There are actually four types of voices which we hear speaking to us, and it is important that we learn to distinguish each one so that we are able to discern the true voice of God: The voice that is perhaps the most obvious is our own voice. In addition to our speaking voice, we also talk to ourselves inside our heads, we see images and pictures inside our heads, we have emotions and feelings and desires, and so on. Our minds tell us what we think, our wills tell us what we want, and our emotions tell us how we feel. The Bible refers to our minds, wills, and emotions as our flesh nature, and this article will give you a better understanding of the voice of the flesh. Another type of voice which clamors for our attention is the voice of other people. Sometimes people say things which are true, noble, and good, and sometimes people say things which are just the opposite. This article will provide some guidance to help you discern what you are hearing from the voice of other people. The third type of voice is the voice of the devil. The devil has crafty ways of speaking to us which he has perfected over the millennia. He does not appear before us in a red, cloven-hoofed suit and speak out loud to us, he is much more subtle than that. What he does is to throw thoughts into our minds like flaming arrows, and he speaks to us through the worldly ideas and viewpoints that he has injected into other people. By the time you finish this article you will have a better understanding of how to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one (Ephesians 6:16). The fourth and final type of voice is the most important, but it is also the most subtle. It is the voice of God. God does not speak to us in our minds, He speaks to us in our spirits because that is where the Holy Spirit lives. Unfortunately, we tend to spend most of our thought life in our heads, in other words in the mind of the flesh (Romans 8:7, AMP), focused on the sensory world around us where our physical senses and our thoughts, feelings, desires, and emotions are constantly being bombarded and stimulated in worldly, carnal, fleshly ways. We tend to live on the shallow surface, so to speak, rarely venturing deeper where the Spirit of God lives within us. The result is that many of us do not know where our spirits are nor how to hear and be led by our spirits. Because of this we leave ourselves wide open to fall for the many deceptions of the devil. This article will help you to begin recognizing the leadings and promptings that are coming from your spirit, and how to be more Spirit-led. These are the four types of voices that we hear, and in the next several sections we will examine each of these more closely. Hearing from God is not a science, so I have tried to offer plenty of examples from my own experience to help describe some of the ways that God speaks to us. Please dont let this mislead you, however. In order to teach by example, it is obviously important to offer examples of the times when I believe that I have heard from God. However, the danger in doing so is that it might give the impression that I am some kind of spiritual giant who always hears from God clearly and accurately and never makes any mistakes. Believe me, thats definitely not the case! How I wish I could hear God speaking out loud every day, telling me exactly how I can be obedient to Him and serve Him and honor Him! But thats not how He does things, and Ill elaborate more on this throughout the article. Like everything else in the Christian walk, hearing from God is a journey, and we are all at different places along the way. The journey never ends and no-one ever arrives, and just like everyone else I still have a long way to go in this area of hearing Gods voice. All I have to offer are some things I have learned so far on my journey, which may help you on your journey. I hope that my experiences and examples are helpful in describing some of the ways that God speaks to us, and I am trusting God that soon you will have plenty of your own examples to help someone else who feels frustrated in his or her journey of trying to hear and obey Gods voice. The Mind of the Flesh Our greatest enemy Heres an interesting question for you: Who is our greatest enemy? If you said its the devil, youre wrong! Our greatest enemy is our minds, our wills, and our emotions, which the Bible sometimes refers to as our sin nature or our flesh. Consider that if we did not have a sinful flesh nature then the devil would have no hold on us. For example, Jesus had a body made of flesh and blood but He did not have a sinful flesh nature as we do, and therefore the devil had no hold on Him (John 14:30). 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says that we are made up of spirit, soul and body. Your body is aware of the physical world around you, your spirit is aware of God within you, and everything else is your soul, which is aware of self. Your soul is made up of your mind (what you think), your will (what you want), and your emotions (what you feel). Our spirits were regenerated (made alive) the moment we were saved (see for example John 3:3-8), and our bodies will be made immortal when Jesus returns for us (1 Corinthians 15:51-53), but we must wage a daily battle against our flesh nature. For example, how often do we say or hear things like, I know I shouldnt say this, BUT or I know I shouldnt do this, BUT or I know I probably shouldnt eat this, but Im going to eat it anyway? Our flesh nature pushes us to do what it wants to do, and we often obey our flesh even when we know better! Our flesh is unGodly You see, the problem is that our flesh is unGodly, it is our sin nature, and thats why the Bible tells us to crucify our flesh (as well see in the next section). For example, try telling Jesus every day, Jesus, You are my Lord and I am desperately in love with You. I will do anything and everything You say, without questions or hesitations or reservations. I will say what You want me to say, I will go where You want me to go, I will do what You want me to do. I am all Yours, Lord, live Your life through me and receive great glory and honor by my devoted, loving, and unswerving obedience. Isnt this the attitude that He wants us to have? Then why do we find it so difficult to say this and to live this way? Its because we are afraid of what He might call us to do! For instance, you might have a great job and make lots of money and have an affluent lifestyle, but God might call you to leave all of that and to go spend the rest of your life ministering in remote African villages. He has done this before! You might be a shy, self-conscious stutterer, but God might call you to hold large healing and/or evangelism crusades all around the world where you will be speaking in front of thousands and thousands of people. He has done this before! You might be a comfortable, middle-class person successfully climbing the corporate ladder and enjoying the status of being a member of the right clubs or social circles, but God might call you to turn your back on all of that and to begin spending your evenings or weekends in the slum areas of town ministering to the homeless or ministering among youth gangs. He has done this before! You might be a small-town housewife with a high school education, but God might call you to go on the road most of the year preaching several times a week in churches, universities, conferences, and so on. He has done this before! God has done every one of these things in certain peoples lives, and there is always the possibility that He might do it in our lives as well. Now, be honest, some of these things just scare the daylights out of us, dont they? We are afraid to completely give ourselves over to Gods plan for our lives because we are afraid that we might be called on to do things which might embarrass us or stretch us out of our comfort zones. Our flesh doesnt like the idea of having to go through these sorts of things, even though God will only call us to do things which are best for us. God always has our best interests at heart, but our flesh wants to cast its vote and make its wishes and desires known, and we tend to follow what our flesh wants rather than what God wants. Isnt it fairly clear that our flesh nature tends not to want to obey God?
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 05:07:46 +0000
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