As we practise listening prayer, many of us struggle with one primary concern: discerning God’s voice. What if we hear wrong? What if we think we are listening to God, but it is our own imagination or worse, the enemy?
This month, we want to try to look at discerning the voice of God from another perspective.
Have you ever considered that God’s voice has a certain tone and timbre?
Take a moment to think back on the voice of your earthly father (if you did not know your father, think of a grandfather, your mother, or another important person in your life). Do you remember what it sounded like when he was pleased, when he laughed, when he was angry? Without remembering any specific words, most of us can easily recall the sound of our father’s voice.
Our Heavenly Father’s voice also has a tone that we can recognise. The enemy may try to mimic God and speak to us, but he can never speak in the same tone as our Heavenly Father.
Another way to think of “the tone of God’s voice” is to understand that, when God is speaking, his words give us a certain feeling. Let’s look at specific examples.
Sin
When God convicts us of sin–if it is truly God’s voice we are hearing–we will feel loved even as He reveals our need to repent. His convicting voice has a tone of hope and gentleness. It compels us to repent and, when we do, we feel joy and freedom. When the enemy points out our sin, there is condemnation, shame, and hopelessness. We feel like we cannot change no matter how hard we try.
Direction
When God gives us direction, we feel a sense of peace. Even if He tells us to do something unexpected or that we have not wanted to do in the past. Likewise, if we are asking God for direction, and have no peace about a course of action, that is a good indicator that He is not telling us to do that thing.
When the direction is coming from ourselves, we feel anxious. We feel it is all up to us to do things right and make them work out. We fear failure.
The idea of hearing the tone of God’s voice may be very new to many of us. This month’s devotion takes us to scripture to consider this idea more deeply.
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