God promises you will hear His voice!

God promises you will hear His voice!

John 10:16  "And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
 
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

As you see from the first verse, we are told that we WILL hear His voice. Jesus is speaking to the Jews here and the "other sheep" He is referring to, are the Gentiles--in other words, us!

The second verse, from Deuteronomy, is one that’s probably familiar to us all. Yet as often as I have read it, I always seemed to skip over the part that said, “listen to His voice.” As you can see, the Lord has been speaking to people since the very beginning and has been telling us each since day one to listen and pay attention. Our society is set up in such a way however that to even discuss this openly, especially to unbelievers, could quite easily land us in a psych ward. The world can’t believe in hearing from someone that they can’t see. Although unbelievers will readily believe in “angels” whether or not they’ve seen one, they cannot do the same with God. Even seeing or hearing angels however can cause unbelievers to think we’ve lost our marbles. That’s why this subject isn’t spoken about very much, which is unfortunate because the lack of our leaders teaching us about this, and the attitude of society toward the idea of hearing from God, cause many new believers to resist hearing God’s voice and has caused many to wonder if something was wrong with them. It has also led to false doctrine about this subject being accepted because no one is teaching the truth about it. New believers who do realize that they’re hearing from the Lord aren’t taught to discern His voice from the world, Satan, and even their own imaginations, so many begin to believe that everything they hear is from God and that too can be disastrous. The easiest way to determine something like that is to always remember that God will never tell you anything that goes against His Written Word.

On Monday I told you that nothing can get in the way of us hearing His voice, and while that’s true, He won’t force us to listen. It’s like the difference of a child hearing what their parents are saying and listening to what they are saying. Parents cannot stop their words from going in their child’s ear and right out the other one. The Lord won't push Himself on us if we don't want Him to. He will speak to us, but if we choose to ignore Him, or if we allow doubt that it's Him and not respond, we can miss that voice when He speaks to us. Of course that's not what He wants us to do, but He will allow it. So you see it’s not so much that we don’t hear His voice, it’s more that at times we choose to ignore it.

Today, let’s practice listening to the Lord and reflecting on what He says to us.

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Philippians 1:9-10 “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.

Verse of the day

John 3:20-21“Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.

God promises you will hear His voice!

God promises you will hear His voice!

Exodus 19:9 And the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever.'' So Moses told the words of the people to the Lord. .......

Exodus 20:19 Then they said to Moses, "You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.''

Please take the time to read Exodus chapters 19 and 20 so you can get the full picture of what happened here...it's so much like us! Here God tells Moses that He will speak to the people personally, and it scares them to death!!! They don't want any part of this! God has been trying since the very beginning to have a personal relationship with each of us. He doesn't want to go through priests, pastors or prophets. He wants to talk to you. Read how it was in the garden:

Genesis 3:8-10 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

Although this talks about after Adam sinned you can see by this that it was God's habit to walk in the garden and talk with them. They were very comfortable with each other. This is how God planned it to be. He has always wanted a personal relationship with each one of us. Since the fall however, the very idea of it seems to terrify people. Only through the Holy Spirit dwelling in us are we able to overcome the fear and have this relationship now.

Unfortunately society and "science" have also taught us not to trust this. Anything to do with God is brought into question. People become afraid that if they "hear a voice" or feel a leading in their heart that they are being psychotic or something. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have to remember though that Satan loves to mimic God so some of those "psychotic" episodes some people have may even stem from that. It's how Satan twists our relationship with God. He brings fear into the picture.

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear

The Holy Spirit dwelling within us combats Satan's deceptions with love. For God IS perfect love and in Him can be no fear! So take some time today to tell your Father that you want to have an even closer relationship with Him as He intended. Then be ready for an awesome adventure!

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God promises you will hear His voice!

God promises you will hear His voice!

John 10:27  "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

Notice that in this verse there is no mincing of words. Jesus Himself is saying this and He says that we hear His voice. He doesn't say maybe, or if, or but, or that we'll try to, or that we'll work at it. He says we WILL! It is His Will that you hear Him. Nothing can get in the way of that. However, Satan will try to convince you that you're nuts, or that it's just your imagination, etc and ruin things for you. Satan loves to make us doubt our God. So the next time this happens, take authority over Satan, which Jesus gave you, and don't allow him to take this wonderful experience away from you!

Now for the million dollar question! Does God speak aloud to us? Yes, He can and sometimes does, but usually He simply speaks to our hearts.

John 5:25  "Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.

This verse is speaking of how He speaks to our hearts. Before we were saved, we were all dead in sin. It was through hearing Him in our hearts that we came to salvation. Our Father called to us and our hearts, spirits and souls answered Him and we were saved. This verse, like many, has more then one meaning and is also referring to the power of God who will literally raise the dead with His voice at the rapture, but for the purpose of our study, we’re going to be concentrating on it’s first meaning.

The Lord will often speak this way to us. He often also speaks to us through His Word, the Bible. This is yet another reason it's so very important to read our Bibles daily and get to know them well. Some Christians only read the New Testament, but if you do that, you're missing out on so much that is truly wonderful. You're missing out on many, many things the Lord could be speaking to you about. If the Lord hadn’t intended us to read the entire bible, then He wouldn’t have given it all to us. When the Bereans were praised for searching the scriptures to determine the truth about Jesus, they weren’t searching the New Testament, they were searching the Old Testament. So please, take my advice and read the entire Bible. You'll be very glad you did!

