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Friday, May 22, 2009

He Speaks.. How do we Know?

“God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; He does great things beyond our understanding” (Job 37:5)

I don’t know about you, but I just absolutely love to feel God’s presence and I long to hear Him speak to my heart. There is nothing like that breathless feeling you get when you are truly experiencing His presence. There is nothing like that knowledge of Him working in your life.

I have heard the question “How do you know it is God’s voice?” many times lately. I have been reading and studying books that address this very thing and I’ve learned a lot through them.

I haven’t ever audibly heard God’s voice. (If I did, I would probably faint dead away!). But I have most assuredly heard Him speak to my heart with such intensity that I had NO DOUBT that I was hearing from Him. Sometimes it’s just a peaceful feeling you get in your spirit about a certain situation. Sometimes it’s an imperceptible voice in my ear. Sometimes it’s confirmation from other people(thanks, Lisa S.!) or other venues that speak louder than words. Whatever it is, the one way that we know God is speaking is when we are willing to stop and take the time to listen what He has to say.

I think that when we truly hear from God there is no doubt at all that He has spoken. I truly believe that we know beyond a shadow of a doubt when our Creator speaks. There have been times when I have heard things that I didn’t want to hear. There have been times when I have heard things that just brought unspeakable joy to my heart.

The key to hearing from God is being able to recognize His voice. The only way we can recognize His voice is to have a relationship with Him. Like any relationship, it has to be sought after and nurtured. It has to be desired and developed. We have to actively seek Him. If we don’t seek Him, we will not know Him. If we don’t know Him, there is not much chance that we will be able to distinguish His voice.

If we want to know Him, we have to spend time with Him. That means keeping ourselves in His Word and communing with Him in prayer.

We recognize our close friend’s voices on the phone when they call because we have taken the time to develop a relationship with them. We spend time with them and therefore when they speak we know their voice. That’s just the way it is with God. We have to cultivate that closeness with Him so we can recognize, listen, hear and discern.

God speaks to us daily in His Word. Anytime we are reading the bible, the words we read are inspired by Him, breathed by Him and therefore He is in essence speaking to us. When God speaks to us He is applying to our lives what He has already said in His Word.

From the beginning of time, God has spoken in ways that we can clearly understand because He desires for us to recognize His voice. Even from the heavens, He speaks.

“The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display His marvelous craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make Him known. They speak without a sound or a word; their voice is silent in the skies; yet their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to all the world.” (Psalm 19:1-4)

Glory to God in the Highest! Praise you Lord, for loving me and desiring a relationship with me! I love you and give you glory and honor and praise that you so richly deserve.

Beth

5 comments:

Stephanie said...

Beth thank you so much for this post. I have found that alot of times when we get an ideal or just a word to say to someone and we say that we don't know but something told me of this ideal or word. It was from God. I enjoy having conversations with him. I thank him for the chastisements also

Beth in NC said...

Hi Beth! That was such a good point about recognizing our friend's voice! The more time we spend with the Lord, the better we will recognize His precious voice!

Amen!

Bless you!
Beth

Yolanda said...

Totally agree and thank you for sharing this with us. I've come to realize that He speaks to my soul when I finally get quiet. Perhaps out on a walk, or in the shower, or He will awake me in the night, but it is ALWAYS when I'm quiet.

Love YOU

Pam said...

You are so right, when He speaks you know it, and it changes things. I have also heard Him speak things I didn't want to hear! Thanks for this post Beth!

Edie said...

Great post Beth! It's so difficult to express to those who have never heard His Voice, how you know it's Him speaking. The first time I ever heard God speak to me was in response to my asking Him if He was real. He spoke into my heart as you described, and even though I had never heard that phrase before, that was exactly the way I described it. And I knew it was Him without introduction or explanation. His presence is unmistakable and nothing compares to it.