Listen Here

If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and don’t forget to rate and review on Apple or Spotify. When you rate and review the show, you help Jaime reach more people.

About the episode:

Jaime Luce’ testimony has daunting personal mountains and treacherous financial valleys. She was trapped in day-to-day stress and couldn’t see a way forward. But how she started is not how she finished! And she wants you to know God has a plan for your life too, no matter how tough it seems. Today, Jaime has been married to the love of her life for almost three decades, owns two companies, and has become an author and podcaster. God’s way is always the blessed way!  Learn more.

Related reading:

• How To Heal Through Responsibility and Faith
• How To Use Your Kingdom Authority In Prayer
• Plug Into A Warfare Prayer Source
• Have a Different Spirit
• Be A Good Gardner

Support the podcast:

• When you sign up for the Free Charisma Plus App, you help support this show. Get your subscription at: https://bit.ly/CharismaAppJaime
• Are you looking for Spirit-filled articles, teachings, insights, prophetic words, and the tools to gain intimate knowledge of the Holy Spirit? Charisma magazine empowers believers to live life in the Spirit. Each issue of Charisma Magazine contains articles, teachings, and insights to gain a more intimate knowledge of the Holy Spirit. https://bit.ly/CharismaSubJaime
• To purchase the Spiritual Warfare Bible. https://bit.ly/CharismaBibleJaime 

Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

0:00:00 – Jaime Luce

This disobedience of what God said, this choice to ignore what God said and listen to the lesser voice now has brought them great shame. Have you ever made a decision and you listened to the wrong voice, even if it was your own? And now you’re embarrassed because of how it turned out? And shame comes and you wish so bad you would have listened to what you knew was truth or right. It may not have been the easy thing, but it’s the truth and it’s right. We need to be mindful of that. We need to be constantly thinking am I actually listening to God? Am I actually? What is the proof of that? Welcome to the Jamie Luce Podcast. Thanks for joining me today.

I am excited to meet with you today and have this conversation about hearing the voice of God, and I’m sure that you have heard messages about hearing God before. Just this past week in my own social media, in my YouTube what do you call that feed I had seen several messages related to hearing the voice of God, and it always seems to be a concern. People really do doubt that they know how to hear from God, that they’ve heard from God, and I want to kind of talk about that a little bit today, as well as talk about the aspect of the importance of listening to hear what God is saying and what that looks like, because we may think we’ve heard God. You know, I’ve been raised in the Pentecostal denomination of churches most of my life and where there was the freedom, the movement of the spirit and one particular church would have on. Regularly we would have maybe a word of tongues given and then a word of interpretation given, or maybe a prophetic word would be given, and many times it was frustrating because you’re listening to this word and if you believe that it’s the Lord speaking. So often, especially the prophetic words, were calls to action, and many times those words would be applauded and from the sound of the people in the congregation, they received the word, but there was never a call to action. There was no. Let’s come to the altar and seek the Lord. Let’s make sure. What does God want us to do? Is there something I need to do with this word, not just to hear a word? What’s the value in hearing something if I don’t do something with it? What is the value in that? And so there has to be, before we even get to hearing God, there has to be a mindset behind that that says I want to hear what God has to say because I plan on taking what he has to say and doing something with it.

His word is not dormant, it is active, it is living, it is sharper than any two-edged sword. It divides even between soul and spirit. I mean that’s a discerning cut, to know what is simply mind, will and emotion of me versus the mind, will and emotion of the Holy Spirit. And that can be tricky because if you are someone who prays and is looking to hear God’s voice and look for his direction in something, you understand that because our heart is deceitfully wicked that’s what the scripture says is deceitfully wicked and we’ll talk about that in a minute. But and who could know it Meaning I many times can deceive myself.

I heard it said recently the worst part about deception is it is so deceiving. I wish I could tell you who I heard say it so I could give them credit. But it’s true, that’s the thing about deception it is so deceiving and we need to understand that there is a position we take if we’re going to hear God, and that position is Father, I understand that you have a plan for my life, you have a direction you want me to go. You have parameters that I need to live in so that I make it to my destination at the appointed time, and by listening, I am preparing my feet for action. Okay, so there are. There are many, many things we need to think through. It’s don’t be so quick to think you want to hear a word from God if you have no intention on doing it, if you don’t plan on obeying it. Okay, so that’s really what I want to talk to us about today.

We’re going to be starting in our, in the in scripture, in Genesis three, but before we get there, I want to remind us and I know this is everybody, this is I do this. I’m sure you have done this, I’m sure you have experienced this, whether it’s you doing it or it’s being done to you. But have you ever been in a conversation that you’re saying something to somebody and at some point you say to them you’re not listening to me. They might be hearing. They are not deaf, unable to hear. They might hear that you are talking to them, but they are not actually listening. And then there is even there are even those who we can go even further, and I’m sure all of us have been guilty of this. So I’m not pointing anybody out the fingers at me too that even when we are listening, we are listening not to hear, but we are listening to respond.

