Are You Pretending Like You're Not Hearing God?

I remember many years ago when Holy Spirit was training me to listen, hear and respond to His voice.  One morning I arose from my bed while my mother was still sleeping.  Suddenly, I AUDIBLY heard my mother's voice call me, "Christine!"  So, I walked into her bedroom and found her still sleeping.  I found that strange, and I walked back out.  This happened a couple of times.  Yes, it was kind of like the story of Samuel in the Bible, but I was already an adult at this point.

Finally, I realized that this was God audibly calling my name, but His voice sounded like my mother's voice.  Then He spoke these words to me, "Christine!  Why are you pretending like you're not hearing Me?"  I felt confused, and asked Him, "What do you mean?  How am I pretending like I'm not hearing You?"  Then He repeated a stream of many things He had been speaking to me internally like a stream.  I still felt confused, because of course I had heard everything He had spoken to me, and I KNEW it was His voice speaking those things to me.  So, how in the world was I pretending like I wasn't hearing Him?

What I didn't realize is that growing in the prophetic and building an intimate relationship with God as described by Jesus when He said, "My sheep hear my voice, and a stranger's voice they will not follow." is so much more than simply HEARING God's voice.  God not only desires for us to HEAR His voice, but He requires a RESPONSE from us!  He wants us to CONVERSE with Him and INQUIRE more deeply of Him.  Most importantly, He requires that we OBEY His voice.  Sometimes He speaks to us, and we need to actually find out from Him how He wants us to respond to the truths that He is imparting to us.  In this particular case from so long ago, He was speaking prophetically to me, and He wanted me to RELEASE the prophesy.  Instead, I was just listening to His Words with an awareness of what He was speaking to me.  I UNDERSTOOD and ACKNOWLEDGED His voice internally, but I was STILL pretending like I wasn't hearing His voice, because I was not RESPONDING to the MESSAGE He was releasing to me.

So, the questions remains:  Are you pretending like you're not hearing God?  Inquire of Him further, and RESPOND to His voice.  For God always requires a RESPONSE!

© 2018 Christine Lombard; All rights reserved; Use only with permission