Recognizing The Voice of God

When I first came into a relationship with Jesus Christ, I wasn’t really sure how it was supposed to work. I was a little hesitant about praying, and whether or not I could do it. I had a lot of reservations about the whole thing. I mean, does God really listen to us? Can we really hear the voice of God? It seems there are so many people in the world, and when I first decided to take a step into talking to God I wasn’t sure He would be available for little old sinner me. I mean, who am I? A mom, a wife, a horrible wreck and sinner. Not too worthy of the attention of God of the Universe, right? Wrong.

Being a Christian means being in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the only way to God the Father, and it is through Jesus that we know God. When we make a commitment to give our lives to Jesus, we receive the wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit. It is through the Holy Spirit that we communicate with God, and understand what He has to say to us. It is an absolute miracle that God can live within us, and talk to us this way. Many people were starving souls, dying for the presence of the Most High God, before the Lord Jesus Christ came in the flesh. They would have done just about anything to have a relationship with the Living God, yet mankind had to wait thousands of years for that marvelous opportunity to come to light.

Thankfully God gave us this wonderful gift so that now we can communicate with Him, anytime and anywhere. So when we utter our prayers or just start blabbering on about our problems to God, He hears all of it, and He cares. Deeply. Once I had established a relationship with Jesus I was eager to please Him. It was really the basis for everything I was doing as I surrendered my life over to Him. I told God to take me, and use me as His tool. And He did! It was that eagerness and openness that allowed me to readily hear His voice and what He asked me to do on a daily basis. The Holy Spirit often asked me to do things that I thought were too difficult for me. Like giving up sugar so I could get healthy, or stopping the celebration of Halloween. Just little things, until I proved I was faithful enough to take on bigger things, such as giving a word to someone I barely know or prophesying over the pastor at church. Yet I was living so surrendered to the Spirit that it became easy to distinguish His voice above all others.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. Romans 8:26

I know for some this ability seems radical and even impossible. Yet it is completely possible for every person to hear the voice of God. Does that mean God speaks audibly to us? For some, yes I believe He does, but for many of us we will hear God speak in different ways. For some it will sound like a voice in our mind, for others it will be like a vision or picture, and still for others it will be an understanding or knowledge. God does also speak to us through the Bible, but I want to be clear that God does speak right into our minds and spirits to communicate personally with us. This is very important to understand as we get into a deeper relationship with God the Father.

For some there will be a struggle to understanding whether or not they are hearing the voice of God. Like Samuel, God will call to us and we will not recognize His voice. God called out to Samuel four times before Samuel finally understood it was the voice of the Lord speaking to Him, and responded. He had no idea God would, or even could talk to Him. So Samuel believed it was his teacher calling to him instead. How many times have you heard a voice in your mind speaking to you, and you brushed it off this same way? Maybe you too were unsure of whether it was the Lord or just your own strange thoughts. It takes trust and building a relationship to begin to recognize which voice is the Holy Spirit and which is not.

How can we truly know whether or not it is indeed the Lord, our God speaking to us? The same way you would know who was speaking to you on any other occasion; by recognition. When your spouse calls you, you know it is them by their voice and by the way they talk to you. When your child calls out to you, you recognize their voice and the tone in which they use. When you are with friends in a group, you can pick out who is saying what by hearing not only voices but other subtitles of their personalities.

This is what the Lord says:

I believe we all have an instinctual knowledge of the voice and presence of God. I believe it is a gift He gives us before we are even born. How else could we make it in a world that is bent on tearing us away from God? We need to have some internal hard wiring that drives us back to Him as we serve here on earth. Yet we also have an enemy. A divisive and driven enemy, who wants to confuse us and turn us away from our knowledge of God. This means our enemy works very hard to bring circumstances into our lives that will drive us away from God and into fear, uncertainty, and weakness. When we are weak, we are easy targets.

That is why it is so important to continuously work on our intimacy with Jesus Christ. He is such a wonderful gift in this world. He is always present with us in our lives, always willing to listen to us, and always asking us to give ourselves to Him. All we have to do is stop and be. He already knows us, now it is our turn to get to know Him. Through this intimacy we can begin to understand the nature of God. Through His word we can understand His personality. Through His Holy Spirit we can understand and recognize our Father. Time with God is precious and more valuable than anything else in this world. It will empower us to fight against an enemy bent on our destruction, and teach us how to make love our top priority, whereas our priorities are more geared towards just surviving every day.

