Omega Message – April 1986
Cecil J. duCille
John 10:27 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
10:28 “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”
MY SHEEP HEAR:
All sheep are created equal. God never created a deaf sheep. The type of this hearing ear was given to Moses and to Aaron and his sons as seen in Exodus 29:20 “Then shalt thou kill the ram and take THE TIP OF THE RIGHT EAR OF HIS SONS,” –No person is called of God without ears. “Faith cometh by hearing, —“ Romans 10:17.
SPIRITUAL DEAFNESS:
There are three main reasons why a believer is overtaken by, first, hard-of-hearing then, deafness:
- The desire not to hear.
- Listening to the wrong voices
- Turning away from God.
This in itself is a phenomenon, in that the believer might well sincerely believe that he/she wants to hear God, but yet in thought and action he is rejecting God’s voice. Rejection of God’s voice does not necessarily mean that the believer deliberately says I do not want to hear God, BUT every wrong choice a believer makes, affects his hearing and creates HARD-OF-HEARING disease which eventually develops into hearing the wrong voices. Sometimes through lust a believer develops a desire not to hear God, because if he does it will work contrary to the things he desires. All this can be in the subconscious. If the child of God is careless and not diligent with his salvation, Satan can put his faculties to sleep and then rob him gradually of his senses of discernment. The spiritual ear does not only hear the voice of God but it also picks up the movements of the enemy. It is therefore a part of the believers’ weaponry. The very act of using a weapon in any type of warfare, exposes that weapon to attack from the enemy, and the weapon of hearing is no exception. We will deal with this later.
HEARING AND OBEYING:
Hearing God’s voice, and obeying God’s voice are two different things. Whenever God speaks, Satan always comes afterwards to the believer to interpret what God really means. A classic example in Scripture is the case of Eve and the Serpent in the garden of Eden. Eve allowed Satan to interpret for her what the word “die” meant and also the word “day”. Eve’s desire to be like God, was the bait he used along with her naiveté, she became an easy prey. Satan uses our desires to tempt us. The things that we desire are the avenues of invitation to the devil. IGNORANCE OF GOD AND HIS WORD IS ALSO A WIDE OPEN DOOR FOR SATAN to come into our lives. When God told Adam and Eve that they would die “in the day” that they ate the fruit He spoke of a thousand year day. No man has since lived for a thousand years. Satan on the other hand was playing upon their lack of knowledge by interpreting God’s word to mean that they would expire instantly. When God spoke of “die” He knew death to have a beginning and an ending – “Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.” Death of course when it is finished brings total separation from your source of life which is Christ. We do not know how long Adam and Eve were in the Garden before they sinned, but we do know that from that moment when sin and death entered in they began to get old physically, which is death working in the members, and that spiritually they died. That means that their souls were no longer alive and able to touch God as before. When one accepts the lie he receives the liar. If Satan cannot prevent you hearing God, he tries to prevent you obeying what you hear. Many of us think we are obeying God by doing the things which satisfy us because we are deceived. The seeds of deception are sown in the fertile soil of our desires which are contrary to the perfect will of God.
LISTENING TO OTHER VOICES:
“—and hearing by the word of God.” The scripture declares that faith comes by hearing, but that hearing comes by the word of God. From the scripture it would appear that before we can have faith in God must have an ear to hear the word of God. Let me define the word of God: I would say the word of God is divine expression fully manifested in Christ, made flesh in Jesus Christ and being made flesh in us. When we had none of Christ, we were divinely illuminated by the word of God and we began to hear. We were used to hearing other voices: voices of anger, voices of jealousy and lust: we were used to being led by other voices. Our hopes and joys and aspirations were all wrapped up with the voices we were hearing: as the scriptures put it: “…being led about by divers lusts…” When we receive the quickening of the blood of Christ, we began to hear a new voice: the voice of God, but that did not stop the other voices, it merely took away their ability to control us. After this the believer is free to follow the voice of God or the voices of the enemy.
THE WEAPON OF HEARING:
Because hearing God is a weapon of the obedient Christian, the danger of hearing the wrong voices is an ever present one. The word of God says:
Isaiah 7:15 “Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good.”
