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You probably already know this, but I am excited to be able to tell you that we serve a God who is real, and alive and who can be known and experienced! He is a Spirit and as such, He can be felt and heard and His works can be visibly seen in our lives. I rejoice over that fact, because I would not want to serve a god who was just a figment of my imagination. I would not want to serve a God that never did anything. I don't know if I could serve a God with whom I could not fellowship or feel or hear His voice. Some people think because the false gods of this world are all that they have ever known, that our God is the same as all of the idols in the world and that He is just a creation of man's mind in order to have something to point to or believe in, but I thank God that I know better! My God was not carved by an artisan and not held in place by a pedestal or nails. I did not create my God, but rather my God created me! He is not something that I invented only to feel a need for a supreme being in my life, but looking back over my life I can realize that before I even knew He existed, He was working behind the scenes for my good and orchestrating a meeting so that I could come to the realization that He loved me and was there for me! And His work in my life before I ever knew that He was real is proof enough that He exists! But if that were not enough, the scriptures declare that the creation testifies to His existence and His eternal attributes so that men are without excuse! This world, the stars, my life, my salvation, and my experience all work together to scream to me: "there is a God!"

But even beyond all of that, I know He is real because I can "sense" Him with my God-given senses! Helen Keller is a famous person of yesteryear because at great sacrifice and effort from her teachers, she eventually overcame complete blindness and deafness to become a tremendous educated speaker of encouragement and persistence. After she had become proficient at reading books through Braille and was able to speak and communicate her thoughts, someone tried to explain to her that there was a God that filled the universe. Her reply was "oh, I've always known that there is a God even though I didn't know what to call Him, but I knew that He existed because I could feel Him!" Unable to hear and unable to see, but she could know that there was a God!

I'm here today to tell somebody that if you have been settling for a dead and dry religion that lacks a genuine moving of the Spirit of God and that never actually brings you in contact with Almighty God, then you should know that there is something greater than such religious rituals! We serve a God who desires to know you and for you to know Him! He desires not for you to get a religion but a relationship with Him! And because of this, He manifests and reveals Himself to us. If you have never felt the presence of Almighty God, then you should know that you are in a place where you can feel Him! If you will praise Him and exalt Him, you will find that He will manifest Himself and come and dwell in those praises. If you will taste of His goodness and promises, then you will be able to truly "taste and see that He is good." If you will listen, He will speak to you through His Word and Spirit. And you don't have to stop with simply "sensing" Him, but our God can be received into your life through the powerful baptism of the Holy Ghost! If you will surrender to Him and allow Him to become priority in your life, then you can receive His very Spirit living inside of you!

We do not serve a dead or a made-up God, but rather the one, true, real and living God! And you can feel Him and see His handiwork in your own life, today! Even if you are blind to his light and deaf to His promises, you can still know that He is real because you can feel Him in this place even tonight!

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I must tell you, though, that all of your senses are not equal in power, relevance, or importance. And so I've come to preach to you about the subject of "sensing God." Thankfully, we know that we can sense Him and respond to Him, but we must realize that our abilities to sense Him are not on an "even playing field." Our senses are not even at all.

The story is told of a farmer who was baling hay and was in the process of moving the bales of hay into the loft of his barn for storage. Moving hay apparently is a messy business -- and would be a nightmare for people like me with allergies -- and so they would move the hay into the barn and then pitchfork it into the loft. Hay was everywhere and everybody and everything was covered with it. And it was in this setting that the farmer glanced at his wrist to see if they were close to dinner time and suddenly realized that his very expensive watch had somehow fallen off of his arm and become lost in the barn. Distraught at the thought of losing such a time piece, the farmer called for all of the hired help outside to come in and help find the watch. For several hours they felt through the hay and looked around the entire barn and loft and poked around with various tools but all of their effort was to no avail. Finally, after a while, one worker suddenly stood up and said, "I have an idea -- everybody outside." Wondering what he was up to but grateful for an excuse to stop digging through the hay, the workers and the farmer complied until only the one worker was standing in the barn. He then shut all the doors and stood very still and listened. And sure enough, very faintly, he could hear "tick tick tick tick tick. . . " and he was able to go directly to where the watch lay in the hay. When all of the other senses failed, what he heard was able to direct him!

When Helen Keller was asked which was the worst detriment, to not have sight or to be unable to hear, she answered easily without much thought: "It is far worse not to have the use of my ears, than it is my eyes, because to not have my hearing is far worse a handicap to overcome in interaction with others and communication and directional decisions." She had come to learn that the lack of hearing was far harder to overcome than a lack of seeing.

