Hearing the voice of God | Senior Pastor Kenneth Carpenter

if you have your bibles for a few moments today i'd like to invite your attention to the book of first kings chapter number 19 and verse number 11. first kings chapter 19 and verse number 11. we'd like to welcome several special guest ministers with us today we're so glad to have the bateman family here with us from the great state of mississippi district brother sister bateman it's so good to have you with us today and it's so good to have brother and sister bennett pastor brother and sister bennett here from carrollton kentucky with us today and i told him that he told me his last name brother bennett i said well i married a bennett bennett my wife's maiden name is so good to have brother sister bennett so good they said they're ending their vacation they've been here on vacation they said they couldn't think of a better way to come and worship with us today thank you brother sister bennett so very very much and we're also happy and delighted today to have nolan smith with us and uh nolan smith is here with the company that came and erected our led walls uh this week how many things they look just great aren't you thankful well i tell you what the only thing i don't like about them is that bald spot on the back of my head i was here last night and i was telling the men i said man can we not do something about that bald spot and one of the smart elk spoke up and said spray paint man isn't it great and then there's a lot of things going on out here we've got a new led walls installed and we're so thankful and nolan we're so thankful wherever you're at today we're so thankful uh for the fine job that your company did here uh this past week our new church sign is going in out at the street how many is glad to finally get a church sign and we're thankful we're so thankful for that a week from tomorrow night a week from tomorrow night or tomorrow evening a week from a police put that in there a week from all right tomorrow evening the trendsetters are going to be cutting the ribbon on our pavilion that's out back it's we've got all the tables in and we're going to be cutting the ribbon on that and that's going to be a special time out there for all of our for all of our trendsetters how many needs to hear from the lord this morning first kings 19-11 and he said go forth and stand upon the mount before the lord and behold the lord pass by and a great and a strong wind rent the mountains and break in pieces the rocks before the lord but the lord was not in the wind and after the wind and earthquake but the lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake a fire but the lord was not in the fire and after the fire a still small voice psalms 46 and verse number eight a still small voice a still small voice psalms 46 in verse number eight and i'm going to take a rhonda is that you this morning rhonda it's so good to ben lee's mother here and rhonda came here to church many years ago ron is so good so good to see you today come behold the works of the lord what desolations he have made in the earth he maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth he breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear in sunder and burneth the chariot in the fire look at verse 10 be still be still and know that i am god i will be exalted among the heathen i will be exalted in the earth the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is our refuge sila selah means pause and think about it i want to preach for a few moments today something i feel very burdened for and that is hearing the voice of god hearing the voice of god father i love you this morning there's power in your name lord that i do know lord i thank you god for your spirit that's moving in this place today lord underneath all that's going on here today your spirit is touching hearts your spirit is touching lives lord you are speaking glory to people today god i pray that i can deliver the word in such a fashion that will cause people to surrender their lives totally to you god i'll give you praise in jesus name amen amen you may be seated there's a reality the reality is when i said to you today how many wants to hear from god how many wants to hear the voice of the lord today i must tell you that in reality we do hear the voice of god every time we read our bibles we do hear the voice of god when we listen to the preached word and the taught word of god if the minister is preaching the word if the minister is teaching the word the reality is every time you open your bible you're hearing from god every time you listen to a minister a pastor bring the word of god you are in reality you are hearing the word of god now having said that let me branch off into another into another area let me branch off into another area and that is the realm of natural hearing and the realm of spiritual hearing there is a natural hearing that you're all uh experiencing right now of through the natural ability to hear and if there would be any here that uh is hearing impaired then there's sign language that that that would communicate so when we're talking about hearing the voice of god this morning it is more than just the natural hearing of what is being of what is being said it goes into the spiritual ability to hear god and that's what we all need to work on today is that spiritual ability to hear god jesus said he that hath ears to hear let him hear now he wasn't excluding those that didn't have the ability to hear sound but he was just simply saying that that spiritual hearing that that that spiritual sound and hearing is something that a person has to develop a person has to want to be more than just here to hear the sound it's amazing that when god gave us our hearing that our hearing if you look at it and would consider this with me our eyesight is something that we value but do you know that god did give us the ability to shut our eyes he gave us eyelids we have the ability to shut our eyes but