Hearing The God's Voice (2)

In the first section I have outlined the first steps so that we can hear God's voice. For a Christian to be able to hear the voice of God is neither a miracle nor an astonishing thing.

What is amazing is that we have long been someone who claims to be Jesus' followers, but we ourselves do not know who Jesus is.

As I wrote, to hear God's voice, we

must have a desire to know God personally, and we do have a desire to live in holiness, and we also have a strong desire to serve God. Without a strong desire to know God, it is futile.

I myself don't know why churches (especially traditional churches) rarely teach their congregations how to hear God's voice.

Even if we see in reality, many pastors do not know God personally. I once told about a pastor who has served for 30 years, but he doesn't know the God he serves. (Are You Follower Of Jesus).

If the churches teach the ways to hear God's voice from an early age (from Sunday School), the world will produce the Great Soldiers of Christ.

But after I observed Christians who are from Pentecostal or charismatic circles (some had become charismatic since they were babies), it turned out that many of them also could not hear God's voice, even though some had spoken in tongues.

So, it turns out that someone who can speak in tongues is not necessarily able to hear God's voice or speak to God.

Within us there are many kinds of sounds that we hear, basically there are 4 sounds that we usually hear:

1. Our Own Conscience

2. Voice of God's Angel
3. The voice of the Holy Spirit
4. The voice of Satan.

At first it can be confusing to distinguish these four sounds. Sometimes we feel that a voice is God's voice, even though it is our own conscience. When we begin to learn to hear God's voice, we will make many mistakes.

This is natural, let alone the Apostle Paul himself who was once lifted up to heaven (read: Tale from Heaven Chapter Five) sometimes confused to distinguish whether it was the voice of his spirit or the Spirit of God.

Many prominent servants of God, sometimes it is difficult to distinguish whether the voice he hears comes from God or not.

In the verse below we see the apostle Paul himself being very careful in writing his letter. We can see he was almost wrong in the verse below

 1 Corinthians 7:10 (NET Bible)

“To those who have married me ... ...... - no, not me, but God - order, that a wife may not divorce her husband"

At first Paul felt that he himself had the opinion that divorce was not justified, but then the Holy Spirit corrected his thinking so that he said I... no, not me....

If the voice we hear only concerns spiritual life, it is easy to distinguish it, because we have a handle, namely the Bible, to know whether it is wrong or right. But the problem is when we ask God for instructions about something.

For example: we ask God for instructions on where we will work, because currently there are 2 or 3 companies that accept us to work.

Sometimes we are confused to decide this. Or we ask God for guidance about a mate, let's say there are 2 or 3 people who are currently close to us, and they are all willing to be our wives/ husband. Where we have to serve and so on.

There is no basic standard by which to know God's voice, because only we alone can decide whether the voice we hear comes from God, Satan, or ourselves.

Usually God only answers us at the last moment, sometimes even we unconsciously do something, for example, like the example above. It could happen, one day we unconsciously go to one of the companies, and we decide to accept the job that is offered there.

God will relate to humans according to the human personality itself, and the great thing is that all God's children will feel that he is a special person for God.

That is our God, He really appreciates us individually, and He relates to us according to our personality.

Example: For someone who is gentle, God will not be harsh, because He knows that person will not accept it if it’s being treated harshly.

But for someone who is used to living in a rough / harsh world, God will educate that person hard too, because if treated gently, that person cannot even be educated.

The best way to test, whether the voice that we hear it comes from God or not, is that if we are husband and wife, we can ask God to tell our husband/ wife what to do, or we can also ask God to tell us what to do through someone we know (that person is also close to God).

Or if we have a pastor who is close to God, we can ask the pastor, and the pastor will ask God, is it true that the guidance we get is come from God.

Even though we have asked others to help us get answers from God, we must remember the final decision remains in our hands. Basically, we know whether it is God's voice or not, if there is no peace, then we must reject that voice.

Devil and his followers are the smartest to deceive us, they can also tell us things that seem very spiritual or guidance that seem to come from God.

Likewise, with our flesh, the flesh often deceives us by saying things that seem to come from God, even though they Only satisfy the flesh itself.

For example: The example above, we feel that God is asking us to work in a company that will provide a bigger salary than other companies, and there is another voice that tells us, if we work in that company we will help a lot with God's work, because the greater the salary the greater the tithe.

In fact, it is the flesh that wants to enjoy this large income, because the higher the salary, the greater the opportunity to enjoy the flesh (lust).

In order to hear God's voice properly, we must build a close relationship with it. We were created to have a relationship with God. God wants us to always be close to Him.

We must put God as our friend. The Holy Spirit is God with a very gentle person, in the Bible it says "His voice was like a gentle breeze".

We have to be in touch with God for 24 hours, even when we are talking to other people, we can also keep continue to talk to God.

We also have to be able to distinguish between the 3 persons of God, namely the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus Himself said about the HOLY SPIRIT in the Book:

 John 16:13 (NKJV)

"But when He comes, who is the Spirit of truth, He will lead you into all truth; for He will not speak a word of Himself, but all that He hears He will say, and He will tell you things to come.

 John 16:14

"He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is

Mine and declare it to you."

 John 16:15

All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore, I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you”

The Holy Spirit is God as other person, who wants to live with us, humans. It is true that the Lord Jesus said, for if Jesus Himself lived.

Then He as a MAN would only be in one place, but if the Holy Spirit comes, then He can be anywhere, anytime and anywhere (just like a coca cola ad)

In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit has indeed done Its work, we often read "prophets pervaded by the Spirit of God", but God did not remain in these prophets,

God only came to anoint or stay temporarily, after the prophet's task was completed then His anointing also ends. Unlike after Jesus ascended to heaven, the Holy Spirit was officially sent to be the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth who will teach us everything.

One more thing that can be done to get to know God better is that we have to memorize a lot of Bible verses, so that we are not only asked to read the Word, but also memorize the Words.

Most Christians seldom to read God's Word regularly (if you don’t read it, how can you memorize it). God himself often quotes Bible verses when giving us personal instructions, the reason God quotes the existing Words is because those Words (Bible) also come from God.

 The conclusion of how to hear God's voice is:

1. The most important thing is that we must have a desire to know God personally

2. We have to read a lot and memorize the Word (Bible)

3. We must be determined to live more and more holy

4. We put God the foremost in our lives

In trying to hear God's voice, sometimes God allows us to make mistakes, or make wrong decisions because we heard wrongly.

Don't be discouraged, God deliberately does that so that we will be more careful in deciding whether the voice we hear really comes from God or not, lastly KEEP TRYING…

Isaiah 55: 6 (NKJV)

“Seek the Lord while He may be found,

Call upon Him while He is near."

Jesus loves you and whole your family