So it is with the things of the Spirit. I am preaching to you tonight about "sensing God" but you must realize of all the possible ways that you can discern Him and learn about Him and follow Him, that to be able to "hear" His voice is by far the most important spiritual sense! Eight times in scripture, Jesus interrupted His teaching to proclaim, "he that has ears to hear, let him hear!" And then in the first few chapters of Revelation, He proclaimed it seven more times: "he that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches." Never did Jesus say, "he that has eyes to see, let him see." But rather the emphasis of His ministry is on the sense of hearing truth and His voice!

Such emphasis is not a new thing. In the beginning of man's relationship with God we are never told that Adam and Eve ever "saw God." Neither are we told that they "felt God." But many times we are told that they "heard God." When God would come to fellowship with Adam in the cool of the evening, it is said:

They did not see God but rather fellowshipped with Him through what they heard! They walked with His "voice." And so I'm thankful that we can feel Him and that His presence moves in our services. And I'm thankful that we can see Him often working in our lives! And I'm thankful that we can "taste and see" that He is truly good, but we must never forget that if you are to be everything that He desires you to be, then you must not neglect learning to hear His voice and hear His Spirit speaking to you! If you are to have a close "relationship" with Him, then it will be built upon "hearing Him" and communicating with Him! And we must above all else have the ability to hear His Word in our lives!

The scripture proclaims:

True, but don't stop there; the scripture also says:

We walk by faith not by sight, but faith only comes by "hearing!" If you can see God working in your life in great measures, then thank Him for that! If you feel God's presence strongly on you all of the time, then thank Him for that! But never forget that the greatest spiritual sense is not seeing, not feeling, not tasting, but being able to "hear what thus says the Word of God!" To hear His promises and His conditions. To hear His voice day in and day out. To discern His voice amidst the many voices of this world. That is the greatest and most needed sense of the Spirit!

Remember the Shema, the most sacred scripture in all of Israel and according to Jesus in Mark 12, the most important commandment of all to get right? I'm speaking of Deuteronomy 6:4 which says:

We quote it so much that we forget the importance of the first word, so much that they simply refer to this scripture by that first word, Shema. What is the first word? "Hear!" The emphasis is on hear! He that has ears to hear, let him what? "Hear!" Jesus also said this:

If you are to truly sense God as He desires for you to know Him, then the emphasis must be on what the scripture emphasizes: "Hear Him!" If we are to have the relationship that we must with Him, then we must be able to "hear!" If we are to follow Him as He leads us, then we must be able to "Hear!" Of all the ways that we can sense God, the most important by far is our ability to "Hear" Him! You can claim to be a follower of Christ, but if you will not or cannot "hear" the Word of God, then you are not truly following Him! You can claim Him as your personal Savior all you want, but if you do not "hear His voice" and obey it, then He is truly not your Savior or Lord! The emphasis is that we must "Hear!"

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I have preached to you that this fact is so, but let me now preach to you why it is so. It is simple why you must rely most and develop most your spiritual "hearing" and the reason is this: if you don't, then you will rely solely upon either what you feel or what you see. And to do such is extremely dangerous. Eve "saw the fruit" and "touched the fruit" rather than "hearing what God had said." Sin and this world emphasizes "what you feel and what you see." We are a visual society and a society that follows it emotions above principles and truth. This is no accident because such a focus gets us far from the things of God that are based instead upon "hearing!" And so if we are to be everything in God we must realize the importance of the spiritual sense of "hearing." With that in mind, let me preach to you four simple points about sensing God:

This is true in the natural. What you feel is limited to the immediate and the things that are closest to you. I don't care what the phone company tries to tell you, you cannot across a long distance "reach out and touch someone." But you can cross a long distance and "hear someone." What you sense and perceive with your touch is limited to the very immediate.

That's the danger of only going on what you "feel" in God. Because what you feel is only your present and not necessarily your future. What you feel is your current spiritual condition and situation. What you feel is the here and now. But we are to walk by faith and not based upon what our current feelings. We are to serve God according to His excellent greatness and not based upon what we feel like doing! What I am able to feel depends on too much of my flesh! Therefore it is the lowest and least important benchmark of spiritual sensitivity!

Most of you have heard the old fable about the blind men and the elephant. One man grabbed hold of an leg and said "an elephant is very similar to a tree." Another man grabbed the trunk and said "no, an elephant is very similar to a snake." Another man grabbed the tail and said, "no you are all wrong, an elephant is like a smelly piece of rope." And the last man placed his hands on the side of the elephant, and said, "no, no, no, an elephant is like the side of a large barn." None of them were very accurate because they were going only by what they felt. They could not see the "forest for the trees" and in the spirit, going by what you feel has the same effect. What you feel is the least important and significant way to sense the things of God.

