Psalm 95:7-9 - September 28, 2009

Ps 95:7-9 "Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, 9 where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did." NIV

God is speaking, are you listening? Hearing the voice of God is not an exact science. God throughout the pages of God’s word He demonstrates an incredibly diverse array of means that He employs in communicating with His people. Throughout the Word we see God sending dreams, angelic messengers, catching people up in visionary trances, speaking to them through the whisper of the Holy Spirit’s voice in their time of prayer, speaking to them through prophetic symbolisms, giving signs in the heavens, sending prophets to speak directly, through the pages of scripture itself, and more. The Word makes it very clear through these examples that the all powerful creator God is not limited in the ways He can communicate
with His people.
Once we have settled the fact that God is speaking and is well able to speak clearly to His people we are compelled to consider the question: “If God is speaking and speaks well, why do His people have such a difficult time discerning and obeying the voice of God?” Psalm 95:7-9 identifies one of the primary concerns in regard to hearing the voice of God: the condition of your heart. Throughout the pages of scripture story after story reflects on the reality that many times God is speaking but His people do not want really want to hear. God speaks and in many instances He is calling His people to changes that they are unwilling to make or actions that they are unwilling to take. He speaks into our situation and we are faced with a question: “What will I do with the Word of the Lord?” We are forced to decide if we will accept the Word in faith and take steps of obedience, whether we will delay and seek to understand more clearly what is being said, whether we will acknowledge the Word and then do nothing or reject it as not from the Lord. In every case it is a matter of the heart.
The heart of man is God’s greatest obstacle to overcome! He is well able to move mountains, He has clearly demonstrated His capacity to turn water into wine, calm seas and multiply bread. What God finds as His biggest challenge is to motivate man to voluntary, love driven obedience that does not usurp man’s free will but rather inspires Him to choose obedience as the best course of action available to Him. When a man’s heart is soft, God can bring change easily. When a man has hardened his heart either because of past hurts, love of sin or fear of change the work of God is greatly reduced and its impact lessened. Each person is encouraged by the Lord in Prov 4:23 with the caution, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” When we have protected our heart from becoming hard then a life giving flow of God’s direction and interaction is released to us and as a result we enjoy a greater measure of fruitfulness in our partnership with Him and are protected from the snares of life more consistently. Give God your heart today and ask Him to make it good ground for His Word to work in you!