Jesus distinguished His true followers from the rest of the world with this simple statement:
John 10:27 “My sheep hear My voice…”
So how do you know you’re hearing from Him? How can you be sure?
There’s no shortage of people today who claim to hear all sorts of things from God. For some, God gives them clear impressions on what they need to do. Others gain personal reassurance after hearing a divine voice. There are even those who claim to receive specific information from God about other people and their futures.
It has been said that time and truth go hand in hand. And time has invariably revealed that many who claim to hear from God are clearly mistaken. The God of truth is incapable of communicating an erroneous message. We need a means of hearing from God that doesn’t leave us vulnerable to our own subjective impressions.
The greatest grace gift given to us, of course, is salvation. But we would know nothing about that salvation were it not for Scripture. So in reality, the greatest grace gift is divine revelation. Nothing is more important than divine truth. You have to have the truth in order to embrace the gift of salvation in Christ. So the greatest thing we have is the Word of God. This is the divine revelation – the written Word, the Bible and the Living Word, Jesus Christ.
Alongside that, the distinguishing characteristic of true Christians is that they listen to the Word of God. They hear the Word. They believe the Word. They love the Word. They obey the Word. That’s what distinguishes a Christian.
One of the most frustrating human traits we will encounter in ourselves and in others is this innate ability we seem to have whereby we can hear words being spoken to us and still not be listening.
Hearing is a biological function of our ears. Unless we suffer from deafness, we will hear words spoke every day: by our loves ones, our friends, our work colleagues, the newsreader on television etc. But are we really listening? Are we intentionally seeking to hear what is being said and understand it?
Our daily prayer should be, “Lord, help me to really listen and hear Your voice and Your voice alone.”