Hearing Gods Voice

The voice of God is that secret voice unheard by any other ear,

which our own ear, opened by the Spirit of God recognizes with joy.

Charles Spurgeon

One of the things that I often have people ask me is how do I know if God is speaking to me? How do we know God’s voice?

Good question!

Hearing Gods voice is one of the things that I was so unsure of – what if it’s not God its just me? What if I get it wrong? How do I know its Him?

To be honest I don’t think there’s an easy one-stop-shop easy answer, but it all comes down to relationship. As I have grown closer to God and developed my relationship with Him I have come to learn how He speaks to me. Each of us are created uniquely so it makes sense that the way God speaks to us may be different to the away he speaks to someone else.

"My sheep listen to my voice;

I know them, and they follow me."

-- John 10:27

God knows the best way to speak to me. I am a visual person – images and pictures speak to me far greater than reading the Bible or listening to a preacher. But for others, reading the Bible can really speak to them. Neither are more right than the other – they are both just as valid.

When our kids were born, even as babies they recognized mine and Rays voices. They'd spent the whole time in the womb listening to us talk to them. They knew who we were and it would comfort them. When they were upset we could settle them just by our voice because they knew it was us.

As we get to know God more we learn to recognize His voice. I realize this sounds all too simplistic but its true.

There are many different ways in which God can speak to us. I would love it if God would just use massive sky-writing or a big booming voice from heaven like he did when Jesus was baptized but unfortunately it never seems to happen!! I know people who God speaks to them through impressions, a whisper, feelings, numbers - I even have one friend who God uses Physics equations! How crazy is that?

Benny Johnson from Bethel Church said recently at Manifest Presence Conference in Auckland that "God's not English, but English is one of the ways He can speak to us. God's not Russian but Russian is one of the ways He can speak to us." The same applies to pictures, numbers, feelings, impressions etc. They are all just a tool that God can use to communicate with us.

How awesome it is to know that God can to speak to us in a way that works for us - regardless of language!

I want to encourage you, as you spend time developing your relationship with God - it will become easier to recognise His voice. Take some time and chill with Him today.

Shan

Reach out!

Missionary.

For me this used to conjur up images of little old people with grey hair, dressed in brown wrinkly stockings with brown knitted cardies giving a really long and incredibly boring slide show. (Crazy but in fact none of the missionaries I have ever met fitted this description - they are all awesome funky people with a fire in their belly and a passion for Jesus and the people they serve)

But lately my perspective is a little different. As you leave our church there is a sign above the door that has got my attention and started me thinking.

"You are now entering your missionfield."

Your missionfield. My missionfield. Does that mean that I am a missionary?

Now for those of you who know me, I would really hope you don't see me as the above desrciption of a missionary. (I don't have brown stockings, haven't worn a cardie since I was 12 and am reluctantly embracing the digital age.) Do you fit that description?

We are all missionaries. We are called to be salt to the world, making people thirsty for Jesus. As christians we carry something that the rest of the world needs whether it knows it or not. We don't have to go to a third world country or a diaster zone to do this. I am in no way discrediting overseas missions, just not all of us are called to serve in this way. But we are called to be missionaies in the place we find ourselves now. This may be our university, workplace, home, town or wherever.

Reaching out to those around us - it may be our family, friends, workmates, classmates, neighbours, or that random chick at the supermarket checkout. They may be broken in need of healing; lonely in need of a friend; hungry in need of a feed or lost in need of a direction. Whatever it is they are looking for, because we have Jesus, we have the answers that can satisfy them.

Matthew 28:18-20 – the great commission. Jesus basically told us to go to all the world and reach out to those around us. If you don't reach out in your world who will?

The ultimate example of a missionary is Jesus. He reached out to the misfits of society – prostitutes, murderers and thieves. (eg Woman at the well, Zaccheus in the tree, etc) Jesus quite literally was a radical – he didn’t conform to the bounds of society or focus on being seen as 'proper'. Instead he was a living example of the love of God. It says in the Bible ‘there is no greater love than to lay down ones life for another.” This doesn’t necessarily mean we have to physically die (although sometimes this can be the case) but to die to our own desires, wants, dreams or fears for the sake of another.

This could mean putting aside your own embarrassment to eat lunch with the school weirdo or instead of buying your usual latte on the way to work, put that money aside for a week and buy groceries for a hungry family.

I just want to challenge your perspective a little. Do you see yourself as a missionary? Are you reaching out to those around you, or is that up to someone else to take care of? Ask God to show you the outreach opportunities that surround and take a leap of faith and act. You never know what will happen!

(And when you do let us know what happens! We would love to hear your experiences!)