Help in Knowing God's Voice

Jesus said, "My sheep know my voice." He did not say, "My lambs know my voice." You can be unsure about God's voice. You can even be deceived into thinking the voices of "hired hands" (self-professed leaders) or the wolf (Satan) is God. Those things don't have to mean you are not saved, they can mean you are a lamb. Jesus does not condemn you or reject you for being a lamb.

Scripture says 7 times, “Whoever trusts in God will never be put to shame.” Shame means disgrace. It is literally the opposite of grace. God will never make you feel shame or guilt. (By guilt I mean guilt that is self-centered. It lacks compassion, empathy, sympathy, & love for whoever you harmed. It has self-pity.) Scripture also says that Satan is the accuser of God's family. Both accuse & convict mean "to charge someone with guilt." They are both synonyms for condemn. Remember scripture says, "There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." If you feel accused, convicted, or condemned it is not from God.

Learning His Voice by Seeing How God Tells Us to Talk to One Another
I believe that God will not command us to do good things that He Himself does not do for us. So I have taken some scriptures that tell people how to speak to one another (other scriptures also) and extracted how God speaks to us.

God's voice is honest, kind, compassionate, encouraging, beneficial, helpful, humble, gentle, gracious, grateful, joyous, & delightful.
God speaks love, favor, affection, encouragement, wisdom, grace, life, fulfilment, nourishment, giving, guidance, direction, blessings, sweetness, & good will.
God tells us of Jesus, His good news, His desires, His trustworthiness, Jesus's resurrection, & His love for us.
God's voice is free from anger, wrath, shame, condemnation, accusation, arrogance, complaint, fault finding, abuse, grumbling, self-centered flattery, contention, harassment, impurity, bitterness, ill-will, desire to hurt you, falsehood, mudslinging towards others, & deceit.

He wants you to know, feel, & experience His love for you more.
He seeks to love you, benefit you, build you up, & teach you.
He makes the most out of what he says to you. He knows exactly how to respond to you.
He stirs us to love one another & do good things for one another.
He does not lower one person to raise another.
He speaks from His heart.

The Lord God says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love. I draw you to myself with lovingkindness."
(Jeremiah 31:3)

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Good Hearts with Good Ears

"Much of Christian "evangelism" uses guilt and fear, it brings people into a state of apprehension through intimidation and fear. The belief systems that are most likely to mislead you ridicule reason & good judgement, man's mind is not celebrated as part of good judgment and a gift to be used." -Carol Forsloff

These quotes remind me of all the teachings that tell you that you can't trust yourself/your heart, that you have to be an academic expert to hear from God or to understand the bible. Particularly it reminds me of the abuse of the old testament scripture, Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"

Hebrews 10:22 says, "Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in the assurance that trust brings, because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience." Our hearts are clean. We do not have the deceitfully wicked heart mentioned in Jeremiah 17:9. We have the Spirit of God in our hearts. Our hearts are, as Luke 8:15 says, "good and noble." The Christian heart is not deceitfully wicked! God has already created a clean heart in those who trust in Him.

God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, who cries “Abba! Father!” (Philippians 4:6)
The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:5)

When Christians are taught that they have wicked hearts that cannot be trusted they will reject the voice of God for the voices of deceived or deceitful men, false doctrines, guilt, shame, & fear. God has poured His love into our hearts! Think about that. The self-affirming voice that religion calls pride is often the voice of God loving our hearts. The heart of every Christian cries out “Abba! Father!” but because people have subjected themselves to the poisons of man-made religion (sermons, pastors, churches) they don't trust their hearts because their hearts are demonized as if the Spirit of God had never came into them. Messages that are sin conscious, that speak of Christian turning from sin, confession of sin, God convicting of sin are all things that keep your mind separated from trusting God. They cause you to live as if the cross has no power and the Spirit has no presence.

If you could trust that God can faithfully speak to your heart why would you need mediators & sermons? You wouldn't & that is why it is always the preachers who are telling you that you can't trust your heart & you have to be leery when thinking you've heard God's voice. The bible says in 1 John 2:27, "You have God's anointing & you don't need any men to teach you." Have you ever met anyone who actually believes that verse? Do you only see people running to preachers, pastors, & authors instead of God when they have questions? That is because those people believe their hearts are wicked & cannot be trusted to communicate with God. Teachers can be beneficial but God does not need men to teach you, He can do it Himself. God says, "Seek me and you will find me." It is easy to find Him. He is always with you.


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