God’s voice or wayward thoughts

“His voice makes a difference,

When He speaks He relieves my troubled mind.

It’s the only voice I hear that makes a difference,

And I’ll follow one day at a time.”

– Jimmy Swaggart – His Voice

Many Christians make decisions and credit them to the Lord’s leading. Sometimes the repercussions from those actions, which turn out to be foolhardy, cost them dearly, and it begs the question, would God tell you to do something that would see you coming out the loser? Are they really hearing God’s voice, or are they obeying their own natural instincts to give in to selfish desires?

Family and Religion put the questions to Rev Dwight Bryan of the Dominion in Christ Church International who responded by quoting John 10:27: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

Bryan said that most Christians agree that God speaks to us. However, the practical aspects of it, he shared, remain elusive for many.

“From time to time, we hear our brothers and sisters in Christ asserting that the decisions they made are based upon God’s instructions. When the results turn out in a way that seems detrimental, we question whether or not God did in fact speak to them,” he said, adding that hearing God can be likened to tuning in to your favourite radio station with a manual dial – just as there are multiple stations broadcasting, so, too, are many voices on the Earth.

Those voices include the voice of God through His Holy Spirit, the voice of our own human spirit, and the voice of the enemy (Satan). Bryan cautioned that when a thought pops into our minds, we need to correctly discern what the source is.

“Being confident of hearing God comes with familiarity with His voice. A solid foundation for this begins with spending time reading and meditating on His word. God will never direct us contrary to His word. So when a thought comes, the first test is whether or not this lines up with the written word of God. The more familiar we are with the Word, the less likely we are to fall for deception,” Bryan stated.

Continuing with the analogy of the radio station, he said that when the radio slips from our selected choice to a neighbouring station on the dial, we are quick to recognise that it is not our station. For him, the familiarity with the type of programming content, music, and even the advertisement alerts the person. In the same way, he said, Christians should be familiar with the voice of God and what He says to them.

Bryan warned that human desires can get in the way of hearing from God accurately.

“We may want something so badly that our heart deceives us into thinking it is God’s will. We may have a dream to get married, start a business, or pursue a particular career. Very often, we make our own plans for our lives, then we go to ask God for direction. We are actually looking for approval that not direction,” shared Bryan.

He said that it is very difficult to hear God’s voice when your mind is already made up. It is, therefore, important, he said, to set aside our own preconceived ideas and agendas if we want to hear from God clearly.

Pointing out that God usually speaks through a still, small voice, Bryan said that the noise around us must be turned off as God will not compete with our other activities to get a word in edgewise.

When time is spent in the Word and prayer, Bryan said, God’s directions will come to our hearts with greater clarity.

“Anyone who wants to be led of the Spirit of God needs to make prayer and Bible reading a lifestyle. In addition, that individual needs to be obedient to what he or she receives from God. Someone who refuses to obey the instructions in black and white laid out in the written word of God has no right to expect God to speak to them through dreams, visions, prophetic words, or special revelations,” Bryan stressed.

He said that even in our natural lives, no one continues to give instructions to someone who willfully refuses to obey their directives. The solution, Bryan stressed, is a lifestyle of personal prayer and Bible study, coupled with church attendance and daily obedience. That will put a believer in a position to be confidently led by God.

­– CCL