Rev. Johnson V.
31st October 2010

When you pick up the phone to answer a call, it is likely that if the person calling is someone you know very well, you will recognize their voice without them having to identify themselves. As soon as a loved one or dear friend says “hello”, your brain scans through its database and pulls up a name and a face, all within a fraction of a second. But this only happens with people we know very well. If the caller is a casual acquaintance or a stranger, it is likely that you will not recognize them and the caller will have to identify themselves. The same is true about our relationship with our Heavenly Father. The Bible says in John 10:27 that His sheep know His voice and follow Him.

The Holy Spirit is our Teacher and our Guide. He directs all our steps by instructing us in an almost audible voice that we sense in our spirits (see Isaiah 30:21). Our Christian parentage or title will not help us to hear Him better. Only an intimate, personal relationship with the Saviour will enable us to hear His voice.

But there are times when we are confused and we are not really sure whether we heard the voice of God. Here are some ways to help us distinguish the voice of the Holy Spirit from other voices that we may hear:-

• Whenever the Holy Spirit instructs or leads us, we will have a calm assurance that our Lord is in charge and is taking us through. God affirms His Word to us and gives us the peace that He indeed spoke to us.
• The leading of the Holy Spirit is progressive – He never reveals everything at once. Most often God will take us through step-by-step so that He can perfect His will in us.
• God will speak to us through prophesy and the revealed Word of God.
• Sometimes if we are moving in a direction that is against God’s plan, the voice that we hear will justify our direction but rather than lead us to eternal life, it will eventually lead us to destruction. The Book of Judges, chapter 22, tells of how Balaam, the prophet of God, knew that it was not God’s will that he pronounce a curse on God’s people. And yet he kept praying for a word from God, with his eye on the prize money and his heart set on doing anything but God’s will. Eventually Balaam did hear a voice giving him permission to do what he was already doing, which was going against God’s plan. The Bible goes on to record that Balaam was eventually killed by the sword. 

And sometimes demon spirits will speak to us and try and confuse us. How do we identify the devil’s voice? We must know his tactics. The devil resorts to trickery. He subtly twists what God says to us so that eventually we don’t really believe what God spoke to us but another version, a lie. See how he subtly twists what God says in Genesis 2:16 and Genesis 3:1 and then again in Mathew 3:17 and Mathew 4:3. He is a manipulator.  Once we understand that the voice comes from him and not our Heavenly Father, we must resist him and he will flee James 4:7.

There is nothing better than hearing and obeying the voice of our loving Father. He alone knows the plans He has for us, if only we would walk through the open doors He has placed before us. We must learn to be patient and develop the ability to wait on Him. His voice is still, small and clear and can be easily lost in the din around us, but as we mature spiritually, we will know His voice, because we will know Him.