do you know that god did not give us any ability to shut our ears that our ears are working whether we're asleep or we're awake our ears are working because unless unless you choose to do something to stop sound god did not give you like he gave the eyes eyelids he didn't give you something to cover your ears so this spiritual sound the spiritual voice is what we're after this morning i'm i'm after god to speak to us spiritually that that inward spiritual voice and if you understand something when god speaks it is very possible today and probable that god is speaking right now and there are people that are hearing that spiritual voice right now while there's others that are not they're just hearing sound well let's look in john the gospel of john chapter 12 and verse number 28 jesus is praying and in john chapter 12 verse number 28 jesus prays and jesus says father glorify thy name then came there a voice from heaven saying okay jesus is praying and he says father bring glory to your name and then a voice from heaven came saying i have both glorified it and will glorify it again now let's stop right there jesus is praying father glorify your name and a voice comes from heaven and says i have glorified it and i will glorify it again verse 29 the people therefore that stood by heard it some said or said that it thundered others said an angel spake to him isn't that amazing that jesus is praying and he cries out father bring glory to your name glorify your name and god chose to speak from heaven and and give a verbal i have glorified it and i'm glorified again but the people standing around all had a different version of what they heard somebody said did you hear that sound like thunder somebody said no that's that's not thunder that's an angel speaking that's an angel but john heard it correctly because john recorded it i i don't know about you today but i want to hear what god is saying this morning i don't want to leave and say it sound like thunder you know sound like sound like thunder sound angel spoke and maybe some of you when i speak have an angel in mind but maybe it's a fallen angel you know but an angel spoke so i want to hear what god has to say right i i want to hear that n word word that inward voice another example of this another example of this i think you'll find this interesting in acts chapter 9 verse number 3 it speaks of saul's conversion and it says as he journeyed acts nine and three as he journeyed he came near damascus and suddenly there's they're shining round about him a light from heaven and he fell to the earth and heard now follow this real closely and heard a voice saying unto him saw saul why persecutest thou me and he said who art thou lord and the lord said i am jesus whom thou persecute us it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks and he trembling and astonished said lord what will thou have me to do and the lord said unto him arise and go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do follow verse seven and the men which journeyed with him the men that came with saul the men that journeyed with him stood speechless hearing a voice but seeing no man so now they're all gathered around their super leader saul and saul is persecuting the church and as they enter into damascus a light just so bright knocks saul off of the beast and a conversation takes place so saul why do you persecute me and saul responds who are you lord and that voice forever changed his life because that voice said i am jesus whom you persecute is it not hard for you to kick against the pricks what will you have me to do lord and those that were with saul heard the voice but saw no man they're standing there hearing a voice and wondering is this person where's this voice coming from where is this coming now we always have to defend the word of god because there's always people that want to want to shine a light and say the word of god contradicts itself it's it says it it will say one thing in one place and another thing in another well let's go to acts chapter 22 and verse number nine some years later paul is rehearsing his testimony before a king in acts 22 and 9 he's rehearsing the testimony tells about the bright light tells about the voice and even tells about the men that were with him and it says and they that were with me saw indeed the light and were afraid but they heard not the voice of him that spake with me we have a contradiction here in one place it says they heard the voice but saw not a man in another place paul simply says they heard not the voice you see i believe on that day how we reconcile this to scripture i don't believe that god was just wanting to save saul i believe that god would have wanted to save that whole company of men that were with him i believe god wanted to save all of them just like this morning i believe god wants to save all of us but the sad truth of the matter is not all of us are going to be saved it is god's will it is not god's will that any person be lost that is not god's will there's a lot of people looking for god's will i can tell you several things that's not god's will it's not god's will that any would be lost he is not willing that any of us would perish but the sad thing is people are going to perish why because they will not hear the voice they will not develop an inner ear oh they heard that voice that day saw why persecuted sell me oh they heard that voice i am jesus whom you persecute oh they heard all that brother ben they heard all that perfect they heard the the voice said i am jesus whom you persecute but instead of doing what saul did because basically that's one of two roads we get on when we hear the word of god the voice of god we either get on the road of what will you have me do lord what do you want me to do lord we'll humble ourselves we'll um our humble ourselves in the presence of a mighty god and say god i need you to direct my past god it's not in me to direct my way or we can be like those men that heard the