When the Voice Heard Isn't Jesus

Jesus tells us in John 10:26-27 that those who believe in him also perceive communication, or as I've styled it, impressions, from him. They not only "hear" those impressions, they also respond to them, and as a result, they end up walking with Jesus. Being a believer is to hear Jesus and to walk with him as a result. Such a construct, unfortunately, involves a good bit of subjectivity. 

Like anything sensible and perceptual there’s a lot of individuality in it, and there’s danger in the inexactness of this kind of thing. A person might misperceive what was actually sent; we might receive something not sent from Jesus at all; we might even lose an impression in noise. Yet, there's no question, it’s beyond a shadow of doubt, that believers receiving impressions from Jesus is God’s very will for us. Jesus said in no uncertain terms, his sheep hear his voice.

We sense impressions. Maybe they’re communication from the Good Shepherd, maybe they're not.

That being the case, we have to wonder: how can a believer tell when an impression isn't Jesus? That's a super important question. Toward finding the answer to that query we’re going to run through a list of content types which impressions can bear, but which would mark that communication as not actually from Jesus. This is the Cull List that identifies that it’s not Jesus we’re hearing from.

We’ll start with what we can identify from the temptations of Jesus as found in Matthew 4:1-10.

Fiat. To act by will instead of by wait. 
An inclination stirred by a suspected impression to make something happen in your time instead of God’s time. This is either a misapprehension of something from God or something not from God at all (think, Abraham & Sarah's fiat producing Ishmael)

Folly. To test God's response.
An impression to throw caution to the wind, to presume upon the Word’s promise, and take an irreversible dive-- jumping just to see if he catches you-- isn’t from God. It’s merely folly, not the Shepherd.

Fame & Fortune. To aspire to wealth, power and notoriety.
An impression to aspire to or suggesting that we deserve fame and fortune isn’t from God. Such a sensation certainly isn’t from humble Jesus who called us to be the servant of all.

Moving on to the wisdom of Hebrews 2:15...

Fear. To be anxious about dying and facing eternal punishment.

An impression that calls into question a believer's status, given the sacrifice of Christ, is not from Jesus. Such conviction may come from the Holy Spirit to the unbeliever, but it won't come from God to the one already believing. Such an impression is out and out from the Devil.

And on to James 1:19-20 and Ephesians 4:26...

Fury. To give place to wrath.

If an impression entices you to fury, if it feeds the anger monster, that is not Jesus. We're not speaking of a minor annoyance here, but of a chain reaction of anger that leads to a nuclear explosion. An impression that lights this fuse could be your flesh, it could be the devil, but it isn’t God.

From Colossians 3:2a,5...

Fixation.  
An impression that coalesces our attention into an obsessive focus on something other than Christ is not from Jesus. We are to set, or fix our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2) and to set our minds on things above, an impression to do otherwise is not the voice of God.

Some spiritual sensations are not the voice of Jesus, our shepherd.

That sort can be discounted, even discarded as being counterfeit. The Word of God makes us wise so that we can discern the difference and don’t end up lost in the weeds chasing butterflies. Any impression along the lines above is not from the Shepherd and should be dismissed. Despite the possible drawbacks, God’s word to us is that believers will experience the voice of Jesus. We ought to discerningly listen.

Faith Versus Fear

"For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me." Job 3:25 (ESV)

I've often told my congregation that the opposite of faith, at least in the active sense, is not unbelief but fear. Fear is the electromagnetic pulse that disables faith. How many times in the Bible is a divine encounter or a mission assignment prefaced by the encouragement, "do not be afraid?" 65, at least! The faith-stifling affects of fear can't be minimized and should not be ignored.

Fear is the Devil's calling card, his MO. It is his means of controlling the herd and driving it to the slaughterhouse. If the Devil can induce fear in people, he's got them. Like a venomous spider's strike immobilizes prey so it can be eaten at a more convenient time, so the apprehension and terror the Devil inspires allows him to throw his victims in his satchel at his leisure. Though it's completely speculative, I've always wondered whether or not he said something to Adam and Eve to make them hide from God in the bushes.

Fear of punishment, fear of death, fear of loss or failure--the Devil has game at any level and with any kind of fear. I cannot prove it factually (other than in Job's case), but fear, even secretly held in the breast, seems to be a harbinger of bad things to come. I've known people that wear their fear as a badge of honor, as if it proves they care. It only proves that they scare. Fear will not deliver us from any unfortunate end, but it sure seems able to deliver us to those ends.

Faith on the other hand, portends good things to those that possess it. Faith in God can move a mountain or calm the storm at sea. Faith receives healing, welcomes the promise of God, and moves the faithful to act. Nothing is impossible for one who has faith! Fear clamps chains upon the unbelieving, whereas faith frees the soul to lay hold of God with a grip that holds even through the passage of death.

The truth is that if we have laid hold of God through faith, we have nothing to fear at all, not even fear itself.