Listening for the Voice of Jesus

May 5, 2015

Listening for the Voice of Jesus

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”

John 10:27

Among the many obstacles in our path as we seek the life in Christ as our way of life, is the cacophony of voices vying for our attention. Our own voice is chief in this barrage trying to influence our daily life. Our voice is made up of all of our memories, our desires, our motives, our fears, our hopes and our dreams. In the midst of all these voices is the still small voice of God. Jesus said “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). Therein is the life in Christ: listening to the voice of Jesus and following him.

Learning to discern the voice of Jesus is more of an art than a process. In my journey, I have found it helpful in mastering this art to remember three differences between God’s voice and all the voices in the cacophony calling out to me.

First, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Jesus is the truth. It is impossible for God to lie. However, our adversary, the enemy of God is a liar and the father of lies.  (John 14:6; Hebrews 6:18; John 8:44)

Second, God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. The temptations in our life are no different from what others experience and come from our own desires. (James 1:13-14; 1 Corinthians 10:13)

Third, our adversary, the enemy of God will heap guilt upon us; however, there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1) Often in our culture, both within the church and without, people try to motivate us by using guilt. They may be well intentioned, but if they try to motivate us by guilt, we can be sure the voice of Jesus is not leading them. If Jesus is not leading them, why would we want to follow?

When one of the voices in the cacophony manage to get our attention, we need only consider whether the voice is telling us the truth about God, our self, and our world; whether the voice is tempting us away from God’s plan for our life; and whether the voice is using guilt to urge us along their path. As we consider these three attributes we’ll know whether it is the Voice of Truth calling out to us. God’s voice, even when He needs to correct our behavior, will always affirm the truth of our identity as His beloved children with whom He is delighted and upon whom His favor rests.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms is available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ is available as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.