Can You Hear God’s Voice in the Midst of the Storm? | Tony Evans Highlight

Dr. Tony Evans shows us how God uses life’s disruptions to get our attention and draw us closer to Him. Join him as he encourages us to see these disruptions not as obstacles, but as opportunities to deepen our faith and experience the unshakeable Kingdom of God.

Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies. The first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he has been named one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World by Baylor University. Dr. Evans holds the honor of writing and publishing the first full-Bible commentary and study Bible by an African American. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Dr. Evans’ sermons are also streamed and downloaded over 20,000,000 times annually.

When god creates a disturbance, it’s generally not comfortable, it’s generally not desired, it’s generally not preferred, you don’t want it, but if you will tune your ear to listening because he’s talking when he disrupts the natural order of things, then he says, you will discover that you are a part of a un shakable kingdom.
When god shakes things up, disterves things when the normal order of the way things you believe are supposed to go or the way they’ve always been begins to flip and flap and twist and tweak, he says, do not refuse him who is speaking.
So when god disturbs something, it’s because he talking. You remember growing up with your grandma?
When you were growing up with your grandma and they first came out with televisions, if you’re old enough to remember that and you’re sitting down watching mighty mouse and you’re sitting down watching whatever your, you know, you know, your favorite cartoon was, and then it started thunder and lightning at the good part of the cartoon.
It just start thunder and lightning when when you all excited about what you’re looking at on TV and grandma said turn the TV off.
Say what? Turn the TV off. Grandma, why gotta turn the TV up? Because god is talking.
In other words, when there was disturbance up there, it called for adjustments down here because grandma said, god is talking.
She make that up. That’s Hebrews 12.
It says when god shakes, the natural disturbance of a thing is because he wants you to pay close attention because he has something to say, and he know you won’t listen unless he mess stuff up, flip stuff up, chain stuff up.
So when he disturbs, the natural order of a thing do not refuse him who is talking because god has something to say.
Have you ever been on an airplane? And there’s turbulence.
It’s going up and down, flopping back and forth. And you you’re now getting a little nervous.
You’re tightening in a seat belt that’s already tight. You you you grabbing the handles. Like, that’s gonna do something.
You you, because you have been disturbed.
But you know the feeling you get when the pilot that you don’t see comes over the loud speaker.
And he speaks into the turbulence.
And he says, well, uh, we we we’ve hit some turbulence at 35,000 feet I’m a go down a few 1000 feet to find out some smooth air.
This will last for about 15 to 20 minutes.
Do you know the feeling you get when you just hear his voice?
In the midst of the turbulence, calming the uncertainty of the insecurity that you’re in.
God will allow or create turbulence.
In our life and in our circumstance in order for us to pay closer attention because now we wanna hear more of what he has to say in the turbulence that we’re going through.
If he wants to move you to a new career, he’ll create turbulence in the career you’re in.
If he wants to move you to a new circumstance, he’ll create turbulence in the circumstance you’re in.
If he finds out you love money too much, he’ll start breaking stuff down to take away your love for money.
He will create a turbulence in the situation because he wants to hear He wants you to hear him a lot closer than you were previously listening.
In fact, he’s creating now worldwide turbulence. Case you don’t know it, that’s what COVID was all about.
It was about worldwide recognition that there’s stuff out there. We can’t handle can’t answer, can’t fix.
So you better pay closer attention.
So when god wants to make sure that you are more attuned to listening whether you choose to or not because he said you can refuse it.
He will allow or create turbulence or what he calls the shaking or the disruption of the normal activity or the normal movement of things.
So rather than get mad at glad god, when there is turbulence, he says, you better listen more carefully to god when there is turbulence.
Just like when you hear that bad weather is coming, you know what you do?
You pay more attention to the weather, man, or the lady. They get listened to like never before.
If somebody says, whether as a tornado possibly, you’re gonna be paying attention because turbulence is on the way.
There’s uncertainty on the way. When we had our ice storm a few weeks ago, the weather, man, the weather lady got undivided attention.
We wanted to listen. How bad would it be? How long would it be? And the kids were listening?
How long are we gonna stay out of school?
Everybody listening because there is turbulence that is things are outside the natural order.
He says god is speaking when there is disruption.
Now the good news is God is still talking.
You need to worry if you’re not talking. Okay?
God is speaking using circumstance, disruption, to get our attention so he can reveal to us.
And that’s good news in a bad situation because he says what he’s doing is he is creating a separation.
He says the removing verse 27 of those things which can be shaken.
So he’s getting rid of something. Of created things. Woah.
He’s trying to change something in the physical to replace it with something in the spiritual.
Oh, you know what? Because he sees we’ve gotten too attached to the physical.
As of created things.
