Hearing God’s voice does not comes to us naturally. I would have to say, in a certain sense, the old Adamic nature is born deaf to the voice of God. It’s not natural for the old Adam, the old carnal nature, to hear God’s voice. It’s something that has to be learned. It’s something that has to be cultivated and cultivated with care to get the most out of christian life you’re going to have to cultivate hearing God’s voice. And the world today is full of innumerable voices that blast us, that crowd in upon us, that demand our attention; and yet, in the midst of it all, there’s that still, small voice of God which has endless wisdom, endless authority and which is the key to our well-being.
There is a tremendous motivation revealed in Scripture for cultivating the ability to hear the voice of God. The success of our relationship to God and our walk with Him depends on this; that is, hearing His voice.
The ability is to hear God’s voice is pivotal in the matter of receiving from God healing and health, This is brought out so clearly in Exodus 15:26, where Moses is speaking to the children of Israel and he says this:
“If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God [the Hebrew says, ‘If hearing, you hear the voice of the Lord your God. That’s a Hebraism, a very emphatic form. If you listen with the most tremendous care to the voice of the Lord your God…] and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.’”
So God offers to be your personal physician. But the basic condition is if you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord. And then, further on in the Old Testament, in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses reveals that the key to all God’s blessings is hearing and obeying His voice. In Deuteronomy 28, verses 1 and 2, He says this:
“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God [but the Hebrew is the same, if hearing you hear the voice of the Lord your God…] to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you on high above all nations of the earth. All these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord you God.”
Notice, twice Moses says, the key condition is hearing and obeying the voice of God. And he says if you do that, “all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you.” You do not need to pursue the blessings, the blessings will pursue you if you cultivate hearing the voice of God. On the other hand, in the same chapter, Deuteronomy, chapter 28, a little further on in verse 15, he warns that if we fail to hear the voice of the Lord our God, it will be the exact opposite: instead of blessings it will be curses. Deuteronomy 28:15:
“But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.”
So, failure to hear and obey the voice of the Lord brings upon us all the curses. Hearing and obeying brings all the blessings. That’s the watershed between blessing and cursing. It’s either the hearing and obeying the voice of the Lord or failing to hear and obey the voice of the Lord.
And then, further on, in Jeremiah, chapter 7, verses 22 and 23, the Lord lays this down as the key condition for being His people. He says to Israel:
“I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people.’”
God says the ordinances of the law relating to the temple and the priesthood and the sacrifices are secondary. He said, “The first thing I required of you when I brought you up out of Egypt was not sacrifice or offering or a lot of legal requirements, but I required of you to hear and obey My voice.” And, by implication, what He’s saying is, “The sacrifices are good if they proceed out of hearing My voice but if you merely offer sacrifices without hearing My voice, that does not qualify you to be my people. You will be My people if you hear and obey My voice.”
That’s about the shortest statement I know of in the Scripture about what it is to be God’s people. “Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people.”
Now, this doesn’t change in the New Testament. In the New Testament the condition for belonging to Jesus Christ is just the same. Jesus states it very simply in John, chapter 10, verse 27:
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
Who are “My sheep”? They’re the people of Jesus, they’re not necessarily Catholics or Protestants or Baptists or Methodists or whatever. The people that belong to Jesus are the people who hear His voice and follow Him and if you don’t hear His voice, you cannot follow Him. That’s always the mark of God’s true people: hearing His voice.
There are two important warnings: the first is, cultivate prompt obedience. Now, Abraham is set forth in the Bible as an example for all who believe and one of the ways in which it is an example is that whenever he heard God’s voice, he obeyed Him promptly, without delay. Here’s an example in Genesis 22, verses 2 and 3:
“[the Lord] said [to him], ‘Take now your son, you only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.’ So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son [and so on]”
Notice, Abraham rose early in the morning the next day, as soon as it was possible, he set out to obey what he’d heard God say to him. The longer you delay to obey God, the harder it becomes. The only easy way to obey God is to obey Him promptly, the first time He speaks.
And the second warningis to give you is be prepared to seem foolish in the eyes of people. In 1 Corinthians 1:25, Paul says this: “…the foolishness of God is wiser than men… the weakness of God is stronger than men.” If you’re concerned with what people think is wise, you may miss God. And, again, in 1 Corinthians 3:18, Paul is very emphatic. He says:
“Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.”
In other words, to become truly wise, you have to start by becoming a fool and a lot of people stumble on that. There are many examples of this in the Bible. Noah, who built a ship on dry land, when no one had ever seen rain, that was foolish, but it was the wisdom of God. Naaman, the captain of Syria, who went down into the River Jordan and exposed his leprous flesh, dipped himself seven times, how foolish! But he was healed.
What steps can you take to hear God’s voice:
1. Repent of any sins you might have.
2.Get onto the presence of God through thanks and praise.
3. Wait in His presence whether you feel it or not.
4. Talk tp God and listen quietly and write down what you think God might be saying., if it lines up with the Bible it could be God ,time will tell with experience.
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