LISTENING TO HIS VOICE

Have you ever been wondering about listening to God’s voice? As if we have been trying hard to listen but we heard nothing? Or our own voice talks inside our head? As if only holy saints who can hear His voice, or maybe we think that God can’t speak to us directly?

First of the very first, we have to change our perception. God can speak. If God can listen, then why He can’t speak? Now, for long time we think that we are not holy enough to listen to His voice. It reminds me to a song, anyway. It sounds like this:

“Who am I that the Lord of all the earth would care to know my name, would care to feel my hurt? Not because of who I am but because of what You’ve done, not because of what I’ve done but because of You are.”

We are not holy, indeed. We are not worthy enough to listen to His voice. That was why Christ died for us, so that we can have reconciliation with God. Now, after we accept Jesus Christ in our heart, the Holy Spirit stays in us. We are not separated anymore.

So now, we are able to listen to His voice. We can enter His presence and we are sanctified by His blood. We are worthy and holy again every time we admit our sins and forgive others. For He says:

“But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” Mark 11:26

So if we do not forgive, then we are unholy. But if we have forgiven, we are sanctified because He has forgiven us, too. Now after we are clean and holy, we are ready to have an intimate relationship with our Father in Heaven.

The most common question is:

How can I know that it’s His voice?

Let’s see the bible verse of John 10:27

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”

Have you ever gone to the farm and seen how a sheep recognizes the voice of its shepherd? That sheep hears it every day.  That sheep focuses on the voice of its shepherd. That sheep spends plenty time with its shepherd until the voice is familiar to it. That’s what Christ means with us as His sheep and He as our shepherd.

So it means that we have to spend time as often as possible with Him.

Now, I also have one parable like this:

One day a man comes to his priest and asks, “Why I can’t hear God’s voice?” and the priest answers him in whisper. “What? I can’t hear you!” said the man. He moves forward. The priest still whispers his answer. The man still can’t hear him. “I can’t hear you!” and he moves even closer. Until he is right in front of the priest, close enough to hear what the priest is saying. The priest says, “That’s your answer child, you need to be close enough to God to hear His voice.”

So it means that we have to be close enough to Him.

How? Back to the first discussion, by spending time as often as possible with Him. Sometimes we don’t hear His voice because we do not let Him to speak. We do not give enough time. We are just too busy mentioning what we want and asking for blessing until we forget that it’s God’s turn to speak. After we finish talking, we close the prayer. That is not a relationship. Relationship is two-side. How can we say we are in relationship with our boyfriends if the one who keeps talking are us, while they only listen?

The next is, how can we differentiate whether that voice is from God, or our own voice, or worse, Satan?

Here is a devotional thought from Ps. Adrian Rogers which I think is very suitable for explaining this question.

Listening for His Voice

Devotional thought from the messages of Adrian Rogers

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Proverbs 7:24 - "Hearken unto Me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of My mouth."

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The United States Government doesn't teach Treasury agents to detect counterfeit bills by having them study fakes. They show these agents real dollars over and over and over until they have the pattern memorized. Then, when a counterfeit is put in front of them, they recognize it instantly because it doesn't fit the pattern their eyes are looking for. Do you know the voice of the Lord? The only way you can be sure that it is His voice you are hearing is to hear it so often that a stranger's voice is instantly recognizable. It is far wiser to spend time learning the One True Voice than it is trying to learn to detect a multitude of false voices.

ACTION POINT:

Spend at least 15 minutes today being silent before God and listening for His voice.

Again, how to recognize the true voice? The answers are above:

We have to be close to Him and spend time as often as possible with Him.

What we should know are:

1. His voice won’t be contradictory to the Words of God (Bible)
2. His voice will grant you peace.

However, God doesn't talk ONLY in our heart. He can talk in many ways, the most is through His living Words. Then it can be through His servants or children, through prophecy, vision, dream, and many more. Still, we have to check it and everything should be back to the Bible.

“Despise not prophesyings.Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21

So what else we are waiting for? Spend our time with Him and feel the intimacy with our Heavenly Father, listen to His soft voice and enjoy His presence! God bless us all.

You can find more about listening to His voice here:

4 Keys to Hearing God's Voice