My Sheep Hear My Voice

October 20, 2014

Ezekiel: You know, I'd be a liar if I said that I'd never been deceived and never had some things that I thought were the Lord that didn't pan out to be the Lord. You gotta be honest about it and just say ok, if it doesn't quack and it doesn't have a beak and it doesn't waddle... it might not be a duck, you know.

So, there comes a time where that kind of honesty comes with, maybe the humility that only comes with humiliation and breaking, and I can look back on those times and see that Pride was getting in. Every single time that the Lord would let me fall on my face... we have the little quip about the poem "footprints in the sand" and we call it "nose prints in the sand" - "My child, I was just holding your feet, you know, I'll let you do a face plant if you need to, to humble you and bring you back up."

But the Lord will allow and does allow deception. The demons have been around way longer than us. These are created beings with high intelligence, they watch every move of every eyelash and they've been able to do that for over 6, 7, 8 thousand years now. So, they know the Scriptures inside out. They can get into your Scriptures. "It couldn't be the devil; I couldn't be deceived because the Lord gave me Scriptures." The devil can give you Scriptures, too. Maybe, to be more precise, they can get into your interpretation of the Scriptures that you think you are getting right now. The Lord may uncover you and let that happen, because you won't listen to anyone else. If you have a group of friends around you or people you've kind of gathered, we tend to get around people who agree with us and have an agreed reality.

You can check yourself the minute you start to feel insecure, or like, you have to protect something aggressively. Then there might be a problem. "Why do I feel so strongly that I have to protect this?" Because someone might take it.

"Wait a minute! Your salvation doesn't depend on whether you give this prophecy or not, whether you have this date wrong or not, or right or not" - but we act like it is. And we get people around us who are in agreement. And that's the sadness... the Lord sends us many other situations, but if we won't listen to the King or his son or his servants. If we won't take the little nudge and the little push and the bump... then sometimes He has to just pull all the slats out and let us fall flat on our face to humble us.

And then it's, "Oh my God! Well if that's been wrong, then what else has been wrong?!!"

I promise you, the world isn't going to end. The Lord will love you all the more if you're humble enough just to come back and say, "I'm sorry, Lord. Whatever I'm doing, show me." Your world won't crash, I promise. And the Lord won't cast you off and you're not damned to hell and you won't miss the Rapture.

Clare: And you're not a false prophet.

Ezekiel: Right, Right. It's like "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I've made mistake! I've heard a demon spirit or false...." Don't freak! You know, don't freak out! And I'm saying that because I've experienced it and I've had to go back through journals in past years. Now, after a while, there will be more teaching on this and sharing. But it's kind of like peas and gravel. You gotta listen to the Lord, you gotta pray or you're not gonna get anything. So when I said "peas and gravel", you gotta eat the peas, maybe they got a little gravel in them. Well, you spit the gravel out. If you don't eat, you don't get any nourishment. You gotta eat!

So, sometimes weeds do get in the wheat a little bit. We're not supposed to pull them out, we are supposed to grow up together and that kind of thing... but still, don't freak. Don't freak out, you know. It's ok. But it's so crucial and important to be able to say, "I messed up. I messed up."

Clare: You know, and some people disagree with me that the Lord will allow you to be deceived. But, with Ahab for instance, "Who will deceive Ahab and which one of the prophets?" You know, "How are you angels... (he called in the angels) I'm looking for a way to deceive Ahab going into this battle so that he'll be killed." And finally one angel steps forward and says, "I will. I will put lying spirits in the mouths of his prophets." And the Lord replied, "That will work. Go ahead and do it."

So, why would the Lord allow a lying spirit? Because pride is the most odious thing, it's the worst. It's the most destructive thing to our natures and to our relationships. So, because He loves us, and we're not paying attention, He has to do something to really stop us in our tracks and get us to take a real good look at their lives.

"Why, Lord, did you allow this? Why did you allow me to be deceived all this time?" And I've gone through this. I've weathered these things and it's like my whole world just fell apart. I was numb, be numb, for 2 and 3 days because you know typically I'll hug the Lord or give Him a kiss on the cheek. I hugged a demon!! I gave a demon a kiss on the cheek!!! "Lord, how could You let this happen to me??" And basically, He said to me, "You had to go through this for Me to get your attention."

Ezekiel: Because you wouldn't listen to anything or anyone else! Myself as well. You know, I have to say that these are rare times that the Lord will allow you to be deceived. One of the greatest fears afterwards is, "Oh, my

gosh - I can't ever go to my Bible for a rhema or word again! How am I gonna pray again? What do I trust again? If they can get..."

No, it's ok. He just needed to get your attention. Now, listen to the real Jesus and let him work on your humility and those hard things that you wouldn't or couldn't look at earlier. He's not going to let you be deceived forever and ever. He might set you up and let you trip and fall just to get your attention and teach you a lesson. Most of us, it probably won't happen 3, 4 times in our whole walk with the Lord. But it will happen.

Clare: Yeah, yeah, and if it hasn't happened, then something's amiss, because that's part of the training that goes with this territory of being able to hear from Him and having that kind of a working relationship. You know, when you learn to type you don't master it right away, you make a lot of mistakes but you don't give up on learning. You go back to it because it's an important skill to have. And I don't think there's any skill in this world more important than being able to hear the Lord honestly and clearly.

Ezekiel: Discernment of spirits, yeah

Clare: Discernment is huge! After awhile you know, when I make a mistake, I don't cave in anymore.

Ezekiel: Right.

Clare: I realize, "Ok, Lord. You're dealing with me.

Ezekiel: "What are you trying to say?" And we just stop, right there.