As we grow in our knowledge of God, we will grow in our recognition of His voice. We will have clear discernment on if we are hearing ourselves, God, or the devil. We will have a much easier time obeying God, because there will be no confusion. We will foster a relationship of trust, that will enable us to move mountains. Hearing God’s voice will bring His Kingdom down to this earth, and into the lives of everyone we meet. How amazing is that??

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.”

John 10:27 

For some, the struggle to hear and know the voice of God goes much deeper. It goes to the extreme of just not hearing anything, ever. It feels as though God is ignoring you, and that you have lost all connection with Him. Or worse yet, that God has abandoned you. Be sure that no matter what you feel, God has not, and will never, abandon you. He has promised that He will always be with you in His word. Anything contrary to that is the work of our enemy, who would love nothing more than to steal your hope and kill your faith. Without God, we feel lost and alone, and are willing to trade in what we thought was truth for a basket full of lies.

These lies are what has gotten us into a place of being unable to hear God in the first place. The lies that we are not good enough, that we are crazy, that God is not who He says He is, and much more. Every person at some time or another is willing to give up on God because of fear, rejection, and pain. Just as Peter was willing to denounce Jesus, not once, but three times, we too have our moments of despair so strong that we give in to the powers of hell. In that moment, Peter thought Jesus had failed Him, and that Jesus was not who he thought He was. He succumbed to his own human frailties and walked away from the God He knew and loved. It only took a moment, and Peter never saw it coming. Neither do most of us.

The devil is a liar, and the father of lies. He has deceived many into untruths of who God is, and who we are. So we harden our hearts, and stop letting Him in. We get lost in a wilderness of pain and disbelief, and follow the voice of those that have seemed to know better than we must. We begin to disobey God, and despise and reject Him, allowing a coldness to grow over the places we once allowed Him in.

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

Hebrews 4:7

God has promised us a home forever. He has offered us a antidote to the sin of the forbidden fruit. All we must do is allow Him into our hearts and minds. In order to do this we must begin the process of surrender. If we have strayed far from God, we need to believe that He has not also done the same. We need to believe that truly nothing can separate us from the love of God, even our own hardened hearts.

When the Israelites were promised a land of milk and honey to make theirs, they were ecstatic. Yet when they heard that they would be some obstacles to overcome in order to get there, they became despondent and gave up. They forgot the battle was already won and focused on the problems they saw in the way. God never withdrew the promises from them, He just had to prepare the people to receive what they had already rejected. When Moses went up to the mountain to hear from the Lord, the people became anxious and worried that Moses would not come back. They really did love God, but they also greatly feared Him. They wanted Him, but they wanted to keep Him at arms length. That is why Moses had to go up to the mountain to meet with God in the first place; because the people could not handle the glory of God. So when Moses didn’t return in the timing the Israelites thought best, they sought to create their own God out of gold, and shaped it with their own human understanding.

That is what we often do to God. We are afraid to fully let Him in, yet we want Him in our lives. We don’t want to hear directly from Him, so we allow others who seem trustworthy to deliver words of God as a mediator. And when we don’t like the way our relationship with God is going, we begin to remake it so it fits in with our lives better. Even if that means we shut Him out altogether and make a completely new god.

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10

God is ever calling you back, and wooing you closer. He is the only thing in this world that is worthy of your time and attention. He is the sole reason you are even here. We are so easily distracted and led astray, being held captive to our own thoughts and feelings. We have to stop seeking God for all the answers, and start seeking Him for the truth. The truth of who He is and who He created us to be. We might think we have problems that we need His help with, or that we are under oppression, or have illness or despair cloaking every bit of joy. But I say to you, let all of that go; your desire for freedom from pain and oppression, your physical and emotional needs, and just come before the One and Only Living God. Soak in His presence. Be with Him. Know His presence, hear His voice. It is only through this relationship, this knowing Him, that you will find any freedom or any answers you seek.

We can never truly know the Living God if we are trying to live without Him. We can never begin to hear His voice when we have decided not to spend time listening for it. We were not made for this world. We were made for heaven. It is in this world that we will begin to know God in a deeper and more unique way. This world shows the glory of God through all His creation, and we can find Him if we just stop to see Him. He wants you. All of you. I know it hurts to surrender. I know it is hard. It is scary. But God is never, never going to hurt you. And even if you do hurt, that is a temporary and fleeting reality, that will never touch the truth of what God has done for your spirit.

Come one and all unhindered and unbound before the Living God and give Him your heart. Sit by His side and feel His love and comfort. Let Him feed and nourish your spirit, and heal your soul, just by His very presence. He is love, and love will never hurt nor punish you. Love will free you. Trust Him. He is here.

Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.

Jeremiah 33:3