The first thing I believe is important to mention concerning this topic is that God really does want to speak to us as much as we want to hear from Him. John 10:1 below is one such passage that makes this plain.
John 10: 1 - The Message Bible:
[ He Calls His Sheep by Name ] "Let me set this before you as plainly as I can. If a person climbs over or through the fence of a sheep pen instead of going through the gate, you know he's up to no good—a sheep rustler! The shepherd walks right up to the gate. The gatekeeper opens the gate to him and the sheep recognize his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he gets them all out, he leads them and they follow because they are familiar with his voice. They won't follow a stranger's voice but will scatter because they aren't used to the sound of it."
Secondly, and not to suggest that we get into religious “striving”, I do think that there are definitely things that we should be doing as believer’s to help ensure that we are fine tuning our spiritual ears to hear from Father. At a minimum, those things are: a) reading the Bible; b) listening to spirit-filled teaching; c) regular fellowship with other spirit-filled believer’s; and, d) attending a Bible study/school.
Now, let’s return to the specifics of your question on how to know if God has really spoken to you or not. On more general issues of life i.e. how to treat your brother or sister – know that whatever you hear from the Lord will always, let me repeat, ALWAYS, line up with His Word. That’s why it is so important to know His Word for yourself. For example: many of us were taught as a Christians – one should not drink. But that is not what the Bible states. It states do not get “drunk”. There’s a big difference.
When it comes to more individual matters that we are seeking the Lord on such as “should I marry this person” – then that’s where your relationship with the Lord becomes very important. If you spend time with the Lord on a regular basis (doing those things listed above) AND, you have a heart to please Him (which implies obedience) then you have a much better chance of hearing from God.
His answers will be one of three things: Yes; No; or No answer. To me, the “No Answer” gets most of us into trouble. That’s when we decide to help God out and we chose to make a path of our own and plow ahead. Instead, we should wait with the expectancy that He is working all things out for our good – and not be in such a rush to move ahead of Him. I know that each time I’ve moved ahead of the Lord – I usually find myself backtracking and repeating all over again…
This article is definitely on point! There have been several moments when I just moved ahead with what I thought was right and ended up in a world of trouble behind it, instead of listening to that small, still voice. Thank you so much for this inspirational message!
ReplyDelete