We have a position we’re wanting to defend or a position that we want to to establish, and what we want to say. We want it to get heard and we don’t actually want to hear anything that contradicts or is contrary to what we’re saying. We just want to make sure what we’re saying gets hurt, and when we do that, when we’re listening, we’re only hearing, and the listening that’s going on might be very intent, but it is intent on turning it around to respond with what I want to respond to. That is not listening. That is not listening, and if you do that in your own personal relationships, it will be devastating to the relationship. If you want to be heard, we need to be a hearer. I mean, we know the scripture.

I’ve quoted the scripture on this podcast, I don’t know how many times, but we are to be hearers of the word, right, or not just hearers only. We are doers of the word, sorry. We’re to be doers of the word and not hearers only. So there’s a difference between hearing just to hear, or hearing to act, hearing to receive orders. Hearing, I mean we serve the God of this universe. He made everything. He is God, almighty over everything, over things we don’t even know that might be there. I mean, we know about our little universe to a little degree. We don’t know what’s beyond that. He’s God of it all and that God, when he speaks, we should be paying attention to what he says. He’s the one who authored it all. He knows it all. He has a plan for your life and it would be good for us to pay attention. The scripture calls him the captain of the hosts. That means every heavenly army. He’s the captain. You need defense, you need help? Well, you need to talk to the captain of the guards, right, he’s the captain of the hosts and depending on what our situation is, I mean I get it.

Sometimes we’re in conversation and you know you come. Let’s say you come in the house and you’ve got something you need to talk to somebody about and they’re watching TV just sitting there and you go to talk and you think they’re listening at first and you realize their attention is kind of torn. They’re really listening to the TV and they’re not listening to you. It happens to all of us. We’ve all been in that situation where we’re not focused on what we’re supposed to be hearing, because we have not taken the position that this is important, and so I want to talk about one of the really key things that has to do with this. If we’re going to hear from God, then we have to be in a position to hear God, and there are things we can do to make sure that we are positioned correctly. Okay, so you know, there are things that you can hear.

This has happened to me many times, whether I am reading scripture, or whether I’m in a church service listening to a minister or worshiping, or whether I’m watching someone teach about the Lord on my phone. It doesn’t matter the venue, but I have had this happen, and I’m sure if you have served the Lord any length of time, this has happened to you. In fact, this can happen even not spiritually, and I say that in quotations. It can happen in the natural too, because when you hear truth, when your ear hears an answer, something happens inside of you. When you hear what might be the key to the problem you’re dealing with and you recognize, you just heard it, or you heard a truth that you realize. That’s true and that applies to me and you know exactly what it applies to. Those kind of hearings are things that you just don’t hear, and try to hope that you remember. Those kinds of things that you hear go into you, if you know what I’m saying.

I’ve had things where I just it went in me. It’s like it just immediately took root. It was the heart. The ground of my heart was ready for that particular seed and when it came to me, it immediately found good ground and I felt it and I knew it and I understood it and I embraced it and I knew that it would be fruit for my life. Those are the kinds of truths that the Bible gives us, the kind that are not just a truth but truth that produces fruit in our life, truth that changes our circumstance. And those truths can be gripping, they can be freeing, they can be so true that they it’s the little emoji of the head exploding. You just got the answer.

I feel like today, if we can understand what this, what we’re about to read, and what this teaches us, that we will be able to, with a clear heart and mind, be more sure that we have heard the Lord when he speaks to us, that will understand with discernment that I am not allowing myself to get in the way to hear my own heart’s desires, to hear another’s desires, to hear a lie and not the truth. So, because there is a difference in hearing and laying hold of my prayer today is that you lay hold of this truth and that it goes in you and that, in your receiving, you already know how you’re going to apply that or how that affects a circumstance that you’ve been asking the Lord about today. I am believing today that, as these, this podcast goes out and as you are listening, that those who are faithfully seeking the Lord are going to know some direction today in the thing that you have been asking the Lord about. That that’s what I’m praying for you today.

So let’s let’s paint the picture, then, in Genesis, because we know God is a perfect father, and though he is perfect in every way, and though he created in the garden the perfect environment, everything he did, even in his creation of man. He created Adam and Eve perfectly. He made them perfectly for their task, he made them perfectly for one another. He made them perfectly for their seed after them. He made them perfectly to know how to do what it is they need to do. He made it so that they would always have communion with him, that they would know his voice, know his instruction that he hit. There was not even a difficult task in front of them. Their life as created was created perfectly, perfectly.

