‘Christianity is a journey of understanding who we are, whose we are, how much we are loved, and sharing that love with everyone we meet. Throughout this journey, perfect love enables (facilitates) healthy growth by eliminating the compulsion for ‘performance Christianity’.

Someone at a meeting I recently attended put it like this, ‘…It’s a transformation process that results from seeing ourselves alongside a Holy God.’ Thankfully though, this transformation is not self-led but Holy Spirit guided.

The Holy Spirit teaches us to hear God’s voice with increasing clarity. John 14:26 tells us, “…the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.”

This journey of hearing God with clarity is vitally important for each believer. God wants us to hear Him without complete dependence on a pastor, bishop, or some other person who we’ve assigned to act as our ‘hearer‘.

I know God sent His prophets to men in the olden days, as Hebrews 1:1‭-‬2a states, and I believe that the office of the prophet is still valid and very valuable today, but like David at Ziklag, on the run from Saul or on the verge of one of his many other battles, we need to be able to ‘inquire of the Lord’ and actually ‘hear’ His response, so that we can act.

I sincerely believe that this is the cry of God’s heart for His people today. Too many of us are relinquishing our hearing privileges, and relying solely on second-hand, and sometimes skewed, communications from Abba Father. There are at least 6 instances in the new testament where the words, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” are found. Are you hearing God?

I love the results of David’s consistent dependence on God for directions, “…Everywhere David went, the Lord gave him victories.” (2 Samuel 8:14). Of the 60 plus battles that David fought, he lost ZERO. Yes! That is correct. He won every single one. I ask again, are you hearing God?

Let us pause and ask God to help us glean from this article, exactly what He needs us to hear today.

As we learn to distinguish God’s voice, from among the many others around us, with increasing clarity, this facilitates our journey toward becoming more like Christ. We become wiser, develop greater discernment, and become more comfortable in our Kingdom positioning.

For those who are already thriving in your ability to hear God’s voice with clarity, please pause and pray for those who are growing in this process. Let the Holy Spirit lead you as you pray.

I believe that the next phase of hearing God’s voice comes as we increase in maturity as Christ Followers. Distinguishing between self, the devil, and God is no longer a chore and is no longer a major focus.

God’s ‘fear removing love’ frees us to sink into the rhythm of our relationship with Him. We become more intentional about the time we spend with Him, and seek to learn more about Him: His personality, His mannerisms, His character and His heart. We delve into the Bible and spend time in prayer, learning about our Abba Father.

At this stage, we are better able to discern, for example, when our Abba Father is wooing us out of bed in the early morning hours to spend time with Him.

When we experience the depth of His love we can say as Paul did in Galatians 2:20, “…my present life is not that of the old “I”, but the living Christ within me. And I now live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and sacrificed his life for me.”

That is one of my favorite scriptures. As a child, I actually learned it as a song. When we are in the rhythm of a relationship with Christ our Savior, we give up our ‘rights’ for His amazing rewards, and He lives out His purpose through us. Here’s that scripture again, …“For God is at work within you, helping you want to obey him, and then helping you do what he wants” (Philippians 2:13). Do you see it?

Let’s revisit John 10:27 now that we are a little more informed. “My own sheep (know and) will hear my voice and I know each one, and they will follow me.”

The shepherd is completely responsible for the care, welfare, and safety of the sheep. It is His responsibility to know each one intimately so that he can provide exactly what they each need.

The sheep’s responsibility is to know the shepherd’s voice, not because they sat up all night listening to his voice on continuous play, but because it comes naturally out of experiencing the loving care provided by the person with the associated voice.

They trust the shepherd and have experienced the safety associated with the voice, so they ‘follow him.’ They don’t worry and contemplate the pros and cons of following the shepherd, they just follow Him. Yep, wherever he leads them, they go. Sometimes the paths are rocky, hilly, or filled with obstacles, but they follow because they know that they are safe with Him. They trust that ‘his plans are for their welfare and never for their destruction’. Does that sound familiar? In case you’re not familiar with it, that is Jeremiah 29:11.

Concerning the same sheep, John 10:5 says, “They will never follow a stranger…, they will run away from him, for they do not recognize strange voices.”

I spent about 25 minutes researching this phenomenon, and in every single video I watched, the sheep followed the shepherd’s voice but ran away from the stranger’s voice. I was absolutely amazed: Israeli sheep, British sheep, Lebanese sheep, Kenyan sheep, Palestinian sheep, American sheep, and Peruvian sheep all did the same thing.

I love this because it reminds us that we don’t have to waste time trying to figure out all the other voices around us, we just have to learn the voice of our Abba Father. He may speak to me in a different language than you, but as His sheep, I must learn to hear my Shepherd’s voice clearly.

To summarize, this second stage of learning to hear God’s voice clearly is not about a strategy, but a relationship. The more we lean into our Abba Father, the better we know Him and the better we recognize His voice.

I pray Hebrews 13: 21 – 22 over you, “Now may the God who brought us peace by raising from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ so that he would be the Great Shepherd of his flock; and by the power of the blood of the eternal covenant may he work perfection into every part of you giving you all that you need to fulfill your destiny. And may he express through you all that is excellent and pleasing to him through your life-union with Jesus the Anointed One who is to receive all glory forever! Amen!”

If you’ve never asked Christ to be Lord of your life please pray this prayer. Heavenly Father I am sorry for my sin please forgive me, cleanse me, and make me your child. I commit my life to you today. Amen.

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