HEARING AND SPEAKING TO JESUS
One of our partners is a Doctor of Psychology. So, obviously, our man knows people. In our weekly meeting, He suggested that we do a teaching about what it means to hear the voice of Jesus and to speak to Him, as some of our readers may not understand when we write about doing so. That, I thought, was an outstanding suggestion.
Once, a “believer” told me never to say: “Jesus told me this, or Jesus told me that,” because people would think I am crazy. This man was just unfamiliar with Jesus’s teachings on this subject.
So, here are the Words of Jesus:
The doorkeeper (Holy Spirit)opens the gate for this man (Jesus), and the sheep hear His voice and pay attention to it.
(John 10:3)
Holy Spirit opened the gate for Jesus to begin His ministry and lead His sheep when He was baptized to fulfill the Hebrew law, and Holy Spirit descended on Him as a dove. He was thirty years old. This is the point at which Jesus was anointed and became the “Christ,” which He was for three years. After His mission as the Christ, Jesus became the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
“After Jesus was baptized, He came up immediately out of the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he John the baptist saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Jesus and pay attention, a voice from heaven said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased and delighted!”
(Matthew 3:13-17)
Now we have the Word of Jesus that He knows His sheep, and He calls us by our names. How cool is that? The Creator of all things speaks to you personally to the point of calling you by your name.
“And knowing that they listen, He calls his sheep by name and leads them out to pasture. When He has brought all His sheep outside, He walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow Him because they know His voice and recognize His call. They will never follow a stranger but will run away from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.“
(John 10:4)
Think about David’s Holy Spirit-dictated prophetic confession:
“The Lord Is My Shepherd! I shall NOT want!
(I will never need or lack anything)
He makes me lie down in fresh tender green pastures.
(There is nothing more prosperous for a sheep than a green pasture.)
He leads me beside still waters.”
(Jesus knows that we like sheep, are fretty and easily frightened. Loud noises like rushing waters scare the sheep. So when we allow Him to lead us, we have nothing to fear)
(Psalm 23:1-3)
When we believe and believe in Jesus, He becomes our GOOD Shepherd.
“I AM the GOOD Shepherd. The GOOD Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. I AM the GOOD Shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me and have a deep, personal relationship with Me— even as the Father knows Me, and I know the Father—and I lay down My life sacrificing it for the benefit of the sheep.”
(John 10:11-15)
The Good Shepherd loves you so much just the way you are that He died the most brutal, horrid death any human ever has or ever will, just for you without regard for your sins. In fact, to pay for all of your sins past, present, and future. That is how much He loves you personally.
This is how Holy Spirit described the Love that God has for us as individuals personally, to our teacher, Paul:
“But God shows and clearly proves His love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us!”
(Romans 5:8)
Jesus does not care about our sins. He paid for them once and for all and put them out of His memory. All Jesus asks is that we believe in and believe Him. That is how much He loves you and me. Therefore, knowing how Jesus feels about us is essential when trying to hear Him. ( John 6:28-29, Psalms 103:1-3 and 12, John 1:29, 1Peter2:24, Hebrews 8:10-12, Hebrews 10:10-18)
When He wore His earth suit, Jesus told us many times that He hears us. The scriptures are too many to list. So how do we hear Him? The key to knowing the voice of Jesus is to know Him. Once we know the nature and character of Jesus, hearing His voice is easy. That comes from eating His flesh.
Eating His flesh means consuming His Words (if you don’t know Jesus start reading His Words beginning with John Chapter One verse one.) and making them the most important thing in our lives. When you know what He said, it is easy to hear what He says.
KEYS TO HEARING THE VOICE OF JESUS:
Believe: Believe that Jesus cares about you and wants to listen to you and talk to you. Make Him your best friend. Share your innermost thoughts with Him. Believe that He wants to hear from you because He cherishes you because you are His glorious inheritance; you are what He wants more than anything. If you have to, use your imagination.
Practice: Tune out the world. Get in a quiet place and Tune in Jesus. The more you listen, The more you will hear. Nothing you hear from the world is more important than the Words you will hear from Jesus.
Focus: Think only about Jesus and how much He loves you. Start by praising Him and thanking Him, then be silent and listen. Concentrate on the only One who loves you without conditions or qualifications so much that He purchased you with His blood.
Listen: My mentor, inspiration, and dear friend Pastor Dwight Keith used to say that WSB radio is on the air twenty-four hours a day, but you have to tune it in to hear it. So it is with Jesus.
How do people hear Jesus?
Most people hear Jesus as the still, quiet voice in their minds. It is a voice they know says things that their flesh mind does not. For example, an aggressive person with a lead foot and a big ego does everything, including risking lives to prevent a person from passing him. The voice of Jesus is the one telling him to slow down and let the other person pass. The voice of his flesh is telling him to die before that happens. A thief is about to steal. The voice he hears telling him not to do it is the voice of Jesus. A woman is about to gossip about her neighbor and back bite her. The voice she hears telling her not to do it is the voice of Jesus.
The voice of Jesus is always positive and never negative; it is loving, kind, merciful, generous, compassionate, and always encouraging. It is never negative.
Some people actually hear the audible voice of Jesus. For example, a woman in my life struggling with accepting a direction from God was awakened in the middle of the night by the loud sound of a male voice shouting, “I AM!” She asked me who I AM is. She was unaware that I AM is the name God told Moses to call Him and the name of Jesus. That same voice also spoke to her in the night one other time.
Some people hear the voice of Jesus when His Words are read or spoken either by themselves or by a teacher or someone else.
Others still listen quietly for direction from Jesus and remain still until they “know that they Know” what the right thing to do is.
The greatest blessing in my life is to block out the world and listen to Jesus. It takes practice, but the more I do it the more He teaches me and the more blessed my life is.
“The sheep that are My own hear and are listening to My voice and I know them and they follow Me!”
(John 10:27)
How do you hear the voice of Jesus?