And though that’s the case, we see that Adam and Eve allowed what they heard to cause them to walk in disobedience, to have misunderstanding and to ignore God’s instruction, god’s word, by choosing to also listen. So this is that divided listening, like watching TV and trying to hear a conversation. There was a divided ear, a divided listening to a lesser voice. Now, this is a principle in how you listen, there needs to be a priority or a hierarchy or a oh gosh, what’s another way I can put that. It is levels of discerning, to know what voice to listen to.

We are bombarded all day, long of every day. If you own a device, a cellular device of any kind, whether that be a phone, a tablet, a computer, whatever you have, if you own it, there are messages coming at you constantly. It is a barrage on the mind and the ears, the eyes to get into you, to take root in you, and that constant barrage of different voices. If you are not careful, you’ll just get to where oh, I heard that and you just accept things that you hear. You’re just accepting things.

You’re not truly taking what you’re hearing and measuring it against a greater voice, a greater truth, a greater established knowledge we have as Christians, as believers in Jesus Christ, those who believe that the Word of God is inerrant. Inerrant that it does not have errors, it does not contradict itself. It may tell you different perspectives, different people’s perspectives, and you’re getting a fuller picture, but it is not contrary to itself. It does not contradict itself. And the message of the Word never contradicts itself. The themes don’t contradict themselves. So we have to understand that, because we believe this Word is true and that God designed for us to hear this Word exactly as we have it, that the canon that was formed and closed is our scriptures, that’s what we live by. Those are the words we live by. If you believe that, then everything you hear, no matter who you’re hearing it from, you must know that that’s a lesser voice. It gets less priority, it gets less trust, it gets less acknowledgement. You’ve got to establish that If you’re listening to voices and it’s good, the Bible tells us to get counsel, that there’s safety in the council of many, and so you want to get good counsel, but that counsel must come under the truth and the authority of God’s Word. God’s Word is the ultimate. It stops there. The buck stops there. Okay, so let’s turn to Genesis 3. And I’m going to start reading in verse one, and we’re going to read through probably around verse 17 somewhere in there, and then I’m going to take you and talk about John the disciple not John the Baptist, but John the disciple and we’re going to show you some things that help us to prove out what listening really looks like, what hearing God and listening to him really looks like. So here we go.

Chapter three, verse one the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden? So right off the bat, we can see that the devil has come in. The serpent has already twisted what God said, and he’s twisting it so slightly as to get Eve’s attention and to pull her into conversation with him, so that she will hear what he has to say. Okay, and he’s already a twisting, because God didn’t tell them that they could not eat of every tree. He specifically told them to only not eat one tree, not every tree. They actually had access to everything. It was the actual opposite of what the enemy was saying. Okay, did God really say and he loves to do that to us today.

You may have felt like you heard direction from the Lord and the enemy comes right away. Did God really say that? Was that really God? Did he say it? And when he says it, when he asks you, he’s going to twist. He’s going to twist it. So we’ve got to be listening carefully. We’ve got to truly be listening, to be focused on the listening, and this is what Eve responds with. Of course, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, okay, so she thinks she’s combating this conversation.

Well, the woman replied it’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said you must not eat it or even touch it. If you do, you will die. Now this is a problem, because God didn’t tell Eve that she couldn’t eat the trees in the garden. God told Adam Okay, so Eve’s already on unsure ground, because she probably should have said you know, let me go see what God said, let me double check what God said, you know? Or go to Adam and make sure that she heard correctly. What did God say about this to you, adam? What was God’s word to you? But instead Eve takes what she has heard from her husband Adam not actually God and adds a provision that God never said. God never said don’t touch it, he just said don’t eat it. So already we’ve got Eve almost in that twist that the enemy is doing, pulling her towards altering what God said. She’s being pulled in a direction to alter what God has said. Okay, we’ve got to be watching out for this.

If God gave you an instruction and you feel tempted to kind of add to that a little, to kind of change its full meaning, to kind of twist it just a little bit because that’s more comfortable or you like that better or it’s less offensive, if you need to share that and it helps you to give into the weakness that you might have, mine I don’t like to confront. I have to. I have to make up my mind, I have to prepare myself. If I have to confront. That doesn’t come naturally to me. I naturally am a people pleaser. My cousin and I are similar in our personalities and she likes to say I’m a recovering people pleaser. I say the same thing. I recognize how the enemy has used that, and so now my antenna are up and I’m paying attention and I have been vigorously putting into practice, noticing, trying to use discernment on things that I normally would kind of let slip, and and making sure that I confront what I need to confront and say what I need to say.