voice but they didn't hear the voice they heard it with their ears but they didn't hear it with their heart they decided there that day that something just had went wrong with their leader i want to hear the word of god this morning and i want it to change my life could we just take a moment and just ask god i want you to change my life i want to hear your word this morning god i don't want to hear a sermon god i don't want to hear some singing in a sermon god i i don't want the i don't want the sermon to make sense god to my mind to my to my human thinking god i want it to touch deep down in my soul i humble myself today god i need to hear from you i humble myself today now let's go to the text the text is elijah but i must tell you the background because the background of our lives is is this not the truth the seasons of our lives a lot of times can give a definition for our behavior sometimes people have got the most unusual behavior sometimes their behavior is out of the will of god sometimes their behavior is not keeping with god but before we get too quick to judge somebody we need to try to see what kind of season their life has been in right our lives all go through seasons and and elijah had been through a season he had a season of three and a half years of a drought three and a half years because god's people had sinned elijah hadn't sinned for three and a half years he moved from brook to widow's house to wilderness for three and a half years he was in a season i'd say that'd be a season wouldn't you of no rain a season of drought came that day that the season was to end how many is glad that god always has an end to the season i don't know about you but i'm going to say amen to this there are some seasons i would like to see come to an end matter of fact i hope we're at the end of a season right now you know what i'm talking about i hope we're at the end of that i hope we're at the end end of that season so he comes to the end of the season and of course he has a long day he's it's amazing not only will the seasons of your life cause you to act out a character sometimes a long day let's just get real today sometimes the long day anybody in this room ever had a long day huh come on come on i i am talking about 24 hours that you might have got 19 hours you might have got uh four hours or five hours of rest right anybody you may have some of those those days a long day everybody this is a long day it's a long day number one his day starts with having to put up with men that thought they knew the answer the worshipers of baal he said what we're going to do it was in the morning it was in the morning and he said what we're going to do he said you choose a bullock and i'll choose a bullet you lay your bullock on the altar i'll lay my bullet on an altar you call on the name of your gods plural and i'll call on the name of my god singular and the god that answers by fire he will be god and they all said that was well put that's a contest let's go and do you know how long that the worshipers of baal a false god do you know how long that they sought for an answer what the scripture tells us they started in the morning they started in the morning and they kept hollering for bail to until it got noon day man that's a that's a long time to holler for a god that's not going to answer i mean from the morning light till noon high noon they judged their times by where the sun was at so when the sun came up they started hollering for baal and when the sun was at high noon they kept on hollering for baal and not only that they kept on hollering for baal to answer until the sun started going down can you a long day to me is to have to endure what you know is not going to answer that makes sense anybody ever had to endure with those that you knew they were trying to get an answer from something that was not going to answer and endure it now you can't tell me says carpenter that didn't wear on a lot he's fleshed now james the apostle james lets us know that elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are he wasn't superman he was a man that had every emotion that you have every mood every emotion that you have and so he stands out there all day long all day long and he has to put up with these yahoos that are trying to get a god answer that's never going to answer so finally as the sun was going down he said y'all done yeah we're finished the bible says he repaired the altar now the wood just didn't float in place the wood just didn't jump up there and all that the bible says he repaired the altar takes a little work to move some wood now i'm really going somewhere just hang with me and then he said i need 12 stones and he picked up the 12 stones he picked up the 12 stones he didn't order the stones the only thing that he ordered was the water to be poured he repaired the altar he put the 12 stones in place and he prayed a 58-word prayer and when he prayed a 58-word prayer fire from jehovah god cracked the heavens open fire came down and licked up the water in the trench consumed the sacrifice consumed the stones and when he did that all 450 prophets of baal fell on their faces and begin to say or all israel excuse me all of israel fell on their faces and begin to say the lord he is god the lord he is god the lord he is god and then elijah said hey take the 400 false prophets you know sometimes we not only need fire from heaven we need to go ahead and take care of the voice of error he said it's not good enough that we've got fire from heaven get a hold of them 400 men 400 false prophets he said now let's walk down to the brook brook kishon that was a good little walk for them to go he said let's go down there and the bible says he took the sword and he killed them i don't know about you but i'd say that took a lot of time and a lot of work to kill 400 men i mean after a while you're getting tired of hacking your arm's getting tired man you're just you're just i mean 400 i mean that i don't think they just lobbed