A Surprising Voice

Anyone serious about learning to listen for the voice of God in their prayer time will want to pray for a discerning spirit.  As we get into the silence where the voice of God is heard, we will find that there are many voices vying to be heard.  One of the difficulties we face is figuring out who is speaking.  One voice we may hear is our own.  We may find that we have some notions about what we would like to hear from God and upon hearing it, we are ready to let it be His.  

One of the hard things for many of us is turning loose of what we want God to say to us instead of listening for what He wants to say to us.   It is also possible that we will hear the deceiving voice of the evil one in the midst of our praying.  After His baptism the gospel writers tell us about Jesus fasting in the wilderness forty days and forty nights.  During that time of solitude and silence, Jesus had an ongoing conversation with Satan.  Satan spoke to Jesus in the silence about ways He could accomplish the Father's goals without Jesus going to the cross. We should not be surprised to hear the voice of the evil one tempting us to do some legitimate and good thing for the wrong reason.   

The bottom line is that listening takes some practice.  To hear the voice of the Lord in the innermost part of our being will require a time of discerning whose voice we are actually hearing.  What we can know is that God will speak no word to us which is incompatible with the sacred Word, or our experience with the Spirit of Jesus.  His Word will never take us away from the hard words of the Kingdom nor away from the road of the cross.  If the word we hear leads us toward an easier way than the way of the cross, we need beware,