Listening to God

²⁵Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, ²⁶but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. ²⁷My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

The verses above are from John 10: 25-27. These verses have perplexed me for some time. Ever since I professed my faith in Jesus Christ, I was troubled by this verse. Why, you may ask? Because I do not audibly hear the voice of God. Based on the v.27 above, I thought that if I do not hear audibly the voice of God, I was not truly saved.

As a result, I asked around and talked to many Christians. The summary I got was this: very rarely do people hear audibly the voice of God but God uses the Holy Spirit to impress/prompt us. As I continued on in the faith, people told me to be still and listen to the ‘still small voice’.

I was not satisfied with those answers, especially the still small voice answer (sounds fishy to me..and I have not heard that small voice). I was ok with the prompting of the Holy Spirit part, as I have experienced it before and I knew it was from the Holy Spirit because of the unusual sense of calm that came with it.

But I was not satisfied because I still do not hear the voice of God per se. So, I just stuck with the prompting of the Holy Spirit thing. Until recently, as I watching a video on youtube and the guy read out this verse. After reading, he moved on to some other topic. Then it hit me. Suddenly. After all these years, I finally understand what it means to listen to the voice of God. And I don’t mean listening to someone on youtube read bible verses to me.

I have listened to the voice of God all these years without realizing it. Since they day I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior until today, God has been speaking to me. How? Through the Holy Scriptures a.k.a the Bible! The Bible; God’s own words written down in paper and ink. In the past, God spoke through the prophets and the apostles and inspired their words through the Holy Spirit and they recorded it down. Now, every sensible Christian knows the Bible is complete, nothing is added or taken away from it. The canon is closed. Everything that we need to know from God is recorded down, hence the concept of the sufficiency of Scripture.

Because I belong to God, I take to heart what is written in the Scriptures and obey it. By doing that, I am already listening to what God is saying to me. Unbelievers will scoff at the words written in the Bible; they are mere words to them, meaningless. “Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.”

For me, ever since I was justified in Christ, I take to heart what was written in the Scriptures and I try to obey them in my life. I don’t mean to sound as if I am some holy dude. I am just stating what I am doing. Now, I am comforted and relieved because 1) I know I am part of God’s flock and 2) I hear the voice of God. I no longer have to search for some ‘still small voice’. God is screaming at me from the pages of Scripture itself.

Soli Deo Gloria! Sola Scriptura!

Ian