RECOGNIZING GOD’S VOICE

2 Kings 10-12 | John 1:29-51

“My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.” John 10:27

What is one of the most important things that we can learn to do? Learning to listen and to recognize the voice of God is one of the most important things that we can do in the Christian life. This skill is certainly indispensable if we are going to serve God and people well, not just in the context of the church, but also in other areas of influence. If we never learn how to recognize God’s voice, we will not experience His leading in our life to the fullest.

Now, how does God speak to us? In my (Charles Price) own experience, I find that God puts a sense of impulse, a desire that seems to be strong. God does not speak this way with my wife because her desire changes very quickly depending on the weather and all sorts of things, but He speaks to her in a way that she knows it is from Him. As we learn to recognize how God speaks to us individually, we may listen and wonder, is this from God? If we begin to follow, we shall see if it is.

An example in Scripture is Jeremiah 32:6-8: “The word of the LORD came to me:…your uncle is going to come to you and say, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth…’ Then, just as the LORD had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me…and said, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin…’” Now, the reason for that is because Jeremiah was telling everybody that Babylon was going to invade Judah, they would all go into exile. Hanamel wanted to make as much as he could because the nation was going to be overrun. By buying the field and keeping the ownership of it, God was using Jeremiah to show that there was a future when the Israelites would return from exile. Afterwards, Jeremiah said, “I knew that this was the word of the LORD; so I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel” (Jeremiah 32:8). Notice that when the events that God revealed to Jeremiah came to pass, Jeremiah knew that it was God speaking to him.

We need to learn to listen to God and recognize His voice. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and there are many occasions in my life when I look back and said, “God showed me that before it ever came to pass.” Though at the time we say, “Maybe this is from God, let me follow this and see what happens.” As the circumstances come to pass, we will see the hand of God in it.