Furthermore:

In our text in Genesis, we read of the story of Jacob's deception of his father Isaac. Isaac had become old and was blind and so Jacob's mother undertook a scheme for Jacob to steal the birthright blessing from his older brother to whom it rightfully belonged. They overheard Isaac tell Esau that "today is the day that I will transfer the blessing of your greater inheritance" so "go kill me some meat and fix it for me and let me eat and then I will bless you." And so Rebekah dreams up this scheme and tells Jacob, "I'll cook a goat like Isaac likes it and then you will go in and pretend to be Esau and receive the anointing and blessing rather than he." And Jacob says, "that isn't going to work because Esau is hairy and I'm smooth skinned and the minute that dad touches my arms, he'll know that he's being tricked." So Rebekah takes goat skin and places it upon Jacob's neck and arms and hands and sends him in there.

And so here is Isaac, blind and unable to see. And he knows Jacob and is immediately suspicious. "How is it that you are back so quickly?" he asks and Jacob -- impersonating Esau -- lies and says "the Lord helped me." And then we find the mistake of Isaac's life:

He felt something different than what he heard. "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau." And he hesitates knowing that he must choose between the two. And -- catch this -- when he chose to go with what he felt over what he had heard, Isaac chose wrongly and blessed the wrong son and started "world war pre" in his family!

How often we must also make the decision of Isaac! And how often like Isaac, we choose wrong by going with what we feel rather than what we have heard! "I know what the scripture says, preacher, but I feel in my soul that . . ." Or "I know what the scripture says to do but I just don't feel like such sacrifice or steps." You'd better be careful, Isaac! Going with what you feel rather than what you have heard will hurt you in the end!

Or how about this: "I know that we are to praise Him according to His excellent greatness, but I just don't feel like praising Him right now." Or "I know that we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, but I just don't feel like going to church." Satan's kingdom is made up of people who do "whatever they feel despite what they hear" and God's kingdom is made up of people who "do whatever they hear in His Word, despite what they feel!" You'd better be wary of "what you feel" because when it contradicts what you are hearing in the Word of God, there is no doubt as to which you should follow!

"But Isaac was blind, preacher, and I can also see with what I feel." Okay, then let me also preach to you:

The story is found in the end of the 18th chapter of the book of 1 Kings. Because of Israel's idolatry to the false god, Baal, and the influence of evil King Ahab and his hussy, Jezebel, God has stopped up the rain in Israel for seven years! Seven years of drought!

And at the end of the seventh year, Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal to a contest. They will meet on Mt. Carmel and each will build an altar and pray and the God who answers with fire will be considered the true God of Israel. Some of you know the story. Baal's prophets slam dance half the morning away and the false god never answers. But Elijah builds and altar, applies water, and prays a sixty-two word prayer and God answers by fire and consumes the sacrifice!

It is in this setting that Elijah looks at Ahab and says "you'd better get on back to town because it is about to rain!" And then Elijah goes back to the mountain top and tells his servant:

The first time the servant couldn't see anything! The second and the third all the way until the seventh! But lost in this story is how it felt on the mountain. It felt dry and dusty. It felt like it would never rain again. But Elijah wasn't going on what he felt. And he wasn't going on what he saw either. Even the little cloud the seventh time that was seen by the servant was not what we would consider a threat of rain. But we forget that the reason that Elijah was so able to be so sure of the rain coming is found in what he said before he ever even told Ahab or sent his servant to look. In verse 41, we find:

Elijah wasn't going on what he felt and he wasn't going on what he saw. But he had heard a distinct sound. Only he had heard it, because apparently only he was listening for it. In the distance, there had been a slight rumble of thunder. And what Elijah had heard was truth because it began to rain and rain and rain and rain!

I don't see hundreds getting the Holy Spirit tonight! I don't see all of your loved ones in these altars. In my body I feel tired and a little travel weary. But I'm excited about what God is doing because I'm not going on what I see. And I'm not going by what I feel. If I did that, then I would spend most of my days depressed and on a spiritual roller coaster. But I'm excited about the kingdom of God because of what I hear! If you could tune your ear to the frequency of heaven, you would hear the rumblings of a great revival! You would hear the rumblings of hope for your families! You would hear the sound of a rushing torrent of blessings and growth and anointing that is on the way!

What would happened if Noah would have waited until he saw the rain clouds forming to get on the ark? What would have happened if he would have waited until he felt raindrops on his head before trying to get on board? He would have been too late! But thank goodness that Noah wasn't taking his cues by what he felt or saw, but rather he heard the voice of God say "it's time to get on!" And Noah heard and obeyed! Beyond what you feel and beyond what you see, you'd better hear the command of God and move to that only! If you wait until you can see or feel proof before you get on board, then you will be too late to be a part of what God is doing! Go on what you hear!

