Hearing The Voice Of The Lord, Part 3

“How do you know the Lord’s voice?” I asked our boys this question over lunch today. Their answer? “Spend time with Him!” Most definitely! Without spending time in the Word and in prayer, we can not hope to distinguish the voice of the Lord. However, when we have built a love relationship, we can know His voice.

But even then, we can be tricked. This has been a blind spot in my own life. I have been
so desperate to hear the Lord, that I haven’t evaluated the source of what I have heard. Whether someone of a reputable nature or in my own mental processing, I filtered what I thought was the Lord and clung to it. But I never challenged it! I should be testing any spiritual phenomena; signs, wonders, dreams, prophecies, revelation, or any voice in my mind that I think might be the Lord giving me direction to pray or believe for a situation. More than once, the Bible instructs us to “test all things” (1 Thessalonians 5:21) and “test the spirits, whether they are of God” (1 John 4:1). However, I had failed to do that in my own life.

“By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God”(1 John 4:2). It’s a simple thought. In challenging the spiritual source, I can have confidence in distinguishing the voices. We can even “know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:6b)! What hope!

We have been given the gift “to discern both good and evil.” (Hebrews 5:14) But I had not used it in these instances. And, so I had been left vulnerable. However, Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31-32)

Truth brings us to repentance. We can take authority over the enemy and command him to silence. We can humble ourselves before the Lord and confess our wrong, ask forgiveness, denounce the enemy’s influence in the name of Jesus, and walk in freedom. As a daily practice, we can use the belt of truth (Eph 6:14) as a protection against the enemy and pray as Jesus taught, “And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” (Matthew 6:13)

And as a friend of mine wrote,
“I make sure to ask forgiveness for my sins. I bind all thoughts, voices, and distractions of the enemy in the name of Jesus. I also find that I do a lot better in hearing (and knowing that I hear) when I write down what I believe I'm being told. I believe as human beings that we are all going to fall prey to being victimized by the enemy throughout our daily lives. The more time we spend in prayer listening for that still small voice, the more we will know our Shepherd’s voice. There will be times when we are so tuned in that nothing can be mistaken for His voice, and other times with outside distractions, worries, and an uncertain spirit that we will fail. God knows our hearts and appreciates us for desiring to spend time with Him and be obedient to His will.”

You know, I think I finally discovered the answer to my question of how so many other religions started with the basis of theology in a revelation from the heavens....