“A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him,
because they do not know the voice of strangers“
(John 10:5).
Perhaps right now you think you may know the voice of strangers better than you know the voice of Jesus. Maybe you are much more familiar with the voices of your culture, greed, anger, hopelessness and failure. This makes it especially difficult to know God’s voice. If this is you, my recommendation is to turn off the TV, turn off the movies & the music. Then “turn on” the Bible. The only way you can become familiar with the voice of Jesus and know how to recognize Him is if you start reading His words regularly and becoming very familiar with what He has said all throughout the Bible. Jesus is “the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Read what has already been written. No one else can do this for you.
God says that we must train our senses to know good from evil (see Hebrews 5:14). The pastor can’t do it for you. Your mom can’t do it for you, neither can your teachers, friends or mentors. Only you can make sure that you devote adequate time and energy to learning His voice, His character and His truth within Scripture. As you do this, you will learn when He is speaking elsewhere to you because He will never contradict what He has already written in His Word! Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not a man, that He should lie.” And, of course Jesus will speak using His words spoken in the past, because “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
Growing in Jesus 