Hearing the Voice of God
John 10:27 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me…
We need to get some things settled right from the beginning…. They may sound elementary and simple but that’s what I need, I need simple. Having a relationship with God should not be complicated and overthought.
Simply put: “Jesus calls us His friends”, He said that there is no greater love than when someone lays their life down for their friend, then He proved how much He loved us by laying His life down for us, HIS FRIENDS!
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been blessed throughout my life with several really great friends. To me, a great friend is someone that you just “click with”, It’s almost effortless. You can’t wait to get your day or week over with so that you can spend time in that person’s presence. You look for opportunities to go places and do things with them. You enjoy every conversation or moment of silence. You can finish their sentences, almost read their mind and begin to know them almost as much as you know yourself. You begin to take on some of their characteristics, you sacrifice what you want a lot of the time because it’s not what they want. You find yourself doing things and going places you would have never been interested in because they are interested in those things.
Obviously if your friend is a toxic or selfish person this can be detrimental to you and lead you in a path of destruction and hurt... Clearly that person should be re-evaluated as a “FRIEND”...
Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for you and never withholds any part of who He is from you. He is the truest of friends that we could ever have. Still, many people have an extremely hard time with their relationship with Him. We fully understand what it is to have a great earthly friend but we completely change our mentality when it comes to our approach to Jesus. If you don’t get anything else out of this devotion today, I want you to go away with a different mindset on your approach to your relationship with Jesus. He is your very best friend! But friendships take two people engaging in a desire to be in eachothers company to work.
4 simple things to keep in mind:
There is a God and He rewards those who seek Him
He communicates with us and is not silent or indifferent to what concerns us
You can recognize His voice
He has something to say to you personally today
John 10:27 (AMP) “The sheep that are my own hear and are listening to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me…”
After the Parable of the Sower in Mark 4:9 Jesus says: “He who has ears to hear let him hear”...
Every person in the crowd that day had physical ears…. But Jesus wasn’t speaking about physical ears, He was talking about the way you hear, not if you could physically hear or not.
People with Spiritual ears don’t just hear words and sentences, but they hear the heart and purpose behind what’s being said. The same as if you were sitting down with your friend listening to them pour out their heart to you. You aren’t just hearing their words, you know them as a person so well, you can hear something so much deeper than words.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the believers at Ephesus and told them he was praying some specific things for them and one of them was that they would begin to see with something more than just their physical eyes….
Ephesians 1:18 “that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of your calling…”
The Amplified Bible says it this way: “Having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you…”
You will never effectively hear the Voice of God until you leave religion that is about God and begin a relationship that is with God
Prayer/Challenge (Pray these confessions over your life today and then act on what you’ve confessed by approaching God like you would your very best friend. Be prepared and in expectation to hear from God, to see and hear with your spirit-man and not just your physical eyes and ears.)
I don’t want you just to read this quietly to yourself, I want you to speak this out loud, let your physical ears hear your physical mouth confess these things. Read through it more than once, be bold about it, get comfortable hearing yourself confess the Word of God.
Prayer Confession:
Jesus, you proved your love for me when you made the ultimate sacrifice on the cross for me. You counted me as your friend and gave your very life for me and now I call you my Savior and my Lord. I thank you that the eyes of my understanding, the eyes of my heart, the ears of my spirit are now in tune to Your Holy Spirit and I can know and I can hear your voice. You’re not far away from me, you’re not silent or distant towards the things that concern me. You are very interested and concerned about me because you bought and paid for me with Your blood. I am yours, this life is yours and I give myself to you today. I am a sheep of your fold and you are my Shepherd and I know your voice and the voice of another I do not follow. My ears are tuned to your voice and my desire and affection is for you and your will. By Your Holy Spirit lead me and guide me into your truth today, in Jesus Name, AMEN...