And this is something we have to do. We’ve got to be able to grow according to the word. We’ve got to be able to be people who can be trustworthy with the word If God’s going to say it to us. There’s this is a passage I should have looked up and I didn’t look it up to give you, but I want to say that it’s in the book of Mark but that we have. When God gives to us his word, he expects us to do something with that word, and then, if we do, he gives us more. If he, if we don’t do something with what he gives us, then he’s not going to give us more. He was applying the exact same principles that he had just taught them about finances, that money can be used. Reap what you sow.

But it was the same thing with if you are somebody that God gives something to, or the, the parable of the talents. It’s the same idea. If I give it to you, I expect you to make more of it. I expect you to take it and use it. Be fruitful with what I give you. If you don’t use what I give you, I’m not going to waste my seed and give you more. So there’s a, there’s a principle there that’s at work.

So let’s get back to the scripture. We are not. You must not eat it or even touch it. If you do, you will die. The enemy now this literally in my Bible, has an exclamation point the enemy, the serpent, says very sharply, very strongly you won’t die. The serpent replied to the woman. God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil. So, immediately, what is the serpent done? He’s now saying that God lied to you and he actually is holding out on you. So now, what’s the problem? Now? Now, we don’t trust what God said. And why doesn’t she trust what God said? Why, why didn’t she refute it? Because she didn’t actually hear God say it. She heard it from Adam and maybe Adam was wrong, maybe Adam didn’t get this right, maybe this hasn’t been conveyed to her right.

It’s so important that you know that you’ve heard from the Lord and if you’ve heard from him, write it down. Don’t allow anybody to come steal it. Make sure the word is in good ground in your heart. Make sure you’re cultivating your heart, cultivating your ears to hear, cultivating your motives. Because if it’s, if your motive is to honor God, to please God, to obey God, if that’s your motivation, then that word is going to go deep and you’re not going to be moved. You’re going to know what God said to you. But if you have a motivation that is for self, that is not, that is contrary to God’s will. If it’s not you seeking first the kingdom of God, but instead you’re seeking your kingdom first, you know, if we get those things out of whack, we will not have the confidence we need in what we believe. We’ve heard God say so let’s go on Verse six.

The woman was convinced. So this little exchange went from knowing what God said where she says to him of course we may. She starts this conversation with the enemy and of course she knows what the truth is and all it took was a couple sentences and it says she was convinced the enemy had slyly got right in there and convinced her. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. Sounds like a good thing to want. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some of some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it too. Now we’re not going to talk about Adam right now, but you know it’s here, he was with her. He’s the one who did hear the word. So he was listening to this. He heard this exchange and did not refute it. He knew what God said. He knew what God said.

So this, we’ve got to see ourselves in this folks. It’s easy to look at these stories and think, yeah, I know that story and not apply it to our own lives, to not say, am I listening to something I shouldn’t be listening to? Am I allowing the enemy to steal the word of God? This goes hand in hand with the parable Jesus taught of the parable of the sower, that the word goes out and depends on the ground that it’s hitting on whether that word takes root or not. We’ve got to see this. We’ve got to see the truth and look at are we what? Who are we listening to? They had their father, god of this world, of the universe, of all that is known and unknown, all that’s knowable and unknowable. He is God, and instead they’re listening to the lesser, to the created being, the lesser. At that moment their eyes were opened and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness, so they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

Now I had back you’ll need to go back and look for this and I didn’t grab the episode number ahead of coming on to record today. But I had evangelist Tiff Shuttlesworth on as a guest and he talked about how Satan tempts us with sin, and he talked about the first thing you do is you see, then you want, then you take, and these are the traps that the enemy uses for sin. And so we peek at it, we look at it, then we decide it’s desirable, we want it, and then we partake of it and do something we shouldn’t do, and ultimately that affects others because she gave it. So if you want to go back and hear that I suggest you do. It’s a phenomenal message that he shared with us, great insight. But this disobedience of what God said, this choice to ignore what God said and listen to the lesser voice now has brought them great shame. Have you ever made a decision and you listened to the wrong voice, even if it was your own? And now you’re embarrassed because of how it turned out and shame comes and you wish so bad you would have listened to what you knew was truth or right. It may not have been the easy thing, but it’s the truth and it’s right. We need to be mindful of that. We need to be constantly thinking am I actually listening to God? Am I actually? What is the proof of that? Well, we’ll get there. We’ll get there.

Verse number eight when the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called the man where are you? Where are you? Such a great question. I love this question and I love the question where is your faith? I did a message on that gosh a year and a half or more ago about where is your faith. ‘

We put our faith in the wrong things so many times and God had to ask His disciples where is your faith? Not that. Do you have faith? Why don’t you have it? Not, you don’t have faith. You have faith in the wrong things. Where is your faith? Where are you putting your faith? And this question is where are you? Where are you? Are you sitting on the couch watching TV and not really listening? Where are you? Are you sitting waiting to hear what God would say, but then you’re ready to refute it because that’s not really you really want to hear, that. That’s not really what you want to hear. Where are you? Adam replied. I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked. Who told you you were naked?

