Before I share more God stories, I feel it is of great importance to delve into a subject, I have previously broached, that these future stories hinge on. That subject is on “hearing God’s voice.” At the risk of coming off as a kook and I am sure some out there may already believe I exited that off-ramp many miles ago, I can assure you I am not wearing a tinfoil hat and that living in Montana has not made me “one of those.” There are countless books on the topic of hearing God’s voice written by people far more educated than I and even more acquainted than me with the Voice of the Almighty. My intent here is not to write a book on this subject but to provide a small thumbnail sketch and framework, whereby you will have a grid to hang the things I am talking about on. It is possible, quite natural and entirely scriptural for us to hear God’s voice. From one end of the Bible to the other, God is speaking to others and us in various ways and methods. Isnt it interesting that in becoming familiar with someone’s voice you can discern by volume, tone, choice of words, speech pattern (slow or fast) etc. the speakers seriousness or lack thereof; their mood, their intentions etc. Before caller ID, we had to be familiar with ones voice to determine who we were talking with. Jesus, as recorded in John 10:1-18, told his disciples that His sheep would hear His voice and follow Him. This text infers Jesus is speaking and we, His sheep, are listening and have come to the place of discerning His voice as opposed to other voices. I believe there are four primary voices in the earth that we all hear to one degree or another: God’s, Satan’s, the world, and the flesh. I will, very briefly, describe in inverse order these and how it is that you and I hear these voices. The flesh-this is that voice, which we hear often in the form of calling us to the “path of least resistance”, enticing with physical and lustful gratifications, procrastination, etc. This voice does not call me out to walk the narrow and disciplined path God calls his followers to. Matthew 26:41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” This is not saying the flesh is weak in determining what I choose but rather that the flesh is weak in regards to doing Gods will. The voice of our flesh is opposed to doing the will of God. Romans 8:8-17 also confirms this. The world-With this voice there are many dialects i.e. media, entertainment, government, peers, the constant assault of messages to just go with the flow, etc. 1 John 2:15-16 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The word for “world” in the above text, in the original Greek, is the word “Kosmos” where we derive our current word “Cosmos” from. Its definition in part is-the whole mass of men alienated from God, and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ. World affairs, the aggregate of things earthly the whole circle of earthly goods, endowments riches, advantages, pleasures, etc, which although hollow and frail and fleeting, stir desire, seduce from God and are obstacles to the cause of Christ. biblestudytools/lexicons/greek/kjv/kosmos.html Obviously the voice of the world is not inclined towards telling us to follow after God or His will. This voice is loud and clear in our culture today, with it even being quite fashionable to publicly reject the Lord, His voice and His ways. Satan-We are originally told about his voice in the first book of the Bible: Genesis. In Genesis 3:1 we read, Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Satan’s voice is always calling into question Gods word, His authority, His trustworthiness, etc. and often suggests “alternatives” to doing things God’s way. This voice also tells us that God is the great killjoy. This voice does not want us to heed the word of the Lord. God-Again there are whole books written on this subject, but just to name a few ways God speaks, I submit the following: • God speaks through His Son, Jesus. Hebrews 1:1-3 • God speaks through the written word. 2 Timothy 3:16 • God speaks through dreams and visions. Job 33:14-18 • God speaks through prophets. 1 Samuel 28:6-15 • God speaks through other believers. 1 Corinthians 14:26 • God speaks through His creation. Romans 1:20 When God speaks, He is always consistent with His revealed nature and character and His written word. He does not lie, change or contradict Himself (Numbers 23:19, 1 Samuel 15:29, Hebrews 13:8 and James 1:17). This is important in determining which voice it is you are hearing. For the uninitiated, you will understand better as I tell the next few stories. I will close this post with this: It is imperative that we know and know intimately, His voice, and that we know Him and His ways and are thereby known by Him. For me, the scariest text of scripture in the Bible is Matthew 7:21-23: 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ It is interesting to me that Jesus did not respond to those who said they did all these things by calling them out as liars. He simply said, I never knew you. SCARY! We can do and say all the right things but still not know Him and therein be known by Him. I can’t know His will if I am not listening to His voice. God stories to follow!
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 02:20:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015