How do we recognize God's voice???
In conversation with someone once about the will of God and they said, "I mean really, who knows the will of God anyways, besides GOD himself?"
I was like HUH???
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We have to be able to know God's will for ourselves in order to do His will. But this got me to thinking, HOW can we know the voice of God for ourselves? HOW do we recognize the voice of God from all the other voices that are speaking to us?
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I came to the realization, that we can recognize God's voice the SAME WAY we are able to recognize the voice of a close friend or loved one, by SPENDING TIME with them. WHEN YOU KNOW SOMEONE, YOU KNOW THEIR VOICE!!! You can get a phone call from someone that you are with all the time, they can call from an unrecognized number and once they start talking to you, you will know who they are!!! Even if you haven't spent time with them in a while, if you'll just listen for a moment or two as they talk, you will KNOW who they are. IF you're NOT recognizing God's voice, maybe it's because it's been too long since you've really spent time with him. Or perhaps it's because you NEVERRR really took the time to get to know him in the first place.
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ARE YOU REALLY LISTENING???
There have been a few times that my close friends have ACTUALLY been able to trick me into believing it was someone else I was talking to instead of them. However, you know what I realized? It was ONLY because I WAS DOING ALL THE TALKING and they were just listening. In my excitement of what I was telling, I wasn't REALLY listening to their little uh, Huh's and Yeah's, HAD I STOPPED TALKING and ACTUALLY allowed them to talk, I would have KNOWN in a moment who it REALLY WAS!!! Sometimes we NEED to just STOP and LISTEN so we can RECONIZE God's voice when he is talking!
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How did God talk to Elijah???
"...but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it..." (1 Kings 19:11-13)
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I think sometimes that we are sooooo busy looking for the big signs and wonders, that we can't even hear or recognize his voice when He DOES speak to us. We ask God to show us something. We ask God to reveal His will to us and we're expecting a big booming, thundering voice from heaven and we end up ignoring God's DIRECT whisper right into our ear. If you really stop and think about it, the really BIG SIGNS God did for people in the Bible, was because those people, Balaam and the donkey, Jonah and the whale, Gideon's fleece, all those people had to get really BIG SIGNS from God to do His will, because they didn't really hear Him when He originally told them what to do.
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You know, when your close to someone, when you're standing by them, sitting with them, you don't have to SHOUT to get their attention. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO is WHISPER!!! If God has to take drastic measures and there are times that he will, it's ALMOST ALWAYS simply because we weren't listening to him all the other times that he was talking to us!!! You SHOUT at people to get their attention. IF you're paying attention to God, He won't need to SHOUT out to you with lightning bolts. When your close to God, all He has to do is WHISPER and you'll hear Him. I want to be close enough to God that I can recognize his whisper.
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Write it down...
When God tells you something, date it and write it down. It's not always right to tell everyone what God told you. Yet, you want to remember it. When God tells you something, it can seem so bold and clear in the moment, but as time goes by, in our humanity we will begin to wonder, was that really God, or was that just ME???
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One time for me this happened, I went to a conference, and I honestly don't even remember what the preacher preached about, it was Bro. Ham and it was a good message and I was clearly touched. I went to the altar, and I was praying and praying, and I told God, I would do ANYTHING for you! I would give up anything for you! And God quietly whispered a certain guy's name to me, even him? I was soooooo shocked. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh...It's time for you to let him go. That was the message God so clearly, yet quietly whispered to my heart. I said I would, but I could not fathom in my mind WHY God would want this.
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He was my best friend. Our personalities seemed perfect together. We went to the same church, he was practically family, and well to me, this guy was just PERFECT. It never once crossed my mind that there was something going on with him spiritually, I assumed I just wasn't good enough for someone like him. As time went by, nothing changed, we were still best friends, my feelings stayed the same. Obedience to God is not based our feelings. There were times I would think, maybe I heard you wrong God, maybe that was just me, and then I'd look back to that moment in my journal and reread how clear God's voice had been to me in that moment at the altar. As time continued to go by, I finally saw what God had seen all along.
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That's just one example, I have many other words from God written down. If you're not a writer, record it for yourself on your phone, or just mark it with a word on your calendar for when doubt starts creeping in.
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Recognizing the voice of God is not complicated and analytical. It's so simple, just like you know the voice of any loved one, that's HOW you will know the voice of God. There isn't some secret strategy or formula or connection. To know the voice of God, you must FIRST know Him. If you want to recognize the voice of God, all you need to do is spend time with Him.
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them,
and they follow me."
(John 10:27)
♥Mary Frances :)
