I Hear the Voice
John 10:27:28 TPT
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
Jesus is The Word. The Voice is heard from the heart of the believer in the instant Holy Spirit fills and gives New Life.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (TPT)
Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new creation. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new.
Religion tells me when I read the Bible if I add or take away it is blasphemy. However, the Word clearly tells me how to hear The Voice. It sounds like the Prince of Peace in all the Fruits of the Spirit. The Voice is what Adam and Eve heard when they walked with God in the cool of the evening. Because Jesus paid the price, His Voice is reconciled unto our ears and has redeemed us back to the Garden. The Voice in this context is “Rhema Word” because I hear The Voice in real time within my heart. I am walking with God in the cool of the evening because I am in the world and not of it; I hear The Voice because I dwell with Him and He dwells with me. Jesus gave me a new “sense:” The Holy Spirit who teaches me all things in my fresh and new life. Jesus himself sent the Holy Spirit. I am gifted to receive His power to bring His Kingdom to the earth. In bringing the Kingdom I must hear The Voice; above all, it is His perfect will that I walk my path listening to His Voice.
Religion tells me that hearing God is presumptuous. What Jesus paid for on the cross of His suffering for me includes the ears to hear His Voice. In hearing with my inner ears of my Spirit woman, I therefore have access to all of who Yeshuah is. He is the Word. The Word was in the beginning–by Whom all things were made. Access to Yeshuah is a living promise. The Voice of the Lord is like the sound of many waters, and soft breezes, tones and notes, always gentle, kind, faithful, patient, peaceful, good, long suffering with my spirit, controlled in joy, and loving; ever loving above all is He who calls me His beloved.
Now when a voice sounds like condemnation, confusion, despair, or fear, I am not hearing The Voice. However, the Bible will confirm what the Lord Yeshuah is saying in the silence in the stillness. Through The Voice of the Word, all things consist in, through, who I am in Christ. I hear in my heart when it sounds like gentleness as in the Fruit of the Spirit. I heard The Voice the moment, I invited Jesus to come into my heart. I find that God initiates a conversation with me through a scripture and then He continues the conversation in my heart. The rubric in hearing The Voice comes in recognizing The Fruits of the Spirit in what I am hearing.
Jesus is faithful to speak The Way, The Truth, and The Life into my life. Abiding in His presence changes the atmosphere around me when I am hearing The Voice. All of whom Jesus is has been gifted to me at the Cross; all of who I am in His Kingdom was gifted to me at Pentecost when The Holy Spirit was released and now resides within my heart. I hear The Voice in all the ways that Jesus heard The Voice: in prayer, prophecy, healing, word of knowledge, and worship. There are times when I sense His presence and He silently baths me in truth and love. I can count on hearing The Voice in every encounter in overcoming the dictates of the world. The atmosphere in my heart emanates His Peace and Rest; The Holy Spirit within my spirit will bear witness when what I am hearing is from God.
Jesus is my rabbi whom I follow; I do what He does. I follow the Prince of Peace in the gift of rest. Rest allows me to hear clearly because my heart is not cluttered with worry, doubt, or fear. Resting in the Lord is the place where God invites me to do all the things my life requires. “His yoke is easy and His burden light.” Jesus went in the blue of the dawn to The Father our Creator in prayer and supplication. Jesus asked the Father in earnest and humility what His will was for the day. Jesus did not ask for what the Father’s will was for yesterday or tomorrow, Jesus asked in prayer and supplication what the Fathers’ will was for today. Since I follow Jesus, I begin each day with thanksgiving for the goodness of God in all favor and blessings with the assurance that He loves me because He loves me. Then I begin my invitation: “Jesus, from what scripture do you wish to speak? Who do You wish to be for today in this or that situation.”
Matthew 11:28-30 TPT
I will refresh your life, for I am your oasis. Simply join your life with mine. Learn my ways and you’ll discover that I’m gentle, humble, easy to please. You will find refreshment and rest in me.
My sheep hear my voice: I hear The Voice. And no one will snatch them out of My hand. The enemy wishes to snatch me out of the hand of God. The enemy wishes for me to conform to the pattern of the world. However, The Holy Spirit within my heart flows a new pattern made just for my purpose while living on this earth.
