Hear and Obey God's Voice

If you want God’s best, learn to hear and obey God’s voice.

First of all, I want to emphasize that this is not something that comes to us naturally. I would have to say, in a certain sense, the old Adamic nature is born deaf to the voice of God. It’s not natural for the old Adam, the old carnal nature, to hear God’s voice. It’s something that has to be learned. It’s something that has to be cultivated, and cultivated with care.

So I’m suggesting to you that if you want God’s best, you’re going to have to cultivate hearing God’s voice. And the world today is full of innumerable voices that blast us, that crowd in upon us, that demand our attention. And yet, in the midst of it all, there’s that still small voice of God, which has endless wisdom, endless authority, and which is the key to our well-being.

I want to suggest to you that there’s tremendous motivation revealed in scripture for cultivating the ability to hear the voice of God. The success of our relationship to God and our walk with Him depends on this, that is, hearing His voice. I would like to give a few specific examples.

First of all, in the matter of receiving from God healing and health. Without any question, the scripture makes it clear the key is the ability to hear God’s voice. This is brought out so clearly in

“Exodus 15:26,” where Moses is speaking to the children of Israel, and he says this, “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God.” The Hebrew says, “If hearing you hear the voice of the Lord your God.” That’s a Hebraism, a very emphatic form. “If you listen with the most tremendous care to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”

So God offers to be your personal physician, but the basic condition is if you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord.

And then further on in the Old Testament, in the book of

“Deuteronomy,” Moses reveals that the key to all God’s blessings is hearing and obeying His voice. In “Deuteronomy 28:1-2,” he says this, “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.” But the Hebrew is the same, “If hearing you hear the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you on high above all nations of the earth. All these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God.”

Notice, twice Moses says the key condition is hearing and obeying the voice of God. And he says, “If you do that, all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you.” You do not need to pursue the blessings. The blessings will pursue you if you cultivate hearing the voice of God.

On the other hand, in the same chapter, “Deuteronomy chapter 28,” a little further on, in

“verse 15,” he warns that if we fail to hear the voice of the Lord our God, it’ll be the exact opposite. Instead of blessings, it will be curses. “Deuteronomy 28:15,” “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.”

So failure to hear and obey the voice of the Lord brings upon us all the curses. Hearing and obeying brings all the blessings. So that’s the watershed between blessing and cursing. It’s either hearing and obeying the voice of the Lord or failing to hear and obey the voice of the Lord.

And then further on in

“Jeremiah chapter 7:22-23,” the Lord lays this down as the key condition for being His people. He says to Israel, “I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people.’”

God says the ordinances of the law relating to the temple and the priesthood and the sacrifices are secondary. He said, “The first thing that I required of you when I brought you out of Egypt was not sacrifices or offering, or a lot of legal requirements, but I required of you to hear and obey My voice.” And by implication, what He’s saying is, the sacrifices are good if they proceed out of hearing My voice. But if you merely offer sacrifices without hearing My voice, that does not qualify you to be My people. You will be My people if you hear and obey My voice. That’s about the shortest statement I know of in the scripture about what it is to be God’s people. “Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people.”

Now, this doesn’t change in the New Testament. In the New Testament, the condition for belonging to Jesus Christ is just the same. Jesus states it very simply in

“John chapter 10:27,” “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”

Who are My sheep? They’re the people of Jesus. They’re not necessarily Catholics, or Protestants, or Baptists, or Methodists, or whatever. The people that belong to Jesus are the people who hear His voice and follow Him. And if you don’t hear His voice, you cannot follow Him. That’s always the mark of God’s true people, hearing His voice.