Learning to recognize the voice of God speaking to me takes practice, but it really isn’t rocket science. As I learn to pay attention to the ways that God brings things to my awareness through His word, my thoughts and circumstances I become more in tune with just how active God is in communicating with me on a regular basis. How awesome that the God of the universe takes time to speak to me!
I have become aware of the Holy Spirit speaking through ideas that I recognize as not being part of my normal train of thought. If you are like me, you may find yourself trying to rationalize what you are hearing. How can I be sure that is God? What if that is just my own self speaking and masquerading as the Holy Spirit? What if it isn’t God at all and I act on it? I have learned that the best way to evaluate these thoughts is to consider: What’s my heart condition in this case? Hard question.
At the core of obeying God is not the perfection of the task, but the perfecting of my heart. Yes, God wants you and me to obey when He speaks, but we tend to think of obedience as simply an action. The action becomes obedience when it is the outworking of an inward desire to please God above all else. This is the really tricky part. In our performance-oriented, productivity-driven society we run the risk of making obedience an item to check off on our task list. But obedience is less about what we do and more about why we do it.
Is my heart purely pointed toward loving God by loving others? Only the Holy Spirit can make that clear to me. You and I are not capable of discerning our own motivations objectively. I may think that my motivation is purely to please God, but if I allow Him, the Holy Spirit might make me aware that the desire to please others may take a higher priority than I like to think. Or maybe I’ve convinced myself that I want to please God, but find that pleasing myself is really at the root of an idea. I have had those moments with God as I bring a situation before Him. Ouch!
Obedience is a heart condition more than it is an objective to be accomplished. Part of learning to hear God is learning to recognize when the Holy Spirt wants to reveal ourselves to ourselves. How incredibly wonderful that the God who knows you and me intimately cares enough to point out the attitudes that need to change so that our objective can truly be God’s glory above all else!
Key Thought: Obedience is a heart condition more than it is an objective to be accomplished.
A Scripture to Consider:
God, see what is in my heart. Know what is there. Test me. Know what I’m thinking. See if there’s anything in my life you don’t like. Help me live in the way that is always right. Psalm 139: 23-24 NIRV
A YES Challenge: Take some time, and some courage, to bring your heart before the Lord.
Prayer:
Father, You know me better than I know myself. I really do want to obey You with pure motivation, but it is hard for me to discern myself. I ask You to help me know myself better. Show me what I need to see so that I can allow You to transform me into the person You desire me to be. I love you, Lord. Amen.