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Day 5: Hearing God’s Voice:
Welcome to day 5! Today, we’re discussing how we can hear and discern the voice of God.

God does not have a speaking problem. We actually have a hearing problem. We’ve got to figure out what is preventing us from hearing the voice of God. Because He’s calling. He calls His own sheep by name. So, He is not just talking to all of us, He’s talking to each one of us individually, even when He’s talking to the whole flock or herd.

Here’s a little tidbit for you. Is a group of sheep called a flock or a herd? The answer is both. A flock is simply the term given to a group of sheep, the way a gaggle is a group of geese. A herd usually refers to animals that gather in groups for protection; they’re prey animals.

Even when He’s talking to the whole group, He’s looking at you, He wants to lead you, He wants you to recognize His voice, and He wants you to follow Him. The most important thing a sheep learns is the voice of its shepherd. Sheep are perhaps the stupidest animals on Earth (Jesus wasn’t being complimentary when he compared people to sheep), but they have one superlative ability: they can pick their own shepherd’s voice out of a cacophony of others. Jesus continues in the next two verses, “When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.”

Have you ever seen a video of a huge gathering of sheep with different shepherds? Sheep follow their noses when they graze, so a group of several flocks can be completely intermingled in a field. But when the shepherds call to their flocks, each individual sheep makes a beeline to its own shepherd, and those whose shepherd has not called pay no attention at all and continue to graze. It’s like watching an anthill sort itself.

Something we must be aware of is that the devil actually has a voice, too, and he likes to talk. The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 11:14 that he even “masquerades as an angel of light.” So, how do we recognize when it’s God’s voice speaking to us? How do I know it’s not an “angel of light,” or just me? Could it be my own wishful thinking, my own soul, my own emotions?

I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a situation where someone has given you a “word” because she felt led by the Holy Spirit. We often call that a prophetic word. It’s one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and an operation of the Holy Spirit—it’s very real. Throughout my faith journey, I’ve been really fortunate to have prophetic words spoken into my life by mature spiritual leaders. They were very encouraging, life-giving words. But they haven’t always been life-giving. Sometimes I got some words that made me think, Come on, man, that was not God.

A person might say something like this: “I’ve got a word from God; He put His hand on me.” And then the “word” was just so off. I’d say, “Okay,” and just let him go. But afterward, I’d say, “Hey, thank you so much, brother, but you missed God on that one.” We all miss the mark sometimes. Some people say, “Well, that stuff should never happen in church.” But honestly, it kind of has to happen. Because if we’re all going to posture ourselves to hear God speak to us, and we want to respond to His voice, like children, we have to make mistakes to learn that skill. None of us are perfect. We’re going to miss it and get it wrong sometimes.

Think of Simon Peter in Matthew 16:13-20. Jesus asked the whole group of His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Simon stood up and said, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus looked at him and said, “Whoa, Simon, there’s no way you could have known that unless God revealed that to you. God spoke to you, Simon.” And Jesus gave him a new name: Peter, which means “the rock”. And then only moments later, Jesus starts talking about his death. Peter rises up and denies that this will ever happen, and Jesus turns and says, “Get behind me, Satan!” From one moment to the next, Peter went from hearing from heaven to literally hearing from hell.

So, what do we do about that? There needs to be a test. And John addresses that in 1 John 4:1 (NIV), “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” Don’t just believe every prompting, every idea, every compelling “word”. Don’t believe every spirit, but test—notice the plural here—the spirits. The Holy Spirit will not be offended if you test what you hear from Him.

I believe God is speaking to you. Lean in. Listen. Move toward Him. God is not going to give you more until you do. Why would God continue to give you more steps when you haven’t been obedient to the steps He’s already spoken to you? So, in this time and in this season, respond to His voice. Take steps to follow God.