Which voice should we listen to? Generally we choose to listen to the voice that tells us what we want to hear: "You did great." "You are beautiful/handsome." "It's not your fault." "I love you."
Unfortunately, the things we want to hear are not always what we need to hear. Sometimes, it is more beneficial to us to hear: "You erred. You can do better." Beauty is as beauty does." "It was your fault. You need to correct it." "I love you anyhow."
Jesus said His "sheep knew His voice" (John 10). He spoke of His great love for them (us). There are many imitations of His voice, and in order to get our attention these voices will try to appease us by speaking smooth, flattering words, words we desire to hear. So we need to be tuned in to the voice of Jesus as He speaks through His Word, the Holy Spirit and authentic spokespersons for Him (who will always speak in the context of His Word).
The Good Shepherd's voice will always tell us the truth about ourselves. He knows us with perfect knowledge, and he has perfect understanding of our every thought, motive and desire. Now, that might be intimidating to us if we didn't know that he loves us unconditionally, unselfishly and with the highest motives for our good. We will never go wrong nor be misled by listening to His voice. It is not necessary that we have perfect understanding in order to listen to and follow His instructions and leadership, because we are listening to and following One who does have perfect understanding and knows our future.
What was it that made Peter step out of the boat and begin to walk on the stormy sea? (Matthew 14:29) What if he had been listening to an imposter? Peter just stepped out onto the turbulent waves as the voice of Jesus beckoned him. He knew the voice and knew that it was dependable. He walked until he quit listening to Jesus' voice and began listening to the voice of the storm.
There are many scriptural references that tell us that even the devil and his angels know the "real" voice of God and recognize that His Voice is one of authority and they must obey. Then why don't we?
I once read that in order to properly train people who handle money to recognize counterfeit bills, they must be thoroughly familiar with the real ones. The repeated exposure they had was to the genuine, not the bogus ones. If they became proficient in recognizing the authentic paper money, they would instantly know if a counterfeit passed into their hands.
That should tell us something. We don't need to be chasing after all the voices that we hear, no matter how good they sound to us nor what they promise. Instead, we need to become so familiar with the voice of Truth that instinctively we will know when we hear an imitation and disregard it. "His sheep know his voice."
....... Delores Adams
