Developing Sensitivity To The Spirit

1 John 2:27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit-just as it has taught you, remain in him.

Last week looked at ways to recognize the voice of the Spirit. This week I want to talk about developing our own sensitivity to the Spirit. It's such an awesome thing, that we have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us. As a matter of fact, our scripture from 1 John, says an incredible thing. It says that the anointing, or the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life is the one who will teach you. Does that mean that we don't need to sit under good teaching and preaching? No, just that the Holy Spirit is the one that illuminates truth to your spirit and will help you discern truth and error. Therefore, stay connected with Him. In other words, stay .......

"Spirit Conscious"
Over the last weeks, we have been talking about the concept that every person has not only a body and a soul but a spirit. Your spirit is the real you. It is the hidden man of the heart. Unfortunately, everything about our lives in the natural realm, tends to lead us to be hyper aware of our bodies and our souls. In other words we are often very aware of our own hunger, our own pain, our feelings, our opinions. And the outside world bombards us with so many stimulants in this area that our spirits can be undeveloped.

But God wants us to become "spirit conscious". The more conscious of our spirits we become, the better we will be able to hear God in our spirits. You see, our spirits can be developed. They can be trained, just like your physical body can be trained--just like your mind can be trained. Unfortunately many will encourage you to train those things, but not many will encourage you to train your spirit.

1 Tim 4:7-8 Train yourself in godliness; 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Now what do we mean when we say develop your spirit? Let's look at a fascinating scripture in 1 Corinthians.

1 Cor 2:12-16 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man (soulish) does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

You see we have to embrace the fact that when we become Christians, we are new creations. The Holy Spirit is living inside of us. Our spirits have been recreated. Now we can be spiritual. Being spiritual basically means being led by the spirit as opposed to being led by the soul. The word translated natural man is literally "soulish".

Heb 4:12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit,

If soul and spirit were the same thing, why would the Bible go so far as to say that the Word of God penetrates to their dividing?
With our spirit we contact the spirit world. With our soul we contact the intellectual and emotional world and with our body we contact the physical world. This is an easy way to distinguish these things.

Being spiritual is first and foremost about developing your relationship with the Holy Spirit.
I am going to give you some suggestions for how to develop sensitivity to the Holy spirit so we can be more Spirit guided.

Remember these suggestions are not a formula to get God to talk to you. God doesn't work that way. These suggestions are to help develop your spirit in the context of your relationship with God.


PREREQUISITES
Remember as we discussed before. The foundation of a conversational relationship with God is that you are
1) born again- you have surrendered your life to Jesus. Have the Holy Spirit in you. Can claim the promises of God to His people
2) a follower of Jesus Christ. - We are concerned with being obedient and wanting to please the Father. It is so great to read the many times in Acts where the Disciples said. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit. That meant that their heart was to please God, first and foremost.
These are two big prerequisites and two that cannot be overstated.

PAY ATTENTION TO THE WORD

Proverbs4:20-22My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. 21 Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; 22 for they are life to those who find them and health to a man's whole body.

1) By meditating on the Word
Josh 1:8-9 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

God wanted Joshua to be successful. Just like He wants us to be successful. God shows him how. He says to meditate on the Word of God. We need to take the time to meditate on what the Word of God says. This is something that I feel we so easily underestimate. You see the Word is spiritual. It is not just a set of facts. And as we take time to meditate on it, our spirits are being fed. Our spirits are being developed.

I remember the first time I was asked to preach. I was excited, but also intimidated. At the time I had never taken a class in preaching. The enemy came and tried to intimidate me. I just meditated on the Word. Because meditating also implies, confessing the Word. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I am a child of God . I have the favor of God. I am part of a royal priesthood. I am the head and not the tail. And as I began to meditate, I could just feel my spirit rising. Man, I preached like the world was about to end. But the sensitivity and boldness came from meditating on the Word.

2) By "doing" the word
James 1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Meditating on the Word is good but it's not enough. We must also be doers of the word. James says that if we are hearers of the Word only, that we can deceive ourselves. No, if we want to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. We need to be doers of the Word.

