Whose voice do you follow?

Today I am 82 years old, born on St. Nicholas Day, December 6, 1939. St. Nicholas, a 4^th century Greek bishop, would commonly leave coins in people’s shoes at night and dedicated his entire life to serving people who were sick and suffering.

Perhaps I should have left my shoes outside last evening, in hopes of receiving a gift in them. But today I am so very thankful to my parents for giving me the gift of life.

As miraculous as the gift of a baby is, there is another gift of far greater value. Without it, I would not have experienced the entrance of the inner light of God that awakened me out of my slumber and made me whole. It brought about a new focus and center of life within me that illuminated my entire being still evident at this age, i.e., the kingdom of God within me.

Jesus  said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

Whose voice do you listen to?

As our seemingly unstable world rocks around us, I don’t have to fall apart, be ruled by fear, or make decisions based on the beliefs of others. I can hear the voice of God for myself and He will tell me what to do.

Yesterday I heard that the loved American televangelist Marcus Lamb, CEO of the Daystar Television Network, had died of COVID-19 after downplaying the virus and encouraging listeners not to get the vaccines. I felt sad for his many confused followers, people who had not learned how to hear the voice of God for themselves.

Through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, we can experience our very own relationship with the living God and receive His wisdom, guidance, and direction for our lives.

In other words, we don’t have to be led by other people; we can put our faith in God and his power, not the wisdom of others. He will make His words known to us through the Holy Spirit. And, yes, God does use other people to speak to us, but it is we who must listen for the witness of the Holy Spirit in our spirit.

“That your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:5).

The New Covenant is the key!

We need to understand the new covenant that Jesus ushered in and how it differs from the first covenant.  St. Paul explains it like this:

”… written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. And such confidence we have through Christ toward God … who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:3-4, 6).

We alone must make the choice: do I want to function in the new covenant or the old? In my experience, it is frightening to break free from following the letters engraved on stone, from trusting our leaders over ourselves, and make a decision to trust the living God to guide and direct us, through the Holy Spirit.

Just because we go to church, sing some wonderful songs of praise, and even pray, we think we are following Jesus. But are we really? If we don’t personally know His voice, how can we follow him?

Jesus, the Son of God, said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27).

This Christmas, bend your knees before God and tell him that you want to follow him. Ask Him to teach you how to be led by his Spirit and hear his voice. He will do it for you if you honestly want it!

Note: When I refer to “hearing the voice of God,” I am not talking about a literal, audible voice. If we seek a literal voice, we will most likely be misled. Although it is possible to hear God speak audibly, it is extremely rare.

When I talk about hearing God’s voice, I mean being aware in our spiritual senses—the eyes and ears of our heart—that God is communicating with us. Through pictures, visions, prophetic inspiration, spontaneous thoughts and images sent by God, in the day or night, we can sense what God is communicating to us.