Drawing Near to God #8: Knowing His Voice Above Every Other Voice

Drawing near to God is not only for the mountaintop moments when the worship is loud and nobody is against you. In this message, the speaker teaches that God wants us to press in when there is opposition, and that the key is learning to know His voice above every other voice: the voice of the enemy, the voices of other people, and the voice in our own head. He builds the message on James 4:7–10 and three of Jesus’ instructions about hearing. This message continues from Drawing Near to God #7: Hearing Until His Voice Is the Loudest.

Below you will find the full video, a structured summary of the sermon, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps you can take this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This message was posted by NTC Ministries on February 17, 2026, as the eighth part of the Drawing Near to God series. It runs about 69 minutes and closes with a prayer for cleansing and for God’s plans of peace, hope and a future to be fulfilled in the congregation.

The speaker opens by naming the problem: there are many voices. There is the voice of Satan, the voice of God, and our own inner voice, which most of us believe more than any other. Even good things, such as a spouse, a job or a hobby, can draw us away from intimacy with God. Jesus said His sheep know His voice and will not follow a stranger (John 10:27). If we are following other voices, the speaker warns, His voice has become the stranger to us.

Drawing Near to God Means Sacrifice

The foundation text is James 4:7–10: submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee, draw near to God and He will draw near to you, and humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. James was writing to believers scattered by persecution, living among cultures that pulled against the voice of God. Their loyalty, the passage says, was divided.

The speaker warns against focusing on other people’s crooked paths instead of our own. We are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12), while staying open to the pastors, teachers and parents God has placed in our lives. Attitudes toward those with authority in our lives, he says, hurt us more than anything others say or do to us.

He then explains that the Hebrew idea behind drawing near is to offer sacrifice. When you fast, you sacrifice food to be closer to God. When you pray, you sacrifice time you could spend on other things. When you give, you sacrifice money you could use elsewhere. Singing and worshiping are drawing near too. The hard seasons of life, he says, are exactly when it matters most to put effort into drawing near to God.

Take Heed What You Hear and How You Hear

The speaker sets out three things Jesus taught about hearing. The first is in Mark 4:24–25: “Take heed what you hear.” With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you, and to you who hear, more will be given. If you keep pressing in to hear good things, things of God and of great expectation, more of that will be given to you. If you choose to listen to slander, gossip and corrosive talk, even the good you have will be taken away.

The second is in Luke 8:18: “Therefore take heed how you hear.” The outcome is the same. Once you have been offended, the speaker says, you will hear everything that person says through your hurt, even when they speak kindly to you. There is a twist in it, and you no longer take words as they are meant.

He shares that as a young man he took a wrong path with drugs and alcohol and ended up in jail. He read his Bible cover to cover, and the only thing he took from it was offense at a verse about men’s long hair. That, he says, showed how he was hearing: not with a pure heart. God did not give up on him, and the day he gave his life totally over, his countenance changed so much that his wife asked him what had happened.

If what you hear always seems skewed, he says, it is not them; it is your heart. Take it to God. Humble yourself before Him, as James says, and then resist the devil. Without that, God can seem to stay at arm’s length, and we end up questioning Him more than knowing Him.

Be Still and Incline Your Ear

The third instruction is to get quiet. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” The speaker reads the nations as people: God’s voice will be lifted above the voices of everyone contending with you. The earth stands for circumstances, so His voice will also be lifted above the circumstances opposing what He wants for you.

The power of God’s voice, he teaches, is not in our head but in our heart. That is why faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17): you keep hearing until His word gets into your heart, and then faith is birthed. He compares it to a grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies before a new stalk comes up. Out of the heart flow the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23), so the heart must be guarded.

Proverbs 4:20–22 tells us to “incline your ear to my sayings” and to keep them in the midst of your heart, for they are life and health. The speaker pictures pushing a loaded wheelbarrow across a flat gym floor, easy, and then up a slope, which takes real effort. That is what inclining the ear means: putting effort into hearing God rather than the problem or the thought that keeps coming back.

When the same negative thought echoes again and again, keeping you awake at night, he calls it a stronghold, like a fort with lookout towers repeating the same message from every side. He admits he has tried to resist such thoughts and nothing seemed to happen, because he had not first submitted himself to God, rested before Him and meditated on what He said.