their heads off in one lob i don't know but i you know i mean after a while you your joint your arms getting tired you're you're you're you're killing 400 men and then after it gets done did i tell you it's a long day then after it gets done he goes back up to the mountain and he says to ahab i hear the sound of abundance of rain you better get back down to jezreel which was 16 miles away i do want you to know that it was 16 miles away you need to get back down to jezreel because it's going to rain well then having said that he went up to the top of the mountain and began to pray and he prayed and he prayed and we know prayer is no easy thing well prayer is no easy thing matter of fact let me give you a verse to validate that colossians chapter 4 verse number 12. look at colossians chapter 4 verse number 12. talked about a man he said he's a servant of christ he saluteth you always laboring fervently for you in what prayer is not an easy thing to do it's not an easy thing to do it's taxing if you pray the bible said he labored in prayer so he's up there praying and he prays until until a cloud comes and it declares a rain's coming and the rains did come and then it says the hand of the lord a long day because because we have to understand some things about seasons and long days a long day and now the bible says the hand of the lord got on him and he outran ahab back to jezreel that meant he outran a horse well we understand how the bible said the hand of the lord was upon him the hand of the lord came upon him and he outran a chariot and a horse can i tell you without you thinking i'm blaspheming the hand of the lord doesn't always stay on us there are times that god will strengthen you and i to do a task but we don't always have that kind of strength he could outrun a horse because god's hand came upon him adrenaline started i mean fire coming and prophets dying and is built and all of this and the hand of the lord is upon me i guarantee you that was one more long day in his life when he got when he outran ahab back to jezreel but here's where the story here's where the story takes a turn because in first kings chapter 19 verse number 1 and ahab told jezebel all that elijah had done and with all how he had slain all the prophets with the sword so ahab goes back and ahab tells jezebel jezebel represents a spirit in the bible it represents a spirit to kill the word of god see a lot of times we've only heard jezebel presented from a lewd loose woman but a jezebel is anything that wants to kill god's word in your life we just preached that she was lewd and loose and all of that but her main goal was i've got to kill the voice of god in their life and so ahab tells her what elijah has done and in verse number two then jezebel sent a messenger unto elijah saying so let the gods do to me and more also and and and more also uh if to me and more also if i make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time in other words she sent a message and she said you have 24 hours to live by this time tomorrow your head is going to be down there in keyshawn valley like my servants 400 of their heads are down there now i just look at this and stop and wonder here is a man that can stand face to face with hundreds of prophets here is a man that can walk around and have the boldness i mean to tell you something he didn't have to pray an hour to get an answer from god he prayed 58 words and fire came not only that brother hammond but here's a man that can go up to a mountain it hasn't rained for three and a half years it is so dry that when you spit in the dirt the dust comes back up in your face it is dry they're walking on powder but here's a man that can say i hear the sound of the abundance of rain and the heavens would be dark with clouds and rain would begin to pour out on israel here's a man that can decide i better get back to i better get back home he can gird up his loins he can take his robe tuck it in his belt and take off running and the hand of god would be on him that he would pass ahab and his chariot he would go around and put his blinker on and go around him and pass him and go on and 16 miles 16 miles i'd do good to run 1600 feet 16 miles he gets back to jezreel he's feeling good but the next morning knock on his door you see we can act a certain way when the hand of the lord is upon us on sunday but the devil's going to knock on your door on monday it's not all just staying in the adrenaline of a choir singing or of a good prayer service or a good strong tower sometimes i'm going to have to have a monday that's going to knock on my door and one woman frail woman said i am here representing queen jezebel and here you hear you hear you from queen jezebel you have elijah 24 hours to live and your head will be severed from your body by the orders of queen jezebel now you would think that this man that could call fire down and rain down and outrun chariots that he would have said you go back and tell oh jesse that i said it ain't gonna happen that the lord god of israel's protecting me and god's on my side you just tell her to bring it on you just tell her to make my day verse 3 and when he saw that he arose and went for his life he ran for his life came to beersheba that's the southern part which belonged to judah left his servant there but he himself went a day's journey into the wild man now we we'd only got we don't all have a one long day now we got another long day he went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and set under a juniper tree and requested for himself that he might die and said it is enough oh lord take away my life for i am not better than the father wait a minute wait a minute how in the world do you go from calling fire down one day to requesting to die the next oh if there's ever been a day we need to hear the voice of god you know why a man goes from hearing the voice of god there's a sound of abundance of rain to 24 hours later saying just it's over it's just over god