Jesus said that if He is your Shepherd, then you know His voice, and a stranger you will not follow (John 10:4-5). Not only will His sheep not follow a stranger, but they will run from him, for they know not the voice of strangers.
The way we recognize the voice of our Shepherd is by spending time reading His Words (especially the “red letter” words found in the four Gospels and Revelations 1-3). We also become acquainted to His voice by spending time in His presence in worship, prayer, and meditation. It is in these intimate times of private devotion that He often speaks to us, and His spoken words always line up with what we have read in His written Word.
This is what makes it easy to detect “the voice of the stranger”—because it is strange! It is obvious when something does not line up with the Word of God we know in the Bible. (It is a prerequisite, therefore, that we become familiar with the Word.) Our spirits will strongly protest when the voice we are hearing conflicts with the Truth we have treasured in our hearts!
John said, “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.… But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie…” (1 John 2:20-21, 27).
This phenomenon is predicated on the fact that we have taken the time and daily continue to be renewed in the spirit of our mind by the Word of God. This enables us to immediately recognize the voice of the stranger. I once read that bank tellers are trained to recognize counterfeit bills, not by studying the counterfeits, but by becoming thoroughly familiarized with the real thing. Then it is easy for them to detect when a bill does not feel right or look right. Then upon further examination, it is shown to be phony.
It Is the Familiar Voice of Self That Is Harder to Discern
Our own voice is what often gives us problems, because it is not strange sounding! We’ve been hearing it our entire lives—even before we started hearing God’s voice, when we were born again of His Spirit, and the incorruptible seed of His Word began producing His nature in us. Our own voice may sound perfectly plausible, self-pleasing, and even wise. But it is subject to the very same test that must be applied to everything we hear—Does it agree with God’s Word? That is, rightly divided—line up line, precept upon precept, statute upon statute, here a little, and there a little, but all in harmony with the Truth we know to be true!
This doesn’t mean that our own voice is always wrong, but the possibility is always there, so we must be diligent in comparing what we’re hearing. We can be misled by emotions, personal experiences that can influence or even jade our perspective, and even by facts that are not the truth. It is a fact that the mortality rate for humans is 100%. But the truth is, Jesus said, “Whosoever believes in me shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life.”
The goal is that as we mature as children of God, we will find our own voice speaks more and more in agreement with the Word and conflicts become less. Even so, we must always “Trust in the Lord with all our hearts, and lean not unto our own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). Seeking the Lord about everything is the path of safety, for “He shall direct thy paths” (vs. 6). And He speaks through His Word. Every “rhema word” will be confirmed by Scripture. He speaks, He witnesses, He confirms—“in the mouths of two or three shall every word be established” (Matt. 18:16). God is not silent, and He does not stutter. If you are His child, He wants to make His will plain to you. Just ask Him: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him” (James 1:5). He will not scold or withhold.
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