Whose voice are we giving the microphone to?

John 6:19-20

“When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. But he said to them, It is I; don’t be afraid”

Throughout the years, overthinking has been a constant theme in my life. Fear, doubt, anxiety. These are all things I’ve experienced and things I still experience, and I never knew how to deal with it. I would talk to other people, try to get certain advice, but it never truly helped. Prayer at times wasn’t even a solution, because although I was talking to God, I didn’t give him a chance to talk back.

Communicating with God has never been easy for me, mainly because practically I wasn’t sure how God communicated. As funny as it may sound, I thought God would only speak through an audible voice in the sky. I set that as an expectation, and when that didn’t happen, I assumed God was staying silent.

You see, God is very much capable of doing that, but we shouldn’t limit the way God can speak to us. Often times God communicates through scripture, but there have been moments in my life where God has spoken through a feeling, a dream and a friend. Perhaps you’re currently waiting on a response from God but consider that God has already spoken to you, you just need to position your heart in a way to receive the message.

Ironically, it was only when I started reading my bible that I overthought less. I was less fearful in certain situations; I was less doubtful and overall had less anxiety: everything negative in my life, I was muting, and instead I was turning up the volume to God’s word.

What we feed our minds directly correlates to what is shown externally. It is a matter of what we choose to fill our minds, God’s voice? Or the enemies?

Now it’s one thing to receive a message from God, it’s another to decipher who is trying to communicate with us. We can’t limit God’s communication but equally we shouldn’t with the Devil. The most practical way to discern which voice we are listening to is that the Devil communicates through fear and doubt and God communicates through reassurance and confidence.

In terms of this verse, let me provide a little bit of context. The disciples are on the boat, and they see someone walking on water. Most likely they’re scared, confused and believe they’re eyes are deceiving them. A couple chapters after, the bible says they were “willing to take him on the boat”. The disciples went from fear to security, but nothing necessarily changed, only three words “It is I”.

Their willingness came from an association attached with the voice they heard. They ate and lived with Jesus, spending so much time with him that there was security in his voice.

Can we ever reach that point, where we've spent so much time with the Lord, that he doesn’t even have to self-acknowledge himself, just a couple of words, “It is I” and we can have full confidence that are circumstances are in the right hands. 

So, if there’s one thing you leave with today is that the more you hear God’s voice, the more familiar it sounds, the more you trust the association that comes with the voice. So, give a microphone to God’s voice.