RECOGNIZE HIS VOICE

When we know that He is the Word – the final truth in any circumstances, then we can learn to hear His voice. This takes practice and time spent with Him. Otherwise we might not recognize it. How do we hear His voice? For the believer it is rarely an audible thing.  Most of us live our entire Christian experience without ever hearing an audible voice. It is not impossible, but God wants us to learn to hear with our heart, again because our natural hearing is a physical thing and we can’t always trust it.

I don’t always hear correctly because of a number of reasons.  Sometimes my mind is preoccupied and without giving my undivided attention I don’t always hear what I am being told. Oh, I heard the sound of the other person’s voice. But what they said did the proverbial ear trick - went in one and out the other. I heard the sound but I didn’t let it store in my brain cells so even though I heard a sound, I didn’t get the information.  

Sometimes I hear things incorrectly. I haven’t quite understood what the other person was saying and because it can be embarrassing asking them to repeat themselves I carelessly take what I thought I heard as the truth. That’s dangerous because I have recorded wrong information. It can also get you into a lot of trouble with other people who thought you understood what time you were supposed to meet or what day a special occasion was on.

Probably the most dangerous way of hearing is an erroneous interpretation of what has been said. When we hear offensively or we are trying to “read between the words” we can become offended, angry, or hurt when the other person never for a moment meant it the way we took it. It causes us to react in defensive ways that can hurt others and ourselves. It can destroy friendships all over nothing.

The devil wants us to hear wrong. He wants us to have conflict with other people because during conflict we can’t really concentrate on our relationship with the Lord. We must guard against that, and I am learning that correct physical hearing is important in maintaining relationships with other people.

For these reasons God chooses mostly to speak to our hearts.  When we have established our hearts with God then it becomes the main source of hearing from Him. He will speak inside of us. But we must remember that the devil is constantly whispering in our ear and if we aren’t in tune with the Word inside of us then we can get those voices confused.

Jesus said that His sheep hear his voice and know that it is He.  When we are identified as “His” and we have gotten to know Him, we will soon realize it is Him just by the sound of His voice. Sheep are that way. Most animals are. When they have been around an individual long enough they recognize them simply by their voice.

We had a dog at one time, a little dachshund named Casey. We had gotten him for our son, as a puppy, only five weeks old. He was a part of our family for nearly fifteen years. Towards the end of his life his eyesight wasn’t what it had been. Casey was on his leash out in the front yard and I came around the house toward him. He started “cutting a rusty.” You need to know that Casey was fine with strangers when he was indoors, but he was very hostile toward them when he was outdoors. All he saw of me was a form coming at him and he was prepared to fight. I wondered why he was acting so rough with me and I yelled out his name, “Casey!”  Instantly he recognized my voice and bowed his head low, wagging his tail. He couldn’t tell

it was me by sight, but he knew my voice.

We must learn to recognize the voice of the Word like that. We can’t always see but we can hear. When we know we are hearing Him, then that is sufficient.

(To be continued)

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.?  Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.