"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:"

Religion has taught us that God no longer speaks to us orally, but only through His written word. However, Jesus said that He was the good shepherd and His sheep know His voice! Divine fellowship with God and the righteousness of God go hand and hand. John said in 1 John 1:6-7,

"If we say that we have fellowship with him,and walk in darkness,we lie,and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light,we have fellowship one with another,and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleans us from all sin."

You may still say, "David, I have been a Christian for 50 years and God has never spoken to me!" He has spoken to you many times and you just didn't recognize His voice. Because we live in this physical body, we have become accustom to being directed by our five senses. If we hear with our ears and see with our eyes we can recognize each other. However, God is Spirit and as His children we are spirit also. Spirits do not have to depend on the five senses of the flesh to communicate.

How many of you have ever prayed before you go to sleep and ask God to give you the wisdom to handle a situation you are faced with and when you wake up in the morning and think about it you know what to do? Or how many times have you ever been working on something and ask God to give you the wisdom to know how to fix it and as you try to solve the problem,you come up with the way to fix it? You tell everyone how smart you were to figure it out when all the time it was God telling you how to do it. You never heard Him say anything to you but you knew how to solve the problem! It wasn't your wisdom that figured out what to do! How many times do you stop and thank the Lord for showing you what to do! Paul said in 1 Thess. 5:16-20,

"Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesying."

Have you ever thought about being inspired of God to do something or to say something or to write something? Is your idea of inspiration, God telling someone audibly what to do? The Greek word for inspiration is, Theopneustos theh-op'-nyoo-stos From G2316 and a presumed derivative of G4154; divinely breathed in:-given by inspiration of God.

Jesus said in John 3:8, (NIV)

"The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

Religion has taught us that when the last Apostle died, the Holy Spirit stopped inspiring mankind because we now have the Bible and all we need to do is what it tells us. However, did you know that we didn't have the Bible in written form until somewhere around the year 1455. Long after the last Apostle died. This theology doesn't agree with what Jesus said in John 10:27. Again He said,

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:"

Perhaps the reason why we don't expect the Lord to speak to us is because we have been taught that He lives somewhere out there in space in a place called heaven. Again, that kind of thinking is what continues to separate us from Him. Jesus said in John 14:19-23, (NIV)

"On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"

Jesus replied,

"If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."

This is so hard for the carnal mind to accept because we have learned to depend upon our five senses to show us what is real. Jesus made another very powerful statement in Luke 17:21,

"The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you."

How does He do that? Paul said in 1 Cor. 6:17,

"But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." 

And in verse 19,

"What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own?

The real you that is eternal, is spirit! And you are joined to the Lord! You don't have a spirit, you are a spirit and for the present time you are living in a body. When this body is no longer able to sustain your life, you will discard it and be clothed with a new body. Paul said in 1 Cor. 15:42-44,

"So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body."

The Holy Spirit of God lives and dwells with your spirit and is able to inspire you and teach you the things of God. Jesus said in John 14:15-17, (NIV)

"If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."

Learn to hear the voice of the Lord by being aware of where your thoughts are coming from. Many times when I am preaching I am aware of words coming out of my mouth that I have never thought of before and I realize that the Lord is speaking through me. This has happened to all of us. Even if you have never preached, there are times when you are sharing the Word with someone that you hear yourself saying things that you had never thought of before.

Again, Paul said in 1 Thess. 5:18,

"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

Learn to give the Lord thanks for everything! This becomes easy to do if you have the awareness of the Lord's presence inside of you. If you spend time with Him, you will develop an assurance on the inside of you. You will become convinced of His goodness, as well as your righteousness. This is what many Christians lack. They have a lot of doctrine but no assurance or belief in that doctrine.  

Learn to recognize the Lord that lives inside of you! I could relate to you time and time again of instances when in my work as an electrical contractor I was faced with a seemingly impossible situation and all the experts around me were unable to solve the problem and someone would say something and I would suddenly know how to resolve the problem. The natural thing to do in times like this is to take the credit for being so smart when it was the Lord giving me the wisdom to be able to solve the problem. This is why I say to you to become aware of the Christ that lives within you!

Just do this for me this week! Be aware of the many times you are required to make decisions and give thanks to the Lord for giving you the answer. You might be surprised!