By Charmaine Blackwood
“The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.” Isaiah 50:4(NKJV)
As a child growing up, I had to learn to differentiate and recognise the voices within my home. I could tell when it was my mom calling me and when it was my brother. I also learned how to respond to the different voices. When it was my mom, I had to respond with urgency, respect, and obedience; when it was my brother, it was less than that level of urgency, unless, of course, he called to relay a message from mommy.
It is the same in our walk with God. When we come into a relationship with Him, we have to learn to get to know Him and His voice. Learn to discern the difference between His voice, the voice of others, the voice of the devil, and our own voice. We must learn to be sensitive to the voice of God through His Holy Spirit and learn how to respond to Him. God may not speak to us directly as He did with Adam and Eve or Abraham and Moses, but He speaks through His words in the Bible, through His Holy Spirit, through dreams and visions, through nature, through angels, and even through other Believers.
One of the best ways to train our sensitivity is through reading His words in the Bible. We train our ears to hear God when we listen to Him, and our hands and feet to do His Word by following His instructions. Let us make it a habit to know God by reading, hearing, and doing His word, as it will make us more sensitive to His voice. This will make us more sensitive to His will, and being sensitive to His will helps us align our lives and decisions according to His blueprint. With that sensitivity, we will work wholeheartedly to please God, even in difficult times, knowing that we are still in His will.
Reflect:
Are you sensitive to God’s voice?
Can you distinguish between His voice and that of others?
How can you sharpen your sensitivity to His voice?
Practise: To hear and know God’s voice is not instant; let us do the things that will build our sensitivity.
Let us pray:
Abba Father,
We thank you for the opportunity to be alive and all that it entails. Thank you that through your son, Jesus Christ, we can get to know You. Thank You for the ways You can speak to us. Help us to read Your word and spend time with You so that we can become sensitive to Your voice and know Your will for us individually. For those who are not yet in a relationship with You, help them to get to a place where they will hear You calling and wooing them to enter into fellowship with You so they too can hear and be sensitive to You. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Amen.