Shame is a great silencer. But it doesn’t just shut people up—shame drowns out the still, small voice of God.
Sometimes, when God wanted to convey an important message back in Bible times, He sent an angel to that person. Chances are, an angel is not going to appear to you in response to every question you ask Him. So, how are you supposed to know it’s God speaking when your own thoughts and emotions seem so much louder?
In Andrew’s How to Hear God’s Voice teaching, he says,
“The primary way that God speaks is not through the spectacular, not through an audible voice, not through an open vision. He can do all of those things. He has done it. I believe He still does miraculous things like that. But the primary way that God speaks to us today is just in this still, small voice, and it can be drowned out by other voices around us.”
One way you know you’ve heard the voice of God is when fear dissipates and a fresh boldness rises up in your spirit. Psalm 34:4 says, “I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears” (English Standard Version).
Another way to discern the voice of God is through hiding the written Word in your heart (Ps. 119:11). While developing a mental understanding of the Bible is good, the goal is a heart change. This requires more than memorization. Andrew continues,
“The Bible isn’t written to your brain. It’s written to your heart. You[‘ve] got to read the Bible with your heart, not just your head. God will speak to you through the Word. But the natural man, either a lost man or a Christian who doesn’t have their mind renewed and is listening to the Holy Spirit, cannot understand ‘…the things…of God…they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned’ [1 Cor. 2:14]. And I’m telling you this is why so many people read the Bible, but it doesn’t do anything for them. And they don’t understand it because they are reading it with their intellect. You can’t just put information in your mind. It’s got to be quickened to you by the Holy Spirit.”
The Word is like gasoline. Not until a lit match falls on it will it combust into rivers of flame. You could be filled with the Word, even have whole books of the Bible memorized, but it will not ignite a fire in your heart until the Holy Spirit comes in contact with it. When the Holy Spirit quickens the Word in your spirit—WHOOM! You know exactly what to do, how to do it, where to go, and what to say. The old ways of thinking and believing—shame, unbelief, and fear—are burned away, and God replaces that with His ways.
Let the Holy Spirit light His written and spoken Word in your heart with Andrew’s How to Hear God’s Voice teaching. It’s available in CD format. You can also watch Andrew teach this on the Gospel Truth broadcast. This teaching will help Psalm 34:5 become your reality: “Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed” (ESV).
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