John 10: 5
And the sheep hear His Voice; and He calls His own sheep by name and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice.
The Lord tells us that we know His Voice, so how come I don’t always hear what He is saying?
I feel that there are many different ways in which the Lord speaks to you and to me. Our job is to find out which way He is speaking to “me”!
Have you ever had a puppy and started to train it to sit, or jump, or fetch the ball? Now when that pup grows up and your friend tells the dog to sit, it just keeps on doing what it was doing. Your dog does not know the voice of your friend. He will not listen to this strange voice of command. His entire life he has come to trust you and to love you. You are the one that fed him. You cared for him when he was sick. You played with him when he was lonely. That dog had plenty of opportunity to be with you and learn about you. He learned that if he brought the ball back to you, you would give him a treat. He learned that if he brought his leash to you, you would take him for a walk.
What chance does your friend have of influencing your dog’s life? Very little. The person may be known to you, but he is a total stranger to your dog. The dog has come to know your voice by the connection you have had with him, and he with you.
We need the same connection with our Lord and Saviour. We need to come to Him. We need to sit in His Presence. We need to read His Word. We need to fellowship with His children. Then we will learn to Know His Voice. We will learn to hear the things He is saying to us; to each “me”!
When we have an intermate relationship with Jesus our lives will produce much fruit. Our intimacy with Jesus the Christ allows us to learn His Ways, then He can Speak to us, and we can hear Him clearly.
The ways in which He speaks are as varied as there are people. Each one of us can hear Him in ways that can be totally different to anybody else.
I believe the very first way He Speaks to us is through His Holy Spirit. It is Holy Spirit who first comes to each one and gives each one an opportunity to say Yes to Jesus in our lives.
Remember when you first gave your life to Jesus? For many of us somebody was at hand and helped us take that step. Do you remember some of the essentials they told you? Tell others of your decision. Get into a good church. Read your Bible. So reading your Bible is the very next way the Lord speaks to us. It is as we read the Scripture that we get to know Who He is and what He wants from us. “I AM that I AM. I AM the Way and the Truth and the Life. Go and make disciples. Forgive seventy times seven. Fear not! I know the Plan I have for you.” And more and more. His Word is a powerhouse of the will of the Father!
Many years ago, a friend of mine came to me and said, “Tiny, you will lose your wife and children if you do not start to love them!” Yes, I had to be told even after I had rededicated my life to Jesus!!
The Voice of the Lord often comes in the form of the voice of a friend.
So often the friend brings you confirmation of what you already know. I knew he was right. God had been whispering in my ear about Val and the girls and I was just not listening. Now He had to shout it out in ways I could not deny.
Have you gone to your friend and asked them to pray for you when you have not been sure what to do? Your friend comes back and tells you what they have heard. Again, their word confirms what you have already been thinking about.
Have you heard the “Still Small Voice” of the Lord? That Voice comes in things like: Say Hello to that person. Make a cake for your neighbour. Tell her that she has done a great job, even though the job was not for you.
I believe this Still Small Voice is similar to a husband and wife or great friends, who have become so close that all they need to do is look at each other, and they both know what the other is thinking.
At times you just know what the Lord wants you to do.
Intimacy brings Fruitfulness.
My own way of becoming Intimate with the Lord is to sit and have a cup of tea with Him. Often, I will ask the Father if He would like to join me for a cup of tea. I proceed to make two cups and sit in my chair and invite Him in. We sit and have a great chat. When we are finished, I take His cup and pour it down the drain for Him.
David did this with the water his men brought to him after endangering their own lives to get it. David did not feel worthy of such a great price they paid to get that water. (2 Samuel 16) He sacrificed that water to the Lord. King David could not drink the water once it fell on the ground, only Almighty God could.
Some of the other ways the Lord uses to speak to me are through songs: (1) What a Friend we have in Jesus. (2) Thank You for the Cross. (3) How Great Thou art. (4) The Blessing.
When I hear these songs and many others, they remind me that Our God is Good.
He also comes to me in the sunrise or sunset, or in the voice of a chirping bird, or the smell of a rose.
Sometimes the Lord uses devastation to open my eyes. When I see the homeless or watch an earthquake like the one that hit Japan, I can loudly hear the Lord asking, “What are you going to do about it Tiny?”
God chooses to speak to us in many different ways. We need to make sure that we are listening to His Voice.
How is He speaking to you? Can you hear Him?
