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Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, (Heb 3:7-8, NKJV)
Recently I was speaking with a dear saint about our Lord and how He wants to communicate with us on a daily, moment by moment basis, even about the minutest things we engage in or are concerned with. It was a sweet time of fellowship in which we felt the presence of the Lord. Then the above passage came to light which is in reference to the following passage in the book of Deuteronomy:
“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God: (Deut 28:1-2, NKJV – emphasis added)
The first thing that we noticed was that it says, TODAY, if we will hear His voice and carefully observe all that He commands. It doesn’t say “yesterday” as if we can extrude verses from the Bible where His words are recorded from long ago and use our religious intellects to apply them to each situation. Satan tried that with Jesus during His temptation in the wilderness.
Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” (Matt 4:5-6, ESV- emphasis added)
Yes, Satan knows how to use the Bible to lead us into error and sin. If Satan tried that with the Son of God, don’t you know that he can and will try that with you? The Bible is only useful for today as Jesus brings the scriptures to life and speaks to us about our lives in and through the Spirit, and we obey Him moment by moment. I always thought what Jesus said to the disciples is a contrast to merely reading the Bible out of curiosity or a daily religious regimen.
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (John 14:25-26, ESV)
The key thing here is the need for the Holy Spirit to teach us! Without the Spirit guiding us with His still small voice, all our religious practices and Bible memorization are for naught. He went on to tell them:
“…When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16:12-15, ESV – emphasis added)
Wow! He said ALL! All that the Spirit of God has is ours as we listen and obey HIS voice as our only Guide.
The Holy Spirit was given to the ecclesia of God, the Church, on the day of Pentecost so that we would not have to wait until the sixteenth century to finally get our own personal Bibles so we could read what God wanted (For all those centuries the Church had no Bibles to read. If there were any that had been hand copied, they were written in a dead language that only scholars could discipher, then locked away in monasteries or chained to a pulpit). No, the Spirit, through whom the very Word of God was still speaking, did not leave them alone, just as Jesus promised. “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” What a wonderful communion we miss with God when we do not take the time to stop what we are doing and listen to HIS voice. What wonderful revelations and guidance we miss and what troubles we bring upon ourselves when we don’t obey that voice.
In Revelation we read the same phrase seven times, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” It seems that by the end of the first century when this book was written, the church had become spiritually deaf, because these seven churches were falling to all manner of spiritual delusions and lying teachers. They had left their First Love and stopped listening to HIS voice. Even today we have no shortage of Bible teachers, but how many of them point us to the Holy Spirit and our need to listen to HIM? All too many of them garner our devotion and attention to themselves. Instead of seeking to suckle on the breast of men, we are told we should be…
“Like newborn infants, [and] long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him…” (1Pet 2:2-4, ESV- emphasis added)
Dear saints, without pure spiritual milk we will never grow up so that we can handle His spiritual meat, doing the will of God at every turn in our lives just as Jesus did (see John 4:34, KJV).
Father, please impress upon our hearts just how greatly we need spiritual ears to hear and glad hearts that obey your Spirit.
But He answered and said, “It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”‘ (Matt 4:4, NKJV- emphasis added)
Yes, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says [is saying] to the churches.”
A Wilderness Voice 
Great insights you share TODAY, Michael! ⭐
I was just reminded of the following Scripture.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Heb 13:8 NKJV)
Present Tense (He IS the same) not only TODAY, but also YESTERDAY in the past and FOREVER in the future right ahead of us. I am not sure I can fully grasp the implications of this truth yet. God does not change… 🤔Therefore, nobody but Him can be trusted… 🙏🕊️ as only God can keep all His promises. But oh, how hard it is for our old nature to really trust in Him!! 🙄
May God give us ears to hear His voice TODAY and the desire to really obey Him as He speaks and leads us into directions we would have never chosen on our own! 🙏🏼🗣️👂🏼👂🏼👣🚶🏼♀️🚶🏻♂️If we obey, the blessing follows, often immediately. 😇👍🏼
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Thanks for your edifying comment, Susanne. That verse in Hebrews you shared is a good one showing how with God in all His personhood, time is irrelevant. No wonder that God told Moses when asked His name, “I AM that I AM… tell them I AM sent you.” Jesus told the Pharisees, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” He is the same, yesterday, today and forever because He is in that forever presence in heavenly places. It is His creation that has been made subject to the vanity of time and its wasting effects upon it because of man’s following the voice of Satan. Yet, we have a blessed hope as He lifts us up out of all that. Paul wrote,
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Eph 2:4-6, NKJV)
He did not write, He WILL raise us up, but HAS raised us up IN Christ while we were yet sinners. Now THAT is faith. HIS faith in what is being done for and in us IN Christ. HE has raised us up together! As we abide IN Him in heavenly places we experience His timelessness. We have already experienced it when we have been in spiritual fellowship and have slipped over into that peaceful quietness where words ceased to be relevant… nothing but abiding in that heavenly flow of the Spirit which restores our weary souls and gives us His peace. What sweet times they have been, dear sister.
