Guided By The Voice Of God
Every Christian desires to hear the voice of God in their life. We were created with a longing inside of us to hear our Master's voice. Some look intently for it and others just hope they will somehow hear His still small voice regarding their everyday life issues. How do we go about finding God? How do we go about learning to recognize His voice? What does His voice sound like?
Would you recognize the Lord's voice if He spoke right now to you? Life has so many pitfalls and roadblocks that it is important to know we can go to someone who can tell us what to do next. God is like our air traffic controller. He guides His sheep to safe, green pastures, away from the wolves that would devour our family, health and fortune. Yet, how many of us recognize when He speaks to us. How can we tell that our God has spoken? Maybe it is the enemy of our soul trying to infiltrate our life. On the other hand, maybe it's just our own soul that is steeped in mental strongholds. Can you see how futile this walk of life could be to us if God's instructions were hidden from us ?
God has a detailed will and plan for your life and He wants to tell you. Someone needs to guide you through that plan and the Lord knows the best and safest passage. With that in mind, we must have the ability to hear Him clearly. How else could we possibly fulfill the productive future He has predestined for us to have.
There is a road map for each of us to follow and we desperately need to hear our Lord's voice to accomplish the work designed specifically for us. With this in mind, we need to acquire an expectant attitude to hear our Father in heaven. We need to get desperate in our actions to draw out of the spirit realm the necessary instructions that will lead us down the right path.
Psalm 32:8 says, "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye." Our part is to be sensitive to the Shepherds leading and follow Him.
How do we connect with the voice of our God? According to John 10:3-5, the Word says, His sheep do hear His voice. The scripture says, "The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice." (NIV)
Now you may be wondering why you haven't recognized the Lord's voice before. There are some keys to help get us to a place of hearing. I believe the master key is 'Faith'. Little faith = little hearing. Unfortunately, we live in a generation that has been taught that God is silent. He doesn't speak the way He did in the past. We have been taught not to expect these supernatural happenings. However, the book of Acts is filled with supernatural encounters that the believers and unbelievers alike experienced.
Heb 13:8 tells us "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." If Jesus is the same today as He was then, we also can experience His divine encounters, and one of those encounters is His voice speaking to us in our everyday affairs. Expect to hear from Him. If you don't believe that God wants to speak to you, then it won't happen. If you don't believe it's the will of God to hear Him, then you must deal with that unbelief. It'll hinder your ears from hearing. Remember, God honors faith not unbelief.
Let's see if we can go from a place of deafness to hearing God's voice. How does God speak to us? I believe the first and most important way is through His Word, the Holy Scriptures. God first takes us into His 'logos' written word to train us to recognize His voice. He uses the written Word to tune our ears to hear the real thing. In this fashion, we can recognize the counterfeit. The written Word of God is a sure word of prophecy to you. He has much to tell you in regards to the way in which you should walk and the way in which you should act.
I personally think it is vital to get intimately familiar with the Bible. Since God cannot lie, He will never say or do anything contrary to His written Word. When God guides you or gives you direction, He does not nullify the Scriptures; neither will He change them to accommodate you! Therefore, you will always know what God has to say on any subject by knowing what He says in His written Word. Knowing that God first speaks through His written word, I would encourage you to meditate daily in it. Josh 1:8 says, "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." (NIV)
God is not limited in the ways in which He can get our attention. He can speak through the advice of a godly friend, or maybe from your inner spirit during a time of prayer. Even the circumstances and events in our lives are pointing us to something that God is trying to communicate to us. I especially like the way He communicates through dreams and visions. It is pretty exciting when you get a dream and you know it was God revealing something to you. He always relays His thoughts to me in a parable type format. I guess it's because I have to spend time with Him in order to get the understanding of its symbolism.
The Bible clearly shows us how God communicates directly with his children through dreams. In Job 33:14-18 we read, "God speaks first in one way, then in another, but no one notices. He speaks by dreams, and visions that come in the night, when slumber comes on mankind, and men are all asleep in bed. Then it is he who whispers in the ear of man to teach them the lesson they need, to turn him away from evil-doing and make an end of his pride, to save his soul from the pit and his life from the pathway to Sheol ."
I personally believe that dreams are a chosen way God communicates to His children. Whether awake or asleep, God wants to instruct and counsel us and we need it while both awake and while we sleep. Our Lord loves us so much and He desires for us to have a successful Christian walk. He will even invade our dream world to get those instructions to us. Sometimes, that is the only way He can get our attention. This world is so full of noise and business that He needs the quietness of the night while we are at rest to make His will known.
If you want to understand the way God speaks to you in dreams, you must give careful study and thought to them. You must strive for understanding. God is not trying to hide His voice from you. It's just that His desire to have an intimate relationship with you is so strong that He uses symbolic formats, which causes you to search after Him daily for the interpretation. He doesn't want much time to go by without communication between the two of you.
What a great God we serve. His passion for us is a marvelous thing. Why don't you spend time resting in His presence today? He is waiting for you with great anticipation. Don't disappoint Him.
