Today I want to examine a very intelligent creature. A creature that is so intelligent that Jesus used them in parables to refer to us. They are, of course, sheep.

Okay, so sheep are not the most intelligent creatures on planet Earth but they do know how to do something very well…they know how to listen to their shepherd’s voice and follow him, and that’s what I want to look at today.

John 10:1-5
1 “I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. 3 The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”

As I mentioned, sheep may not be the most intelligent of creatures but they do know how to listen to their shepherd’s voice.

We can make a few other assessments about sheep from the text.

• Sheep are called by name and are personally led by their shepherd
• Sheep listen and recognize the voice of their shepherd over other voices
• Sheep will follow their shepherd’s voice but run from a stranger’s

But sheep are not born just knowing and doing all of this. They learn it over time. They learn by following the examples of other sheep and by being in the presence of their shepherd day in and day out.

I believe God wants us to know that we, too, can hear the voice of our Shepherd! In fact, this is probably one of the most asked questions by Christians…“How do I hear the voice of God in my life?” “How can I know that God has a plan for me?” “What is God’s will for my life?” These are perfectly honest questions for which the Bible has answers.

The first thing we need to know is that God knows us by name and promises to lead us personally.

Jeremiah 1:5
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

John 14:16-17
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

Just as sheep have a shepherd to lead them, we have God’s Spirit who lives in us to lead us and help us, but just like sheep, we definitely need help in learning to hear our Shepherd’s voice.

Wouldn’t it be great if upon getting saved we just automatically heard God’s voice in a clear way and there was never a doubt as to what He wanted us to do? But, alas, it doesn’t work that way. We have to learn how to hear His voice. It takes time to develop this skill so go easy on yourself as you begin to learn.

There are a couple things we can do to drastically help us listen to God’s voice.

The first is to live a consecrated life.

Matthew 26:39
39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Jesus didn’t just pray a prayer of consecration, he lived a consecrated life. Every day for him was about doing the Father’s will instead of his own. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that if he never would have consecrated his life from the beginning, then there never would have been a Gethsemane prayer.

The origin of the word “consecrate” means to force your life into sacred dedication. I think we all could have guessed the part about it being a “sacred dedication,” but the “forcing” part may be new to us. Just like Jesus prayed, consecration is the forcing (the bending) of our wills to the Father’s.

Is it a choice, yes! Is it easy, no! Is it possible to live a consecrated life with Jesus as our example, definitely! Let us, as an act of faith, consecrate our lives to God, forcing our wills to obey His perfect will. Doing so will put us in a better position to hear what God is speaking to us.

The second thing we can do is to stay filled with the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 5:17 says to “be filled with the Spirit.”

That’s a command! But how often and to what degree?

Romans 12:11 (AMP)
11 Never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor; be aglow and burning with the Spirit, serving the Lord.

So from these two passages, we know that we need to stay filled and burning with the Holy Spirit! This is probably the number one thing we can do to help us listen to and obey the Lord’s voice.

Just look at the disciples lives after they were filled on the day of Pentecost. Act 2 clearly shows that they stayed in the upper room and quietly sought after the Lord’s face to make sure they heard correctly and knew what the next step was….right? No! When the Spirit filled them, they went out and preached. They taught new converts and they healed people.

After being filled with the Spirit they naturally did God’s will! When the Spirit fills us and we allow Him to take control of our lives, suddenly our daily-grind of a job becomes a mission field that for which we are commissioned. Our eyes see the spiritual need in people instead of coveting their possessions. All that we have, all that we are becomes God’s resources for use in His Kingdom!

So now that we are better able to listen to our Shepherd’s voice because of a consecrated life and a Spirit filled life…what are we to listen for?

We need to recognize the Lord’s voice! The Bible provides many examples of how God speaks to His people, but there are three methods in particular that He tends to use most often. Let’s take a look at each.

The primary way that God will lead us is through His Word and the inner witness.

Romans 8:16
16The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.

