April 16

“For God does speak - now one way, now another…” —JOB 33:14

How does God speak to us? First and foremost, He speaks to us through His Word. If we are not spending time in the Word of God, we will not know the mind of God. We may speculate about the mind of God or pick up what other people say about it, but it’s as we read the Bible ourselves and meditate on it that God reveals to us His mind and His will.

God speaks to us through the desires of our hearts – desires that are strong, consistent and persistent. We may begin to feel a pull, like a compass God places in our hearts that keeps drawing us in a certain direction. As we delight in Him, acknowledging Him in all our ways, He gives us the desires He wants for us. The pull we feel is His desire and will for us that has become our will and our desire.

God speaks to us through circumstances and experiences, especially difficult experiences in life. It may be through a conversation or an interaction with someone; maybe a sermon we’ve heard, something we’ve read, or an incident that’s taken place. God knows what will capture our attention and He’ll speak to us in a way that stirs our hearts. There are times we may think that what we’ve just heard, seen, read or even felt is coincidence, but if it’s God speaking, we can count on Him to bring it to light.

God speaks to us through our conscience. Conscience is a wonderful and powerful thing. It is a siren to the soul. As Paul says in the Book of Romans, it is the voice of God within us, and that voice enables us to keep on track. When we have sidetracked from God’s ways, Isaiah 30:21 tells us, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, you’ll hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way. Walk in it’.” The voice is behind us because we can live for years making all the right moves with no need for conscious confirmation of guidance from God. But, once we make a wrong move, the Spirit of God will, in some way, pull us back on track.

How God speaks to us varies for everyone, but as we keep growing and maturing in an intimate relationship with Him, we’ll come to recognize His voice until there’s little chance of mistaking it.

PRAYER: Dear Heavenly Father, open my eyes, my ears and my heart to hear every word You have to say to me. Keep me in an ever deepening relationship with You so that I may always hear your voice. Thank You, Lord.

TO REFLECT UPON: How perceptive do I think I am in discerning God’s voice. Do I make a practice of listening for it?