Hearing God Part 1

Many times, when we're faced with difficult/challenging situations, we are advised to hear what God is saying. Someone rightly said that anyone that can teach others how to hear God will change the world. I'll like to add that God is not mysterious.

I'll be putting up these posts as often as I possibly can.

The first instance of God talking to man (human beings) is found in Genesis 1:28-30. The "man" He spoke to at the time only knew God's voice so there was no confusion as to Who was talking to them.

Next, we read about God commanding man not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17)

 

We see God and Adam working together in naming the animals - God brought them, Adam named them (Genesis 2:9-10). This shows us the second voice many hear. It is the voice of man. What the voice of man will tell you depends on who that person is working with. Adam named all the animals and God did not contest the names Adam gave. "and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof." (Genesis 2:19b).

When it came to finding a wife for Adam, God brought him the woman. Interestingly, Adam was not looking for a wife (he didn't have enough sense to know he needed one). I'll digress a little to talk about our need for companionship. It's great to be focused on God. However, God Himself realises that it is not good for "man" to be alone. We need others; it's part of God's original design.

We hear "the voice of man" again in Genesis 2:23-24. Note that it was Adam, not God, that talked about the "leaving and cleaving" business. Also note that God did not express a contrary opinion.

In Genesis 3:1, we find another voice - the voice of the serpent. He challenged the very word God had spoken to "man".

Annoyingly, the first recorded speech made by the woman was with the serpent and it contained an untruth. I know many have used this against women and have used that as their reason why women should not speak. My question to such people is this - "If she isn't supposed to speak, why was she given a voice?" And I'll like to encourage my sisters to use their voices the way God intended.

If you don't know what you're supposed to use your voice for, let me spell it out again from Genesis 1:28. Use your voices for things that make you fruitful, things that make you multiply, things that cause you to replenish the earth, things that make you subdue the earth and things that make you exercise dominion over the animals in the earth. Note that God has not given you a voice to subdue or dominate other human beings. Please stop "wasting" your voice, reasoning with the devil or propagating his message.

The devil was obviously lying. Firstly, he called God a liar when he told the woman that eating the fruit of the tree would not result in the consequences that God said it would. Any voice telling you to go against what God has said in His word is the voice of the devil. Some will even back it up with "Wisdom is profitable to direct" or similar scriptures. Be guided, resist such voices.

At some point, the devil stopped talking; he had sowed enough poison. The fact that the woman listened to the serpent was not the sin. It was the action she took that led to the sin. The choice was ultimately hers to make - Listen to God and leave the tree alone or listen to the devil and eat? We know what her choice was. Some have speculated that it only became a sin when Adam ate the fruit. Uhmmm. Please share your views concerning that.

Any counsel that will lead you to the point of hiding from God cannot be from God.

Please share your views RESPECTFULLY.