4 Keys to Hearing God's Voice Session 10

Main Ideas

The presenter offers two “tuning dials” for times when someone is trying to hear God through prayer or journaling but feels unable to. He presents them as a practical Christian framework based on the biblical tabernacle and passages in Hebrews.

1. The Tabernacle as a Pattern for Spiritual Life

Drawing on Hebrews 8:5, the presenter describes the tabernacle as a copy or shadow of heavenly things and applies its three sections to a person:

• Outer court — body: Associated with natural, sensory knowledge.
• Holy place — soul: Associated with understanding and illumination.
• Holy of Holies — spirit: Associated with direct revelation from God.

In this model, drawing closer to God means moving from natural awareness, through spiritual illumination, toward direct revelation.

2. The First Tuning Dial: Examine the Tabernacle’s Features

The presenter recommends using the tabernacle’s features as a checklist when prayer or journaling feels blocked. He begins with entering through the gate, then identifies six features to examine:

• Gate — praise and worship: The gate is associated with the tribe of Judah, whose name he connects with praise. He encourages approaching God with thanksgiving.
• Altar — surrender and sacrifice: Ask whether you have offered yourself as a “living sacrifice” and surrendered your preferred outcome. Clinging to a particular answer, he says, can hinder hearing God’s will.
• Laver — Scripture and cleansing: Ask whether you have been regularly reading and receiving the Bible’s “washing,” rather than neglecting Scripture.
• Table of showbread — fellowship and forgiveness: Consider whether you are living in harmony with other Christians and have let go of anger, bitterness, resentment, and judgment.
• Lampstand — illumination by the Holy Spirit: Ask whether you are praying over Scripture and receiving insight from it, rather than reading mechanically.
• Altar of incense — worship and gratitude: Examine whether you are worshipping and giving thanks, or instead dwelling on complaints and negativity. The presenter says worship can help bring one’s emotional life into balance.
• Ark of the Covenant — life in God’s presence: He associates its contents and covering with several further questions:
  • Manna: Are you receiving God’s daily provision and the Spirit’s “living water”?
  • Aaron’s budding rod: Are you living and ministering with God-given authority?
  • The commandments: Are you seeking to live obediently?
  • The mercy seat: Have you repented and received cleansing through Jesus’ blood?

The presenter says he uses this checklist selectively. When he can pray and journal readily, he does not go through it; when he feels blocked, he checks where he may be stuck.

3. The Second Tuning Dial: Four Conditions from Hebrews 10:19–22

If the tabernacle checklist does not resolve the difficulty, the presenter suggests examining four conditions he draws from Hebrews 10:19–22:

• A sincere or true heart: Do you genuinely want to hear what God might say, even if the answer is difficult or unwelcome?
• Full assurance of faith: Are you approaching prayer with trust, or are doubt and skepticism preventing you from receiving? He describes his own struggle with doubt and says faith developed through time and practice.
• A conscience cleansed from sin: Have you confessed sins that are weighing on you and asked for cleansing through Jesus?
• Being washed with pure water: Have you acted on what you believe God told you previously? The presenter connects this with the “Rhema,” or spoken word, and warns that ignoring prior guidance may obstruct further revelation.

He says that working through these two checklists has helped him hear God consistently, presenting this as his own experience and teaching.

Internalizing a New Truth

The presenter emphasizes that hearing a teaching is not the same as making it part of one’s life. He describes four stages for internalizing a new truth:

1. Hear the idea.
2. Receive revelation or insight that makes the truth personally meaningful.
3. Develop the skills to apply it through the Spirit’s help and diligent practice. He suggests this stage may take around three months.
4. Express the truth naturally in daily life.

He cautions that growth is gradual, not automatic. Using Jesus’ parable of the seed, he describes obstacles such as doubt, fear, apathy, distraction by life’s demands, and hearing an idea without seeking personal understanding. The goal, he says, is to persevere until the truth bears fruit.

Christian Leadership University Promotion

The latter part of the session promotes Christian Leadership University (CLU) as a way to pursue spiritual growth through courses, materials, and a personal instructor or coach. The presenter describes its approach as beginning with real-life issues, using prayerful reflection and interaction with the Holy Spirit, and aiming for personal transformation rather than simply accumulating information.

He says courses generally run for 12 weeks, involve about five hours of work each week, and can be completed from home. He also mentions a course on hearing God’s voice, other study areas and degree options, financial aid, and a temporary event discount.

The presenter encourages listeners to commit to learning and involve spiritual advisers. He says the course requires students to have three spiritual advisers and share their journaling with them.

Speakers and Sources Featured

• Primary presenter: Mark Virkler, identified through the video’s channel and title context.
• Biblical sources cited: Hebrews 8:5; Hebrews 10:19–22; Jesus’ parable of the seed and his teaching about hearing; passages concerning praise, fellowship, obedience, and forgiveness; and the tabernacle’s furnishings and practices in the Old Testament.
• Named testimonial sources quoted or referenced: Stacey Horne, John Arnott, Peter Lord, and Paul Young (the subtitle transcription of this name is unclear).
• Other testimonial voices: Several unnamed Christian Leadership University students, including a student described as being from Toronto.
• People named in the university section: Ron Luce, Lamar Bachman, Todd Farley, Jim Goll, Richard Booker, Dr. Paul Richardson, and C. Peter Wagner.