Now as we get to know Him, He will speak to us more and more, especially if we invite Him to do so. He loves to speak to us and rejoices when we take the time to actually listen to Him! So take some time today. Find a quiet place and have a little talk with Him. Only this time, allow it to be a two way conversation! Enjoy!

God promises you will hear His voice!

God promises you will hear His voice!

1 Kings 19:11 Then He said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.'' And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12. and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. 13. So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And suddenly a voice came to him, and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?''

Many people have trouble with the idea of God speaking to us. Even the Israelites had trouble with that, but we'll cover that on another day. For today I just want to point out that God does and will speak to us. When He speaks however it is in a still small voice. We must be listening for it to hear Him. This requires a personal relationship with our Father. He doesn't want us to just ply Him with requests and demands, but instead wants to interact with us and communicate His thoughts and desires to us. This is the same as with a physical earthy relationship with someone. It should never be just a one way communication.
Learning to hear the Lord and communicate with Him requires practice and patience. It’s very similar to when a baby first learns to talk. Babies aren’t born knowing how to speak, they listen and copy what they hear and learn. So it is with us when we are learning to distinguish our own thoughts from God’s communicating with us. We must first listen, and then we must practice, just like babies do. The one important rule to keep in mind is that the Lord will never, ever say anything to us that contradicts His Word. That is how we test what we hear.
To have a personal relationship with our Father and hear from Him, you must spend time with Him, and you really need to know His Word. Some people seem to think it’s enough that they spend time listening and/or talking to other people who know Him, like a pastor or teacher, but it doesn’t work that way. To be close to someone, you must mainly spend time with them, not with other people that you think know them. We all can see how silly that sounds when we look at it from the perspective of an earthly friendship, and the same thing applies to our relationship with the Lord.

In the above verses the Lord is trying to show us that we don't need to be afraid of hearing from Him. He will not hurt us or startle us. He speaks quietly and never pushes Himself on anyone. Have you listened to His voice lately?

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Verse of the Day

Romans 5:3-4“Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.

This week's promise: God promises you an anchor for your soul!

This week's promise: God promises you an anchor for your soul!

Hebrews 6:17-20 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath.God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.

The anchor for our souls is Jesus Himself. We are told time and again that we can count on Him and He will never let us down. The world may go crazy around us; circumstances may look bleak; friends may desert us; family may disown us; but Jesus will NEVER let us down. He is the anchor of our souls and the anchor holds!

Think for a minute what an anchor does. Here's what the dictionary says about it:

1. Nautical -A heavy object attached to a vessel by a cable or rope and cast overboard to keep the vessel in place either by its weight or by its flukes, which grip the bottom.
2. A rigid point of support, as for securing a rope.
3. A source of security or stability.
4. Sports
a. An athlete, usually the strongest member of a team, who performs the last stage of a relay race or other competition.
b. The person at the end of a tug-of-war team.
5. An anchorperson.

This is what Jesus does for us! He keeps us in place spiritually so that we aren't swayed by false teaching, heresy, or blasphemy. He is our security and the stability for our faith. He is our assurance that we are forever saved. All we need to do is keep our eyes on Jesus and we can never be swayed or moved as we journey on toward maturity in our faith!

“Keeping our eyes on Jesus”, just what does that phrase really mean? To keep our eyes on Jesus actually means that we are doing several things. First it means that we are following Jesus, and not our pastor, or our favorite Christian author, or our favorite Bible Commentary, and not even our denomination.

So then, how do we follow Jesus? Try thinking about it this way, so it doesn’t seem so mysterious. How would you “follow” your best friend? To follow them you would need to know what they thought and believed about everything. Would you go to your best friends neighbors to find out what they think and believe? Maybe you’d go to the same grocery store? No, of course not! If they’re you’re best friend, then you’re going to go straight to them and ask them aren’t you? Of course! No one else can possibly know them better then they do themselves. So it is with the Lord. He wants us to turn to Him to know the Truth about everything. He gave us His Word to read so that we could even have it in writing to go over whenever we wanted to. Best of all though, He tells us that He wants a personal relationship with each of us, so that He can talk to us Himself. This is how we follow Jesus, and “keep our eyes on Jesus”. We spend time daily in His Word and we spend time daily talking with Him in prayer.

There is however a big difference between our spiritual anchor and physical anchors. Physical anchors are anchored downward, and our anchor, Jesus, is anchored in Heaven. Physical anchors are used to hold things still, but our anchor is used to hold onto as we move ahead. Physical anchors can break, but our anchor is sure and can never break, we have God’s own oath on that!

Lastly in the above verse, Jesus is also said to be our forerunner. He has gone ahead of us with the intention that we follow Him. So let’s lay hold of our anchor and follow Him, always studying to show ourselves approved, and never having to fear that we will be tossed about by strange doctrines. Keep your eyes on Jesus, stay in His Word, and never fear, for even in life’s strongest storms our anchor holds!

Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?