Is that you, God?

We can be told till the cows come home that it’s possible to hear God’s voice. We can even believe it. But what happens when the Enemy of our souls sneaks in and convinces us that we can’t really know, deep down in that place where we know things without a hint of doubt, that it’s His voice we’re hearing. The truth we’re facing here is that the Enemy knows the best way to cut off our own voice is to cut off God’s voice from us. And the best way—really, the only way—to do that is to interfere with our security in that knowing.

Put simply, the Enemy will pull out all stops in his efforts to tear away at our assurance that we are capable of hearing our Creator’s voice.

Think about it: How intimidating must it be to the Enemy that we know our Shepherd’s voice—deeply, intimately, surely? Because with that kind of ongoing, enriching, empowering bond with God, suddenly the Enemy’s job gets a lot harder.

Here’s a bigger truth: Our God is fully capable of bypassing any and all Enemy wiles and speaking directly into the hearts of His children.

The key is that we need to trust God even when we don’t fully trust ourselves. Because the bottom line is that even those closest to God are still human and therefore fallible. Sometimes we hear what we want to hear rather than what God is speaking. Sometimes we let other voices muddy the message. And all these things—this is what the Enemy uses to weaken us and make us doubt our ability to hear our Shepherd.

But we don’t serve a God who is put off by an Enemy He has already defeated. And the best part is that we don’t have to live life intimidated by that Enemy, either. In fact, God wants us to live far above those fears and soar peacefully assured of His ability to communicate with us as we continue to grow and heal on this journey.

I am well-acquainted with such doubting. More than once in my life I have cried it into my pillow, along with some barely-intelligible mutterings such as, “Was that really you, God? Did I hear you wrong? Did I misstep? What if it wasn’t you at all?” And each time this has happened I have discovered that yes, I really was hearing Him, and that the problem wasn’t with hearing Him but with things not going exactly as I expected them to go. Am I preaching to a choir here—and are you singing soprano?

Recently there came a moment when my eyes were opened as puzzle pieces fell together to reveal God’s finger-trail through the past six years of our lives. It all fit, from the hearing of His voice through each step we took in obedience and all the questions wept into pillows along the way. Suddenly I saw the whole path like reading a map I’d already traveled. It was humbling, to say the least.

Each Thursday we’re honored to host an amazing group of women who gather in our online community to share their voices, to share their passion for you finding your voice. Together we walk through the book, When A Woman Finds Her Voice: Overcoming Life’s Hurts & Using Your Story to Make a Difference, and we join hands and hearts here to paint a wide hope. {We’d like to think it’s wide enough to tempt you to your own healing journey.}

We invite you to join us. Consider sharing on one of the following three topics. If you don’t personally blog, please take the opportunity to read and comment other linked bloggers in our community of healing and hope, you may find some beautiful heart-connections waiting there.

Our topics:

1. A time when you were sure you heard God and then doubt crept in
2. A time when your eyes were opened more fully to God’s plan in your life
3. Your own journey of listening for God’s voice in your own personal ways