Hear the Joyful Sound

   16th October 2011

In the early days of my Christian walk I longed to hear from God in a special kind of way. My greatest desire was for God tell me some amazing truth about a future event like a looming disaster, an earthquake, Tsunami or tragedy so that I could warn the Church or maybe even the world. I’d get the odd obscure revelation so I’d then scan my dreams and search the scriptures for more clues, but it always seemed to lead into a place of vagueness, confusion and a dead end. Sometimes I seemed to be partially right and other times wrong. Nothing so clear as to stand up and say, “Thus says the Lord.” My argument was, “The Fortune Tellers get these things, so why not the Church?” I’d even fast and pray and call out to God, but as the years went by I realised that this desire wasn’t quite what God wanted for me. He did want to speak amazing things to me but I seemed to be tuned into the wrong thing. I came to realise that God had been speaking to me all the time but it wasn’t what I’d been looking for. The Fortune Tellers may get it right on occasions and gain national recognition but I found that God really wants to tell His Church about His great love for us through Jesus Christ. It may not make the Preacher famous but it will have a profound life changing effect on the speaker and the hearers, which will go on beyond this life into eternity. I would call this word from God the message of His Grace. This word from heaven wasn’t a gloomy one that depressed you and even frightened people, but one of great joy that would liberate you. It was a sound from Heaven that not only blessed you but all those that understood what you were saying. This sound is really anointed and brings you into God’s presence. These words from God are riding on a song from heaven that is being sung over God’s Children and can be heard by those who put themselves in a place where they can hear it. David prophetically heard this sound.

No matter what condition you are in spiritually, you have the capacity to hear these words from heaven. John said to the Church in the Book of Revelation.

 

If you have ‘ears’ then you can hear the joyful sound (the holy cry of God). Even the very dead dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision could hear the prophetic word of the Lord that was spoken over them, and they responded and rose up as a very great army. If these dry dusty bones could hear the word of God then how much more can we, as God’s children? God was speaking these words out from heaven but he still needed Ezekiel to prophecy them from his mouth and the dry bones heard.

For a sinner who doesn’t know God there isn’t a song being sung over them but strong word of warning that is something like;  ”Come to Jesus and repent of your sin and all will be forgiven,” but for the Christian whose sins are forgiven, the sound from heaven is one of great joy. It’s a joyful sound, a sound of celebration, as is the sound of God actually singing about them and to them.

Yes it’s hard to believe it but God is actually singing over His Children, because He’s in love with us far more than we are over our children whom we love dearly. This joyful sound from heaven is one of victory. Jesus said when He died on the cross, Do you hear this sound of victory? Do you hear the words to this song? If you don’t hear these words then you may only be hearing the words of your flesh, pride, the world or the Devil and that always leads to death.

I have come across many Christians who are only listening for words to rebuke the Church as they seem to think they are God’s Policemen and not His Cheerleaders. I have found them to be critical and puffed up with pride. I’ve sort of been in that place myself, where I thought I was the only one left in Israel like Elijah who was remaining faithful to God and everyone else was wrong. I’d had prophecies over me in the past about giving out a prophetic word to the Church and subsequently styled myself to an Old Testament Prophet. We need to remember that Old Testament Prophets were under the law and didn’t know the Grace of God like we do. A New Testament prophet however is far different to them and comes with a life changing message.

The primary aim of a NT Prophet is to bring edification, exhortation and comfort. The message of God’s Grace is just that. We need to realise that even though the law is holy, just and good, it has no power to make you holy, just and good. The Fortune Tellers may get it right often but they will not change to be like Jesus, nor will their followers in fact they all end up following evil doctrines. The ‘Policemen of God’ creates the false impression that God’s mercy lasts for a moment, but His anger lasts forever. Don’t forget that the spirit of Jesus in the new covenant of grace is not the spirit of the old covenant of law during Elijah’s time.

You may not style yourself to an Elijah of old, but you still may be hearing the wrong sound and that is the sound of condemnation. It may come from you, your past, others or the Devil but it always makes you want to earn God’s favour with your own works. If only you’d hear ‘God’s Song’ you would realise you don’t need to be under condemnation anymore. We need to wake up and smell the coffee – No! We need to wake up hear this sound from heaven with a listening ear. The law and its warning message (for it’s not a song) is about you looking at yourself but the new covenant is all about you seeing Jesus and being changed. Today, God is all about blessing you with His grace – His undeserved, unearned, and unmerited favour – in every area of your life. Stop trying to deserve and earn your own acceptance before God with your own works and efforts. It will only frustrate the grace of God and nullify the effects of the cross in your life. Grace is all about Jesus and His finished work. When you are under condemnation and not hearing the God Song you will always be looking for some secret sin in your present life or in your past that will hopefully set you free. You will be constantly trying to find a formula or key that will liberate you. Unfortunately this attitude can make you appear a bit strange at times for people who know God’s Grace and hear the God Song appear more natural for they are not striving.

Elijah heard the sound of an abundance of rain long before one drop fell to the earth. . He could hear the sound of rain way back then long before it happened which speaks to us of the coming end time revival. Do you hear the sound of an abundance of life giving rain or a rumbling destructive earthquake? The bible says that mercy triumphs over justice. Remember God would rather forgive than condemn. He would rather bring a revival than an apocalypse. Look at Jonah and how he wanted to see Nineveh destroyed but God wanted to save this people, for mercy triumphs over justice.

When we were in Zimbabwe some friends of ours cut themselves off from the Church and set up an elite group who were supposedly the only ones hearing from God. Soon messages were coming out of this group saying that the borders to the country were going to be closed for so many days and all sorts of other dire predictions of gloom and doom would occur. The Church told them to be careful but they insisted they were right. It never happened as they said and brought disrepute on the Church as a whole for they were hearing the wrong sound. Here in New Zealand a prominent British Preacher predicted an earthquake in the City of Taupo and it all went into the national press. All eyes were watching on the predicted day but it never came to pass and again the Church was ridiculed. This Preacher was upset that it didn’t happen.

If you look for negative things you’ll find them. If you look at the scriptures with bitterness in your heart you’ll always find bitter words. I’m not saying that God never uses Prophets to bring a message of warning anymore, but if you are going to be used like this you’ll need to be healed yourself and not doing anything with an axe to grind or an ulterior motive i.e. for your own glory. The trouble is I find most who ‘think’ they are God’s Prophets are bitter, frustrated and desperately in need of hearing that joyful sound from heaven. They need to hear God’s words of love to set them free from a low self-esteem or an inferiority complex, or desperately wanting to be noticed. They need to know God’s love before they speak God’s judgement.

When you hear that joyful sound from heaven it will bring you closer to God, so close in fact that you will sense Him standing face to face and you will then walk in the light of His countenance. Blessed are you, for it’s not the light of the world that shines on your life anymore but the light of His face (countenance). The bible says in Revelation chapter one that Jesus’ face shines like the sun.

Blessed are those who hear these words and apply them in and over their lives. The trouble is we may not be hearing these words because we are always going through the same old formula every day and especially on a Sunday. Because there is no change we have consequently gone to sleep. Anything new to us is just a noise and an infringement on our comfortable lifestyles. For some they have trouble listening and reacting to God’s words because they are so busy doing all sorts of other things that they don’t have any time or energy left to go deeper into the River of God.      

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