The Lord had asked have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat? Okay, here’s the big question Did you do what I told you not to do? You would think that this is only a question that we would have to ask young children Did you do what I told you not to do? Most of these are grown. God created them grown, not babies. He created them grown and we are not. We don’t have that luxury of saying it’s me as a child. We’re grown. Now we have to take responsibility and we have to answer this question have you partaken of what I told you commanded you not to touch? Did you eat it? Did you do what I told you not to do?

Because what you’re saying and what you’re feeling should not be your normal experience. This allows us to know that God is allowing Adam and Eve to understand that, when you walk with me in our relationship, and what you hear from me, what I command of you, what I expect of you, how this relationship works, you need to know it’s not normal, when you walk with me, to feel shame. In fact, we know that is still true because the scripture tells us there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. So if we’re feeling those things, if we’re feeling guilt and we’re feeling shame, that is not a feeling that comes when we’ve done what God has asked us to do. Those are not the results of an obedient listening heart. Instead, something else is going on and God’s teaching and pointing this out to them. The man replied it was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit and I ate it Immediately, it’s the blame game, and we’ve talked about this before.

I know you’ve heard this before, but it’s bears repeating. If you, immediately upon questioning in your heart, having a conversation with the Lord and you’re saying this is happening and that’s happening, and we’re giving him our woes and our troubles, and what causes us pain and the shame, if our first response is it’s somebody else’s fault Now, I’m not talking about when you have truly been victimized, that’s not what I’m talking about today. But in our normal way of doing things, we tend to do this, well, I wouldn’t have done it if that well, that person did this and said this and I lost my temper, or that person, if they wouldn’t have done that, I wouldn’t have had to do this. And we just allow that spirit of offense and that blame of others come in. We don’t want to take responsibility, we want to reject responsibility. We want to put it on God, put it on people, put it on the enemy, put it somewhere else, but we don’t want to take it. Then the Lord, god, asked the woman what have you done? What have you done? And we need to think about that. What did we actually do? Did we hear God? Did we have a conversation we shouldn’t have had with the enemy.

Hi, my name is Jamie Luce. I wanted to share with you some information about a brand new book entitled you Don’t Need Money, you Just Need God. It’s a playbook for miraculous provision, and I want to share it with you because it solves the problem we are all facing right now. The economy is going crazy, gas prices are soaring, there’s wars and rumors of wars. We’ve got everything hitting us all at once, with interest rates rising. You need to know what to do, and so many times we think we need the money, but you don’t need money. I’m telling you. The answer is you need God, and that’s exactly what we want to teach you through this book. We’ll give you practical ways to know what to do and how to do it, so that you get answers now. You can find my book on Amazon. You can also go to jamieluce.com. You can also find this book at you Don’t Need Money. Youjustneedgod.com. This book is available today.

Should we allow God’s word to be twisted?

What happened? What happened? The Lord’s wanting her to think about this and have this hard talk? What happened? What have you done? The serpent deceived me. She replied so immediately she says it’s the serpent’s fault Instead of. I didn’t listen to what you said, god, and I allowed myself to listen to what the enemy said and I obeyed him. You know it’s been said that you obey, you serve whatever you fear, whoever you fear, and it’s the same thing with obeying. Obeying is serving, obedience is serving. And so if I am listening to a lesser, there’s only a couple options Either I am wanting something I shouldn’t want, or I am afraid of someone I should not be afraid of, or something that I shouldn’t be afraid of. The serpent deceived me, she replied. That’s why I ate it. So the only reason I ate it is because he deceived me.

Then the Lord God, said to the serpent so he’s going to deal with all of them. Because you have done this, you are cursed. Now, was he the instigator? Absolutely he was. So God dealt with him. It started with him More than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly. So for this deceit, there is strict and swift, quick punishment. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live, and I will cause hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head and you will strike his heel. And he’s talking about Jesus. Then he said to the woman I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy and in pain, you will give birth Boy.

I don’t think this is just talking about natural birth, of having children. I believe this is spiritual too. We are as females, we carry things in us and we birth them in prayer, and it can be a painful process. Birthing can be. It’s a painful, bloody mess, and that is because of sin, that is because of disobedience, that is, from listening to the wrong source. Listening to the wrong source and you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you. I mean, we’re living in this curse right now. The women’s lib thing is ridiculous on wanting to completely undermine any maleness in the world, telling every male that every bit of maleness that God gave them, that they were born with and with purpose, born that way, god’s design, born that way, told them that it’s toxic. Okay, that’s wrong in itself too.