just just just kill me god just take me out right now do you know why he wasn't hearing the inward voice of god because god is not always going to move in your life in the realm of the miraculous sometimes it's just the mundane that you've got to live through sometimes it's not breakfast with angels of the mornings sometimes it's not floating around through your house singing songs and everything is going your way sometimes it's just downright tough sometimes it's just life it's threats of life it's threats that you're over it's threats of all these different things and we don't watch it all of us have moods i know we've got the holy ghost since the sutton but i know that we're all living in bodies and we've all got moods our moods can be in a good mood or our moods can be in a bad mood we can be in an average mood but what i want to preach to the church about today wherever your mood is at today please listen to the inward voice of god because even on that long day god has got a word for you even when you don't even want to live anymore i don't even want to live i don't want to get up i don't i don't want to do this every life has fallen apart the spirit of destruction has come up on my life i just want to die but you know what he wasn't alone elijah wasn't alone can i tell you another man of which a book is named after him in a bible can i tell you another man that requested that he would die jeremiah jeremiah got so discouraged he said i i just want to die not only that there's another man in the bible his name was jonah jonah requested god just go ahead and kill me can i just go ahead i don't know where you're at today but there's possibility that somebody in this room that i'm preaching to or watching online you don't want to even want to live anymore you even say it life is just i'm not happy things have fallen apart i have a life of destruction but i have come on this sunday morning with good news for you i want you to hear the inward voice of god that still small voice that says i'm still here i still love you i'm still on your side oh come on young people i shared this with sister cartman yesterday now i'm going to tell you something uh when god speaks to me i know he speaks to a lot of people in the 1600 king virgin language my son if i am with thee and follow us thee god didn't speak to me that way as a matter of fact i heard from the lord this week and i shared it with my wife and the lord just simply said to me are you ready sister step are you ready i was praying and he simply said it's not a big deal i don't really believe the lord spoke well you got the right to be wrong if you want to i do know he spoke to me he just simply i was down praying about some things and talking to god about some things and i just heard that sweet still small voice say it's not that big of a deal and i found myself when that what i thought was a big deal keeps coming before me i just kind of remember that still small voice it just simply says it's not really a big deal it's not a big deal so you just don't know it's a big deal it's only a big deal if you put god out of the equation then it becomes a big deal when i remove god from my life everything about life becomes a big deal but that's why i want to keep god into my life because when i keep god into my life there's nothing a big deal oh would you give me praise right now there's nothing a big deal come on you got god in your life that's why you're here today i want god in my life now oh hallelujah now listen to this now it is our job it is our purpose it is our reason for living to tell all men about jesus lost people about jesus now think about that right you all agree with that we all agree with that today right what is our purpose as a church to do what tell people about who tell people about who is that what we're we we we live to tell all people about who well what's the first thing we tell people about jesus he's god he's god that's the first thing you ought to tell anybody about jesus christ he's god and when you tell people that he's god that's the answer for whatever ails them whatever problems they've got you have introduced jesus as god now no no no no no no you know you know you know we're suffering from just a little bit don't you we want to always hear from god when the preacher has sucked the microphone down his left lung and he's preaching 90 words per second that's god oh he was anointed today but sometimes i'm not saying i have sucked the microphone down my left lung i have preached 90 words a second and i have heard from god but to think that god can only speak that way is very foolish for all of us to think that god has to repeat oh we just had this great service everybody went down around the front man it was great god moved then we come back and we want god to move again but guess what we're waiting on we're waiting on everybody to come down around the front we're waiting on somebody to run somebody to leap somebody to shout we're waiting on that and god doesn't always move in the future like he's moved in the past i'm telling you god wants to speak to somebody today god wants to speak into the inner ear of someone today and to tell you i am god and it's not that big of a deal don't be dismayed don't be discouraged it will come to pass because i am god and it's not that big of a deal i am god well brother carpenter the elders are the elders are coming up around the the the the front and they're praying and i i'm sorry but i've got to get in brother so-and-so's line because he prayed for me one time and i failed a chill butt so i always want to go to so-and-so's life is just not true elijah wanted to die requested of himself to die and you know what he needed you know what he needed he's under a juniper tree and he naturally fell asleep i would imagine that look at it he's had two long days he has one long day putting up a bunch of yahoos that are trying to get an answer of a god from a god that won't answer and now he's got a long day of