How to discern God's voice-Part 3
Our determination to hear God's voice reveals we are ready to bask in the assurance and melody of His voice. To hear God's voice is divine. And when we obey him, it imparts life into our souls.
If you are just joining us, you can check out Part One and Part Two so you can catch up with previous posts
Everything is right with the world when we hear God's voice when He greets our souls with his presence. A cloudy day suddenly gives way to the sun. Life springs forth into our being and we are no longer clueless about situations in our lives.
We have direction, we have a leading. And even when we cannot understand it, we trust the One who leads us.
So don’t fret beloved. God’s got you. And He is for you. Don’t let anyone cheat you of this great value of hearing God.
It is so precious.
Imagine giving birth to a child and he chooses not to hear you or obey you, how would you feel? You’re so eager to guide him but he is bent on going his own way. Such a child will keep getting into serious trouble and you’ll have to keep bailing him out.
But won’t you rather he listen to you?
This is the same with God. And I’m here to help you understand how God’s GPS works.
To Discern God’s voice, pray often
If you don’t pray often which involves you communicating with God often to understand His will for your life. You’ll miss out on a lot of things. Praying in the Spirit helps a lot. I noticed that whenever I spend more time praying in tongues, it boosts my spiritual life and clarifies some questions and requests I take to God in prayer.
When you spend time praying in the Spirit, you’re building your spirit man and your capacity to engage with God with the Spirit He’s giving you. Because we live in a noisy world, you’ll have to find time to still your heart and tune into what God has to say through prayer.
It’s like a marriage. If one person is doing the communication, the marriage will fail. God speaks, but it’s so easy to be bogged down by our busy lives on Earth here and forget to build spiritual habits like this. Even Jesus had to spend time away from the crowd to pray to His heavenly father.
How much more as children of God?
Understand that you may miss it a couple of times
To discern God’s voice, you must understand that there are days when you’ll miss it.
Don’t let this deter you.
Don’t feel like a failure either.
I have missed God’s voice a couple of times myself.
And it’s okay! We are humans! Even the most experienced in perceiving God’s will still misses it sometimes. And this is how we grow and learn.
Do you remember you are a spirit being, with a soul and a human body?
Although your Spirit is New (Christ within) and is so eager to do God’s will, your soul doesn’t get it yet. In fact your soul doesn’t seem to agree with this new intruder (Jesus) and how the Holy Spirit keeps trying to change your standards and your lifestyle.
The soul wants to remain physical and carnal. Your soul wants to keep eating and indulging in the familiar garbage.
Understand your Humanity
In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do.
Romans 7:17-19
So because none of us dropped directly from heaven and we were born into sin, this was a lifestyle for us before Jesus came to the rescue. And because it takes two to tango, you must teach your heart and mind to recognize the new director of your life. You must show your humanity who’s boss.
It’s the reason why we still discover things like envy, lust, malice, anger, lasciviousness, bitterness, and all kinds of garbage in our hearts.
Even after getting born again!
In order to hear God's voice, we must be willing to put our flesh under and focus on our spirits.
This is why you might find yourself enjoying some secret sins. One minute you feel spiritual in God's presence as you worship him. But the next minute you don't hesitate to curse someone or yell expletives at them.
For God’s voice to get clearer and louder, you must keep mortifying the flesh through the help of the Spirit.
For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Romans 8:13
Battling conflicts within
Because your soul was ruled by darkness since Adam’s fall, your mind refuses to comprehend that power has changed hands. There's a war waging between darkness and light inside you and you must overcome evil with good.-Romans 12:21
But this can only be done through the help of the Holy Spirit.
The HolySpirit wants to educate your soul about the New Man in Town. But you have to play your part by feeding on the Knowledge of God’s word to let your soul know the new deal; That you belong to Christ now, that you have a new beloved whom you love to please.
You’re betrothed to Jesus and you cannot afford to be cheating on your beloved.
Do you remember Lily from the beginning of the Discerning God series?
Fasting helps us discern God’s voice
Fasting doesn’t change God, it changes us. There was a time I felt fasting would endow me with power till I learned fasting helps me put my flesh under. Sometimes, the reason why we struggle with hearing God is because our soul is so loud: with self and with the affairs of the world. Our physical bodies are also too ‘comfortable’. Pleasure and comfort has a way of deafening us (because the flesh is being fed, sometimes at the expense of the spirit. You just need to look at our world today to see the evidence playing out, but starve your flesh and you’ll be able to hear God clearer.
Fasting isn’t restricted to food alone but even movies, social media and anything you sense the Lord asking you to stay away from at the moment.
I noticed that the days I fast, I hear God easily compared to days when I’m just stuffing food in.
Perhaps you’re facing difficulties hearing God, you can start by taking time out to fast and pray for a while about that situation.
Until next time!