WHO ARE YOU HEARING...?

One of the aspects of the Christian faith that makes it unlike other religions, is the fact that our God offers us the possibility of an intimate relationship with Him. For this reason the ability to hear His Voice is absolutely essential.

In this respect there is “good news and bad news”...

The good news is that anybody is absolutely capable of hearing His voice in more than one way, provided that a few conditions are met.

The bad news is that everyone is absolutely capable of hearing the wrong voice if the conditions set by God Himself aren’t met.

This post is about :

• how to discern between God’s Voice and the other voices (the flesh and the deceiver - sometimes one and the same!)

• How to recognise if someone is hearing from God fully, partially or not at all.

First let me just say this about these “other voices”… Make no mistake, the Deceiver isn’t called that for nothing - he excels in coming across as utterly believable. And, as a wise pastor once said, the problem with deception, is deception: they who are deceived rarely know it until their eyes open for the Truth!

You know, God isn’t that complicated, but we are! He is quite straightforward about what He expects of His children. The problem is that we often simply don’t want to comply with His rules because our ego loves occupying the space on the throne of our lives... In other words, we are blind to the truth because we WANT to be blind.

HOW TO DISCERN BETWEEN THE VOICES

These are more like steps than they are points on a checklist.

The first thing you need to know is that God will never contradict His Word. For instance, if you hear: “it’s okay to date a married guy”, then you are hearing from the devil. Lol. It’s as easy as that.

Of course, there are issues that are more “borderline”, and sometimes our understanding is as clouded regarding when we read the Word looking for advice about our situation, than it is when we are hearing directly from God. This is why a life dedicated to Christ is necessary, because the closer you are to Him, the better you can hear Him.

Imagine talking to a a friend who is sitting on the opposite side of a busy waiting room. Not only do you have to speak up to hear each other, but there are distracting conversations going on all around you. The solution is simple: move closer to the One you want to hear and shut out the noise.

We draw closer to Christ by loving Him, and Jesus said that those who love Him are those who do His commandments. When we stop listening to gossip, watching dirty TV shows (containing bad language, blasphemy, sex, nudity, violence, etc) and stop engaging in wilful sin, we are literally closing doors in the faces of the voices that are aiming to distract and seduce us.

You must understand, if you ask God for a sign about something, but you have open doors in your life, the enemy will go to the extent of providing that sign for you if it can sidetrack you or cause you to doubt God. As long as your life displays elements that are contested by the Word, you simply can’t say with absolute certainty that you are only hearing God. You might hear Him sometimes, but you probably hear something else quite more often and clearly…

HOW TO DISCERN WHO SOMEBODY ELSE IS HEARING FROM

In this world there are people who truly speak on behalf of God, who sometimes speak on behalf of God and those who speak the lies that they believe but are coming from the Deceiver.

Recognising the spirit at work is not that hard actually, provided that you know and trust in the Word of God.

First of all, a true child of God is known by their fruit. If they live lives that display the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control that the Word says we will if we are true sons of God, then chances are that they are hearing from God. HOWEVER, you can’t stop there and just accept any word that proceeds from their mouths! It is your responsibility to go measure that word against the absolute standard : the Word of God.

Here are a few unmistakeable red lights to look out for:

• The person says “the Bible has been badly translated and therefore some forms of sin (such as homosexuality) are actually not condemned by God”. Even if it is true that some things have not, and can not, be translated as completely and extensively as the complicated Hebrew language describes them, the essence of what we have in our many recognised translations (King James, Amplified, NIV, Passion Translation, etc) is correct. Sometimes the mirror is dirty, but that doesn’t mean that it is not YOUR face you see!

• The person says “the Bible was written too long ago to still be relevant, therefore some things God expected of the people back then does not apply anymore today”. To that I answer: God is outside of time. He is the great I Am. He is not contained in time, but time exists within Him! Everything He said yesterday and will say tomorrow, He is saying today! An oil stain on a clean shirt will always be a dirty stain, even if we should decide at some point that it is “withit” to wear oil stains on our clothes. You see, God can’t be expected to adapt to OUR changing perspectives, it is our responsibility to change our changing perspectives to align with His constant perspective!

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I would love to continue this post and explain the many ways that God uses to speak to us: through Scripture, through thoughts, through dreams, through people and sometimes through an audible Heavenly Voice… but that would be Food4thoughts for another time!

May I ask you something, though…?

Please don’t miss God because of foolishness or selfish carnality. It’s just not worth wasting eternity for the sake of living a ridiculously short life of carnal pleasure…!