Isaiah 30:21
And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.”
It is so important to us as Christians to be able to hear and to be able understand the voice of God. You see He is constantly available and ready to give us directions for our lives; He is consistently speaking His words and His ways into our spirit.
I am convinced that most Christians hear God regularly. Now this statement may bring up an argument with you because, like me, you too have heard so many Christians talk about not being able to hear God.
I don’t believe that the problem is not hearing God; I think that it is in not understanding and recognizing that it is the voice of God that is being heard. Too often, we as Christians have not trained our ears to distinguish between the voices that we hear. The reason that I say this is because I have heard too many people say that they are hearing, but they cannot tell whether it is God, the devil or their own mind that they are hearing.
Did you know that Jesus made a remarkable statement regarding just this issue? He said that His sheep would hear His voice and that they would not follow the voice of a stranger. Now that is pretty neat to me. It is understood that I am to hear the voice of my Shepherd as clearly as if He was the only one speaking and that I can also easily recognize when the devil (the stranger) is talking.
Today, ask God to help you hear and recognize His voice. He will not chide you, to the contrary. He will be glad to teach you to hear Him. Let me also suggest that you spend more time in prayer listening for the voice of God. Familiarity makes His voice much easier to recognize, and spending time with one brings familiarity.