Instruct the wise, and they will be even wiser
Hearing God’s voice is one of the most fundamental things that we need to learn when we give our hearts to Jesus and start walking with the Lord. I think sometimes it’s overlooked, and it almost feels the importance of it gets neglected. Keep listening and learn to listen to God. It’s so uncommon for people to hear the voice of God and be led by God these days because most people don’t think it’s normal. They think you are weird to claim to have heard the voice of God. If you were to stand before unbelievers and say God told me to do this or that, do you know that they may think that you are absolutely crazy to claim that God speaks to you?
Many people go through their lives saying, ‘God never said anything to me’. Yes, He did. You may not have listened or obeyed. Maybe He did not speak to you audibly, but God speaks to us, and He wants us to listen to Him. God is always willing to talk to us. Tune your hearing to hear God’s voice. How privileged it is and how important it is to have God almighty speak to us, and it’s not meant to be an unusual occurrence. It’s meant to be normal. The most important lesson in the Christian life is learning how to listen to God and knowing that you’re getting direction for your life and the confidence to know what to do next.
Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it, whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left” (Isa. 30: 21). You will hear a voice behind you that says this is the way, walk in it. Isaiah was prophesying what will happen in the new covenant. God had been rebuking them, I have forsaken you, I have turned you over because of this, but there is coming a day when I will draw you back and you will hear a voice behind you saying this is the way, walk in it.
Learning to listen to God is absolutely essential to living a godly life, a useful life, and a profitable life. Currently, the enemy is really attacking us and trying to consume us with distractions so that we can’t hear God’s voice because he knows the power of listening to God and following His instructions. He knows that if we’re hearing God’s voice and obeying Him, he’s already lost the battle because it’s so important for us to get God’s voice on everything that we are doing.
For example, how do you find the will of God? You have to listen to Him. How do you know what to do in making critical decisions, or simple decisions in your life? You listen to Him. And how do you listen to God? Be quiet in His presence. Get in the word and ask God to speak to your heart. Learn to listen to Him. What is God saying, how is He giving you direction for your life at this point in time. And so, if you’re going to stay on the right path and walk in the will of God, you’ve got to listen to Him. If you’re going to make wise decisions, you’ve got to listen to Him. If you’re going to have right relationships with other people, you’ve got to listen to Him. If you’re going to avoid yielding to temptation, you’ve got to listen to Him. If you’re going to have your needs met, you’ve got to listen to Him. You can ask any question you want and be ready to listen for the answer.
How are you going to be saved? You’re going to be saved by listening to the conviction of the Holy Spirit who convicts you of your sin and says that if you die without Christ you’re going to be lost. If you listen and obey, you get saved. Many have heeded to this call after being convicted by the Holy Spirit of their sin and are headed for heaven when they die. In the same way after this first encounter, we have to listen to Him about everything. When you start the day every morning, you should be listening to Him. Lord, speak to my heart, give me
" Learning to listen to God is absolutely essential to living a godly life, a useful life, and a profitable life. "
guidance for the day, make me sensitive today to what’s going on around me. Make me sensitive to the people I meet, how I’m to respond if there’s a need, something I can say or do. Help me know how to listen so that I can know how to deal with some things I need to avoid.
Learning to listen to God is absolutely essential because unless you listen to Him, you wouldn’t know the right thing to do. Listen to Him, on whether to do something or not. Listening to Him will enable you to be useful all the days of your life. For example, let’s say you’re married, how are you going to build an intimate relationship with your wife or your husband? You learn to listen to him or her. How do you raise godly children? You learn to listen to them and teach them to listen to you and teach them to listen to God.
Listening is essential to every single aspect of our lives and certainly if we’re going to be useful all the days our lives, we’re going to have to learn to listen to God because He’s going to tell us what to do, what not to do, what to avoid, and what to pursue. God is always speaking to His Children. This is the way you stay strong and healthy and useful all the days of your life. It doesn’t make a difference where you are now, you can start today and ask God, ‘Lord, I want you to make me sensitive every day to all of these attitudes because that’s what I want in my life’. It’s a decision you make, and it begins with trusting Jesus Christ as your personal saviour. That’s the beginning, and that’s when you start learning to listen to God.
Just to share a few of my personal experiences. Everything that I have done has been the result of following God’s voice. What’s happening in my ministry is evidence of what God told me to do. I’m not saying I do things perfectly, and I don’t think any of us does. Many times, I’ve missed hearing God’s voice, or I wasn’t obedient to God’s voice, and it cost me something in the end. We are not smart enough to do things our own way. All we have to do is to seek the Lord and God will speak to us. We are all still learning, and the apostle Paul said I haven’t obtained perfection yet. “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me” (Phil. 3:12 NLT).
We haven’t done things perfectively, but God was always good to restore us, He was always good to make better of our mistakes. I can say that any good thing that has ever happened in my life came because God did it. God delights in the prosperity of His people. God wants to bless the work of our hands, but we have to cooperate with Him. I look at where I am today and so much of it is literally just being able to hear God’s voice, getting His direction on something and then being obedient to follow what He said, and sometimes that’s taken years of just walking that out by being a faithful sheep that follows the good shepherd.
When we do things on our own, that is when we get into all kinds of troubles. So, it cannot be over emphasised, how important it is to listen and hear the voice of God. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jer. 29:11). God’s plans for you are good but, see verses 12-13. 12” Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:12-13). So, this says God has perfect plans for your life, but the next two verses say that you have to seek Him. You have to be receptive. God’s will, will never automatically come to pass in your life. You have to keep listening to Him, and subsequently follow His directives as a sheep follows the good shepherd.
