Knowing The Voice of Jesus
And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers (John 10:4-5, KJV).
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand (John 10:27-28, KJV).
The word of God shows us that we know the voice of our saviour - the Lord Jesus Christ. I am not sure about you, but for me this has been the hardest aspect of my walk. I am blessed to be able to hear really well into the spiritual realm. I am bombarded with voices, pictures and thoughts that are not my own. Before I was saved I always laughed at my busy head, believing I had a really active imagination. After I was saved those thoughts, pictures and voices became angry. I remember the day I was water baptised. When I was lifted out of the water I heard a multitude of angry voices swearing obscenities at me. I tend to hear demons wherever I go, more so when entering places where God has called me to deliver something. I have never heard a spirit speaking to me audibly (including the Holy Spirit) so for me to ‘hear’ Jesus speaking to me it has always been through my own thoughts (which includes hearing or seeing in words, sentences or pictures). Another faculty the Lord uses for me is through smells, feelings or touch. The thing I heard most spoken by other Christians was how they found it hard to discern between their own thoughts and the voice of the Holy Spirit within those thoughts. I was the complete opposite – whenever I got words spoken into my mind, or a picture I pretty much knew when it was my own thoughts as opposed to whether it came from a spiritual source, but the problem was I couldn’t tell the difference between the source of the voice. You would think that discerning between good and evil would be easy, and it is when the evil ones are revealing themselves in their true form, but the problem is more often than not they will reveal themselves to you as an angel of light. Their job is to deceive. God lead me on a journey to know His voice because He told me that I would speak His rhema word into the lives of many. The enemy did a real number on me using feelings, emotions, Scriptures, and even telling me what I wanted to hear in order to trick me.
I would sit under the presence of the Lord Jesus and ask Him through His Holy Spirit to speak to me so I could learn His voice. Many times I would put aside time, wait on Him and receive two sets of different words that looked the same and then I was told I had to discern Him from the two. I would take them to Mark and other people. I would say, “Help me to discern Jesus through these two different words so I can learn His voice.” The problem was they both seemed right and more often than not we couldn’t tell the difference. I would get incredibly frustrated during these times. I would mention to others about the times that God spoke and I would get such a knowing that I just knew that I knew it was Him. I loved those times as they were easy to discern. I would wonder why God couldn’t talk to me all the time like that instead of sending me these confusing messages and ask me to discern. After many years of this Mark got a revelation. He said to me “I don’t think any of them are God when you get these words to try and discern, it is the enemy playing games with you, that is why you can’t discern between the two, because none of them are God.” I laughed as the penny dropped. Of course the enemy was doing this to send confusion.
Whilst I was trying to learn the voice of God (who of course is also Jesus Christ through His Holy Spirit) I got told by other people to simply step out when I had been shown something and test it to see if it was right or wrong. I felt that was a good idea and lived by this principle. Sometimes I got the peace and knowing and I enjoyed those times because I was much more confident that it was right. The problem was however 9/10 times when I couldn’t discern the source of the voice with the ‘peace and knowing’ it would be still be confirmed by the person I had given the word too that what I was shown was right because it was accurate.
This went on for many years and I got quite comfortable and then tended to step out more and more with what I was shown even though I didn’t have the peace and knowing (unless of course it didn’t line up with Scripture or the character of God). The problem was even though it was confirmed by the recipient to be accurate there seemed to be little fruit coming from it. It concerned me but I figured maybe it was because I was just playing a part in the final outcome and someone else would get more for them later.
When I laid down the Ministry in October 2016 the Lord had told me that a new Ministry would take its place. He told me that I would give birth to the new Ministry when the time was right. About a year after the laying down I received some baby food in my grocery order. I did not order any baby food and figured it was a sign from God that it was soon. A couple nights later I was at home when I heard a voice tell me it was time to deliver. I didn’t know what to do so I googled ‘How to birth a Ministry in God’. Most sites said to pray in tongues. I started praying in tongues walking up and down the Hallway. I felt overwhelmed with emotion and got encompassed by a feeling of spiritual energy which I believed to be God and started crying and yelling to Mark – “The baby is coming”. Mark and the kids gathered around me praying in tongues. We prayed and asked God for confirmation that this was from Him. Nobody got confirmation but I was so encompassed in overwhelming feelings we decided it was must have been right. We asked God what to do and I felt to simply give a gentle push in a prophetic act. Mark and I both saw a baby boy in a vision being delivered. In a prophetic act Mark cut the umbilical cord and handed the baby to me. Interestingly Mark and I both saw the baby as dark-skinned which we felt strange because we are both white-skinned. Not long after this Mark had a dream about a child we had and it was dark-skinned and he realised in the dream how hard it was for him to accept this child because it meant I had been having an affair and of course the baby wasn’t his. I asked him if he thought it was a warning about the baby I had prophetically delivered in regard to the new Ministry. We both prayed and asked God to show us if this was deception or not.
