the Voice of God

One of the most essential things we must do to sustain our life as a believer and follower of Jesus Christ is to hear and obey the voice of God. I read an excerpt from Oswald Chambers and Jeremiah this morning that talks about this.

"When conscience has been enlightened by the Son of God being formed in me, I have to make an effort to keep my conscience so sensitive that I obey that which I perceive to be God’s will. I have to be so keen in the scent of the Lord, so sensitive to the tiniest touch of His Spirit, that I know what I should do. If I keep my soul inwardly open to God, then when I come in contact with the affairs of life outside, I know immediately what I should do; if I do not, I am to blame. I should be living in such perfect sensitiveness to God, in such perfect sympathy with His Son that in every circumstance I am in, the spirit of my mind is renewed, and I prove, i.e. make out, what is God’s will, the thing that is good, and acceptable, and perfect." - Oswald Chambers (Our Brilliant Heritage)

Also, Jer. 42 tells us that if we come to God seeking direction, He will give it, but we must be obedient to His voice. Often we seek the Lord to justify our own will and validate what we already have in mind to do. This happens when we allow our own will and the will of others to take precedence in our life and those voices become stronger and have more influence over our actions. God told the remnant in Judah, that if they stayed in their land, He would build them up and plant them there and they would not die. They had an ulterior motive in seeking the Lord though because they wanted to go to Egypt where there was no famine and hardship, but God said if they did, the famine would follow them and they would die by the sword. Our own self seeks to preserve itself and find a way out of difficulty, but we must always die to our way and openly seek the voice of the Lord that we may hear and obey and live. Instead of giving our self and the world a voice in our heart, we have to train our self with the help of the Holy Spirit to become more and more sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Only then, as Oswald Chambers says, will be be able to immediately know what to do and the will of God will be proved to be good, acceptable, and perfect in our lives.

God is speaking to His people and we need to hear now more than ever what He has always been speaking to us. Hear and obey.

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