Remember the time you were expecting (hoping for, dreading), an extremely important phone call? Maybe it was about a job you badly needed, or news about a loved one's medical condition. Perhaps you wanted someone you were interested in to call you, or possibly you were anxious because you weren't contacted when a child was scheduled to do so. Then, the phone rang and you answered. Or maybe it was a message on voice mail. The person's voice was garbled and the words couldn't be understood. This is what happened next -
1) You were convinced it was the call you were expecting.
2) Whatever emotion you were feeling before the call was magnified ten times.
This experience is an excellent example about how we hear the voice of God.
Unless you first crucify your desires, they will ALWAYS distort God's voice to make it sound like WHAT YOU WANT HIM TO SAY. Just like your emotions MADE the distorted voice mail sound like something it did not. WHAT WE WANT will interpret the Inner Voice of the Holy Spirit the same way.
That is why we must be "willing to do WHATEVER His will is" or we will never know it.
16 "My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.
17 If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, (the voice) whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. (John 7:16,17)
It begins with completely laying aside our own will, and telling the Father, "I want to know what you want, and I'm willing to do it, whatever it is."
The Bible then becomes the Final Authority, no matter what anyone SAYS "God told them".
The fact that you can't wrap your mind around all that the Bible says, is actually a very encouraging thing. It is a sign that He is bigger than, and can do beyond, what you can even think!
It would be somewhat depressing if any of us could comprehend all of the Scriptures intellectually, for then God would be no bigger than any of us.