That cleansing is part of drawing near. Before the Last Supper, Jesus washed the disciples’ feet and told Peter that unless He washed him, Peter had no part with Him (John 13:5–8). When we confess what is wrong in us, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Seek the Peace of the City

The speaker turns to Jeremiah 29:4–11, a passage he also uses in leadership teaching. Israel had been carried captive to Babylon as slaves, and they were complaining. God told them to build houses, plant gardens, marry and have children, and to increase there and not diminish. It was the same word He gave Adam: be fruitful and multiply wherever you are.

He applies it to work and home. If your boss corrects you and you take an attitude, you end up only half present, grumbling inside, and you hurt yourself. God told the captives to seek the peace of the city and pray for it, because in its peace they would have peace. So pray for the business you work for and help it grow. Grumble constantly about your spouse, he warns, and you may not have one for long.

God also told the captives not to listen to the false prophets among them, who prophesied only doom, or to the dreams they caused themselves to dream. The speaker points to the doom-and-gloom voices on social media and to the imaginations in our own heads that say someone secretly hates us. Do not listen, he says. Then comes the promise: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

One wrong thought, he warns, can steal that plan from us. Children believe everything said on the playground, but mature believers discern, testing the spirits (1 John 4:1). Satan uses our feelings and speaks a voice that makes those feelings seem justified. But when we cast down those thoughts, Jeremiah 29:12–13 promises that we will call on God and He will listen, and we will find Him when we search for Him with all our heart.

He urges the church to give half an hour a day to reading the Bible and half an hour to simply being quiet before the Lord. Your world will change, he says. Your spouse may be exactly the same, but you will see them differently, because your heart has been cleansed and you are looking through a clear lens.

He illustrates with a visiting pastor who came to help hang drywall when the church was preparing its daycare space. When someone corrected how he was hanging the sheets, he took deep offense and kept saying he was no good. The speaker began praying with him a couple of times a week. He asked him to go back to the worst time of his life and let Jesus meet him there, and he says the man’s countenance changed as God cleansed his heart.

The Woman at the Well and Peace Without Process

He describes two anointings. The outer anointing is gifts and callings, which flow because of the demand people put on them. The inner anointing is who we are and who we let God make us, and it comes by our own desire for it. A person can look successful while inside they are a house of cards.

In John 4:9–10, the Samaritan woman comes to the well at noon, when no one else would be there. She is surprised that a Jew would ask her for a drink. Jesus answers that if she knew the gift of God and who was asking, she would ask Him and He would give her living water. The speaker hears in her the same voice as the discouraged pastor: everyone hates me, and God does not like me either.

When Jesus tells her to call her husband, she admits she has none, and He tells her she has had five. The speaker compares this to people who go from job to job or church to church, each one wonderful at first and terrible six months later. He calls the pattern cognitive dissonance: the only way they can feel good is to avoid the matter in themselves. They want peace without process.

The table below sets out the keys to hearing God that the message teaches, with the four passages behind them.

Jesus told her that true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth (John 4:19–24). The speaker says this is why staying home and saying “I can worship God from here” because you have been hurt is not the Spirit of God. He adds that, as he teaches it, history records this woman went on to serve among the apostles, plant many churches and die as a martyr. Things had to be dealt with in her, and the same is true of us.

The Voice of the Lord Is Powerful

The speaker quotes Brother Lawrence, the author of The Practice of the Presence of God: “It is possible for us to live in the very sense of the Lord’s presence under even the most difficult circumstances.” But that takes inclining your ear.

From Proverbs 3:1–4, he notes that God’s commands kept in the heart bring long life, peace and favor with God and man. People like to quote the promise of favor, he says, but do not want to do what it takes.

In Psalm 29:1–9, the voice of the Lord is over the waters, powerful and full of majesty, breaking the cedars of Lebanon. From his time in the Navy, the speaker recalls feeling thunder twenty miles away as if it were twenty feet away, because nothing stood in between. Let God speak into your heart, he says, and the trees and mountains in your own soul will be broken.

Religion can block that voice. In Mark 7:6–13, Jesus quoted Isaiah about people who honor God with their lips while their hearts are far from Him, and said they made the word of God of no effect through their tradition.

By contrast, the apostle John, exiled on Patmos, was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day and heard a loud voice behind him (Revelation 1:9–11). He was not complaining about his circumstances. What mattered to him was the presence of God, and we still read the book he was told to write.

