Listening to the Voice of GodSample

Day 7 –  HOW TO HEAR GOD’S VOICE.

Hearing God’s voice is simple, you just have to tune in to the correct channel.

REFLECTIONS :

Read 1 Samuel 3:1-10 and Numbers 22:12 and 19-35 and take a moment to answer the following questions: 

➤ What is the attitude and heart of young Samuel? What does this teach us for our lives today?

➤ Reading this passage about Balaam, it can appear that God changed His mind, and yet that isn’t the case. Why this u-turn and what is the heart attitude of Balaam? 

CONTENT :

A few years ago I installed an antenna on my roof so that I would be able to access certain TV programs. It taught me an important lesson, mainly that it is not enough to fix the antenna and link it up with my television by the means of a special box. It was just as necessary for the antenna to be perfectly aligned with a specific satellite. If hearing God’s voice is simple, it does still imply some important adjustments in our own lives. 

First of all, we have to want God to speak to us when we put ourselves at His service, just like the life of Samuel was set apart to serve God. In the same way, when we have chosen to make Jesus our Lord and Saviour, it is not to inherit eternal life, but above all, it is to live in a relationship with God. Hearing His voice is the basis of the relationship and we need to cultivate this desire to hear Him in our lives. 

Not only that, we need to have the correct elements to hear Him, that is, not only to want to hear Him, but to also have a heart that is attentive and centered on Him, and not on our desires and our will. When Balaam sought God, the instructions were clear (you will not go). Yet, because of his own wishes and desires, he didn’t hold firmly onto what God had told him and he went back to God, just in case He had changed His mind. God tolerated that he left but He was opposed and wanted to kill him because of his disobedience. Balaam’s heart wasn’t to obey God but to do his own will. We need to be vigilant not to want to listen to God to hear what we want to do, but to listen to what God wants to tell us!

Another important key to hearing God is to accept to stay simple, or at least become simple once more. I remember the time when my children were under 10 years old. Regularly when it was bedtime I told them that we were going to listen to God. And so, in a simple way, I was telling them, “We are going to ask God to speak to us and then, for a few moments we are going to be content to open our hearts without speaking and wait for Him to speak to us”. And every time when I then asked them what they had received, they shared with me that they had heard something that for sure came from God. It wasn’t anything extraordinary, but simple and practical things to do with our daily lives, and always encouraging. God lives to speak to us so much and sometimes we have a tendency to want to hear big things, which prevents us from hearing the simple and practical things that He wants to tell us in regards to our daily lives. And it’s not being too spiritual to know how to listen to God for the details of our lives. He knows the number of hairs on our heads (cf. Matthew 10:30) and He wants to speak to us. 

Let us always remember that dialogue is the foundation of all healthy relationships and that God has created and saved us so that we live in an intimate and profound relationship with Him. Let’s, therefore, dare to become simple once again.

This simplicity is a question of heart and availability. Samuel didn’t question himself, he had never heard God, but yet he naturally made himself available to God by saying to Him, “Speak, your servant is listening…” (cf. 1 Samuel 3:10). Let us also have this same simplicity of faith that allows us to look towards God by regularly saying to Him throughout our day, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening…” and then open up your hearts because He will speak to us!

MY DECISION:

➤ What I have understood for my own personal life: 

➤ What I am deciding to do in my life based upon what I have just learned: 

➤ What you decide to do today will determine who and what you will be tomorrow!

Adapted from "un disciple en marche" copyright 2018 by Luc Favre, published by Vie Victorieuse. All rights reserved. Available at www.vievictorieuse.org