Discerning God’s Voice

Discerning God’s Voice

Mark 4:24; Luke 8:18

There are many different voices fighting for our attention, so we need to train ourselves to hear God’s voice over everything else.

In fact, it’s vitally important that we seek God and His righteousness first and foremost, and that we hear His voice, as it is His desire to speak into our lives. And that’s because He is the key to our existence and success.

You see, God is our creator. Before we were even conceived in our mother’s womb, He knew us, and that He also knows us now, but not only that, He also loves us and has prepared a special calling for each and every one of us.

And we also need to know that He is constantly speaking to us and guiding us in the way that we should go according to His will. What He is asking from us is that we would listen and hear what He is saying, and then be obedient.

In the Old Testament, listening and obeying God’s voice was a very important aspect in the life of God’s people. In respect to discerning His voice, through Moses the Lord said, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in His eyes, and give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.” (Exodus 15:26 NKJV)

So, I think it’s safe to say that it is important that we hear His voice?

To hear His voice, that is to discern that it is God’s voice we are hearing, the first thing we need to do is to check what is being said with God’s Word, the Bible, for God’s guidance never contradicts His Word. Since there are many voices around us, there is the danger of deception. In Isaiah 8:20, the prophet tells us the importance of hearing God through His word. He said, “If they (the people) will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no light of dawn.“

Now, the reason why it is important to hear God’s voice is because when we know that God is speaking to us, a sense of comfort overwhelms our souls that God’s peace will carry us through the dark and difficult times that come our way.

Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29 NKJV)

To the religious leaders of that day, Jesus asked them, “Why is my language not clear to you?” and then He answered His own question, and it’s “Because you are unable to hear what I say.” (John 8:43 NKJV)

And to make sure they got the point, He said, “Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” (John 8:47 NKJV)?

Now do you see why it is important that we discern God’s voice over the voice of others?

Now, the definition of discernment is the ability to judge well, and within the context of what we are talking about today it is obtaining spiritual guidance and understanding directly from the Lord God Himself.

We see this meaning from what the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10:5.

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5 NKJV)

And so, we get to the two passages that our lesson today is taken from.

Looking at what Jesus said, in both Mark’s gospel and then in Luke’s we see a very important distinction when it comes to hearing God’s voice. Now, both accounts are when Jesus spoke about hiding our light saying no one lights a lamp puts it under a basket, but rather upon a lampstand, for whatever is hidden will be revealed.

And while each gospel says the same thing, there is a distinction when it comes to our hearing it

It’s not only what we hear, but it’s also how we hear it.

So, we need to not only hear what the Lord is saying, but also in how we are hearing it.

“Take heed what you hear … take heed how you hear” (Mark 4:24; Luke 8:18 NKJV)

What We Hear

“Take heed what you hear” (Mark 4:24 NKJV)

One of the greatest privileges we have is to hear God’s word for our lives. We see this in what the Psalmist said in Psalm 89:15.