For instance, it is very difficult to hear from God when we are anxious and upset. But Philippians tells us how to get back our peace. It says to present our requests with thanksgiving to God, and then the peace of God will guard our hearts and our minds.
So if we want peace, so we can be sensitive to the Spirit, we need to practice what that verse says and refuse to worry and give all of our cares to God with thanksgiving.

C. BE ALERT AND ATTENTIVE TO WHAT IS GOING ON AROUND YOU IN YOUR LIFE. With an ear to what the Spirit might be saying as you consider these things. As we saw last week, we can look to the markers around us. Consider Prophecies, counsel, circumstances, and the Word and ask God about them.

D. PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT-
1 Cor 14:14-17 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. 15 So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind. 16 If you are praising God with your spirit, how can one who finds himself among those who do not understand say "Amen" to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying? 17 You may be giving thanks well enough, but the other man is not edified.

When you pray in tongues, you are praying directly with your spirit. You are bypassing your mind, or your soul. Praying with your spirit is a good way of sensitizing yourself to the voice of the Spirit.

Praying in the spirit helps your mind to become quiet and once it is quiet it is easier to become more conscious of your spirit and spiritual things. You see praying in the spirit helps you get out of the realm of reason and feelings. Believe it or not, God has a deeper way for Christians to live than the world. You see the world lives by reason and feelings. It should not be so with the church.

E. SPEAK TO GOD CONSTANTLY AND SPECIFICALLY ABOUT THE MATTERS THAT CONCERN YOU.
Nothing is too small or hopeless to bring before God. And ask for his guidance

F. LISTEN CAREFULLY, AND DELIBERATELY FOR GOD. When God does speak to you, write it down. It is a good habit to keep a journal. Writing things down means you are taking it seriously. As you enter into that practice, it is helpful to take seriously your conversations with God. This will develop your sensitivity.

G. OBEY WHAT GOD REVEALS IN YOUR SPIRIT. Notice that obeying your spirit comes after meditating and practicing the Word. Because the Word builds up your spirit. Then when our spirit speaks it will be a reliable guide to you. But immediate obedience to your spirit develops your sensitivity to God in the future. There have been more times than I care to admit where I have been swayed by logical reasoning over the voice of the Spirit. But the more we obey, the easier it is to be responsive in the future.

This is a life long practice. Whatever you practice, becomes a habit. The Bible talks about those whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron because of their practice of doing evil things. We know that conscience is a function of your spirit. So the shorter accounts we keep with God, the more sensitive you will become to the voice of the spirit.

Blessings!

Recognizing The Voice of God- Part 2

Last week we looked at the fact that God wants to lead us in our spirits not by outer things, and that this is developed by experience. We also saw some mistaken views of being led. Let's continue on this theme. Here is a story I like:

Imagine you are hired to open up an office in Anchorage, Alaska. Your new boss gives you a high-tech looking two-way radio, a policy and procedure manual, and tells you that you will receive instructions once you arrive, and off you go. Upon arrival you hear your boss's voice over the radio, saying, "I will communicate to you through this radio unit. But take note: our competitors, our enemies, also have access to this channel. They will try to impersonate my voice with false messages to thwart our purposes." "Oh no!" you panic, "Then how will I know if it is you or the enemy giving me instructions?"

Your boss's voice comes back over the radio: "Three ways you can tell it's me. First, considering the situation, check every message supposedly from me against the policy and procedure manual. Since I wrote it, I'm not likely to ask you to violate it, right? Also, if I am not talking, don't focus in on the noise, pretending that I am. If I am not speaking, let the manual be your guide. Don't let any impersonating voice mislead you, or your own overactive imagination."
"Second, since the Manual does not cover every situation, you will have to get to know my voice. I know, this will take time, and so I am not likely to ask you to do anything radical until we both have some low-risk successes under our belts. Remember, I understand the situation perfectly well, so I'll go slow at first. A time will come when I will be able to tell you to do the wildest things, and you will know it is me. In the short-term, you must be trained through low-risk experience."

"Third, over time, my overall purpose for your work will begin to come into focus. You will begin to see the grand strategy in the policy and procedure manual, and the overall pattern of my true instructions. When this happens, you'll know instantly if what you hear through your unit is 'of me', just your imagination, or enemy misinformation. False instructions will begin to appear silly to you then. So take heart, and get to work."

