Lately I’ve been thinking about how many of God’s daughters go around listening to the voice of the enemy because it’s a familiar voice to us. Lies that have been whispered into our being for a very long time, that have become so innate to our minds and our ways. Lies that we’ve started to think are just our thoughts, they’ve just become what’s normal for us.
The reason I recognize this is because I’ve been there! I’ve had patterns and thoughts that were so normal for me that I didn’t even realize I was doing it. Thoughts of insecurity and feelings of anxiety were norms for me. Because of this I sought, for many years, to find things to cover up these feelings. The problem is, there is nothing that can cover up the lies and feelings. No matter how hard you try to cover them up, they are still there.
How I learned to overcame this was by learning to run to Jesus’ voice and to flee from the voice of the enemy. As I learned what Jesus’ voice sounded like, I craved it! It was the voice of peace, the voice of love! The voice of restoration and freedom! I then began to recognize that the thoughts and feelings I’d lived with for so long, were not of him! It takes practice, diligence, and effort on your part to run to Jesus. You can’t sit complacent. You can’t sit as a victim. You have to actively run towards Jesus. By doing this, you flee from the enemy and when those lies try to chase you down, you take them captive and bring them into obedience to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5)
You have to actively run towards Jesus. By doing this, you flee from the enemy and when those lies try to chase you down, you take them captive and bring them into obedience to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5)
My question for you is this, do you recognize the lies of the enemy in your life? Or have you grown so used to hearing his voice that you allow the whispers to permeate your mind? Familiar thought patterns, familiar feelings. Anxiety, shame, inferiority, failure, insecurity, self doubt, anger, resentment. Do any of these sound familiar to you?
Hearing the Voice of Jesus
The Bible says that Jesus is our shepherd and we are his sheep. That means that he protects us and watches over us. He guides us and speaks to us to tell us where to go, tells us what is safe and what is not.
John 10:27 AMP says, “The sheep that are My own hear My voice and listen to Me; I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they will never, ever [by any means] perish; and no one will ever snatch them out of My hand.”
I love the picture here of the good shepherd. Jesus says, “The sheep that are My own…” So first, he is saying, the sheep that are mine hear my voice. Once we choose to follow Jesus, to make him our Lord and Savior, he says that you are his and that you hear him! If we hear him, that means he’s speaking to us. Isn’t that amazing? Jesus is speaking to us all the time, and he wants us to listen to him!
So the question for you is, are you only listening to the voice of Jesus, the good shepherd? The one who leads us out of danger and leads you in peace? Or are you still listening to the familiar voice of the enemy that feeds lies?
Being Born Again and Becoming Spiritual Babes
I have two children, ages 5 and 2. What amazed me when they were born is knowing that they could recognize my voice! Studies show that babies start to recognize their mother’s voice around month 8 or 9 in the womb! So even before they are born, they recognize the sound of their mother’s voice. That is such an incredible design that God designed to happen so naturally. Of course the security and love that a mother’s voice brings is only further established once they are born. By the time a baby’s separation anxiety kicks in around 8 months old, they have completely established that my mother is a safe place. If I hear her voice, I am safe and I will run towards it – or technically crawl, but you get the picture!
So, what does this have to do with following Jesus? Well, in John chapter 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus, who was a leader among the Pharisees, that you can not see the kingdom of God, unless you are born again. We become spiritual babes. We start as spiritual infants who for the first time, our eyes are opened to who Jesus is, the good shepherd, that voice of peace and safety. And our EARS opened up to hear this voice. Remember, he says in John 10:27 that his sheep that are his own hear his voice and listen!
Just like babies know their mother is the safe place to be, they have learned to recognize her voice and stay near her, we, as children of God, need to learn to recognize his voice. The mistake many of us make is, unlike our physical children who learn by 8 months their mother is the safe place, many of us have heard the voice of the enemy for so long that it becomes background noise, and we don’t flee from it! We start to hear and recognize the voice of Jesus when we are born again, but many of us allow the voice of the enemy to remain.
