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Let’s not cage God’s voice

1 John 10: 27 

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow me” 

Recently I was having a conversation with my friend about how God speaks to us. For my friend, God spoke audibly, through visions and through emotions and for me God spoke through scripture, through people and sometimes dreams. Ironically through our conversation, God was speaking to me. I may not have heard an audible voice, but God was saying to not limit how he communicates. Seeing the different ways God spoke to me and my friend, led me to talk about it today.  

Let’s not trap God’s voice through our expectations as to how we want to receive it: God will speak however he desires, we just need to position ourselves to receive the message. 

Focussing on the verse, with something so short, a lot is being said. For one, if we are to hear God’s voice, God has to know us. When we say we know someone, we measure them through their character. One of the ways to see if we are known by God is to see our character. Our character needs to measure up to the representation of Jesus. The second thing I wanted to point out was that Jesus calls us to know his voice. It may sound obvious, but do we actually know God’s voice? Are we able to dissociate God’s voice, from all the other voices in our lives.  

The last thing I want to point out is that Jesus calls us to be sheep. Another word for sheep is follower, and there are many characteristics of a sheep, but I think the most important aspect is a sheep’s submissiveness. Sheeps are known for being submissive and this is the behaviour God calls us to be towards his voice. What does this mean? It means being submissive to all of God’s voice.  

In a culture where we knit pick things from the bible and choose what and what not to do, we would rather hear a comforting lie, rather than an uncomftable truth. I think this is the main thing that is preventing us Christians from hearing God’s word.  

How can we expect to hear God more if we don’t receive all the messages? If we don’t listen to his conviction, how can we be expectant of visions or prophecies. We need to position our hearts to all messages from God, not just the messages that feel comforting.  

Part of what my friend said in our conversation was that, we focus on how God speaks to us, rather than focussing on what God is actually saying. God will speak, but are we ready to listen to what and how he says it? 

 

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