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You are very welcome, my brother.
Yes, Michael, we experience wonderful times when God eventually overtakes and makes spiritual fellowship happen. It is this heavenly peace that wraps us up despite our personal circumstances that makes all the difference.
“The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Phil 4:5-8 ESV)
He is guarding our hearts and minds IN Christ Jesus through His peace as we bring EVERYTHING that worries us before Him. But how often – after having prayed the same thing over and over and over again – I do not really trust Him or I try something on my own. 🙄 It is only when I find myself at my wits’ end that I finally surrender to Him and then He acts.
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Yes, Susanne, I know this process well. Sad to say, I am more like Abraham as he took matters into his own hands and went into Hagar who brought forth Ishmael instead of waiting for the promised child, Isaac through Sarah. That woman and child of his flesh went on to bring them both to their wits end in the final case as Ishmael persecuted Isaac and Hagar mocked Sarah.
I have had a few Ishmaels in my life, for sure, but the whole process has taught me to wait upon the Lord more and more and to walk more in faith in Him than I did in the beginning.
For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. (Gal 5:5-6, ESV)
Yes, faith works through love and the greatest of these is love.
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Hi Michael,
I have been listening to His voice for a very long time, and He is always right. Many years ago it was so hard for me to trust the Lord Jesus. I felt like I was falling off a cliff. Yet now I understand why He led me down the road that he did. I was in need of the cross!! The puzzle is coming together for me and listening to God’s voice is vital. My favorite time is always when I can spend quality time with the the LORD daily. No one else can help or counsel me the way He can. Only He knows us truly and what we really need. Trusting Him during this crazy time has been so joyful! There are so many distractions but quality time with Jesus is priceless and precious.
Your sister in Christ,
Wanda
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Yes, Wanda, trusting and resting IN Christ is our healing balm against the insanity of this dying world. Thanks for sharing your experiences in prayer with us.
Oh, Father, draw us up into your forever presence where your Son, Jesus, is even though our bodies must abide here on this earth for a season. May our spirits be one in your presence just as Jesus prayed, “That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us,” Amen.
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Thank you, Susanne, for posting the passage from Philippians! With all the worldly noise today, it is easy to forget that the Lord is at hand, that there is nothing to be anxious about, and that there are honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy things to focus on.
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You are very welcome, Louise. 😊 I needed this reminder myself as I usually tend to focus on the bad things; seems to be a habit of my old nature. 😐
“Worldly noise”, that’s it, indeed! 👍🏼 And it appears to be getting worse every day but God offers us His peaceful presence instead. 🙏🏼🕊️🛏️😴 (= rest)
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The only thing we have to give up in Christ is what was never of God our Father in the first place.
thank you for this excellent word!
thank you Jesus!
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“What a wonderful communion we miss with God when we do not take the time to stop what we are doing and listen to HIS voice. What wonderful revelations and guidance we miss and what troubles we bring upon ourselves when we don’t obey that voice.”
Amen, Michael. Of course all that the Spirit speaks into our hearts will always be in accord with the written word, but to pursue our course by the written word alone is not God’s way of life, and will not get us to God’s destination– life.
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Allan, thanks for your comment. You wrote, “Of course all that the Spirit speaks into our hearts will always be in accord with the written word, but to pursue our course by the written word alone is not God’s way of life, and will not get us to God’s destination– life.” You are right, Allan, and this is exactly the the reason that the scribes and Pharisees did not recognize Jesus as the Son of God which He addressed saying,
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40, ESV)
With all their scripture reading and learning they were still deaf and blind to the Spirit of God. And this spiritual disease continues to this day. “The flesh prophets nothing!”
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