KNOWING GOD IS HEARING AND OBEYING HIS VOICE

Are you intimately connected with God? Do you experience him and hear his voice daily? To have a relationship with God, a person must believe that he exists. Also, a person must be willing to have Jesus be the Lord (master and complete source) of their life. This is why the Scripture says, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 The Lordship of Christ separates those who truly become children of God and those who only say a prayer. Many churchgoers have become bewildered because they hear about God in church but don’t genuinely experience him. To have a real relationship with God, a person must surrender to Jesus Christ being the Lord of their life. Christianity cannot be added to a person’s life. True Christianity can only be experienced when it is your life! If Jesus is not the Lord of a person’s life, then they are still the Lord of their own life and, therefore, live bound to the law of performance (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil).

What does it mean for Jesus to be the Lord of your life? It means that he is not only the master and ruler of all that you do, but he is your complete answer to everything that you need. This means that he is your right standing with God and the answer to your need for love, mercy, grace, healing, deliverance, provision, etc. A person who has truly surrendered to Jesus as the Lord (complete answer and source) of their life becomes a child of God and begins to hear His voice.

John 10:1-5 “I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. 3 The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”

One of the reasons people don’t recognize God’s voice is because they have not chosen in advance to obey what he will tell them.

John 7:17 If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.

This is why the apostle James said, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.” James 1:23-25

Those who have made Jesus the Lord of their life will hear his voice. When you hear his voice, it is of utmost importance that you obey what he’s telling you to do. God’s ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts above our thoughts. Isa 55:9 What he has planned for you is more wonderful and more exciting than you have ever dreamed! Jer 29:11 This is why Jesus declared, “If you hold tightly to my teaching, then you are truly my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:31-32

The amazing life God has planned for you is accessed when he is the Lord of your life and when you have chosen to obey whatever he tells you! The old song says, “Trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” Those who experience the abundant life of Jesus came to give us are those who understand that…

KNOWING GOD IS HEARING AND OBEYING HIS VOICE