Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts’ Hebrew 4:7.
How can we follow God if we can’t hear his voice?
A few thoughts, firstly the Bible makes it clear that God speaks, and as he speaks we should take what he says really, really seriously.
“Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil” 5:20-22.
But we’re human, we sometimes get it wrong, we need to test it was God not our own wishful thinking, or confusion, or whatever…
Yet God says “My sheep know my voice” and “If you turn to the right or the left, you will hear a voice behind you saying, this is the way walk in it”…
He speaks, and he wants us to hear him, and he wants us to know him, and discover his voice.
Perhaps we need to echo the prayer of Samuel and say to God “speak Lord, your servant is listening” and wait on the Lord, Seek him…
Yet God does not always speak in a dramatic way, not always fireworks but sometimes a gentle whisper (1 Kings 19:12)…
I think we often miss the whisper of God in the hustle and bustle of life.
Sometimes we don’t want to hear what he’s got to say, as that might mean changing our lifestyles and that’s uncomfortable and challenging… A friend said, “I knew God was calling me but I put the answer-phone on and carried on as I was”… Give God space and time to hear his voice, check it out with the Bible, with other Christians and also with your guts… does it feel right?
Sometimes God guides with our feelings, particularly peace, have you ever heard someone say “I just didn’t have a peace about X?” Often our head is saying, it all looks good, but something in our hearts isn’t quite right…
“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus…” Phil 4:7
Just have a go, have a listen, give God space and time, pray to him to speak to you, listen to what he says, check it out with the Bible, is in line with his character and his word? Maybe check it out with other Christians…
And finally, God loves you and so is it honouring, up building, holy, righteous, truthful, beautiful, gracious, merciful and just the type of thing a good God who loves us would be saying to you…
He might be giving a message of repentance but he always does it in the context of love, for “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” Romans 8:1
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