Listening to God

John 7-8

“…The right time for me has not yet come; for you anytime is right…If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own…I do nothing on my own, but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”

John 7:6, 17; 8:28, 29

Jesus listened to his Father’s voice every day and lived in loving surrender and obedience to his Father. Through the Holy Spirit that same privilege is ours today. Knowing the voice of our Father requires a relationship with him. Listening to God begins with the full surrender of our life and will to him. Listening to the Word is not a skill to be learned, but rather, it is a relationship to be loved. Listening to God requires us to wait on him and his timing. Jesus waited thirty years for public ministry and then waited on his Father’s timing for everything. We, too, must learn to wait on God rather than expect God to wait on us. Finally, listening to God requires obedience to what we hear. Without obedience we can’t please God. Obeying the last thing he told us precedes further revelation. Surrender, waiting, and obedience marked Jesus’ relationship with God the Father. These are our path to relationship with God as well.

“Lord Jesus, thank you for teaching me how to know and walk with the Father, for your glory.”