Hearing the Voice of God, Part I
Psalms 23:1 “The LORD is my shepherd... He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul: He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.”
He looked me in the eyes. “How do you hear God?”… It was a real life question. And not the first time I’d heard it.
Hearing God's voice, and Tying it into real-life Navigation
Let’s lay the groundwork for this series.
February 2010 God gave me a mental picture depicting a truth: If you can't hear God, you are like a blind horse in a race who’s lost his rider: He’s jostled in confusion, knocked into the track, pounded, broken, and trampled over…
The riderless will never leave with a trophy – only scars. That is us without God's guiding Voice as "Jockey" in our lives. He alone maneuvers us to the finish line with victory.
Deuteronomy 30:17-18
"But if your heart turns away so that you do not HEAR, and are drawn away... "I announce to you today that you shall surely perish..." (NKJ) Like the blind racehorse in a tangled wreck of bodies!
With that stated: How do you discern the difference between God’s voice and your own thoughts?… The real difficulty faced (in hearing and recognizing God) is actually summed in two words: Your mind. Yes, there are genuine factors that present issues: your experiences, disobedience, relationships, circumstances, wounds, etc… But all difficulties will boil down to this: the state of your mind and its connection to God’s Word (Truth).
EXAMPLE: You can communicate to your horse to turn right - away from the barbed wire. But if he is distracted or panicked in his mind, he will not be focused on your guidance. Consequently… he will rip out his flesh in a bloody mess, rushing through the fence. The horse perceived (in his mind) that the chicken squawking across the drive, was a dragon whirling white flames (feathers) in a rage to eat horsehide! You, as the rider, communicated truth and direction through the avenue of reins /voice… But he could not recognize your guidance because his perception said, “I am going to be hurt if I don’t take care of myself. RUN – direction: “LEFT. There’s no way out, so go through the fence!!”
And to him it was real and true – in his mind. But Truth stated the screaming dragon was only a chicken fleeing from a playful kitten… (This is disgustingly real life for most people.)
God’s word is Truth to all situations – all ways. Where is the trouble in hearing… your own mind.
This is the verse that God gave me when He first started showing me all this. Let me substitute (mind and thought, perceptions) for eye and you will see what I saw:
Luke 11:34-36
"The lamp of the body is the mind (the place where you perceive things to be True or not). Therefore, when your mind is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your mind (your thoughts and perceptions) are bad, your body also is full of darkness. "Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. (The mind is the eye of the body - how you perceive things)
Do you want to hear? Do you want to recognize the difference between you and Him? Between His plans and just your own desires? Between His warning and just your own fears? Start with subjecting your wild mind to God’s written word and Truth will dispel the confusion. You will begin to recognize God’s spoken word to you.
FINAL NOTES on EMOTIONS…
God does not guide by emotions – nor does He operate by feelings… You therefore cannot navigate through life based on sensations… a ditch into which many freefall.
God’s word is TRUTH at all times, for all people. It is a dependable compass that NEVER, changes.
Feelings are the playground of the enemy, and he will see to it that you are offered a plan B (through the fence) if you do not know how to discern the difference between God’s voice and all others. Perceptions…. The picture in your mind.
If you are led by feelings… you will fall waylaid. This is not recess! This is a race!
For each of us, it is time to get focused, to hear, to be in place. These are dangerous times, and the moment we have been given is short. You are not an accident or second thought. You have a divinely appointed place, and a given mission in the years you have here. Even if your part seems so not visible or important, do not be deceived thinking you are not necessary. A body cannot function without the unexposed organs. It needs the colon, the different arteries. Though these organs are not seen, they are vital. The whole body has to work harder and suffers when one member is out.
1 Corinthians 2:9-12
9. But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."
10. But God has revealed them to us through (the avenue of) His Spirit. (“Revealed” definitely denotes communication) For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
11. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
12. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might KNOW the things that have been freely given to us by God. (NKJ)
2 Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ…
1 Corinthians 9:24 -27 Do you not know that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain. And every man that strives for the mastery is temperate (disciplined) in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beats the air: But I keep my body under, and bring it into into subjection…
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