HEARING HIS VOICE AND RESPONDING
John 10:27
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
When I was in jr high and high school I had a couple of beagles for rabbit hunting. They were very hard working dogs that loved to hunt. They would not stop looking for rabbits. At the end of the day I would call and call until I was blue in the face... but it generally had no effect on them, they kept working, even though they weren't doing what I needed for them to do.
Where we rabbit hunted was nearly 20 miles from home, but we would leave a jacket and some food there and come back after dark to retrieve our dogs.
Those dogs meant well. They knew they were supposed to be hunting and they were good at it... yet they didn't listen to their master. In the end, I lost those two dogs when they ran out of hearing distance and no matter how much anyone called they didn't come back. They hadn't stayed within an area where they could hear my voice.
As God's children we can be like that. We can be rushing around doing good things but not listening to our Master. We rush into good ministry type projects without ever looking up to God to see if He is approving or directing.
Like those beagles we need to learn to slow down... to listen to the voice of our master. We need to learn to discern what He is saying. We can only do that by listening to His voice, through scripture, through prayer and then a quite time with Him.
Charles Spurgeon said this about discernment, "Discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between right and wrong; rather it is telling the difference between right and almost right."
So listen closely to what God wants from you. Spend time reading His Word and talking to Him. Then get to work on what He has for you, but stay close so you can always hear His voice.
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