Episode #31 Degrees of Separation – Know Who You’re Listening To

One of the common ways that we often experience God speaking with us is through other people. However, I have found that in my own life I can accidentally replace the voice of God with the voice of other people.

We don't have to settle for second, third, fourth, six degrees of separation from the One who our heart longs for.

But what I found for me, and I wonder if you might have experienced this for yourself as well, is that there can be seasons and times where we find an echoing voice. We find the voice of someone else who also loves God, who also wants to draw near to God, and we like the way their voice sounds. We are attracted to the simplicity or the anointing in how they communicate. We love the way that they package a Bible study resource or the way that they're able to expound with great depth and insight. And so, when we are drawn and connected to that voice, it can sometimes lead us to an unhelpful and unhealthy place of replacing the voice of God in our lives.

There was a time several years ago where God convicted me that I had replaced his voice with the voice of my pastor. Because I trusted my pastor, when he would exhort us, "go talk with God about this," oftentimes I would default to, I'm just going to apply it. That was a good teaching. He would say, "go read the word, see for yourself what it says in scripture." And my default response, even in the times when I didn't notice, was, that's okay. You just taught us about it.

I can see this happen in a variety of different seasons in my life where I'll be drawn to a Bible teacher. I'll be drawn to a certain type of resource. I'll really connect with the style or the mannerisms, or the clarity, that's given from authors or worship leaders or pastors or teachers. And what gets problematic is when I default to, "I wonder what ABC person has to say about that" as the way that I'm going to find out what God would have to tell me about something.

The conviction that the Holy Spirit gave me, some years ago was, even though there was this constant invitation and exhortation go seek the Lord on this, by not doing that, I was in essence saying, "Holy Spirit, I don't actually need you to teach me about this, my pastor just answered all of my questions."

This isn't a new problem in the world. We actually see evidence of this way back in Exodus 19. This is after God has called Moses to free the Israelite people from Egypt. And they're on their journey to the Promised Land and God is about to give them the 10 Commandments.So, all the people or at the foot of the mountain. God descends on the mountain with very visual representations of God's presence, descending there. And then Moses goes up to talk with God.

And then starting in Exodus 20, verse 18-19, it says, "Now, when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, 'You speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die.'"

So, God has rescued the people out of slavery, and he's rescued them unto himself.

We see that back in Exodus 19:4 where God says, "you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself."

This whole time, all of human history is marked by God bringing us to himself. And this time in the Israelites life is no different.

He's saying, "Hey, I'm bringing you out. I'm bringing you to myself." And they're saying, "no, no, no. , let's have Moses talk to you, that would be better."

I do this too. I'll say, "Hmm, I have a better idea. Maybe the best way for me to hear God is through another person."

I can default to what is popularly accepted instead of going to him directly myself.

We can miss that true God-revelation if we focus on the person as the source, not as the vessel. And I don't want to allow other voices to be the loudest voice in my ear.

And so today we're checking in with God about the different voices that we have in our lives and what he would instruct us to do about it. So, here's today's question:

God, whose voice is loudest in my ear right now?

We are made with this longing to have a direct connection with him, and the only one who wants that connection more than we do is God himself.

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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