And this brings us to our final thought that we must consider when we seek after and attempt to "sense God:"

In the beginning, God spoke and after Creation heard His voice, then it responded. Before you could see light, first was heard, "let there be light!" Hearing always precedes seeing; in the kingdom of God, sound precedes sight. In Genesis 3, verse 1, the serpent starts talking to Eve, but it is not until verse 6 that she looks upon the fruit. Even in the Garden of Eden, Eve didn't start looking at the forbidden until after she had been listening to the wrong voice. You'd better be careful who you listen to because they will influence what you look at and what you look at influences what you desire and what you desire influences what you partake of!

But the larger principle here is that hearing always precedes our seeing. On your own time you can flip over to Acts 2 and check me out: on the Day of Pentecost they heard the "sound like a rushing mighty winds" before they saw the tongues of fire began to sit upon each of them! And it was the same in the rest of the chapter: verse 6 says that "it was noised abroad" and the sound of what was going on was what drew the crowd that day. They first heard Pentecost before they saw Pentecost! Hearing preceded seeing.

And there is a good side to this principle because they then heard Peter's message about what God could do in their life. And when they received the message, then 3,000 received what it was that they had heard about!

Think about the blind men that Jesus healed during His ministry. In every case, Jesus did the miracle slightly different, but in each case the common denominator was their ability to hear. He spits in the mud and puts the clay on the blind man's eyes and says to him "go wash in the pool of Siloam." Jesus is passing by and Blind Bartimaeus "hears that he is passing by" and begins to cry out and Jesus talks to him. In Matthew 9, we read of two blind men who "hear of Jesus' fame" and come to Him. He asks them "do you believe that I can do this?" and when they respond, He performs the miracle. In every case their hearing was the key to their miracle! Their hearing preceded their seeing! And -- get this -- their hearing directly led to their seeing!

And so we come to our other text in the book of Revelation. I like this passage and I read it once more in your hearing:

There is such vivid imagery in this verse. Jesus is behind the door and He is knocking. And such great things are promised to those who will open the door: "I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me." God will literally make His abode and His residence and His dining place with those who will open the door. To those who will open the door will be revealed the privilege to see Jesus and touch Jesus and be with Jesus. But He is not visible at first. He is not able to be touched at first. The first step is that we must "hear his knocking" and respond to it. Before I am to dine with Him and receive His promise, I must first hear His knocking to come in and respond!

The words in both the Old and New Testament for "hear" means more than simply hearing a sound. But it means to "discern" and "to obey." My mother used to say that there was nothing wrong with my ears, but I was "hard of listening!" And so implied in the command to "let them hear" is action in response to what you have heard. To truly hear the voice of God, we must discern it, understand it, and act. But we must never forget that hearing and its corresponding action precedes seeing and feeling!

And so I steer this message to a close tonight by telling you that I have never seen streets of gold and gates of pearl. Neither have I ever felt them. Nor have I tasted them. But I have heard about them! I haven't seen walls of jasper nor have I felt the crystal glass that sits under the Almighty's throne. But I have heard about them. I have heard of them from His Word. And so I know that if I will continue hearing what His Word says and acting upon what I hear, that one day I will see them and what I have heard will become something that I see and that I feel and if I want to taste, then I will be able to bend over and give it a lick! Because if I will concentrate and act upon and live out what I have heard from His Word, then one day it will become a reality!

And so it is with everything else in God's Word. If you will hear it and act upon it, then that hearing will lead you to seeing and feeling the reality of the fulfillment of those promises! Don't go on what you see now or feel now, but go on what you hear now in the Word of God. If you do so, then there will be a performance of what He has spoken!

The Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon's wealth and riches and she came to check it out for herself. She had never seen his riches, she had never felt his robes, and she had never tasted of his food, but she had heard that it was magnificent. And she did the smartest thing that she could have ever done: she acted on what she had heard! And after she had toured his kingdom, she pronounced this, my final scripture:

That was true about Solomon, but our king is the creator of Solomon and truly a "greater than Solomon is here." We serve the One who blessed Solomon. We serve His source of enrichment. And so I am happy to be able to tell you that if you will act upon what you have heard in God's Word, then you will find that not only is everything that He has written true, but what you will eventually see and feel and taste because of it will far surpass even all that you have heard! In the kingdom of God, we must go on what we have heard Him speak, because only then will be able to see clearly and reap the eternal rewards that only God knows is in store for us! Sense God with all of your might, but never forget that the greatest and most important and most powerful sense is the ability to hear what He has said. He that has ears, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches!