“For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk in it, when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, Be gone!”

Isaiah 30:19-22

There is a lot of prophetic content in this passage and the text surrounding it, but I would like us to focus today on a promise that I believe is for all of God’s people at all times: if we strive to listen to the voice of the Lord and hear His decree in our spirits, He will be gracious and give us the knowledge and the strength we need to walk in His ways and in the destiny He has for our lives.

Last time in this series, I shared my testimony of God’s grace and mercy in my life and how God oriented me in the right direction to step forward into the journey He created for me. It is a process that is still ongoing, but the point I must emphasize above all others is that this process can only work to its fullest potential when two conditions are met: God speaks to you, and you are willing to humble yourself and receive what He shows you.

The first condition is of far less concern than the second, because the greatest revelation I’ve discovered in my short life is that God is speaking all the time! When we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and He sends the Father’s promise of the Holy Spirit to indwell in our bodies and souls, we gain access to a treasure trove of divine knowledge, insight, and wisdom — far above anything the world has to offer. If we are having trouble hearing from Him, perhaps we’re just not tuned into His spiritual frequency. Or, in many cases, we are receiving communication but we don’t know how to interpret it. In Luke 12:54-55, Jesus expressed it like this:

“When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, A shower is coming. And so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, There will be scorching heat, and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”

The very manifestation of the Son of God had come working miracles, signs, and wonders and preaching the Good News to a lost generation, and yet many people completely missed the boat and were unable to discern what was happening all around them. And so it is even with us today: we see God working all around us, we see His handiwork in our very lives, and we miss it. Perhaps we’re too focused on our own needs, our own desires. Perhaps we have plans that we aren’t willing to submit to God’s authority. James says it best in chapter 4 starting at verse 13:

“Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit — yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

Let’s unpack this for a moment, because I think there is something very telling in James’ example. I am probably safe in saying that everybody has a very detailed idea of what they expect to do in life. Some people even have names, dates, and places all mapped out in their heads. Such dreaming is not without its usefulness, but the danger lies in expecting our imaginations to dictate reality. Only God has the power to do that. Jill Austin warns of living in a self-made fantasy world and missing out on the true destiny that God has which always starts wherever you are right now on your life’s journey.

James warns of such foolishness. We are only to move forward in God’s will. We can make plans, but only if the Lord wills it do we accomplish it with His favor and blessing. To do otherwise is arrogance and conceit and will only come to an evil end. I find the end of this passage of James’ very interesting: “whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” That begs the question: how do we know what the right thing is to do? How do we know what God’s will is? How do we know we’re walking forward in His plan and His timing?

Again, if we take it as a given that God is always speaking, yet we can’t hear Him, then something is wrong on our end. Jesus says that His sheep hear His voice and follow Him. We are very precious to our God, and Jesus reminds us that He will leave the nighty-nine sheep safely penned up to go pursue the hundredth sheep who has strayed. So He is coming after us, hard. What should our response be?

There are three sources of information feeding into you at all times. The first is the devil and the evil kingdoms of the world. These voices are loud, persistent, and never let up. Every time you turn on the TV, read the paper, surf the Internet, or just chat with people not walking with God, you are inputting this sickly information stream. You can’t get rid of it, for God told us to go out into the world to be His hands and feet and to be the salt of the earth. But as soon as you forget these voices are to be kept at a safe distance, you are in trouble.

The second source of information is your own voice. I talk to myself all the time, and I know for a fact that I can logically rationalize almost any behavior I care to. I can easily fool myself into believing everything’s cool when it’s not. Conversely, I can fool myself into believing that God is mad at me and I’m a bad boy when in fact God loves me and thinks I rock. Really, my own voice can’t be trusted — unless I submit to the authority of the Holy Spirit.

Which brings me to the third source of information: the Holy Spirit! When we are born again and receive the Holy Spirit, we have a direct RSS feed from Heaven’s throne room, and we can send e-mail to god@heaven.eternity at any time we choose. And guess what? He actually answers! I have an inbox full of messages that have given me strength, solace, knowledge, and a heart of love that I never could have conjured up in my own power. I honestly don’t know how anyone can live the Christian life without apprehending this incredible connection we have with the Spirit of God that gives us everything we need in order to follow in the footsteps of Jesus!

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 18:1-4

Children are utterly dependent on their parents for protection, nourishment, instruction, and loving guidance. Children know that when danger looms, the refuge of the open arms of their fathers and mothers is the place to be. And so it is with our Heavenly Father! We must not listen to the voices of others but only the Father’s Voice which speaks to us and equips us to set forth on the adventure of a lifetime. God gives us protection, God nourishes our bodies and refreshes our souls, God gives us lawful instruction and wise counsel. Only if we humble ourselves, like a little child, will we be exalted and live forever in glory in the Kingdom of Heaven. What an awesome promise!

In part 5 of this series, I will elaborate a bit on how we can “dial in” the right frequency to hear God’s voice and not any other. Blessings be upon you! See you then!