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Listen Up

    Is Jesus talking to you? I hear many people wonder how to hear God's voice and what to listen for. I want to offer a bit of wisdom on the topic. If you are wondering if God is talking to you, the answer is yes. We were designed to have a relationship with our creator and He is always there trying to get ahold of you if you'll only pay a little attention.

    How does God communicate with us? The first way is through His word. Those are direct words from God Himself, written through His people. The Bible is our instruction manual to life. Whatever difficulty we may be facing, there is always an answer in scripture. God, having known every need before we ever needed it, has already provided an answer.

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness (ESV)

    The second way God communicates with us is by talking directly to us. Just like Adam and Eve spoke to God in the garden before their fall, He communicates directly with us through Jesus and His Holy Spirit. The fact that Adam and Eve physically spoke with God, proves that it was always His intention for us to have that kind of intimate relationship with Him. It was their sin that put the separation between us and Him, but His son who came to bridge the gap and again make that kind of relationship possible for us all.

Genesis 3:8-10 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." (ESV)

    Obviously, this direct contact with God looks different now than it did for Adam and Eve. We do not get to speak to His physical presence. Instead, He speaks to us through the Holy Spirit. When we choose Jesus, our spirit is "born again" and reconnected to Him. After that point, He lives inside of us. He speaks to our spirit and it is our job to listen. We can listen and act on our flesh or our spirit. How do we know what voice is speaking to us? By checking if it aligns with scripture.

Galatians 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. (ESV)

Galatians 5:25 if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit (ESV)

Romans 8:16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (ESV)

     The final way Jesus speaks to us is through other spirit-filled believers. He uses His spirit in those around us to speak truth to us directly. The gifts of His spirit include supernatural insight into the lives of others when He chooses to reveal it. This gives us a very direct message from God, granted the giver of the message has received it properly.

1 Corinthians 12:4-11 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. (ESV)

John 16:12-15 I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (ESV)
Matthew 10:20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. (ESV)

    If you think that Jesus is speaking to you directly, through others, or even through the messages that you hear through leaders of a church, make sure that you can back it up with scripture. Ask them to show you in scripture and make sure that it testifies with your spirit. Jesus will never contradict Himself. Test everything and listen closely to hear that still, small voice that is Jesus speaking to you. 

1 Thessalonians 5:21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. (ESV)

1 John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (NIV)

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