The Spirit of the Lord inhabits the space between conflict and resolve, confusion, and guidance. The Holy Spirit within my being is seven-fold. When I repel negative and destructive attitudes, I remain in His presence and I hear The Voice: “Jesus, where are you in this negative situation?” He is faithful to show up in the power of the Spirit of the Lord, in wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, might, and the awe of the Lord. His voice will sound like the Fruit of the Spirit and my emotional state will alter accordingly. I hear The Voice and my Spirit responds to His Rhema Words of life in the moment rather than the dictates of the old man or of the chaos of the world.
I am grateful to know that I am loved beyond past eternity. With this placement in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit I am accepted and loved as Jesus is accepted and loved. In the Fathers’ will, I choose to partner with my free will to see His promises for my life come to pass. Promises are fulfilled each day of my life no matter the insignificance nor the magnitude. I invite His favor and goodness to follow me all the days, one day at a time, of my life. I hear the Voice. When I listen to The Voice, and follow the Prince of Peace, no one can snatch me out of His hand. It takes practice and patience to choose to respond to the Voice rather than reacting to the realm of the world. The realm of the world sows seeds of discord, ignorance, judgment, conflict, competition; all negativity in zagged and sharp edges that cut into the flesh. The flesh reacts, and the spirit mourns because the dictates of the world are futile and lead to death; the wold offers “nothingness.” My life is hidden in Christ in Heaven where there nothing but love.
The futility of the world does not know what Life looks like. Jesus wept. He wept because there is a place of rest and peace that responds to His Ways, Truth, and Life no matter how sharp the pain or confusing, devastating, or seemingly impossible the situation. Jesus wept because the world invites the spirit of death in many lies and divisions upon infertile soil; futility is the landscape of striving. The world makes us slaves to striving in vain to gain something that is unattainable in the old man patterns of self-righteousness. This is nothingness; this is death. When death is sown there is no flowering and no fruit. I repent from being dead means that I pause to respond to the Holy Spirit rather than react to another ambush resulting in nothingness. When I am consumed with my state in the world-negativity tries to snatch me out of the good hand of my Father’s love.
It looks like Yeshuah every time–He died for my sin means He died for all the times I reacted to death and sowed death in self-righteousness. He replaced death with His abundant LIFE because He made me the righteousness of God. Life is ever new blossoms of promise and possibility springing up where nothing has ever grown or become. Becoming is knowing Who He is within me always.
Crafted prayers often facilitate a “go to” during emotional upheaval–not as in modified behavior calling up a “Polly Anna” persona-I follow The Voice Who is good. He promised me at the resurrection that I am resurrected to New Life with Him where He and I are together; one with the Father , Son, and Holy Spirit. He sent me the Holy Spirit so I may hear The Voice through every moment of the day according to what His will is in terms of all favor, blessing, and goodwill no matter the situation. One of my mentors uses this crafted prayer when the occasion calls for it: Lord steady my mind and calm my spirit. This prayer transformed me and the atmosphere of an entire room while a friend was experiencing a heart attack. I did not need to say a word out loud–I witnessed chaos transform to peace. The atmosphere of peace greatly assisted those who were succumbed to fear, especially my friend. When I pause to hear The Voice, I give space for His presence to rise within me–He is the Power that transforms negativity on on planes in the outer and inner spaces of chaos, confusion, and fear.
I hear The Voice in prayer for others. I ask for a scripture; I hear The Voice sometimes in visions, words of knowledge, or prophecy. I hear the Voice when I am in conflict. I ask for a scripture, and I hear the Voice of love, joy, peace, self-control, faithfulness, goodness, patience, long suffering, and always gentleness. I hear The Voice and therein I dwell. I am transforming from glory to glory in becoming like Jesus in the silence and on the thrashing waves of the storm.
2 Corinthians 2:18
We can all draw close to him with the veil removed from our faces. And with no veil we all become like mirrors who brightly reflect the glory of the Lord Jesus. We are being transfigured into his very image as we move from one brighter level of glory to another.
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