Simon Says

"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand." John 10:27-28

Simon Says is a "children's game for three or more players. One player takes the role of "Simon" and issues instructions (usually physical actions such as "jump in the air" or "stick out your tongue") to the other players, which should be followed only when prefaced with the phrase "Simon says.""Anyone who played this game as a child got a lot of enjoyment from it. The key to succeeding in the game was trying not to react to hearing the command apart from it being prefaced with "Simon says." It is kind of like when responding to the call of your parents. If they summoned you by your first name, you were slow in responding. However, if their tone changed and they summoned you by your full name, you knew it was as if they had said "Simon Says" and you should respond immediately or face the consequences. However, when it comes to our relationship with Jesus Christ, hearing the voice of the Lord can be more challenging to discern. When you combine trying to hear the "still small voice (1 Kings 19:12)" of the Lord with the distractions from the world and the deceptive influences of the devil, it can be next to impossible to be certain who it is trying to speak to you, if anyone at all. There are Christians who say, "Sometimes I go a stretch of time without talking to Him. Maybe I do and don't realize it." Others, like myself, wonder if those things we would describe as gut feelings or passing thoughts are God trying to talk to us, but we just dismiss them as being byproducts of our chaotic mind. The difficult part is avoiding comparisons of our interactions, or lack thereof, with God to those we see in scripture. We can look at scripture and think that God was talking to people as often as we carry on text conversations with people on our smartphones. We see Moses up on Mount Sinai for weeks talking to God and can be jealous of all the time He spent with the Lord. Although we don't want God to allow the devil to pick on us like He did with Job, we can be envious of God taking time to talk with him for as long as He did. Then there is the case of Paul on the road to Damascus where Jesus Christ directly confronted him and changed the course of his life. When compared to our own lives we look at experiences like this and say to ourselves, "I just want to know you're there, God." It doesn't have to be earth-shattering or life-changing, just an acknowledgment that He is with us.

Jesus said that His sheep hear His voice and follow Him. One reason we may not believe we hear His voice is that we forget that He dwells within us. We can read scripture and get the impression that God is always speaking to us from far away; outside our bodies. We think that He is sitting up in Heaven looking down on us, floating around in a cloud we cannot approach, or living inside a temple or church somewhere that only specially chosen people are allowed to enter. Perhaps this is why we don't recognize His voice when He speaks to us. The Lord said, "I still have much to tell you, but you cannot yet bear to hear it. However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth (John 16:12-13)." When we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, it is more than our acknowledgment that He conquered death, fulfilled prophecy or proved His deity. It was the moment that true salvation was offered to mankind. When Jesus rose from the dead it was the last step required before God would restore His life to mankind through the giving of the Holy Spirit. Now, through faith in Jesus Christ, we have the life of God indwelling us for eternity. This is the same life that God gave to Adam during creation which made him a living being. It is the same life that Jesus promised would lead us into all truth. It is the same life given as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come for us in eternity. My prayer is that when you begin to understand this truth, you will start to be able to discern when God is talking to you. Maybe now you will realize that you have something better than Moses and Job had. They didn't have the indwelling Holy Spirit. You have something better than Adam had in the Garden. The Holy Spirit will never leave you when you sin like He did when Adam sinned. Albeit, for a brief moment, you won't need Jesus to appear to you in a blinding light to get your attention like He did with Paul. This doesn't make you better than Paul, any of the Old Testament saints or any Christian you can think of as if they should be envious of you. This just means that as one of the Lord's sheep and He as your shepherd, you now have His life indwelling you. You are now able to hear His voice as He speaks to you through the Spirit or reveals His truth by teaching you His word. Do not be discouraged if you do not feel God has spoken to you. Rather, be encouraged that you care enough to want to hear from Him. When the time comes He will speak to you. How much and to what extent is between Himself and you. You will hear His voice and in the meantime, remember that you have eternal life, shall never perish, and that nothing, including your sins, can snatch you from His hand. Happy Easter.