Careful Listening

1 Peter 5:8 - Stay alert!  Watch out for your great enemy, the devil.  He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

The enemy is always looking for ways to trip us up and keep us apart from God and His great plan for us.  It is up to us to be careful and discerning so that we don't fall into his trap.

On a radio program recently, a caller had been struggling with alcoholism.  She said that sometimes she felt a still voice inside her convicting her of her sin and encouraging her to turn away from it.  But she didn't know if that voice was from God or from the enemy.  The program host pointed out that the devil will never convict us towards righteousness.  He will never encourage us to turn from our sin.

The devil likes to use shame and guilt to keep us separate from God.  Those are his weapons of choice.  We do the heavy lifting, so-to-speak, for the enemy when we sin.  Since we are all sinful by nature, the devil just uses that to help us along our path away from God.  He uses the guilt and shame to keep us blinded to the turn-off down the right path towards God and His righteousness.  He convinces us that we're not worthy, that we're not good enough to be loved by God because of our sinful ways, and other things of that nature.

If we are hearing that voice telling us that it's okay to keep drinking and to go ahead and get behind the wheel afterwards, it's not God.  If we here a voice telling us to put the bottle down, call a cab, and go home and pray, it's not the devil.  But how do we really know the difference?  The enemy is pretty crafty about deceiving us, and it's not always so black-and-white.

The best way to know when we hear God's voice, is to know Him.  Whenever you're in a relationship with someone, like a marriage, you learn about that other person, don't you?  You spend a lot of time with them, right?  You want to know all you can so that you are able to communicate effectively and not give off the wrong impression.  A relationship with Christ is not any different.  The more time we spend with God, in His word and through prayer, the better we come to know Him.  God loves spending intimate alone time with us, His bride.  That's what the whole idea behind Jesus going to the cross for us in the first place - so that we can have a deep, intimate, and personal relationship with God.

God speaks to everyone differently.  He may choose visions, dreams, prayer, Bible study.  For me personally, I feel Him speaking to me most of the time when I am in His Word.  Sometimes it feels as though He is standing over my shoulder and pointing out a piece of Scripture for me to really meditate on.  He does that so that I will know Him better.  So that when I am carefully listening to that voice, I know Who is speaking to me, and who isn't.  How awesome is our Lord and Savior to do that for us?!

Dear Father, thank You for revealing Yourself to me and to all of us, so that we can discern right from wrong.  I pray for the continued discipline and strength to spend time with You more and more every day.  I want to know You better so that I can live my life in a way that You approve and that brings You the greatest glory.  I pray for those that don't know Your voice.  My prayer is that they will take the time to get to know You, their Creator and Savior, so that they can listen carefully when they hear You speaking to them.  In Jesus' name, Amen!



God Bless!!!