Hello folks. My name is Jim Evans, affectionately known as Papa Jim. I’m out of Austin, Texas, and I’m so happy to be with you today. Today I want to talk a little bit about hearing the voice of God. As a pastor and as any church leader will attest, people come up to us all the time wanting to know why they don’t hear God. Their friends hear from God, the people around them hear from God, but they don’t, and they wonder if there’s something wrong with them. Well, if you are one of those folks, I’m here to tell you there’s nothing wrong with you. As a matter of fact, God is always speaking. Always.
If you are a parent, you know, or an aunt or uncle or whatever, you know that you’ll speak to your children, and sometimes they just don’t hear you. Why? Because they’re playing with their friends, they’ve got their brand new toy, they may be watching their favorite TV show and they just don’t hear you. Why? Because they’re not attuned to your voice.
If you are trying to get a radio station and you are dialing in or tuning in right above the frequency or right below the frequency, you won’t get that station. At least you won’t get it clearly. But when you tune in directly to that frequency, your station comes through loud and clear. Well, God is something like that. God is always speaking to you. You are His child. He wants you to hear His voice, He wants to love on you, He wants to give you encouragement, He wants to give you instruction. But, we have to be tuned into Him. We can’t just come to church on Saturday or Sunday, whatever day you attend in church and say, “Hey God, I want to hear your voice,” and then the rest of the week you go by and you ignore it. It doesn’t work that way.
So I suggest this, if you really want to hear the voice of God, that you pick a time of day, maybe it be when you first wake up in the morning, maybe as you’re going to bed at night and say to God, “God, I want to hear your voice. I really do. I’m surrendered to it, and I will put aside all the cares and the worries of the world. I know the mortgage is due. It’ll be taken care of. I know that the car needs to be repaired. It will be taken care of. But right now, but this next 5, 10, 15 minutes, (whatever you set aside), I want to hear your voice,” and then just get quiet and listen. Then people come back and say to me, “Well, yeah, I heard something, but how do I know it was God? How do I know it wasn’t just me?” And I refer them back to Gideon in the Book of Judges. Gideon laid out the fleece not once, but twice, and God answered him both times. What happened? Well, he knew then that the angel that had visited him was truly from God and his faith went through the roof. And then, when his faith became so high, he actually changed the course of the nation of Israel.
Folks, I’m telling you, it’s the same thing. Anyone can hear God’s voice, because He’s always speaking. But we must tune into that frequency and when we hear it, then we have to put it to a test. Do what it says, pray on it, so forth, and the more you do it and the more you hear it, the more confidence you will gain in knowing that you are hearing from God. Do this and it will absolutely change your life.