This creates a vicious cycle of thoughts and patterns, where we continually allow the voice of the enemy into our minds – in the disguise of familiarity. He easily makes it feel like this is “normal” or just “our own thoughts”. He is a deceiver and disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). One way he does this by making us believe our negative thoughts that he actually feeds us are perfectly normal and acceptable. This is extremely dangerous because we can’t grow in spiritual maturity if we continually allow the voice of the enemy in and don’t learn how to take authority over it!
Just like babies know their mother is the safe place to be, they have learned to recognize her voice and stay near her, we, as children of God,
need to learn to recognize his voice.
What if our physical children didn’t learn the difference between the voice of their mother (or father) and a stranger? There would not be trust developed to allow them to grow spiritually in the confidence of a son or daughter. There is an assurance and trust in the relationship between a baby and its parents which is necessary for the child to grow in confidence and hear the voice that will encourage, affirm, speak identity, and also guide the child. It’s the same way for us, as children of God. If we don’t learn to stop listening to the voice of the enemy and learn to only listen to the voice of Jesus, we remain spiritually stunted.
Moving towards Jesus
Jesus also says in John 10:27 that we follow him. If we follow him, that requires movement! Repenting is a part of receiving salvation, and when we repent we turn away from our old ways of doing things and we run and move towards Jesus. That means we have to move from the voice of the enemy, the voice that even though it was not a voice of peace, it was familiar to us, and we need to run to the voice of Jesus. The voice that brings peace, healing, freedom, and our true identity as a daughter of the king.
The goal of the enemy is that we don’t move closer to Jesus, and that he drowns out the voice of Jesus, who is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE (John 14:6). We become stuck in a place in between the voice of Jesus and the voice of the enemy. He paralyzes us from moving forward in all that God has planned for our life. How devastating! If we can not learn to recognize and stop the voice of the enemy, we become paralyzed and miss out on so much that God has for us! So much freedom comes from taking authority over that voice of fear!
Far too many of God’s daughters are stuck in either a place of victimhood or complacency. When you’re being a victim, you blame your situation on others’ wrongs, and there’s not a whole lot you feel motivated to do because you always blame others. Also, equally dangerous is getting stuck in a place of complacency, with no motivation to take active part in the authority you have over the enemy! Listen, we are in an active spiritual battle, there is no room for complacency or victimhood!
Listen, we are in an active spiritual battle,
there is no room for complacency or victimhood!
What do we do?
It takes practice to learn to recognize the patterns our minds have become trapped in. The thoughts that have become a familiar and worn path. It’s personally taken me years to overcome and make NEW PATHS, but Jesus has given us the power and authority to do this!
2 Corinthians 10:5 says, We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
So how do we do this? When we learn Jesus’ voice, it teaches us what his voice is not. Then we take it captive and say no more! I will only listen to Jesus and what he says. We have to take thoughts captive to obey Christ. To his truth! We need to make a decision to move towards and only listen to the voice of truth!
When we learn Jesus’ voice, it teaches us what his voice is not.
Listening to the truth of Jesus means you stand on the Word of God! Once you recognize the lie for what it is, you must find scriptures that declare the truth. When those thoughts come, you stop them and start declaring truth over yourself. This is the process of bringing lies into obedience to Christ! This is running to Jesus!
Friend, you are more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus (Romans 8:37)! The cross is all the power you need to bring those thoughts captive and stand as a beautiful conqueror in freedom, moving towards Jesus and your beautiful destiny that he has for your life!
I challenge you to ask Jesus to reveal to you when the thoughts you’re partnering with are not of him. Pay attention to thoughts that don’t bring peace and bring instead – anxiety, fear, comparison, inferiority, shame, anger, resentment. Don’t ever come into agreement and partner with those lies. You are not an anxious person, you don’t have to live believing “it’s just who you are”! Far too many of God’s daughters walk around believing the lies of the enemy and that it’s “just who they are”. There is freedom available by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. It’s time to RUN towards Jesus.
Pray with me .
Jesus, teach me to recognize when I am listening to a voice that is not of you. I want to live my life like John 10:27 says. I want to be a sheep that hears your voice and runs to you. Teach me to take authority over thoughts that don’t bring your truth and to bring them captive to obey you. Amen!