I like this illustration because the focus is on the relationship with the voice of God. Let's look at a common misunderstanding in hearing God---the four markers.

"THE FOUR MARKERS"
Many have taught that if you want to know what the will of God is, that you need to look at FOUR markers and wait until you have them all lined up in the affirmative before you can move.

These markers are:" Prophecies, Promises, and Providence, Prayer.
Promises -represent the Word of God
Providences- represents circumstances
Prophecies- represent what comes from other Christians
Prayer- Impressions in your spirit.

PROBLEMS WITH THE FOUR MARKERS METHOD
The problem with looking at it this way is first of all, it can become a formula or checklist for us to find out God's will. You don't really see this pattern in the New Testament. Like I said last week, God will not run you like a robot. Guidance is just one part of our overall relationship with God.

Secondly the markers are not entirely independent and it would be difficult for you to get separate readings on them. The problem with this formula is that if you are not especially familiar with the voice of the Spirit, you can easily look to circumstances, and words from other Christians and deceive yourself that your impressions are lining up with these things as well and still go way off. This is especially true of immature Christians who may deep down want their own way and are not completely sold out to do God's will.

For example, just because somebody prophecies doesn't mean that this is God's will. Many people are going from place to place looking for a "word from God" for direction. But mature Christians need to learn how to hear God for themselves.

A better way to look at these four markers is as Considerations and Confirmations.Considerations: A better way of thinking about these markers are as factors that we should consider as we look to the Holy Spirit to speak to us and guide us.
Confirmations: They may also be used as tests and confirmations of what we have heard. For instance. Is the message God spoke to me consistent with scripture, does it bear witness in my soul through peace, do wise brothers and prophecies come in agreement.? Do circumstances seem to bear this direction out?

So all these markers may be used as considerations and confirmations, but they are not to be a substitute for the still small voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to Your spirit. This doesn't mean that these four factors don't matter. They do, but ultimately God's desire is to speak to us in the still small voice, as we consider these factors. Again God wants us to make responsible decisions based on a relationship with Him. Praise God, markers are just confirmations and considerations but they are not a substitute for the voice of God speaking to you directly!

We need to become familiar with the tone, flavor and content of God's voice.

TONE. FLAVOR, AND CONTENT
How do you recognize the voice of anyone? You recognize the tone, the flavor in which things are said, and the content of what is said. You see the Holy Spirit also has a quality to His voice.

Tone- the Voice of God has a certain weight to it. It is authoritative. Matt 7:28-29 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. It is a calm and steady but assured voice.

Flavor- The flavor of the Spirit is just like the flavor of God. It is fatherly, encouraging, peaceful, yet confident. It is a sweet, calm spirit. Just as you would expect from the ministry of Jesus. It is not strident or loud.


Content-The content of the voice will always conform to and be consistent with the truths in the Bible.

Let's finish our illustration:

After reflecting on this a few moments, you hear your boss's voice again on the radio unit. "Take all of the money from petty cash and give it the next person that walks in, no questions asked." Hmmm... You look in the policy and procedure manual, and this is specifically forbidden. Besides, you know your boss wouldn't tell you to do something that risky right off. And also there was an certain "twang" to the voice, an appeal to something different within you, and a plan that was not in the long-term interests of the company. So, even though you are on a hostile channel, you are beginning to have hope that you can indeed do this job.

Father God, thank you that we have hope that we can indeed discern your voice. If we are Christians, we are new creations. Our spirits have been made as new and now we have the Holy Spirit living in our spirits. Thank you that as your children you lead us and guide us and protect us. Thank you that we can count on communicating with you in our spirits. Lord we just want to continue to draw near to you so that we will be completely led into your perfect will. Amen.

Blessings!

Recognizing the Voice of God

Last week we talked about the person that God leads and we left off with the point that God leads you in your spirit. You see it is so important that we realize that we are body, soul and spirit. That God wants to lead us in our spirits.

