Hearing God’s Voice and Becoming His Friend - Part 4
The Bible tells us in the Old and New Testaments that hearing God’s voice is essential to our lives.
When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy 8:3 when he said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4 NKJV).
Words that proceed from the *mouth *of God are His spoken words.
The word used in that verse in the original language is rhema, which is the spoken word uttered by a voice. We live, not just by God’s written words, but by every word of God that comes alive when we hear Him speak it to us.
It is God’s will to speak to you, and to speak to you often. It is vital food for your life.
Job said, “I have treasured the words of His mouth More than my necessary food” (Job 23:12 NKJV).
Don’t just read the Word of God. Feed on His Word. Value it as your daily food. It is the food of your life.
When Jesus taught us to pray “Give us this day our daily bread,” what do you think He was talking about? Do you think He was only referring to physical bread or was He also referring to our spiritual bread: the living, spoken word of God?
We need God’s Word daily. It is our bread. It is our nourishment.
We need God to supply our daily manna from heaven just as He did for the children of Israel.
When the children of Israel were in the wilderness, God provided daily bread for them in the form of manna. That manna came fresh every morning, but it only stayed fresh for one day. The next day, the people of Israel had to search again for fresh manna, and as they did, God was faithful to provide it each day.
The good news for us is that manna from Heaven is still available for us every morning, just as God provided it every morning for the children of Israel. But the manna did not come to their tables and jump onto their plates. The Israelites had to get up and put effort into gathering the manna that God had provided.
It is the same for us. But if we will put effort each morning into seeking God by reading His Word, and asking Him to give us this day our daily bread through His spoken words, He will be faithful to speak to us through His written Word every single day.
Three Types of Bread
God gave three types of bread to the children of Israel.
There was daily manna that appeared on the ground each morning. It was only good for one day.
There was also the showbread in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle. It had be replaced every week.
And then there was the hidden manna. It stayed in a golden pot in the Ark of the Covenant, and it never spoiled.
As God speaks to you, some words will be like the daily manna. They will be exactly what you need for that day, but you will need fresh manna for the next day.
Other messages from God will last for an entire season of your life. They will inspire you, comfort you, encourage you, and give you direction for that season.
And then there will be some messages from God that will be good for your entire life. These will be words about your destiny, your purpose in life, and your identity in God that will define who you are and what you were born to do. These messages will never spoil.
As you seek God and ask Him to speak to you, He will share all three of these kinds of “living bread” with you.
Don’t just read the Word. Devour it. Meditate on it. As you do this, the Word of God will transform you.
James exhorts us to “with a humble spirit receive the word [of God] which is implanted [actually rooted in your heart], which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21 AMP).
It is said that “you are what you eat.” That becomes true in your life as you read and meditate on the word of God each day. God’s word transforms you more and more into the image of Christ, Who is the Living Word of God.
The Food of Ezekiel and John
Before Ezekiel was sent to speak God’s messages to the people of Israel, he was commanded to eat the words that God gave him.
“Now you, son of man, listen to what I am speaking to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth wide and eat what I am giving you.” Then I looked, and behold, a hand was extended to me; and behold, a scroll was in it.”—Ezekiel 2:8-9 (NASB)
“Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.’ So I opened my mouth, and He fed me this scroll. And He said to me, ‘Son of man, **feed your stomach and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you.’ **Then I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.
“Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them.’”— Ezekiel 3:1-4 (NASB)
In the book of Revelation John had an experience that was almost identical to Ezekiel’s commissioning. John was told in Revelation 10:11 that he must share God’s messages with “many peoples, nations, laugauges, and kings.” But before he could do that, John had to devour the written words of God.
This was his experience in Revelation chapter 10:
“Then the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking to me, and saying, ‘Go, take the book (scroll) which is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.’ So I went up to the angel and told him to give me the little book. And he said to me, ‘Take it and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.’ So I took the little book from the angel’s hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey; but once I had swallowed it, my stomach was bitter. Then they said to me, ‘You must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and languages and kings.’”—Revelation 10:8-11 (AMP)
If we have the same hunger to receive our nourishment from the God’s Word as the apostle John did, and as the prophet Ezekiel did, we will also be entrusted with great things and richly rewarded as they were.
Dedicate Time to Seeking God
I encourage you to dedicate a certain time each day for seeking God in His written Word. For me, the best time seems to be between 4:00 and 6:00 in the morning.
There are several Scriptures that seem to confirm that God desires to meet with us during the first part of every day.
“I rise before dawn and cry for help; I wait for Your words.”—Psalm 119:147 (NASB)
“O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You”—Psalm 63:1 (NKJV)
“I love those who love me; And those who seek me early and diligently will find me.”—Proverbs 8:17 (AMP)
“With my soul I have desired You in the night, Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early”—Isaiah 26:9 (NKJV)
If early morning does not work for you, pick another time when things are relatively quiet so that you will avoid distractions. Fix that time in your daily schedule so that it is non-negotiable, and make it a consistent top priority.
Consecrate Space for Seeking God
Decide now *where *you will spend your time seeking God. If clutter needs to be removed, take care of that now. Remove things that could cause distractions. If you will use Bible study tools (like dictionaries, notebooks, pens), make sure to have those on hand.
Turn your phone off.
Explain to your family that this time is sacred and that you should not be disturbed for anything that can wait until later.
The Spirit Will Bring God’s Word Back to Your Remembrance
If you have the Spirit of the living God inside you, you are never alone in any of the challenges that you face.
If you regularly feed on the word of God, taking it into your mind and your heart, the Spirit of God can bring that truth back to your mind when you need it most.
Jesus tells us this in John 14:25-26:
“These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (NKJV).
How George Muller Started His Day
“While I was staying at Nailworth, it pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, irrespective of human instrumentality, as far as I know, the benefit of which I have not lost, though now…more than forty years have since passed away.
“The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit.
“Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed the morning. Now I saw, that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, whilst meditation, my heart might be brought into experimental, communion with the Lord. I began therefore, to meditate on the New Testament, from the beginning, early in the morning.
“The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord’s blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God; searching, as it were, into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word; not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon; but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul. The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that though I did not, as it were, give to prayer but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less to prayer.
“When thus I have been for awhile making confession, or intercession, or supplication, or have given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it; but still continually keeping before me that food for my own soul is the object of meditation. The result of this is, that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, or intercession mingled with my meditation, and that my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart. Thus also the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which, very soon after, I have found to become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word that I have myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man.
“The difference between my former practice and my present one is this. Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time. At all events I almost invariably began with prayer… But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, or even an hour on my knees, before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc.; and often after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even half an hour, I only then began really to pray.
“I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. For my heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experimental fellowship with God, I speak to my Father, and to my Friend (vile though I am, and unworthy of it!) about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word.
“It often now astonished me that I did not sooner see this. In no book did I ever read about it. No public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private intercourse with a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of God has to do morning-by-morning is to obtain food for his inner man.” (Muller, p.12-14)
**Reference: **
Muller, G. (n.d.). George Muller on Personal Devotions. GeorgeMuller.org. https://www.georgemuller.org/george-muller-pdf-books.html