The closing verses are about waiting. Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart.” The speaker teaches that the Hebrew word for wait, qavah, means to be twined together like a braided rope. One strand of horsehair snaps easily, but braided with a million threads from God, you are strong. Psalm 37:9 promises that those who wait on the Lord shall inherit the earth, and Lamentations 3:25 says the Lord is good to those who wait for Him.

Drawing Near to God This Week

The speaker closes by asking the church to stand, lift their hands if they desire more of God, and let Him reveal what needs to be cleansed. Here are the practical steps drawn from this drawing near to God message:

• Guard what you hear. Walk away from gossip, slander and doom-and-gloom voices, online and in person.
• Check how you hear. When everything someone says sounds wrong to you, ask God what is in your own heart.
• Get quiet daily. Give about half an hour to reading your Bible alone and half an hour to sitting quietly before the Lord, ideally in the morning.
• Submit before you resist. Humble yourself before God first; then resist the devil, and he will flee.
• Seek the peace of your city. Pray for your workplace, your spouse and your church instead of grumbling about them.
• Take responsibility. Confess what God shows you as sin and let Him cleanse it, rather than seeking peace without process.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 Drawing near in the midst of opposition
• 1:08 Many voices: My sheep know My voice
• 2:11 James 4:7–10, the foundation text
• 6:29 Drawing near means offering sacrifice
• 7:41 Take heed what you hear: Mark 4
• 8:46 Take heed how you hear: Luke 8
• 12:05 Be still and know: Psalm 46
• 16:19 Incline your ear: Proverbs 4
• 18:23 Strongholds and resisting the devil
• 19:35 Jesus washes the disciples’ feet
• 20:38 Jeremiah 29: captives in Babylon
• 24:06 Seek the peace of the city
• 27:12 Thoughts of peace and a future
• 29:32 Half an hour in the Word, half an hour quiet
• 30:55 The pastor who felt he was no good
• 34:56 Inner and outer anointing
• 38:40 The woman at the well: John 4
• 45:10 Peace without process
• 47:10 Brother Lawrence and the presence of God
• 53:28 The voice of the Lord: Psalm 29
• 56:51 Traditions that void the Word: Mark 7
• 59:05 John on Patmos hears a loud voice
• 1:02:47 Wait on the Lord: Psalm 27 and 37
• 1:07:08 Closing prayer for cleansing

Drawing Near to God Series

This message is part of a teaching series at NTC Ministries. Start from the beginning or continue where this one leaves off:

• First message: Drawing Near to God #1 — A Vision of Rising Mountains
• Previous: Drawing Near to God #7: Hearing Until His Voice Is the Loudest
• You are here: Drawing Near to God #8: Knowing His Voice Above Every Other Voice
• Next: Drawing Near to God #10 — Filled With the Knowledge of His Glory

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does resisting the devil sometimes seem not to work?

The speaker says he has experienced this himself: he tried to cast down a thought that kept coming, and nothing seemed to change. His conclusion was that he had skipped the first part of James 4. He had not submitted himself to God, rested before Him or meditated on what God said. James puts humbling yourself and drawing near first; then, when you resist the devil, he flees.

Does changing how I hear mean other people will change?

Not necessarily. The speaker is direct about this: your wife or husband may stay exactly the same, yet you will see great change. Nothing they have done is different. What changed is that your heart was cleansed, so you are now seeing through a clear lens, through the word and voice of God, instead of through old hurt and offense.

What is the difference between the inner and outer anointing?

As the speaker teaches it, the outer anointing is gifts and callings, which flow and minister to others because of the demand people place on them. The inner anointing is who we are and who we allow God to make us. It matures and brings strength, and it comes by our own desire for it. Without it, a person can look successful outwardly while inside they are like a house of cards.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• James 4:7–10 — draw near to God and He will draw near to you
• Mark 4:24–25 — take heed what you hear
• Luke 8:18 — take heed how you hear
• Psalm 46:10 — be still, and know that I am God
• Proverbs 4:20–22 — incline your ear
• Jeremiah 29:4–11 — seek the peace of the city
• John 4:19–24 — worship in spirit and truth
• Psalm 29:1–9 — the voice of the Lord is powerful
• Psalm 27:14 — wait on the Lord

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

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