Knowing God's Voice

Bank tellers are trained to recognize counterfeit money. They are given genuine money and told to familiarize themselves with it rather than familiarizing themselves with counterfeit. When a counterfeit bill shows up, a teller can recognize it because he knows how the real feels and looks.

Often people question how do I know if what I felt or heard is from God. By familiarizing ourselves with what He has already said in His Word we will recognize Him. If God is going to speak to us He is going to say things that are in agreement with His Word. Jesus said "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27). In order to know God and hear His voice we must spend quality time in prayer and Bible study.

The Bible declares, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). If the Word was God then when we read or hear the Word preached we are hearing the Voice of God.

Elijah described God's voice as a still, small voice. Habakkuk said, "I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart..." (Hab. 2:1). Habakkuk knew that in order to hear God’s quiet, inner, spontaneous thoughts, he had to first go to a quiet place and still his own thoughts and emotions. Psalm 46:10 encourages us to be still, and know that He is God. When we quiet our flesh and our minds we can know God.

Habakkuk said, "I will keep watch to see." It is very interesting that Habakkuk was going to actually start looking for vision as he prayed. He was going to open the eyes of his heart, and look into the spirit world to see what God wanted to show him. This is an intriguing idea. The most obvious prerequisite to seeing is that we need to look. Daniel was seeing a vision in his mind and he said, "I was looking...I kept looking...I kept looking" (Dan. 7:1,9,13).

God continually revealed Himself using dreams and visions. He did so from Genesis to Revelation and said that, since the Holy Spirit was poured out in Acts 2, we should expect to receive a continuing flow of dreams and visions (Acts 2:1-4).

The Bible tells us that Jesus is God in the flesh. Therefore, if you want to hear the voice of God, you must study and know the teachings of Jesus. John describes Jesus as "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched - this we proclaim concerning the Word of life." (1 John 1:1).

Have you ever tried to carry on an in depth conversation with a person you did not know? It doesn't usually go very far. Likewise how will we be able to listen or converse with God if we don't know him.

God responds to willing hearts. In the book of Revelation, we read: "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:20). God will never force you to obey Him, but waits for your willing response to His call.