The word “testifies” in the Greek simply means to testify or to be a witness. It’s like an inner knowledge of agreement. It’s when you just know that something is right deep inside you. I have sometimes called it an impression, as if the Holy Spirit was impressing a thought or idea upon me.

John 14:25-26 (NLT)
25 I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. 26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.

When we read God’s Word, the Holy Spirit will impress upon us the Truth from Scripture. And then He will bring it to our memory when we need it during our daily routines.

Romans 8:16 says “The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children,” which means when you got saved it was the Holy Spirit speaking to you—through this inner witness—to confirm that you were indeed saved. The Holy Spirit gave us that inner knowledge of agreement, and it’s with this same “impressing” and “knowing” that God can and does lead us still today.

The second most common way the Holy Spirit leads us is through the inner voice or “still small voice” as it’s often been called. The main difference between the inner witness and the inner voice is that the inner voice actually has a voice.

1 Kings 19:11-13
11 The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

The phrase “gentle whisper” is made up of three Hebrew words:
demamah– whisper, calm, silence
daq– thin, small, fine, gaunt
qowl– voice, sound, noise; lightness, lighthearted

Combining these Hebrew words gives the idea that the inner voice is very light and airy, and easy to be drowned out. So how much background noise do we have in our lives? Let’s see…

We wake up to music or a noisy alarm.
We drive our vehicles listening to music or talk radio.
We keep the TV on even when nobody is watching.
Our computers have become the hub of our noisy digital lives playing music and videos, and allowing us to stay socially connected.
Our smartphones are always notify us of the latest piece of news from our friends.
And our ears have been permanently corked with MP3 players.

Is it any wonder why we don’t hear the inner voice of the Spirit like we want?!

I love what Elijah did when he recognized the still small voice, he pulled his cloak over his face in the midst of the powerful wind, the earthquake, and the fire so that he could focus on what God was telling him. He didn’t want to miss it…so he focused in. Also note that when the inner voice spoke to Elijah it spoke actual words with coherent thoughts. It was not just an impression like the inner witness.

There is one other point to mention about the inner voice. Notice that in verse 11 it says “the Lord said” but in verse 13, when describing the still small voice, it says “a voice said”. The Bible makes a clear distinction between the inner voice and the Lord’s more direct voice. The reason why this is important is because there will be times when God will lead us by the inner voice but we may assume that we’re just hearing our own thoughts.

Don’t be so quick to dismiss what you heard! If the voice you heard sounded like your own voice but it lines up with the Bible, then it may very well be the inner voice of the Spirit leading you.

The third way God leads us is through the authoritative voice of the Lord.

Acts 9:1-7
1 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone.

In Saul’s case, the authoritative voice of the Lord was audible. We know this because the men with him heard the sound (verse 7). But the authoritative voice of the Lord doesn’t have to be audible, it may just seem that way to us.

This is the one of the differences between the inner voice and the authoritative voice. Where the inner voice seems to come from within you, the authoritative voice will seem to come from outside of you (or right next to you) and it will not sound like your own voice. And most importantly it will not just be an anonymous voice, it will be very clearly identified as the Lord’s voice, just as it was for Saul in verse five.

Now that we know how to listen and we know what to listen for, what do we do when God does speak to us? Like our examples, the sheep, we need to follow our Shepherd’s call. We need to act in obedient faith! Acting immediately when we sense His inner witness, inner voice, or authoritative voice will definitely stretch our “faith muscles.” 2 Corinthians 5:7 says we “live by faith, not by sight” and obeying the voice of the Lord is definitely a step of faith.

Yes, you will make mistakes and not “hear” correctly from time to time but that’s how we learn. Just like it took years for you to learn how to communicate with other people using effective listening and speaking skills, so it will take a while before you can correctly discern the Lord’s voice from all the others in this world. But as you “practice”—acting immediately in faith when you sense what you believe is His voice—it will become easier.

Just remember that we have this promise that we can know our Lord’s voice.

John 10:4
[The shepherd] he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.