This curse comes from this particular sin of listening to the wrong thing. And if you’re listening to the culture, if you’re listening to the woke ideologies and saying that, well, times have changed, and you’re letting the voices of today out, outrank the Bible, outrank God’s word, then you’re in trouble. You have no ground to stand on and this will lead to the same kind of curses in your life. If you want to be free from the curse, it takes obedience to God’s word to be free from that curse, because if I’m disobedient to the word I’m going to pay the consequences. That’s the curse of sin. Death is the curse of sin, and death can infiltrate in all kinds of things. It can be death of relationships, death of purpose, death of of your, of a calling. So many things. It’s awful of your identity, of your worth, verse 17,.

And to the man he said if God had spoken, I’m sorry, I’m reading a note, sorry. And to the man he said since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree, what is he saying? You didn’t listen to the serpent Adam, but you still listened to a lesser voice. I commanded you and you listened to your wife instead. You didn’t listen to me. You let somebody that you’re in relationship with, somebody, you’re very close with somebody you trust. And we do this. Folks, we have to listen to God first. We have to listen to God first. But because he listened to his wife, the lesser, the weaker even of the two of them. She is the weaker vessel. He listened to the lesser, even of himself, let alone God.

Okay, whose fruit I commanded you not to eat. The ground is cursed because of you, boy, that’s heavy, boy, that’s really heavy and I know it’s heavy. I’m sorry, I’m not trying to, not trying to hammer you, but I do want you to hear truth, because if you can hear truth, it’s truth that makes free, it is truth that enables us to live free from these curses, and what I’m hoping to do is stir you up. If any of this is resonating and you have listened to wrong voices, I’m not trying to condemn you. I am actually trying to help you to understand. Okay, lord, I’m going to repent and I’m going to listen and do what you have said, so that I can bring correction and write alignment in my life, to do what it is that I need to do, so that I am blessed and not cursed. Let’s go to. Well, I want to give this to you.

I wrote this question down. There’s a question that we can ask ourselves that will help us not to fall into this trap that Adam and Eve fell into, and this is the question and you may want to write this down so that you can be asking this. I actually heard this question from somebody that I love and trust, who is above me. I didn’t. I didn’t necessarily hear this question from the Lord, though I believe this person did, because when you hear it, it lines up. It lines up okay, and this will help you if you will use this question when you are trying to make decisions and trying to get the leading of the Holy Spirit in a certain an area in your life or a decision you need to make, or whatever.

This is the question who am I loving? Who am I loving by making this choice or doing this thing or that? Who am I loving? Okay, who am I loving? Am I loving the Lord? Am I loving a person? Now, it’s not wrong to love a person, to make a decision that’s in service to a person. Just make sure that God hasn’t told you not to do that. Just make sure that it is not an opposition to something that the Lord has spoken to you, that the Lord says that His Word guides us, that wisdom that we get from the Word is not contrary to the wisdom of God. And if it’s not contrary, then bless God, you can bless people and love people. But if you are making a decision and you take it to its base, core, the motivation, who am I loving by doing this? Am I doing it for myself? Am I loving myself and I’m doing this out of selfish motivation? Am I doing this for a spouse, a child? Am I doing this for a friend? Am I doing this for the Lord? Who am I doing this for? Who am I truly listening to? Who am I doing this for?

Okay, so I want us to go and let’s look at John, the disciple John, because John, he’s an important man. He wrote four of the books of the New Testament. So you’ve got the book of John, then you have first, second and third John, and then you’ve got while he was exiled on the Isle of Patmos. He wrote the book of Revelation, which he wrote his Revelation that he got, and we need to understand that this man was also called the beloved. He’s the one that we see laying on Jesus, so close that he could hear the whisper of what Jesus would say, so close to his heartbeat. He’s the one that this, that the book says that he is the disciple that Jesus loved. I mean, this is.

This is coming from somebody who he’s one of the sons of thunder. He is one of the sons of Zebedee, him and his brother James, and so both of them were disciples. John was there, one of the three. Peter, james and John were the three that went with Jesus. They were the inner circle. They were the ones who went with him onto the Mount of Transfiguration. They saw Jesus transfigured before their eyes.

These, this man is if there’s a toss up in my head between Peter and John, who was the closest to Jesus, and this is really, if we’re going to listen to a voice, right, we have scripture of it’s now scripture, but what John is saying, that Jesus said so, this is somebody. This would be like saying God told Adam and we’re Eve Okay, god said this and John’s recording now. God said this and I’m telling you what he said. So I want you to understand this is important. Who we listen to is important. What God’s word says is important, and I want you to understand that so that you can take seriously what he’s saying, because he says this over and over and over again. So I’m going to give you a ton of scriptures and I want you to see that he does not contradict himself, that he keeps saying the same thing over and over. And if it’s that important, we need to pay attention.

