hear His voice

“My sheep know my voice.” (Jesus Christ)

In recent conversations, I have heard a couple of long-time Christ Followers mention that they have a difficult time discerning God’s voice. How can we know when God is speaking to us?

I think hearing and knowing God’s voice comes with familiarity. Once you hear it, it is difficult to forget.

I had a very nice experience today. Our new baby granddaughter was in one of our church services. My wife was holding her on the back row. When I spoke, the baby reacted to my voice and started looking around for me. That’s because my voice is familiar to her. And I think it is comforting to her.

I have a few theories about why we can’t hear His voice:

• We aren’t listening. Maybe we are in too big of a hurry or maybe we have so many other voices in our heads or maybe we are so far from Him that we can’t hear Him or maybe we don’t like what He is saying so we tune Him out.

• We are disobedient to what He tells us (why would God talk to people who ignore Him – right?)

• We are duped into believing that we don’t hear God’s voice. Of course we hear it – Jesus said we would, and He doesn’t lie. The enemy of our soul wants to keep us doubting ourselves and doubting God. How about if we stop buying what he is selling?

Whatever the issue, this is not a good situation. Hearing and knowing His voice is essential.

Here’s the truth, if we don’t hear His voice, we will get totally lost. And lost sheep get eaten by the wolf.

Hear the Word of the Lord:
Isaiah  28:23 Listen and hear my voice; pay attention and hear what I say. (NLT)
Isaiah 30:21 Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say, “This is the way you should go,” whether to the right or to the left.  (NLT)