Hearing His Voice : )

[Cinnamon-mom]

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me (John 10:27).

I am going to ramble, LOL. I think one of my favorite aspects of my relationship with the Lord is that I can hear His voice. When I read a scripture and I hear Him gently apply it to my circumstances. When I am in the shower, mulling over something in my life and He gently gives me a scripture that I would have never found on my own. When I am praying for a friend, and the Lord leads me to pray for a specific area that I wouldn't have know to pray for, and He gives me a word of encouragement for them.

God is so real. He speaks to us. He leads us into all truth. It is amazing. It blows my mind. I trip out everyday on the reality of how God interacts in my life.

When God speaks to us, it will always line up with Scripture. He will never say anything wacky or wrong. He also gives us confirmation. often times I will hear Him speak to me about something and then He will confirm it. A few weeks ago He was speaking to me about simplifying my life, so I was journaling about it. Then later that day, I heard a study on the radio about simplifying our lives!!! Then I was at Starbucks and on the napkin it said "simple" and everywhere I looked God was giving me confirmation. And as I began to obey Him, and cut things out of my life I was filled with peace and joy. His plan for my life is one that will bring me peace.

A couple days ago, I was laying in my DD's room while she was falling alseep and God put a verse on my heart, strongly. So I got up and I looked it up and began to study the verse in my commentary. I prayed about it, and asked God to show me how He wanted to apply it to my life. The verse was, "Don't use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them." Ephesians 4:29. I knew the focus of the verse for me was the second half -- to use my words to do good things, to know the power of encouragement.  So I was journaling about what I was learning. I even called my mom to share with her about how God gave me that verse and what I learned. When I hung up, I was listening to Christian radio, and a new Bible study was starting. The pastor said the verse that we were going to study was Ephesians 4:29!!! I knew God wanted me to hear and pay attention. He had already gotten my attention. The pastor applied this to the marriage relationship and how our words are so important. The Lord had given me that verse earlier, so I would study it, and be ready to hear the message that He had prepared for me. If He didn't do that I might have only listened half-heartedly. But God wanted me to know it was important, so I could powerfully encourage my husband.

I am rambling I know . . .  I was just thinking about that verse. We are His sheep if we hear His voice and follow Him. It is so important to make sure that you do hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, especially today. There are so many false teachers who want to lead us after them. We have to be careful not to follow the ideas of men. "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." 1 John 4:1

Jesus says that His sheep will flee from false teachers, "Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers." (John 10:5). But does it really matter, if we follow someone that is a false teacher? I mean, is it a big deal. Jesus says that it can be deadly! "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have [it] more abundantly." He describes a thief -- someone trying to steal His sheep! That is heavy. This is Satan, and his desire is to steal, kill, and destroy the sheep. He can't be trusted. He will use false teaching to violently destroy the lives of people that Jesus longs to give LIFE to!

Let us pray that God would fill us with His Holy Spirit, that we would hear His voice and follow Him, and that He would give us the discernment so we won't follow the voice of the thief!!!