Every book of the Bible has God speaking to His people.
Below are a couple of my favorite verses about listening to God’s voice.
A voice behind you will say, “Turn to the left or turn to the right, this is the way of the Lord, walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21, OGV).
When you make yourself available, you will hear God’s words. When you are too busy or distracted you will not hear God (John 8:47, OGV).
If you are a child of God… like a child has no problem hearing the voice of a parent… you will hear God constantly. As you have listened to your dad on earth, you will hear your Daddy in heaven. He will lead you daily (Romans 8:14-16, OGV).
I confess, all the translations above are my versions. The OGV or “Old Guy Version”!
I have paraphrased all of them as “walking with God” verses in my life. My version translates the verses according to what they mean to me.
They can mean the same to you! God wants to talk with you.
Hearing God is the heritage of the saints today. God used to speak through the prophets and now He speaks to you through His Spirit. God wants a relationship with you and there can be no relationship without conversation.
Have you heard God’s voice recently? Most followers haven’t.
Some theology teaches that it’s only by scripture that we hear God. Let me say kindly, “Nonsense!”
God wants to talk with you today. It’s not a question of His desire; the problem is that you haven’t trained your spirit to listen to His Spirit, or you are so distracted with the noise of life that you can’t hear.
Recently, the ReviveOhio ministry came to Springfield.
They sent out dozens of teams to walk the city, listen to the Spirit, and pray for people according to God’s voice.
I was on a team of four. We were in the car getting ready to leave when one of our team members said, “I want to be honest; I’m trying to grow in my faith. I’m not exactly sure what I’m doing here today or about my walk with Jesus. I’m from a Catholic background and I’ve never done something like this before.”
Sitting next to me in the car was another brother from a Catholic background who did know what he was doing and was a committed discipler.
I felt the Lord nudge me to say, “Brother-Not-Knowing, let me introduce you to Brother-Knowing. I think it would be a good idea for him to disciple you in First Steps so you will understand your relationship with Jesus and know what you are doing.”
Brother-Not-Knowing said, “Yes, I would like that!”
Wow, not even out of the parking lot and God spoke to me! Through my listening to His assignment for me at that moment, Brother-Not-Knowing will grow in his faith through discipleship with Brother-Knowing.
God wants to give you a mission today too.
You will find yourself in an unusual situation. Don’t run from it or ignore it. Just ask, “God speak to me. Let me know what you want me to do.”
If you don’t hear anything, keep walking. But if He speaks – stop, pray, obey, give generously, challenge in love, or just extend sympathy.
Wow, God has used you today! What fun.
Christianity is the only religion in the world where the God of the universe hands out daily assignments to His children.
We are in training to help Him with the universe when we go home to eternity.
Lots of fun.