running for his life because jezebel's after him and i just say i just feel like that exhaustion just took over you know you know sometimes god can touch us through some sleep do you know we're made up of body soul and spirit and you can get all the holy ghost you want to but if your body ain't functioning right you're going to wonder if god even loves you oh y'all ain't listening to me today that's right you see it's like your car you got a motor a transmission and wheels i don't care what a good motor you got let them wheels get out of balance and it'll drive you nutty i don't care what the latest tires you got on that car let the motor stop and your body soul and spirit is the same way you need to see that all three of them need minister too you know what elijah needed i don't want to die no he he didn't need to die he needs to sleep some folks don't need to die some folks don't they don't need they don't need a lot of things as much as just need to take care of their body you know i i know i i i i'm right with you i'm right with you i'm right with you what we put in our bodies how we treat our bodies we think the answer is just go down and let the preacher shout us and let's talk in tongues everything's going to be happily ever after it's not always you got to take care of your body so here it is he just went to sleep he's fell asleep and god knew what he needed help me glad god knows what you need guess what god sent him guess what god sent him a cook that's right an angel came and cooked some bread bake some bread and had some water and he nudged him hey hey get up get up elijah what you're hungry how's bread you're thirsty there's some water i've been running for a day yeah this water he guzzles some water and eats some bread and then and those are my favorite day those favorite days when you have those holidays where you cook and you go in there and you eat something then you go back get in the chair and sleep isn't that a great day just just eat i'm gonna lay down for a minute so he ate he laid back down went to sleep the angel touched him again he said get up i got another meal for you i got another meal for you and the bible said he ate another meal and it says he went in the strength you talk about high protein he went in the strength of that meal 40 days wow that had to be a spiritual meal but will you please notice that god did not minister to him through the spiritual until he ministered to him through the natural if we work on our natural god can take care of our spiritual and he woke him up he said go you need to go to the mount horeb the mount of god you need to go where moses received the commandments so 40 days he went in the strength of that meal for 40 days strength of that meal for 40 days he comes and gets in a cave and god asks him a simple question just for time's sake i can read it but just for time's sake it's there god asks him a simple question what doest thou hear elijah what are you doing here you know that'd be a that would be a good question to ask ourselves what am i doing here now i'm not talking about here at church because you're at the right place and you're listening to the right thing i'm talking about those situations in your life that you need to start asking yourself how did i get here what am i doing here what am i accomplishing for the kingdom here what am i what am i doing here how in the world did i get that's what god is trying to say what are you doing here he said i'll tell you what i what i'm doing here now notice this achieve what i'm doing here all your people are backslidden all your people have thrown down your altars and all your people god seek to destroy my life you ever notice something about if we allow ourselves to get in some conditions we exaggerate situations we put we put exaggeration on all of our stories we we put exaggerations on life we exaggerate the things that we go through it's you know it's oh it's got to be this truth the matter was can i tell the truth of the matter one woman was after him you see when we allow ourselves to be directed by our moves we forget the fact that fire fell from heaven we forget the fact that rain fell we forget the fact that when i left when i left jezreel all of israel was jumping up and down like they've been to strong tower shouting great as jehovah and jehovah is god but when i allow my moods to rule me when i allow life to rule me and move me i can leave the very best church the very best thing and i can get in the wilderness and say god i might as well die you don't need to die today you need to get some rest and you need to get some spiritual food inside of you and you need to realize that god has still got to work for you to do what are you doing here god said all right come out here in the mountain come on out here come on so elijah stepped out of the cave and he's looking out over the mountain and all of a sudden elijah began to hear a wind oh my goodness he began to hear a wind blowing and it was a wind like he had never heard before matter of fact this is a powerful wind the bible says this wind is busting rocks it rinse the rocks this wind is busting rocks i've never seen a wind like that it's busting rocks and i can see elijah for a moment said man god's in this i'm telling you the wind blew up on the face of the floods and the wind blew in the book of jonah and the wind the wind blew god's got to be in this because god has been in the wind before but did you follow along with me when the wind passed by who was not in the wind the lord was not in the wind and then the next thing there was an earthquake and i can see elijah now starting to smile he got a little grin on his face oh man here's an earthquake because god has used earthquakes before he used it with moses the very mountain that elijah was on and shook with an earthquake and no doubt he elijah think man god is in this but the bible adds those few little words but god was not in the earthquake and then all of a sudden he looks and here comes