Day 17: Do you hear and obey God’s Word?

We now come to a fifth way to complete the sentence, “If you want God’s best….” You must learn to hear and obey God’s voice.

This is not something that comes to us naturally. In a certain sense, the old Adamic nature is born deaf to the voice of God. It is not natural for the old carnal nature to hear God’s voice. It is something that must be learned and cultivated with care. The world today is full of innumerable voices that blast us, that crowd in upon us, that demand our attention. Yet, in the midst of it all, there is that still, small voice of God, which has endless wisdom and authority, and which is the key to our well‑being.

I want to suggest to you that there is tremendous motivation revealed in Scripture for cultivating the ability to hear the voice of God. The success of our relationship with God and our walk with Him depends on hearing His voice.

I will give a few specific examples. The first is in the matter of receiving healing and health from God. Without question, the Scripture makes it clear that the key to healing and health is the ability to hear God’s voice. This is brought out clearly in Exodus, in which Moses is speaking to the children of Israel:

“If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the dis-eases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.” (Exodus 15:26 NKJV)

The Hebrew text says, “If hearing, you hear the voice of the Lord your God.” That is a Hebraism, a very emphatic form of the language. It means to listen with the most tremendous care to the voice of the Lord your God. Then God offers to be your personal physician. But the basic condition is to diligently listen to the voice of the Lord.

(If you want to learn more about God’s healing, Derek’s book ‘God’s Word Heals’ may be of help to you.)