1 Thess 5:23 May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.-

What is the function of your spirit? A lot of times people have no clue about what their spirit is. But the fact is: You are a spirit, you have a soul and you live in a body. The body is obviously the physical side of us. Our souls are our own personalities: Our wills, emotions , and mind. We know that our spirits are the place of fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that we would worship the Father in spirit and in truth. So communion is a function of our spirit.

Secondly, our consciences are functions of our spirit. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin. It illuminates the Word and the commands of Jesus to us.

Thirdly, Intuition is a function of our spirits. The Spirit testifies with our spirits that we are children of God. Intuition is that inner voice that receives impressions of things.

So the most important thing we have in understanding the direction of our lives is the Holy Spirit speaking to our spirits. "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and us." "The Holy Spirit told me...."

We need to learn that the voice of God primarily comes to us through our spirits. That we have a spirit and that God dwells in our Spirit.

1 Cor 3:16-17 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?

We need to see that God's people are not to be led by outside things but by the inward witness of the Holy Spirit in our spirits. If we could grasp how awesome it is to have the Holy Spirit living in us. We would be rejoicing every day.

MISTAKEN VIEWS OF BEING LED:
As we have seen God is looking for a relationship with free will creatures. If my wife was computer programmed to say "I love you", it would be meaningless, because she was just programmed to say that. But when that expression comes from a willing heart that really knows you, then it is so meaningful and similarly that is God's desire: That his children come to him of their free will and love Him and consider Him and seek Him.

Therefore God will not run you like a robot. God speaking to us is not an end unto itself. Our primary goal should be to be mature people in a loving relationship with Him. Only in this way will we hear him rightly.

A. The "Message for Every Detail" view. According to this view, God is telling you what to do for every little decision, or he is at least willing to if you would just ask him.
I don't think this is a biblical picture. This goes back to our point that God will not run you like a robot. Mature Christians are not always being told " now do this", "now do that" You would not think a child is mature if you constantly had to direct him throughout his day. Why would you think that of an adult? You see God has made us rational, reasonable human beings and he wants to see us loving him from a free will and determined choice.
God is looking for mature people to speak to. Now God could give a message a second if he wanted to. But I don't think He usually wants to because that would stunt his purpose of mature sons and daughters of God.

Now that doesn't mean that God is not concerned even about the little things in your life. And that He wouldn't speak to the little things. Just that we should not get paralyzed about what shoes to wear because we did not get a word from the Holy Spirit.

B. The "Its All in the Bible" View. - Here is the other extreme. This view says that everything we need we have in the Bible so we never need any extra biblical revelation, just wisdom to make right decisions based upon biblical principles. But this is simplistic because even though many things are very clear in the Bible about what we should do, there are also many things on which the Bible is silent or not clear on.

The Bible will not tell you what to preach on next week, or who to marry, or what career we should choose. The Bible is silent on many details of your life. Yes, the principles are all there but we need to understand that we have a need for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. His leading will be within the principles of the Bible. But the Spirit will go beyond the details of what's written in the Bible!.

C. Bible roulette--You ever hear about somebody just flipping the Bible open and pointing their finger down and then claiming that this is God's instruction. Although God could use anything to lead you, including condescending to superstition, that doesn't mean these are approved methods of hearing from God.
But what about Gideon and his fleece or the apostles casting lots? But remember this is before the Holy Spirit is poured out. Now God can condescend to immaturity. But its not his will that we stay in immaturity but learn how to hear from God for ourselves in our spirits. Not by outer circumstances. Remember the devil can do things in the outer circumstances as well.

D. The "Whatever Happens is God's Will" view- This view basically says that everything that happens is the will of God. Now, if you want to know what God wants you to do in a given situation, it doesn't help if someone tells you, "don't worry whatever happens is God's will". That's not very comforting when you are trying to make a godly decision. This is very important. The fact that something happens does not mean that it was his desire that that should happen.

2 Peter 3:9 Says God is not willing or (desirous) that any should perish but that all come to repentance. Yet the book of Revelation makes it clear that not all will actually come to repentance.

So everything that happens is obviously not God's desire.
This is a really passive view, and a fatalistic view that unfortunately is all too common among believers.

