Have you ever received a phone call from a friend and instantly knew who was calling because you recognized their voice? If you have children, have you ever been in a crowd and called to them and they responded because they knew your voice? Have you ever listened to the radio and knew who was talking because it was a familiar voice? Now for another question that will help you understand what I am going to share with you in today’s devotion. During any of those scenarios were you ever afraid you wouldn’t know the voice of the one talking or afraid that your children wouldn’t know your voice?
I am sure your answer to the last question was no and yet every day I hear people say they are afraid because they don’t know how to discern the voice of God or they wonder if God hears them when they are speaking to Him through prayer. There is great confusion in the body of Christ when it comes to knowing how to discern the voice of God that doesn’t need to be there. Discerning the voice of God is quite simple, but people have complicated it through false teaching and over analysis.
God isn’t playing hide-n-seek with us and He doesn’t disguise His voice to see if we are paying attention. He speaks plainly and clearly to us through His Word, written or spoken. In John 10:27 Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” Proverbs 16:3 in the Amplified Bible says, “Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.”
These two verses answer the questions of whether God hears us when we pray and how we discern the voice of God when He speaks. When we know that He hears us and we hear Him and when we commit our ways to the Lord and put our trust fully in Him; He causes our thoughts to become agreeable to His will. But when we hear a voice speak whether it is a spoken word or a written word, we have a responsibility that is described in 1 John 4:1. John says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” In verse 6 of the same chapter John tells us there is a spirit of truth and a spirit of error.
In understanding that as Christians we have a responsibility to test the spirits and in knowing the truth that there is a spirit of truth (Holy Spirit) and a spirit of error (the devil and demonic forces of darkness) we discover how to discern which voice is speaking. The voice of God is never contradictory to His Word, but the voice of the enemy is always contradictory to God’s Word. For example God won’t tell you to love your neighbor as yourself and then tell you its okay to hate someone. He won’t tell you to bless those who curse you and then tell you it is okay to gossip about someone who has done you wrong. He won’t tell you that by His stripes you were healed and then tell you He has brought a sickness upon you to teach you a lesson in longsuffering.
He doesn’t say He gives you the power to stand up under a temptation until it passes and then tell you He has allowed you to be tempted in order to test your resistance level to temptation. He won’t say that He supplies your needs according to His riches in glory and then tell you He is allowing you to live in poverty so you learn how to be humble. He doesn’t say He gives His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways and then say He is taking your security of protection away because you have been disobedient. God isn’t schizophrenic and unstable! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever! And His voice always aligns with His Word and is given to His people through the voice of His Spirit in order that we grow up IN Him who is the head over all, Jesus Christ.
The key is in knowing His Word and rightly dividing it by the power of the Holy Spirit teaching us. Where is the first place you go when you want to know what God’s will is for your life? Do you go to Him with full assurance that He hears you and will lead and guide you? Or do you talk to someone and seek their advice? When you read God’s Word do you believe by faith that His Spirit will teach you all things or do you question God’s Word based on teachings you have heard from man?
In the first paragraph of today’s devotion I asked three questions about recognizing the voice of a friend, the voice of your children, and the voice of a familiar person. I asked these to show you just how easy it really is to discern the voice of God. Discerning the voice of God comes from spending so much time with Him that you recognize His voice when He is speaking. It really is that simple. The more time you spend with Him in the Word, in prayer, meditation, and worship, the more familiar you will become with the sound of His voice. And you will begin to identify the counterfeit voice because it will be such a distinctly different voice that your spirit will detect it when it speaks.
Prayer: Spend time today with the Lord asking the Holy Spirit to speak to you. Believe by faith that He will and watch as you are able to detect the sound of God’s voice. Do this daily until you no longer question the validity of His voice. Tune out the voices of your own reasoning based on past teachings from man and watch as God begins to reveal Himself through His Word in a new way that brings clarity and peace in your spirit.
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