I was asked a particular question and decided to share the response with you my beloved readers.
Sir, how can you hear God’s voice effectively and differentiate between God’s voice and head voice (conscience)?
RESPONSE
Many believers striving to hear GOD’s voice ask this same question. When it comes to GOD, he can speak in an infinite number of ways. However, when we are born of Him i.e. when we get born again, we become like him and he is able to communicate with us just like babies can communicate with their parents—through these infinite number of ways—one of which is through our conscience.
Take the example of physical babies. Babies are not born speaking any default language in particular but as they spend quality time with their parents/caregivers, they learn to decipher messages from these folks. They also learn to encode, decode and transmit messages to their parents/caregivers in the language of their parents/caregivers.
If the parents speak English, that baby learns to speak English over a period of time. If the parents speak Chinese, that baby learns to speak Chinese. In like manner when a new born babe in Christ is born, they may not comprehend the language of GOD right away but as they spend time with their Father—GOD, they learn to speak his language and understand and distinguish His voice from a thousand others. Many learn the voice of man—not God because they spend more time with man than God.
Jesus Christ noted:
Joh 10:27 AMP The sheep that are My own hear and are listening to My voice; and I know them, and they follow Me.
Jesus’ sheep [not lambs] do the following:
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Hear His voice
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Listen to His voce
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Follow Him &
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He knows them
When a person is born again and FILLED with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit [who is GOD] who lives in them, communicates with them through various means, including through their conscience—just like any Father and Mom would spend time talking to their baby. This interaction introduces the baby to language. Soon they begin to pick up syllables and they begin to mouth words and eventually partial and full sentences. This process is natural and organic. So the process to knowing the voice of God is as simple as spending quality time with Him one-on-one [i.e. intimacy with GOD]. This is the same way physical babes learn the voice of their parents or caregivers. Our spiritual caregiver is the Holy Spirit. He is also our Father God for God is Spirit and they that worship Him must do so in Spirit and in Truth.
Kangaroo care (which includes intimacy with parent) also aids proper childhood development for physical babies. It’s the same for new born babes in Christ. Spending time getting to know what is on GOD’s heart or bosom is key.
The importance of eating much of the Word of GOD as a prerequisite for spiritual growth cannot be underestimated. Growth enables us to mature so we can better communicate with GOD and so that he can better communicate with us. To hear GOD well, we must study and live his word—not only read it. The spirit of his word must govern our conscience.
Like physical babies, we begin with milk and progress to meat.
1Pe 2:2 KJV As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
Notice that it is our responsibility to desire the milk of GOD’s Word.
Heb 5:12-14 KJV
(12) For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
(13) For every one that useth milk
is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
(14) But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Verse 14 above shows that for one to be skillful in discerning between good and evil i.e. by our conscience, it takes spiritual growth and/or maturity. This means using our spiritual senses over a period of time. As we exercise our senses they get sharper. When we neglect them, they become dormant.
Physical children do likewise. They learn to distinguish between good and evil by the exercise of their senses as they grow.
But note that growth in Christ has nothing to do with physical age. We have 50 year old babes in Christ and 10 year old mature believers in Christ.
If GOD speaks through our consciences, then what is a conscience in the first place?
DEFNITION
From a NT biblical perspective, a conscience is referred to as as συνείδησις or transliterated as suneidēsis and Thayer defines it as “the soul as distinguishing between what is morally good and bad, prompting to do the former and shun the latter, commending one, condemning the other”.
The 1828 Webster’s dictionary defines it as “the faculty, power or principle within us, which decides on the lawfulness or unlawfulness of our own actions and affections, and instantly approves or condemns them. Conscience is called by some writers the moral sense, and considered as an original faculty of our nature”.
I simply define is as a person’s knower—that which makes them know things. We all have something within us that makes an attempt to correct us when we are messing up. That things knows right from the wrong. That knower is your conscience. We can heed it or disobey it. It was put in us by GOD but can be seared or burned out.
ROOT of the WORD
Furthermore the prefix con-, means “with” or “together” or “thoroughly”.
So for e.g. let’s take the word “confluence”. It is made up of 3 words namely:
con- → with, together, thoroughly
flu → flow
ence → state or condition
A confluence is therefore a “state or condition” of “flowing together.”
In like manner, conscience is made up of:
con- → with, together
scire → to know
ence → state or condition
A conscience is a “state or condition” of “knowing together” or “Knowing thoroughly”.
Looked at differently, the Greek word for conscience syneídēsis is derived from:
sýn which means “together with” and
eídō which means “to know, see”
SO conscience can be defined also as joint-knowing. Why joint knowing?
1Co 6:16-17 KJV
(16) What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
(17) But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
When we are born again or joined to the Lord GOD, we become ONE spirit—meaning that person’s spirit now has access to the knowledge of GOD’s spirit. Infact they have ONE spirit and joint thorough knowing. The fact that believers may not exercise this awesome ability does not mean it does not exist. It does!
Our conscience is not necessarily our head talking. There are instances when it can be our heads talking such as when the conscience is seared or cauterized. There are other instances when it can be demons or lying spirits talking such as when a weak conscience is defiled. But a good, pure, strong conscience is a conduit for the voice of GOD the Holy Spirit.
Before the fall of man, the conscience of man was totally submitted to GOD. At that time it was an appropriate conduit for the voice of GOD. But with the fall, has come weakness and in some cases defilement of the conscience. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection restored that which was lost—including a restoration of the relationship with our creator who can speak to us in many ways—our consciences being one of such conduits of the voice of GOD.
There are many characteristics of conscience that can be gleaned from the scriptures. The following are a few:
A conscience can be weak or strong.
1Co 8:12 KJV But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.
A conscience can be pure or defiled.
1Ti 3:9 KJV Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
1Co 8:7 KJV Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.
Tit 1:15 KJV Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothingpure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
A weak conscience can easily be defiled. The human conscience can also be wounded when it is weak. A strong conscience on the other hand cannot be wounded.
1Co 8:12 KJV But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.
A conscience can be good or evil.
1Ti 1:5 KJV Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:
1Ti 1:19 KJV Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
Heb 10:22 KJV Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
A conscience can be SEARED.
1Ti 4:2 AMP Through the hypocrisy and pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared (cauterized),
The medical practice or technique of cauterization (or cauterisation, or cautery) is the burning of part of a body to remove or close off a part of it, which destroys some tissue. Cautery was historically believed to prevent infection, but current research shows that cautery actually increases the risk for infection by causing more tissue damage and providing a more hospitable environment for bacterial growth.
A seared conscience gives a conducive environment for infestation by demons and other evils.
Hearing GOD fluently and communicating with him effectively is a consecrated process connected with spiritual growth. There are no 10 or 5 steps to hearing His voice. All it takes is having a relationship with him, sincerely desiring Him and His Word and exercising ones spiritual senses. We cannot develop a relationship with Him without studying His Word so this too is important. The rest is supernaturally natural to the believer. His sheep knows His voice.
