We’re focusing a few devotionals on hearing (or discerning) the voice of God in our lives.

You hear God’s voice by seeking God’s voice. 

The first and most significant thing you can do is saturate yourself with the Bible. It is the primary place where you learn about God’s will. 

In John 10:35 Jesus says: “Scripture cannot be set aside.” He continually refers to and quotes from Scripture, teaches from it, repels Satan with it, and calls it the word of God.

Let me give a simplistic but helpful example about tuning in to what may or may not be a message from God. 

Let’s say you’ve been asking God to make you happier. You think that stealing some headphones from Walmart is going to make you happy. Should you do it? Is God telling you to? Of course not! That would directly contradict Exodus 20:15: “You shall not steal.” God is not sending you that message in aisle 43 at Walmart.

There was a woman named Jennifer who was listening to a sermon by Pastor Steve Bradley about hearing God’s call on your life. After, she approached him and said: “Steve, I hear voices all the time. How do I know the difference between hearing the voice of God and hearing the voices of my own sick mind?”

With great compassion he responded: “Dear one, we all have to check the voices of our own sick mind with the Bible. Daily. You are no different.”*

You may be receiving a message from God if that message is consistent with Scripture. You are not receiving a message from God if that message is not consistent with Scripture.

Saturate your life with the Bible.

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Notes:

–“How to hear Jesus’ voice when you can’t actually hear his voice.” Sermon. October 2, 2022. Click here.

–*Rosaria Butterfield, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert (Pittsburgh: Crown and Covenant Publications, 2012), 128.