a decision to pick the title of the book. Time is up." I'd made a decision, and it wasn't Persuade.  We had been talking about it for months, but I decided that's not it! That morning the New Hope devotion was from...

1 Samuel 24:4-5 NASB: "⁴ Then David’s men said to him, 'Behold, this is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold; I am about to hand your enemy over to you, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you.’ Then David got up and cut off the edge of Saul’s robe secretly.  ⁵ But it came about afterward that David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off the edge of Saul’s robe."

A few years ago, I was frustrated with a report that I knew was nonsense! It took me hours every week to do it, and the frustration had built up over a number of years!  As I was walking down the hallway in my office that night, in my volition I had made a decision--that's it! I'm going to say...  And God smote me in my conscience and said, "You can do that, but you'll destroy yourself."  Has God ever pulled you back from a decision that you made?  He'll speak to your conscience, but you don't have to listen.  You have a freewill. This is how I knew that God had chosen Persuade for the title:  When something is spoken on the inside that God has whispered into the heart, you know it's the Lord.  Ironically, the word "persuade" was part of my devotional reading that day! It sounds crazy, but the crazy things that happen at the intersection of your life, take them before the Lord--it could be God's hand at work!  

The most important scripture for a saint, I believe, is Romans 10:17 NKJV, " So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." When you hear God speak into your situation, you have confidence to act! But the times when you're not entirely sure and you can't trace God's hand, I like what Spurgeon said, "You can always trust His heart!"  

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

Scott Hogle shared ten ways that God may speak to us today to get the answers that we desperately need. Share your experience/testimony of how God came through for you in your time of need. What was the result? Use any or all of the points that Scott gave.