02/13/2025 Midtown Church Thursday Service
“Hearing From God”
Pastor Bob Balian
Three Categories Of God’s Will:
1.
2.
3.
Proverbs 1:5
“A wise man will hear and increase in learning, a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel.”
Proverbs 15:22
“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”
2 Chronicles 18:1-2a, 3
“Now Jehoshaphat had great wealth and honor, and he allied himself with Ahab by marriage. Some years later he went down to visit Ahab in Samaria….. Ahab king of Israel asked Jehoshaphat king of Judah, ‘Will you go with me against Ramoth Gilead?’”
2 Chronicles 18:4
“Jehoshaphat replied, ‘I am as you are , and my people as your people; we will join you in the war.’ But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, ‘First seek the counsel of the Lord.’”
A) No person is so successful that they don’t need wise counsel.
2 Chronicles 18:5
“So the king of Israel brought together the prophets – four hundred men – and asked them, ‘Shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?’ ‘Go,’ they answered, ‘for God will give it into the king’s hand.’”
2 Chronicles 18:6
“But Jehoshaphat asked, ‘Is there not a prophet of the Lord here whom we can inquire of?’”
2 Chronicles 18:7a,b
“The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, ‘There is still one man through whom we can inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.’”
2 Chronicles 18:7c
“’The king should not say that,’ Jehoshaphat replied.”
B) You can’t be your best self, by yourself.
2 Chronicles 18:8
“So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said, ‘Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.’”
2 Chronicles 18:12
“The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, ‘Look, as one man the other prophets are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably.’”
2 Chronicles 18:13
“But Micaiah said, ‘AS surely as the Lord lives, I can tell him only what my God says.’”
2 Chronicles 18:16
“Then Micaiah answered, ‘I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the Lord said, ‘These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.’”
C) Wise counsel can come from very unlikely sources.
2 Chronicles 18:17
“The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, ‘Didn’t I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?’”
2 Chronicles 18:28
“So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead. The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, ‘I will enter the battle in disguise, but you wear your royal robes.’ So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.”
2 Chronicles 18:33-34
“But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the sections of his armor. The king told the chariot driver, ‘Wheel around and get me out of the fighting. I’ve been wounded.’ All day long the battle raged, and the king propped himself up in his chariot facing the Arameans until evening. Then at sunset he died.”
D) When we avoid wisdom, it’s impossible to be careful.
E) Many times the person we least want to hear from is the person we need to hear from the most.