Are we really hearing God's voice? How can we be sure that it is really God?
Introducing a new series, The Voice of God on the different ways He speaks.
In Hollywood, the Voice of God is usually strange and a bit creepy - booming and dripping with insincerity. It always gives me a jolt and distracts me from the film. I'm guessing that the producer and the actor have never heard God speak, because He never sounds like that to me.
Well, to be fair, I haven't actually heard the audible voice of God, but I believe that He has spoken to me many times - every day, if I deliberately listen out for Him.
Jesus Christ is The Way
Through Him we can come before God without fear, only with awe. His perfect love drives out our fear, and we realise that incredibly, Almighty God has made us his children, that we have been born anew into His family and now He is our Heavenly Father.
Good fathers always have time for their sons and daughters. They always listen to them, but they also want to talk to them. God calls us into a relationship with him. It's not about giving us a job or a ministry, although that may follow. It's about loving us.
God's first call is always to spend time with Him.
He listens to us, and He speaks to us.
He is our loving Father.
I'm sure you know people who talk all the time. It's very difficult to form a friendship with them, because they never listen to what you have to say and they just don't seem to be interested in you. When we pray we need to listen, as well as talk.
We need to give the Lord space and time to talk to us.
This means we need to be active in listening, waiting on Him
But I'm running ahead of myself.
In June I will post a series on this called Focus on Him.
Today I'm introducing the series The Voice of God.
The last series was The Word of God.
The Holy Bible is The Word of God
Jesus is The Word of God
A word from God can be an encouragement or a prophecy.
A message from God can be a sermon or a homily.
But the foundation of our faith is Jesus and we have the Truth clearly written in the bible. No true prophecy or so-called Word will ever contradict the scriptures or deny Jesus Christ.
How can we tell that we are hearing from God
John is quite clear how we can recognise the Spirit of Truth.
In his first letter he talks about prophets from the world,
They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.
We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognise the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
1 John 4 v 5,6
John also talks about false prophets and not believing everything you hear. We can and should test prophecy, weighing it to see it weightiness.
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
This is how you can recognise the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.
1 John 4 v 1-3
Four Tests
His sheep know his voice. If we are from God, we recognise Him and His voice. We instinctively know if something doesn't ring true. This is the first test.
Secondly, is Jesus acknowledged, or is He denied?
Because anyone who denies Jesus is not speaking the Truth. That is the second test.
Thirdly, how does the message we are hearing, line up with the truth that has been revealed in the Holy Bible?
This is such an important test, that I decided to post a series about scripture before talking about different ways of hearing from God.
This third test is vital. We never outgrow the bible.
Finally, we are not alone. God intends us to be part of a family, the church. In most of the world, before a person decides anything they ask older and wiser members of their family for advice. We can talk to our ministers and priests, and to other trustworthy Christians. If we are not sure if we have heard from God, that's the sensible thing to do. In fact we are planning on doing that tomorrow about something.
So, fourthly test a word, by asking Christians we trust.
The Voice of God
In this series we are looking at different ways that the Lord speaks to mankind.
Each article looks at a modern example, as well as at the bible.
Dreams
Visions
Prophecy
Wisdom & Advice
Still, Small Voice
Audible, Voice of God
The Voice of God is the most powerful force in nature, indeed the only force in nature, for all energy is here only because the power-filled Word is being spoken
A W Tozer
Speak Lord
Speak Lord is a hymn with rich lyrics and a sweet melody.
Written by Marienne Uszler and Tim Schoenbachler and sung by Veronica Morrissey.
(#hymn, #catholic, #uszler, #schoenbachler, #morrissey, #eyestosee)