And this has to do with if, what it looks like, what the outward. Remember how I said that when God said to Eve it shouldn’t look like this to Adam. I mean that you shouldn’t have shame if you’re walking in obedience to my word. You shouldn’t be walking in shame and feeling these things that you’re feeling. So what does it look like then? If I am hearing God, right, if I’m hearing and I’m listening and I’m doing, what does that look like? So I want you to get this whole picture.

Okay, so turn with me to the book of John, chapter 14, verse 15, and most of these are in the oh gosh, I want to say I know one was in the NASB. There might be some in the NLT. I forgot to write them all down. I apologize. I’d like to give you which version I’m reading, but anyway, the message doesn’t change.

Okay, so John 14, 15 says if you love me, you will keep my Commandments. Now, remember, I asked the question who are you loving by the decisions you’re about to make? If you love the Lord, if you’re in relationship to him. How do you know that you truly love him? How do you know that you are, that you value what he says and that that’s what you will obey and listen to? Because if you love me, you will keep my commandments. So John 14, verse 15, says Go to first John, chapter 5, and we’re going to read verse 2 and 3 and it says by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. So he’s saying it’s evident if you love God’s children and if you love God by this one thing, you will keep my commandments. So it’s what we just read in John 14, 15. If you love me, you keep my commandments.

Let’s keep reading, for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. He says that is loving God if we’re not keeping what God commanded us. God said to adam in the good in the garden Didn’t I command you? Did you eat of the tree that I commanded you not to eat? That was a commandment. If God’s asking you to do something, that’s a commandment for you. And he says for this is the love of God that you keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome.

So if the enemies lie to you is you can’t do that, that’s too hard for you. You know that. That that’s like me saying when I told you that it’s not easy for me and I have to prepare myself. I have to know that that’s what God wants me to do. If I’m going to confront, I have to get my thoughts in order and I prepare myself and know what God wants me to say and do, so that I can Obey and do what he’s telling me to do. That would be me not doing that, okay, that would be me giving into myself and saying I can’t do that. That’s not my personality, it’s just too hard for me. It’s an excuse, and I’m talking to me too. We cannot excuse ourselves. We cannot say that’s just too hard, I just can’t do that. I just can’t do it, I’m just too afraid, I’m too afraid. I’m too afraid, while the bible is full of fear knots. You serve who you fear.

So if you don’t fear God, then by all means you’re going to do all those things. You’re not going to listen to his commandments. We fear God. We fear him because we know he’s God. His ways are right and disobeying him brings a curse. He’s not being mean folks. He’s not putting burdens on you that are too heavy to bear. He’s saying I’m trying to spare you from the curse of sin. This is what happens when you disobey me. That’s like a parent saying don’t touch that. If you do, you’re going to burn your hand. My little granddaughter we have several fireplaces in the house and she goes just to say don’t touch it. Don’t touch it. That’s her little thing, don’t touch it. She knows we’ve taught her you don’t touch a fireplace, you don’t put your hand there, you’re going to get burned. We don’t touch that. And so we give her those commandments. And I’m doing that not because I’m mean or it’s burdensome to tell her not to do that. I’m doing that because I don’t want her to get burned and be hurt. I care about her. I want her to walk in parameters that keep her healthy and safe and happy, and that’s what God wants for you.

Let’s look at another one. 1 John, chapter 2, verses 3 to 5. Now, by this we know that we know him. Okay, this is how you can tell if you really know God, if we keep his commandments. He who says I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. That is bold and brash and right in your face. But whoever keeps his word, truly, the love of God is perfected in him. By this, we know that we are in him. Oh, that’s so good. That’s so good. Let’s go back to John 14. Let’s read verse. Oh, I wrote myself a note not to cut that short. Let’s go. Okay, john 14. I was going to read only verse 23 and 24, but we’re going to read verse 15 to 26. Let’s turn there, john 14. 15 to 26.

If you love me, obey my commandments and I will ask the Father and he will give you another advocate who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth. We’re talking about hearing from God to know what to do. He will lead you into all truth. The world cannot receive him because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans. I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live. You also will live when I am raised to life again. You will know that I am in my father and you are in me and I am in you.

Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me, and because they love me, my father will love them and I will love them and reveal myself to each of them. He’s saying I will reveal myself to you, I will answer you, I will speak to you, I will give you direction. Judas not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name said to him Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large? Jesus replied all who love me will do what I say. My father will love them and we will come and make our home with each of them. One who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the father who sent me.