The training which God provides in His providence equips the believer to hear God and the Devil and to choose God’s voice, regardless of the confusion and complexity of the circumstances. Elijah was in bad shape; he was running from Jezebel in fear, and was wide open to Satanic attack. God told him to meet him at Mt. Carmel, so Elijah went there and was all settled to hear from God. The scriptures declare that Satan came three times – as a wind, as an earthquake, and as a fire, but Elijah discerned that they were not of God. He waited and there was a still small voice – That was God. His soul was attuned to hearing God. On the other hand there was a man who would not hear God, no matter how loud he spoke. Ahab was in the habit of using God’s prophets to tell him what to do, but Ahab was a wicked man and between his wife Jezebel and himself they had corrupted Israel. God therefore, sent a lying spirit into his prophets so that Ahab might go into battle and be slain. Because God is true he had to send a prophet with the truth to Ahab, thus casting upon him the decision of which one to follow. Ahab’s heart was attuned to evil and when he was confronted with good and evil, he chose evil. He accepted the word of four hundred lying prophets, and rejected the word of God from one true prophet and paid the price with his life. The majority is rarely ever right. God’s business cannot be decided by voting, because it is the voice of God that decides what is to be done in the Kingdom of God, whether this voice comes by many or by few. The way of God – “..few there be that find it.”
Hearing and submitting to the wrong voice is basically caused through not so much the evil in the voice that speaks, but the evil in the ear that listens. One scripture speaks of people getting to themselves “…teachers with itching ears.” If the teacher is not hearing right, then he cannot teach right. Finally to hear God one must reject every other voice that speaks, including his own. When I was receiving the Baptism of the Holy Ghost as a young Christian, I fell into a vision where I was walking and talking with Jesus. Immediately this beautiful and heavenly vision was over I was visited by another spirit who promised to make me the “greatest healer in the world.” I had no such ambition and so, I expressed to this spirit that I was very happy and enthralled by the presence of Jesus moments ago and that if this was anything else than what He Christ had offered I did not want it. I did not know at the time I was talking to the devil, but there was a weird feeling in his presence, unlike the comfort I felt in the presence of the Lord. When I said this he immediately disappeared. I had rejected Satan and he fled from me, not because I was full of knowledge or discernment, but because there was no desire in me for him, and there was a great desire for God more than anything else on earth.
GOD SPEAKS IN THREE DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS:
1. Through the Written Word from the Scriptures.
2. Through His ministers (God ordained men and women)
3. Through His Spirit and Angels.
The word of God is a chart and compass for Christians. It is absolutely necessary that we believe the Bible to be the written Word of God and that it is absolute and true totally.
MISTAKES IN THE WORD:
Because it is the Word of God and God cannot make a mistake, then it is not possible that we can believe it to be the Word of God and at the same time believe that there are mistakes in it. If you believe that there are mistakes in the Word of God, then you do not really know God.
God Himself, with HIS OWN FINGER, began the writing of the Word of God. He called Moses up into Mt. Sinai and wrote the Ten Commandments with His own hand. When Moses broke those tablets in anger, God gave them again to him and He wrote them verbatim. It was not a paraphrase of vision. These were the direct words of God inscribed on stone: the very thoughts of God put in language that we may comprehend what God speaks for all times. Moses wrote five books of direct words from God. God clearly states this fact in Numbers 12:6-8:
Numbers 12:6 “And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.
12:7 “My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house.
12:8 “With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”
This is the very foundation of the written word of God to us and to the world. If Moses went against that word it would be death for him, and if we go against it – it is death for us. The word of God is so specific, explicit and strong that Moses himself died and did not enter into the Promised Land because he struck the rock when God told him to speak to it. You see, when Moses struck the rock he actually struck Christ himself.
All the other writers from Moses to John the beloved, wrote under the same type of inspiration. The poser and operation of the inspiration changed, but not the accuracy nor the voice that speaks. The Apostle John was ordained of God to close the book:
Rev. 22:16 “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
22:17 “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
22:18 “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
22:19 “And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book..”
It is not possible therefore, that the written word could contain any errors, BUT man has not only tried to change it over the years, but in his translations of the words from language to language, has instituted much of human thinking in the written word.
CAN THE WORD BE OUTLAWED?
The Scripture declares that against Love there is no Law, and it is the same with the Word of God. The word is above all law and will conquer and overcome every law of man which is made against it. At one time the Roman Church outlawed the “Textus Receptus” which is the text from which the King James version of the Bible is written. It was a crime punishable by death to be found with a Bible or any part of it which we so freely possess today. Many millions were slain for this reason but the text survived and overcame those who outlawed it. The story is told of the great intellectual Ingersol who stated that within a period of time the Bible would be extinct. Today the headquarters of the British Bible Society is in his house in France. The Holy Spirit is the interpreter of the Word of god. In spite of language and deliberate human disfigurements, the Word of God remains pure and perfect through the Spirit of God. My thoughts on the Word of God are useless to the church. It should never be given. The only word that is of value in the church is the Word by the Spirit. This is the reason why personalities are not as important to us as the Word of God is. If God sends a donkey with the Word or a crow with the meat it must be received by the children of God.
