tagged 
hearing God, presence
hearing God, presence Meditation: His Presence, His Voice
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 12:02AM 
One day I left my cell phone in a friend’s office. When my daughter sent a text message soon after, my friend thought it would be fun to respond to the text and pretend to be me. After an exchange of just two messages my daughter texted back, “Who is this really?”
She knew my voice. Even though she was apart from me and limited to the shorthand of text messaging, she was not fooled by an impostor.
One sure sign that we are becoming followers of Jesus is our ability to distinguish his voice from others. Jesus said simply, “My sheep know my voice.” Yet one hallmark among Christians in our day is anxiety regarding God’s direction and guidance. How can there be so many believers who struggle to hear his voice?
When our gospel does not require relationship or presence it should be no surprise that believers have trouble hearing their Lord’s voice. When our Christian experience is limited to learning the general principles of the Bible it should be no surprise that we have difficulty in knowing God’s specific will for our lives about the everyday questions: where should I go, and what should I do?
What if the loving Father wants to speak to our current situation and give us direction for this very day? If we have never been told that he longs to have a on-going, daily relationship with us, how could we know his voice?
The comforting answer lies in relationship with a living God. This, too, is part of the gospel. The same one who said "My sheep hear my voice" also promised us a spiritual guide who will lead us into all truth--everyday truth--his will for us day by day. The Spirit of Christ is his active presence in our lives, eager to cultivate a relationship, a friendship, a partnership for living (John 14: 16-29 is a good place to start). But because we have been warned that subjective experiences can lead us astray from the revealed truth of the Bible, many of us have been warned against listening for the still small voice of his presence. despite these well-meaning cautions, every student of Jesus can learn to recognize the voice of God as we grow in a vital, everyday relationship with him as Father and friend. We need not worry too much about failure because his desire for daily communion is stronger than whatever errors we might make as we learn to hear his voice.
Perhaps this week we can turn our meditation toward Jesus’ desire to deepen his relationship with us--to go beyond the new birth. This week we can discover that voice whispering, “Come to me and listen. I am still speaking today. Hear the sound of my voice, get to know my words, and discover my heart."
Reader Comments (3)
Part of what I heard growing up was that people could make up stuff and make mistakes about hearing God's voice. Then they could make mistakes and manipulate others. However, that never made sense to me, since we do the very same thing with the Bible, especially if we can't hear the voice of the Spirit. Speaking of which, I'd better go off and do some listening...
this was exactly what I needed to hear today. I feel that there is so much pressure to 'get it right' when the Lord speaks, anxiety sets in.
Ed, you must have a prophetic gift! The point you made in your comment is the very one I cut from the post (due to space): Just because the scripture is God's written word (and it is) doesn't mean that our understanding is objective. We all come to the written word with our subject understandings--so why be afraid of subjectivity in his "present voice."
A ~ I'm so happy this post was helpful. We should have confidence that the Father--who loves us completely--is on our side and is greater than our weaknesses. Peace to you!