I am telling you these things now, while I am still with you, but when the father sends the advocate as my representative that is the Holy Spirit. He will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. Oh, that’s such a wonderful promise, because when we think I don’t know God, I don’t know what you said, I don’t remember. What did you say to me? I mean, we could be feeling like Eve and I’m not sure what God said, and I think this is what he said, and we could be confused. And yet we have. If we are truly obedient to God’s commands, then he has made his home in us. He is not the Holy Spirit who will lead us, who will remind us of what God has said, who will help us to be obedient to what God has commanded us to be obedient to. He is so good, he will not leave us, he will not forsake us. I talked about that last week.

Let’s go to 1 John 3, verse 18. Here it is again, my little children, he loves you so much. My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. In truth is from the inner man. Folks, your understanding and your intentions, and I, literally I just did those there were. There were several more and I just didn’t.

I knew we would run out of time and I didn’t give them all to you, but you could look them up all the scriptures on what it is to obey the commandments, and this is all a picture of what the out, the outworkings of loving God looks like the outworkings of being somebody who is in, in proximity to hear what he is saying, and I can know that I am doing what God has said, that I have heard him correctly, if I’m following his commandments, if I’m doing what he’s asked me to do, you might be saying but Jamie, I’m not asking him about something that has to do with the 10 commandments and that just doesn’t, that doesn’t help me, I don’t. I don’t know what to do. And the truth is, if you are somebody who is following God’s commands, as a rule, his promise is to you that if you are somebody who makes it your desire you love, you’re making your choices because you love me and you love me by following my commandments. You have walked this pattern. If you do, you can be assured that if you are in confusion right now, but you are asking the Lord for direction, the Holy Spirit was given for that very purpose to remind you of what Jesus has said and now granted, to remind you means you know what he said and he’s reminding you what he has said.

So that means you’ve got to be in your word, you’ve got to be testing what you’re hearing. You know, we know that we have to test the spirits. If the spirit is moving and and you hear people giving words, we don’t just accept those words, even if they sound nice, even if they sound, you know, spiritual. We have to test them. What are we testing them against? We’re testing them against the truth of God’s word. We’re testing them to see as did God really say. We don’t allow the enemy to slither in and twist what God said and say well, I heard a prophetic word. The prophetic word is not this word. It cannot be different or contrary to this word. This is the end. All be all.

So if it, if it lines up with that word, if it’s not different, not contrary to this word, and it’s the answer you were looking for, then, oh bless God, you can take that word, you can allow, like I said at the beginning, you can take that word and that word can go in you. It can be a word that helps lead you to know what’s direction to take, what’s, which job to take, what house to buy, what, what person to marry, what friend to to allow into your life, what school to attend, what job you’re going to be doing, what ministry task you want you to put your hands to all of it. All of it, god. You will get the answers by your desire to truly hear. And what is the evidence that you truly do, that you will obey his commandments? This was not a lesson in how to hear God. It’s an outworking.

Folks, hearing God is an outworking of your relationship with him. You will hear him. You will If you’re reading his word. You’ll hear him If you are given to prayer and you are someone who desires to please the Lord and you obey what he says to you in scripture. Then, yes, even if there’s a question that you don’t seem to see in scripture, you’ll be surprised. God will show you the what the answer is. He will reveal it to you by his word, by his spirit. He will remind you it is not impossible to hear the voice of God. We all can hear him speak. We all should hear him speak. That is his promise to us. My children know my voice. He does have a voice and we can hear it. We can know it. We can know what decision to make.

Let’s look, let’s examine. Am I listening to respond, or am I listening to obey, or am I even listening at all? Am I listening to the wrong voices? Have I not put God’s word above the people in my life? Have I allowed people to be my barometer, that I obey what someone else says to me, not what God says? We’ve got to examine those things and once we know that, sets us on the course to truly hear, walk in obedience and see the fruit and the blessing of God, which is the opposite of having to deal with the curse and what Satan would try to do or rob you and whichever way he would try to do that in your life.

So I encourage you, get in your word. Folks, get in your word. Don’t let the enemy bring doubt. If the enemy says did God say? Well, go get the Bible and find out what did God say? There is safety in his word. His word cannot fail. His word is everlasting, it endures, it will be and do what it was created to be and do. Thank you so much for joining me today. I pray this was a blessing to you. If give us a like and a share, visit me on my website at jamieluce.com or email me at mail at jamieluce.com. It was my treat to be with you today. We’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.

1:01:36 – Jaime Luce

Thank you for listening to the Jamie Luce Podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please rate and review the show on Apple or Spotify and subscribe wherever you listen. For more, visit jamieluce.com that’s J-A-I-M-E-L-U-C-E.com. You’ll find a free chapter of her new book. You Don’t Need Money, you Just Need God and a fresh word from Jamie on the blog. See you next week.