God speaks through His ministries:
Eph. 4:11 “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
4:12 “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:”
God does not have two churches in the earth. It is only one. He does not have two ministries. It is only one. Ninety percent of the ministries which are ministering to the present day churches are not ordained and appointed of God. Most of them are called of God but never equipped and sent. Probably another five percent have been equipped and sent but ensnared by the Jezebel church and struggling to find their way out of the quagmire of man-made doctrines and Bible interpretation.
A LIGHT THAT SHOWS THE WAY:
This I must tell you plainly and I am sure “my sheep” will hear and recognize the voice that speaks. In this age and at this time God has a pure and perfect word going forth. The sun is shining brightly in spite of the gloom that is all around us. In every age God has men with the light who will never fail. The Spirit of God in you will help you to follow the truth and the true message for this hour without fail.
God speaks through His Spirit and angels: The whole of God’s heavenly hosts are angels. Messengers of God who are watching over every human being and over every thought and action of humanity. Sometimes God uses them as messengers to us but their main task is to work for us, NOT with us as is sometimes erroneously taught. We are partners with God therefore there is a part of the tasks of this partnership which falls to us in the natural realm, but the other part we cannot do and must relay on spirit operation. I might ask God to take control of a meeting and he might send his angels to prevent the work of disrupting spirits, but he expects me to preach the message with His anointing while hundreds of His angels are working among the congregation.
It is mind-boggling even to think of the magnitude of the work which the angels of God perform in the earth for one day – protecting, instructing, delivering, disrupting the work of devils – praising with them that praise – rejoicing with them that rejoice – bringing hope and comfort to the sorrowing and learning more and more of God’s magnificent plan of salvation for man etc.
The Holy Ghost speaks through the church. Not only those called to the five-fold ministry, but through the whole church. The ministry or servantship is given to some to minister to the church so that the church might minister. This is the perfect will and purpose of God, that the church might minister, a ministering body. God would not ordain a body where only the hands can work. We will not be perfected until the Body is perfected – complete parts and a complete whole.
Spritiual deafness caused by turning away from God: The scripture declares that disobedience is as witchcraft. The deception of this kind of witchcraft makes one believe that he is in the perfect will of God when in truth and in fact he is doing his own thing. I have seen men fall into disobedience and later on they get a word which legalizes the disobedience.
Spiritual deafness comes upon the believer gradually, so gradually in fact that the believer does not even know that he is deaf. This happens mostly because one who is spiritually hard of hearing is hearing some other voice very clearly. If we listen to a pastor or preacher who is not anointed and sent of God or who is not part of the five fold ministry of God, then sooner of later we will become deaf ourselves.
This is the main problem of the church. The church has long ago been listening to men and women who are seminary trained, and those who are not in this are listening to self-made men and women. The whole church system is denominationally bent. A man will leave a denomination, and go out to form a non-denominational denomination, which in itself is worse than a denomination, since it has one undisputed ruler. Many of us are wasting our prayers asking God to save some denomination. A denomination cannot be saved. It is not of God and was never of God. We must begin to pray for God to save His people. The teachings of man have so permeated the church that we have lost even the concept of what DUE ORDER or DIVINE ORDER is. When God called Moses and showed him the tabernacle and the order of worship His main instruction was to “build it according to the pattern.” In the tabernacle of David which shows the picture of the restoration of the church in our time, he was instructed of God to restore the Due Order. The structure of every modern church I have known, breaks the Divine Order of God. I know some of my readers are saying what is he talking about. It is so simple. Jesus Christ should be the head of every congregation of Christians. Is He? None of us can answer yes to this. The next question means that Jesus Christ is head organizationally as well as individually. Being head organizationally means that there is no position of bishop or pastor or a no name position which usurps Christ.
I have had ministers who say this is impossible. There is nothing in the Word of God that is impossible. It is not impossible for elders to meet together and shepherd a congregation under direct orders from Christ. It is not impossible to be bonded together in love where we do not listen to the MAJORITY VOICE but to the voice of Christ speaking through whatever vessels he might speak through. Balaam heard God’s message from an ass and I am sure our preachers of today are hearing from all kinds of creatures. I once heard the perfect word of God’s direction from a drunken woman.
“My sheep hear —————- and they follow me.”
God says that He will make you follow Him, if you will be His sheep.
Sonlight Devotional 