Listen

April 8

Deuteronomy 13-14

Psalm 42

Proverbs 10:22-24

Luke 8:19-39

Listen

“The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and all your soul. It is the Lord your God you must follow and Him you must revere. Keep His commands and obey Him; serve Him and hold fast to Him.” Deuteronomy 13:3-4 NIV

As I have told you before, I love to look at different translations of God’s Word because it gives us a fuller understanding of the meaning of a passage. When I looked up this passage in several other versions, verse 4 is translated a little differently than in the NIV. The HCSB says, “Keep His commands and listen to His voice.” Several other versions say, “Keep His commands and obey His voice.” I have had several conversations lately with people about hearing God’s voice. This is a difficult concept to explain to people. Obviously, God’s voice is not audible so how do we know that it is Him talking to us and not just our imagination? How do we know that we aren’t just hearing what we want to hear? In John 10:3-5, 14, Jesus Himself tells us, “The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to His voice. He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. When He has brought out all His own, He goes on ahead of them, and His sheep follow Him because they know His voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice…. I am the good shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me.” (NIV) In Isaiah 30:21 we are told, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it.” (NIV) Scripture is very clear that God does speak to us. He speaks through His Word, but He also speaks to us in our hearts as well. The Holy Spirit is living in us, guiding us, leading us, and showing us which way to go. He is there to help us make decisions and to show us God’s will. Unfortunately, His voice isn’t the only one trying to get our attention. Satan is trying to convince us to follow his path and our own desires and will are vying for our attention as well. The only way that we can hear and recognize God’s voice is by spending time with Him. We must get still and quiet long enough to seek His face and truly listen to His voice. He does not play hide the ball with us. He wants us to hear His voice and follow His path. He wants to show us the best way, but He will not force us to listen. He usually does not put up a flashing billboard that says, “Go this way, not that way.” He expects us to seek Him. We recognize His voice when we know Him. If we want to hear His voice, we cannot have a superficial relationship with Him. Recognition of His voice comes from intimacy and intimacy comes from time spent with Him.