Daily Devotional for Tuesday November 30, 1999

Hearing from God

Hearing from God is like anything else, it takes practice. If you want to hear God?s voice, you have got to practice listening to God?s voice. The more you practice hearing God, the more you WILL hear God. The first thing you will be amazed at is how much God is speaking to you. Like I said earlier, God is ALWAYS speaking to you. The problem is, we are not always listening. The more you practice hearing God, the more you will hear God since He is always speaking to you.

The other critical issue in hearing God is knowing His voice. You see, satan also can talk to you in all these same ways I outline above. So, how do you know you are hearing the voice of God as opposed to the voice of the great deceiver? Again, the more you practice hearing God, the better you will become in knowing the sound of His voice. As you practice hearing God speak to you, you are also sharpening your discernment. Here is the key. When God speaks to you, what He says will always be in line with His Word. God will NEVER contradict His Word. God is not going to tell you to do something that He has told you NOT to do in His Word. That is another reason why it is so critical to read and study the Bible since it helps you know what God says. When God is speaking to you, it is always in line with His Word.

Lastly, let me share with you the main reason why people don?t really want to hear God?s voice much of the time. IF WE HEAR FROM GOD THEN WE MUST OBEY GOD! You see, most people really DON?T want to hear from God, since once they do, they now need to obey Him. They feel better about themselves by tuning God?s voice out, and that way they can claim ignorance when they live in rebellion to God. That is a game from the pits of hell. Don?t you know that rebellion brings consequences while obedience brings blessings? Why would you want to tune out God?s voice, just so you can do it your way, when you know in the end, your way doesn?t work? When you know in the end your way won?t bring blessings but consequences? Aren?t you tired of getting beat on the head with a 2x4? God had to hit me with a 2x4, a steel pole, and crush me with a few huge buildings before I finally figured out blessings were better than consequences. Yes, listening to God means you now need to OBEY GOD, but that is where your blessings come from!

I love you and care about you so much. This is a very important message today since we ALL need to do a better job of hearing God. God is speaking to us all the time through His Word, through our time in prayer, through other people, and through our circumstance. We need to start practicing hearing God, discerning His voice, and then obeying what He is telling us. After all, we call ourselves FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST. That means we are to listen to His voice and obey what He is telling us.

Don?t you know yet how much God loves you and cares about you? He only wants the best for your life. One of the ways God shows you His love is by talking to you. Think about that for a moment. The God of the Universe, the God who created the heavens and the earth, the God who created you in His own image?SPEAKS TO YOU?ALL THE TIME! That is a powerful truth! He speaks to you because He loves you and cares about you. He speaks to you to guide you through this journey called life so that you can know the fullness of His joy, His peace, and the abundance this life can offer.

I will be praying for you today. Praying that you will start to do a better job of hearing God?s voice. He is speaking to you all the time, non-stop. It is up to you, however, to listen to Him, and after you hear from God, obey Him. God loves you enough to talk to you, do you love Him enough to listen?