E. "Open Door Shut Door"
You are not to be led by opportunities. You are not led by open doors or closed doors. But you have to hear God. Why? Because a closed door may not mean that God wants you to quit or to stop knocking! Furthermore, many opportunities opening up, don't necessarily mean that God wants you to jump at it.

So How do we learn to be led by the Spirit? We learn by PRACTICE AND EXPERIENCE!

John 10:27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me

It is a known fact that an elephant having been trained by someone , even after many years will respond to that person again because they recognize his voice. How did they become familiar with the voice? Through the practice of being in the presence of the voice.

Some of us don't like to hear this because we want an automatic formula--but it is a fact that learning to recognize the voice of God takes practice. We have to spend time in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. There are no gimmicks or quick answers.

2 Cor 13:14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all

How do you fellowship with the Holy Spirit? Well how do you have fellowship with anyone? You have to be in their presence. Aware of their presence. You must believe that you are there with that person. Communion literally means a sharing in common. Communion means sharing.
God will teach you to discern his voice by prompting you in small things. As you step out and see the fruit of that, then God will give you confidence for bigger things.

Father God, thank you that we have hope that we can indeed discern Your voice. If we are Christians, we are new creations. Our spirits have been made as new and now we have the Holy Spirit living in our spirits. Thank you that as your children you lead us and guide us and protect us. Thank you that we can count on communicating with you in our spirits. Lord we just want to continue to draw near to you so that we will be completely led into your perfect will. Thank you.

Blessings!

The Person God Leads

Romans :8 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

Last time we shared about the Spirit led life and how the Holy Spirit is a person who speaks. Maturing believers should be expecting to be led by the Spirit. If you are a son or daughter of God, you can be led by the Spirit of God. If you can hear from God, you will not fail. But don't judge failure by the eyes of man. Success is being faithful to what God has told you. No more, no less. If you can hear from God and do what you hear, you are going to be in the center of his will. Now that doesn't mean that things will always be pleasant. But if you are led by the Holy Spirit, you will be where God wants you to be. And it is not God's will that his people are discontent. You see if you know that you know, that you are where you are supposed to be, it doesn't matter if things get tough. If God is for me, who can be against me?

Today I want to look at the person that God leads.
Do you know that there are degrees of leading? Some people are more led than others. So many Christians don't even know to look to the Holy Spirit. They are led by their opinions. Led by emotions. But who is that can expect the leading of the Holy Spirit? Let's take a look at a few characteristics.

I. PERSON WHO CAN EXPECT TO BE LED BY THE SPIRIT IS...
A. Born Again.
Acts 2:38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

When Peter preached to the multitudes, he said repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus so that you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. You see it is only those who repent and ask Jesus to be the leader of their lives that can expect the gift of the Holy Spirit and therefore the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Can God lead others? Sure He can. But the only ones that can have a bold expectation about being led-- who have a promise of being led-- are those that belong to Jesus Christ.

John 14:16-18 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever- 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

The world is oblivious to the Holy Spirit. Because they don't see him. They don't know him. But believers know Him, and He is living in them. The Church should be the place of revelation. Isn't it true? The people of the world should be looking at the church in awe and saying. "How do they choose correctly so often?"

B. Expecting. If there is no expectation of being led by the Holy Spirit, there will not be leading. Why? Is it because God does not want to talk to you? Of course not. But if I don't expect God to speak to me, I am not going to be in a very receptive posture. But I'm excited because God is teaching us to be a church that is conversational with the Holy Spirit. Many of us think: "Why would the God of the universe, take any time to talk to little old me? Doesn't he have more important things to do?" And we might judge other people the same way. But God is so great that he can talk to everyone in the world-- at the same time. And you are that important! Because God so loved the world that he sent His Son to die for you. And sending His son, what else would He withhold from you? Nothing. So we must get over our inferiority complex and believe what the Word says about us. God wants to talk to you. Have an expectation of the leading of the Holy Spirit! The Bible says that we should boldly come to his throne of grace. Because we have the blood of Jesus that has made a clear way for us

C. Committed to the Leadership of God.
John 14:23 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

When Jesus spoke of being His follower, guess what there was an expectation of?: Following. That means that a Christian should be concerned about pleasing God and not just concerned with his own rights. Someone who is seeking the leading of the Holy Spirit should be concerned that his lifestyle in general is one of serving God. Jesus said in Matt 6:33, But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Now does that mean that someone who is out of fellowship with God cannot be led by God or spoken to by God? Of course not.