Clare: Yeah, and part of what He's - a lot of times He's trying to deal with our hidden attitudes of the heart.

Like say, for instance, I'll start putting words in the Lords mouth or some other entity or demon will put words into the Lord's mouth condemning someone for their behavior or downgrading someone. Boy, that's a red light! That is a huge red light, because He is so charitable, He doesn't do that. He says, more likely, He's more likely to say, "I love this person. I'm working with them, they have many wonderful points and this is one area we are growing together."

Ezekiel: Right!

Clare: Rather than saying, "That person's an idiot and a fool and I'm sick of them and I'm done with it."

Ezekiel: "They are deceived and I mean to deal with them." Be careful of the, you know, "brazen arrows and fiery swords" you know. It's just normally not His way.

Clare: His way is charity, charity, charity. You may be hearing from the Lord. He... you know, this is an interesting dynamic, because the knowledge... When I hear from Him, a lot of times He speaks to me with words, other times that I hear in my spirit, other times its an impression which I put into words.

Ezekiel: Well, He speaks to us in ways that we can understand. "The spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet." the Scriptures say. So He's gonna, you know, it's gonna sound a little like you but just don't let it BE YOU, you know?

Clare: But what I'm saying there is that I may have bitterness, a bitter attitude towards someone. He may be trying to gently call attention to something and that's the infused understanding I get. But I may be taking my bitterness and injecting it into the situation and changing the words to be very harsh because of my bitterness.

And the other area where we go astray so often is when we're attached. I know I was talking to someone the other day and I said, "When I am attached to something and I have an extreme interest in the outcome, I almost cannot even try to discern, because I'm so wrapped up in whatever it is. And I want a certain outcome that I can't let go of it enough to trust myself that the Lord is speaking to me, because I may color it. I may be holding on to it so tightly that whatever impression He sends to my heart, whatever words He speaks, I twist them around to make it alright.

That and vanity. You know and the demons will use vanity against us and try and make us feel like we're special, like we're unusual.

Ezekiel: Yeah. Be careful. That "exclusive knowledge."

Clare: "We are exclusive, the knowledge that we have is exclusive. We're above so many other people. We are so special." The demons... when you hear something like that, boy, smell a rat. Because that is vanity. That's feeding your pride. When you hear that, really get a whiff. Because, something is not right in the water when that comes up! And that's one of the ways that I've been able to discern him when he's taken me off on a wild goose chase, really.

Ezekiel: You talked about attachments. You know, many times, almost all of us will kinda want or expect a certain outcome. Or, well many times lets say this, we want permission from the Lord to do this or that, you know, "Is this ok, Lord?" And it's kind of funny how we will look... almost write those things in between the lines that will twist it, turn it, curve it and make it permissive for us to do such and such.

And something that we don't want to do, "I just don't want to go to the nursing home Thursday, I just don't want to go!" You know, "My Scriptures today were all about prayer, so the Lord must be saying don't go to the nursing home..." You know, just be careful of it. Are you getting the goodies, and are you getting what you want? Or is the Lord getting what He wants and wants established.

Clare: I've noticed, on that note, I've noticed that He allows me to go off and think that it's ok for me to do something, in my discernment. If I discern a certain way. He allows me to do it. But then, after I've done it I feel all icky inside. The bottom line was: I never did really feel right about doing it in the first place. So, I did it in self-will but He allowed it to sharpen my discernment because He wants us to discern from the gut. He wants us to know His heart and His mind for us. And not have to turn to external things all the time. But to sense in the gut this is right or this is wrong.

Ezekiel: There's a lot to be said for staying very little, and very hidden, because the minute you get the news letters and the name cards, business cards and letter heads - you're somebody! The minute somebody starts to write back and "Wow, you got 200 hits on your thing, you're somebody!" And there's a little part of all of us that feels stroked and feels good that someone is paying attention to us and it feels good and it feels validating. But, we can't let that taint our motivation for the Lord's permission or His leading or not, because then we're attached and the devil can use that.

Just try and go into it saying, "Lord, please make me as You say, make me willing to be made willing. Take my heart and make my heart and mind in such a way that I don't want this way that way or the other way."

And bringing this back around to husbands and wives, it's not important what I think, its not important want Clare thinks. What's important is what does the Lord have to say about any given subject. And if I need to take correction, I want that. If He coughed, I'd run to hear it. You know? When He corrects me, I run to hear it! It's not always easy but I love Him and I want to do what's right. And there have been times in the past that we all have to go to the Lord and say, "I don't love You the way I should. I don't think... I guess, maybe I don't want...my motives aren't as pure as they should be. Lord, make me more pure and honest and sincere about what is on Your heart and mind. What's your will."

Clare: Help us to be faithful, absolutely. Well, you know, to be honest with you, we've been at this for over 30 years, both of us. Discerning God's will for our life, hearing from the Lord and we still are not perfect and I don't think we will ever be perfect. I think that the Lord is still training and teaching us and He will continue to do so until the day He takes us.

So, don't get discouraged if you don't get it right the first year or the 2nd year or the 5th year or the 10th year, because it takes a long time to really be able to understand the movement of the Holy Spirit and to know when you're in the flesh and when you aren't in the flesh. Wouldn't you say?

Ezekiel: Oh yeah, absolutely. We want to thank you for listening again and trusting that the Lord would work through all of us to sit at His feet and listen and learn and just be open, little and humble and honest and sincere.

Well that's it for Heaven Talk today. Dreams, visions, comment and discussion on all things Heaven. God willing we will see you and speak again soon.

Clare: God Bless you.