“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” John 10:27……………
Sometimes we’re convinced we’ve heard from God – and we haven’t. We think we know His will – but we don’t. We believe He’s told us something – but He hasn’t. We feel He’s sending us in one direction – but He’s not. We sense He’s leading us to something, or someone – but He’s not. We just know that we know He’s telling us to let something, or someone, go – but He’s not. You get the point. We believe God has said something to us – even though He hasn’t. How does this happen, how can we figure this out, and what do we do?
It happens because no matter how much we believe in Jesus as Lord and faithfully follow Him, no matter how much we love Him and want to know His will and please Him by obeying Him, we’re imperfect human beings and make mistakes. Yes, even in hearing God. And this can happen simply by mistake, or because we get confused when other voices are shouting at us like the voice of this world, of our flesh, and of the devil. Or because we don’t yet know how to really hear from Him. Or for any other reason for that matter.
How can we figure out that God hasn’t told us what we believe He told us? The number one way is to check what we believe we hear from Him against the Bible because He NEVER speaks anything that does not line up with what He tells and teaches us in His Word. Spending time with Him daily studying His Word, getting to know Him, praying and seeking Him, praising and adoring Him, worshiping and hearing Him, growing closer to Him, choosing to obey Him in all things, all of this helps us to learn to recognize the voice of the Lord. And all of this helps us to learn how to recognize what is NOT the voice of the Lord. We can also figure out that God hasn’t told us what we believe He told us by reaching out to other Christ followers who are strongly immersed in God’s Word and in His Body of believers. We can ask them for godly counsel. We can ask them for help in discerning His voice as He speaks personally to our hearts concerning our individual everyday lives.
When we discover what we believe the Lord told us is NOT from the Lord, that we have not heard His voice, then there’s one absolute we must do in response. Receive God’s correction, repent of anything we’ve done contrary to His will as a result of not hearing Him, and get back on course. Seeking Him, hearing Him, obeying Him. And always, yes, always, steadfastly, diligently, devotedly, spending time with Him daily most importantly in His Word with His Spirit who lives inside His followers teaching and instructing us, changing and growing us, as we seek Him, seek to follow Him, and seek to hear Him speak to us as His Spirit guides us forward in our journey following Jesus who is Lord!