Whose Voice Are You Listening To?
Whose voice are you listening to?
When I ask you that question, you would undoubtedly say: Oh, I listen to the voice of the Lord. I quickly answered that question the same way when the Lord asked me. I very confidently quoted the scripture from Matthew 10: 4 that I was His sheep and I follow Him and I know His voice, I hear His voice.
Then the next questions was: If you listen to me, why do you pay attention to symptoms of sickness in your body? He might ask you a different question. For example, if you listen to me, why do you pay attention to the few dollars in your pocketbook or checking account? I am learning daily that there are places in my life that the Lord is not my total source. How about you? I believe the Lord is preparing His Body to see Him as their source totally because of the way things are in this world today. Regardless of what is going on, He is our source.
When gasoline prices rise, when bread is $3 a loaf, etc. etc. etc., who is your source? When symptoms of a terminal disease come to your body, who is your source? When you hear that your child has been involved in something they shouldn’t do, who is your source? When it looks like things are not that great in your marriage, who is your source? When someone doesn’t like you and comes against you, who is your source? This is our leading question of the day. Who is our source and who are we listening to? It is good to get counsel from our spouse and counsel from our pastor and counsel from those who are wise in the spiritual things of the Lord. But, ultimately, all the counsel must be presented to the Lord. And we must ask: What is it Lord that You are saying? The only way we can hear what He is saying is to get quiet in His Presence. And if we have not been used to doing that, it will take some time before we hear anything because the noise of the world is pressing in on us too much. The thoughts in our head are yelling too loudly to hear God’s voice.
It is not an option to become sensitive to the voice of the Spirit of God. We must learn how to hear Him and then to obey what He tells us to do. Some people hear Him but then delay in obeying Him. Delayed obedience is disobedience.
We remember that in Romans 10:17 faith comes by HEARING and HEARING by the Word of God. So, we see that hearing is mandatory to faith coming. What ear are we talking about here. Actually, we are talking about two ears---our physical ears that hear sound and our inner spiritual ears that hear the voice of the Spirit of God. The basis for our inner spiritual hearing should always be the Word of God. Whatever we hear must line up with the Word of God or it is not the Lord speaking but our enemy, satan, the imposter.
Let’s use a simple example here about hearing. You get up in the morning and you have a scratchy throat. This voice says: You’re getting a cold. You had better take something for it. Or, worse yet, you’re getting the flu. You better stop by the drugstore and get some medicine. That’s one voice. There’s another voice that says: By His stripes I was healed. And if I was healed, then I am healed. Which voice are you going to follow?
Unfortunately, many members of the Body of Christ will follow the first voice out of fear of something happening in their bodies. One of the things we must learn also is that when we follow the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Word, it is not an instantaneous turnaround. It takes time to learn to trust God’s Word for our lives. It is a process that most people don’t want to fool with. In America it is so much easier to go to the doctor and take medicine and get it over with. That is why healing miracles happen in other countries so much easier. They don’t have easy access to doctors, hospitals and medicine. Christ is their only answer. And they receive immediately. Here in this country, everyone tells us that we are foolish if we don’t go to the doctor, if we don’t take medicine, if we don’t adhere to the medical community’s advice. Now, don’t get me wrong. I know there is a need for doctors and medicine. We must have them, because most people are not at the place in faith where they can do without the medical community.
My point is, whose voice are you and I following? It is a personal thing where we must follow the voice of the Spirit of God in our particular situation. And if you are not used to hearing His voice, then you won’t recognize it when He speaks. Practice hearing Him until it is as easy as hearing the voice of your spouse or your children or your best friend. When I pick up the telephone, I recognize my husband’s voice immediately. I know my son’s voice immediately. Why? Because I listen to their voices all the time. That is the way it must be with our Lord. We must be as familiar with His voice as we are those of the people we love here on this earth.
We are His sheep and we DO HEAR HIS VOICE!