roaring a fire a pillar of fire and he said man god's in fire he brought the children of israel out of egyptian bondage with a pillar of fire god's in a god's in the fire and the fire came and that little clause it simply says god is not was not in the fire now let me tell you what we need today please listen to this if you don't listen to anything else listen to this what we need more than a demonstration of god's power we need direction from god i will take direction any day over demonstration it is the spiritual immature that's got to have a demonstration to for them to feel like that that god loves them they've got to have some kind of demonstration of god's provision some kind of demonstration of a chill bump some kind of demonstration i i i've got to do this i've got to feel this way and the truth of the matter is your feeling is connected to your emotion it might not have had anything to do with the spirit of god i think we ought to run whether we want to run or not i think we ought to leap whether we want to leap or not the bible i could play with you on this scripture the bible says leap for joy that can either mean because you have joy or because you want to get joy you just fill out the check i think he's worthy of a hand clap whether i feel like clapping my hands or not i think he's worthy about somebody running whether they feel like running or not i think he's worthy of a dance whether it's my god i will take direction from the lord any day over a demonstration i need direction let's face it before unless you maybe see let's face it let's face it let's face it you've had your demonstration and you're still in your cave wanting to die because when we are demonstration led we got to have god pull a rabbit out of the head every sunday or we're ready to find another church when we're demonstration led we got to have something super duper expialidocious all of that we got to have something like that every service or god doesn't love me and the truth of the matter is thank god for the demonstration but i'm not coming for a demonstration i'm coming for direction from the lord i'm going to be back here tonight because my god is worthy to be praised he's worthy of the choir to sing and he's worthy to be praised but i'm going to come back tonight because the word is going to be preached and through the word i have direction a still the earthquake the rent the rocks the wind the renting all of this and god is nowhere to be found but then still small voice elijah what are you doing here well god i told you already because he asked him twice god i told you already i told you already god all your people's backslid and they're seeking my life and then god simply says this i want you to go back and i want you to anoint and he names them he names kings to be anointed he said i want you to go return that's the word to use go return go return and anoint and he named a couple kings and then he said anoint a man named elisha you know the funny thing about this when he said go return he said go face what you're running from what good is it if i can outrun a horse but i can't outrun a spirit what good is it if i can outrun ahab but i find myself running from jezebel he says you go right back and face what you're running from you go right back and he did he went right back to the town he had ran from and guess what jezebel couldn't touch you and i am telling you all the while you can run and you're always going to be running you can run from life's problems and all you're going to find yourself is running running running or you can stand and say i'm going to face my fear today because my pastor told me this morning god spoke to him this week and simply said it's really not that big of a deal it's really not that big of a deal hey god i'm really threatened about this and god just simply says it's not that big a deal it's not that big a deal so brother corbin i can't hear from god i think i got an answer today you know why we can't hear from god it's not that god is not speaking it's that we've got too many other things turned up in our lives we've got too many noises we've got too many things turned up can i ask you in the name of jesus today could we turn some things down in our lives could we just you know whatever whatever whatever your whatever is can we just turn it down today because if the devil has his way there's drama trauma drama drama drama you know what drama you know who's behind drama satan because if he can keep your family in drama guess what you can't hear the voice of god so he likes to stir up drama and i heard this the other day save your drama for your mama you know you always got drama always got something going on always got something stirred up and there's a god who's wanting to say to you today it's really not that big of a deal just keep me turned up in your life it's not that big a deal don't you want god to speak to you right now would you want god to speak to you right now i i do i do would you stand with me today musicians would you come we did something a little different this morning in our morning prayer we did something a little different normally we will lay our hands on all these pews and pray for them but this morning but this morning i asked that we would lay our hands on our heart and we would pray for our ourselves today because if we're not right more than likely nobody on these pews are going to be touched so could we right now today individually could we begin to ask god speak to me today oh god speak to me today pray with me right now turn some things down right now come on turn some things down right now turn turn it down right now oh turn it down right now oh god turn turn some things down right now god is speaking to you this morning turn some tradition down in your life right now turn turn it down right now god is god is saying to someone today you need to you need to go up front and you need to be baptized in my name you need to turn tradition down you need to turn tradition