But somebody who is walking right with God can really expect God to be communicating with Him. It doesn't mean that if you ever sinned, God will not speak to you anymore. And let me just say, that the devil will use false guilt to make you think that God doesn't want to speak to you anymore. The devil will also try to use fear of missing it, because you missed it once before, to keep you from pressing in to receive from the Holy Spirit.

D. Humility and Dependence on God.
There are two kinds of pride that can keep us from hearing the voice of God. Regular Pride and Spiritual Pride. Regular Pride will keep you from hearing God because you don't think that you need to. Someone who God leads is going to recognize that He is not all that. That he needs the help of God. Spiritual Pride keeps you from hearing God because you think that you are something because you heard from God at one time. And hearing from God doesn't mean that you are so great. Pride is a killer to hearing from God. Also, just because someone hears from God is not a proof that he has heard correctly. God is the only one who is infallible. Sometimes you may have missed it. But you should give yourself some grace. At the same time you must be humble and realize that you may not have heard or interpreted the message correctly that you think you received. Even if you missed it. God has not given up on you.

Are you expecting to be led by the Holy Spirit? Do you humbly recognize your dependence on the Spirit of God---or is your will, mind, or feelings stronger than your desire to be led by the Spirit?

NOT JUST GUIDANCE!--A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD!
2 Cor 13:14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

It's so important that we get this: hearing from God is so much more than getting orders. It's so much more than getting a prophetic word about something in the future. It is a day to day fellowship with the Holy Spirit.

Here is one of the most challenging things: Guidance is not an end in and of itself. Guidance is just one part of our overall relationship with God!If you have a Father or Mother who guided you, you know that guidance is not the whole of your relationship. Your relationship is much more than guidance. Unfortunately, some people look to God for a quick fix answer and not for an overall relationship with God. They use God as a genie to give them a quick fix-- A fortune teller.

In order to see this, let's look at a famous example in the scriptures. You see unfortunately some people don't really want a conversational relationship with God--they just want to avoid trouble.
1 Sam 13:11 "What have you done?" asked Samuel. Saul replied, "When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Micmash, 12 I thought, 'Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the LORD's favor.' So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering." 13 "You acted foolishly," Samuel said. "You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. 14 But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the LORD's command."

Here we have Saul who was rationalizing. In order to keep control of his men , he overstepped his bounds and sacrificed offerings that were supposed to be offered only by the priests. He treated the offerings like they were some kind of magic trick. Like some kind of superstition that was going to buy the favor of God. This betrayed his lack of love for God. He blames his disobedience on the people. But Samuel tells them that a man after God's own heart is the one who is going to lead the kingdom, not Saul. Unfortunately, the devil tries to lure Christians into the same trap as treating God like some kind of idol to be appeased. Trying to get a quick blessing. Or a shortcut to favor with God. They don't really want a relationship with God. They just want God to bail them out in the times of trouble. God does not want to be used as a gimmick. Sadly Saul never learned his lesson and even at the end of his life, he sought counsel of the Lord and when God did not answer him, he actually got a witch to summon up the spirit of Samuel. But God wants us to seek a real relationship not just to get bailed out of trouble.
God Leads You In Your Spirit!

A young man once lost his job, and growing somewhat desperate about his plight, went to see an old preacher that he knew. As he poured out his heart to the preacher he angrily declared "I've begged and begged God to say something to help me, preacher. Why doesn't God answer?"The old preacher, who was sitting across the room, spoke a reply so quiet the young man was unable to make it out. The young man stepped across the room. "What did you say?" he asked.
The preacher repeated himself, again in a soft tone. So the young man moved closer until he was leaning on the preacher's chair."Sorry," he said. "I still didn't hear you." With their heads bent together, the old preacher spoke once more. "God sometimes whispers," he said, "So we will move closer to hear him."

The Holy Spirit is interested in sweet fellowship with your spirit. Will you meet Him there and commit to grow in your dependence upon Him?

Blessings!