Isaiah 30:21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
God’s voice will not contradict God’s Word. His voice will remind us of His Word and lead us in the path of righteousness. God’s Word came to Jonah to go to the notorious city of Nineveh and preach repentance but Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish (Jonah 1:2b). God’s Word came as impressions in his heart, but there were two voices that interpreted God’s Word. One voice said, ‘obey God’s command’ and another voice said ‘run away from the Lord’. Jonah convinced himself to listen to the voice in his head and disobeyed the Lord’s command. Jonah could have stayed put in his hometown of Gath-hepher, which was later named as Galilee. The voice of disobedience will make us busy and distract us from God’s voice. He made a mission trip to Tarshish. His plan was not to go to Tarshish and start a business there. He went to Tarshish to preach. He tried to accomplish the assignment given to him in a different township!
“The Lord God speaks to us in our heart not in our head. The devil messes with our mind and injects toxic thoughts in our head.”
The voice of the Lord reverberates in our heart. The Holy Spirit will bring into remembrance the scriptures to lead us in the right direction. However, there will be another voice in our head that contradicts God’s Word and His voice. The voice in Jonah’s head would have convinced him that the people of Nineveh would kill him. His intelligent reasoning would have said, “Common sense says don’t choose a malicious city to preach; the people are brutal and mean”. His surging feelings would have supported the intelligent suggestion. Israelites were attacked and tortured by the Assyrians. Hence, the voices of revenge and rage redirected Jonah from Nineveh. The voice of disobedience messes his mind and causes stress and confusion in his head.
God’s voice and God’s word don’t contradict:
1. Conflate: The voice in our head will conflate with the voice in our heart. The voice in our head is “intelligent advice, messed-up emotions and desperate wants”. But the heart echoes the voice of the Holy Spirit. Listen to your heart.
2. Contradict: Any voice that convinces us that ‘the scriptures are ancient transcripts that cannot be followed here and now’, is the demonic voice. Any voice that contradicts the Word of God and vouches disobedience is either our own voice or the noise of hell.
3. Compromise: The Voice of God will make us courageous, but the voice of disobedience will make us callous. God’s voice will never guide us to lie, lust or loot. His voice will not validate deception, betrayal or bribery. God’s voice will not compromise God’s Word.
Listen to the voice in your heart. God’s voice will never contradict or conflate His Word.
Psalm 25:5a Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me.
Prayer: Father God, help me to decipher the voice in my heart to the voice in my head and lead me in the path of obedience. Amen.
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