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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