We Need To Hear From Heaven
Bible Text: 2 Corinthians 7:9-14 | Speaker: Pastor Jerry Irwin | Our God has promised that when we go through times of correction and instruction, if we seek Him with our whole heart, He will hear our prayer.
WE NEED TO HEAR FROM HEAVEN
II Chronicles 7:9-14
9. And in the eighth day they made a solemn assembly: for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days.
10. And on the three and twentieth day of the seventh month he sent the people away into their tents, glad and merry in heart for the goodness that the LORD had shewed unto David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people.
11. Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD, and the king’s house: and all that came into Solomon’s heart to make in the house of the LORD, and in his own house, he prosperously effected.
12. And the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice.
13. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people
14. If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Our God has promised that when we go through times of correction and instruction, if we seek HIM with our whole heart, in Heaven, he will hear our prayer.
1 Kings 8:49
Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause,
Psalms 20:6
Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.
But there is another sense in which we through prayer and fasting, position ourselves to hear a Rapha Word from Heaven that is a word from the GOD WHO Heals! A Rapha Word is the reward of those who pray, and seek the face of GOD, and turn from their wicked ways.
Psalm 107:20
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
Needless to say, every word of healing that comes from the Lord, satan has a word of discouragement to offer in its place.For all the truth spoken in the name of the Lord, satan has lies, lander, evil speaking to offer in its place. It comes down to a question for all of us, “Whose report will you believe?”
For every promise God gives, satan says no, he won’t.
For every gift God offers, satan says don’t trust him.
For every blessing God has, satan says I’ve got something better.
For every word of instruction God gives, satan says don’t listen.
For every light God shines on you, satan has darkness to obscure.
For every opportunity to praise, satan has a plan to silence it.
In the Garden, when Eve first quoted the Word of God to the serpent, his response was, “You shall not surely die. God is playing a trick on you. He knows that the day you eat of the tree, you’ll become a god. So don’t listen to Him.” Satan is a liar nd the father of lies. His intention is to rob, kill, and destroy. We should say with the disciple Peter, “Lord to whom shall we go, thou hast the words of eternal life. ”
The early church was a persecuted church. Under great stress and constant harassment from Pilate, Herod, and the religious leaders of the Jews, they hazarded their lives for the sake of the gospel. After beatings, and imprisonment, they assembled with the other believers and reported the things which they had seen and heard, and knelt down to pray. Listen to their prayer,
Acts 4:29-38
29 And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,
30 By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.
AND THEN THEY HEARD FROM HEAVEN!
31. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
32. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common
33. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
Acts 1:8
But you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you.
You see, God was in the midst of transition. It was a time of change. Jesus opened up a new and living way! A new way of getting a word out was in the heart of God. Instead of coming to a temple, God said I’m going to make you a temple, and I’m going to get inside you. Its my way of relating to you from now on, and I have a plan to make witnesses of every believer!
Acts. 2:1-4
1. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
4. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Oh yes, when you are in one spiritual frame of mind, and hear from heaven, you know that God is moving in great power and delivering grace. Suddenly, you move into a season of suddenly. It implies change, revival, renewal, new hope, new joy, new peace, new power. Something that was dead is now alive!
The first time a sound from heaven is recorded is in Genesis one.
A sound from Heaven reached the earth.
Genesis 1
1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
2. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep; And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3. And God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light.
God did not say let there be neutrons or protons and filament and a bulb. No, when God speaks one thing into existence, then every other thing that is needed shows up!
The earth was created with a sound from heaven.
The church was created with a sound from heaven.
That tells us that when God speaks, something, someone, is listening. Now I don’t know what you need to hear this morning, but I know that the God who gave you life, and a plan, and saved your soul, has something to say to you today!
Sound originates from many places; but for a sound to come from Heaven, its source is from God. A word from God is very important because:
Romans 10:17
“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
There are many speaking a noise today, but the word of God is a sound. We have too many preachers today who preach to scratch itching ears. They don’t want to call sin, SIN. They don’t want to pull the wool off the devil and expose him for the wolf he reall is. They just make noise, but he who declares the infallibility of God’s Eternal Word preaches truth like the sound of a trumpet.
Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on My Holy Mountain.
Chuck Yeager was a test pilot that broke the sound barrier!
Breaking the sound barrier produces what is called a sonic boom. It happens because the environment cannot stand what has just without an explosion. When God’s Word is spoken under divine anointing it will cause anxiety and fear to be blown off, it will cause dread and worry to be blown away, it will cause prison bars and chains of slavery to fly open and drop to the ground.
God’s sound has to drown out the other sounds that you are hearing. For all believers the sound of God’s Word must drown out the threats, the lies, the rumors and innuendo of satan’s accusations.
Jesus said we should pray for things to be on earth as it is in heaven. What are the sounds of heaven? Praise and Worship.
In Ez. 28,
13. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
14. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
15. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
16. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
17. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
18. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
19. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.
God prophesying to Lucifer and identifying who he was and what he did. He was an anointed cherub! He was a leader in Worship! The angels would give him their words of praise and he ould direct it to God. His problem came when iniquity was found in him. Instead of worship flowing through him, he wanted worship to flow to him. I’m talking about the sounds from heaven, and Jesus prayer to let the sounds of heaven be the sounds of earth.
Listen, GOD realized that the worship just didn’t sound right and discovered iniquity(Pride) in Lucifer. GOD threw him out of heaven, and the next place we find him is in the garden God is the one to be worshipped. He alone is worthy. God tripped Lucifer of his right to worship. It was because his sound as tainted. Now we get to give God a sound that used to be ly for angels.
Do you know why the devil hates worship so much? It’s because every time we lift up a praise to God, Lucifer is reminded of what he used to do, and can’t do any more.
God is the Worthy One, not us. He deserves all the glory and all the honor, and all the praise.