Jesus said: When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.Jesus is leading us on and wanting to talk to us. We thought tonight of things we can do to make it more likely to hear Jesus correctly.
We thought about ways in which it is very hard sometimes to hear properly; how our natural mammalian desires and drives for attention, success, status, protection and mating (!) are always there in the background, and how the devil wants to twist God's message so we mishear and get tied up in seeking power, wealth or selfish desires.
We discussed how we need to test if we think God is calling us to do something by seeing if it consistent with the general thrust of the Bible.
And finally we discussed some of the ways that God speaks, apart from a still, small voice in our mind. He can talk to us through dreams, through reading the Bible, through other people, and through events and circumstances, including unhappy ones.
I hope that we all learn to hear God's voice more clearly; it is a most amazing thing.
