Knowing His Voice
// July 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // Camps and Conferences, Youth Discussions
Summer Camp – Session 2
John 10:27 (NLT) My sheep recognize my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
If you’ve ever read about real shepherds you will know how well sheep respond to their voice. A real shepherd only has to speak a word or two and all of the sheep will gather and begin following him wherever he goes, they know his voice and they know that as long as they are near him they are safe. A true shepherd doesn’t drive his flock, he leads them.
We need to train ourselves to hear His voice and follow. So how do we know when we are hearing His voice? For me it isn’t an audible voice, but thoughts that come into my mind. Learning to hear His voice is not really as hard as we make it sometimes, it’s simply taking time to quiet ourselves and hear what He is saying.
Psalms 46:10 (NKJV) Be still, and know that I am God.
It is in the quiet times of prayer, when we silence all of the things around us and in us, that He speaks to us. Notice here that he says “be still and KNOW that I am God.” After some time of training ourselves we know very clearly the voice of God. We can learn to instinctively separate His voice from all the others.
John 10:10 gives us a clue about the difference between God and the enemy, God’s words bring life, peace, calm, etc. while the enemy’s words will bring agitation, nervousness, distress, fear, etc. God’s words will always line up with scripture.
In the process of learning to hear His voice we can test what we are hearing, we can ask God to give us some kind of confirmation. In the book of Judges we find the story of Gideon, God came to him and gave him some direction, he wasn’t sure that he was really hearing God, so he asked God for confirmation, twice, and he got it both times. God is not afraid of us testing his voice, and He is always patient with us!
Another of my favorite passages about hearing God’s voice is found in 1 Kings.
1 Kings 19:9-12 (NKJV) And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” So he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”
Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.
Elijah had seen some pretty big things from God, but he was in a tough place, he was being hunted, people had turned on him because of his stand for righteousness. He comes to this place and God teaches him a lesson, sometimes we are looking for the word of God carried on thunder and lightning, or a big booming voice, when in reality He speaks to us in that quiet place with a still, calming voice.
Ginny (my wife) pointed out that another good lesson from this story is that sometimes when we remove all of the loudness around us, then we will find his voice speaking quietly to us.
Take some time today to “be still and KNOW that He is your God.”
