First let me clear this up. It is a God
given birth right to hear the voice of God. If you have been born again or
birthed into the kingdom of God through His Spirit you should be able to hear
His voice. "And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before
them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by
no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the
voice of strangers.” (John 10:4-5)
There two things I
would like to point out about this scripture. First, that when we come under
the leadership of our shepherd we hear His voice. Secondly, we should be able
to distinguish the voice of a stranger. In my house, my husband developed a
special whistle that the children can hear in a crowd. When they hear it they
come to him because it is a distinguished call. The voice of God also has a distinguished sound and we will cover
that later but first let's go over some important facts. God has always spoken
to humanity. God will even speak to people
who don't know Him like He did to Abraham. Remember Abraham didn't know who God
was until He spoke to him calling him out of his country and
declaring his destiny!
God spoke to Moses through a burning bush
giving him a mandate to return to his people to deliver them out of slavery.
God spoke to Joshua giving him strategic commands to take territories for His
God. He spoke to Joseph in a dream, and though it took many years to fulfill
what God had spoken, he held on to the promises of God. He spoke to Gideon
though he was hiding and gave him the courage to take his nation back from
foreign invasion. He spoke to Deborah and gave her the wisdom to counsel her
nation. That was the Old Testament. Aren't we under a better covenant?
But now He has
obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established
on better promises. (Hebrews 9:6)
I find it interesting
that we always claim to have a relationship with God yet we find it hard to
believe He will speak to us. How is it possible to have a relationship with
anyone and not talk to them? I want to challenge you to make friends and not
talk to them. They will not be your friends for very long! I want you to know
that Jesus considers you a friend, if you have given your heart and life to
Him.
"No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you." (John 15:15)
Jesus is letting us know that we have
access because of relationship therefore, we can hear the voice of God. I know
some of you might be worried that you might be listening to the wrong voice but
Jesus said, "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has
come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His
own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He
will tell you things to come." (John 16:13) The Holy Spirit is in charge
of making sure you don't get off track. As long as your heart does not get
filled with pride you will not get deceived.
Now, I will say that
it does take practice to distinguish God's voice from your own thoughts and the
devil's. The place that God speaks the most is to your thoughts. This can
become a problem if you have a very active thought life competing with God.
Having control over your thoughts will be the most important task you will have
to learn as a Christian. This task involves learning to "cast down arguments
and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing
every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians
10:5)
Primarily you will
have to become somewhat of tennis player. A thought comes into your mind that
is lustful in nature you will have to hit that thought back to where it came
from. Perhaps you start going over something that made you angry then you need
to hit that back where it came from. Perhaps you are busy planning your day and
God wants to interrupt you then you will have to learn to set aside your
thoughts for His.
The devil's primary
objective in this whole subject is to keep you distracted. Tragically, he has
succeeded in many ways through media and entertainment. Most of the time, you
will see people with headphones in their ears unable to hear you. If they can't
hear you they won't hear God because their minds are not on Him. I heard this
from a Pastor and it is true. Leave a man alone in a quiet place and he will
hear God. I noticed that in my life God likes to speak to me as soon as I wake
up. If I get too busy He will interrupt my sleep or give me a dream. Let us
always make time for our friend so can instruct us.
Here is a good
exercise if you are truly wanting to hear God. Get alone with a notepad and
write down the thoughts that come to your mind. Make three columns. List them
as my voice, God's voice and the devil's voice. Your voice is normally filled
with ideas, plans and opinions. God's voice is more like a gentle nudge,
revealing the heart, the past, present and future. The devil's voice is
tempting, trying to instill fear, doubt and distraction. Use the Word of God to
filter these voices. Think about how God has spoken to his people throughout
the ages. The devil uses the same tactics. "Did God say?" His main
goal is to try to get you to second guess what God is saying to you and what
the Word of God says.
Another thing you can
do is to practice keeping your thoughts quiet so God can speak. You must rid
yourself of all opinions, bias, judgments on any matter or person. When someone
is standing in front of me, my main objective is to turn off my thoughts or
opinions on what I think may be happening in that person's life. There is
nothing worse than getting a word from someone and it is mixed in with their
own soul. That means they allowed their own opinions to mix in with what God
wanted to say. OK, that is more advanced and will have to be covered later.
Quieting your mind will be your greatest challenge. However, the greatest
reward will to be hear God accurately! Learn to practice being in God's
presence, being quiet and listening. We do far too much talking and not enough
listening. Let us learn to wait in expectant faith to hear what He will say. He is always
wanting to speak to us.