How well have you learned to hear your Father’s voice?

God really does have a voice and currently speaks to anyone who can hear Him:

Jer 7:23 (God)…Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people… that it may be well with you.

Joh 10:27 (Jesus) My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

Who is your real Daddy, the Father of your spirit – Do you always recognize His voice?

Heb 12:9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits (and the Father of my spirit) and live?

Jam 1:17 …The Father of lights…(are you one of the Father’s lights?)

John 8:12 (Jesus) "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life." (how does His light get into us?)

2 Pet 1:19 …The prophetic word…which you do well to heed (hear) as a light that shines in a dark place…(Jesus, the word of God, in our hearts is our light)

Mat 5:14-16 You are the light of the world…Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Matt 23:9 And don't address anyone here on earth as 'Father', for only God in NLT heaven is your spiritual Father. (Don’t you know your own Father’s voice? What kind of a child doesn’t know his Father’s voice? Only a prodigal child)

Perhaps you have a major (or minor) decision to take, perhaps you are facing a crisis, or perhaps you are troubled by some habit or a relentless pattern of thought – the first question will always be: What does God say? What does your own Father have to say?

Matt 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God (in your heart) and His righteousness (His word is righteousness) and all these things shall be added to you.

Every Christian has personally heard God’s voice at least once . Otherwise they couldn’t have been born again as a Christian:

Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door (of a person’s heart) and knock. If anyone hears My voice (My word) and opens the door (by believing Me), I will come in to him and fellowship with him…That’s how we’re born again

1 Pet 1:23 Being born again…by (hearing the voice of) the word of God… KJV

Some Christians can recall the very first time God spoke directly to their hearts through a scripture and they were born again – others may not have such a recollection but virtually every Christian has experienced, even if just very occasionally, a scripture seeming to come alive to them, to jump off the page and resonate deep within them. And the words of that particular scripture became to them extremely precious and different from the rest of scripture. That was the voice of God speaking personally to them. Sadly, this hearing God speak, which should happen every day, is for many Christians only a very rare occurrence.

With what part of me can I hear my Father’s voice?

Matt 11:15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear! (and they all had natural ears)

Jesus repeats this statement about 14 times in the New Testament, more than any other statement. It must be important. What type of hearing was He talking about? What kind of ears was He referring to? Four times in scripture this answer is given:

Heb 3:7-8 …Today, if you will hear His (God’s) voice, Do not harden your hearts

So, we can only hear God’s voice with our hearts, meaning we can only hear God, who is a spirit, with our own spirits – which is the part of us that He is the Father of.

1 Pet 3:4 But let it be the hidden person of the heart…the beauty of a meek (hearing) and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

But even then, we will only hear Him with our hearts if they remain tender and we haven’t allowed them to become hardened. When our hearts become hardened we become dull of hearing or spiritually deaf – we cannot hear God:

Heb 5:11 Concerning this we have much to say which is hard to explain, since you have become dull in your spiritual hearing… AMP

And what is it that we do that makes us dull of hearing and unable to hear the voice of our Father? Only one thing, which is why our Father wants to keep us from it – sin.

Heb 3:13 Speak to each other about these things every day… so that none of you will become hardened against God, being blinded by …sin. TLB

Is My Father’s voice audible to my natural ear?

We hear God’s voice only with our hearts. The Holy Spirit is the living voice of God. He may speak through the word of God, through another person or directly to me. When He speaks through the word of God, I may be at the time reading it with my natural eyes or hearing it audibly with my natural ears, but the only important question is; are these words silently speaking to my heart? God will always speak to a heart that is tender and meek toward Him, that therefore can hear His voice. All Christian growth, and all Christian ministry, depends on hearing, believing and obeying the voice of God.

Ps 89:15-16 Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound (of God’s voice) They walk, O LORD, in the light of Your countenance (the light of the words you speak). In Your name (your word) they rejoice all day long…

In his daily devotional for October 19 Smith Wigglesworth says this:

“A man must have immovable faith, and the voice of God must mean more to him than what he sees, feels, or what people say. It does not matter what people say. I have been face-to-face with some of the most trying (life and death) times in men’s lives, times when it made all the difference if I...held fast to what God had said”.

You and I will also face many critical moments in life, the outcome of which will depend entirely on whether we heard and then held fast to what God said to us. These pivotal moments can alter the course of our or other people’s lives. Our loving Father wants us always to hear the wisdom of His words. He even invites us to ask Him in prayer:

Ps 143:8 Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness (Your loving words) in the morning, For (because) in You do I trust; Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, For (because) I lift up my soul (my will) to You.

If I can’t hear God speaking to me, am I listening to other voices, completely unaware?

John 10:5 (Jesus) Yet they (My sheep) will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.

If my heart is hard because of sin it is likely that I will not hear the voice of my invisible Father – recognizing it doesn’t have to stay that way one moment longer, for receiving God’s forgiveness will immediately soften my heart. But while it stays hard, there will be other voices from equally invisible beings, called strangers, speaking to me through thoughts. Thoughts, contrary to God, suggesting what I should do and say. I will likely assume that these thoughts are my own, but they are not, they are from evil spirits.

Hearing and knowing God’s voice is something a son or daughter must constantly learn

It takes time to learn to hear our Father’s voice. Initially it will be only at live meetings, then through CD’s and inspired writings that all teach me how to hear My Father’s voice both from the Bible, by His Spirit, and directly from the Holy Spirit, all through the day.

John 8:47 (Jesus) He who is of God hears God's words; …

John 18:37 (Jesus) …Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice

Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.

Are you getting to know the voice of your Father? Do you hear Him, through scripture and in direct conversation, better and more clearly this year than last year? Are you, by faith and under His teaching, constantly improving your daily communication with Him?