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| Whose Voice? |
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Have you ever heard certain phrases used and immediately discerned somebody from a certain region, which is known for a particular way of expressing itself? As hard as my American wife tries to speak Australian English, she still calls it an elevator instead of a lift, the trunk instead of the boot, etc. And when she says that she wants to “red off the table” or “warsh the clothes,” her western Maryland-southwestern Pennsylvanian “voice” comes through loud and strong. Even when she writes, I “hear” her voice, so to speak.
I have Christian friends who clearly speak in a health-wealth “voice” because they use name-it-claim-it expressions. When they say things like “speak into my life” or “I declare over my life” I “hear” the word of faith movement. When people make such comments, they have not heard the voice of Jesus enough, because they cannot discern that this is false teaching. They have been listening to a false gospel too long. That is only one example of listening to a voice that is not the voice of the Lord. The Christian community contains many false voices, some stubborn and ancient and others new and changeable as the wind. Thankfully the Christian community also has the unchanging voice of Jesus.
In John 10:27 Jesus said that his sheep hear his voice. How do we discern Jesus’ voice? One way is that we “hear” Jesus when we read and meditate on his words often. If we do, then when we “hear” a different message, we recognize right away that it is not the voice of the Lord.
10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; Whose voice do we hear?
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| To add a comment to "Whose Voice?" |
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| April 28, 2008 |
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| One thing I know is that God does not contradict Himself. He wouldn't tell any one of us to do something that doesn't line up with His Word. I hear a lot of people justifying their behavior but saying, God told me, or God led me etc....but God would never tell us to do something that violates His own standards. |
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| April 28, 2008 |
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| So true! |
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| April 29, 2008 |
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Great blog, Grant! As in our discusssion of OMG, using God's name to justify actions falsely, is sin: Usage of the third commandment as a warning to speak and teach truth in God's name, not falsehood:
13:6 They have seen falsehood and lying divination, that say, Jehovah saith; but Jehovah hath not sent them: and they have made men to hope that the word would be confirmed. 13:7 Have ye not seen a false vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, in that ye say, Jehovah saith; albeit I have not spoken? 13:8 Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because ye have spoken falsehood, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord Jehovah. All in all, God's name is NOT to be used lightly or falsely, but with reverence and purpose!
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| April 30, 2008 |
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| Excellent comment Hal. You and I see this a lot on the Christian landscape, where people claim a prophecy, vision or "word" is from the Lord, when it is more often merely from their own over active imagination or desires to be "recognized" by others. As you rightly point out, this can be a rather careless, arrogant and even vain use of God's name. Blessings! |
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| April 30, 2008 |
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I think people have been reading bibles for hundreds of years and are still pointing their fingers at one another saying "if you do not hear what I hear, you can not be the voice I hear within myself"
It is impossible for us all to read the exact same verse and get the exact same voice within. Now each of the 6 billion people living presently can begin accusing one another of not being inspired or even of God with one another. Or they can begin to look at the matter through the oneness of God and his Control over all mankind. The Body of Christ is different and has many parts that do not seem to agree with each other. But these parts do actually flow within the bigger picture from a higher point of view. Kind of like the Universe. Every star is different than it's neighboring star, yet all is flowing toward the Control and provision of the Complete Body of the Whole.
I would like to say anybody on earth can disagree. It's as easy as breathing. It takes no special gift whatsoever. Each of us have strong intuition that the guy posting is not the voice I hear. Each of us have a natural order to flock together in a language of our own understanding. All of this natural grouping is a continuation of the way of this world and the carnal process of humanity.
It is by far a greater leap to accept everyone as precious from God's point of view and understand that the TRUTH does not need to be defended or organized as we fear sometimes. Peter learned this the hard way when he cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest. This organized control of religion over the mind of mankind comes to steal away the Truth. But we are not to get out our s-word and defend it. Just allow God to be all controlling. It is our part to Love each other, we are not hear to defend the Truth or organize it to our own understanding with each other. The Body of Christ is much to diverse for any of Us to understand it's process or to know what is TRUE or FALSE. We think we can, but we will eventually find out in Judgment that we did not know what we do. (They know not what they do)
Kw. |
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| April 30, 2008 |
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The New Testament warns of false teachers, so we can't just wander around naive and unaware of these things. The purpose of thoroughly knowing the voice Jesus is not to judge or condemn false teachers or even brothers and sisters in the Lord who are fooled by them, but to be so thoroughly acquainted with the genuine teachings of our Lord and Savior, that we are not so easily fooled by all of the false gospels out there.
It's kind of like when my wife worked in a Bank. She was trained to tell a counterfeit not by studying all the varieties of counterfeit out there, but by being so thoroughly acquainted with the genuine article that a counterfeit stood out very obviously. Too many of us are not acquainted enough with the voice of Jesus. That is obvious by the fact that too many are so easily fooled by false gospels. |
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| April 30, 2008 |
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| Much truth here, Grant, although a difficult truth in which to recognize our own reflections, as all the Christian voices are so well rehearsed and often repeated that we have no idea they could possibly be anything less than absolute truth. The "name it and claim it" voice. The "open the Bible randomly for today's 1-verse word from God" voice, the "KJV was God's original words" voice . . . All these voices have been passed down for several generations without any plumbline checks. Although I have no doubt that all sincere Christian voices are equally saved, we all need to regularly "warsh" our theologies, to continue to grow in understanding and to deepen our personal walks with God. Good post! (My Southern voice doesn't understand "red off the table." Does that mean to clear it?) :) |
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| May 01, 2008 |
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Kathy, I like the way you said we should "warsh" our theologies, and I would include, "in the water of the Word." Yes, red off the table does mean clear or perhaps even ready off the table.
Paul, you are so right, we need to listen to the warning, not be fooled by the voice of some counterfeits which tell us to just accept all "gospels" equally. |
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