A few days later I set aside time to spend with the Lord Jesus and during this time this is what I heard: - “What is it that you seek? I said “I seek You Lord Jesus Christ.” I heard, “Are you willing to hear what I say? I am going to ask you to do something and you will not want to do it. The birth of the baby was deception and not of Me. It was all about feelings and what you felt. If you entered into Ministry with this baby it would be all about counterfeit feelings, signs and wonders. In order for the new to come you need to renounce this baby. You need to cut ungodly soul ties with this Ministry baby and repent for believing this was the true Ministry that I have for you. Ask Me to release the true Ministry I have for you. I need you to repent for partnering with foreign gods. You and Mark prayed and asked if this was of Me and wanted confirmation. Nobody was sure so you went ahead anyway. This isn’t entirely wrong in itself as you stepped out in faith in the hope that it was, and because of this I will show you the truth. I want for you to have the real. How do you tell the difference? Look for the inner witness. This comes from your spirit and is called intuition. From now on if you doubt do not step out. Wait for more. There is a teaching that says if you are not sure then go ahead, step out and give it a try. You can learn if it was My voice by stepping out but it can also open the door for deception to enter. Once you learn My voice wait for the recognition of My voice hereinafter. I am calling people to be more accurate. Fear prevents people from moving ahead and stepping out. This is different to being sure it is of Me. If you are unsure of the source of the voice do not step out. I am calling you to accuracy, not hit and miss. Tell me that you will not step out unless you know it is My voice that instructs you. You don’t want to do this, but do this you must because you are not allowing Me to develop in you a knowing of My voice. If I speak and you are unsure, wait until you are sure. The enemy wants you to run ahead and not learn My voice. The enemy wants to give you thrills, bells and whistles so it looks and feels good. My voice comes in the stillness of the waiting. If the first time you do not know it is Me, in the waiting I give you more so you can discern Me. If more does not come then discard what you were given. Some words I give are ‘now’ words, some are for later. If it is a ‘now’ word from Me the peace and knowing will come immediately. I want you to know My voice, not guess it. It is imperative that you recognise My voice from the rest. It is not about feelings, emotions, smell, taste and touch although I can still use these faculties. It is about knowing My voice and recognising it. The recognition of My voice comes from your spirit. This is your gut instinct. I am calling you to know My voice. When I speak it comes with a peace and knowing. I will use this every time I speak to you. It can be missed through circumstances, and if you miss it and are unsure ask for more. There is a time to practice and a time to get serious. I am calling you to know My voice every time I speak to you. In the past you have wanted everything to be Me because you love the ‘God factor’ and the God moments. This has been a distraction and an open door for the enemy to deceive. Repent for this and become more discerning. Seek My voice. Ask Me to show you My voice. Ask Me to teach you My voice. In the perilous times to come it is imperative that My children know My voice. Ask Me, and If it is Me I will show you without a doubt. You know My voice you just haven’t given Me a chance to show you. Not everything you have been getting was from Me. The enemy is clever – he will give you truths so you can’t practice discerning Me. This is no different to being accurate in the same way as a medium, psychic or clairvoyant. Even though the word may be accurate if it is not from Me it will not produce good fruit. What you have sometimes been giving is watered down versions of the truth. This was so you couldn’t discern My voice and so the person you were giving the words to were not receiving My truth from them. It is the truth from God that sets you free so without My truth the people you were giving them too were not being set free. I cannot give you the New Ministry I have for you until you know My voice. The new Ministry is reliant upon knowing My voice”
My heart sank when I got this word because I know that waiting is not my strong suit. I am over-excitable and want to do things straight away. I am an instant person, it has to be done right now otherwise I worry if I put something off I would forget about it and miss it altogether. He was right I did love the God factor and the God moments and the supernatural stuff so much that the enemy was using it so I would run ahead. What I did like though was that God told me that He can give me that peace and knowing every time He speaks to me. I had previously come to the conclusion that was only for rare occasions. I now had a definite way to gauge the voice of God. In reality I thought God was speaking to me and using me all the time, but He wasn’t. The enemy was also showing me things and giving me ‘wow’ moments because they knew that this pleased my flesh. Another way God can confirm with the peace and knowing is by the witness of 2-3. He may use other people to confirm the word He has spoken to you. You will get the ‘peace and knowing’ when you witness with what they say. This is different to giving a word to someone that seems right just because they confirm to you that it is accurate. Accuracy doesn’t necessarily bring good fruit, or God-fruit. The devil likes to mix truth with hidden lies or deception to prevent you looking for the ‘peace and knowing’. The peace and knowing comes when your spirit witnesses with His Spirit.