down today and let truth begin to preach let truth begin to talk today the name of the lord the name of the lord the name of the lord the name of the lord the name of the lord come on i want us to pray for i i purposely ended my message a few moments early today because i want god to speak to us right now oh god oh god speak to my heart today lord lord i want you to speak to my heart today god i want you to speak to my heart today i want you to speak to my heart today god in the name of jesus in the name of jesus god oh god i want you to speak to my heart today god i want you to speak to my heart today mighty god mighty god mighty god speak to me today lord speak to me today every head is bowed and every eye is closed the name of the lord jesus in the name of the lord jesus speak to my heart today god oh god speak to my heart today lord in the name of jesus god oh god i need you to speak to my heart today lord i need you to speak to my heart lord you know there's people here that need you to speak to them right now go ahead go ahead go ahead precious woman go ahead go ahead right now god wants to speak to you right now go ahead god wants to speak to you right now sir god wants to speak to you this morning god wants to speak to you right now god wants to speak to you right now yes he does hallelujah hallelujah god wants to speak to you glory to god glory to god glory to god glory to god every head is bowed every eyes closed please nobody looking around this morning nobody looking around this morning nobody looking around this morning nobody looking around this morning oh god nobody looking around this morning you're here today and you would say brother carpenter that message is mine today god gave you that message for me would you simply raise your hand up right now raise your hand right now raise your hand right now oh my oh my all over this building right now god i need you to speak to me today god i need you to speak to me today i need you to speak to me today god lord i need you to speak to me today now i want you to listen to me real closely to those of you that are here that's never been baptized in that saving name of jesus god is speaking to you right now god is speaking to you we have clothes we have a change of clothes we have water we have someone to baptize you today let god speak to you right now let god speak to you right now let him speak to you right now turn tradition down turn tradition down because traditional gets so loud you can't hear truth in your life you can't hear the truth of your life now here's something else god is speaking to you about god wants to fill you with the holy ghost this morning god wants to give you life and life more abundantly today god wants to fill you with the holy ghost this morning with the evidence of speaking in other tongues turn turn tradition down a little bit and let you begin to hear that and if you're here today and you want to be baptized and you want to receive the holy ghost would you make your way down the aisles right now would you make your way into the altar area right now jesus speak to them right now lord speak to those hearts right now god in the name of jesus god speak to those hearts god god i need you to speak to us today god i need to hear your voice in my life god lord i need to hear your voice god in my life i have got decisions to make i have got decisions to make now i want to appeal to those today that have decisions in their lives i want you to turn things down so you can hear the voice of god this morning i want to hear the voice of god this morning in the name of jesus i want to hear the voice of god would you like to come down that aisle right now if you're here today and you're a person that's making decisions and you want to hear the voice of god in those decisions would you make your way down the aisle right now and bury yourself in this altar and begin to say god i want to hear that still small voice god i want to hear that still small voice god i want to hear that still small voice right now father in the name of jesus church family should we all just gather in the altar could we go home by the altar this morning god i love you lord i praise you god oh god i count on one thing the same god god give me that still small voice is go ahead go ahead go ahead right now go ahead right now let's give it to god right now let's give it to god right now come on my oh high quality glorify the name of all names oh all day speaking this morning oh yes i will is is i choose that nothing can stand against and i choose to pray to glorify for all my days there is authority in your name whatever i'm going through it's not a big deal it's not a big deal is yes all nothing day stand against is is oh yes lord one more time when you just lift your voices right now oh speak to us lord speak to us oh god oh speak to us god lord speak to us today lord speak to us today god lord you know exactly what we need sister carpenter is going to come and give us some announcements of the upcoming week but i want to close by saying this god spoke to samuel called his name samuel got up or excuse me yes samuel got up and went to eli the priest and said you called for me he said i didn't call for you go lay down. the lord called the second time and samuel got up and went to eli and said you called for me said i i didn't i didn't call for you said go sit down go lay back down the third time he came and he said you did call i heard your voice and samuel perceived that the lord had called him he said here's what i need you to do the next time go lay down and the next time you hear his voice say these simple words speak lord your servant heareth could you turn everything down for just a moment and could you just say speak lord speak lord whatever situation you lord i need you to speak god speak to me lord oh god speak to us lord father i pray for needs in this room right now oh god i pray right now speak lord speak to us lord in jesus mighty name we pray amen and amen