The things that the 5 senses per take up, when we get attached, illegently to the wrong kingdom that he will create a disturbance to detach us He does not want us overly connected to this kingdom, to this world.
We’re supposed to be in it, but we’re not supposed to be tied to it.
We’re not supposed to have it as our ultimate obligation, and so disruption is what he will bring.
When a woman is in labor, She’s in her 9th month.
Pain sets in, but the pain is setting in because the baby wants out. Yes.
The baby wants out and is serving notice on the mother you gonna want me out.
And I am in the process or I’m in the process of separation.
Of leaving the womb. That’s bad news, pain, but that’s good news, birth.
Because the purpose of the pain is to produce the birth.
So when god creates a disturbance, it is an uncomfortable situation designed to produce something better from the spiritual realm for our lives.
So he is saying, you know, when you throw up, Your stomach is upset.
It’s upset, but, you know, throwing up as nasty as it is, you’ve generally feel better after your vomit.
You feel better after you regurgitate because it’s getting rid of something that is causing a discomfort in you a disturbance in you so you throw throw up to get it out of you.
There is a separation that occurs. When god creates a disturbance, it’s generally not comfortable.
It’s generally not desired. It’s generally not preferred. You don’t want it.
But if you will tune your ear to listening, because he’s talking when he disrupts the natural order of things, Then he says, you will discover that you are a part of a watch this.
Unshakable kingdom. Oh, watch this now.
I’m going to show you, he says, why you can’t be overly tethered to this world, this culture, and this kingdom.
And the reason why you can’t is I’m a shake it up, and I’m a show you, if you put all your eggs in this basket, you’re gonna be shook up to because you’re attached.
You know, if there’s an earthquake on the ground, Folks in the plane aren’t shaken because they’re not attached.
It’s the things that are attached. They get shaken in an earthquake.
But what god wants to do is lift us up to a new spiritual reality of a kingdom that’s not attached so it doesn’t shake when everything else around you is toe up from the flow up when everything around you has been disturbed is shaking.
It’s it’s discontinuity and disconnected. So god is allowing the shaking to reveal the unshakable kingdom.
Because you are listening to his voice, a a young boy was on his plane with, uh, uh, flying somewhere.
And, um, he was, sitting next to an older lady in the plane hit some really bad turbulence.
And everybody was screaming on the plane because it was dropping suddenly, and it was just going from side to side and felt like you’re gonna crash.
And the kid was just there. He was just there playing. He was just just having a good time.
And the older lady was irritated.
She was irritated, and he was so calm when the whole plant is in disruption.
She looked at little boy. She said, what, son, Michael?
How can you be so calm when all this is going on?
He looked at the lake said, because my daddy is the pilot.
See, when you know to whom you are attached, Then while everybody else is going through all of this, your connection to god’s kingdom purpose, will stabilize you because his kingdom up there can’t be shaken by circumstances down here.
It doesn’t mean those circumstances aren’t real, It just means they’re no longer in control. They’re no longer dictating.
They’re no longer calling the shots because it is an unshakable Kingdom.
You know, when it rains on the ocean, the rain no matter how hard it hits can only penetrate the water down to approximately 25 feet.
So the rain is coming from up there and it’s hitting the water and you’ve seen the disturbance of rain and wind on water and it can penetrate 25 or so feet.
So what fish do When it’s raining, it’s going 26 feet.
In other words, the rain is the indication it’s time to go deeper.
When god disturbs the natural order of things, when your world is turned upside down, When things are in discord, god is saying, time to go deeper.
Time to go deep disturbance is to call our attention to time to go deeper. Okay?
So how do you go deeper in god’s purpose? Well, look at what he says.
Therefore, verse 28 says we receive the kingdom that cannot be shaken. Let us show gratitude.
I want you to be thankful.
Now the tendency when our world is shaken is to complain.
And that’s the natural. I mean, I don’t like this. I don’t want this.
I don’t agree with this from, you know, it’s too complaint. He says, let us show gratitude.
But how can I show gratitude if I’m in a disturbance?
You’re not showing gratitude for the disturbance. You’re showing gratitude for the purpose.
You’re saying, lord, I don’t like this. I don’t want this. I don’t agree with this.
I don’t desire this. But because you talking and because you have something to say, which means it’s worth hearing, I wanna thank you for how you’re gonna use this to take me deeper in my purpose with you.
I’m not thanking god for the problem. I’m showing gratitude for the purpose.
God was taking Israel from Egypt to the promised land. The purpose was the promised land.
The wilderness was development for the promised land.
He says, I let you get hungry so that you could see I could feed you.
I let you get thirsty. So you could see I’m your provider for your water.
So, yeah, I let you get hungry. I let you get tired I let you get weary.
I let you get thirsty because I knew you would depend on me more to have to come through.
Why did I do that?
Uteronomy says so that when you get to the promised land and when you got houses that you did not build, farms that you did not develop.
Blessings that you did not come that you should not forget the lord your god.
So I let you go through a hard time so that you won’t forget me.