After receiving this word if something I received did not come with that inner witness, (the peace and knowing that comes from your gut instinct) then I would simply not step out. When I first started practising it I felt disobedient because I would get a picture, or a word for someone and want to give it but didn’t. The longer I waited however I then noticed that I would either never get that peace and knowing and have to leave it, or it became so strong it would almost poke me in the eye. Many times I would write down what I received and file it in a folder called ‘Words for people’ and months later I would get a prompting with that ‘peace and knowing’ and know it was now time to give that word. Some words are for now, some for later and some are deception never to be given at all. God was teaching me so much. Was it an easy lesson?
Absolutely not but nonetheless absolutely necessary. With this new found knowledge I started seeing fruit, more fruit than ever before.
As I was sitting writing this word I got reminded by the Holy Spirit that around five years ago I wrote an article on our website called ‘Discerning the voice of God’. I decided to go back and reread it. I read it and became quite annoyed with myself. In this article the Lord had taught me pretty much what I was writing today about ‘not stepping out until I had the peace and knowing’. He spoke to me then about how my emotions were volatile and that I discerned everything through my feelings from my soul instead of discerning through His gift of intuition that operates from our spirit. The word intuition according to the dictionary is: 1. The act or faculty of knowing or sensing without the use of rational processes; immediate cognition. 2. Knowledge gained by the use of this faculty; a perceptive insight. 3. A sense of something not evident or deducible; an impression.
I believe that the gift of discernment working with the gift of wisdom gives you the ability to discern with the ‘peace and knowing’. The word discerning in regard to the ‘Gift of discerning of spirits’ is Diakrisis in Greek and means to judge, distinguish. If you have never experienced this ‘peace and inner knowing’ when God speaks to you, pray and ask God for these two gifts. The question for me now was, why had I gotten this word five years ago and forgotten it? Why had I been shown such an amazing revelation only to not use it? What went wrong? I asked God why and this is what He said, - “Sometimes you are not ready to receive. You can be shown something but not until the truth of what I have shown you is made evident, can you actually receive it. Jesus learned obedience by that which He suffered (Hebrews 5:8). My children are the same. This has been a long hard walk for you, but through this the ‘old you’ has been dying so the new you can be reborn. I needed to redefine and shape you for what is to come”
I deliberately waited over four months until I got the ‘peace and knowing’ to release this word. Why? Because I wanted to test this word to make absolutely sure it was of God. I didn’t want to be teaching people how to discern the voice of God if I myself had it wrong. I am extremely confident with confirmation from the Holy Spirit that this is indeed a sure fire way to discern the voice of God. I am now awaiting the true birth of the baby which is the new Ministry God has for Mark and I, and I am sure that the release of this new Ministry is not far away.
(PRAYER) – “Father God thank You for teaching me that there is a time to practice and a time to get serious. I believe You are now calling me to accuracy. I repent for stepping out in the things of God when I was unsure of the source of the voice. Although I did this in what I believed was good faith in the hope it was right, I should have waited to be sure. Faith is the confidence, the absolute assurance of things hoped for. I see now that I was not acting in Godly faith but in hope that what I was doing was from You. This is hit and miss. I ask for You Lord Jesus to continue to teach and show me Your voice. I will seek Your voice. I will now wait on You to give me the discernment of the ‘peace and knowing’ that operates from my spirit and not my soul before stepping out. In doing this Lord Jesus I am not being disobedient to Your commands if I get shown something to do and do not do it when I do not have the peace and knowing. I ask that You would give me the peace and knowing every time You ask Me to step out and act. I speak to the counterfeit gifts of discernment, word of knowledge and wisdom and rebuke you and command you to leave in the name of Jesus Christ. I pray for the true gifts of the Holy Spirit to help me to discern, including the gift of discernment, the word of knowledge and wisdom. Thank You. I pray these things in Jesus name, Amen.”
**In conclusion to all of this what I learned was that the gift of discernment gives you the ability to know the difference between His voice and counterfeit voices, but the real key is to spend time in His word, and with Him getting to know Him, because this enables the gift to grow. For myself when He speaks His Spirit witnesses with my spirit that it is from Him and I get that knowing.
Although the word says that His sheep follow Him because they know His voice the word know in Greek is Eido and means to perceive, notice, discern, discover 1b) to perceive by any of the senses. I have found that it isn’t the sound of the voice or even if it is quiet or loud - but by the spirit – it is a peace and a knowing. I perceive His voice by my spiritual senses – not my earthly senses. Feelings and even if something is truth or a scripture does not mean it is from Him. If at any time you think it could be from Him but are unsure because you don’t have that definite peace and knowing, wait and ask for more. God is good and will always confirm one way or another.
By Tania Francis