When I ask you that question, you would undoubtedly say: Oh, I listen to the voice of the Lord. I quickly answered that question the same way when the Lord asked me. I very confidently quoted the scripture from Matthew 10: 4 that I was His sheep and I follow Him and I know His voice, I hear His voice.
Then the next questions was: If you listen to me, why do you pay attention to symptoms of sickness in your body? He might ask you a different question. For example, if you listen to me, why do you pay attention to the few dollars in your pocketbook or checking account? I am learning daily that there are places in my life that the Lord is not my total source. How about you? I believe the Lord is preparing His Body to see Him as their source totally because of the way things are in this world today. Regardless of what is going on, He is our source.
When gasoline prices rise, when bread is $3 a loaf, etc. etc. etc., who is your source? When symptoms of a terminal disease come to your body, who is your source? When you hear that your child has been involved in something they shouldn’t do, who is your source? When it looks like things are not that great in your marriage, who is your source? When someone doesn’t like you and comes against you, who is your source? This is our leading question of the day. Who is our source and who are we listening to? It is good to get counsel from our spouse and counsel from our pastor and counsel from those who are wise in the spiritual things of the Lord. But, ultimately, all the counsel must be presented to the Lord. And we must ask: What is it Lord that You are saying? The only way we can hear what He is saying is to get quiet in His Presence. And if we have not been used to doing that, it will take some time before we hear anything because the noise of the world is pressing in on us too much. The thoughts in our head are yelling too loudly to hear God’s voice.
It is not an option to become sensitive to the voice of the Spirit of God. We must learn how to hear Him and then to obey what He tells us to do. Some people hear Him but then delay in obeying Him. Delayed obedience is disobedience.
We remember that in Romans 10:17 faith comes by HEARING and HEARING by the Word of God. So, we see that hearing is mandatory to faith coming. What ear are we talking about here. Actually, we are talking about two ears---our physical ears that hear sound and our inner spiritual ears that hear the voice of the Spirit of God. The basis for our inner spiritual hearing should always be the Word of God. Whatever we hear must line up with the Word of God or it is not the Lord speaking but our enemy, satan, the imposter.
Let’s use a simple example here about hearing. You get up in the morning and you have a scratchy throat. This voice says: You’re getting a cold. You had better take something for it. Or, worse yet, you’re getting the flu. You better stop by the drugstore and get some medicine. That’s one voice. There’s another voice that says: By His stripes I was healed. And if I was healed, then I am healed. Which voice are you going to follow?
Unfortunately, many members of the Body of Christ will follow the first voice out of fear of something happening in their bodies. One of the things we must learn also is that when we follow the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Word, it is not an instantaneous turnaround. It takes time to learn to trust God’s Word for our lives. It is a process that most people don’t want to fool with. In America it is so much easier to go to the doctor and take medicine and get it over with. That is why healing miracles happen in other countries so much easier. They don’t have easy access to doctors, hospitals and medicine. Christ is their only answer. And they receive immediately. Here in this country, everyone tells us that we are foolish if we don’t go to the doctor, if we don’t take medicine, if we don’t adhere to the medical community’s advice. Now, don’t get me wrong. I know there is a need for doctors and medicine. We must have them, because most people are not at the place in faith where they can do without the medical community.
My point is, whose voice are you and I following? It is a personal thing where we must follow the voice of the Spirit of God in our particular situation. And if you are not used to hearing His voice, then you won’t recognize it when He speaks. Practice hearing Him until it is as easy as hearing the voice of your spouse or your children or your best friend. When I pick up the telephone, I recognize my husband’s voice immediately. I know my son’s voice immediately. Why? Because I listen to their voices all the time. That is the way it must be with our Lord. We must be as familiar with His voice as we are those of the people we love here on this earth.
We are His sheep and we DO HEAR HIS VOICE!
posted by Rev. Kialeen Potterton @ 6:04 AM
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